James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist who has advised both Bill and Hillary Clinton, has not shied away from criticizing President Obama’s re-election strategy in the past but Wednesday he praised him.
Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough asked Carville Wednesday if it was frustrating for him to watch the president fail to “drive an obvious narrative?”
“It was frustrating,” Carville responded. “To be fair, in the last three to four weeks I think they’ve gotten a lot better. I think he’s been all over the Romney campaign. I think they kicked him in the gut on this immigration thing. They were actually shrewd on the tax thing.”
Note how Carville used Mitt Romney’s language of late “kick in the gut” in his counter-attack.
In the past, Carville, who competed with the Obama campaign in the 2008 election while representing Hillary Clinton, has criticized the president on a number of political issues, including his handling of the BP oil spill and, more recently, on his campaign’s messaging on the economy. Now Carville says he believes the president has found his “groove.” “I do think the president has had some difficulties in connecting here in the past, but I think he’s getting closer into his groove,” he told Scarborough. “I’ve not been reluctant to criticize his campaign in the past, but by the same token, I would describe myself as a fan of what he’s been doing of late.”
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