James Carville on Aging, Edibles and His Anxieties About Harris

James Carville stretched out his legs and leaned far back in his chair behind a rooftop table at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. The Peninsula is a gathering spot for Hollywood celebrities and executives but Mr. Carville, who is neither, was the object of attention on this afternoon.

“It’s the economy — nice to meet you, Mr. Carville!” a lunchtime patron said as he passed by the table, recalling (if incompletely) the campaign slogan that Mr. Carville championed as the chief strategist for Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign.

A few moments later, as Mr. Carville recounted for a reporter his efforts to convince Democrats that an aging President Biden would lose to Donald J. Trump if he stayed in the race, Jenny Durkan, the former mayor of Seattle, walked over and declared: “You were right!”

“Thank you, darling,” Mr. Carville responded in his native, languorous Louisiana accent.

It has been 32 years since the campaign that put Mr. Clinton in the White House and, in the process, established Mr. Carville as a celebrity in his own right. And now, at the age of 79 — he is turning 80 later this month — Mr. Carville may well be as prominent as ever. He says the contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and Mr. Trump is the last he will play a role in, and it has given him what would seem to be a last hurrah.

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