Carville Wanted Bush to Fail

The news that Democratic strategist James Carville wanted President Bush to fail has been circulating for a couple of days now. According to FOX News, on the morning of September 11, 2001, just minutes before the terrorist attacks, Carville told a group of Washington reporters: "I certainly hope he doesn't succeed."

Carville was joined by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, who seemed encouraged by a survey he had just completed that revealed public misgivings about the newly minted president.

"We rush into these focus groups with these doubts that people have about him, and I'm wanting them to turn against him," Greenberg admitted.

Of course, as soon as Carville heard of the terrorist attacks, he announced to all the reporters he was having breakfast with for them to "Disregard everything we just said! This changes everything!" And the press did just that, never reporting anything that Carville had said, for months and years afterward.

Why is this bit of news important? Because the press went crazy when Rush Limbaugh recently said that he wanted President Obama to fail, talking endlessly about it and suggesting that Limbaugh and Republicans were unpatriotic.

Mr. Carville himself said on CNN: "The most influential Republican in the United States today, Mr. Rush Limbaugh, said he did not want President Obama to succeed." "He is the daddy of this Republican Congress."

Did Carville forget what he said about Bush in 2001? Of course not, he was just hoping everybody else wouldn't find out about it - pot, meet kettle. Carville says that focusing on Limbaugh is a deliberate strategy and that Democrats hope it undermines Republicans. This piece of information was confirmed by the New York Times in a profile of David Axelrod, Obama's closest political advisor:

He [Axelrod] also helps decide which fights to pick and which ones to avoid, making him a leading voice in setting the political tone in Washington. The recent back-and-forth with Rush Limbaugh, for example, was explicitly authorized by Axelrod, who told aides that it was not a moment to sit quietly after Limbaugh said he hoped that Obama would “fail.”

Limbaugh, for his part, said that he is rooting for the failure of Obama's liberal policies. "The difference between Carville and his ilk and me is that I care about what happens to my country," said Limbaugh on Wednesday. "I am not saying what I say for political advantage. I oppose actions, such as Obama's socialist agenda, that hurt my country."