whereas maxwell taylor, head of the joint chiefs of staff and eventually for kennedy and head of the army when i was there believe in limited war and a book called the uncertain trumpet and thought that the nuclear age, the argument was the only kind of where you could fight was a limited one. and so that is a great debate, but i cannot conceive of eisenhower having a kate that operation the way kennedy did. ..

for the rise of the conservative movement and contributed to the end of the carter presidency. it's about six minutes. >> well, thanks for coming out. i'll be talking about this book, "what the heck are you up to, mr. president?" jimmy carter, america's "malaise" in the speech that should've changed the country. i don't usually do just rate reading because i find is a relatively boring. we'll give you a formal talk and then try to empathize this area as they think may be of most interest to you. the term malaise is probably most of us associate with jimmy carter's carter's presidency and the long-term. it is the term he's not

supposedly to have been invented and from his presidency. one of the best ways to understand the long-term impact of this term defining his presidency of course is pop culture. and i'm going to talk a little bit about what is on this episode 80 of the simpsons, which focuses one of its teams on the city said a springfield wanted to have a statue of a famous president. but of course they don't have a lot of money, so they can get linking, can get washington. the only thing they can settle on his jimmy carter. and then there's the unveiling of the statue, where they hold the robot and they should make carter and the spinach lumpy looking clothes, looking really, really sad. lowe had emblazoned the words, malaise forever. not only does not happen, but then the citizens of springfield scream outcome he was the worst monster in history and tear down the statue and start smashing windows and go into a riot.

so what is the kind of perfect example of jimmy carter's legacy and the legacy of malaise. now, the source of the term is the speech that jimmy carter gives on july 15th, 1979 chemists were fast approaching his 30th anniversary. in a typical take-out historians is that this speech was a colossal mistake on a colossal error in jimmy carter's part and that it essentially assured him to be defeated in 1980. i'm going to read a quote from an historian who gives the kind of typical take, written just a little while ago. here is the typical take on the speech. by sermonizing, carter appeared to be advocating hezbollah's leader in blaming the people themselves for their own affliction. that is they jimmy carter is taking the blame off of its own presidency and putting it onto the shoulders of citizens. and this is standard take at the

speech and therefore the kind of dodging speech and essentially jimmy carter admitting he was a weak and ineffective president. if you read the speech itself, which many people don't talk about it camile find there is a lot in that, we can say this sounds like a president whose castigating the american people are not just read you a few highlights of the speech he gives on july 13. he supposed to be talking about the energy crisis and all of a sudden starts talking about things like this. we worship self-indulgence and consumption in her yard in fragmentation and self-interest if this is not a message of happiness or reassurance, but it is the church and is a warning. i realize now more than ever as president i need your help. you could say two things about that. one, some flaky so if the american people are smart by selfishness and consumption, but the second part is jimmy carter so submitting to his own weaknesses, own frailties and is not blaming the american people

heartedly as is often understood. now, the real interesting thing about the speeches this. as much as it sounds like he's lashing out against american people, can remain for interior sun coming he gets it up in this poll immediately following the speech of 11% and for jimmy carter, this is rare. this never happened. this is really shocking. not only does he get a bump in the poll, but tons of mail since the white house, almost all of it favorable. the white house switchboard lights up immediately after he said that the speech in almost all the calls are positive. people call and sailed right a moped to work. all picked out in energy consumption and do it's necessary to post to this crisis. so there seems to be a counterintuitive thing going on. jimmy carter quezada condemns american people and the american people seem to love it if you want to pick up locally. i'm in some ways is the conundrum i wanted to explore more in this book.

i think it is time we revisit carter and carter's niche, especially contemporary context of her own energy crisis. how come the general problem of revisiting the speech in jimmy carter is also the problem of revisiting the 1970s. as the decade goes, and shows we feel this way, the 19th these are a bad time. this is the time of decline, the time of decadence, the time most superficial disco, so forth and so on. there's a real reason to say this is a crummy decade. in many conservative scholars have also argued there is a narrative that goes along with the decade, that in the 1970s, america fell away from greatness. 1980 comes in and of the great white horse, ronald reagan faced the country, pulls it out and returns us to greatness. it is a fairly standard take a lot of conservative scholars use to explain the time and the decade. my book choice to complicate both their understanding of carter in the 70s by looking at the 70s, not just at the

time of decadence and disco, which is definitely biased, but also a time of introspection. i think there was a lot of soul-searching going on in the 70s. it was a when people felt tough on america deer park? in manhattan is it shows at the white house during this period of time. america has gone through a hard time, through watergate, can perhaps return to something, but never returned to the innocent that might once have had. i think there's a moral seriousness that is important for us to explore more today. i think it's time to reevaluate the decade and a think it's time to reevaluate carter and the best way about to do this was to take the speech that he was so well known for and that defined his the and try to exploit again and be a little more critical and reflect good about it. the easiest way to think about

this speech is also a critique of consumerism in abundance given in the way for americans understanding the real problems of the energy crisis. there's an argument that we've become so reliant upon fossil fuels and to reliant upon them and we really need to confront this issue, but until we understand our civic crisis, we won't know what to confront the energy crisis. the result is that the money to embark upon a project placed upon americans at this point in time in history and to only two that what we get reliant on foreign oil. now, here is the way i tell the story. whenever you commit to writing a book like this, your fear is that he may have opened yourself up to doing a lot of research at rings that are not very interesting. i found this to be the exact opposite. the period of time i focus on, which is really papal 1979 to

july of 1979 and a caring first of the election election of november 1980. this is a crazy period of time. it is a wild period of time and there are three ways you can understand, especially spring and summer of 1979. number one are gas lines and i'll talk a little bit about gas lines. number two is a trucker strike which was so important in defining the feeling of it. a number three is a good old-fashioned riot in you about these things happening within the course of time from april to july of 1979. let me start with the gas lines. they move east during the spring and summer of 79 due to a limited supply. iran has cut its oil supplies due to being in the wake of the iranian revolution. it also something to do with rationing system i won't go into detail about here. let me just give you a sense of white gas lines were like and what the spring and summer

admitting 79 would like. here's a description of white gas lines were like, especially out east as they come from los angeles. ensuring that your car has sufficient gas in something like this in june in new york, washington d.c. and suburbs of new jersey search for an open gas station for 95% in new york city were closed. wait in the limelight for up to six hours a run for miles in new jersey. get to the pump and fan out there is no gas left. an attendant might say truck was on its way with resupply of. this is how the sign must carter was last in my would go into a panic, sometimes put it in their own cars in hope of finally getting gas. they would idle engines among vines. one estimate is that america motorists in the spring of 79 may have wasted 150 barrels of oil a day waiting in line and others remounted gasp or coasting are pushing to the pump

and not included jimmy carter's press secretary, jody powell found himself coasting into a gas line and remembered it quite well when i interviewed him for this boat. the gas lines are also violent. the pregnant woman is attacked in a lunging at ask@come the people gas lines. sometimes people will take their gas tank locks when someone cuts into them to get ahead, they will rush to the cargo and put their lock on, like the gas tank and drive away so the person can't get gas into their own car. these places are crazy. the gas lines are crazy and chaotic. in addition to this you have a trucker strike. as you can imagine, these are independent truckers who are upset with a limited supply of diesel fuel and rising cost of diesel fuel. these two -- the strike also turns violent. let me give you a brief glimpse of what the stryker trike turned out to be. these are to take rifles as vigilante violence took hold.

on june 18 a man was shot and wounded in tennessee for refusing to join the strike. a few days later, he declared states of emergency because 29 strikes had smashed an entire site medical experiment to 19 the minnesota governor declared a state of emergency in the strike shut down on gasoline and diesel fuel terminals in minnesota. these rockies became more rowdy. white had asked the fbi to police highways, but this can at the shootings. trekkers at the districts on the entire shadow, making them cream off i was doing flips in the middle of the intersection. one driver who flew past truckers was more diverse cb radio that he was losing his right wheel. you start to get out and check in and was promptly shot. this is the violence taking hold over the country during this period of time on the gas lines. these two forces then come

together in june of 1979 in a good old-fashioned riot. ironically enough the mother tongue: pennsylvania, we think of the kind of a suburban community built in the 1950s to keep the problems of urban violence away from this community in this community just turns crazy in june of 79. its protest about the gas lines and then there is also truckers to drive into levittown and start to engage in protests. and then this is what happens. this is kind of the culmination of the chaos taking hold. the whole thing started with a meaning to beau weaver in trenton, new jersey, where levittown is. and get the gas prices, we rush inside the studio and he took a sledgehammer and rusty nails and barricaded the door and then started playing this on cheaper crude are no more food over and over for three hours straight.

station was founded in the door while a service called an andersen man. he has ordered a pizza delivery door or a translation under the door. radio host paul harvey and popularized the song cheaper crude or no more food earlier saying bobby butler had nicely this, forget the golden rule. stop shipping food to the minis until the ship is cheaper crude. this is kind of a call for trade were senescent. the strongest in defiance lane over and over the anger, but you'd be if the weather to get people in the streets and ready to riot and nasa have been on june 23rd. by 631, the trucker drove his rig into the intersection of five points, which is a central location. the police again in order to trucker to these. he refused and simply set upon by his legs and fights broke out. the police enter the truck from the intersection of spectators jeered. some tossed beer cans at the

police. suddenly the police moved in to drive them out. hordes of teenagers took over pushed mattresses and sofas and let live fire. tires from gas stations. kids dancing which, truckers that deadline as they pass through barricade. from a nearby watermelon and the intersection. along with rock the smashed the windows and post office and the writers descended on a texaco station and pushed it in into the intersection. dave stow oil aspirated everywhere. they are filled with illicit smoke my beer bottles, rocks and firecrackers. my family came home during this period of time. the father got out to find out what's going on. the police to get back in and proceed to smashed the window. an 18-year-old-year-old son jumped out and buys himself walloped by billy club in the head. another tries to help at her son only to find yourself in a choke

hold. in whole, 117 arrests and many more, once the place does suburbia in the words of one journalist the battle for. this is the chaos at this period of time can a fairly significant level of chaos. he certainly didn't see that happening when we had our most recent state of gas prices going up. what is interesting to notice the chaos is also chaos coming in with the white house. people point on carter in different directions and trying to move in one direction or the other. fortunate for someone writing a history book, the cast of characters is fantastic or did the really interesting cast of kerry yours. hamilton jordan will become the chief of staff after this coming very colorful and controversial figure. there's cherry ration the famous public-relations manager known for the terror machinery during this period of time. jody powell, stuart eisenstadt,

walter mondale, the vice president to a perceived to have a nervous break down during the period of time were discussing and also perhaps well-known jimmy carter's poll for packet out who is the mastermind to make this speech as he does. there are numerous fights within the white house over what carter should do to the crisis in the fights are acrimonious, brutal and in one case there is a fight that breaks out for 10 hours commute. of time in which walter mondale melts down and has to leave the room because he so completely freaked out it was going on within the industry shame. people screaming at one another, expletives used, a very complex rule time. i'm not going to get this story about what the ins and outs of the brutal fight. but there are a number of these that are very crucial to defining how carter is trying to struggle with what it is that he

should do as he goes forward and faces the chaos the country has descended into. so part of the story is a story about excitement and to a certain extent a fun story to tell because there's so much funny and also strange things going on. the more serious side is as one of those times in american history when ideas start to infiltrate the white house, which i think is a rarity in many ways. the 1970s are a ton of big ideas. we know the decade by the terms of the decade. when not to turn the culture of narcissism pioneered by christopher lasch and patrick is reading all of his books and reporting upon them to the president. and actually getting the president to reduce the time including the culture of narcissism, cultural contradictions in some rather difficult text to be. but we also know as jimmy carter is a speed reader and probably

didn't understand some of the things he was reading was certainly didn't read them close enough to understand complexities of the argument. nonetheless, these guys to be questions of civilizational decadence, decline, these should divorce, culture disco means, the value system, talking about vietnam, watergate, teams of national humility and how you bounce back after crisis. that's what a significant discussions in the white house and summer surprisingly deep. the part of the story is the chaos and within the white house and people trying to influence the president. there is also the story of ideas but going on to infer in the speech. the final story is to look less at the people who eventually will lose, which are obviously jimmy carter as it comes to be in 1980. the story wanted to tell this story of the jurors and ronald

reagan and the rise of the new bike, which of course bonds but the period of time until he went, 1979 the most perfectly. and one of the figures that i pay a lot of attention to his jerry falwell because jerry falwell is building on the rise in terms of popularity and losses from jesse helme is also working with him closely. he's mostly known for his television show and this is the height of televangelist on. he also decides to embark ripe between the same period of time in a serious offense that because i love america rallies and for the first time he'd been holding these families are throughout the country. during this period of time coming brings the i love america rallies to washington d.c. writes the steps of the capitol. let me just give you a description of an i love america rallies. i do this to give you a sense of

what they're like, but also emphasize the review of positioning christianity are in some ways in complete and absolute has to jimmy carter. they're very, very different views of the meeting of christianity and a lot of this has to do with in some ways not necessarily theological debates, that's a fairly difficult arguments about the meanings of christianity. here is the i love america rally he holds on the steps of the capitol. similar events have occurred at numerous state capitals, but never one of the nation's capital. the choreography was straightforward. american flags are placed in rows in the eye with america's seniors, mostly college kids gathered around decked out in red white and blue costumes. the men were identical ties, the women, white waitresses started pacing and faith of our father's spirit when the nation sent to the another truth that comes from god.

we shall then be truly free. they follow that thought with america the beautiful. an injury follow would step out in front of the i love america singers, in front of a huge set of american flags and would give what i call kind of his stunt jeremiad. in 1776, 56 minus 90 document called the declaration of independence. they pledge their fortunes, mice and sacred honor to a document that four times specifically refers to the dependence of this nation. people would scream about these moments, i love america, usually choreographed of course. follow them to read it too sick realities of nations on from its founding, everything from the ban on prayer in public schools that his close friend, jesse helme back to charlie's angels come which seem to be in the session was some call it that it's a nice formula. fully built-up damon lashed out at materialism,

self-centeredness. but on this communism abroad and then closed with a passage from chronicles. if my people come which are called financial humble themselves and pray and seek my faith in turn from their wicked ways, they really hear from heaven forgive their sin and heal their land. and there applies, this is me speaking, the assurance of salvation so long as the laws were reformed, new legislation one of the sinful ways corrected. this is a big difference between jerry falwell and jimmy carter. jimmy carter never believed if you necessarily change the law that he would necessarily have the results of a reteamed country. in fact, jimmy carter felt very awkward about making the argument that america was somehow the chosen people of god. jerry falwell was very willing to do that. sherry fowler clearly conflated the american nation with christianity. jimmy carter was always very hesitant, such as in the moralizer, very hesitant to

god's purpose with america's purpose. after the i love america rally, no surprise again we get the formation of the moral majority and we get the rise of what is known as the new right during the period. and many of the members of a new right also were very sure that jimmy carter was quite vulnerable on a bunch of cultural issues, which is some ways didn't prove to be afraid if they wanted it to, but they had a point. none of this would matter. sure to falwell's opposition, none of this anonymous there was a candidate they are ready to articulate the concerns and also in office. and course we have that as well and that's ronald reagan. during the period of time that i'm dealing with it, ronald reagan will start to take the lead in the republican party primary. he was there to pull ahead, pull ahead of a number of contenders, most famously essentially

chasing john connally and philip crane. it's also during this time he starts to perfect his own right-wing populism as we've come to know today. he gives a famous speech in which he said the republican party is not the party of the country code. it is the party of main street comes a small guy, the little guy, fdr's forgotten man in also pay nurses attack on government, arguing if we simply deregulate oil production, there will be an abundance of oil in the united states an abundance of cheap oil. there's a lot of different issues going on for ronald reagan to define himself good strategic arms limit talks, questions of the panama canal treaty, but it's very clear that one of the things ronald reagan does is that he decides to define his candidacy with the term malaise. very, very clearly in november of 1979, it ted kennedy doesn't

matter. ronald reagan does. here is ronald reagan announcing his candidacy in november of 1970 and on. this is where you hear jimmy carter's speech being used against him, chicken which i malaise, never used in a speech in and trying to then use it as a way to kind of attack ronald reagan -- jimmy carter. for the first time in our memory, and many americans are asking, does history of a place for america for her people and for her great ideals? mrs. reagan announcing candidacy. some answer now that energy is spent, days of greatness that an come a great national malaise is upon us. as i point out, and the people that say no to training and dreaming becomes a theme that runs throughout ronald reagan speeches from 79 after 80. the people who say no reagan pointed out children are told not to dream is that one stream.

i find the national malaise he insisted. i find nothing wrong with the american people. jimmy carter found something wrong with the american people. there was the kind of humility that carter held out for citizens and for himself. ronald reagan had none of it. ronald reagan had no sense of malaise and no sense that could be anything wrong with the american people. of course the optimism combined with reagan's right-wing populism will lead in to win the 1980 election intake down a president, which is a fairly often not as people while now. so the speech in many ways becomes not just a speech about the energy crisis, moral crisis that plagues america, because the story of a turning point in our history. it is a turning point away from carter's evangelical humility towards falwell's return did in

triumphal nationalism in many ways. it is eternally from carter's critique of consumerism and materialism and his return to ronald reagan celebration of the free market, including free-market embrace him. and i think it is precisely this idea that speech serves as a turning point for history can help us go back for the country should have gone. i've been asked this question in numerous interviews about do you think jimmy carter's speech is read today would be received positively? and my sense is actually it can be received positively. i've seen that's the type that they react to it quite favorably. they find it to be interesting as one student pointed to me that this guy seems to be talking honestly about america's problems in his entry into necessarily cover things up. and that is a part of the story

would you tell them that the. there's also a bit worried close it out in a path to question. there's also a lot of other interesting characters and events that i couldn't deal with. bob dylan is in there for anybody who likes bob dylan. bob dylan has a really kind of freakish evangelical. as some may know. it happens during this period of time. i think bob jonas the pop-culture equivalent of jerry falwell during 1979. there's woody allen who rent in and out of the narrative, john wayne dies and jimmy carter tried to say that john wayne with their favorite here in ronald reagan's right and jimmy carter was wrong is what is known as the disco demolition rally, where tons is don't kids run onto the baseball field in the middle of a doubleheader and start tearing up the turkey might in the place on fire. this is just fantastic stuff. bill clinton makes an appearance at jimmy carter summit and gives advice to the president.

blondie turns disco during this period of time. and best of all, i won't talk about specifics on this. there is what is known as the killer rabbit incident, which is one of the best incidence in american history correlates at the period of time and dealing with here. my intention is to tell a story that i think has an entertaining aspect to it, but i also hope has a kind of serious element to it as well. that is that i think again the speech as part of a turning point. i think it's time to re-examine a turning point in a serious questions about it. i'm going to redo the closing part of the book and then i'll be happy to open up to any questions if there are any. this is how i end and i don't think this gives away anything that's in the book. we are still a nation dependent on foreign sources of oil and knocking a national energy policy that searches for alternatives.

we may be getting it right now. so carter's suggestion that america has a sense of national purpose and a common good to fake energy crisis doesn't sound all that distant to us today. we're still a nation infatuated private self-interest to civic culture seems torn apart, the nation that he still pulls a one is when political scientist describes coming culture of consumerism and materialism has pop-culture seems vapid and distracting the best. more and more still warn us against thinking of america's greatness and simplistic terms as it can be easily projected throughout the world without blowback. in the end, this begins with the question about 1979 as a turning point. are we so certain to turn taken was the right one? remember jimmy carter's speech today allows us to ask the question with a sort of moral import it deserves and that's the end. so i'm happy to ask -- answer the questions people have. [applause] if you have a question -- should

a microphone be used if people do have questions? okay, is there anyone who wants to ask a question about the book or anything i said? or is it all crystal-clear? [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

>> yeah, that's a good question. i didn't mention the cabinet fire because i'm going to try to focus on the speech. but that gives an important component to the story kind of the way. but it is an important part obviously. the jimmy carter gives a speech undulated teen, follows up with local speeches on the same thing and i am smart what he wants to do an energy policy. he's also been told this is going on that he needs to basically fire his entire cabinet. jimmy carter decides to follow as it eyes and is the biggest mistake he ever made. he remembers it that way in his memoirs he says they handled the cabinet firing in a horrible way. i didn't do myself any good. he is essentially admitting to the fact he's made an enormous the state. the way up or train the book is jimmy carter opens up the window of opportunity for two days. that's when phone numbers go up and everythingis looking really, really good.

and it's almost as one set of observers pointed out, rolls the rock up the hill comes down and goes even further down. so by that point in time, once he fires the cabinet and does it sloppily, that's the moment at which he could not oust back from. of course we have the hostage crisis from which ironically enough note during a crisis commission a detained popularity because the american people thought it was unfair that a crisis like this at hand. as it takes forever for anything to happen and of course nothing ever happens it also tells him towards the end. i would say when he is made the speech, when he fired the cabinet, there is very clearly on the part of ronald reagan's handlers descends the this is their moment. ronald reagan's pollster says, i

know the moment when we could win this thing and it came on july 15, 1979 because he could frame this thing doesn't antinoise candidacy and go out there and basically pummel jimmy carter and make him look weak. that's where the killer rabbit stuff comes in. we can win this election. i really think this is the moment in which there is still some time to go before we get the hostage crisis. this is the moment it becomes that very, very difficult to bounce back from. they think he had a moment and if he hadn't fared the cabinet, this of course was counterfactual. if he hadn't fared, who knows. i don't think you would've been as bad for him as it became once he fired the cabinet. [inaudible]

[inaudible] >> the speechwriters were the ones who were most enthusiastic because they felt like in some ways the hard work they taken part in this being taken seriously and almost a conflict going on within the administration. that conflict which should jimmy carter give the speech or solve the energy crisis or a set of policies? those people who oppose him making the speech in the end said it was the right thing to do. they finally said the outcome beach, on the money, did the right thing. i'm glad he did it. it seems to be like most people identify now is a great staff ready to. a lot of them i think is a number of people who read the speech just in passing say it seems about time that we could maybe go back to it and look at

the speech with the sort of negative lens, the way most historians do and we can hang his seat on its own terms and also see some of it more positive aspects. i think they were dues that someone seemed to be willing to spend some time to read an entire book about it. the mac i had a commercial radio station -- [inaudible] [inaudible]

[inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> well, actually it's starting to sound like you actually read the comments that i make on undergraduate papers about how you have to stay in the past tense would need to history and you shouldn't put it in the present tense. i'm not surprised by that. yeah, you know, it's my own slippage. i think that the interesting point about all of this is that it is of course difficult to

feel as if this is completely the past. and i mean that seriously amiss to but as i wrote this book and was looking and obviously we don't know trucker strikes of violence on the gas lines, but we do seem to still have a lot of the same problems in terms of an energy crisis, popular culture seems to be vapid and so forth and so on. i think probably my slippage is sort of man tension with whether or not i feel entirely comfortable saying this is all about the past or whether or not this is all about the present. i should've said he gave the speech. on the imac [inaudible] [inaudible] >> you know, in some ways to a certain extent that is the attempt to make history feel

like it's alive, you know, need to find yourself slipping into the present time, largely because you do feel like you're describing sounds thing you can imagine at the moment and at the time. so i guess -- i guess i'm going to have to watch myself at this point. [laughter] yeah, it is the feeling that you're not quite talking about something in the past. i forget, william faulkner had the famous quote that the past isn't dead. it's not even past year. you know, that's the feeling i have that we always live with a lot of recurring themes that you can see playing themselves out throughout history. that's a good question. >> i have a question which has to do with personalities and qualities of a different time.

idea mac [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> yeah, that's a great question. actually, and it's a good question in large part because jimmy carter consistently said that harry truman is one of his favorite president is not his favorite president. and i think there is a kind of similarity in style in terms of the kind of sort of commonsensical sort of approach. there is also when they give them how this speech is, those

are purely in the setting of an election. harry truman when he actually govern was pretty, in some ways, fairly centrist, pretty compromising, not really as tough as the persona he presented on the campaign trail. in some ways you get into a persona that doesn't capture the entirety, but it's an important part idea mac >> and a second term, absolutely. this isn't going to investigate corruption with the war. absolutely. i think that one of the things about jimmy carter was at his persona, unlike kerry tremens was tied into being an outsider. he would not -- wanting to say

about jimmy carter, even amongst the people who dislike him, what they'll say if he wasn't corrupt. harry truman may not have been corrupt, but the machine was corrupt for tax evasion at the time he was -- [inaudible] >> absolutely. [inaudible] >> yeah, there's no doubt that harry chairman was not a crook. none the fact, jimmy carter would've been found to be absolutely reprehensible. he had nothing to do with the machine politics. i think for both the feminist press mints, it's also explained in part why they have a hard time getting stuff done as

president, especially on the domestic front. i think he had an awful lot he wanted to accomplish, that there is no way he was going to be able to get through a pretty recalcitrant congress. now, the real funny part of bases that jimmy carter had a democratic congress. harry truman had a heavily republican and fairly can ever give to deal with. it's a part of jimmy carter's persona that he trains himself as an outsider, which makes it hard for him together, to actually get things done. i think jimmy carter in this book argues is not necessarily a friend. jimmy carter had a great kind of moral vision that a great deal of clarity to it. we didn't have as the capacity to govern, capacity to push things impose concrete solution and that was also getting back to the first question, that was really one of its biggest rivals

he could never fully overcome. yes. [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible]

really coming into the forefront in washington, where congress could not. the leadership in congress. more people listen to lobbyists. >> absolutely. i think jimmy carter -- i think jimmy carter lacked the inherent skills of politics. to put it lightly, he was no lbj. he was good at campaigning, absolutely. some people would criticize him during the time of the speech, which weighs distract and he wanted to go back to campaigning rather than governing the country, which is attention nisi thread his presidency. he was no lbj in the sense that he could put a lot of weight on people and get them to move behind things. with that said, i think we agree. one of the things you can say jimmy carter wasn't good at governing, but quick follow-up is too in that situation

would've been better. it was a really difficult situation. i mean, with watergate just kind of hitting so big and more and more details coming out as you proceed to jimmy carter's presidency when you have a congress that basically looks at watergate and says my god, we cannot allow for executive power to grow any more than it is. when you have a setting like that, you have watergate, have vietnam, you have the kind of declining public participation you see that carter in large part is reacting to. it's fair to say jimmy carter might not have had a lot of skills in certain areas, but are we so sure they want to say anybody else could've done a finer job at that moment? it was a really, really difficult job. >> watergate help them get elected. >> the speech was inherited.

>> that's. and you know, the fact that he wins in large part because of watergate, but also should be remembered as it was way closer of an election than it should've been, which actually calls into question a little bit about how great of a campaigner he was because he really went in with the fairly high gap. and many see a kind of closing when it really shouldn't. there should then a sound of collection. >> he did a great job at the primaries. but then when he had to become a democratic nominee and bring together and deal with the organizations of the democrats, the democrats really brought it

down. >> that is the classic tension chewing campaigning, especially as an outsider, as someone who is not in a part of the washington establishment and then when you can come the challenge becomes how to transfer that's going to actually governing. it's a tough tension and always marked his presidency. >> the one thing it's really fascinating. >> a lot of people ask, you know, what do you think of the president in the context of this. during the natural address, he echoed a lot of the teams that you hear in the speech. he talked about a crisis of confidence and all that. but he also has a little bit of the reagan optimism costain, which i think south has many ulcers and that these go far, but to sanction a odyssey on this track, but houses to sanction the odyssey on this track, but houses but the

political skill to jimmy carter just never mastered. that's a good question. any other questions? i think that's right. any other questions? points, observations, anything like that? well if not, thanks for coming out and i appreciate you being here and hope to see you next time. [applause] [inaudible conversations]

>> in your book come you talk about one of those life-changing moment. you are watching justice thomas, you thomas, ned sheol hearing. what happens to train for quite >> i just graduated from college at a place that was like my permits that. i got my apartment i would learn in education at judaism, but i left feeling very empty because they just learned how to chant. i was hoping for a spiritual experience. i didn't get it. i felt the exact same in college. the stuff that i was reading this and comprehend the bull and was charging, non-chomsky lake

in its lack of comprehension to the person who doesn't understand that language. and it was demoralizing. and i graduated last skill, less motivated and i was a waiter. >> my education was the lack of an education. and so, i was waiting tables right after graduating college and i finished my lunch shift and i would go home. >> your friends as a way of doing this? are so much better. >> guest: it was embarrassing, humiliating, the best thing that happened in my life with the humiliation of having to work with and the people i was looking up to in trying to impress were looking down on me. and i started to pay for my own shoes. >> host: your parents cut you off? >> guest: my parents cut me off. that's why dedicated it to my father who cut me off and clarence thomas at the same time. both of their guidance in my life coincided.

postcode that's a good segue back to the hearing. >> guest: yeah, went from a week job and watched the hearings, wanted to root for the tape down for thomas clarence. the television side told me that this was the demand and newspapers told me it was a bad man. i remember eleanor chmiel, patricia schroeder walking up the steps in saying we're going to take a stand against this guy for harassment commit serial harassment. so i watch these hearings. i was a spectator who wanted to see somebody mauled, like lions mauling romans. and i watched day one, day two, the entire team. i went from wanting him to be taken down to wondering what's going on here? i don't understand what i'm watching. i understand the color commentary on the screen where they say this is outrageous.

i didn't understand a bumper sticker is going by me on the streets saying i believe any data. i said i believe any to what? what is going on here? i don't understand that's going on here. everything i knew, everything i picked up the college american studies cultural marxists oppressor oppressed, black people are always right, why people are always wrong -- i didn't understand how ted kennedy -- the dead kennedy could claim how howard metzenbaum, joe biden and a series of white privilege men would sit in judgment of this man who is assigned a grand parents who are sharecroppers, you raise them and went to yell law school. he did everything right, including allowing for anita hill to rise through the ranks of the legal profession through jobs with him, where she never had a relationship with tenet all. he did nothing untoward and she was party to the state down and

i did not understand how it could be that these white people of privilege were attacking this black man who was in this historic position while the mainstream media took him down and the naacp and the urban lake and other black warp rogue leaders sat and seemed to relish to take down. >> host: who is your mentor? you had this mentor who will get to later that was brutally murdered and you didn't know and it was a long time that you started questioning the indoctrination. >> guest: the smartest person i ever met with this guy named mike. i was ordering pizza in haskell and he was just different. he was alternative and he was the smartest guy i ever knew. in hindsight he wasn't the most ethical guy. he took the sats for a bunch of my friends and death in 1600s. he was the smartest guy you could ever meet any dropped out of you see santa barbara.

and while i was going the college, he was floundering and doing drugs. during the period of time he was my mentor, he was taking me to alternative bookstores to read about left-wing ideas. you know, he very much resent to the class struggle. when i started to have this epiphany is, when i started to get my job, i was aspiring to be an intellect, trying to understand his world view, so strange in place to struggle, a certain point, my dad had sent to that nobody told him, you need to get a job, you need to clean up and get your act together. you need to stop doing drugs. and so there is a certain point where he started to challenge my mentor. he wasn't that i felt like i was an intellect or that i was able to reach him at the game as sat scores. i saw was about 400 points below him on that level, but i started the game with self-confidence and self-respect to make a call

him out on his misbehavior. and i just started to move away from the sky and got a phone call once as i was starting to move towards independence and away from this type enology but obsolete dominated this guy's consciousness. i got a phone call that he was murdered at a motel room in los angeles than i imagined that it was during a drug deal that went bad. in today's day, think about how i never cried about that. >> host: you know, thinking about your parents come to your of humiliation and how you had to negotiate to give you a higher higher grade c. for graduate because you realize if you did not graduate, much more of your life would be lost. but then a friend of yours that yahoo! is very bright called and said andrew breitbart, i've got the perfect job for you.

>> guest: he was from harvard. he was an astrophysics major who always cared for me. he always knew that in prep school i was not going to be a student, but that i was the class clown and that well. that was how i skirted around the add. i was able to maintain my place when everybody was harvard, stanford, princeton, and i was not going to an elite academy. i did not want to leave my friends. saturday my burden. >> host: but she would visit and? >> guest: he would visit me and say i need to take you on a walk. he took me on a walk around the street in santa monica and said -- this is when i was utterly wayward. he says, a senior future. it is this thing called the internet. it works the way your brain works. and at that point, i'd been diagnosed with adult add and i

tried ritalin for about a month and i hated it. i saw pity us about it. i was trying to figure out how i could conform to the workplace, where people have to work in cubicles in a new that i couldn't do that. at rather drive around l.a. listening to talk radio for music. >> host: but you started listening to rush limbaugh. >> guest: anyway, he told nancy and the internet, i've seen the anyway, he told nancy and the internet, i've seen the future and it still took day think there's something almost too. but that because he's ready. the internet does work the way my brain works. >> you can watch this and other programs online tv guide work. >> and now booktv, say deborah baker talks about a jewish womai whostan in 1962 move to pakist. converted to