women your just a parasite your life doesn't accomplish anything and the way only to have the film is to be independent of men and have your own career

>> hello. i should tell you at the outset that you are living proof of an old advanced mince a rule of politics. when you book fiorina for your candidate you book an intimate hall because then the press is forced to say he spoke to standing room only audience. [laughter] we are here. as you may know c-span is here and it just brought to mind something as a kid. i had to passions and one was pretty predictable which was baseball and the other was politics and it has occurred to me over the years when i was a kid, c-span and espn existed i would never have left the house. i am kind of grateful. here is what we will do. i will talk roughly 15 or 20

minutes then i will answer questions than those who want to buy the book be my guest. there is no proof of all those who have read the book has had rapid weight loss and increase sexual insurance. i repeat those anecdotes completely. can we agree from a common definition of a question? [laughter] a 10 minute speech followed by the word so is not a question. [laughter] and i will begin by telling you a story. it sounds melodramatic and prose but it is a story of a would-be suicide bomber who lies in wait outside of a home of the man ignored by security employed to protect the man but the man's wife comes to the door with a

child to see the man off and the bomber does not want to strike in front of the family so he stays his hand and four days later is captured. now to take it over the top, the man in question, the target is president-elect of the united states. the only reason that is not implausible is that it happened. the would be suicide bomber was 73 years old retired postal worker deep-seated hatred for the catholic kennedy family. he stop them across the country and december 11, 1960 holding the switch holding seven sticks of dynamite enough to level a small mountain. were not heard jacqueline kennedy's appearance at the door that sunday morning he almost surely would have been killed in never would

have been a president kennedy. the secret service chief said we were second away from that disaster. then why? some of you look like you may remember but one month after the election of the and is elected president of transformational and generational change, how would we have dealt with the trauma at a time when violence against public officials was virtually unheard of. how well clinton johnson deal with the traumatized nation or robert kennedy? how wade johnson with the assumptions and a mind-set so different deal with civil rights? or the cuban missile crisis? that is one of the questions i tried to answer in the book "then everything changed" it is a trio of alternative histories that center on contemporary american politics. contemporary for some of us. they're all rooted in the

common notion that the smallest west and turn of fate can produce radical consequences. it is written as a fictional narrative, not as nsa but dialogue and scenes but histories i have tried to ground and plausibility on the thought and believes it imposes and instincts of a player's has drawn from history and oral histories and several interviews with those who knew the players. and the common thread is it does not turn on a time but a nickel. there are theories that focus on geography, climate, natural resources, theology, ideolog y, a great leaders, but the smallest random access is one that we who like to see patterns are sometimes ignored. there are two examples i don't deal with in the book. one is on

february 15, 1933, to set the arriving a few minutes later than he meant to which met he had to climb up on a chair to see. when he pulled out a with been a vice at -- by standard noticed so he hit and killed the visiting mayor rather than the target of president-elect fdr. a few minutes delay in his arrival. the five minutes we would have has-- have had the speaker of the house with little time and less charisma and the capacity to move a shaken nation that was amenable. in the there is a book, man in the high castle the presumes the nazi victory of world war ii because there is no roosevelt to mobilize the nation.

or think of 1931 when a visiting british politician looks the wrong way while crossing the street on fought -- fifth avenue. hit by a taxi and develops clerisy and almost eyes. slightly different injury and slightly less an illness there is no sense in churchill to the britain in its hour of need. those examples are inspiration. i decided to write a trio of history's based on the smallest turn of random chance leading to hugely consequential results in as possible a scenario that i could construct helped by the startling things i discovered that really did happen. by the way these are separate histories. not just the book's plot against american of when one

stops level back to reality to move to the next. you will not get stock. i am very clear and it is italicized. now we are back to reality. [laughter] what happens to president-elect kennedy? he would have been assassinated before the electoral college ever met. so what i describe as a united political system the eisenhower folks bully nixon into saying you do not want to challenge in this. we are in bad shape so johnson becomes president and he knows he lacks the personal connection he was shocked the hat was beaten with the nomination because he did not have been modern experience of the politics but the powers and also the telephone if you read the tapes from when he became president, i suggest he was intent and freeing himself

from the prison of southern racial politics. so voting rights happens years earlier and sees the second coming of fdr so there's a much more aggressive fight about poverty earlier and also little things that change throughout the book for instance because he does not read the way john kennedy read he never tells "life" magazine ian fleming is his favorite author and there is no james bond phenomenon. [laughter] which that helped to trigger and this stuff happens a lot but johnson by every indication is bored by far at -- for policy and does not like it's. he doesn't have a curiosity about the wider world and

does not see the power of nationalism. kennedy as a senator can offer the independence of algeria in 1957 that infuriated the democratic establishment because they thought the trade our allies. he does not have a skeptical mind and accept things as they are. when khrushchev decides to put offensive nuclear missiles in cuba and the instincts and the fear of being labeled soft on communism means the men in the room are much more inclined to believe a surgical strike will work in fact, the majority in 1962 favored the strike it was the 11th 13 data-processing to work their way through the there was no john kennedy and robert kennedy has taken the senate seat in massachusetts teddy was too young and then in that era the kennedy is

much more cold war type of guy then he came to be. nobody is pushing for the other way out which means that the results of the cuban missile crisis are really different from the ones that we live through. that is one. the second story for its obvious personal connections is another attempt on another life june 4th 1968 robert kennedy has finished his victory speech and because of a last-minute flight on the wall decision to spare another rally he goes through the kitchen of the ambassador hotel. but unlike reality something changes here is another discovery that knocked me for a loop was reading the histories in the jfk library and come across steve smith oral history i blame myself sometimes because i was

always and haven't when i was around a senator to walk in front of him not for security but to get him through faster and had he been retainer we would have he would have been in front of robert kennedy rather than going into the kitchen unprotected. that is all that passed change for him to have survived in this story. then you think what then? you do not need to speculate. look at history. remember ronald reagan survived john hinckley and responded with humor i hope you doctors are all republican and honey i forgot to duck you had to wheel the enormous sense of relief that we were scared another one. kennedy himself had a sense of humor and response was grace and humor and the whole dynamic of the primary changes.

i do think if not hubert humphrey would have won the big state politicians america meant it is it shakes things louis and if you imagine as one history suggests mayor richard daley was prepared to endorse bobby he thought the war was a disaster and every ground but what happens to the demonstrations in chicago? we don't have thousands and thousands of people but you have radical protesters that is very different what about president johnson? would he be so angry when nemesis was competing he would try to and get the nomination back? he did in real life. there were operatives in johnson's plan was to announce a soviet summit to fly to chicago to give a speech and think maybe he

could shake the delegates to use in india and his people said it will not work. but if you did that without robert kennedy as a potential nominee you just have to mention what he would do the reason johnson didn't do that is the soviet union invaded czechoslovakia's up. there was no way to announce the summit. a lot plays through but in talking about what is in this book, and grounded in what i think israel is a scene that prevents the nomination of robert kennedy at the hotel window and sees the demonstrators and says i think i want to go talk to them. the secret service is not

happy but he does it. here is where that comes from. that is what he always did. he did it in japan and in poland and fined chalet when the communists didn't spat on him and in temperate sysco when he confronted a group of highly radical students there was a real give and take is polite. i made that up obviously but coming from a sense of the existential need to confront his adversaries, and the rest of the story doing it to extend and i will share this i said to pat buchanan if you're in miami knowing bobby kennedy might be the nominee he would not put spiro agnew on the ticket? no. we need to find somebody

like john lindsay and i laughed because of the book this is what happens. [laughter] sums up you cannot make up. [laughter] what will surprise you if you buy a the book or borrow its or whatever, is the speeches in the book are almost all what they gave many of which denounce the size of the federal government that has grown too big or powerful more distant the we need to break up the public education system public welfare is a disaster here crabs and guidance counselors need honorable jobs it sounds like the tea party stuff except these are all speeches he gave in a different context you remember by the mid '60s some people on the left were challenging the orthodox liberalism and he was one of

them. and i worked for the guy there is a scanned of there is a close relationship to can -- watergate because one of kennedy's the social it named paul corbin they kept saying what is with this guy? a member of the communist party and also the business partner. [laughter] and if you think i am making out what he would do it was paul corbin who stole jimmy carter's briefing book and gave it to reagan that that campaign. you cannot make this up. you can but when you realize what history teaches you don't have to stretch that far. too other things i suggest robert kennedy would have glanced the war boyle

quickly and got the vietnam war at the cease fire level. it means when mashed comes out in 1970 the country is so sick of the iraq war and the show is a flop and there is no tv show. [laughter] of robert kennedy sought to open the door to china but was worried about the political consequences, can you think of who robert kennedy might have sent to china to give political protection? nixon. yes. that is his own voice and nobody king called him soft on communism. it does not involve life or death but said gerald ford at the debate 1976 when he prematurely liberates poland from domination what is sometimes forgotten and you can see this on youtube

after he gives that answer he looks at him if you know, the honeymooners you did not mean that did you? and then they go through the week from the ford campaign having to persuade the president to say i made a mistake. they always run against the opponent that they know the world better. so what? suppose he said come on. i am the commander in chief. i am talking about what is inside the polls and hungarians. they will never yield. so say that that changes a tiny handful of votes.

go to ohio if you change 6,000 those that year ford wins ohio. change 3500 in hawaii are mississippi and ford wins those and wins the electoral college. losing the popular but substantially as a playful amount of gore, jr. says this must never happen again [laughter] sometimes you cannot resist. then what? i interviewed brent scowcroft to suggested for did not have the vietnam and extend did not feel the u.s. had to pay a price for its arrogance so maybe the dieing monarchy is these out and maybe instead of the ayatollah we team the untimely fate maybe it is much more moderate and that

changes a lot and on the hostages is received is wrapped up in five days. [laughter] that means i have 14 years of my life to figure out but the problem for ford is that to the economic calamity of the late '70s was baked into the cake. it happened for structural reasons. which means in 1980 ronald reagan was undeniable and no longer willing to run against incumbent but to succeed against the unpopular republican and in 2008 to when you try to succeed it is almost never done that when a person in power and you have a headache.

on the democratic side they assume carter is the nominee and here i turned 22008. the most prominent figure and everybody assumes this person is a nominee could i find the equivalent of the first-term young firebrand senator who could be the change candidate? and maybe if you take a poll to do it is, i think it is gary hart. believe me, i talked to his aides to figure how that is plausible you can judge that for yourself but to wrap up and he was not put the missiles in cuba and not

been for the nomination anyway or four would have lost. the whole purpose of the exercise of the then be accumulating enormous wealth. [laughter] is to give the altered history that what they could concealed from us that history could just as easily have gone this way or that way. so to shake your head you're not your head i have done what i have set out to do. i hope you enjoy it. thank you. [applause] there is the microphone there. asking the questions from here if you cannot get there i will take them and repeat them. i have done a story.

and then at what would have happened october 2003 on the top of the eighth period ending if that young man reaching for the foul ball is stopped from interfering with moses who catches the ball and the cubs win the pennant and in a process to destroy the career of a senator who happens to be a white sox fan of. [laughter] you can read that. although the way amazon markets ñhis come i don't think so. [laughter] >> as a contemporary of hers a wonder back in the 1970's they gained more and more going to the right but does your books suggest that some

of these things that have been done moving to the right would not? >> my book stops early 1981 baidu think ronald reagan would have had the support of the moral majority. but the question would have been a could you imagine america that was less polarized on the secular religious lines? one thing i had not thought about this, robert kennedy was a religious family. i did not speculate because i didn't have to was that i am not sure kennedy would have been comfortable with throw the way. you can do that one. [laughter] >> that went to see philip

six last week as the example for the book so why we're not one of the persons who. [laughter] has a cameo in the film? and what is the connection from the story? >> there is no connection and invite anybody asks me? i don't know. [laughter] anti-semitism? [laughter] it was a yes. >> many years ago you wrote a hilarious piece for the national lampoon called if

kennedy had lived and it had a lot of multifaceted cultural falloff as well as political as well as from the beleaguered irish. first of all, did that to inspire you're thinking and some of the histories of going back in time to make sure they are not born with bad things happening anyway because the social forces are so strong. >> stephen king does the 1,000 page novel where the guy goes back in time with the kennedy assassination propose a fascinated the famous ray bradbury story were somebody travels back in time and steps on a butterfly coming back to a mean world because of the lack of beauty. i enjoy those but

deliberately. i like him. >> what influence? >> and a stand. i like to claim credit but it was day group ever. i did work there the most traded thing we did was the entire issue premised on the fact john kennedy did not die in dallas the repeal the 22nd amendment and he was president all the way through. [laughter] and the cover is it norman rockwell and freshener maybe they got rockwell to do what of a gray-haired 60 year-old kennedy we don't go to war against it now but on but catholics of long island. i think it is proven it is stuck here there is something about the near mess of life that has always intrigued me. but the reason i did this

now that you mention it. >> talk about the cultural impacts of these? bill like this is a national plan item going to those but no. i will not do that. >> in your book? >> in this book the ones i have mentioned at one point it is 1969 and kennedy is president reading about a three day concert. [laughter] he is not happy with this and he says to his young aids what are they fixing the environment or teaching people to read? one if his young aides and says mr. president come on one hand you have the choice of arduous physical labor or three days of great music

and drugs and easy sex. it is not that complicated her. [laughter] >> lyndon johnson, when he became president, passed a prestigious amount of legislation that was kennedy's program. he became very unpopular because of that. this is a speculative question would you speculate how john kennedy would have faired issued bush's the controversial issues? >> and johnson was a master. three being the white house tapes johnson's first weeks

and months in office, i think michael did them, you see him talking to the seven years i have to do this i am getting incredible pressure and trucks to civil-rights leaders. he said i need you to come down here and put pressure on me so i can tell the seven years i have to do this. i am not sure kennedy had those skills. fell last five 4/6 months of kennedy's life was beginning to emerge from a cautious politician, not all that interested, he was in foreign policy. in then as a moral issue that is where they get so speculative but it is a good question. >> at this point* we're

doing with john kennedy and the assassination. when i first read the book or that particular section within the first context of the first 15 pages where you hypothesize that johnson will become president, i was shocked at that and came to a different conclusion that the country would have been so shocked by that particular assassination that they would have sought in another year of our two years of eisenhower. i was curious. >> if it would have occurred. >> let me just answer. they couldn't not as a to term president but this is a case where you pay your money.

that is what i meant. you know, the parallel universe theory? it is in finance that means somewhere somebody has written a book but look, what i sketched out was my version to say the country was traumatized. we have to give back is the democrats won the election so let's not worry about the electoral college but fanatical so when he picks hubert humphrey that is what i chose. i am thinking of writing back to people who would quarrel with him he said you may be right. [laughter] >> those of us know what you are talking about zero reading with a new

generation in the alternative history from the modern era and why not? so my people laughing because we think we are in the modern age. [laughter] and you are right and we are wrong. when i did a piece of the 50th anniversary of the kennedy inaugural you are doing what? but yes. they'll always asked what about the 2000 election? and the answer is looking like a prairie fire in the theme of his my parameters and a change in the 2000 election it is not what you think it is.

it has nothing to do with hanging chad's or the butterfly ballot lowered katherine harris nothing to do with the u.s. supreme court but something else but i am working on it. the of the reason i cannot bring it too far for roorback is because it has to be current enough i can have people to talk to about a. the interviews from the 1960 election are a. [laughter] and eric is the interesting part of the most recent analysis is a clinton campaign was dysfunctional 2/8 to germany barack obama and had no feuds all true. if michigan and florida did not move their primaries up to try to go first therefore made them in valid come if

they just paid where they were we would have had a tie on super tuesday. clinton would have an one on a landslide in florida and there is no doubt. the worst demographics date for barack obama imaginable. now the third big state in the country and they would have had more delegates those setter push to follow the will of the electorate so i'm sure they have the ultimate theory but i don't know where to take that. we're only two years and then there are plenty more modern things that don't yield interesting results. their ways to keep bill clinton from getting impeached, they don't feel the anything to me. i had to have a scenario where the consequences small change was in order.

but when you cease to be a member of the modern generation then you should do one of these. [laughter] >> maybe i could successfully articulate this basing your stories on suppositions with facts that seemed to exist but there's a lot of what if but in my opinion, there were four instances where politics had a chance to change but didn't because of the assassination of mr. lincoln and the two kennedy brothers and martin luther king. had they been able to survive i would like you to comment that would have brought the interchange that seems to be lacking in our politics today those that continue to exist over and over and i see nothing different over the past 200 years except those four gentlemen. >> it is a pretty sweeping

notion, no question the removal of those people change me if john hinckley is done were pointed 1 inch to his left we would have run of reagan eight weeks and not eight years but to stop the tennessee he is having a lot of trouble. and big city mayors and organized labor's pushing back because it involves structural changes. i don't quarrel with what you are saying. i don't know now i don't know secure enough to know. >> i just don't know. >> and except for the few hanging chad.

[laughter] >> i probably answer the question but as an aide to senator robert kennedy come if he was elected president, you would have been in the white house with him for several years and would have remained in washington this that mean you would not turn into imploring lawyer like the rest of us? [laughter] actually, since i am talking to a former supreme court clerk who won the job i had competed for, i should point* out the best thing that happened to me and my wife was not getting that job. [laughter] because i went to work for robert kennedy and would have been a terrible clerk and a loss the paper's some innocent person put to death and in the same sense i have the option to take the

supreme court justice but not take the bar exam. [laughter] itoh candidates' every four years reminding you do not have to be a lawyer to sit on the supreme court. i don't know. i chose not to live in the flesh pots of america but on the upper west side of manhattan but, let me put it more this way i'd like the chance to have seen. something robert kennedy said not long before he died, there is a wonderful book called remembering america, i think you have to find it on e-bay. it is not imprint but said if i am elected what chance to i have to make basic changes? it is not as if you're

elected president and then say here is what happens. that is what i have dealt with and the forces pushing back. i am taking a detour. i am sorry. in 1966 kennedy proposed high-school students be permitted to leave school for a few hours per day to work that you could earn money for mere family and start learning the satisfaction of work because and a lot of the neighborhoods they never say that. facie drug dealers and professional basketball players but they do not see men at work. imagine the teachers unions. with that proposal. think you'd hear cries of child labor. nine just teachers' unions but traditional liberals. i think it would have been a need to experience to see what that was like but i am not sure i would have been

any good at it. seriously. >> it is not a detour. you mentioned the cuban missile crisis.ñi andñi and focusing on the importance of character end then the factor of a minor thing with the historical crisis like better probably more important to would you disagree? >> this probably sounds like a question but what i think but it does have power.

the idea for instance given credit for this it was tommy thompson the former soviet ambassador who pointed this out that when two letters came from kristian of, the first one accommodating and the second one bellicose bellicose, and kennedy said and thomson indicted answer the first letter in part because he's understood the character of the soviet leadership also looking for mental agility to think about that. that is the best that i can do. >> we have one more question. >>

[inaudible] >> what i tried to do something like this on the world stage? there are three or four books called what if better essays by a historians and a couple of narratives they go back to the grecian times. if i have a strained, it is here. and not trying to do of book that i don't know much about is not a good idea. >> i sit in the ve