Raymond Johnson Post 3

Of all the characters Joe Klein puts into a negative light in Primary Colors, the most offended person should be James Carville. Carville is portrayed in the story as Richard Jemmons, who is Stanton’s political assistant in his campaign. From the moment he is introduced to Henry Burton, Carville is portrayed as a raving southern political lunatic. He frequently makes insensitive comments and uses foul language in every conversation he has.
As early as chapter one, Carville is portrayed as sex crazed and prone to falling for any woman he thinks resembles musician Winona Ryder. The character even goes as far as publicly exposing himself to a female member of the media whom he finds attractive. Burton sees Jemmons as irresponsible for doing this and tells him that he didn’t approve of his sexual manner towards the media. Jemmons responded that he was completely under control and wouldn’t have done it if the media woman wasn’t “cool”. Jemmons also makes racist remarks about minorities while talking to Henry Burton when he claims that he is blacker than Burton and that he “has some slave in him”. These ridiculous comments and actions make Burton very annoyed with the fact that he has to work in close proximity to Jemmons. This completely dishonorable portrayal of a still well known political personality is most likely very offensive to Mr. Carville. Klein held back nothing in his attack on James Carville and this gives Carville the most right to be offended of all characters in Primary Colors.