Questions about Carville and CNN

[babylonsister]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/16/questions-about-carville-begala-and-cnn/#more-3035

Questions about Carville and CNN

By Julie Bosman

There are very few political analysts more closely associated with the Clintons than James Carville, who was a key adviser to Mr. Clinton in the 1992 campaign.

So it’s no surprise that Mr. Carville’s appearance on a round table after last night’s CNN-sponsored Democratic debate is arousing some morning-after controversy.

“Would it kill CNN to disclose that James Carville is a partisan Clinton supporter when talking about the presidential race?” wrote Daily Kos. “Would it kill James Carville to disclose that he is a partisan Clinton supporter when on the air talking about the presidential race? Apparently so.”

Last night, Anderson Cooper of CNN introduced Mr. Carville, who appeared alongside panelists David Gergen and J.C. Watts, as a “former presidential adviser.”

And Mr. Cooper made one attempt at a disclosure: “I should point out David Gergen was an adviser in the Bill Clinton White House,” he said. “As, of course, was James Carville.”

But he didn’t point out that Mr. Carville is also an informal adviser to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign.

Last night, Mr. Carville praised Mrs. Clinton’s performance along with the other panelists. “I agree with David and J.C.,” he said at one point. “I think that Senator Clinton’s people have to be — and Senator Clinton — have to be pretty pleased tonight that they certainly reversed a trend. We will see where it goes from there.”

And he was pointedly critical of Mr. Obama’s debate performance. “I think he might be even slightly intimidated, that he thinks Senator Clinton is more experienced than him, a little more hungry than he is,” Mr. Carville said.

There is also a fair amount of criticism of CNN’s overall conduct of the debate, especially Wolf Blitzer’s questions.

We put in a call to CNN and will update this post when they get back to us.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. I didn't see a problem with Carville appearing as a talking head after the debate

At least he is a Democrat. But they could have done better than J.C. Watts.

[babylonsister]

4. Well, since he's a Clinton advisor, he's not exactly unbiased. I thought

an analyst is supposed to be analyzing the debate, not pumping up one person over others, which is what he did and it was very obvious.

[saracat]

5. Yeah he sure established his credentials election night 2004 when

he had Matalin call the WH to "warn" them to get in touch with Ohio as Kerry would "contest" and amazingly votes disappeared.Carville is a democrat ? Your joking right?

[BrklynLiberal]

2. Since when do any political tools divulge their bias...on either side?

[saracat]

3. Absolutely spot on.The Clinton machine is exactly the same as the Bush machine.

They take no chances on winning honestly.If they really thought they were "ahead" why do they even "plant" panalists? Why are they afraid of honest opinion? I complained that my state party brought in carville as a speaker right after our last speaker had been Bill Clinton. This kind of tactic needs to be protested on all levels.

[babylonsister]

6. Good points all, saracat. And we've had a dishonest admin for so long,

it's way past time for us to find someone we can trust.