Mary Matalin Speaks at the CATS Roundtable Radio Show

Interview Highlights

On Jeb Bush attacking Marco Rubio at the recent GOP debate about his voting record in the U.S. Senate: “I love Jeb and I know Jeb, and I’m flummoxed by that, it’s a violation of debate 101: Never ask an opponent or never address to an opponent something you know he’s prepared for, which clearly Rubio was. It cuts against his message of ‘I’m a happy warrior.’ ”

“My money right now is on Ted Cruz (to win the GOP nomination). Again, I’m unaligned, but I think he speaks to the myriad factions of conservatism: Constitutionalists, Libertarians, the social conservatives. I think he’s whip-smart, as evidenced by his debate appearances.”

On the 3 “outsider” candidates in the GOP race (Trump, Carson, Fiorina): “I think all three of them, whom I know, whom I’ve had at the house, except for Trump, they really add to the field because they have shown these other candidates who have been afraid to take on the mainstream press or take on political correctness or take on conventional wisdom to go ahead and do it.”

About Mary Matalin

Mary Matalin is an American political consultant well known for her work with the Republican Party. She has served under President Ronald Reagan, was campaign director for George H.W. Bush, was an assistant to President George W. Bush, and counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney until 2003. Matalin has been chief editor of Threshold Editions, a conservative publishing imprint at Simon & Schuster, since March 2005. She is married to Democratic political consultant James Carville. Matalin’s first campaign was Illinois Lieutenant Governor Dave O’Neal’s bid for the U.S. Senate in 1980, a race O’Neal lost to Alan Dixon. After O’Neal’s loss, Matalin began her career with the Republican National Committee, where she would remain for nearly two decades as a key Republican strategist. Matalin co-authored the best-selling political campaign book All’s Fair: Love, War, and Running for President with her husband, James Carville.