James Carville: White House ‘Out of Bounds’ Over Speech Flap
Democratic strategist James Carville told me that the White House was in the wrong when it requested that the President address Congress on the same night and time as a Republican presidential debate.
“I do think this is a really big debate and I think the White House was out of bounds…in trying to schedule a speech during a debate,” Carville said on “GMA.”
This will be Gov. Rick Perry’s first debate, and as Carville said this morning the stakes are high.
“Given a choice between watching a debate and the speech I would have watched the debate and I’m not even a Republican or even close to being a Republican,” he said, adding it will be a “barn burner.”
The administration agreed to move the speech to Thursday- possibly competing with the kick off of the NFL season instead. The White House has been touting this jobs plan telling ABC News that he will propose tax relief, infrastructure investment and assistance for the long term unemployed.
Obama has received advice from both sides with some arguing for an ambitious proposal and others recommending finding middle ground.
Carville, an ABC News consultant, told me it doesn’t matter what Obama proposes, it won’t get through Congress.
“Just go out and just document it, it’s not so much that the speech is important George, it’s the follow up after the speech,” he said. “And this is going to have to be what they are going to run the 2012 campaign on…this congress is not going to pass anything that the president proposes, that is pretty clear.”

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If this is the worst thing that can happen? Why would anyone want to watch the Republican debate? It is the biggest bunch of people i would not feel good about running a root beer stand. The whole bunch of them want to dismantle Social Security, and Medicare, give tax cuts to people worth millions, and brainwash people like Jim Jones did. Hello, some people have a brain and can’t be brainwashed…LOL These today snake oil salesmen are making lots of money laughing all the way to the bank. Not one of them has an ounce of christian blood running through their veins.
Posted by: Celia | September 1, 2011, 9:09 am 9:09 am
Celia, it’s time to wake up and smell the coffee: social security and medicare are already over. The money for them, which our politicans promised would be set aside in a “lock box” and saved for future generations, was instead stolen by them and used to pay for other things.
This started with LBJ, and has continued on to this day, by both democrats and republicans. They have been lying about it for years, and a gullible public has believed them. They have been borrowing money to pay for it and a lot of other things for years, which is why President Obama said a few weeks ago that if they could n’t raise the debt celing, there would be no money to go out for august socila security checks. All available tax money has already been promised to China.
Sorry fellow Americans, the politicans stole your money, and borrowed so much more that social security and medicare are de-facto over. It’s only a matter of time until the creditors refuse to lend any more, and then the government will have to put China and other creditors before us. It’s over.
Posted by: Greta | September 1, 2011, 10:05 am 10:05 am
I Istruggle with the direction of the country should a Republican win the presidency. Will the Republicans then vote for job support and stiimulus saying dire economic problems require it? No vote for an Obama jobs plan, but a big vote for a Republican plan. I feel that I have lost touch and understanding of the Republican position. I wonder if it boils down to power and control of US policy like our all-Republican states have proven.
So I feel that Obama should make this case very clear to the American people. Republicans are not trying to work on jobs until they get the presidency.
Posted by: Bobbi | September 1, 2011, 11:47 am 11:47 am
obama and the dems had control of the executive and legislative branches of government. they cant blame the republicans for anything as JOB CREATION should be goal no 1, not health care or a stimulu s that did nothing but FUND UNIONS. get real ….2012 cant come quick enough.
500 million on a failed solar company.where did the money go?this administration and the dems are really out of touch with the american people. they need to quit wasting our time.
Posted by: catman | September 1, 2011, 12:11 pm 12:11 pm
No need to go back and listen to his campaign speeches…he’s saying the same thing now. But for those still clinging to the hope for change, either listen to or get a transcript of his inauguration speech. There it is, right at the top. His first priority will be jobs. Unfortunately, he didn’t say what he was going to do with them, but that was his first priority. In the 2.75 years that he’s been in office, he’s not yet presented his solution for creating jobs. But if this article is correct, we now know that it is exactly what he has been doing AND IT HAS NOT WORKED.
Posted by: wantingbalance | September 1, 2011, 12:43 pm 12:43 pm
Bobbi…you certainly have defined the real purpose for his speech. It is 100% political and will contain the very items that give conservatives problems. Tell me how additional assistance for the “long-term unemployed” will create jobs. It won’t. It just creates a new and growing entitled class, many of whom want to work for their food. This is not a conservative/liberal, Democrat/Republican discussions. It boils down to whether Obama actually knows how jobs are created and is willing to put politics aside and start the process of reducing/eliminating regulation and tax policy that prevent business from growing and in many cases reward them for sending jobs off shore. Then, will he cancel the trade agreements that started the migration of 20 million well paying jobs from the U.S. to other countries. I do not think so. Instead, he will put up the same old “ideas” that have such wide-spread opposition and then blame the GOP for delaying jobs creation in an effort to improve his poll numbers and win re-election.
Posted by: wantingbalance | September 1, 2011, 12:47 pm 12:47 pm
Vote them all out, start from scratch, this just shows it is all about showing up the other. Do we need this with the country sputtering out of control, I think not.
Next election vote against all incumbents maybe they will get the message. Not
anything else the public can do. This mess shows how Idiotic Washington is and everyone of them needs to be shown the door.
Posted by: deadwrestler | September 1, 2011, 1:02 pm 1:02 pm
no really cares what obama says anymore and we are tired of his i i i me me me speeches that go no where. we are tired of the obama drama. all he does is blame and go negative.the speech he wants to give could be accomplished right now, this minute.WE ARE TIRED OF THE FAUX COLUMN PROPAGANDA SPEECHES. JUST GO TO WORK SHUT UP AND ACCOMPLISH SOMETHING PLEASE.
Posted by: catman | September 1, 2011, 1:13 pm 1:13 pm
I agree with Carville that the WH was out of line, but I think everything the WH does is intentional and meant to further divide the country. It wants to prove they can’t work with republicans and thus need back the house and as many other democrats to get through their agenda. If it means watching the economy sink for the next year, they are willing to sacrifice that in order to gain back control if they can convince the public the republicans are crazy, bigots, evil, and just about any other character assassination they can muster. That is why the unions now have established the largest superpac to fight the Tea Party.
Meanwhile the unskilled, which is often minorities, are feeling the most pain and have the least chance to succeed in the future. Many of those unskilled will not be able to re-train into a more highly tech job because they never even finished high school. The unskilled jobs have moved to China.
We need a leader that is willing to tell the truth about how our economy has changed and stop blaming the other party for the demise. Both parties refused to take the hard but necessary steps to assure a future for all Americans. They took the easy road which was to promise the moon and refuse to fund knowing someday we would be facing these huge deficits and long term debt.
Posted by: Susan | September 1, 2011, 1:15 pm 1:15 pm
This was a created crisis. There was no conflict. The GOP had scheduled this for months. The same night, at the same time, the WH created a conflict and then acted as though they hadn’t noticed. He-he. Right.
Who is it that is creating political conflict here?
Posted by: ModerateinN | September 1, 2011, 1:25 pm 1:25 pm
James,
We would love to have you on our side….if we could your politics right.
I respect your direct, non-wavering point of view as well as the fact that you call them the way you see them regardless of the politics involved.
Posted by: ronnie | September 1, 2011, 2:08 pm 2:08 pm
What ABC News and Carville should have said was: This President and Senate will not support any of the common sense plans that comes forth from the House unless it increases their ability to spend more money and raise taxes on the people who pay 40$ of the taxes in this country.
There. I fixed it.
Posted by: Gadsden | September 1, 2011, 2:14 pm 2:14 pm
So Congress won’t do what Obama wants? Well, he won’t do what Congress wants. Why does that make him better?
Posted by: Bill Carson | September 1, 2011, 3:14 pm 3:14 pm
If there was some way to guarantee Obama would win reelection in 2012 there would be no speech. He’d still be on vacation. If he wasn’t ideologically locked into siphoning money from the productive sector of the economy into the unproductive sector we wouldn’t have such dire outlooks to begin with. The man is only capable of playing politics.
Posted by: Justin | September 1, 2011, 3:27 pm 3:27 pm
Know wonder this white house cant get anything done if they cant plan better than to scedule any better than something that has been public for months STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES
Posted by: Earl | September 1, 2011, 6:39 pm 6:39 pm
Carville is useless as a Dem strategist. Sure, political junkies (although not a significant % of progressives) and the 25 per centers will watch this 2nd (3rd?) GOP debate of > 20 that will occur over the next 7 or 8 months. Heck, Sept 7th of 2012 will be too soon for a lot of people to tune in to the election.
Also, the timing was actually pretty good, Obama’s speech would have finished just before the debate started. Of course the poor GOP field would have to be prepared to answer questions about it during the debate.
The House, BTW, never adjourned for the summer recess. They rotated members and kept it open to keep Obama from making recess appointments.
The GOP members are regrouping from meeting the angry home folks, who wanted to know where the jobs their representatives campaigned on a year ago are.
The Senate is still sitting on so many judicial nominations, the courts are becoming a nightmare; not to mention hundreds of bills Nancy Pelosi got through the last House.
Then they have to figure out how to increase FEMAs budget without increasing the deficit.
Hint: try the Pentagon account. It’s not like we are going to get into another war anytime soon.
Posted by: Ginny in CO | September 1, 2011, 11:18 pm 11:18 pm
I think James Carville has been hanging around with his republican wife so much that she is wearing off on his mind. He should have sense enough to defend President Obama who gets nothing but hate from the GOP in our government. They are the most unprofessional and sorry republicans to ever be in our Congress. I just am sick and tired of the GOP with their whining and criticism when they do nothing at all to help with jobs, unemployment or getting the country out of the wars and ending the billions in subsidies to oil giants.
Posted by: Vicki | September 2, 2011, 12:33 am 12:33 am
This is just the second domino Obama is setting up for his re-election. The first was to ensure VOTER FRAUD would be widespread, by the “let the illegals from Mexico” stay policy. You know New Mexico and Washington are giving out more drivers’ licenses to illegals even as I write this, don’t you? Research it yourself. Hundreds of thousands of illegals now have a way to register to vote via the Motor Voter Act (thanks, liberals!!!) – those 2 states have given out more licenses than they have population.
So (1) is voter fraud, (2) is making a stupid speech with bs and a whiny “they won’t help” theme, and domino (3) is to step up the portrayal of anyone who doesn’t vote for him in 2012 as a racist — maybe even someone who can be charged with a “hate crime” for thinking he’s a bozo.
Posted by: It's Over | September 2, 2011, 9:26 am 9:26 am
It made the President and his administration look like children and not even know protocol. I do want to heard what others have to say, I know exactly what the President will say and it will be the same old spend money we don’t have on union, green and government jobs.
Posted by: Freedom | September 2, 2011, 9:27 am 9:27 am
Oh yes, one more thing – JOBS GALORE at salaries beyond the wildest dreams of Obama’s little admirers — helping “czars,” helping his re-election, helping the socialists who pull his strings. But NO JOBS for those outside of his crony circle. He’s like a damned black Marie Antoinette.
Posted by: It's Over | September 2, 2011, 9:30 am 9:30 am
This is a clever Obama plot. Americans will now have time to watch the GOP debates, and when they realize that all the candidates are Clown Shoes, they will rush to vote for Barack in 2012.
Posted by: rick | September 2, 2011, 10:13 am 10:13 am
OBAMA….ZERO JOBS…Obama is a failure
Obama leaves this morning for Camp David….Yeah he worked hard this week in destroying America
White House being investigated for massive loan to failed solar firm.. Expect at least another year of Obama stonewalling congress like he and Holder have been doing over the murderous Gun Runner scandal,
OBAMA_________VS_________AMERICA
Posted by: Yep I said that | September 2, 2011, 10:58 am 10:58 am
Celia:
I deemed a more appropritae response futile, so in the words of a famous Blue Collar Comedian, viz., “You can’t fix stupid” …, I pass.
Posted by: R.U. Kiddin' | September 2, 2011, 12:40 pm 12:40 pm
Celia is CLUELESS.. Yet she claims to be a Liberal AND a Christian? Betcha she believes in killing babies too.
Posted by: James | September 2, 2011, 2:29 pm 2:29 pm
You Tea Party/ Obama haters are getting sad… Obama has never had a Legislative Super Majority and has been obstructed and defamed from the moment he won the presidency. Now with the Tea Party pulling the Republicans around by the nose you still think the party of No is Right?
Sorry to burst your bubbles folks, only one killing babies here is the party screaming for tax breaks for the rich while cutting food stamps for the poor.
But when the 2% have everything and the 98% are storming their castles, then lets try your Marie Antoinette comparison. If you folks don’t start listening to reason and thinking beyond the 2012 election you will be remembered by history as the dumbest Plutocracy ever.
Posted by: DewyB | September 7, 2011, 11:47 am 11:47 am