Most Popular Books by James Carville

The political strategists who directed the Clinton campaign''s War Room reveal the lessons and secrets from their hard-fought battles -- and how to use these highly effective strategies for success in everyday life. James Carville and Paul Begala have waged political war all across America and on three continents. They''ve won some of the most spectacular political victories of the twentieth century and lost a few campaigns too. Along the way, they''ve learned a few lessons. Some sound simple, like "Never Quit," some comic, like "Kiss Ass," and some are more complicated and nuanced, like "Strategy Ain''t Tactics." But each lesson contains tried-and-true wisdom, illustrated with colorful stories from long political experience -- many never told before: Find out how Carville''s mother, Miz Nippy, used a bass boat to "frame the debate" in selling encyclopedias. Discover what success secret Hillary Rodham Clinton and Tom DeLay share. Learn the War Room tricks for sharpening your message and delivering the perfect sound bite. And much more. Whether you are a senior executive or a secretary, a political junkie or the president of the United States, the rules to live by can be found in Buck Up, Suck Up...and Come Back When You Foul Up.

The prominent liberal pundit and campaign strategist argues that Democratic policies enacted by the Clinton administration and continued by President Obama have effectively sustained and salvaged America''s economic well-being.

By being too timid and too weak, too hesitant and too confused, Democrats have allowed Republicans to run amok. Republicans today control everything: the White House, the Congress, the Supreme Court, the federal bureaucracy, the military, and the corporate special interests and their lobbyists. They operate powerful right-wing organizations, right-wing think tanks, and a conservative media that serves as an attack dog against Democrats. Republicans have used their absolute power to corrupt our democracy, degrade our military, weaken our health care system, diminish our stature in the world, damage our environment, reward the rich, hammer the poor, squeeze the middle class, bankrupt our Treasury, and indenture our children to foreign debt holders. In this important book, James Carville and Paul Begala show Democrats how they can take it back. They offer a clear-eyed critique of their party''s failures and make specific, concrete recommendations on how Democrats can avoid losing elections on divisive issues such as abortion, gun control, gay rights, and moral values and start winning them on health care, political reform, energy, the environment, tax reform, and more. Carville and Begala say that liberal Democrats are right that too many establishment Democrats kowtow to corporate interests and shamefully supported George W. Bush''s rush to war. And moderate Democrats are right to complain that too many Democrats are out of step with middle-class values, too removed from people of faith, too enthralled with intellectual and cultural elites. But the problem with the Democrats, Carville and Begala argue, is not ideological. It''s anatomical. They lack a backbone. Take It Back is a spinal transplant for Democrats and an audacious battle plan for victory.

It''s been said that if you want a friend in Washington, you should buy a dog. Unfortunately, there''s some truth to that: there are few places in the world where the turncoats and careerists are so highly rewarded and where loyalty is equated with stupidity. Luckily, another bit of wisdom about the Beltway is also true: the people in Washington aren''t like the ones in the rest of the country. The American people treasure loyalty. They stick by a friend when he needs them. They forgive him when he''s wrong. They understand the difference between politics and friendship. They are true to their ideals and their schools, loyal to their families and their God. In Stickin'', the always colorful and insightful political strategist James Carville, who has been accused of being loyal, examines this much-maligned and misunderstood political good. Along the way, he looks at loyalty in the family and among friends, in theory and in practice. He praises some loyal people and skewers some deserving backstabbers. And, of course, it wouldn''t be a Carville book if he didn''t provide recipes for some good home cooking.

It’s the Middle Class, Stupid! confirms what we have all suspected: Washington and Wall Street have really screwed things up for the average American. Work has been devalued. Education costs are out of sight. Effort and ambition have never been so scantily rewarded. Political guru James Carville and pollster extraordinaire Stan Greenberg argue that our political parties must admit their failures and the electorate must reclaim its voice, because taking on the wealthy and the privileged is not class warfare—it is a matter of survival. Told in the alternating voices of these two top political strategists, It’s the Middle Class, Stupid! provides eye-opening and provocative arguments on where our government—including the White House—has gone wrong, and what voters can do about it. Controversial and outspoken, authoritative and shrewd, It’s the Middle Class, Stupid! is destined to make waves during the 2012 presidential campaign, and will set the agenda for legislative battles and political dust-ups during the next administration.

Every four years Americans hold a presidential election. Somebody wins and somebody loses. That''s life. But 2008 was an anomaly. The election of President Barack Obama is about something far bigger than four or even eight years in the White House. Since 2004, Americans have been witnessing and participating in the emergence of a Democratic majority that will last not four but forty years. To understand the emergence of a lasting Democratic majority we''ll first have to spend a few moments reviewing the profound and relentless incompetence of the Bush administration -- and the pursuant collapse of the Republican Party. That means looking back at the failure of Republican ideas -- including a wholesale rejection of the myth of conservative superiority on the economy -- and holding our noses long enough to survey the gallery of truly repellent scoundrels, scandals, and screwups that the Republican Party has been responsible for over the last eight years. After completing the unpleasant but edifying task of autopsying the Republican Party, we''ll examine the underpinnings of Democratic victories in 2004, 2006, and 2008 -- and make the argument for why Democrats are going to keep winning. (Two words: young people.) In short, the Republicans are going to keep getting spanked again and again for forty more years because we''re right and they''re wrong, and Americans know it.

Carville, chief strategist of the 1992 Clinton campaign, offers a no-holds-barred response to the right-wing myths coming out of Congress and the AM airwaves.

Have you had enough of George W. Bush and the Republican right? Are you sick and tired of the tax-cutting, environment-desecrating, secret-keeping, influence-peddling, war-mongering, free speech-hating hypocrites who occupy America''s halls of power? If so, you have company -- James Carville. Like James Carville, America has been bruised and battered by the Republicans who are running our country and running it into the ground. The Bush administration has squandered a five-trillion-dollar surplus and created a five-trillion-dollar projected deficit. Their tax cut for the rich was supposed to create jobs -- but instead America has lost more than three million of them. This administration was supposed to bring honor and dignity to the White House but instead brought lies, leaks, secrecy, and fear. They promised to make the country stronger and safer but instead they''ve left us overstretched, isolated, and insecure. And Carville has had enough. In Had Enough? the legendary political adviser comes out of his corner swinging, taking on the Bush White House and the Republican leaders in Congress on every front -- from the economy to education to foreign affairs. But he doesn''t just attack; he lays out constructive "had enough" solutions for healing the damage done by the Republicans and helping disheartened Democrats get back on their feet. In addition, he offers "Ten Rules for Progressives to Live By" and a new War Room mantra for a new era. Had Enough? is a rousing handbook for taking back the country, for fighting back the right wing, and for returning the power to the people.

New York Times bestseller Twenty years after the publication of the bestselling All’s Fair, James Carville and Mary Matalin look at how they—and America—have changed in the last two decades. James Carville and Mary Matalin have long held the mantle of the nation’s most ideologically mismatched and intensely opinionated political couple. In this follow-up to All’s Fair, Carville and Matalin pick up the story they began in that groundbreaking bestseller and talk family, faith, love, and politics in their two winning voices. If nothing else, this new collaboration proves that after twenty years of marriage they can still manage to agree on a few things. A fascinating look at the last two decades in American politics and an intimate, quick-witted primer on grown-up relationships and values, Love & War provides unprecedented insight into one of our nation’s most intriguing and powerful couples. With their natural charm and sharp intelligence, Carville and Matalin have written undoubtedly the most spirited memoir of the year.

Now, in the most provocative look at the inside of a national election battle ever published, Matalin and Carville, the chief strategists for the Bush and Clinton presidential campaigns, tell their sides of the story, laying bare how politicians and their cohorts really operate--and revealing how their romance flourished in the most unlikely circumstances imaginable. 16 pages of photos.

During the Depression in the Louisiana bayou, a curious young girl helps the "Swamp Ghost" that her cousins warned her about and finds herself with one good friend.

EXCLUSIVE: CARVILLE RESPONDS TO THE STARR REPORT ...And the Horse He Rode In On gives the first full accounting of what''s really behind the longest-running, most expensive dirty trick in politics: Ken Starr''s investigation.

A tell-all biography of renowned acting teacher, Sanford Meisner, his partner of 35 years, Jimmy Carville, and their adopted son, Boolu, a abandoned deaf boy the pair met their first night on the Caribbean island of Bequia.