joseph lieberman is, you know, introducing all these cybersecurity provisions that actually could lead to, um, some problems with people being tha erroneously cut off of the internet. so there's a real question about would the government be better able to protect us, or would th internet service providers andae the googles of the world.ervi and many people think that the internet service providers, comcast, verizon, whoever, have more of an incentive and more of the people who actually have the technological wherewithal to doe so. and so some of the claims of the need for a government monitorinr to prevent, you know, malicious viruses as a form of warfare ise less than one would think.er >> anthony, do you have a final thought?e .. say. >> is a great question because i

often look at the relationship at the cia has to do the rand has been very much apparel is the relationship the cia used to have but the soviet union. it took a long time for any of us in the civil set here to learn about the virus which was fascinating to me that it has happened to them and there is a delay and rumors that it was americana coming aside and russia and not kinds of things. no one in the no one in the government said anything until recently. the former cia director went on and gave an interview about it. if anyone is interested in my opinion and knowing what didn't happen just look at that interview. there is no way of the former director of the cia, he was current when that happened would tell you anything about what did happen. i believe he would tell you the opposite. he was speaking without you and me and iran. >> we have to wrap it up now and

thank you. [applause] >> now on booktv nancy gibbs and michael duffy report on relationships between sitting american presidents and predecessors. the world's most exclusive fraternity is often move by shifting elitists as one supporter is the next week's critic. this is about an hour. >> good evening, everyone. for those who have not had a chance to meet i have the honor of being executive director of the ronald reagan presidential foundation. it is a pleasure to welcome all of you here. in honor of our men and women in uniform who defend our freedom around the world please stand and join me for the pledge of allegiance. i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america

and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. thank you. please be seated. as i was preparing for the arrival of our special guest today, not that it has anything to do with them, but i ran into some depressing statistics. don't worry. this introduction will start on a low but it will end on a high. the stats that i ran into were all about who was reading books these days and how often. some of the numbers concerned me. don't hold me to them exactly as my source was the internet but they are revealing and even close they're tough to swallow. one third of high school

graduates never read another book for the rest of their lives. 42% of college graduates never read another book after college. 80% of u.s. families did not buy or read a book last year. i have to presume to the extent these people read their reading habits are confined to 140 character sweets, web logs, chats, instant messages and the occasional traffic sign. i think they are missing a lot. i say that because every once in awhile a team of truly talented writers will get together and write a get for all of us in a work that informs, educate and entertain all at once. that is the case with nancy dms

and michael duffy's the president's club. is a great book. we're here at the presidential library which happens to be the best in my opinion. handing out opinions having red nancy and mike's book i am sure there will not be a better book with such unique and interesting insights on the modern-day presidency published for some time. for me the ball past the i didn't know that test on every page. i didn't know president clinton respected president nixon or there was a presidential clubhouse where only presidents are allowed to say or that it was president reagan who talked president clinton how to salute. these really interesting

discoveries are handful of revelations throughout the book. nancy gibbs and michael duffy have the experience and awards and reputation to write such a wonderful book. with that please join me in welcoming nancy gibbs and michael duffy. [applause] >> thank you. we could stand. thank you for their ridiculous introduction. i want to start by saying in the five years we spent putting this book together we had many of discovery moments where we were

learning things we didn't know about the men we covered, reagan through george bush and clinton and obama. it was a real journey of discovery to say nothing about what we learned about hoover and truman and eisenhower and nixon and ford. we came away saying i didn't know that and for us it was a journey that continues and people keep telling us things we didn't know. in some ways ronald reagan was a bigger part of that story than we would have guessed because we first meet him in 1947. huang before his presidency. as we dug deeper and deeper into reagan's relationship with the club he had seen fdr and had

gone to a truman 100 in kansas city when he was still a democrat and would then be taken under the wing of ike when he was beginning his political career as a republican. i was struck by how is -- when we were coming up the driveway he saw over and over again all the presidents which is a reminder every person who served the commander in chief sees himself as part of a bigger club. let me enhance the picture. this was on the cover of time two or three weeks ago. it had never been published before and we were thrilled to put it on the cover. it really began a long time before george w. bush, barack obama and bill clinton with their to pick up the torch. it begins -- what year would you say? >> it begins when the president is in need of some serious help.

that is what it would take to bring together such an unlikely partnership as harry truman and herbert hoover. two men with nothing in common politically or personally, no relationship of any kind except for the fact the world was a very difficult, dangerous and challenging place in 1947 when truman is president. he is not one to stand on ceremony. he does not care that herbert hoover left washington as the most hated man in america with his motorcade being pelted with rocks and fruit and exiled completely. whenever anyone suggested to franklin roosevelt that hoover could be useful hoover knows a lot and he was a great humanitarian relief worker before he became president. he would say i am not jesus christ. i am not raising herbert hoover from the dead. harry truman was reading the report that said 1 hundred

million people in europe were at risk of starting because the continent had been so devastated. knowing how the roosevelt white house would react truman secretly males a letter to hoover saying would you be willing to come and talk to me and the two men meet. this picture was taken in may of 1945. truman is only an office a matter of weeks and they're suspicious of each other and whoever thinks nothing will come of this. with a year hoover has been given a staff and plain and sent by truman 55,000 miles around the world. he went to 22 countries and met with 36 prime ministers and seven kings and the pope. his mission was to move food from countries that had it to countries that needed it. in doing so these two presidents form this partnership that existed so far outside of policy

differences and political differences because they both were so committed to what needed to be done. that laid the foundation, the philosophical premise for what sometimes only presidents could do for one another and this is why when the two meet one another on the platform at eisenhower's inauguration and hoover goes to greet president truman and says we should form a president's club. truman says you be the president and i will be the secretary. that is the mythological foundation story. teasing each other on the platform except it turned out with each successive presidents become more and more real so eisenhower in 1957 and through an act of congress and office space and allowance and mailing privileges to the former president lyndon johnson grants them secret security, secret service security details and the use of presidential helicopters

and even a projectionist from the white house film library if they were being treated at walter reed and wanted to watch movies. richard nixon at the clubhouse as john mentioned. only one reporter in history set foot inside. >> when i asked the white house divided see the club house which is on jackson square i call up the press secretary who used to be my colleague and he said what building? i don't think we know anything about this. in 1969 richard nixon is president and he is getting cold constantly from the hill country of texas where and suddenly exiled lyndon johnson is going crazy. he has been sent home. his term is done and decides not to run for reelection and has not much to do. drinking from a fire hose for ten years and constantly calling the white house a not want to do stuff.

i need a plane, somewhere to stay. johnson was driving the nixon white house to such distraction that nixon said just get him out. get him a building. get him a place to stay overnight. young military aid, a colonel in the air force got this assignment and that tells you how i found out about the story. they basically take over a rundown town house that becomes the secret place where presidents can be, work and stay overnight until today. it has recently been renovated. i did recently get inside. it is four stories and very nice. the nicest four season you have ever stayed. you can't check in. only four people can do that. the fresh count on the sheets is a zillion. there's a lovely little ceo where if you with of the morning

and not sure what your real job was you can look down and go i used to be president of the united states. one of my favorite stories from the club, we love reading presidential biographies. we read on truman and lbj and there are lots of great reagan biographies. they are fun to read and treasured as sit down and curl up with but one thing we wanted to do is look at relationships because relationships are what are really interesting. one of the things we discovered by working with a reagan library and other archives is these two men were friends and allies long before reagan was president and long after i was. in 1965-66 when ronald reagan is beginning his career as an elected official running for governor of california and the immediately thinking about the presidency once he was elected

in california eisenhower in gettysburg is watching him. never met him, reading everything he can and watching him on television and in treat by reagan. he likes the optimism. he secretly begins to write letters to reagan's friends to help cope with the charge which in those days was reagan was too much of an extremist to represent the republican party. eisenhower at letters to reagan through middle men are astonishing. if there with a charge he had been too close to the john bushka society in 1960s with a spurious charge that kept coming up and eisenhower at script held press conferences for reagan to have. reagan should answer it this way. egos for several iterations of this through several letters and doing it while richard nixon is trying to seek the gop

nomination. very interesting prospect of eisenhower secretly helping reagan in 66-67-68 while reagan is looking at the gop nomination and richard nixon who used to be ike's vice president. >> his daughter is going to marry ike's grandson just so you have the full catalog. >> you understand it better. >> this is the bohemian grove. >> the club picnic. >> the club picnic. the thing that amazes us is how many of these relationships go back long before anyone is in politics. >> not sure who the man in the center is. does anyone know? this is the bohemian grove in summer of 1967-68. richard nixon on the left would meet herbert hoover at the grove. that summer nixon was giving the

big speech about hoover. he went to meet with reagan because reagan by now is actively seeking the 1968 nomination. he is beginning to attend primary sand pick up delegates. he has the right wing of the republican party completely back over. people like william f. buckley saying there's no one else to vote for except ronald reagan and here's richard nixon who thought he would have a stately walk to the nomination suddenly having to contend with this newcomer from california who he had met in 1947 when he was a young congressman. they have known each other for a long time and had correspondents in the year 1916s but by this time they are on opposite sides. as we found throughout the story would be friends and sometimes rivals before either of them reach the oval office. this is the picture most people

at walter reed. ike house >> we have these partnerships with reagan and nixon. presidents of the same party often have a more complicated time getting along with each

other than presidents of different parties and we see up to this day. with president obama and president clinton obviously their relationship got off to something of a rocky start. the 2008 campaign was bound to be hard on them. the thing that got to clinton most was the fact that during that campaign many of you will remember that when obama was invoking a model of presidential -- it was not the last democrat to manage to win two terms in the white house but the last to be published was ronald reagan who was the example of someone who set a clear vision for the country. not something obama agree with but what he was honored by was reagan knew where he wanted to take the country and bring the country along with him. and this was exquisitely calculated to drive bill clinton

that's. obama would talk about the clinton presidency in comparison. small and palfrey and the missed opportunity about small things. that is guaranteed not relationship to get to a great start. naturally after obama wins and appoint hillary clinton as secretary of state he sees a clean up. what money he is, where he is not allowed to give speeches, clinton goes along with it. he says it is hillary's turn but it really takes a while for these two men to find their footing at all and one of the things that happens and we see it happen to many presidents is once president obama has been in office for a while he realizes doing great big things is not easy. doing anything is not easy and suddenly the deals and

compromisess and maneuvers and things dismissed as clintonian and that is not a compliment and looking a lot more understandable. now we see in the newest obama campaign video directed by an oscar-winning director and narrated by tom hanks, stars appearing four times in 17 minutes, bill clinton. >> 2 republican primary where a lot of people running for president, we talked about this earlier today, when asked what they would do if they become president and they say i would do what ronald reagan did. the 2008 campaign and the democratic side with the big argument about ronald reagan which as nancy was hinting obama basically set of policies or more reagan than clinton never was an astonishing thing to happen on a presidential campaign. the second big rule is consolation.

these men come out with huge scars and big welts' even when they are successful. the thing that binds to flew from different parties after it was over makes them friends when they me suspect it is they come out with wealth and regrets and things they wish they could do over. no easy decisions as president and the ones that turn out well have misgivings. this is a famous picture from 1961. john kennedy's first trip to camp david. the first place named after ike's grandson. this was how many days -- literally eisenhower is taking kennedy to the woodshed. kennedy came into office and reorganize the white house around his own way of making decisions. he thought eisenhower's military hierarchy was not going to work.

more personal presidency and they had the bay of pigs and that is not working so well. eisenhower and kennedy meet. i tried to warn you can't organize the white house this way and kennedy said i am beginning to figure that out and he would change the way he did his decisionmaking. much more -- after they appear before the cameras and kennedy needed this picture as much as they needed talking to. and to have the old general there. but eisenhower didn't criticize kennedy in public. >> the following week a full congressional delegation of republican leaders made the pilgrimage -- and the bloom is off the rose of the kennedy administration and eisenhower said there should be no witch

hunt. it is important to support the president in foreign policy especially in dangerous times. does not become a partisan issue. >> very much like what happened three months ago. they bring this up after george w. bush left office and the club has its protocol. he went off the grid. he disappeared and the current president deserves my silence. was a classy thing to do. the vice president didn't take that approach. when he finally broke covered three weeks ago and made some gently constructive criticism of obama's tax and energy policy after a sentence or two he said i don't believe our country should criticize our president so the public role of presidents supporting the current one continues. a great picture. >> this is an amazing moment.

to texans. two men who worked closely together, johnson is majority leader, true republican democrat, the night of kennedy's assassination johnson is on the phone to eisenhower and set i have needed you for a long time. i need you more than ever now. next morning eisenhower drive from gettysburg to the white house to see johnson and sees kennedy's body lying in state and goes to see johnson and he writes out longhand here is what you need to call a joint session of congress and what you need to say because the world is watching. the country is traumatized. everyone wonders what will happen next. his basic advice is you need to promise to do everything in your power to push through kennedy's agenda which stalled in congress and wasn't going anywhere.

eisenhower is advising johnson to push it through. eisenhower did not like -- eisenhower believed at this moment what the country needed was a message of stability and continuity. for what johnson's presidency eisenhower played with off-camera roles where johnson would say can you make up a cover story why you need to be in washington to see me. i don't want anyone to think it is an emergency so come up with another reason to be here. i need to talk to you. there are meetings that in the white house and vietnam that eisenhower ran and jumped attendance and eisenhower ran the meetings. you are the best chief of staff i have got. >> that relationship is very interesting. johnson was so obsessed with ike

that every time he met him attended a reception with him, just so he could have physical evidence of our relationship with a man who then was the master. this is from a chapter i call three men and a funeral. this is when reagan sent these three guys to the funeral of anwar sadat in 1981 in a version of the plane just like the one in the other room one prior aircraft before that. none of these guys didn't like each other. there was not a lot of love lost between either of them. you can understand why. on the way back nixon peels off on his own secret mission. carter and ford who fought like ferrets are now all alone on the plane. nixon is gone, kissinger is gone. weird planeload and they become

friends. they have something in common. they need to raise money on their library. they realize they're both men of faith and tossed out of office before they would have liked and they looked around at the club and they knew reagan was president. we might be stronger together than we are apart. over the next 25 years ford and carter across party do 24 or 25 projects. they join forces and wrote a book together and they went oversees about 15 times. they promised in 1985 to give the eulogy on the other depending on who died first. a measure of friendship. in 2006, jimmy carter and rosalynn carter in the front row in years.

men who had fought heavily in 1976. the bonds are really special. do you want to take this one? >> you call this beauty and the beast? >> it is like hollywood never makes -- >> when clinton takes office after 1992, it only happened once before with lincoln's inauguration. there were five living former presidents who want his attention. and no one more than richard nixon. he practically standing outside the white house jumping up and down saying listen to me. he is calling and calling one thing clinton to talk to him so he writes a friendly op-ed about the promise of the clinton presidency. there's no word and somewhat tougher op-ed, these columns are going to be getting tougher.

>> the president of the united states -- >> finally clinton calls him, and nixon is incredibly shrewd and an extraordinary sense like a chess master of what was going on and what was going on in china. they become late night phone buddies. not just to talk about foreign policy and how to organize his day. he runs through the schedule. this is what i am doing. and he wanted to know if he was using it well. he is serving -- kind of a man -- so he was calling nixon which nixon loved not only because he was back in the game but 20 years later this was still an

impossible challenge. >> we interviewed clinton about this, he said one of his most prized possessions of being president was a letter nixon sent him a month before nixon died in march of 1994. nixon had just gone to russia. russia was undergoing huge change. he had gone with clinton to the structure. many foreign trips in this book. this was one of them. at an end of the trip nixon writes clinton a seven page single spaced letter. pieces have been released. we asked clinton if we could see it and he said no. he told something that was better. he said it is an amazing letter, hard-headed and smart. we said--he quoted something. how do you know? he said i read it every year. when nixon died in 1994 and the clinton white house announced

the death and clinton gave the eulogy he said a few weeks later he missed him the same way he missed his mother. similar. not the same. similar. i often find myself wishing i could pick up the phone and call him. >> it was a truly extraordinary thing we got to witness a father and son in the white house. what are the chances of that? if politics complicated family, is really complicated. the only thing more extraordinary than the fact the president george herbert walker bush got to see his son elected president is that he actually served as the father or surrogate father of more than one president. what we found incredible is the buddy movie of all time is the friendship that developed across party and generation between president clinton and the entire. family. they have a nickname for him. the brother from another mother.

>> back to this one. we get asked about this a lot. when the two plant to finally meet, the first daughter and son pairing of presidents since the early nineteenth century both men are overcome. they can speak. this is later in the day. was quite an emotional moment. a lot of people have asked us how much did. ii listen to. 1, how much did he ignore his advice? the reporting bears this out as much as people wish it were not true, that in some ways the sun was the converter to the father. through the gulf war which was a difficult time for the president, it was the younger man who would call the father up and say turn off the television. the older was concerned about the criticism as any father would be of his son. what xli decided early on was

his son had a lot of advisers but only had one bad. that would be the role that he would play which was probably the choice most fathers would make. easily misunderstood but simple when you think about it. this is not all kumaya. of the with the opposite would be but this is the earliest. >> these relationships tend to follow the twisting path. look at eisenhower and truman, architects of the postwar world they were closely and effectively together as they are trying to figure out america's role as the surviving superpower and stationing american troops in europe and selling reluctant american congress on the idea of nato. truman understood it would take

eisenhower's stature to get this idea to be accepted. they were so effective through those years immediately following the war that in 1948 truman says to eisenhower if you are thinking about running i will not only get out of the way but i will be your vice president. these men start with warm relations, eisenhower does run for president in all comes apart. it comes apart mainly over this act that truman concluded eisenhower was failing to stand up to and challenge the most extreme elements of his party and senator mccarthy and truman was furious about this. he called eisenhower a moral coward and started campaigning across the country saying eisenhower was unfit for the office and anyone who would not stand up to mccarty did not deserve to be president of the united states.

no surprise that on inauguration day eisenhower was so angry he refused to come to the white house to pick up truman to go to the inauguration. they barely spoke for about eisenhower's presidency. truman does not set foot in the white house but these relationships again, never that simple. they do find themselves mainly at funerals, particularly in november of 1963 when they share a limousine from arlington cemetery and the burial of president kennedy and start talking about their own burial plans and in that sort of shadow of their mortality small things fall away. the big fangs come back. truman turns to eisenhower and says you want to come in for a drink? they end up talking and reconciling and foe a friendship that turns into a feud turns back into a reconciliation

because ultimately what they both had been through once they knew as presidents was more important than the fight they had. >> that story had a happy ending. this one not so much. you have to tell this. >> i don't know if there have been tweet to political combatants more skilled and fighting for -- as richard nixon and lyndon johnson. the remarkable thing, you remember in the 1968 election johnson decided not to run for another term. all he wanted was to redeem his presidency, leave office as a peacemaker. he was determined there should be some kind of a break for. richard nixon had his own reasons for worrying that if there was a breakthrough in vietnam, not a good chance of winning that election. shortly before election day johnson discovers richard nixon's allies were secretly

sabotaging the peace talks. he calls this treason private we. what does he do about it? this is 1968. we have seen bobby kennedy assassinated and martin luther king assassinated and the democratic convention turn into a war zone and part of johnson's calculation was what it would do to the country to have an outgoing president accused of a major party candidate of sabotaging peace negotiations at the most delicate moment but it was an extraordinary moment of confrontation and johnson ultimately decides not to challenge nixon about it. very close. four years later you understand reasons nixon kept johnson happy. johnson during the transition showed nixon where the tape recorders were in the white house and one of the reasons nixon got a club house and why

he orchestrated johnson's birthday party and sent a jet to the ranch with briefing papers every week. he wanted to keep johnson in the tent. >> ladybird grove, special forces in california to pay homage to johnson. >> nixon won in a landslide and watergate gaining force. nixon calls johnson and that you might want to call friends from the senate and tell them to back off on this watergate investigation. or else we will reveal the fact that you were illegally surveying, eavesdropping on us in 1968 to which johnson said if you do that i will say what i learned when i was -- [laughter] -- in 1968. extraordinary moment of mutual

blackmail. how does this not blow up? in was two weeks later nixon inaugurated for his second term and two days after that lyndon johnson died of a heart attack. at that moment, that perilous moment in the history of the presidency there was no club. harry truman died at christmas. johnson died in january. nixon is all alone. >> this picture tells you all you need to know about how goerge herbert walker bush is feeling. not every president gets along with members of the other party. jimmy carter had been a challenge for all of them. probably because it is in carter's nature to be my way or the highway kind of guy. he had another challenge. he left office at the age of 56 or 57 and jimmy carter becomes the longest living ex-president in american history.

31 years, eight month and 21 days surpassing herbert hoover's record. that is not an easy burden to bear. part of -- he worked hard at his second career and invented the modern post presidency. when he got out of office he was depressed. wasn't sure what to do. he was confused. i have a long life. this is going to be hard. writes some books and start doing charitable stuff. he has done huge amounts of things that at home and overseas in the last 31 years won the nobel prize and also has a way -- auld presidents have turned to him except george bush, clinton and george w. bush and obama have sentiment for emissions of every kind and he has delivered the goods that has a tendency to go off script. this was a classic moment at the funeral of scott king in 2005-2006.

not sure when. carter used to criticize the other man's sun. he does things like this. i feel my role as a former president is superior to that of other presidents. you need a black sheet. gibbs everyone else something to unite around. clinton would send carter oversees but when he did it the first or second time he wasn't sure it was going to turn out okay. understanding carter, you think it will be ok, don't you? the last thing to talk about is the club worked to unite win the presidency is in crisis. the presidency is more important than a president. in politics today which don't work very well, one thing that has to be functioning and powerful anti effective is the presidency. >> this is where we see them

most willing to put self-interest and party interest and political interests of side and bling together and make common cause around a larger purpose. we see it with truman and hoover where of all people to completely reorganize the executive branch why on earth would truman signed off on herbert hoover chairing what is known as the hoover commission? this is a guy everyone assumes will dismantle the entire new deal superstructure of government. what truman knew by this time was hoover had been president in a moment of national crisis and he knew that a president needs the tools to be able to meet a crisis and especially in the postwar nuclear age having those was more important than ever and truman trusted hoover to do a reorganization that would empower the presidency and the great gift they gave to all the

presidents to organize and rationalize the executive branch in a way that presidents could function better and the fact that hoover strengthen the presidency at a moment to was occupied by democrat made no difference. in the course of gathering the information for the hoover commission hoover found out so much that was wrong and wasteful in government that if he had let any of it be known in the 1948 election it is easy to imagine reporters at the time said it is amazing hoover didn't leak any of this. kept it to himself. kept his larger role to make sure the presidency was strengthened for all the presidents who followed. >> across party all the time. >> we see it again when hoover and eisenhower advised richard nixon not to challenge the results in 1960. as close as that was, as many accusations of funny business. within 15 minutes eisenhower and hoover both say to nixon it

would not be good for the country. you stand out. >> overseas -- >> we needed a much smoother -- a smoother transition of power was an essentials model america represented around the world. having a prolonged battle. >> just the fact the we haven't talked about gerald ford much, he played the role in a number of points of trying to protect the presidency. the pardon of nixon which he realized his presidency could not begin until the matter was taken off the table and later he would try to rescue bill clinton from impeachment in 1998. prior to working behind the scenes a series of phone calls to get clinton to admit he lied and work away from impeachment and in the end couldn't convince clinton of that but he worked hard to make that happen.

this is the famous meeting at century city. these two men -- most people don't know if they actually met. first in 1983 when president reagan invited all the governors to the white house so both bill and hillary clinton. there's a picture of them with -- am i right? that is the only other time. this is not the place to make a mistake about that. that picture exists and this is the other picture which we found lately in the time life archives. it is a great story. century plaza, late november of 1992, for the inauguration tour he pays a courtesy call on ronald reagan. they have polite conversation about things every president would agree on like line-item veto and tighter budgets and at one point clinton asks any other

advice? president reagan says you got to get to camp david and get out of that building. it is good for the sole to get out of the mountains. it was advice bill clinton didn't really take until he realized a year or two into his presidency the need to get out of the house. the other thing president reagan had been watching president clinton during the campaign and found his salute a little wimpy as john was too kind to say. it is not a sharp crisp salute. president reagan had been in the military and played many roles of military officers. clinton asked reagan to show him how to do it so the two men had a brief saluting clinic in the century plaza and it reminded me it was eisenhower who taught kennedy to press a couple buttons on the phone and make a quick getaway by helicopter and

was johnson who taught nixon where the tapes were though johnson may have had a scheme up his sleeve about that. not just matters of policy that the men who are commanders in chief have. a former president had a particularly keen understanding of the world public perception plays in leadership not just of public officials the private ones. very important. clinton didn't learn that and he would come to salute every time he got off the helicopter as president reagan had done and it was passed further when george w. bush went to visit clinton when president clinton was leaving office and george w. bush asked clinton and said to him you didn't be -- to infuse the such a great speaker. clinton had given a horrible speech at the 1988 democratic convention and he said do you have any tips how to give a good speech? the president's club functions on levels both high and very

practical. >> ultimately what struck us is of all the rules and rituals and souvenirs and clubhouse the thing that makes it most real is this notion that the office itself is more important than the individuals who occupy it. we kept hearing this again and again particularly when one administration gives way to another. in january of 2009 president bush summoned the entire club membership to the white house to meet the new guy. he said at the time to president obama we all want you to succeed. those of us who have been in this office know that the office transcends the individual. what michael and i took away from this research was seeing these are men who are fiercely ambitious. they play a men's role in our country's history. they all are haunted by history

will remember them. they have deep, strong agendas themselves. yet over and over again we also saw them set those agendas aside or move past them and find their own interests a larger interest that brought them together and brought them together to do great and important things for to do small but highly important work of just helping each other because it is a very hard job. not a job they can complain about. they all fought much of their lives to get the job but once they do it there is something that comes up again and again where jefferson called the splendid misery. buchanan called the presidency a crown of thorns. truman referred to the great white jail that is the white house. it is a very difficult job and even the ones who do it successfully can be wounded by it and their burden from having

done it. and the one thing they want one another to know is basically i get it. you can call me. i understand. i know how hard is. that is what we saw here and through history and is a model may be that many of us can take a back with us in whatever role we are operating. so thank you very much. we would be happy to take your questions. [applause] >> nancy and michael have been gracious enough to allow some questions. all i ask is if you have a question you raise your hand. we have people who have a microphone. is with a microphone get in your hand and we start right over

here. >> is there such a situation with the first lady like the president? >> it is so interesting. a lot of people have been curious about that and what we all have seen is first ladies are especially aware if you're trying to raise children in the white house and it seems to be mainly girls lately. there were the johnson girls and the nixon girls and the bush girls and the obama girls. as the mother of girls is a wonderful glorious challenge trying to do it in the bright white light of the white house would be especially challenging. hillary clinton talked-about how it was to raise children in the spotlight. lucy johnson told us that there is -- the reason first families to criticize each other. not that we are wonderful people.

it is that we understand how difficult it is. there is a kinship among the first families. there is a marvelous picture we saw in the library of six first ladies together. sir lee there is a bond between them. they're having a unique experience. having said that, the semi-official infrastructure of the president's club is unique to presidents. i suspect it will not be long before it is no longer an all male club. for the time being we haven't seen any equivalence outside of the presidents themselves. >> another question here. >> the photograph of the 16 and 17-year-old bill clinton chasing the hand of kennedy. is there any evidence bill clinton met lyndon johnson he would have been a college

student around that time, are there any photographs? >> we ask clinton this because i suspect if he had a chance -- >> in his office. in president clinton's office is a signed picture of lyndon johnson that had to be 40 years -- >> the story is great. clinton reviewed robert caro's book which we felt was an excellent club idea and we supported it as co-authors. in 1972 clinton is cast by george mcgovern to run texas which adds lost causes go is one of the grace lost causes. texans for mcgovern. hopeless. who was the only ally they felt they had? lyndon johnson except he wasn't

sure eager. that they comes when the government and tom eagleton go to the ranch and he might not be the best vice-presidential candidate. bill clinton, co-chairman of texans for mcgovern and taylor branch eventually be clinton's direst talk about which one accompany the government and eagleton to the ranch? clinton loses the coin toss the taylor brings back from the meeting which did not go well a signed picture of lbj. that is as close as clinton got to meeting lbj. was great about the american presidency is we all remember when or if we saw even a motorcade going by so ronald reagan remembered he saw fdr on the back of a train in iowa.

i think it was doubling and truman as i mentioned before so everyone has their creations story but clinton never met lbj. he said history will be kinder to him. that is what they all hope for. right over here. >> the implication that "the president's club" is unique to american democracy. are there similar models in europe or other democracies? prime ministers of britain? >> what is amazing about the president's club in america. i read a story yesterday in the new york times, it was inevitable nicolas sarkozy would be defeated because he wasn't it typically french president. the french like their presidents grandfatherly and cool and entire american. nicolas sarkozy was none of those. he wasn't grandfatherly or cool.

that reminds me when we go to this picture -- go back -- nothing in common about any of these guys. a classic american story. we elected presidents who don't begin to fit in the same old. the following 5 would be serve justice did interview added reagan and nixon and johnson and kennedy. this speaks to our own makeup and widely different backgrounds. a quintessentially american thing. they all came out of clubs. would have to create them. no club would have these as members in america. they're too different. it is a quintessentially

american thing. >> did you talk to the presidents and what was there take a new book? >> we talked to clinton and the first president bush and president carter. i interviewed the second president bush before we were working on this book and asked about his view of his predecessors. i was asking club questions before i knew there was a club. we were grateful for the help they were willing to give us. this is a pretty intimate group. there are lots of things they will not talk about and that is as it should be. i think we got a lot of help from them and from people who served multiple presidents and had a chance to compare the way they function and do they rely on and when they reach out and

how this inner circle works. >> time for one last question. right here. >> are there security levels such that the present president cannot discuss certain levels of information with other presidents? >> i think if you were going to tell anyone outside the tight circle that exists the former president -- george herbert walker bush sent a monthly newsletters, not monthly but secure phones and all the ones turned them down. a lot of people who use the the president want to get away a little and had enough of that secure world stuff. i gave that up for something better and different. i don't think there is a real downside to telling those guys