so, clearly, this was a book and a subject that they did not want to come out. and my hope is that out of this that the book is really just the beginning in the sense that the steps that we took to research this, they are time consuming and cumbersome, but anybody can do this. this is publicly-accessible information, and we did not get to research and investigate all 535 members. and i hope that people will look at their elected officials where they are and look at their financial transactions and see if there's something, something unusual. but, yeah, there was lots of pressure brought to bear. i'm fortunate "60 minutes" and "newsweek" were totally unwavering, and my publisher as well was willing to face potential legal action and threats from, you know, very powerful individuals in washington. >> one more question? >> yes, over here. >> i'm kathy thrower, just a

lowly taxpayer. and what your last comment was really pertains to my question. there are many people across this country, and i'm thinking about tea party activists in particular, who would love to research their own member of congress but feel overwhelmed. do youdo you have a web site, p, throw them all out which would have a template, this is what you do, this is where you go to do the research? i guarantee you there'd be an army of people out there to do the work. >> yes, i do have a web site, i don't have the template up yet and also andrew on his web site, big governments, has been running a lot of stories, and there's going to be a template there as well. very simply, go to a web site called opensecrets.org. it's not a web site i run, so i'm not -- [laughter] it's run by an organization by the center for responsive politics, you can go under personal finances, and you can look at the pdf files, not at the summations by the organization because sometimes

there are slight clerical errors. and look at their financial disyours. and what i did was look at particularly times when something dramatic was happening, the financial crisis in 2008, health care reform in 2009. but look at your elected representative, and and see are they an active stock trader, do they do a lot of land deals? if they do, look at their stock transactions and see, you know, are they on the senate banking committee, and are they buying and selling a lot of bank stock, you know? if there's some sort of crossover because that's where you're going to get access to really sensitive information if you have oversight over a particular area. and then i would look at the, um, you know, their real estate holdings. they're not required to list their residence, only holdings. and then you can look up the earmarks they've issued at a web site called legistorm.com, and what you will find is that they

own a building in the case of nancy pelosi, and i talk about this in the book, she and her husband own a commercial building, and lo and behold, she secured money to build a light rail system that runs right by that commercial real estate. retailers will tell you, you want it two blocks away, that's just perfect. it's two blocks away. and so this goes on with both parties in both cases. but look at the earmarks and see if there's a pattern. and then i would encourage you to contact your elected additional ask them what they think of the stock act, whether they're going to vote on it, and that is a law that now has 174 co-sponsors. before the book and "60 minutes "it had six. so you can see the response it's gotten from them. but that would say explicitly it is against the federal law for congressional insider trading. and then i would ask you to look at a second law called the restrict act which has been introduced by congressman duffy

from wisconsin, a tea party guy who won recently, and that would give elected officials an option. i think this is a good bill. either they put their assets in a blind trust, or if they don't do that, they need to disclose all trades within three business days. and i think that's a great bill. so i would ask them to support those, you know, two bills or something related to those two bills. all right? great. thank you. [applause] >> of course, we do have copies of the book if you want to sign them here, it'd probably be just as easy. they're for sale outside, but i know peter will be glad to talk to you further. he's not a bit enthusiastic about his topic. [laughter] thank you all for joining us today, we'll see you on a future occasion. [inaudible conversations]

>> for more information visit the author's web site, peter schweitzer.com. >> i do believe that the west for all of its historical shortcomings -- and i am scathing in my book in discussing these shortcomings because they have to be admitted -- for all of these shortcomings, the west with -- the west still today represents the most acceptable and workable, universeally workable political culture. >> in 1991 the united states was the only global superpower. today how to restore it status in the world from former national security adviser brzezinski on his strategic

vision tonight at 10 eastern on "after words." also this weekend on booktv, did fdr use world war ii as a cover to create a more powerful executive branch? burton and anita folsom later at 11. and sunday night at 10, the new privacy is no privacy, lori andrews on how your rights are being eroded by social networks. booktv, every weekend on c-span2. >> up next, michael kranish presents a biography of mitt rommy. mr. kranish explores mr. romney's childhood and formative years as well as his professional and political career. michael kranish discussed his book and took viewer phone calls on c-span's morning program, "washington journal." this is about an hour. rolina, along with candidate speeches and your phone calls. >> "washington journal" continues. >> and let me introduce you to

michael kranish joining us from boston, co-author along with skol hellman of new biography of mitt romney called "the real romney," and along with a team of reporters from boston globe, has years of reporting into the profile of the presidential contender. michael kranish, let me ask you, of the -- the big question about mitt romney, what is it that animates or informs his desire for public office? >> well, susan, that's a great question. in the book, we try to explain a bit about the family history and about his relationship with his father, george romney, who of course was governor of michigan, tried to run for president and dropped out before the first primary in new hampshire when he had problems. it's really very easy to see straight line there, mitt is trying to fulfill where his father failed, not just to succeed, but because he shares some of the same ambitions. he has a calling for public service as he sees it.

he's been thinking about this from an early age, as a teenager, he was following his father around when his father was running for governor, he was in the state house as a young teenager. late at night, there is anecdote described in the book, past midnight, he's advising his father what to do with legislators. it is something he's been thinking about for a very long time. with a core conviction, believing that business has a lot of answers. he certainly, one thing he says everyday on the campaign trail is that government doesn't create jobs, business does and that in turn creates questions about his own record that i'm sure we can talk about. >> to that life-long desire to be in politics, in new hampshire, mitt romney on one of the campaign events talked about that and gave it a little cast, let's listen to how he described his interest in politics. >> this chance to run for president of the united states, i never imagined i'd do it. i mean, you know, this is just a

very strange and unusual thing to be in the middle of. one of the -- i mean, i was just a high school kid like everybody else with skinny legs. you know, i imagine i'd be in business all my career. >> how does that square with what you just told us in your reporting? >> it doesn't square entirely to be completely frank. the idea he was just another high school kid was not the way other people might see it it. he went to one of the most elite prep school necessary bloomfield hills when his father was governor of michigan. it's not the typical upbringing of most people. he lived in a rarified climate, i'm not saying that in a negative way, it wasn't typical for a lot of people. maybe that is the way he sees it. when you are looking at it, hopefully a fair biography, that is not typical and shaped the kind of person he was. so, i'm sure it is difficult for everyone to imagine running for

president, but more than most people, probably something he thought about given that his father had run for president. he was extremely interested in what his father did and many friends told us and are quoted in the biography about how from an early time, mitt romney was thinking about public office. we go back really several decades, three or four decades, he was telling colleagues, i'm not sure if i want to do that deal, i might run for public office one day and that might not look good. it is something his colleagues thought he was interested in for a very long time. >> for our viewers who like to engage you with questions or comments about mitt romney through the lens of his biographer, michael kranish, joining us from boston, send us tweets or e-mail. we'll put the methods on the screen. we'd like to get to your calls and comments quickly to have a chance to ask more about what the reporting suggests. you talk in the book about how one of his challenges is that

his -- the camera lens is translates his personality different from the way people around him see him. so would you talk a little bit about what the public sees that people in his circle see differently. >> right. well, his friends and his family are surprised at the way he's characterized publicly. the man they see is funny, warm, relaxed, jokes easily, tells stories, very fun to be around. the public persona has been portrayed oftentimes as sort of cold, robotic, detached. why is that? we try to explore that step by step in the biography and one reason appears to be that mitt romney has grownup in this series of bubbles. he grew up in this rarified world of bloomfield hills and the prep school and so forth. he went off to mormon mission in france. he was at brigham young university, the world of private equity he was in was a pretty closed circle type of world.

it's not like he ran for the city council and he was mayor and he's a glad hander, he's anything but in the way he's lived most of his life. as a result of that, it has been difficult for him to connect and it is one of the great challenges that he has in running for president, translating the way his friends see him to the way he comes across in public. obviously he's a man of great wealth. his background is in business in which he earned tens of millions of dollars at times. you just try to relate to the average person and when he does so, it comes off awkwardly. even his closest friends would acknowledge he didn't have a typical life growing up, it is not something he's used to doing and that is a challenge for him. >> so much in the news this week regarding the romney campaign has to do with money. 15% estimated income tax rate. the reporting of offshore accounts in the cayman island, keeping some portion of his wealth. want to ask you because in

the -- in your book, you talk about the mitt romney who hit the campaign trail in 2002 was very different from the political neoph yte, and can how campaign staff anticipated questions like the corporate reader question and tried to inoculate the candidate. when one watches this week, how is it that this team of advisors who have been with him four years let the issues get ahead of the candidate? >> well, that's a really great question, susan tochlt take it back to 1994, when mitt romney ran for the u.s. senate against ted kennedy, he seemed unprepared for the most obvious attack, the same attack we're hearing today, in his business of leverage buyouts that question whether jobs were created or jobs were lost. there were ads similar to what you see now run against him then, pretty devastating and were a major reason he lost that race. particularly on the tax issue you mention about the tax rate,

zero surprise to anyone who covered mitt romney his tax rate is essentially the capital gains tax rate on most income. most of his income comes from capital gains or carried interest, not from typical salary. when he said recently he hases paid 15% tax rate, that is not surprising to anyone who looked at his financial disclosure or watched him over the number of years because that is the way he earned his money. what strikes people, when he said it himself, it comes across in a certain way he's essentially acknowledging to the general public that's the case and that's a lower rate than many people pay. very interestingly back in 1994, he was quoted in boston globe as challenging ted kennedy to release his tax returns and he questioned whether kennedy had something to hide and went on to say if kennedy would release his tax return on the same day mitt romney would release his. susan, it never happened, neither released tax returns n. 2002, this was brought up when

mitt romney ran for governor. he was asked, you mentioned in '94, you would be willing to do so, would you do so now? his aid said he would not do so due to "privacy" concerns. it's been something going on for years. there is a saying in politicss that you should get the story out and get ahead of it and get it out right away so that anything that might be a problem or embarrassing is long since past when crucial days come up. this is something he's been avoiding doing for many years, the boston globe for example, i can tell you for 18 years since he first ran for office has been asking him to release his tax returns and the reason it's important to look at tax returns, not just from the last tax year or even a few years, he has not been clear what tax returns he would release. you would want to see the tax returns from 1984 to at least 1999 when he was running capital and beyond because those tax returns would tell you exactly how he personally profited from certain deals and give you a

much better idea about whether he profited to a certain extent, for companies that lost jobs or factories closed f. he releases tax return for recent years, that will not tell you the key information and we don't know whether he'll do that and if he doesn't, and he is nominee, certainly the obama administration would say, what have you got to hide just like you asked ted kennedy what do you have to hide 18 years ago. >> here is a tweet about money and mitt romney from mike murphy. we assume this is not the political consultant who you talk about in your book. the question is how truthful was the statement he didn't inherit money? >> the question of whether he inherited money or not, as i understand it, there was a loan, i think, some help with his first house a long time ago in massachusetts from his father. and i saw this morning in the "new york times" i think it was, there was a comment, i think on

c-span in fact, mitt romney said he did get inheritance of some sort from his father and turned that over to brigham young university where he had gone to school. so that's what i know about that. more broadly, clearly, mitt romney benefited from a lot of his father's wealth basically as a child, growing up, going to prep school, having every advantage you could possibly have, in that way, certainly he benefited significantly. mitt romney as far as we know has never lacked for financial resources. >> george, a republican, you are on. >> hi. that was my question, was inheritance he mentioned last night. i think you covered it. thank you. >> thanks, george, sorry to preechlt you. since george was interested in that, david brooks with headlines "the wealth issue," was written around your book. here is the way he opens the book. he writes, mitt romney is a rich man, is mitt romney's character

formed by his wealth? is romney a spoiled character? has he been corrupted by ease and luxury? his column answers that. i will ask you from your reporting to answer that question. >> right. susan, i read that column before going on the air and liked it not just because he mentioned our book, but because he really understood the point we were trying to make. there is a chapter in the book, i think is interesting because i got to do some research on the romney family history. and this goes back four generations, you might ask, why is this biography of mitt romney going back that far in history? it's a really intriguing compelling tale about the history of mormonism is the history of the romney family and part of mexico. it is basically to summarize briefly, mitt's great, great grandfather came from liverpool, england and settled in illinois, the heart of mormonism in this

country and the mormons were kicked out, this ancestor stayed behind to finish the temple, had to flee and the family went to the state of utah and eventually this person's son, mitt's great grandfather was told by brigham young to marry and then to take multiple wives and this person believes strongly in polygamy when polygamy was outlawed in the united states, the church told mitt's great gathfather to go to mexico and continue polygamy there. they did that and that in fact is where mitt's father, george, was born. his father was not a polygamist, but that is where george was born. at the age of five, there was a revolution in mexico, the family had to flee back to the united states and that's what happened, george then built extraordinary life for himself, became the head of american motors, became governor and ran for president, as we've discussed. the point of that and the point i think david brooks takes in

the column, this family has gone through this extraordinary journey. there has been struggle and flight and rebuilding and perseverance and determination. mitt hasn't had to have the struggles, clearly because he's had a lot of advantages from birth. but it's ground in him that that is where he comes from. what's really interesting is that this extraordinary family story is not something mitt romney talks about. he doesn't feel comfortable talking about it, in part because a, the background of mormonism is not something some people want to hear about and b, crucial element of the story is polygamy. history factors made him not so anxious to talk about it, but it is deeply engrained part of the romney story. i had a chance to go down to mexico for research and meet with many romneys who live there, many cousins who returned there after the mexican revolution, unlike mitt's direct family. a lot of cousins still live

there. one took me around and expressed great pride in the family story that this romney family helped build part of the united states and part of mexico and played an important role in history and obviously great pride in mitt romney. it's not something he himself can talk about, it's a great part of where he came from. >> a viewer wants to follow-up with you writing on twitter. he says, the question that brooks' column raises for me is was the romney family history or his privileged upbringing more influential in shaping him? >> right. exactly what we're talking about. i think there is no question that his family history privately, sort of in a private place for mitt romney is the way we describe it. it is important to him there is a scene in the book, we describe inside the hallways of his house in massachusetts, where he has five portraits on the wall, those portraits do include the person i mentioned about who came over from england and then the great grandfather who went to mexico and so forth there is no question to us that this is a

point that is important to him privately. he just doesn't feel comfortable talking about it publicly. and certainly his privileged upbringing, it's part of who he is, it just is. just because you are extremely wealthy doesn't mean you can't make a connection to people. many politicians have successfully done that, for example, in new york city, the mayor of new york is a very healthy republican and democratic city and somehow managed to overcome that. it seems to be more difficult for romney to do that and what he does say things sometimes they come across awkwardly, for example, a few days ago he was talking about his overall wealth and he mentioned that most of it comes from capital gains and then he talked about the part that is regular income, the same type people would get if they are getting a salary in the same tax rate and he said it was not very much, referring to $374,000, which is more than

most make in a whole year. when you make a comment like that, you can imagine the obama campaign team rewinding the tape and cutting it right for a commercial. >> next is manhattan, jack is a democrat there, you are on. >> yes. good morning. i'm calling concerning what i would call a jealousy issue. not just mr. romney's financial wealth, but his overall life, his family, the religion is immaterial to me. you know, you take a look, he's been successful financially. his personal life is successful you know, it seems to me most people in life when they go through, they get failures here and there, but maybe this man has a midus touch. you look at his personal touch, five strapping sons, grandchildren, he's healthy as a horse and his young sons seem as healthy as horses, so i think

some of it could be just plain jealousy and on the financial wealth issue, a lot of my democratic brethren who support barack obama happen to be jewish and they're also liberal and ones that i don't know are much wealthier than barack obama. look at the hedge fund managers, the top ones, they are the guys and as far as just financial wealth, they leave mitt romney in the dust. >> thanks. >> well, mitt romney has essentially taken the argument recently that there is a jealousy issue there. he used that word, as i recall it. the way i would respond to that is the issue that's come up in the campaign directly from his opponents hases not been a jealousy issue if you look at what his opponents have said. their complaint is whether he

was using his business background to profit personally even while jobs were cut. so at this point, what you can do is look at what the opponents have said and it is a whole chapter, a long chapter in the book, where we try to explore what actually happened with mitt romney running capital for 15 years. certainly tell you and want to express it's a more complicated story than the 30-second sound bites you see typically in a campaign. understandably, mitt romney cast it in the most glowing term its, his opponents in the most negative terms, but it is a 15-year interesting and complicated story and that's worth looking at. i think during a campaign, that's what opponents will focus on. whether individual voters see it differently, that's another matter. but looking at individual deals and how he personally did become wealthy from certain deals, that seems like grounds to examine that i think everyone would want to look at. >> you title the chapter about his governorship of

massachusetts the c.e.o. governor for emma, who is racquetball first on twitter and asks, will romney run government as he ran and privatize government assets. >> the c.e.o. governor, his background was as business executive, he ran this company for 15 years and when he came in, he was viewed as trying to run the state sort of emulating the vein way and the methodology and brought in partners to help him. certainly a driving characteristic of mitt romney is that he is a data drich person. there is a phrase about him he likes to quote "while in the data," he likes to look at spreadsheet, use powerpoint presentations. this may be one reason people don't connect to him. it is not the typical way a politician tries to relate to people. that is who he is. his own spokespeople will say

he's data driven person and wants to gather facts, gather people around him and his management style was to gather partners and have him discuss for him and argue about what they thought should be done on a particular deal? oftentimes romney would not interject own views, he would listen and later on go talk to individual partners, can we work this and work that? that worked well for investors during that time. when he ran for governor in 2008, he tried the same methodology and it did not work well. he had several layers of advisors and wasn't able to choose between which advisor had ultimate say and delegate as much as he might have wanted to according to those who work with him at the time. this campaign has been a little different. he delegated more, single layer of advisors he's given more responsibility to, but how that will translate into running the white house. you know, when you are running for the white house, you are running to be commander in

chief, you are running to be many different things, not just analyst and a data-driven person. you have to bring many, many skills. you can look perhaps more at goff his governorship to draw clues, certainly he would like to, i don't know if he would privatize certain things. he talked a lot about scaling back government dramatically and his core belief being business creates jobs, not government. stripping away regulations and things like that, other people will disagree with how far things should go on that. but that is certainly going to be a core part of his campaign. >> back in an earlier campaign with his team of boston globe reporters did a profile book of john f. krary, your team keeps lucking out with massachusetts politicians making it to the presidential contender stage. what was different in writing the two books for you? >> it is interesting, i did

write a similar biography back in 2004, about john kerry. i would say the main difference in writing that book, i've been in washington for quite sometime and i uncovered myself kerry since he was a senator. in this case, we worked together, my co-author, scott, had covered mitt romney and the state house here in massachusetts and i wrote an awful lot about family history and about the company and the 2008 campaign. looking at it through a different lens, what was really important in both cases, we were able to rely on great resources that we had collected at the globe in covering him for the last two decades. one thing, for example, is that we have the equivalent of an oral history of romney and his family at the globe. what i mean by that, reporters have done interviews with romney and his family and friends over the years, saved transcripts, a lot of material had never been published. so we set out to do this book, i

and my colleagues were able to go back and look at the transcripts, sort of like writing about historical figure and going to the archives, which i've done for a different book. it is similar type of thing, you can go back and read many pages of transcripts and see things that may not have seen interesting or relevant at the time that absolutely jump out at you and say, here is the key, here is the clue to something that explains things that i didn't understand. we have the time and the space to go much deeper than we could in a newspaper story or series of stories, which we did four years ago when romney first ran for president. so all that was extremely valuable, but the core thing of being able to rely on the globe's background and experience of reporters in covering, that was pretty similar and certainly was helpful to have written the kerry book and a book on thomas jefferson before setting down to write this book with my colleagues. >> next from virginia, michelle. good morning. >> good morning. thanks so much. a quick comment and a question.

my comment is that .. like staples that create jobs and provide that. i appreciate 31% of something else. my real question was when he spoke about the private man and if i remember correctly, i saw on c-span, governor romney announced four years ago, you have segments afterward, when you see the human side. shortly after the announcement it appeared he was bringing supporters and there was a mom with a child who had down syndrome, but seemed to be a family friend. he got down off the stage when he learned the boy, i thought johnny or something, was missing im. went to tryo helpd because he was sensitive to was those in his congregation who had less. so i wondered if he could comment on, does he have this, h you know, kinder, softer side, but maybe he is, i don't know, c the following description in section to do your arms and good deeds privately and as much about that as much. at least from that moment it was really impressive to me that

this huge and important moment he will leave the stageri and go try to find this lost boy. >> well, in the book there is a chapter, and part of the chaptee does yell the exact what he talked about, that he is a man and a generosity privately. there are a lot of moments we read about where he helps people and neighbors and those in the church. everyone to express that because at the moment there very controversial and we want to draw the whole picture. but his friends and family do tell us in the book of many such moments that the public was not seeing where he has tried to do things in different ways, given money to people in need and so forth. in a, those are things that his friends like to talk about more. it is a private thing, so perhaps it does not want to. there is one actor in the book we tried to balances out. there was an incident where the partners daughter had gonea missing in new york city. n

rodney closed down the firm in boston, took the partners to nen york, and did everything heid could to try to help find this missing daughter. the whole story is told of the book, but eventually the daughter was found. romney said this is one of the most important moments that hisi company, that there were able to help find his daughter. several years later that was t turned into a campaign ad whichn could come across as a littleas bit awkward, but i know that his consultants are saying exactlys. what, they needed to show the other side of mitt romney, but he does have the compassion does side. hat so they ran that ad about that incident to try to bring that saddam across. >> host: next as a call from can invoke raton, florida. independent. >> caller: good morning. i was troubled more than a thini else by romney's comment in in nevada with people inle foreclosure they should let the free market do its business andi

people should be kicked out of their homeski. t and the corporations would come in and rent out those houses. hn wouldn't that be a lovelye in a resolution to the problem? also, as you mentioned, i onlyy got a little bit of money for mo speaking engagements.s a $375,000 is a little bit of money.nd of course corporations are people, too. you know, the democrats.e demoas teddy roosevelt was a wealthy a man.fter ker was a wealthy man. kennedy was a wealthy man, but they are identified with the wt common person, the fireside cha chats. i keep remembering anatol francis made a statement that the majestic equality forbids the rich and the poor fromnd p beijing in the street, stealing itd, and sleeping under bridges. it seems that all of the republican candidates, runningny especially with his $230 million personal fortune has not a clueu as to what's going on with the middle-class and working-class.

this $50 that he gave this ladys at one of his events, this kind of let me throw you a bone, let them be, it's obscene on its face. i'm in the medical profession. we don't get done, you know, -- no one has said that 34 percent of the people on food stamps are weight. they're not black, but you see these republicans, every one of, them coming out with the -- they have this social commentary, you know, the black people have paychecks instead of two stampsd of course his comments. of courses newsletters coming back in time about flatfooted

felons. >> host: baidu free call.th >> guest: well, the issues of the caller raised would be raised if he was the nominee inb the general election about understanding the average working class and whether or not his core beliefs and what he goes. distraction, capitalisticru economy, you know, whether thatl would be tap -- topol to the working person. those will be the issues that will be front and center, an ad presumably that is the way romney would want it. i don't think that he would agree with the paraphrase the a caller made a lot of comments, ert overall certainly his core belief is in the power of in the capitalism and business to work its way and to help all sorts of folks. that is certainly a course that corps ceeliefs. what is interestingnt, whether s no doubt that as the way he feels about things, here inhing massachusetts we are best known for the health care measure,e which was seen as a very compassionate measure helping all sorts of people. not the kind of thing he likes

to talk about in the republican presidential primary. maybe something a little bit ina the general.l d maybso of course he wants to repealts t president obama's health carel t measures, so we would have toth explain what he would do to replace that. so he obviously has a record of saying it's important to have help insurance once you get rid of the one that was passed.nt to so i think it will be interesting to see what he saysd exactly should be done, how can be done in an effective way.itab here in massachusetts the health care plan is very popular.w most people are covered by it, so there is -- their will be afe balancing out if he is the nominee and runs for the general >> next in new york city.y, >> good morning. i have just two questions. first of all, mitt romney has been trying to run for president for a long time. my question is, if he were not to become president this time think, do you think that he would try again in 2000?

second question, and many of his sons ever been in the militaryir or even thought about being in the military? always talking about the powerful military that we are. >> sure. i mean, it's unlikely that aon person after it failed twice with runners at third time. that would be a starter roy difficult. that would be hard to imagine that he would run again. rather than get into his sons, n let me just bring up people who are relevant to talk about mitt romney himself and what he did during the vietnam war. that seems a little more onhe bo point in this discussion, and a dear right about that in the got book. he he was a student at stanford. he went on a mission in france.n there were deferments given outt for missionaries who wereissi limited, and if you're in utah

there were only so manyany available per each church district. in michigan there were so mormons.y few basically most people who wanted and got them, and he did. so he got a deferment for his h time, and he was a missionary for about two and a half years. when he returned to the states s and went to brigham young university he had a firmer forf that time, of course. and then after that he had a draft number, but it was so high that it wutas not called. did he did not serve in the military, and there are a couple of quotes and the book abouthe that. what he might have done and so t forth. so we go into it a little bit further.am not i don't think his sons of guns and military service that i cany recall, but i have not done extensive reporting on that. that is in the book. >> host: of brooklyn night: next. this is robert, a republican. >> caller: good morning. >> host: good morning.caller: >> caller: but i'm concerned about is that.

[inaudible] and most of those people pay more t taxes than mitt romney. is there a concern? is it okay for mitt romney to cn pay less taxes than those people jack and one more question concerning the account that he pay no taxes.y pay those things in your book?our bo >> host: an offshore accounts. >> guest: as reassessed earlier, his tax rate being 15 percent is completely not surprising.prg he got most of his money from fm capital gains, but the money he earned on speech fees, which heh described as not very much, the hitter and $74,000, that wouldwl be a higher tax rate. it will be interesting to see,so you know, talked about whatinou money went where, in the red that he said he did not pay less in taxes on certain accounts

that may be of short. accs really would need to see the details of the tax returns to gu fully into that.' protect your tax returns going back to at least 1984 when he began running game capital because he knows. there could be tax shelters we x don't know about and all sortssf ant tongs, so we would really want to see tax returns goingck back to that time to get a full accounting of what his taxes h were, the tax rates and whatwhat happened with those companies. you know, all that would give us an awful lot more information. right now we are mostly mosy discussing this in a vacuum. he runs for office, he doesncl forward a financial disclosure form, but it is extraordinarilyh vague. foittaker of ranges of income. it only comes out what happens to run for office. for example, looking back of the past two presidential races. so there really don't give you a couple accounting. given that this discussion has gone so much in the last week,ee if he is the nominee will go on all the time.sion wl

democrats will make sure of that. so his advisers are urging he put out everything so that thest questions basically will come at once.ill he will not be comfortable, but he'll do with them all at one point.it he was doing after the primary is over, and we don't know whent that will be, but it is an issue that will clearly be coming up again and again if he doesn't nt release everything. >> host: our next call is from los angeles.s john, independent. >> caller: i would like toto tak romney is how mitt embracing the neocon. i' was to take this -- >> host: of going to interrupt you. regular caller.am our number that 30 day policy. next up is the call from mibury,ury massachusetts. republican. go ahead. >> caller: good morning. when you mention romney care, you know, he tried to lead a to much revenue as governor, with the congress in massachusetts, a

also known as massive taxes overrode it. but look what happened.ed. they had to raise taxes more. what happened, a lot of people leave the state because of higher taxes.ay j somethingecause people did something for n fothing that everybody is happy. thank you. >> host: thank-you speech to short. it's interesting.ne when mitt romney put forward his health care plan one of the rationales was that people were getting something for nothing. so he argued at the time that ie was a conservative idea tople wl require people who could afford it to have a mandate to get health care insurance because the concern was from the point of view expressed at the timet e that people would go into emergency rooms getting in essence free health care of someone else's time when they needed it even though the could. afford to buy health care. so he was following what he believed to be a conservatived e

idea that he should have a mandate if the states so choosei to give it to have health care insurance. so he looked. i'm not speaking for him and all. we are independent biography of him, but that certainly had toat be his argument at the time.is the caller is right that there are provisions.e thatthe bill the messages as legislature that he vetoed anden was overridden by the but the bottomut the bottom line is i lt is his bill.ooeat he took great pride in the billb when he signed the bill.stan standing beside him was senatorm edward kennedy, so it was a very interesting moment. a bad, very funny and a cut in the book about that moment in which one of his sons says to him that watching ted kennedy'sm stand behind his father as thisd legislation on health care, it seemed to signal that another problem had been solved, climate change. and using the code in the book. because pellets is frozen over. kennedy and romney were standing side by side.

so it's interesting moment. something that you would note yo have expected. that's something that he ran on and the first-ever governor, but it was something that he saw looking at the data that wasachusetts probably was pretty uniquely able to deal with.th far fewer uninsured people here and in a lot of other states, and he also viewed it, quite frankly, as his signature achievement would help him run for president by after he signet health care legislation. he walked across boston common, went to the ritz carlton hotel to meet with advisers from iowat that he hoped would help run his presidential campaign in the t iowa caucuses. so clearly something that he felt would be important and thar he also the would be very helpful politically. >> host: and the massachusetts constitution require a balanced budget for the state? taluest: you know, i know he talks about the balanced budgetd not being a statehouse reporter i don't want to say the wrong answer of the top of my head,

but he talks about having balance the budget. >> host: my question would bee did you more frequently chooseco to balance it by cutting cutting government grants and services or raising taxes? >> guest: certainly there was a lot of controversy over some of the statements about fees because he did raise a number os these and so forth. he doesn't like to call them tax hikes. other people would say if you're raising and a half to pay is the same differences attack site. but he did a combination. it's only fair to say. he worked with the legislature, 85 percent democratic. you know, you have to make. compromises, the pragmatic and decamps simply come in and say i am the ceo bet i will tell you what to do.willl he did have to work with theseot folks. he was not the glen handing politician or you would know everyone's name as to how your hed is doing. he was a very slight persong decidedo get this done when he healded that he could do health care. he sat down with the data and his advisers saying how can wed do this, where these funds

coming from. there were federal funds described in detail in the book, but there were parts of federal money that were available toel help make this happen that might in obe so easy to do in other states.were so it was a combination a of factors, the relatively lowow insurance rate and so forth, and it did not deal with a lot of the cost control issues that art still left to be done in givingt up legislation.: ♪ five more minutes. joining us from boston nexus. orlando. katie, a democrat. you're on. >> i would -- i have a questionn regarding mitt romney. how he proposes basically to wip over the evangelical vote in- florida or in other states. also, i am concerned regarding the crest it appears -- affairs regarding keeping checks and balances, the way the

constitution sets forth, checks how balances. how do we propose to keep our leaders held accountable by concerned citizens? patches to represent myself as e concerned citizen. i did get occupy wall street, only because i am a concernedtrt citizen. people are concerned about the state of affairs. >> guest: of surrey, to t questions, what was the first? >> host: are you still there? >> caller: regarding mittow whatey, how does he propose, aionis plan of action to win over the evangelical vote? >> guest: right.ht, good question.in t in the last campaign of 2008 are right about this quite a bit in the chapter. they went to great lengths because they certainly wereere concerned about the view that some christians have a mormon isn't. some christians don't believeele that moralism is true christianity. we knew this was an issue and would be important in the first caucus state of iowa. there is a scene and described in the book were a number of key evangelical leaders came to

romney's home here ine mitt massachusetts, sat down with'me thm, try to discuss with him how he would try to overcome this issue and went to great length and spent $2 million on the straw poll in iowa in 2008 in an fortrt to win there and make this issue go away.sugo he won the straw poll but then,n of course, he lost to mike huckabee lots we do to theto influence of your until of christians in iowa. i this time around it has been very different. basically their response on thia is that they have not set up committees to try to woo evangelical directly as they did last time.id lti when romney is asked about this he basically points to article the co the constitution and says there is no religionsus test for public office.igious not expecting that he would give a big speech like he did last about his fate. he has done that, and he hopedes that the main issue here is the economy. at the same time he is trying to reassure evangelicals that he is a very religious and faithful andand that he believes strongly in his fate and that they share common values.ai and

so he is trying to deal with ite that way. obviously south carolina to ma this is going to be an importann toctor. so we will see how that plays out. s has been something that he tries to deal with. d it has been an issue. is leseel it is less of an issue that was last time, but they art aware of polls that show a certain number of people may noo vote for a mormon just based on his religion, notwithstanding the clause in the constitution. >> host: we are talking about more menacing, the financial times has a story about it today. they're right many mormons practiced tithing, which involves giving 10 percent of their income to the church. the run the foundation has donated almost $5 million according to the new york times. a recent survey found that six in ten mormons of americans are uninformed about momism with 46 percent saying mormons faced a lot of discrimination. almost two-thirds said people were becoming more likely to see

more menacing as mainstream, and more than half said americans were ready for a mormon president. two-thirds of the mormons describe themselves as politically conservative, and three-quarters identify with or lean toward the republicans. that might be true, but we should not a very prominent democrats as a mormon, harry reid, the leader of the democratic senate.y we have a couple of minutes left an independent. hello. you're on. >> caller: i have a question for your guests regarding the 15% extra from basically dividend income. my question to your guest, how does he feel or explain our balance this against in comfort warren buffett mostly from dividends as well, and whose advice president obama took about his secretary paying more taxes than he does?y is

the other question was, in- history the white house chief of staff is a previous ban executive. how do you balance these twohowo positions, the percent and theba history for the white house chief of staff?ho and to close my comments, as aia citizen i have no wish to withth the president being a mormon. a thank you. >> host: thank you very much. ao this is our last call year.est: >> guest: sure. i have not reporter and the latter part of that question, to go back to the first part, thist is something there will be an i issue for governor romney if he is the nominee. his tax rate, like a said earlier, not surprising that het pays that because most of hise f gains are from capital gains,aia and the policy of this country is that capital gains are taxede a lower rate. there is a legitimate debate ait over whether that is appropriate , whether people like

that should be paying a lower tax rate.r as the caller mentioned, warren buffett has said this is not fair.he s his overall tax rate is 17%. he said that slower than his secretaries tax rate, and hed s called for that to be changed. you have one of the wealthiest and most respected people in thw country saying that is not right.s. you have other people saying this is legitimate and we need to because it's a different type ef income. it gets a little moreof in, i complicated because part of his benefit is also something called a carried interest, which is, unique in some ways to the private equity industry leveraged by an industry as he was in, so he benefited in manyw ways.ose in arguendustry would argue that all sorts of reasons why that should be kept. certainly there has been debatet i've read stories about it over the years where there are proposals to change there system is more equitable in the eyes of those who think thi there should notnk be that lower rate. some people believe that if you have a lower rate for capital ct gains it helps job creation.eat.

it will certainly be a majoror issue in the campaign regardlesf of whether ron the is the nominee. something that has been out there for quite a long time, and it will continue to be. >> host: we thank michael kranish for taking your calls and tweeds. taking your lots more in the buck. this is what it looks like. the 84 your time. >> guest: think you so much. >> your watching book tv on c-span2. forty-eight hours of nonfiction authors and books every weekend. >> so let's move now to the macintosh share. so much is going out. so much growth. and his personal corset begins. talk a little bit about that on-again off-again relationship. >> it was a bad mistake. i mean, it was almost like he sought him as of father figure or mentor. he really wanted to be cool and

hip and wanted his approval. it was for a while, you know, the famous line, the san remo apartment that he is thinking of buying. he brings up. be our ability over central park. he is demurring. and steve says, do you want to spend the rest of your life, because he was at pepsi, you know, selling sugar water or do you want to change the world. he comes. and he is a man of prep school sensibilities, great manners, very kind to my but he is hard -- it's hard for him to deal with conflict. i mean, that's it. he said, well, the price of admission to being with me is that i have to be able to tell your full of it. actually, work with two more letters. andy have to deal with some the

i'm full of it, and we're going to really do get out. and he was not the way. secondly, he was basically a marketer. you know, and having run pepsi u.s. he did not sit their worrying about the product. he was not fiddling with the formula for three dozen say i can make this insanely great. it was a marketing. and that the steve after a while felt that scully just did not give in to a hell awesome it was. and then it didn't help that he pressed it at almost 20500 ellis . it did not sell very well. microsoft started licensing out its copied versions of the graphical user interface and started dominating the computer business. and so i think the relationship was going fine as long as apple was doing fine. apple was a workhorse, making the money for the company, but the mac didn't.

and so there was a horrible falling out that culminates a memorial day of 1985. >> before we talk a little bit more about the falling out in the post a 85-ton, less talk about the invention of the macintosh itself. this is a point in the book where you insert the great famous quote from jobs, good artists, become a great artist steel, which she took from picasso. and then he would add, and we have always been shameless about stealing radius. that "is often associated with the genesis of the macintosh because xerox park. >> they take to visits to xerox park. as you know, xerox said, but the concept of the desktop metaphor, the graphical interface. more import lee the design meany's pixel on the screen to be mapped to bits in the microprocessor. and so you could make a

beautiful machine. uni our old enough to remember, and if you're not you could go into this museum to remember, you have to do the screen the fossil letters, c prompt with c : ??? whenever command. you know, it was god awful. and suddenly at time magazine beat the mac. you can click on the document. you can drag-and-drop. well, so i do a whole big section on both the visits and the misconception that they took the grass field interface. because it takes two years of the most amazing designers, including india and others on the team to take what -- the metaphor that xerox uses and to really make a great. the after member, xerox came out with the start two years before the match came out. it's all seven copies and all of america. i mean, it was a bad machine. what they did when they took

that metaphor was sick about kamala, take the bows with three buttons until the simplify it. you'll be all to click and drag and drop and double click and open things up. we will indent pulldown menus. and atkinson and vince clipping where you can have documents looking like they're on top of other documents or it looks like a messy desk top. so none of that was in the xerox original graphical interface. so i think first of all they take the xerox metaphor and actually make it insanely great. secondly, t. s. eliot's line, you know, they're falls the shadow between the conception and the reality, well, they were able to execute on it which xerox and others want to. but it is true that part of steve's genius was looking at a thousand ideas at any given point and saying that was great, this one sucks. we are going to ignore, but