James Carville: We Just Have to Win
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Hello and welcome to the Borg Podcast. I'm your host, Tim Miller. You know, it's James Carver. Let's do it a little different today. Borg Podcast

All right, that's more like it. We like it like that down here. I am excited to be here today with my man, the Raging Cajun, James Carville, the subject of the new CNN documentary, Winning Is Everything Stupid. James, welcome back to the pod, man. Well, thank you. I'm glad to be here, Tim. Good to be here. It is good to be with you as always. And I was delighted and honored to have our last conversation be the closing credits of the documentary, which people should watch. But I must say,

Mary, I think, was the star of the show. And I want you to tell her that she's welcome on this podcast anytime she's got stuff to get off her chest about you or politics or anything. Like, she was amazing. She made the movie. You know, somebody, a couple of people commented to me, the movie had very strong feminist undertones. And Mary and my mother and my sister were very much, you know, shaping it. Not just shaping it, but, you know, a big part of the film. And I think...

It would have not been near as good a movie without Mary's, her pretty enthusiastic participation, I would say. Totally agree. She was wonderful. I'd be delighted to get a little more FaceTime with her, a little less with you. I want to play one clip, though. I want to play one clip from the movie to kind of get us in the right mood, get us in the right headspace. It's at the end. It's not actually from this cycle, this clip I'm about to play, but I think it's more relevant now than ever. It might have gotten me a little emotional. So let's take a listen. Damn it.

This country is worth fighting for. The principle of generational promise is worth fulfilling. And I am not going to let anybody say at a time that our basic institutions, our basic philosophy, our sense of decency and our sense of national purpose is under attack that I sat by and did nothing more than pull a lever. That's your choice. I think I know what you're going to do. I know that you people and people like you around this country

You want to not just fight back, but you want to fight for something. You want to fight for this nation. You want to fight for its people. You want to fight for its children. Most importantly, you want to fight for its future. We have big battles coming up. I'm going to count on you. Thank you.

Hell yeah. I mean, but God, could you imagine when you were saying that back then that what we'd be fighting for right now? No, I have no, I never could imagine that anything would ever be in a place it is right now, Tim. And, you know, it's distressing, it's depressing, and at some level, it's also gratifying.

But it depends on if we win or not. I mean, that's the whole message of the movie. That's the whole ball of wax. I mean, we lose this, we blow a whole gasket, I think.

But that's pretty emotional. It is. And I know that a lot of listeners are here and the Bulldog crew. I mean, this is a place where that lands. We are fighting for something real here. And I know that a lot of people are getting out there in their own way. Not everybody has the big mouths like us, but I think it's important to encourage everybody to get out there in their own way and knock on doors, do what they need to do for the last couple of weeks.

The other thing from the movie I want to kind of tie to what's happening in the present day is obviously there's a lot of time talking about 92 and how clear your message was, the little whiteboard that everybody has seen by now, change versus more of the same. It's the economy, stupid. Don't forget healthcare.

I want to talk about what that core message is for both sides this time. For Donald Trump, there's a Times article out this week that the ad that he is running the most, the number one ad in impressions right now, is this one that played on the podcast last week, I don't want us to suffer through again, about the taxpayer-funded sex changes for prisoners. I'm sure you've seen this during football commercials. Yeah.

I have. Is that really it? I mean, like, is that their, is that, maybe it is? I don't know. Is that their number one issue on the whiteboard right now? Sex changes for prisoners? Well, it's also FEMA is, you know, every lie they can tell about FEMA, every lie. I think they just see stuff and they lie. And it's amazing how many times you get caught. And if they get caught telling one lie, they tell five more.

You know, the whole sex change, transgender thing. My hero a lot is the governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, who's exactly who you think. Spencer Cox, if you think you know Spencer Cox, you do know him. He's a straight Mormon conservative to the core. Milk drinking. Yeah, milk drinking. You know, and they passed something about trans...

He said, look, I'm vetoing this. There are 100,000 high school athletes in Utah, five are trans. Somebody else can deal with this shit. All right. This is not a worldwide problem. The Olympics deal with it. The NCAA deals with it.

What do we need to even spend time on this? I don't understand. But there's a lot of things I understand. You and A.B. Stoddard are aligned this morning. Our headline story today is Republicans closing message, we lied to you. I don't know. Like, on the trans thing, like, what is the – like, just – like, Chris Lasavita's not an idiot, okay? Like, he's not an idiot, all right? He might have sold his soul, but he's not an idiot. Right.

What is it? Are they sitting there because they just think that is it a stand in for she's an extreme California liberal? And like, and this is just we want to make it seem as extreme as possible. So we're going to show this picture of a non binary, you know, male assigned male at birth guy with lipstick on. Is that like that the whole deal?

You know, I'm not sure that Chris LaCivita or Susie Wiles really run this thing. Every time you hear somebody say, we need to get back to the issues. Okay, yeah, let's go to the issues. You know, trans people are coming. They're coming. You send your kid to school in the morning, you kiss them goodbye, and they come back. And you kiss a boy goodbye, and a girl comes back. Or you kiss a girl goodbye, and a boy comes back.

And, you know, we keep telling ourselves, man, this can't work. And it keeps working. And to an extent, I think Trump knows if he doesn't feed that monster that he's created, that they'll lose their appetite. I mean, they're ravenous people. They've got to keep being fed this stuff and, you know, kidnapping kids and giving them surgery to change their agendas. Why not?

And almost the crazier it is, the better. You mean strategically. They think the crazier it is, the better because it keeps people excited. That's how they keep it. That's how they're keeping the lower engaged people engaged. Absolutely. And I told you those people in San Francisco were like that. I told you those people in Boston were like that. Look, Trump knows. I just...

think that he feels like if he doesn't appeal to misogyny, to racism, to fear, to the great replacement theory, that his people will back off. And he's not going to talk about the issues because the issue to him is if you're white, you're losing and they're coming after you. And that's the only issue that he promotes. And that's the issue that's taking him a long way.

What about the other side of the coin? I think that Kamala coming out of when that parade started that we talked about the last time when she just jumped out of the chute and was focused on freedom, focused on how we're not going back.

Is that breaking through? Is that it? Are those the messages on the whiteboard? Like, what is it for her for the last month? Well, we know, Tim, they're a great big event campaign. The vice president's a rollout, hard to follow. The convention, you really, you'd have to nitpick the five things on. The debate, she was exceedingly well-prepared.

What I'm less confident in is their day-to-day ability to fight trench warfare. And I'll give you what I think is an example. The whole press criticism, she doesn't do long-form interviews. She needs to sit down. You know, if Tim Russett was here, she'd have to talk to him. So what do we do? We do 60 Minutes. We do Colbert. We do –

everything. Create your own weather. If somebody comes on your show, you get to ask the question. They respond to what you ask. That's normal. That's what 60 Minutes does. She needs to go out every day and smack him in the mouth and then have people come behind and keep smacking him. So J.D. Vance says in a debate that Trump saved Obamacare.

Why not have Obama out there? I don't know what this guy is talking about. You have 23 million people that now have health insurance. By the way, the subsidies for health insurance are coming up in 2025. He's going to get rid of it. You know, for the life of me, they need to put President Clinton, they can put him right in a studio, go to all these markets in these swing states, do television explaining to people why these tariffs are going to ruin the United States, which we know, and even you and I could explain that.

But they just give them free reign. You have to hold them in and jam them on stuff that really matters to people. I mean, like he says, you've got nothing to lose in this economy. Look, you may not be where you want to be, but you've got something to lose. Let me tell you right now, most everybody has a job. Anybody that has any kind of investment retirement is doing pretty good. Shit, you just can't stop going and you can't hold it back.

The crime rate is down. I saw something else, just a minor thing. The death rate from fentanyl is down pretty considerably. You're not going to run on that, but it's just when they say there's nothing to lose in America, the whole country is a modern shithole, that's just not true. It's demonstrably not true. Yeah.

Yeah, I agree on the more is more. I do think Obama's getting out there. I'll send that little advice to Favreau for this. But like, they've been more. I agree. It's been good. I was I was thrilled. She was out there yesterday. I think this whole thing, the whole navel gazing thing on what media should she do? It's like do everything. Be out there, drive a message. You wrote about a month ago and to pull this up because it kind of relates what you just said in the Times, an op ed, three pieces of advice for her.

Advice number one was kick his ass at the debate. Check. Advice number two is move on for 2020. It's okay to be strong and wrong on some of these issues where you went too far left. She did that. Check. Third advice was find some distance from Biden. Here's Kamala on The View yesterday. Would you have done something differently than President Biden during the past four years?

There is not a thing that comes to mind in terms of... And I've been a part of most of the decisions that have had impact. It's not quite right. It's not quite right on check number three. What do you think, James? You know, I don't think she really wants to go there, although I think she could...

have done what he did. He did start some good things. And, you know, she can talk about how she wants to complete them. She can talk about, you know, we didn't have a concert. We need to be more aggressive. Most popular thing consistently is race taxes on people that make more than a half million dollars a year. I mean, I'm sorry. It polls really, really well.

She could have said I thought he could have been a little more aggressive talking about women's reproductive rights, which I think is kind of culturally Biden is understandably. He doesn't he's pro-choice, but he doesn't like saying the word abortion. He doesn't like you're right. She could she could say that. I mean, there's any number of.

Or you could just look forward and just be like, good question. I don't know. I think we need to build 3 million new homes. That's why I have it in the plan. Just fucking do that. The only thing she could have said, which is demonstrably true, I probably just look at this. We were slow to wake up, but now we got the border right. Okay. You'd say she couldn't say this, but they listened to the goofy ass left. And everybody that's ever listened to them has ended up

It's ended up being a disaster. But, I mean, she had a lot of things she could have said that would have give her some wiggle room. And I think President Biden said certain type of politics. You know, Trump, obviously, much different than I do. But I think it's time for America to turn the page. You know, I think we're looking for something fresh and something different. You got all kinds of things you can do in that. Not be disloyal and piss people off.

We can do some nitpicking. You admitted it in the documentary. You're the guy that you hate now. You know, a complaint. But this is nitpicking with love. You know, we're trying to get there. We're trying to get there. On the other side, though, like...

You mentioned it earlier on the hurricane stuff, but I just want to dig a little bit deeper on this. It's truly insane. What is happening? I think that for people that live in the reality based world where they get news from regular places, I think it's hard to comprehend just how crazy the shit is that's out there in the mega Internet sphere. Chuck Edwards, not a moderate person.

Republican Congressman from North Carolina put out a press release. I'm not going to read the whole thing, but the whole thing is, we'll put it in the show notes because it's insane to read the whole thing. He puts out this press release. It's like, y'all,

Hurricane Helene was not geoengineered by the government to seize and access lithium deposits. Local officials are not abandoning search and rescue efforts to bulldoze chimney rock. FEMA cannot seizure property or land. The FAA is not restricting access to airspace for Helene rescue. Like this, this dude is a mega congressman that feels like he has to put this out because he's hearing so much crazy shit from his constituents. And Trump is stoking this.

There is not precedent for this. I mean, you've lived through a bunch of hurricanes. There is no precedent for this. Well, this is a piece of advice I have for the administration. And God, I hope they take it. Call up Mitchell Andrew, who's a co-chair of the campaign, and say, Mitch, we need you to come and we need you to do press briefings every morning at 9 o'clock.

on the response because the bullshit is coming. The guy, you know, ran the National Guard when he was lieutenant governor. He was mayor eight years, but wasn't hit with four hurricanes during his term. He knows it back and forth. His ancestors are. As you know, he's the best speaker in the entire Democratic Party.

And don't wait for this information to get out there. And you say, we always make the same mistake. Oh, no one's going to believe this shit. Yeah, they're going to believe that shit if they don't hear something different. All right. Trust me, they will. And they have to counter this aggressively. And there's nobody better to do that than he is.

And they're going to go through, well, he's a white male. He's old. I don't know. Oh, shit. Just put him out there. And, you know, as Barney Fife would say, nip it, nip it, nip it in the bud right now.

And if you don't, it's going to grow. Nip it and also attack, right? I mean, like, isn't Trump vulnerable to attack on this? It's like he doesn't care about these fucking people. Like these people's lives are at risk now. And it's like the local mega Republicans have to be like, oh, no, we're actually trying to help. And Trump's like, no, you know, Trump's like, no, you know, trying to make their lives harder. Let me give you a clip to write. After Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico and his president, he threw paper towels at him.

You think the people of Western North Carolina are looking for paper towels right now? That's how Joe Scarborough this morning is name dropping. Okay, what the fuck? This name drop. We'll talk about how bad this Tampa storm is. Unless you've lived with this your life, you don't understand how bad this is going to be. And that water is going to have a hell of a hard time getting out of Tampa Bay because it's surrounded by land everywhere.

And they haven't had this. This is going to be a catastrophe. You and I know a lot of people that live in Sarasota, that part of southwest Florida, Boca Grande, they're going to exist. Yeah, it's horrible. And I guess this is to the point, though, right? It's so horrible. Yeah.

10 years ago, you back 10 years, you said, Tim, like what, what is going to break the fever on the right? You know, like what, how are you going to get people back to reality? And I, my answer used to be like, we probably need some big disasters to happen. And then people get serious. You know, we had COVID. They like made up some lie about how the vaccine was, was Bill Gates trying to control your mind. We have these horrible hurricanes. One is already happening. This other one's coming.

And there are a handful of Republicans that are acting normal. But the whole information ecosystem is crazier than ever. It is. I just like... And right now, we're not going to change any of that. We just have to win the election. We can deal with all that after we win. There's so much on the plate.

We just got to stay focused on November the 5th, whatever the date is. I think it's the 5th. Whatever it is, because it's so much. It's so insane. And like he's selling $100,000 watches.

You know, I can go get the same watch on Times Square from a street guy for $30. It's true. We've got to win it because he's so dangerous. But also, like, for people that are going through these problems, this needs to be a win because they don't care and they're not trying to help it and they're not trying to solve it. No.

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I want to talk to you about Woodward because he can have crazy shit. You ever deal with Woodward for one of those books, like The Agenda or one of those books? Were you ever one of the characters? I don't think I read a Clinton book. It was the first book on the Clinton administration. So what was it like dealing with him? You know, he's a very seductive guy.

And, you know, oh, you know, I'm not going to quote you. It's all going to be in archives or something. I mean, he's a very, like I say, he's a very seductive guy. He's a very good interviewer. James, Elsa and I come out and we'll see you. OK. Yeah. I mean, he is a hell of a journalist and he works his ass off. I mean, he really does.

Some people talk about the long arc of my career. Shit, Bob Woodward has been relevant since 1972. Okay? I mean, come on, man. I mean, this guy has been the most consistently relevant journalist in American history.

Period. You know, like anybody else, people say, well, he's not that good a writer. But it's more like, how are you getting this stuff? And I guess the game is, and I've experienced this a little bit, but like, he gets you to tell him something off the record. And then he tells somebody else that he's got it. And that gets them to admit it, right? Like, that's the game, basically? So he would say, now, this was the meeting. The president was sitting there. Mrs. Clinton was sitting there. Beloit Benson was sitting there. Roger Altman was sitting there.

And now you were sitting right here. Were you sitting in this chair? OK, I mean, he's that level of skilled interviewer in way. You think he knows everything anyway and he's looking for confirmation. Maybe there's something you can add to it. You know, I think I got everything. But, you know, he's very good at it.

And he works it. He works like a ready mule, man. That guy is hard work, as you can imagine. The big reveal from the book that we've seen so far, I've got the book sitting downstairs, so I haven't read it all. But from what is leaked is that a Trump staffer, I guess, told him that Trump's had several phone calls with Putin, maybe as many as seven since he left office.

And there was no strong denials on that. And then the other one is that Trump, as a favor, apparently sent him COVID tests during the height of the COVID fear. And Putin said to Trump, don't tell anybody you're doing this because it'll hurt you. So Putin's obviously is trying to help Trump, getting a favor from him. Just like the scale of scandal, like a politician cutting the line when we had limited tests, you know,

It'd be one thing if they were, like, giving it to their mom who was sick or something. You know, they wanted to steal a couple tests for their beloved family members. He's sending them to Putin. Yeah.

Look, this is something I say we know. There is a P-tape. Okay, there just is. The theory of the P-tape explains everything. James, isn't the truth what explains everything that Donald Trump just likes being flattered and all you have to do is say nice things and Mr. Donald, you're so great. Does he really need to have blackmail? Look, do I know it?

Can I prove it? Not yet, but it's going to come out and I hope I'm still alive when the B tape comes out because I think it's there. I got to tell you right now. You know, I flatter him, but what Trump doesn't do, at some level, he might be the most honest person to ever run for president. Now, that sounds weird, but he can't help himself about Russia. What is it about Russia that so fascinates him that they so like so much?

I don't know, but they do. Just for the record, I disagree. I think the pee tape is probably not real. Okay, all right. Just because he's like a hypochondriac and he doesn't like to shake people's hands. And I think that he's even sadder than that. I think he just likes to be liked. And he's like, Putin's so strong and he likes me.

You don't know who the P.E. is. Maybe you don't know who was doing the pen. That's true. Or whether he's just sitting in the cuck chair and watching. I don't know. It could just be a watch. I'm just convinced of it without proof, but we'll see. But flattery, it blew away, but he just can't help it. There's something. Maybe he has some kind of a crush on Putin. I don't know. I don't know.

I definitely think a man crush. So I guess my question is, when you go back to your earlier comment, we're like the campaign has to drive news cycles has to get out there, attack them, be aggressive. I totally agree with that. And there are a lot of openings. I like your Obamacare example.

This is like not really that right because people don't want to hear about COVID people don't want to hear I got the one it is a fucking scandal that should like shock the conscience that at the height of COVID and we didn't really know when people are dying he's sending tests to Putin on the other hand I don't know people don't want to remember that stuff right.

So he tells Woodward, we already knew this from the previous book. Yeah. He said, this is really bad stuff, but I'm going to underplay it. Yeah. It's really bad. I mean, like, he knew...

And somebody said, actually, I think this is some validity. You're supposed to protect the country. Right. All right. It would be like he would say that in the Japanese will land in California. He says, I don't want to tell anybody to just get people scared. We'll have a little bit of time to get to Denver. Yeah. It's so far out of what you're accustomed to hearing.

And that didn't hurt him that much. It didn't hurt him at all. I'm going to play it down. I know it's bad. You know, he was sitting there. Of course, Wooden had all of the tapes. So after you hear that, what else can shock you? That he's sending Putin COVID tests. And, you know, Putin is like a good enough politician. Well, don't don't tell anybody. Man, that'll hurt you. We need you around there.

And I guarantee you, he listened to Putin's advice. So sick that we're here. I do have something that can alarm you, though, James. I don't think that you're ready for this. I don't think our listeners are ready for this. This was on primetime Fox last night. I want to just I just want to clear there's a Miller that is referenced here. It's not me, though. It applies to me a little bit more than the actual subject. But Jesse Warners is talking about Stephen Miller. Brace yourself. Let's listen.

We just have to address the elephant in the room. We're getting a lot of texts from women about Miller and his appearances and his appearance. Our audience at primetime believes you're some sort of sexual matador. What do you have to say for yourself? Well, let me give advice to any young man that's out there. I'm married now. I have children, but I wasn't married that long ago. I was single. I was in the market. If you're a young man...

It's very important in election season. Who's looking to impress ladies, to be the alpha, to be attractive. The best thing you can do is to wear your Trump support on your sleeve. Show that you are a real man. What do you think about that human condom being the sign of manhood, Carvel? I have a visual of that guy. I don't judge anybody by anything sexual I never have. It's not part of my DNA. It's not part of my ethos.

But if I knew a girl that fucked him, I would get away from her. That's something that that's a flaw. I mean, not only does that guy sound creepy, everything about him just screams creepy at you. Like, how fucking drunk were you? Jesus, what were you thinking?

That is demon sperm. That is demon sperm. You went as far away from you as possible. On to the serious side of it. Okay. I heard you talking about this stuff and the kind of manhood element of this election. And, you know, this wing voter of the white man, the forgotten man, white man. The white college male. Yeah, the white male demo. You know, how are we feeling about this? It seems like there's been a little bit more of a proactive effort for the Democrats

to try to speak to this demo that's moving away from them. I mean, obviously, if Stephen Miller and J.D. Vance are the epitome of manhood, it feels like there should be some opportunity here. Well, I think Waltz was, I think that was very, very paramount in their mind when they picked Waltz. Okay? I think there's a recognition of that. You know, our male problem was a long time in the making. You know, I think our language had, in some ways, had become too feminine. Yeah.

and you just kept hearing, and the media also had a lot to do with it. The women's vote is just going to be critical here, James. You know, women everywhere, you know, women, you know, the suburban women are this, and, you know, non-white women are that. And I think

Just males have felt like they have not been part of the conversation in American politics. I don't know if there's any kind of male policy that you have or anything like that, but I think a lot of it is cultural.

And they feel like they're not part of the cool crowd anymore. And if you listen to liberal culture or progressive culture, I mean, I'll start with NPR on down. It's just it's 80 percent female, the whole thing. And then the ads, the everything that you see is.

It used to be male-centric. I'm not saying that anything had to be male-centric, but I think the male feels like that they kind of left out of the equation. And I think that Harris understands that. I can't understand that to some extent. Yeah, not getting communicated to. Cuban's been really good on this. Continue to have more is more on this front. The good news is the enemy is not quite as masculine as they may consider themselves to be. No, Stephen Miller. Oh, man.

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I do want to give you a platform here. I have a couple other documentary things before I lose you, but I do want to give you a platform here because you've been on a one-man crusade to discuss Donald Trump's health and what he's hiding from the public. And so I just want to give you an opportunity to share your angle on that. First of all, in January of 2017, Keith Schiller and some other goon broke in

to his internist's office and stole his health records. Remember the internist, Dr. Bornstein, who unfortunately is now deceased. What was in there? What was in those health records? I mean, they're not going to make them public unless you say you want to make them public. Why did they do that?

And I strongly suspect, just a suspicion, and he had those red splotches on his hand. Okay. He said his mission during the Vietnam War was to not get the clap of STD or whatever the fuck they call it. I don't think he succeeded.

That's my personal view. I think he even failed at that mission. But we don't know because they took his health records away from his internist. And the guy said, I feel like I've been violated. They broke into his fucking office. All right. And retrieved those health records. Maybe somebody should ask him what happened to him. Does he have them?

How many people you know break in a physician's office to get their health records? It's a pretty rare event, I think. I mean, I think your syphilis theory is interesting. I don't know. I don't want to spread disinformation. I will say that. When you say syphilis and you say spread, well, wait a minute. Never mind. That's a suspicion of mine. And it stokes up what I say about the health records. True. Maybe it's something else.

Correct. And that's where I want to go. He's hit his personal health records. And the other thing I was never I was never interested. And I hate some of the blue maga stuff like the conspiracies around the assassination attempt, like the ear, the blood is real. All that stuff is real. That said, they acted fucking weird.

Like when Reagan was shot, when other politicians have been shot, like you have press conferences, you know, with real doctors and the coat and they answer questions and like they don't, he doesn't do that. Like this is just, again, part of the degradation of how Trump doesn't do stuff like that, that we have expected from public servants in the past. It is true that he said his medical records and that they act weird. Um,

around these situations. Maybe it's Southwest, maybe it's something else. Part of his appeal is he doesn't sound like the other politicians. How many times do you hear that? Oh, great. Wonderful.

Well, maybe you could act a little more like one sometimes. There's some things to be said for politicians. We're not going back. So we're only going to do two minutes on this. But a big part of the documentary was your early advocacy that Joe Biden shouldn't run for reelection, which has been vindicated. I got a hug on the street, by the way. I wish James Carville was there. I was on Napoleon and Chapatulas outside Tipitinas. A woman comes up to me and she goes,

You and Carville, I was so mad at you talking about Joe, but you were right. I want to give you a hug. It was the best hug and best selfie I've had on the street in a long time. So anyway, I was sad you went there to enjoy that. But you were right on this. Obviously, we don't need to do that. But I am curious. You get into this a little bit.

It was hard. Like the people around Biden are friends of yours, Donovan and Rashidi. And like it took a year. It was hard. And so I'm just kind of wondering, has that are you getting phone calls again? Has there been any mending offenses? Are things OK?

You know, not a single person. I went to the convention. Not a single person was mad at me. I mean, not one. I mean, not a single person came up and said, James, you know, you really wouldn't you treat Biden very badly. I think it's all gone. I think Biden probably by now is relieved that he's made that decision. I think the people at look, are people going to come out and say it?

No, but I want to make one point about the movie that's really important to me, and that is we've given politics such a bad name. You grew up in politics. You wanted to be that. Your life evolved right. The same with me. And people that cover politics, that work in it, are people that volunteer or precinct walkers or whatever. I mean, I hope this movie –

like rehabilitates the profession of politics somewhere that people say, you know, those guys look like they were having fun. Maybe I ought to try it out. And then, you know, some Tim Billers growing up and say, you know, I want to be the comms director. I want to get involved and do things. And, you know, Mary Madeline, who is, you know, like to start a movie. She was the ass and the elephant on the Lincoln day parade in Illinois. I mean,

All right. That's the kind of people you want to bring in. And they say, well, you just can't get good people anymore. Well, if you keep telling people how trashy and rotten they are, then good people are not going to want to do this. And that's my real fondest dreams for the movie is it helps to rehabilitate the professional politics somewhat. Well, this is going to be the highest compliment I can give you then, because I was watching it last night and I was thinking to myself,

It was getting me emotional. And it was also good. I was getting the tingles again. I was getting the rush again of the winning the competition. And I got like just slightly melancholy. I love my job. But slightly melancholy. I'm like, man, maybe I should should have stayed on the other side, not on the Republican side, but on the operative side. Because there is just the thing that got me excited about being an operative. It reignited that flame in me a little bit watching it. Yeah.

You're a young man, Jim. I could, yeah. I could have a third act. You're a player. You could have a third. Believe me. And anybody can. But the point is you're still part of it. You're writing on it. You're commenting on it. You have a podcast on it. You're editing on it. You're doing all kinds of things.

And, you know, some people, it doesn't matter. There's a lot of people that think about like Miss Mabel, the lady that precinct every, you know, every election day that checks off the name for, you know, $750 or whatever they do. I mean, they're part of this whole thing.

Well, this whole system out there, I agree we've got to get better people in politics, but the way to do it is inspire them and get young people like you, you know, grow up to be the comms director for a presidential campaign. I mean, of course you like to, everybody loves a camaraderie of a campaign, like we'll get them and fuck them all. You know, everybody hates us because we're, it doesn't matter. It's all the same shit.

But it's all fun. All right. I want to close with your thoughts on where we are at with Kamala and Trump. I want to close with horse race. But before that, we got to do football horse race real quick. Tigers have the Rebs.

in Baton Rouge this weekend. Tigers, it looked like it might be a down year, but all of a sudden everybody in the SEC has got a loss. Do you have a new little pang of hope for LSU, or are you concerned about the defense? You know, we couldn't stop Ole Miss last year. So that's going to be the test. And it's a huge game. We're number 10 and number 6 or something like that, 7. So it's like it's Tiger Stadium. Thank God it's not a 2-30 kickoff.

I think it's like a 630 kickoff. I mean, this is big-time college football. This is why you play the game.

And there's too much carping among LSU fans. We were under 500 the two years before Brian Kelly got there. We're like 20 and probably 23 and seven or something like that. And we've had best recruiting class in 2025 and 2026. You know, we've got a hell of a quarterback. Nussmark is a very good quarterback. And if you've got a good quarterback, you

you're going to be in the game. But the smarts have all pushing Ole Miss. We were two and a half point dog. It's now three and a half. I'm told a lot of the shopping money in Las Vegas is going to Ole Miss. I like your hope. I'm a little concerned about it. I'm not putting any money on it. I'm concerned about it. Or maybe I should – actually, I might bet on Ole Miss just to put the stink on it. I might put the stink on them. I did that to Alabama last week. I bet on Alabama and I put the stink on them. So there you go. Maybe so. If you think it helps, if I thought it'd help us win, I'd bet on it.

I might do that. Do you have the same optimism about Kamala? Horse race. Where are you at? We're a month out. How do you feel? I feel like this is not an election that we're going to lose. It doesn't have the stench of an election that's going to lose. Having said that, I think they need to be much more aggressive. I think they got to go out there every day.

and put the mic in Trump's face and quit reacting to the press. When you do a press show, you react to what they ask you. That's the way it is. Go out and make your own weather. You know, you got four weeks and a little less than four weeks to go. And people are already voting. You can't be lethargic. You got to move. And I mean, move quickly and fast and hard. I hope they get sharp elbows. That's what I hope.

I concur. The documentary, James Carville, Winning is Everything Stupid. Check out, we're over on YouTube later, maybe tomorrow, probably Thursday. We'll have a bonus interview with the director, Matt Turnauer. I'm excited to talk to him about that. We can do, I love you, man. We can do this. Yes, we can. Optimism for Combo and the Tigers. It's going to happen for us. Yes, it's going to happen. You have any better than you think you are, so let's go get them, man. You're going to love that. The big thing about him as director is

He actually knows politics. He was like a driver in the Mondale campaign and kind of worked for Susan Astrid and Dukakis, and he covered it for Vanity Fair. And, you know, you can't have a director direct something that they don't know anything about. And he brought a lot of knowledge and understanding of politics. He's an all-world director. I was very proud to have him direct the movies.

I'm looking forward to it. We got this, James. Yes, we can do it. We got this. I'll get you back in November after the W. All right? Absolutely. Go Tigers! Go Tigers. Everybody else, we'll be back tomorrow with another Old Wise Men of Politics. It's Wise Men Week. We'll see you all then. Peace. Now is the time for all good men to get together with one another. Iron out their problems and iron out their quarrels and try to live as brothers.

And try to find peace within without stepping on one another. And do respect the women of the world. Just remember we all had mothers. Make this land a place in the world in which we live. And help each man be a better man. The kindness that you give.

And I know we can make it. I know that we can. I know done well we can work it out. Oh, yes, we can. I know we can, can. Yes, we can, can. Why can't we if we want to? Yes, we can, can. I know we can make it work. I know that we can. I know we can make it if we try. Oh, yes, we can. I know we can, can. Yes, we can. Great gosh almighty. Yes, we can. I know we can. ♪

Take care of the children, the children of the world. They're our strongest hope for the future, the little better boys and girls. And make this land a land and the world in which we live. And help each man be a better man with the kindness that you give.

And I know we can make it. I know that we can. I know done well we can work it out. Oh, yes, we can. I know we can, can. Yes, we can, can. Why can't we if we want to? Yes, we can, can. I know we can make it work. I know that we can. I know we can make it if we try. Oh, yes, we can. I know we can, can. Yes, we can. Great gosh almighty. Yes, we can, can. The Bullard Podcast is produced by Katie Cooper with audio engineering and editing by Jason Brown.

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