Fiery political commentator James Carville unleashed his tart-tongued wit against the “talking heads” and the media while he rallied for Vice President Al Gore’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday afternoon at the ISU Memorial Union.

Watched by an audience of about 100 people, most of whom were Gore supporters, Carville, the political consultant whose spin-doctoring helped President Clinton win the 1992 presidential election, campaigned on behalf of Gore in preparation for Monday’s caucuses.

Gore is still maintaining a substantial lead in the polls over his sole opponent, former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley.

Carville opened his stump speech by railing against media outlets such as The Washington Post and The New York Times for saying that Gore is not committed to the American people.

“I think they’re wrong,” he said. “I’m going to be protecting [the election] for you, and if they try to take it away from you, I’m going to raise hell.”

Carville said pundits may not remember 1992, a time “when one American was being pitted against another,” but he believes Iowans do, and in one of his barely veiled criticisms of Republican front-runner Texas Gov. George W. Bush, he told the audience, “You don’t want to go back to that America.”

“You’re not going to let the same crowd that let the country go $3 trillion in debt come back and do it again,” Carville implored the crowd. “We’re never going to let them take this country back.”

Despite his obvious loyalty to Gore’s campaign, Carville mirrored the vice president’s approach to campaigning by choosing not to attack Bradley, instead saving his sharp words for the GOP. He called Gore and Bradley “two good people,” although he said that Gore was clearly the more qualified of the two.

“It wasn’t Bill Bradley who pitted one American against another [eight years ago],” he said.

Carville also said if a debate were held between Gore and Bush, voters would see one person with a strong congressional record and another whose popularity “is based on his name.”

When questioned by a member of the audience, Carville admitted his wife, Republican commentator Mary Matalin, is a big fan of Bush.

“She loves him, but what can I say?” he joked. “She has mixed taste in men.”

Matalin and Carville fell in love during the 1992 campaign, when Matalin was working for former President George Bush’s campaign.

After his speech, Carville took questions from the audience and the media. During the question-and-answer portion of the talk, Carville said he believes Gore will be able to separate himself from President Clinton, calling them “different people” and saying that Gore’s doing a good job of running his own campaign.

Carville also said Clinton’s 1998 impeachment won’t turn people against Gore.

“There’s a few haters, but Al Gore won’t get any votes from the haters [anyway],” he said.