journalism to join the academic world. he is now holds the white chair in journalism at the university of maryland and he has had also academic appointments and a

number of other in universities including princeton, berkeley and duke. i don't know how many of you watch me the press on sunday when dan balz and haynes johnson had ruled out their new book. ever since then, i don't think there has been too many moments when during a 24 our period where they haven't been on tv or radio, granted some of it is recorded, since then. so i thought that they must be so exhausted maybe we will have to stop in the middle and give you all a coffee break or something. [laughter] i thought maybe we would have to do that on the other hand i think you have such a rush of adrenaline going through your veins because you have been so in phatic about this greatest story that you have ever covered

that you are just so emphatic about it that you were anxious to share your story with everybody so here you are. [applause] >> thanks, barbara. the truth we have been running wildly and this is why you write books. you come to a place like this i love and see people because they want to listen. they want to critique it and we want to hear from you and i mean that. this is the reason you write a book, this kind of audience and turnout. we are very proud you turned out like this. sorry there is no sitting for a lot of people, but i can't do about that. i want to take a few minutes just to talk about why we did this book. a starter almost three years ago not quite. we were facing what was going to happen and 2008 looking ahead, and i think i had thought that

this type of promise of being maybe the most important election of my lifetime and i said that because of factors that are obvious. the economy was bad and getting worse. the war on popular. george bush presidency had gone from the highest point recorded, 90% approval rating right after 9/11 and then sinking like this all the way down to nixon before he resigned and then the sense of anxiety in the country about the future politics wasn't working and we had a whole host of characters, and enormous testing time for the country and that was the background for the story that we embark on telling. and it turned out to be as barbara said it was the story of a lifetime. it was the most remarkable thing to cover, to watch, to try to understand and analyze the characters were remarkable and

we will get into that later. i will just say one thing. in the interview -- when the president spoke as president-elect we asked about what he would look back on this election and tells the story. he said it was a great novel. [laughter] then he went on. it's quite extraordinary to hear the president talking the characters and who they work and it was just i can't imagine a president in my lifetime thinking and those narrative historical terms. so it was a great story and we are going to go back and forth. talk about some of the things we tried to cover, lessons learned and then we will open it up to questions from you. thanks again for coming. [applause] >> i would also extend my fingers to everybody for being here.

as haynes said it's gratifying to see a group of people like this, old friends, people i haven't seen in a long time, neighbors, people we don't politically know but we know you are political junkies like we are. i have to say this preface, this book was a labor of love for both haynes and me. if you cover politics the way we do, to be able to write a book to try to write a book about this election was in many ways a privilege, and we felt all the way through from start to finish as though this was going to be one of the great experiences of our life in trying to do this book and it certainly was. haynes called me in february, 2007 at the paper. he said i'd like to have breakfast with you. i want to talk with you about something so i felt okay. let's meet tomorrow with the mayflower and we will see. and we didn't talk any further than that so i went home that night and said to my wife haynes said today and he wants to have breakfast. he has got something he wants to

talk about and she said if it is about a book say yes. [laughter] so we sat down at breakfast the next morning and haynes sketched out an idea about the book he had for the 2008 campaign and he got most the way through and i said it's interesting when you're talking about because i said i am about two-thirds the way through about a proposal for the 28 campaign almost literally identical in concept to when you're talking about. we knew we was going to be a very important campaign and had a great cast of characters. we had no idea what we were in for in terms of the twists and turns and trauma and everything we all lived and took a whole lot. what i want to do in my first segments here is two things, i want to talk about president obama and then i want to talk a little bit very briefly about the contest between president obama and now secretary hillary clinton. we all think we are very familiar with barack obama. he's certainly been in our lives

a lot since he started running for president and since that remarkable speech at the boston convention in 2004. what we found and what we think you will find as you go through this book is a deeper understanding of barack obama both strengths and weaknesses, the type of character that he is, some of what he went through and we think that there is as you go through and digest this some relevance to what he's going through right now. obviously one thing important always remember about barack obama in addition to envision nobody runs for president particularly if you've only been in the senate for 12 minutes. [laughter] if you don't have a lot of ambition that he is also very competitive and i think one of the best stories we heard came from robert gibbs about when obama's book, the audacity of hope was published in full, 2006 which as you remember helped create the build up for his

candidacy. obama of course wanted this to be a big seller and so the book was about to come out and some of his staff went to him and said the book is going to do well by you should understand this book is coming out literally at the same time as the first piece of nonfiction by john grisham. so don't get your hopes up too four. you've got serious competition and he said by understand but i want to do well. so when it debuted, when i first hit "the new york times" best-seller list it was number two and he called him and said this is terrific, senator, you are number two and obama said and that is the competitiveness that he took into this race. we know what john mccain as a gambling man. barack obama was a gambling man to get into this race as a very modest candidate on the stage. when we talk about what propelled him in the race he said he was at a good point in

his life obviously very well known, successful books, he was doing things in the senate, the democrats taking over and 2006 he would have the opportunity to begin to do legislating but he said i thought there might be something -- i was in a position i ought to see what was out there that the circumstances had been created to make it possible to do this and i thought maybe i ought to try. he said i gave myself maybe 25 or 30% chance of winning the presidency then he looked and said for a gambling man isn't bad odds. one of the other interesting things was the advice he got from his advisers in that late period and 2006 and particularly david axelrod. axelrod wrote a memo we were able to get a hold of and put in the book in which he talked. it is a remarkable impression or brenau, it was written late november of 2006.

a lot of it had to do with the state of the country. it was axelrod's view at the point the climate was ideal for a candidate like barack obama to run for president. in his view after all the country had been through, the war, and popularity of president bush, the country was clearly looking for change and big change and in axelrod's formulation the workers are going to be seeking a replacement, not a replica in 2018 he said you are situated to become that. he said hillary clinton obviously has some important strengths and assets but you are better positioned to take advantage of the public mood. he also said many have counseled you to wait. you are too young, to do, you need to get seasoning. you ought to think about running for years or eight years from now but then he said history is replete with candidates for the presidency who waited too long rather than examples of people who ran too soon and basically

said this is your moment you ought to seize it. obviously he was a cheerleader for the string to get into it but there was another piece we found a particularly revealing because it went to the question of obama weaknesses. he said in experience is not going to be that crippling. and he said the more important thing is whether you can show strength. senator clinton has strength. there is no question about that. she has some parts of her character that might cause her problems in the campaign. people might not trust her but she has strength and you don't. she said the campaign can be proven ground for strength to demonstrate through the course of the campaign that he had what voters were looking for in a time of war. and then he said in a very poignant and a critical way the disarming admissions of weakness in your book, dreams from my father, will become fond for on flattering irritated in queries and then in parentheses he

alluded to the kind of questions obama should expect if he became a candidate. how many times did you use cocaine and marijuana? when did you stop? who did you buy it from? did you sell drugs? have you broken any other law and he said this is more than an unpleasant inconvenience. it goes to your willingness to put up with something you've never experienced on a sustained basis, criticism. at the risk of triggering the reaction that concerns me i don't know if you are muhammad ali or floyd patterson when it comes to taking a punch. you care far too much what is written and said about you. you don't relish combat when it becomes personal and nasty when the largely irrelevant alan keyes attacked you, you flinched we remember obama as a candidate of somebody who inspired great passion, devotion among his followers, use the internet to raise half a billion dollars literally from mostly small donors.

what we don't remember so much as how difficult his early days as a candidate were. we look back now and think he was almost on a predestined path. his first months on the campaign were difficult. he went to las vegas for a health care forum, performed badly. hillary clinton performed brilliantly. he knew it. he saw what she had done in comparison and realized the size of the gap between her loveless performance as a candidate and his. he was exhausted on the campaign trail. the pressure he was under being away from his family. he was irritable, he was unhappy, and there was a point when gibbs flew to chicago to get out to iowa with senator obama. the campaign was worried that he was to discourage that that point, that he was kind of just in the dumps and they had a very candid conversation and gibbs said to him you need to spend something you feel positive about. at this point about saying i am happy with my message and the

advice of your smart people in chicago give me all the time that you think it's that easy. i now hear every day. he did not think the campaign was working well and he wasn't doing -- what he thought he should do. gibbs said find something positive and he said in essence there's nothing positive i can see right now. i don't like it. sitting next to them was reggie love, beyond personal assistant, who is still the personal assistant. a big strapping guy, played basketball at duke, like character. he's sitting there working his blackberry listening to the conversation and says if it is any consolation, i am having a blast. [laughter] and barack obama looked at him in a withering away and said reggie, it's not any consolation. [laughter] but other things we learned about him is he has resilience. he has patience. he has the ability to learn from his mistakes and as i say, his competitive drive and a person

who wants to figured a way to succeed even in difficult times. so as you look forward, as you watch him go through what he has now gone through, remember back to the campaign, that every day wasn't a terrific day for him. he had a days that were successes and days that were not. he learned from those mistakes and figure out how to win the battle. we obviously don't know if he will win the battle he is facing right now. but as you read through this book think about what you are seeing in real time and how that compares to what he did during the campaign. let me briefly because we don't want to spend all of this time talking. i want to get to questions. the campaign between barack obama and hillary clinton was just the most remarkable period and political history that we've witnessed. and rather than recount in any detail what i want to go through is go through in the book what churchill called the triple what ifs of history. what if this or what if that. what if something had happened. what if for example gonococcus

is hadn't been the first event of the democratic race? threat out 2007, senator clinton was cruising in the national poll. she was doing well as a candidate. she was performing well in the debate in comparison to obama. by all measures she was as was written the inevitable nominee. barack obama was struggling hillary clinton always struggled in iowa. her husband never campaigned there when he treen in '92 the caucuses were irrelevant because tom harkin was running. they had no network there. she began the campaign with iowans quite skeptical of her. they did not feel. the most troubling state for the clinton campaign. had the race started in new hampshire we might have had a different outcome because new hampshire was as you know the place where bill clinton became the comeback kid. the clintons felt comfortable.

it is what rate of eckert after i was in this campaign. had they been reversed we may have seen a different outcome. if obama had won the south carolina primary by only nine points rather than 29 points

which was always for the clinton campaign, for the obama campaign the most difficult day on the calendar. also, what if the florida primary had in fact counted as a real event and had not been delegitimized by the democratic national committee? david plus at a harvard conference immediately after the election said in public florida had been a primary hillary clinton might be the nominee. and then might well be president at that point. but the rules were the rules, the obama campaign understood that. they were willing to take rules. they figured out how to play the

rules much more effectively than the clinton campaign. florida is one exceed the caucasus or another example. when it mattered the most, the obama campaign operated very skillfully and the clinton campaign didn't. later the clinton campaign became better but by then it was too late. i will turn back to haynes for some further -- [applause] >> i just want to follow up on some of the things that dan was singing and talk about what we weren't watching this extraordinary campaign. and he has alluded to obama's personality. what you saw in the public was this confident, strong note worry about where he was going. in fact, he went through the times of frustration and that is the whole character part that we didn't know. number two, there were things

that happened in this campaign particularly between hillary and bill clinton and ted kennedy that were extraordinary, contentious, and it's like shakespearean stories, these things. they really were the elements that played back and forth. i will just talk to you about when ted kennedy finally endorsed obama there had been obviously -- you know, this was just before the south carolina primary and obviously the clinton's 400, eager, passionate to get ted kennedy's endorsement. they called and called and called and realized they couldn't endorse at a certain point, but when it was time they put on the pressure and so forth and obama also did. but the calls than between ted kennedy and bill clinton in particular but also hillary are part of a novel in itself. they were angry, they talked about race, they were contentious.

they were i don't want to see violent, but this was hot stuff. they went back and forth over days before finally ted decided he put in doris obama and he did so because it was and that he didn't like hillary but he had decided long before -- and the more he watched obama he said obama reminds me of jack and bobby. he's speaking to a new generation. she is bringing something i haven't seen. the family is reacting to that. so this angry contention took place. and in fact, that endorsement, the obama people will say now that was the catapult. at that point he really -- he also sealed and at that point the african-american vote. and it's an interesting fact that when this campaign began, we went to a lot of focus groups over the two years period that

peter hart was holding the remarkably interesting. one of the very first -- this was an 2007 -- was a group of voters, they were democrats and there were three african-american women in that focus group. they all said they were for hillary clinton. this is 2007. as the conversation went on and on suddenly one of the women brought op i wasn't going to say this about really my first choice was barack obama, but he can't win, for hillary. so there was this thing. and the other candidates also felt that way. but kennedy's endorsement did was helped to solidify the african-american vote in south carolina and in the country and it was an enormous change and the angry aftermath, the bitterness that existed i think is probably healed now. who knows. i am not sure as a matter of fact because if you understand

what was said to each other, it wasn't pleasant to say the least. the other thing is when the nomination finally came on, by that point you had hillary and obviously obama and the hillary story is to me part of the great novel. she starts out as the almost what in candidate, and visible, rising above the flow, so forth, and then the more she began to lose, the better she got. she was a fantastic candidate at the end. she lost 11 straight, and obama himself told us in the final interview she was just a terrific candidate. she was connecting, she was a loser, of a sudden she was humorous and connected with the voters across the board, so you had this thing has she started out that way, who knows. but it was fascinating to watch the ark of this thing go

forward. the other thing, john mccain -- we don't want to ignore john mccain. [laughter] because -- because he was -- and i want to credit dan on this. by the way, i should say -- i meant to say early on, this, having dan balz with me, is the way the book became if it is successful. dan was insightful. it couldn't have been done without him. the john mccain story -- dan had said -- he is a shakespearean figure, trapped in a shakespearean background. it made him this figure remarkably so is his experience as a prisoner of war in vietnam. tortured, couldn't come out, can't raise his arms over his head. heroic, genuinely and it was the war that did him and and then when george bush crushed him in

2000 it was bush that crushed him in south carolina and the need years later he is running again, mccain for the presidency and he is defending the war policies of george bush. and he couldn't break loose out of that. it was -- he was trapped in this thing. i'm not going to get into sarah palin. you can ask questions about that. [laughter] that's another story that kept on coming. [laughter] maybe we can wrap it up and take questions. do you want to take a couple more things? >> [inaudible] why don't we go to questions. there are so many people here -- >> that is what i was thinking. you are all standing and so forth. i want to say one thing. we tried to draw at the end of the book with the lessons we fought the election polis, ma just as reporters or journalists or writers but as americans and there were many and they will be

lasting. but i would obvious -- the obvious thing is race. what this election said, and i want to read you just one thing. why the election was more than an endurance test for the candidates. it was a test for their american people and their institutions. first lesson, most obviously, was race. since 1619 when a dutch privateer peter henry can slow the of the james river deposited first african-american slaves on the continent, race relations have affected the character of the united states more than any other factor. black slaves laid the cornerstone for the white house and the capitol. so like chattel and a huge market that still on the side in washington with an national archive now, today this very moment, houses the declaration of independence and bill of rights and became the source of blood shed, civil war, discord,

discrimination to plaid the nation through the history dishonor in its space principles of equality. this is the point i think we will always take away. whatever happens with mr. obama's presidency. whatever happens in his presidency, his election as the first african-american president will form a proud chapter in the american story. so what comes next is another aspect, but that was history in the making. and i think we should be proud of that. thank you. [applause] >> you want to come over here, dan? your questions? >> as i observed the democratic primary and 2008, one of the major factors that i saw that

was a stumbling block for hillary clinton was her vote on the iraq war. how much of that was a factor in helping obama and his campaign? >> she never got out from under that. the vote on the iraq war. she was trapped in it and couldn't break free. and one of the fascinating aspects of hillary clinton and the iraq war supporting the resolution to go into iraq of george bush, one of the things that her people felt very strongly, because she is a woman, they wanted to show she was strong. she could be a commander in charge to the co-chief, she could be in charge like the boys. so she couldn't step back from that and she, too, was trapped in the aspect. >> i wonder if he might elaborate a little on this question which i think so many

of us found it interesting during this campaign. where the charge is he had no experience and i have all the experience. and in what will that played either positively or negatively with the two. and i will say as background to that that i served in one uniform or another from eisenhower, from under eisenhower to clinton and was around both the elections involved with all of these men before. and it always seemed to me in the way that i looked at my leader and most the people around me it was not a question of experience. rather, it was a question of judgment and, you know, and the choices he made for your positions in the government. what you all talk about this experience? >> it's a very good question and certainly a central one particularly in the democratic primary battle. as i said earlier, the obama

campaign believe ultimately the issue of experience versus an experience was not going to be the crucial one. it's not that he had to deal with it and they tried. if you remember in the early stages of the democratic race, he spent time talking about what he had done as a state senator. they were doing constant groups and they realized this had no residence. it made no impact on anybody. what they realized was the issue wasn't experience or inexperience. the issue was capacity to lead, and what was important for him wasn't to say i've passed this many bills were spent this much time working on this issue or that. it was to say to people i have the quality of leadership we need at this particular point in american history and it's when he began to do that, and i think he was able to do that -- there was an important turning point november, 2007, the jefferson jackson dinner in iowa. all the candidates were there. it's always a big event.

senator clinton gave a good speech. barack obama gave a much better speech, and it galvanized not just his candidacy but his message, and it focused on what you needed at this point in american history to lead and white without ever mentioning senator quentin why he was fit and she was not. it was a sharp contrast again without naming her. ..

he was able to do that if. >> i think hillary clinton it made a president obama in much better candidate. can you talk about why you think he selected her for the secretary of state? and how you think they are working together and how is this going to play down in her future political career? >> i have no idea about the future for hillary but it's being made right now as we're speaking. how the decision to pick her was mainly are not entirely clear. she was not going to be the vice president and there's someone

will raise some of the obama people said you can't have to tell the dogs on the same ticket. [laughter] and it did not mean that they did in respect to larry. as a center of the and it, she was very loyal, she worked hard, or obama across the country, she was always there and she did everything she could to demonstrate that and i think, personally my own view was if a great choice and she has been an important position and she is now doing the work that i think shea is experienced for. >> the definition of what is one opportunity meat preparation an election essentially ended when wall street imploded and it president obama looked fall and john mccain sounded bought less, but my real question for you is

and it is germane at the present time about health care. mrs. obama received upwards of 100,000 to $300,000 as a director at a university of chicago's medical center systemic and very little has been said it post has never hesitant to sade's anything when it sees fit, but right now with health care the issue really is about access to affordable insurance, but more important is whether mrs. obama accomplish, what her successes work, what her villiers or, what worked and didn't work? that is again extremely important at the present time. >> the post did some work on that during the campaign itself and i suspect that it was a kind of peace that very few people remember at this point because there was such a flood of coverage that was going on so we have not looked at it since and that's a fair point but we did look at it during the campaign and perhaps it's something that is worth revisiting although this point it's time to know what role she is actually

playing in the development of the fight. >> probably very little of the university of chicago medical center was supposed to have been spiriting people away who could not pay their bills. >> thank you. >> in the riding of the book for you overtly or literally influenced by the classic theater why the making of the president 1960? [laughter] >> means had a great line which i will quote to you when we started that he said we are going to try to make this teddy white without the romance. [laughter] there is no question that teddy white was an influence, he knew him well. i met him once but his political reporting influence of us. we did not set out to be the teddy white of 2008, we want to read our on both. >> and love teddy white but we did not try to do the same thing. we were trying to do a narrative of a moment in history which he did so well but we had a

different view on that. teddy would have done a great boat on the selection for shore apparent. >> it's up to me to ask the sarah palin question in. [laughter] >> we have been waiting. >> i & the sort of a fighter pilot it's not work in this way and the fed to do something to shake things up, but did and it reflects badly on him that she really could have become president and doesn't know a whole lot? >> well, you never know of the moment you are making a decision like that how it's going to work out. certainly it was a risk in it was a well discussed risk within the campaign. the haste with which the picture has been talked about a lot. is a more complicated story and i will get into -- the book goes into that line and is a more complicated story about how much they loved her but there's no question they have not spent any real time sizing her up directly until literally the night before

senator obama -- senator mccain chose her and there is a great line the person in charge of the vetting process and he had spoken to her and in night before she went to see mccain as part of the vetting process. he gave mccain in repoire the next morning as sarah palin was making her way up to sit down and to meet with the senator. said she did very well in the interview. they learned at that point in that for daughter was pregnant and decided that was not a relevant issue, they would ignore that and he said she knocked some of the questions out of the parking has some sort of tricky questions to ask about the use of nuclear weapons and things like that and he said she did very well on many of those and better than some of the other candidates on some as well as others news that i think she has great capacity. wish to be ready to be vice president he said now but he said later i don't think most people who get into that position are ready on day one to be vice president, he said there

may be a few have exceptional experience 17 takes this and he finally says what's the bottom line and he said in a high risk tire war. mccain says you should not have told me that, i've been taking risks of my life and away they went. ino, in the immediate aftermath there was a controversy right after the convention, but in the first two weeks after the convention for mccain and i thought this was the best thing that had happened, they had energizing the base and turn around the polls, they're raising a lot of money and were drawing crowds that mccain have never drawn and then you had a the confluence of economic collapse and a cake rack interview and those two sealed the fate. economic collapse was ultimately by far the more significant factor in what decided the election, but there's no question that what happened with sarah palin had a huge impact on her since then and going for a.

>> i just want to add one thing about sarah palin, one of the things the great miscalculations made it they were desperate to the mccain people and thought they were going to lose, they had to do something and they had seen hilary's voters and so forth may be going away from obama and the thought that was part of the equation, but women did not take that kind of way. to supporting palin. it was just -- and also they vetted her all of improprieties and so forth but as we say in the book they did not that her for the possibility of being the president of the united states. >> adding the whole campaign changed direction with a celebrity as about obama and mccain got away from his own best message which was his life story and got people interested in obama. am i right about that? >> am i sure i would agree with that. of the celebrity ads were obviously a great summer diversion in a campaign as long as the 2008 campaign you need

educational version is the dummy lot and i think the mccain people realized what they were doing. in their view was that he had come back from that foreign chip which was an extraordinary 10 day trip that he had it, that he was soaring. they looked at him and steve smith put it this way and said innovate come a good candidate may get the 25 or 30,000 feet in terms of how well they're doing and how well the air may trade in the press. he said bill clinton at his best was that 25,000 feet and john mccain in 2010 in terms of press coverage was that. barack obama is at 50,000 feet and he said we had to do something, we cannot bring him down, he's too high up to what we have to do is elevate him up so he was out of the atmosphere and a sink of his own weight. [laughter] said that, but the idea of a celebrity ads.

voters did nothing much of those ads, but the obama people were actually rocked by the ads. they were somehow sound with the idea that they were being -- that he was being called a celebrity. they thought we'd better not play on this and it turned out that through the month of august mccain campaign kind of had the momentum, the obama campaign have pulled in their horns, they were doing smaller events as axelrod later said, we went small. we forgot what had made obama obama and we took the bait on the celebrity ads in one small. but the mccain campaign in new that was simply a diversion, that has been said it going into their convention they were afraid that obama could quit the entire election away before the conventions have been a. of the celebrity and stop that they knew they needed something bigger and that, of course, was what led to sarah palin. >> gentleman, thank you for

taking questions here had senator mccain made it the less risky chinese say had he chosen for his running mate mitt romney or someone else, do you believe it would have made a difference? do believe that the history with such that a ragged edge was irrelevant or was that the choice that did him in? >> we both save our feeling is that no, mccain of was doomed when the economy tanks and the way he handled it at that point. it wasn't just the six. don't forget, he was i to a head in mid september. it's hard to realize and then the economy goes in the tank and the president is being warned by paulson and burning the we're missing a depression less than the great depression and so forth and a stimulus package and john mccain is perhaps his campaign and says i'm coming back to washington to solve everything and nothing happened. then he said i am canceling the presidential debates and then he went back and forth and don't think he ever recover from that.

>> i don't agree, i don't think -- some of the mccain people sent to one another we can run the greatest campaign possible if we pick a conventional choice, we still will lose. the conditions in this election despite the rise of mccain after the republican convention were very much stacked against impaired presidential approval below 30%. 80 percent of the country saying we're off on the wrong track and that number rising and consumer confidence at an all-time low. there's almost no way you can win and of those circumstances. >> non like to talk about the election of joe biden. i like joe biden, he has some quirks, of course. [laughter] but at the time i was really pulling for richardson ended the obama people know about richardson's background? >> guess they knew about

richardson very well in fact, and he really was not a patch in the selection process. joe biden was the conventional safe choice. he gave when obama needed, foreign-policy background from capitol hill, of respect among the democrats. forget whether he makes mistakes sometimes speaking rationally or whenever, much --. [laughter] he was respected and he appealed to white caller voters and blue-collar voters might sense of for that and may provide sense and it wasn't going to be hillary and it wasn't going to me -- joe biden was the perfect choice. >> the mention of bill richardson makes it irresistible for me to read one passage of this book. richardson is a great character if you have watched him. he is a politician who has all sorts of energy in this month's big cigars and needs to match mexican food.

he is talking about his endorsement of obama and how much he came to like obama and he talks about what he said was his casual elegance and a very odd word for him to use but he said: he would get calls from obama to endorse him and he said obama would leave messages on my own and he would send bill, this is barack, obama. [laughter] he said he will is was like that and he said he would leave these messages, we can make history together, come join teddy and we will make history. then he said one day he was on the bus with obama and he said someone brought out some fruit and he said obama says where is the symbol where. [laughter] so this is richardson talking, so they bring in the silverware. he gets a little played out and he starts cutting the orange and then he takes it in the opposite to me and i thought to myself, i just grabbed the orange.

[laughter] >> is the last person in line? how many people do we have? >> those of the last three questions. >> i'm sorry that we had to choose between obama and hillary clinton, they're both extraordinary candidates year ago i thought sarah palin could have been okay were as obama and clinton grew during the campaign. clinton found her persona and she really separated herself from bill. but palin did not seem to grow, she did not seem to gain in from the experience. >> the pugh in interviews with key kirchner devastating and at that point she was doing so well. before that she had turned on the republican race and she is a very appealing figure and so forth but frankly they just

devastating n that team and the same time and the economy is going like that and i just think that point it was over. >> i have one quick observation on that point. which is when sarah palin went to arizona to talk to john mccain she had nobody around here who really have your best interests in mind. she's a very ambitious person as we have all bragging nuys in her and a person with some very natural political talents. the question was was that the right thing for her to do coming to take that off her and had she had a wiser people around here and there might have center for you should think harder about this, this may not be the right moment for you to jump into something for which you really not prepared and i think what we have seen since the election is that she has continue not to get particularly good advice from the people around her and i think that the time after the

campaign has hurt as much as the time during the campaign. >> i have a question about president obama's agenda and how he will pass it and i think of like to draw upon the election last year. i went to dozens of rallies were the two candidates in nearly every single one there were both of quote clean coal representatives that everyone was getting out broke clean coal hats, they were distributing paraphernalia, they pretty much forced their message to both of the candidates. they got obama to say he supports finkel and mccain to say to and that they basically took over the agenda. the same thing for the insurance industry, they sent out operatives and i guess the term is astroturf, the election in a lot of ways and they did this with the messages. that was paying and that held both of those industries not an

attack by either of the candidates and now that we're going into 2009 president obama is trying to pass a store a clean energy reform and health insurance reform and we're seeing the same thing happen again. insurance companies and coal interests in oil interests are sending average is to recess town halls and ambushing people. ambushing congressman. have you think president of, should react to these paid operatives amassing what seems to be public opposition to his agenda with their religious paid by industry? >> i'm not going to give the president on how he should campaign advice except to say the faces some of the most incredible challenges any president ever since franklin roosevelt and it isn't just about the lobbyists that this event. when he has to do is persuade the people, stay with me is the beginning of a difference and really bring some change and

forget about all the other stuff. we will see, we don't know the answer. >> the last question. >> this last campaign in appears to me is the most global campaign that we have seen in recent history. in one way don't you think that president obama has succeeded in utterly altering their view of america in people's minds, that he has brought credibility to american democracy which probably did not exist before. >> is an interesting question because it gives back two literally the time when barack obama first and its thinking seriously about running which came in the late summer of 2006, he took this trip to africa and it was on that trip he came from that trip back with a belief in coming a feeling that the election of an african-american

and in coming him in particular obviously, would have an instant effect on how the rest of the world saw this country. even if there wasn't an important change of policy which you still advocating, that act alone would say something about america though mesa will look differently of this country and i think in some ways that has been the case since he got elected. if you look at a recent study that led to the approval ratings of president obama upon they're unbelievable. so there is that potential for him out there. i think that's the problem of the challenge for him is one thing to begin to make the overture, to talk about a different kind of america and giving gage met with the world and we have had under president much. i think is in getting to the individual issues whether it is how you deal with middle east peace process by which you do about iran for how you manage

the war in afghanistan. we will have much more of event on that and not long run is simply the goodwill that existed when he dialectic. the sterns this grand enterprise with a lot of assets but as you look around the world the challenges are enormous and i think that he's continued of that goodwill and figure out a way to leverage it in order to be successful. with that we thank you, you been a great audience. things are coming. [applause] >> dan balz national political correspondent at the washington post, serve as national editor and political editor, white house correspondent and the papers texas-based south was correspondent. hayne johnson is a veteran journalist who won a pulitzer prize for his washington post's coverage of the selma march during the civil rights movement for almost 30 years panelist on pbs washington week. to find out more visit washington post.com derrin

>> 2009 bookexpo america new york city 2009 at the yale universiity press with john donatich, director of the yale universiity press. what you have coming out this fall? >> we have a number of great books and of all starting with the making of americans, ed hirsch i think you're a member of the best-selling novel called cultural literacy and he has caring very much about what role education has and actually defining what it is to be american and in this book is run and i think a capstone of his career which includes many best sellers and decades of activism and education to talk about the

centrality of information and knowledge in one a means to have a shared corpus of knowledge and how poor that is our national identity and how it is being threatened by the way education seems to be splintered across the country so it's a book that has a lot of argument and advocacy and a lot of ways to look for it to what the new administration can do about education. >> the other book is ellen's on the edge, when animals teaches about humanity? >> this is a marvelous book. it's very moving, very touching, what she does here and she has quite a platform into this. she has been on 2020 and 60 minutes and when she tries to do is understand the have human behavior of tax the global population of animals and wild and captivity and is a very touchy subject. i think people who have read it temple brandon and jeffrey masson on this kind of issues will really respond to this book because our actions to have consequences especially on those

creatures who can argue themselves like elephants france and so she talks about elephants have nervous breakdowns, that is what the title refers to a in an emotional life of a and the most feared and actually how our own empathy toward understanding how they behave teaches us something about what is to be human so it's interesting sort of turnaround. in our efforts to understand animals will begin to understand ourselves. >> to biographies coming out by two artists, charles dixons and in the warhol. >> everyone thinks about that we learned everything we need to know about charles dickens but there hasn't been a biography in over 20 years so this is a first full cradle to grave biography of dickens in a couple decades and we're really excited about this. there is information and research and i think that dickens is the kind of christmas eve those.

>> andy warhol biography, who is arthur dan tote? >> he is in this distinguished art historian and critic and writes for the nation magazine and this is a 120 biography, really of a kind of posthumous legacy that in the warhol left behind. a lot of people think that is more interesting to think about any war hall and took his paintings in his art in this book actually talks about what war halted to the meaning of american icon and how he's become of her most vivid and american icons and such an unlikely one and he did it largely to work soon very sadly with iconographic subjects whether it is the campbell soup can warrantless taylor. this is a book that actually takes a look at how the. >> you are the director of yale universiity press, as director

what decisions do you make on a day-to-day basis? >> baby easier when i don't, but basically all the permanence run up to me operationally and editorially, marketing and financially. so the starting, of course, with the books. we have a staff of about 40 editors and of the press is only as good as the books it publishes of us the most of poor decisions we made a today. we're the largest book based american university press in a country and the only one with a significant london-based as well. >> yale universiity press celebrated 100th anniversary last year, kikkoman history? >> started basically the left or of a lawyer in graduated from yale who worked on the lord of avenue and over the decades became more and more famous for is a humanities and our history and the 1960's of the operating to the university itself so we're now department of the

university. in the '70s there was a big london office that was billed as still there today and as i said we to about 400 books a year, mostly in the humanities and social sciences. >> john donatich, director of yale universiity press, thank you. >> thank you very much.

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