James Carville Takes on Trump, Biden, and ‘Preachy Females’ in CNN Documentary
Taught how to hawk a product by his beloved mother, James Carville has spent his entire career being a salesman for the American Dream. And the new documentary Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid is a snapshot of the work, conviction, and personality necessary to be successful at that relentless job.
Set during 2023 and 2024, director Matt Tyrnauer’s documentary lionizes its subject, not only for his triumphs for the Democratic Party but also for his prescience about Joe Biden’s age, which no one listened to for a full year until the disastrous June 27 debate proved Carville right, and everyone else wrong. Celebrating him as an old-school firebrand who knows how to proselytize and strategize as well as anyone in the modern political business, it’s a non-fiction affirmation of Carville’s belief that you can’t affect change without power, and you can’t attain power without winning.
Its title a riff on his famous slogan for Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign—“It’s the Economy, Stupid”—Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid (Oct. 5, on CNN) is both a fond look back at Carville’s life and a real-time portrait of his continuing efforts to make his voice heard, and to combat Donald Trump’s quest to re-seize the White House. As timely as it can be given those constraints (its action ends with Biden’s calamitous debate and, in headlines, Kamala Harris replacing him on the ticket), Tyrnauer’s film finds Carville as feisty, committed, and quick-witted as ever.