By Akeem Mellis
They may never see through the other’s perspective, but two of America’s most high-profile political pundits, who have also been married for a decade, paid a visit to the University on Wednesday.
Mary Matalin, a Republican commentator and presidential advisor, and James Carville, a Democratic media personality and who was then-Gov. Bill Clinton’s campaign guru, were the guests for “All’s Fair: Love, War, and Politics,” an Educate ’08 event at the John Cranford Adams Playhouse.
The lower level of the Playhouse was packed with students, faculty, administrators and guests who waited for adiscussion of the happenings of this year’s presidential election.
Both did their best to give the audience an overview of the Democratic presidential primary in the context of the recent election in Pennsylvania.
Matalin explained what the big stakes involved in the Democratic primary between Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) are before offering a critique on their party’s superdelegate system.
“It’s the most undemocratic thing ever,” Matalin said. “A couple hundred people are going to make the difference.”
She advised the remaining undecided Democratic superdelegates-the roughly 288 who were undecided-to choose Clinton over Obama. “She’s winning the big states the Democrats must win in November…superdelegates should look at this rationally and choose Hillary,” she said.
After saying the GOP was “more rational” for not having a superdelegate component to their nomination process, she moved on to Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.).
She mentioned that while McCain was the GOP’s best candidate, his nomination was by “dumb luck” due to mathematical computations. “He won four out of ten Republican voters while the other candidates split the rest of the vote,” Matalin said.
She referred to the 60 percent of Republican voters that did not choose McCain, but among five different candidates.
As her speech wound down, she noted that McCain is not the typical candidate, or the typical Republican for that matter. With his dozen or so regional offices and invitations for the media to ride on his campaign bus with him, she says this will help his candidacy. “It will serve him well. He’s taking the conservative message to places where it’s usually not receptive.”
Carville, in his trademark Cajun accent, began his address with a pair of light-hearted jokes before explaining with the twists and turns of the campaign.
“This election is incomprehensible. There’s no historical precedent for this… When [pundits] say one thing, something else happens,” he said.
The crux of his speech was about what he termed “the two Democratic Parties,” and how each candidate supposedly represents one of those sides of the Democratic Party, yet each of them garners votes from their opponent’s side of the party.
Carville compared the primary to a game of blackjack, talking in the lingo of the game about the chances Clinton has to remain in the race if she wins the next few primaries.
But his main concern was the unity of the party when they select a nominee.
“At the end of the day, someone is going to have to put this party together,” he said.
He continued on this point, declaring that for the Democratic Party, “the most crucial time is from when the party has a nominee to when the Democrats leave Denver.”
Carville even threw the possibility out there that the Democrats are going to talk their way out of winning the general election in November. He said that if the Democrats do unite as their Party’s late summer convention ends, the Democrats will be in the White House in Jan. 2009.