Tulane University is pleased to announce that James Carville and Mary Matalin will deliver the keynote address at Commencement 2008.

• Watch Mary Matalin's Commencement Address
  
• Watch James Carville's Commencement Address

Often referred to as the country's political odd couple, Carville is the Louisiana-born CNN commentator who served as manager for Bill Clinton's 1992 presidential campaign. Mary Matalin is the former host of CNN's Crossfire who held senior positions in George H. W. Bush's 1988 campaign and also served as assistant to President George W. Bush and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney.

In addition to two young daughters, James Carville and Mary Matalin also share a great sense of humor, sharp wits, uncanny political insight and a love of country and each other. They are also wonderful, warm people who are great friends of this city and state. I am sure it will be one of our most memorable commencement addresses. It may also serve as a reminder to us that despite our differences in politics we can still respect one another and get along.

James Carville

James Carville is America's best-known political consultant. His long list of electoral successes evidences a knack for steering overlooked campaigns to unexpected landslide victories and for re-making political underdogs into upset winners. 

Carville's winning streak began in 1986 when he managed the gubernatorial victory of Robert Casey in Pennsylvania. A loser in three previous attempts, dubbed the "Three-Time-Loss from Holy Cross" by the media, Casey defeated popular Lieutenant Governor William Scranton, Jr. in a remarkable come-from-behind win thanks to Carville. In 1987, Carville helped Wallace Wilkinson, who commanded less than 1% of the vote in the early polls, win a hard-fought gubernatorial campaign in Kentucky.

The following year brought Carville to New Jersey where he guided Frank Lautenberg's campaign for U.S. Senate to victory, defeating Rhodes Scholar and Heisman Trophy winner Pete Dawkins. Carville next managed the successful 1990 gubernatorial campaign of Georgia's Lieutenant Governor Zell Miller,
including a tough primary win over Atlanta mayor Andrew Young.

In 1991, Carville—who had already become prominent in political circles—drew national attention when he led Senator Harris Wofford from 40 points behind in the polls to an upset landslide victory over former Pennsylvania Governor and U.S. Attorney General Richard Thornburgh. With the startling and unpredicted Wofford win, Carville exposed the political vulnerability of George Bush, who enjoyed 91% approval ratings during the Gulf War.

Having wounded the sitting President in 1991, Carville finished the job the following year when he guided William Jefferson Clinton to the Presidency in 1992. In 1993, Carville was honored as Campaign Manager of the Year by the American Association of Political Consultants for his leadership of Clinton's fearsome and intense "War Room" at campaign headquarters in Little Rock. Carville was also the focus, along with George Stephanopoulos, of the feature-length Academy Award nominated documentary The War Room.

After the Clinton victory, Carville began to focus on foreign consulting. Since that time, Carville's political clients have included the following: Greek Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis; Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso; Honduran Prime Minister Carlos Flores; President Jamil Mahuad of Ecuador; the Liberal Party of Canada; Sao Paolo Mayor Celso Pitta, Argentine Economic Minister Domingo Cavallo, Francisco Labastida of Mexico, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Basdeo Panday; Hipolito Meija of the
Dominican Republic; and many others spread across the globe. In 1999, Carville led Ehud Barak to victory in his campaign to become the Prime Minister of Israel.

James Carville is also an author, actor, producer, talk-show host, speaker and restaurateur. Author James Carville, (with co-author and wife Mary Matalin, formerly Assistant to President Bush and Counselor to
Vice-President Cheney), first wrote All's Fair: Love, War, and Running for President, which spent eight weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. Carville's other books have included We're Right, They're Wrong: A Handbook for Spirited Progressives; And the Horse He Rode In On: The People vs. Kenneth Starr; Stickin'; Buck Up, Suck Up…and Come Back When You Foul Up; Had Enough? A Handbook for Fighting Back; his children's book, Lu and the Swamp Ghost; and 2006's Take it Back.

In the fall of 2003, actor James Carville and wife Mary Matalin put a fresh and critically-acclaimed spin on political consulting and on television in the HBO series "K Street", a political drama based on the working lives of Washington political consultants. In addition, Carville can be seen regularly on television as a CNN commentator and contributor.  Most recently, Carville is hosting XM radio's "60/20" weekly sports show.
Carville also co-produced the remake of the 1949 Oscar award-winning movie "All The King's Men" with a cast that included such acting luminaries as Sean Penn, Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Patricia Clarkson, Kate Winslet, and James Gandolfini.  In addition to various political organizations, Carville serves as a founding member on the Board for Friends of New Orleans.

James Carville resides in Virginia with his wife and two daughters.

Mary Matalin

Mary Matalin's experience in politics, public affairs, crisis management and media spans three decades and multiple venues.

Matalin has served Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.  She joined the current administration in the first term as Assistant to the President and Counselor to the Vice President.  In that capacity, she preformed as senior advisor on major initiatives, including national security, homeland security, energy, economic growth and corporate governance policies.  She oversaw the Vice President's political and communications departments, advancing administration policies from the Middle East, Europe and across America to Capitol Hill.

Before joining the Bush/Cheney White House, Matalin hosted CNN's critically acclaimed debate show, Crossfire.  Matalin is the former founding co-host of the Washington based CNBC political weeknight talk show, Equal Time, called the "best talk show on television" by Knight Rider News Service.  Matalin's
ability to discuss the hottest political issues in Washington helped to make the show one of the most talked about programs in the network's history. Matalin also hosted a daily three-hour public affairs broadcast on the CBS Talk Radio Network.  Talkers Magazine listed Matalin as one of The 100 Most Important Talk Show Hosts in America in 1996, 1997 and 1998. Matalin has made frequent television appearances as a political commentator, and has written for various publications including Newsweek and The Los Angeles
Times.  

Matalin and her husband James Carville, who was the chief campaign strategist for Clinton/Gore in 1992, co-authored the best-selling political campaign book All's Fair: Love, War and Running for President.  Matalin and Carville also teamed up on HBO's critically acclaimed political series K Street with filmmakers Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney.

Her most recent book, Letters to My Daughters was named a Book of the Month Club selection as well as The New York Times and The Washington Post best-seller lists.  Letters to My Daughters was also selected for a condensed version by Reader's Digest.

Matalin has been active in politics since college, starting at the grassroots level in local and statewide campaigns in her native Illinois. The Reagan Revolution brought her to Washington, DC where she served in senior management positions at the Republican National Committee and on the Presidential campaigns of 1984, 1988 and 1992.

Currently, Matalin is Editor-in-Chief of Threshold Editions, a conservative imprint at Simon & Schuster.  Threshold authors include major political, policy and cultural figures. In addition, Matalin sits on the Board of the Cheney Cardiovascular Institute, serves as a Vice President of the Washington Humane Society, and is involved in the WIN (Women Impacting the Nation) Initiative.

Matalin and her husband reside in Alexandria, Virginia with their daughters Matalin "Matty" Carville and Emerson "Emma" Carville.

Past Commencement Speakers