Clinton adviser James Carville is all over the news after calling Governor Bill Richardson “Judas” for his endorsement of Barack Obama. It will be interesting to see how this changes the election, but I’m sure this performance is just a part of some larger plan that Carville has. One of my favorite James Carville “performances” was in Rachel Boynton’s 2006 documentary Our Brand is Crisis. The film looks at how elections are created and run through the example of the 2002 Bolivian presidential election and the hiring of Greenberg Carville Shrum (GCS), a political consultant group, by one of the parties in the election.

Of course, James Carville is a part of GCS and throughout Our Brand is Crisis we watch him and his colleagues help Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (Goni for short) try and win the Bolivian election:

At first, the goal seems unattainable, especially considering he wasn’t all that popular the first time around, not to mention that Bolivia was on the brink of a violent political uprising. Undaunted, the GCS consultants work their magic as if it were a game, shrewdly devising ways to sell a new and improved Mr. Sánchez de Lozada to the public. Endorsements and smear campaigns are conceived for television, general brainstorming sessions and focus groups are held, and the impact each has is thoroughly analyzed. The unrestricted access we are given to these discussions that would normally take place behind closed doors is astounding, even if the “victory” ultimately gained for Mr. Sánchez de Lozada is truly unsettling. Perhaps the only thing left to be desired from this momentous documentary is a reference to the size of the consultants’ paycheck ” or their consciences. [The New York Times]

Watch the trailer below and to keep up to date on the political happenings of Bolivia. Also, go HERE to see how George Clooney might be involved with future narrative versions of the film. And on the note of James Carville performances, you should check out The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (out on DVD now) where he has a cameo. The trailer is below the one for Our Brand is Crisis