many people know that it takes time and the economy runs in cycles and oftentimes no matter who is in office you can't do so much. that is still a challenge he will face now but i think he is running that same type of campaign mixing old media with new media and even though job approval is not where he would like it to be, clearly he is likeable and i think his personal likability, he is still trying to write on that and socialist. i think clearly the democratic coalition that i talked about, that coalition, i think that is still there. i think a lot of people are not really sorted paying much attention to that but if you look at the latino vote, there is a large gap now between governor romney and president obama. if you look at the african-american vote, still think that's going to be extremely high for president obama. i think young people largely,

that vote is going to run high for him as well as women. i think women and women's issues, if you look at those issues, they are going to be supportive of him. i think ultimately it is going to be much tighter race than it was last time but i still think that given that coalition i think he still may prevail. >> for information on this and other cities visited by c-span's local content vehicles visit c-span.org/local content. >> syndicated radio host hugh hewitt presents his criticism of the obama administration. he contends that the president's tenure has been defined by lack of preparation and poor decisions. this is just over an hour. [applause] >> thank you sandy. when i came out to california in

1989 to oversee the construction of the library for president nixon, the first person i turned to us sandy plan, and i was 20 at the time when i took over the library. sandy was 30 at the time, so we have grown up together around the library and is so wonderful to be back. i'm glad you mentioned my friend larry elder and mike gallagher. mike's book is going to be tremendous great bestseller so if you have the chance come back and sing mike. mike isn't that are forming in memphis the weekend after next. i'm going to go and see them play in memphis which i think is going to be at the pantages. he is a wonderful speaker. if you have never seen mike, come out to hear him and you mentioned larry elder. larry and i are friends. i like to point out that larry elder, and cho coulter and i are all graduates of the university of michigan law school.

different years. larry is older than i am. [laughter] ann was a little bit younger than i am but the three of us graduated from the law school. not one of us has been invited back to campus to speak. go figure. [laughter] three nationally syndicated talk-show host with a lot of audience and none of this has been invited back to ann arbor. every five years i meant that -- invited back to harvard to be the person at the stone and whenever my classes of union and one that is coming up i'm always asked to debate marred here and who's a very good friend of mine and president clinton's deputy chief of staff and director of his peace corps communications director in default patent -- deval patrick and grover norquist. it's like groundhog day. every five years before the sit down in front of our class and grover and i are the only two conservatives that got out of harvard in 1978 and the rest of us, they just throw things at us so it's much more fun to be here

at the nixon library been going back to harvard. i also had to to tell you to meet the present series was very good. for going to come back in november. that is than we are doing william henry harrison. it's a very short program. [laughter] you don't want to miss that one. william henry harrison, i'm such a presidential nerd. i visited his tomb. his tomb is in a small town along the ohio river in southeastern ohio and it has an eternal flame which may have been on for decades and no one has noticed. it has a two-car parking lot that really -- it really does. you have to go out of your way to visit the tomb of william henry harrison. he was a great american, he just didn't doubt last very long in the presidency. that will give you some other trivia as well since we are at the nixon library and those of you watching on c-span if you haven't been to the nixon library, it's a remarkable place. i have never met anyone who has been here who did not think it's an extraordinary visit

regardless of their politics. they may have voted against nixon five times which only one other person in the history of united states that vote for or against him five times and that was franklin delano roosevelt. so if you are a national audience and watching c-span come to the nixon library and you will find a great deal of information. here's my presidential trivia. therefore colleges in the united states which graduated presidents and starting quarterbacks in the super bowl. what are those? you are thinking that right now and i will give you the easiest one of all. the united states naval academy and jimmy carter. that is pretty easy, right? and then in the university of michigan which i already mentioned. gerald ford and tom brady and of course the starting quarterback for the navy who was roger star box and if you think california, it's pretty easy to come up with

stanford from which herbert hoover graduated, from which jim puckett and john denver graduated within the last one is really hard. really hard but i have given you a clue. i have already said his last name. it's benjamin harrison who matriculated at miami university of ohio and whose quarterback of course is ben rothensberger of that team from pittsburgh that shall not otherwise be name. that is a little presidential trivia for you and i also give a little nixon story when i come back. you will hear me talk about the practice of law. when the library was being built and sandy knows this as well as i do, the real director of the nixon library was richard nixon and he designed it and he oversaw it and every detail was of interest to him. probably the thing he was least interested in was the room which isn't even here anymore, the

domestic policy room, which has been redone. the kind of slapped it together at the last minute and one of those exhibits was about the endangered species act. president nixon as you may or may not know signed into law the clean water act, the clean air act and the national environments of policy act and the endangered species act. i've been for 22 years an environmental lawyer practicing in the area of nepa but especially the endangered species act in the clean water act. after couple of years of practice in the area i knew it was a screwed up law, terrible law. it doesn't work, doesn't save species, it destroys lloyd's and opportunities and property. i said to them back in new jersey one day what were you thinking when you signed this law? he said, seemed like a good idea at the time and that was the full extent of president nixon's consideration of the endangered species act. so i say that more as a justification for oversight. i do mention as it began to talk

about this book, "the brief against obama" that it's informed by my three careers which sandy mentioned. i'm a radio talkshow host and also a law professor and a lawyer. i'm a law professor around here at chapman university school of law where i've been a member of the faculty for 15 years since we opened the doors, teaching constitutional law as part of a truly extraordinary faculty and the law school over 15 years have gone from not affiliated, not existing to the top or second top tier of the united states law schools. it is led now by dean tom campbell and extraordinary scholar and a wonderful leader for law school and it's an enormously diverse place effectively they goes from the left to the right to center. graduates are not practicing law all across the united states and pass the bar at an extraordinary rate. it's a great place to teach law but i wrote "the brief against t obama" with effect in mind that i have got a lot of liberal

friends among my colleagues on the faculty. law professors are quite compulsive about the level of their scholarship so that when you write something that you want to have available to your colleagues it's got to be overwhelmingly documented and footnoted sewing in "the brief against obama" there are 45 pages of footnotes and 235 pages of text. when i tell you anything to make a statement about the president tonight in about his record you will find in "the brief against obama" and this documentation that takes you exactly to where you can find the facts that i cite and the quotations that i put forward in the arguments that i make a cassette have in mind that when chapman law school reconvenes in a few weeks here i will be the copy of the book and each of my liberal colleagues dell boxes and see their head spin around a little bit. we are actually wonderful faculty and we stand back-to-back and there are 50 of the other ones, 50 liberals into

conservatives and that's about there. i just wanted to make sure that it would stand up to the most rigorous analysis. the second part of it though is i'm a lawyer as sandy mentioned. we have been practicing law for many many years. by pratt the endangered species law i'm not a trial lawyer. i do some apollo work but it's mostly administrative love of my partners are all trial lawyers and they bring trial lawyer sensibility to our arguments. how many of you are trial lawyers here? i usually have lawyer show of. are there any trial lawyers who? they indeed are not normal people. [laughter] trial lawyers are aggressive, fact-driven, argumentative. they like the confrontation and my colleague, gary belinsky and janet hickson and elizabeth nolte and especially tim cook, they are all tremendous with skills and all her young associate trial lawyers. i began this book i sitting down

with gary because gary is among the best trial lawyers in the united states. he was hired by the biggest corporation in the united states to represent a -- their product or service. he has to persuade juries all the time of the correct is that his arguments. i was interested in writing a book, "the brief against obama" that would persuade people to correct some of my arguments, not merely to fire up the truce but to persuade the independent voter or the undecided voter or wavering democrat or waving republic in one way or the other, that they really ought not to vote for president obama. i want to read you from page two in the "the brief against obama." quote if you make a promise in your opening statement gary told me you had better have kept it for the jury will hear about it in closing arguments. gary continues, gary belinsky one of the countries most accomplished trial lawyers in

the manufactures of automobiles and voter cycles, medical devices, sporting goods and consumer devices where americans are sadly sometimes severely injured and sometimes even kill. gary is also my law partner so we know how hard he works to when and how patient he is in the stimulation of facts via discovery and the interrogation of experts and witnesses. he loves to go to trial when lesser hearts want to settle and he is furniture -- for version version client to know they have done no wrong to press onto a jury. the gary loves juries. he believes nowhere in the world is there a better model than the american civil justice system. he loves the jury selection process and the variety of potential jurors doing their civic duty day by day. how many of you by the way have served on a jury? hardware, thank you offer showing up. facts matter to juries gary wolinski is fun to say.

promised to show them the facts and exonerate your client and you show them those facts and you have a great chance of winning. it is that simple. the idea of a fair trial that has been drilled into every juror for the lifetime of the media and the judge hammers home and already deeply embedded idea doing one's duty by the republic. last paragraph, if you have the facts you when. if plaintiffs counsel has the facts, he wins. if either of you overpromise the one that fails to deliver will lose provided his opposing counsel make sure that jurors know that they have been cheated. you cannot hope to cheat the jury gary said, but you promised you have to deliver. i put that on page two. much to my regret because whenever i'm with gary he said he wrote the book now. [laughter] at but one page out of the book and that's a trial lawyer for you. i put that they're because of the way i approach this. i wanted to write a book that

would persuade people not to vote for president obama and i knew it had to be fact-based because of my background that i knew it had to be argumentative and i knew i had to make it work for the independent people who are not otherwise exposed to -- disposed to agree with me and therefore a console that a trial lawyer and he said if you overpromise and you don't deliver you lose. so what i did to begin this book, "the brief against obama," as i went back and made a long list of all the promises president obama made, all of the predictions that he put forward and all of the polemics that he used. each chapter of the 25 chapters ends with a quotation or a series of quotations from president obama, not later -- not earlier than 2007. i'm not interested in what he did is he young men and i'm not interested in a biography. i am interested in what he promised to do as a candidate and what he predicted would be due as a result of his

candidacy. in fact he is a serial failure when it comes to delivering on its promises and therefore i don't believe he is owed your voter anyone's vote waste upon what he said he would do and did not do. based upon what he predicted and what happened and did not happen in based upon what was in fact the most hyperpartisan set of rhetorical devices that we have seen in the modern presidency. i'm going to come back on "the brief against obama" in a moment that i want to talk about another book before he do that. this is a book that i wrote in 2007. a mormon in the white house. things that every american should know about mitt romney. i wrote this in 2007 thinking that romney would be the nominee and i wrote it with a great confidence that if he was you is going to win and with a bold prediction that john mccain could not win the presidency. based upon the fact that he was a great american but a lousy

republican in a terrible senator. i was sadly correct. senator mccain remains a great american but he was a terrible candidate and not only was he a terrible candidate in the middle of a crisis but probably the best -- with an incumbent president which was penned wrongly and the republican party when it fact it goes back to democratic housing policies of 20 years duration. nevertheless i wrote in the book at romney would make a great presidential nominee. when i wrote "the brief against obama" i didn't know the nominee was going to be. i assumed it would be romney. there a couple of references in the book but it's not a book about romney. i do want to say that i was proven remarkably prescient by the 2007 book so much so that when i got a call in month ago from the new yorkers, nick lemon, nick is the dean of the colombia school of journalism and the political reporter and

always their go-to guy for national political stories. nick called me up because he profiled me in 2005 for "the new yorker" and was a very nice piece, sort of. he told his democratic reader said hugh hewitt is the most influential conservative that you have never heard of. okay. [laughter] that's okay i guess because i don't really speak to the manhattan crowd or "the new yorker" crowd. how many of you subscribe to "the new yorker"? i rest my case. there is one back there. i did too. nick was saying to his audience you have to follow what hewitt has to say in the rough is very nice profile but he remembered i'd written this book about romney said he called me up about a month ago and he said well what do you think about romney now? heavy read the book lacks no i haven't. go back and read the mormon in the white house and then calmly that are go he did and called me back in about a week and i said alright what you think of the book? we talked about it and in fact i made predictions about this campaign which have it comes to

be true about how they it would be his greatest vulnerability. i am quite confident that he is desperate and primarily with the book was about was the enormous capacity that mitt romney has and i want to begin tonight by saying the only reason i thought president obama could win re-election based upon the work i complete in "the brief against obama" is if we republicans, and i say we, i am a republican, if they nominate a terrible candidate. if they nominated someone who would not win the confidence of america. luckily we have nominate an extremely well-qualified individual who is ready to be president on the first day. i think that is becoming very very obvious. budnick asked me to summarize it so i want to summarize with an example, and it don't know if it's going to make it into "the new yorker" piece in october but i wanted to tell you what i

think -- why i think romney is such a good nominee. one example, we are now in the process of seeing the olympics unfold and they are marvelous and extraordinary and it's always fun to watch the let the games whether it's winter or summer. when that romney was asked to take over the hobby games in 1999, it they were scandal plagued and they were broke. they run efforts of cancellation they had no sponsors. not only did they have no sponsors, no one wanted to be near them because of the scandal. it was a nightmare and disaster. three years later in the 2002 olympics were an enormous success. 70 countries sent about 2000 athletes to participate in 72 events across 20 venues each one that had to be built and supervised i romney. he was almost -- also -- this was after 9/11 so there was a huge security issue involved the

state government of utah many local jurisdictions through utah because the venue was not a one city and not just those jurisdictions but the international olympic committee began a olympic committee the olympic committee of each of the 70 nations participating in the organizing committee of each of the sports that were involved. in addition to that you have all of the sponsors that you have to nullify and the international media and an audience of the billion people. at the end of those games, everybody saluted me at romney for his organizing ability. everybody was happy in the 2002 olympics which came from the edge of despair and disaster to an enormous internationally recognized success. we need that kind of capability. i think by the way that kind of capability will be displayed increasingly throughout this campaign as it was in the veterans of foreign wars speech in on the speech from israel and has been discriminated -- and has been demonstrated to be the plan unfolding about time and

the people who are concerned about the campaign thus far to say he he is not aggressive enough and i've said to them repeatedly it's a campaign with 100 plus days left in it. those numbers are getting fewer and fewer and you don't pull out all the stops until it's time to pull out all the stops. that is after the convention so i'm very confident in -- confident about romney and here's why i'm confident about the election. we have it terrible record is his as is documented in the belief -- "the brief against obama" and we have electoral dynamics which i think are very strong in favor of the republicans. let me explain that. in order to win the presidency you have to win 270 electoral votes. those 270 electoral votes, two-thirds of them are pretty much decided. we know for example that texas is going to vote for mitt romney and we know that new york and california are going to vote for president obama. we just know that. that is -- national polls don't even help you very much.

national polls are almost beside the point in that they include people from states in which are not anyway competitive. what we know is that there are 10 key states and three knots of key states. up those 10 key states we know that indiana and north carolina are certain wins from at romney. democrats will try and tell you oh no we are going to win north north carolina. it isn't even close. yes president obama wanted in 2008 but is traditionally red state. they had and enormous turnout in its african-american population that it won't be able to replicate. i'm simply not worried about north carolina. and indiana is the reddest of red states. that was a temporary stroke on the national scale. it hit indiana voters. put those two in romney's column so you're getting closer to those 270. romney has to win really four plus one. he has to win these four states

that i'm about to mention, florida, ohio and virginia, excuse me, three states, florida ohio and virginia plus just one more of the following, pennsylvania, wisconsin, new hampshire, iowa and colorado. those are fundamentally favorable electoral dynamics. i want to walk through the specifics. in 2000 president obama won florida by a grand total of 237,000 votes. president obama won ohio by a grand total of 250,000 votes. he won virginia by a grand total of 232,000 votes. pennsylvania was kind of a wipeout. pennsylvania was carried by president obama by 620,000 votes. wisconsin, a smaller state than ohio, smaller state than florida, bigger folk margin, wisconsin was carried by 210,000 votes for president obama. new hampshire went for obama by

60,000 votes, smaller number but smaller state. iowa went for obama by 146,000 votes in colorado went for obama by 150,000 votes. i could total facelle up and they total up to 2 million votes. for mitt romney to win the presidency he has to change about 1 million mines. he has to take 2 million of those voters and change 1 million of their mines. it's actually fairly easy to do. it's a very small number. do you realize in the campaigns we spend approximately $2 billion on each side, more than $2000 per fod will be spent on influencing those 1 million votes. into those campaigns and in three other states matter little bit. michigan, nevada and new mexico. if mishkin comes home for its home state son romney, the election is over. nevada and new mexico are very difficult to imagine going for romney at this point. they might do a landslide and i

think they will but that is not where we bet the farm. here is how you get to the romney 270. he is going to win florida and i know you follow the polls some of you do -- is -- it shows neck-and-neck romney had a couple of points and a bad sophisticated polling romney significantly ahead in florida. he is not going to have to put marco rubio -- marco rubio but if it is its lock stock and barrel. it's growing more so as republicans continue to increase the population from the northeast into florida. ohioan which is my home state is pretty easy for me to predict the is that go there a lot and i have been going there on thursday for five days and i try to stay in touch not with political elites in columbus go governor kasich is a wonderful governor bad like to talk to him but i like to talk to believe it or not people and warn all tied -- warren ohio my hometown. they are going to vote for mitt

romney because they want the oil and natural gas industry which has begun to revive the state, to continue unimpeded and it spread of wealth and jobs. the first new to steel plants in ohio have opened last for years and produce piping for the fracking industry which president obama wants to shut down. a ohio was not going to vote to give up its jobs by turning them over to the epa. if rob portman is a member of the ticket that will solidify the ohio vote but that means ohio is a solid yes vote for the president. what is the hardest of those three states? virginia is a hard state to predict. virginia's the home of the good senate campaign by george allen against a very good democrat tim kaine. both of them are former governors. dortch allen of former senator. there is a large veteri and reservists vote in virginia. he is definitely gets a military and cutting what ought to be in the 13 -- 313 ship navy.

cutting 20,000 marines and 80,000 army and another 20,000 sailors and airmen from the rolls. he is canceled the f-22 and numerous other weapon systems. he is messing around with military pay, military benefits and military retirement and that should put that romney over the top in virginia. but it's a close date because of the fact that the least recession impacted state in the union is virginia. the reason that virginia is the least impacted state in the union is because the only industry that has been a growth industry in the last four years is the government and there is no recession in washington washington d.c.. i go there quite frequently. there are trains all over the city. the place is awash in money and its employment statistics are better than the rest of the country because we spend and spend other states money in washington d.c. and that has an impact in the northern virginia suburb's. virginia is going to be a catfight and a lot of people have overlooked governor bob mcdonnell as the possible vice

presidents nominate along with that romney. i don't but i think he is probably going to give virginia anyway so i'm feeling good about those three states. he needs just one more. from all the other states combined pennsylvania, wisconsin, new hampshire, colorado nevada and new mexico. he needs one more state. can he get that? yes, easily. i am personally optimistic about pennsylvania. if anyone has been watching in philadelphia or pittsburgh or anyplace across pennsylvania, if pennsylvania when the polls close at 7:00 on election night 4:00 our time if they can't call in for barack obama immediately mitt romney has won the election, not in pennsylvania but nationally. if they can call it for him immediately that means -- you will know at 4:00 in california whether or not that romney is going to be the president because if they can put pennsylvania into that column it's over. if they can put it in the romney column it's not over.

it's not only not over its 1980, it's a wipeout which i believe is very possible as ann coulter as well as a number of pundits out there, we believe the president is stuck at 44% in the gallup which is the granddaddy of them all and you can get any further. there is nothing absent an international crisis and i will come back to that but absent toms following gory war breaking out somewhere, don't know how he can recover with 44%. no present republican or democrat has done so. at this point in the campaign in 2004 george bush was at 48%. he had been 1.lower three weeks earlier at 47%. 47% as the lowest george w. bush went in 2004 and then he climbed steadily back up so he got to 54% before the election. in 1996 when bill clinton was running for re-election at this point in the campaign he wasn't at 44%. he was at 54% approval.

that is the 10% difference president obama has so destroy the confidence of his own party and independent smack that he is lacking 10 points behind where bill clinton was. he is in terrible political cheybenne for reasons i will review here shortly he is going to get worse before it gets better for him. i personally believe that 44% as a ceiling, not a floor. that is inflated. ..

bhied mid they're not going to vote for president obama. they are quite frankly scared of the machine. if you are a fan of chick-fil-a you know what i'm talking about. [laughter] [applause] so -- [applause] interestingly enough, there is a potential vice president pick. it you picked chris christie romney was making a huge play for the new jersey market. it is heavily -- chrisy plays well in the philadelphia suburbs and plays a national game very

well. extraordinarily strong figure not like loy to be the vice president nominee if that means that means they are going forbroken pennsylvania. tim pho less thanty will be the vice president nominee. minnesota is a far reach far republican candidate. in 1984, that was walter's home state but governor pawlenty twice elected there has the potential to put minnesota in play in the enormous appeal in iowa and wisconsin and the ability to connect with people that is rare along elected officials on television and radio. he is the best that is out there. i've interviewed him scores and scores of time. senator portman makes ohio a lock. senator rubio makes florida a lock and can play plague quite effortlessly in the spanish language campaign which is

ongoing even as we speak on tell commune dough and the other spanish networks and spanish media across the united states. lots of americans who are latino descent who are absolutely citizens voters and listen to a lot of spanish television and radio, and whether it's spanish radio to have a candidate who is fluent in spanish is a considerable advantage to participate in the campaign that we continue see as nonspanish speaking volters. senator rubio would have an enormous impact as would jeb bush who is famously fluent in spanish. ic at the end of the day rule one don't hurt yourself. win one state. it adds up to governor pawlenty or senator portman. a million vote necessary the ten states. i've already told you that i think mitt romney is extraordinarily well qualified and he's proving that speech after speech.

the o'speech in vale and israel foreign war was great. and the question is going to come down about the argument made about president obama it's not going to be an argument it's going to be about reminding people. when i set out to do the brief against barack obama. i how many you listen to the radio show? thank you. way to go! how many of you call the show? isn't that remarkable? i always people if you call the show, if i've been mean or nice? [laughter] i'm that's about four of out of 200 plus people who have actually called the radio show. come on, people, pick up the phone! it's a national show. in 100 cities. people can call from all over. when i got the idea we said what's the worst thing president obama has done? phones light up. they could have gone for a

couple of days. i made a list. no friend of israel yahoo! in the basement or didn't help the iranian revolution. or unemployment at such and such rate at such time. i made a long list. and i had aist will have more than 50 suggestions and i narrowed it down to "24" and the 25th chapter is a summary chapter. let me read you the table of cop contents. you need to buy the book so i'm not going go through all of them. the nightmare of obamacare. the failed stimulus. stimulus 2.0. the biggest spent thrift in history we. the community organize who collapsed housing. stwelling the ores ever unemployed. soaring gas prices. the dodd-frank head fake. the fast and furious debacle and cover-up. the president's attacks on catholics, congress, and the

constitution. standing by as iranians die abandoning israel to the fate. hallowing out of the american military. resetting the russian button. ignoring boarp. bowing to china. ignoring the north korean. arab spring. gitmo and the trials of terrorist. chicago ward healer. the unilateral rich of the anticonstitutional president. the tell prompter defense. and finally a number of rounds of golf he has played. and followed by the decline in despair rhetoric. it's a pretty good list. [applause] what i wanted to do is to put people with fun facts and i'm not going run through them i'll. in january of 2009, the president counsel and economic advisers put out a report that

the president later referenced that said that guaranteed that if the stimulus were passed, as it was, that unemployment would never rise above 8%. in fact, unemployment has never been below 8%. for forty-one months. that is a jagged record of incompetence that cuts at the heart, not just to the unemployed but the employed who worried a about the jobs and the family members who worry. how many of you know who has lost their job in the last four years? show by a raise of hands. almost nearly universal 100%. it didn't have to happen. it was a choice that was made not intentionally with the effect of raising unemployment to the highest state levels since the great depression but an intelligence choice that resulted in the that many people

told him would result in that. fun fact part two. 878 billion spent on the stimulus. can anyone point to anything that it built? you say solyndra. [laughter] but generally speaking, no. johnathan adler who is a friend who is on my show frequently. he's a reuters cool limbist. i quote him. he's a fine man and a good historian. came on the radio i said, where did it go? the $8 78 billion? it helped -- no. what did it buy? we made improvements on route one in 1. he said. i quote him. the problem is you can't point anything. and then i begin to educate him and other about the works progress administration. in 1933, when the works progress

administration was put into place by fdr it began to bay pay for things it did it usually. we will pay for 45% of anything you want to bill right now. and so state and local governments got together and came up with a long list of building projects that were generally shovel ready or which they would make. i point often in the speeches to with a dell park in pools ohio where i had any first pool. it's still open today. it was built with wpa dollars and local dollars. i was talking about it recently with tim cook. he is from ramsey, new jersey. and ramsey high school was constructed in 1936 -- excuse me 1935 after the process of 14 months using wpa money. when came online the city of ramsey new jersey said let's get together and build a new high school. they found the land, raised the

money, it was open in 14 month finance stands to this day with a wpa marker on today. it is the ramsey because that's how you do public works project if you want to get them done. you don't give $8 00 million to slin solyndra to put into the private pockets of the president's crony capitalist funds. you don't pad pensions that are going broke. nevertheless, i won't use the crude word, but you don't leak it away. that's what happened with $8 78 billion. that's an accountability principle people have to step forward with when it comes up to the president. those are fun facts. the book is full of them. case after case after case. all we have to do is remind people of certain words and faces. if i say fast and furious. how many of you know what i'm talking about? if i say solyndra how many ever you know i'm talking about. this is not hard. the campaign ahead is going to be reminding people of all that

he is done and said that disappointed and left people disillusioned. i want to read to you my three favorite obama quotes. from september 30th, 2011, in a speech in interview he had with tv jim in orlando. this is great, great, country has gotten a little soft. -- [inaudible] a month later in hawaii, he said, we've been a little bit lazy over the last couple of decades. now i don't believe we are lazy, i don't believe we lost our ambition, i don't believe that we are any way on our back and that the american century is over. i also don't believe that the private sector is doing fine and

that you didn't build that. i don't believe in any of that. [applause] the very best arguments to make against president obama are his own statements. i want to wrap up by talking about a third book that i said i would mention to you. i wrote this book in 1998. it's called "inbut no out" it came out again it was released in paperback because it continues to sell. it's for young even jell calls that want to influence the world. the orthodox roman catholic and the jewish vote and the social issues are much overlooked right now. but in fact, i don't recall time since the early '0eus when the even gal call community and the orthodox jewish community has

been as motivate as a it is right now i say it because the hhs regulations and the chick-fil-a story is going leave a mark. when the hhs when the health and human service came out that every catholic college, organization and hospital that was not itself a specifically organized church, had to provide birth control sterilization and the morning after pills to the all of the employees, they stepped on a fundamental rights to worship as they see fit, organize and be left alone by the government as they identify as religion believers. on friday, july 27th a district court in denver, colorado struck down the hhs regulations as applied to a private firm made up of roman catholics that provide great health benefits to the

employees. they are not provide birth control sterilization in and the morning after pull because they consider to be an assault on the religion. as it is. when the president did not withdrawal the regulations but in fact doubled down on them, he awoke a giant in america he is going to rue the day when he did that. this is a great myth, in western story telling. it dates back to the ill yat. the superhero who was asleep. you wonder where is the superhero. akill lees in the tent who will not come out and fight because he's mad at the other greeks. he will not -- it begins with him in the tent. he only -- comes out after he's been moll fied or threatened and the roman catholic church basically left the field of politics and has not been energid in politics for 40

years. they are now back, they are lead by cardinal timothy dolan, philadelphia archbishops, wish bishops who believe that the obama administration rightly believe that's obama administration has leveled a direct attack on their ability to be catholic. that is not going to pass unnoticed in states like ohio, michigan, and pennsylvania where the catholic vote is huge and motivated and not happy with president obama. secondly, chick-fil-a story, it begun to roll out when i give the lecture. everybody already knows about it. i was at the napa substitute this past weekend a gathering of catholics and strongs supporters of the church in america. i was giving a talk on the book and how people do mix -- politics the rights way. i asked three groups, have you heard of -- you didn't build

that? 50% of heard of that. and half of them heard of it. i asked if they heard about romney's allegedly screwup in london the disconcerning extreme. it it's not a real story. it's not the real story. doesn't matter to american voters. it was played up by the british press. you don't want to talk about the olympics and romney if your a democrat anyway. the third story that was the $1.5gdp growth less than half%. now the chick-fil-a story was a day old. how many of you heard about that? everyone had heard about it. it was one of the storyings that moves by social media and e-mail, television, conversation across a church patio or in a group and it outrages people. it outrages even supporters of same-sex marriage. it outrages as i had on the radio show gay people.

they don't want people to be bullied. when emmanuel tries to bring a tire iron beats up the president of chick-fil-a. they are democrat president of friends of the president. it means that the president and the friends will persecute anyone who disagrees with them if he is reelected. and the prosecond of re-election i want to close with and take your questions. the fact of the matter is a lot of americans wanted the president to do well. they did. and -- in the last wednesday ever his presidency, president bush invited a half dozen talk show host i was honored to be among them back to at oval office. he's going to be office in six more days. it was off the record conversation. i won't quote the president. and the president's message was, not quoting him but the message

in the room was, give the new guy a chance. it's very hard job. you have to let the president try do the best by the country. and i think most of us did and still don't want him to be absolute disaster. he has just proven that. [laughter] i believe had he actually moved to the center had had done anything governor to the hard left as documented again, the brief against president obama is no a it is a fact-based book. just chapter and verse. if they hoe moved to the center and tried to reach across the aisle he would have been a two-term president and he could have won 60 fortunate of the vote. only by going hard left and by completely partisan hyper partisan rhetoric calling paul ryan to the white house to beat up him. accusing doctors to wanting to grab people and cut them up. if you liked your health insurance you could keep that and your doctor.

the promise has been broken already. calling republicans egger to have dirty air and water. direct quote. that kind of stuff isn't consistent with american politics with our values. and so all we have to do is remind people that we really don't want four more years of a chicago-style politics and what happens if he's reelected and not even restrained by the prospect of re-election campaign. if that happens the unilateral rich the the hhs regulations, the immigration executive order, which sets aside law and creates a new work permit without permission for the dream act kids. whether or not you're for it or against it.

there's some oh places where we might be in trouble. we'll probably lose the seat. i'm a realist. we'll win the senate and the house. here's the real challenge. republicans get one more chance they don't get to do again when they did in 2004 which is not take their mandate and reform. and they don't get two years. i hope speaker boehner and soon to be majority leader sit down with romney and agree. they have 100 days in 100 days they have to reform medicare. they have to reform social security, they have to get spending under control and can't do it like business as usual.

they will be templed to do that. that's what republicans do as they hold meetings. and they think about it for a long time. they can't do that. they absolutely have to come out of the gate, blasting for reform. demanding have to rebuild the military. get the 313 chips. restore the terrible cuts the president is putting in place. they have a lot to do. if they do it democrats will scream, the media will scream and the american people will be applaud. they will be rewarded with a long period in time. they'll go home. felon had the same problem. he made the same kind of promises he has to live up to the reform that barack obama maid. i'm hoping when we gather here a year from now we'll have a set of promises delivered upon and maybe a new book. now one last thing, [laughter] i said they're going to spend $2 billion in search of a million

votes. i think the obvious thing is to buy million copies of the brief against obama and lead them on the states. giving they don't think that the romney campaign is going to do that. i want to encourage of you to buy a million copies. no to buy and give to a democrat. read it by all means. give it to a democrat and ask them to -- maybe an independent somebody who hasn't decided. ask them to respond specifically to the arguments. it's not going embarrass you. it's not crazy talk. i believe the president was born in hawaii. okay. i'm really radical in that regard. i think he's a citizens and gooded a guy and a nice dad and i wouldn't mind having a beer with the guy provided joe biden doesn't come along. [laughter] i wouldn't -- [laughter] but he's not qualified to be the president. he's in over the head. it's been a disaster. thank you for coming and agreeing with with me tonight. thank you very much.

[applause] >> thank you he has generously agreed to answer some questions before he goes into the lobby to sign a million copies of the new book. the first question is the gentleman here. >> my name is kendall. with borings, how -- obama care how do you see the -- hold with the military cut backs how do you see the military voting and with the attitude toward israel how do you see the jewish community voting? >> three great questions. i know, a super pac is forming. doctors and patients against obama. and i assume that will be funded by corrects and health care providers because they realize obama is destroying their ability to provide health care

and that the president did not in any way shape, form, understand what he was signing. no one read the bill. it's a disaster for health care. i think doctors and parents together will find and vote overwhelmingly against him. the military, i believe, officers out% will vote against president obama they will vote for romney. massive cuts are happening bots the president's policy not because the congress. not because of the sequestration, they shouldn't have agreed to the scwetion ration. the president is not doing anything to fix it. he has the gates cut. he's destroying the pentagon, running away from afghanistan, and iraq. i didn't talk much about foreign affairs. i think they're going to vote overwhelmingly against them as well. and finally, you asked about the

jewish vote. i trust them, horrible peep of them. no with jeff dennis is a terrible person. i trust them both. they tell me in the entire adult life they have never seen the jewish-american vote so undecided so leaning toward voting for republican such strong numbers. it has one word, israel, written all over it. president obama is hostile to the interest of israel. he left them in the basement. he said call me if something changes. he didn't treat him like the elected leader of the best ally in the world. and the democratic country as that freely elected leaders and a tradition of freedom that is strong and outing to supported. romney is a strong matter of israel. you wish or not in the united states. >> i'm steve levy. i think there are agreement in

the room that we need to reform our entitlement programs that you mentioned. i think there's a agreement that any effort of reform is going to be fought and tooth and nail by senate democrats. so if you look ahead to january of 2013, it's a choice between leaving the major entitlement programs unreformed or abandoning the filibuster in order to be able to get the necessary reforms through, what do you think strategically is the right course to take? >> great question. i would never end the filibuster. i think the filibuster has the roots in the constitutional government. i would never end the filibuster. i would be aggressive in the use of reconciliation. and obamacare has opened the door that reconciliation allows you to pass it out the senate with 51 votes plus the vice president. and i would be aggressive in that using that reform social security, medicare extends bush

tax cut and cut spending. i don't think we have to choose between the two. i'm glad that hare reed opened the door for us and the supreme court has opened the door. the upside of the roberts' opinion so we don't need to have the filibuster killed if we were pushed to it, though, i'd keep the filibuster. the republican is stronger than any particular financial crisis the republic requires gigs of power and the filibuster helps slow things down. that's on bigger issues on issues that will come back up and 30 or 40 years. we won the battle in 1979 and lost it over thirty years. we need the filibuster long-term. >> yes. i agree. my name is carlos. i agree that mitt romney is qualified to be president. my concern is i see the greatest weakness how he identifies with the common person or come across

as appealing to them. and i'm just curious how you see that happening. because essentially how they all identify people generally vote for someone they like and identify with. if you're remember what president clinton said he felt our pain. whetherly you agreed with him or not he seemed to identify with the common person. how do you see romney i coming across? >> the question is can governor romney identify with the common person. i spent a lot of time with him in the 2006 and 2007. i found him to be imminently fine then. i don't believe know he started out in life. he started with nothing, zero, zip, driving across the country. never went to college, grew up in the automobile industry, served wartime took over the automobile industry. took over rambler. american motors, made himself good money but not enormous money and became the governor of michigan. left the son a good legacy of

education and some capital and romney turned it into an extraordinary fortunate. but they lived on a budget when they were young. what i think most appealing about him is the five boys whom i've met three and mrs. romney whom i have met. they are an ordinary american family. they are -- imagine five boys running around. it makes you ordinary. [laughter] he didn't kill any of them. that's a start. [laughter] and i think that will come across all the efforts to bring up the money and the house and the horse and that stuff. i don't think care monies if it comes a cross one on one. how much money he had. nelson rockefeller won in new york many times. his foreign is huge. jay wins in west virginia his fortunate is enormous. there a lot of rich democrats. john kerry did not lose because he married the fortunate.

he lost because he was -- not particularly approachable. and so i think that what you're concerned about is right to be concerned about about. i think as people get to know the governor and especially lit governor and the context of the family they'll believe he is in fact shares their values. if not their pain of financial necessity their valuings. pretty confident about that, actually. >> yes, sir? [inaudible] for all you do for the conservative cause and the freedom of the united states. >> thank you. >> i appreciate it. [applause] seven or eight candidates in the beginning. i don't think i have seen or heard from any of them since romney was declared the winner. [inaudible] >> the question is what about the people this a romney against with? santorum was campaigning for romney last week.

pleased to see. i was out of the country. came in second. a good friend of mine. he has a lot to deliver for the ticket. he has been out there very actor. gingrich did the same thing two weeks. i haven't seen congressman paul yet do any events. [laughter] but rand paul has been supportive. that's god. that's interesting. governor perry has done a lot for him. helped him raise money. i haven't seen herman cain do anything yet. generally speaking, i have seen the two other financial finalist strornlg and gingrich visible. i have heard others one "exception of ron paul. i'm optimist there won't be any division in the party. >> thank you for what you do in our lives in so many ways. i want you to elaborate on what

was mentioned on your show today. i'm ill literate about the issue having to do with jimmy appointed judge having made some decision . >> sure. >> i'm ill -- start with square one. >> after the obamacare case was decided by the supreme court, about law was upheld, cases challenging other parts of obamacare began to roll out. one of those cases had been filed in colorado by the alliance defending freedom lawyers. telladf.org if you want go to. passenger's side will -- mira sorvino there's a press release.

offer health insurance policy that provided sterileization birth control and the morning after pill that. they sought from the judge a ruling that that was either illegal under the religious restoration act or unconstitutionallal under the free exercise cause. the the court ruled on friday it would be granting a permanent injunction against the hhs preventing them from imposing the requirement to provide birth control sterilization and the morning after pill because the religious freedom restoration act. it was in the opinion of the judge who was a carter appointee impossible for the government to win. that it clearly elevated their rights under riff are a and i believe if you read the opinion closely it would clearly also violated their free exercise rights. if you want to read the p.r.n.

itself. it's only one court in denver, any small business owner in colorado can march into court and make the same claim and hopefully get the same result. it's a huge loss for the obama administration they're not talking about it much. we will. thank you. >> hi, mark. one of the four callers. in 1992 documentary the war room about the clinton campaign and al is giving the stump speech the economy is up and unemployment is up and wages are down and so forth. i was wondering how do the metrics compare between the '92 campaign and this campaign? just the economic numbers on a based upon that? >> it's a great question, george bush lost in '92 if they were worse than they were then that

president obama would lose even though dem graciouses may have shifted a little bit. the only comparison i know is george h. w. bush had -- president obama had in this quarter. so the economy is worse off. i also know that unemployment is higher than it was under george h. w. bush. i can't say for sure. the in next highest rate was 7.2%. under ronald reagan. i think it was under 6% for bush. i don't know what the inflation number or what the interest rate was. i think it's fair to say that the economy was in better shape in '92 than it is in 2012. so president obama is in big trouble. >> hi, i'm johannah. i want to take the opportunity thank you. you use your gifted brain and your considerable verbal skills

and writing skills and energy and fly all over i'm very grateful that you're able to do that. >> any great pleasure. thank you. my question is what can little people individual little people do the best right now to support mitt romney? i was a santorum supporter. i'm grateful to have seen it played out. when everybody was played out now, it seems like we're standing strong and firm behind romney. it answered all our questions to watch the campaign and now what do we do as little individuals? >> i'm glad you ask that. most effective thing you can do is go to romney.com and do two things. register to volunteer. they have a direct dial program into the swing states. you're californians. and it doesn't matter what you do out here. the land of the dambisaed.

dammed. we're going slide off to the economic hell hole that is the future for california until we hit bottom and then we'll rebuild. you want to register for the purposes and you want to volunteer in california to help the assembly men and the state senate candidates and great ones that need help and we should do that. if you want to do something from home. register at mitt romney.com they will give you a virtual volunteer pack and 96 hours before the election you call the peep. you ought to be giving $5 or $50 or $500 and one other camp adopt a romney campaign and minimum $10. $5 for romney. i knead easy. there's a button. if you hit the act right button. 100% of your money goes to

george allen or josh mandel or deny reberg in minnesota. -- montana. they're great candidates. >> i love your show. listen to to your show. >> i'm going buy your book. >> thank you. ! i'm going read while i'm supporting my alumni usc to januaries. >> sorry. >> several weeks ago monica said there was no love loss between president clinton and president obama. it came out that the democratic national convention was going to have president clinton has a prime time speaker. is president clinton going to come to the rescue or try? >> i do think one of the things i would not rule out is secretary of state clinton become vice presidential nominee clinton. i don't see how a desperate

obama. it would be better than biden. i think bill clinton will work his heart out for president obama, travel much and will mrs. clinton the extent she can even if she's not play the vice presidential nominee. she's going run for president in 2016. whether or not obama wins, she's going do that. the easy westiest way is to garner soldier. a mattered great deal to mccain the supporters. i think you'll see the same thing from clintons they'll be aggressive in supporting president obama. no to no avail. >> we have time for two more. >> smith. i have a question. you mentioned about the

potential national emergency. do you think something is going to happen with israel attacking iran in the next few months? >> i don't know that something would happen. i believe that if it does, it will benefit of the president obama and my best -- evidence is 1962 jack kennedy was president and not running for re-election. he was supposed to lose in the con congressional. he won a resounding victory in 1962. where there is a threat they quite naturally and rightly rally to the president. if there an international crisis in october of any sort whether triggered by iran, or triggered israeli orus it will help president obama significantly. i do not -- i don't imagine he is ambitious enough to start a war to save his presidency.

but the israeltys are going to run on their own schedule not captive to american politics and if iran tries to break out they won't threat happen. they would be well advised to break out in october of this year if only to hope that the united states was paralyzed by politickings. pray it doesn't happen. >> from a 15-year-old high school student from san juan hills. >> i'd like to say thank you. i don't learn this stuff in school. you give it to us. and, yeah. is the mrs. here? [laughter] [applause] >> have you taken ap history yet? when you get to ap history. california has great teachers. i don't want to paint with a broad bush. i had great teachers they didn't build my business.

[laughter] , you know, you you'll get great teachers. i want you to be confident. question? >> that was it. [laughter] [applause] thank you so much. i'll be in the lobby signing books. come back and hear mike gallagher. [applause] [applause] for more information visit the author's website. recently booktv toured a new library of congress exhibit called books that shape america. we're going show you the exhibit here in a minute. but we also want to issue an invitation to you to participate in an online discussion about books that shaped america. what book use think may be included or should be included or we're going show you the library of congress came up with. if you're interested in participating in an online discussion with us, e-mail us at booktv at c-span.org.

now here is the tour. there's a new exhibit at the library of congress called the book has shaped america. booktv is taking tour of that exhibit. and joining us is associate library began for the library of congress. mrs. safer, why do you call it booked that shaped america? >> we actually call it bookssha happied america as opposed to some of the other words that we considered like changed america. we think that bookings slowly have an impact on american society and shaped seemed to be the better word to imply that kind of connotation. >> when you think of shape, what book comes to mind? >> that's the fabulous part of the exhibit. no one book is shaping america. so many books have had such a profound influence on american culture and society and indeed, the very essence of what america is. that it would be impossible and

really it would be improper to pick one book from the 88 that are here. >> okay. there's 88 books. it starts out the exhibit starts out with common sense. >> yes. it does. the earliest book is actually ben franklin's book on electricity. that's a 18 say. we have two books about common sense in the show. one is dr. spoke's book on raising your child in common sense way and thomas paine's book that kind of sparked or saved the american revolution. >> when besee the books, are they all first editions, very rare? >> they're not all first editions or very rare. we have many books in the clerks in the library of congress collection that would be first editions and very rare if not one of kind. we have selected books for a variety of reasons. some have inscriptions by other famous people or authors themselves. two books in the collection that

i adore are books that are part of the armed service book outreach to people who are serving in the military. and so we have two examples of books that soldiers are were sent i believe now they are sent books to read at the war front on ipoddings other things. in the old days. >> what are the two books? >> i believe one is "tar disan." i'm trying to think what the other one is. oh gosh, . >> while you think of that. in the exhibit a lot of novels. >> yes, and novels are critical part of american culture. not only novels that people read, the common people read. but some very highbrow and connell flex novels. mom novels that peel to people of all ages. some children's books that appeal to people. "wizard of oz."

"charlotte's web." >> and "gone with the wind" how ask they shape america? >> many much them identified who we were becoming. the aspiration we had as a nation. others told about experiences that we had uniquely as americans like the diaries of lewis and clark. many others really defined our dial dialect. "huckleberry fin" talk in dialect. they shaped not only our ideas but how we speak today. >> now you also have some social cultural books that i want to ask you about those such as you mentioned dr. spock. there's a couple of cookbooks. the book called the "big book." >> we thought it was important to look at non-fiction and books that either were self-help or kind of broke barriers of

certain kinds. so we looked across the broad spectrum. we didn't want to limbs ourselves to a particular genere or a particular kind of book or even a certain kind of author or writing style. we looked for many books that were innovative that showed america as an innovative country as a country that looked for practical solutions that shared her experiences broadly. thats you'd books and stories to inspire going to the frontier. and that could be literally or in the intellectual sense. >> here a library of congress. are you in charge of the whittling process? >> that's an interesting question. it was a large committee. with no chairman. which is interesting. we had a number of discussions as people brought forth titles, and believe it or not, it was not all that difficult to select

these books. because i think as you implies it's not a definitive list. there is no article, "books" that shaped america in the title of the exhibition. we decided what we wanted to do is choose books that get america talking about books. and that was not as difficult to find consensus on as maybe choosing the 50 boos or the 100 books. we didn't need a chairperson. >> some of the books have created social movement. i want thinking eye d.a. tar bell, upton sin clare, rachael carson. >> i think one of the interesting things about many of the books they not only create social movements but some even lead to legislation. so we see the "jungle" in here it created the fore running legislation toed to and drug and administration being created.

not only social movement but actually legislation. actually social change. >> why "88". >> social security where -- it's where we decided to stop. we were worried about a number using a number that is associated with a definitive list. we avoided 10, 25, and 100. beyond that it was up for grabbed. when question got to 88 we said it was a good number. it won't give anybody the the impression we mean this is the 88. >> poetry, religious books? >> they are. we have a few em players of poetry. runs the span of two centuries. we have walt whitman and alan. we tried to be clear that poetry has been an impress part of america's history, and that americans have been very committed to both writing and reading poetry. and i think that continues

today. what about religious books? >> well, we do have a holographic bible. a lot of the books while they wouldn't necessary be associated with a religious have a moralistic or a do-good done to them. we felt that is more representative of america than in our values then would be a particular religious bock. so we tried to look at the values of america. her spiritual sort of per sewn that. rather than looking at particular religious books. >> how do you get your start here at the library of congress. >> i started here over 30 years ago as the first special assistant to the law library began fresh out l law school. i absolutely fell in love with the library of congress. and thirty plus years ago as today you cannot keep me away. i run to work every morning.

and i think that working here and being here surrounded by books, man scripts, musical scores, movies, the whole gamete of what is knowledge in america is such a thrill. and such a privilege that you really are going to have trouble getting me to retire. >> is this exhibit open to the public and how long is it going to be open? >> entirely open the to public. open through the end of september. but let's say you can't come to washington. we have a virtual person of -- verse version of the exhibit on the website. part of the exhibit and the conversation is an open website is we're asking people from all over the world to comment on the books we have selected but also to tell you why you think somebody we selected shouldn't be on the list. even more important why you think it should be added to the list. we want to hear from you. so far we have heard from over

5,000 people, and we encourage everybody to go to our website www.lse.gov you will find a list of the books and an opportunity complete a brief form telling us what you think of the books. >> the last book you have was published in here was 2002. >> yes. we kind of decided to put a cut-off on it. we thought if we're going looking at books that shaped america, we have to give them an opportunity. give books an opportunity prove their worth in shaping america. this is an organic endeavor by the library of congress. we intend to keep looking at books that keep shaping america. but we thought about a decade that's a good place to stop. since we're in 2012 now, let's stop at 2002 and we'll keep it. >> two of the later books so you in here, randy schultz and the

"band played on" and caesar chavez. >> it had a huge influence on aids research and really sort of raising our consciousness about that terrible decide. sigh czar salve vees a leading voice ever farmworkers and america. >> the books in the exhibit were they best sellers in the time. >> many of them were and actually many much them continue to be and have not gone out of pint. even though it wasn't a specific criteria. so many have been translated and carried american ideals across the world. . i want to ask you about emily dickinson book of poetry. >> of course emily dickinson is a must-have american poet. the particular book that we have here in the show is an art book. it's done by cuban.

they are reabused the book of poetry and they also act a fax similarly of the house and the little tree and it is made out of recycled material. emily dickinson is a phenomenal poet. we didn't know abou her or discover her until the mid 1950s when we finally were able to see her poems or read the poems an love her poems uneditededited in way she met. >> who was doing the eding. >> the e or its like to take your pen and reform. for emily it was an awful con construction. >> pongs that shaped america is the name of the exhibit. library of congress is located at first of independents avenues in washington, d.c. right across the nation's capitol. so that's the library of congress' books that shaped america exhibit. it's available to go see, you

can also look at it online loc.gov. we would like your input. what books do you think should be included in such an exhibit. and what shouldn't be included. if you would like to participate in the online discussion with roberta, one that we will then air on booktv we'd like to hear from you e-mail us at booktv@c-span.org. louisville has contributed many culture icons throughout history from kentucky tear derby to the baseball bat. booktv visits many sights around the city to highlight the historical and literary culture. my name is carol bessy. i'm the co-owner with my husband

of carmichaels bookstore in lieu ville, kentucky. we just celebrated our 34th anniversary in april. we sell a little bit of everything, we do for space reasons exclude come cat go is, technical books we don't get into much. a lot of literature, history, a lot of children's books, certainly a lot of local interest, but we are a general bookstore. we have just about anything that people looking for. i think that a small store is the right size store and it took awhile for that to people to figure that out. but i think that's the direction. it's the whole shop local. it's supportable the businesses who are in your community because that keeps money in your community. people are starting to understand that message. also the personal service that you can get in a small store

rather than wandering around a big box store looking for somebody to help you. so i think our size is really has been an asset to us over the years. [inaudible] we were living in chicago in the '60s and she got a just a clerking job in a bookstore called barbaras in chicago. i was doing something else. after a little while, she said you should come to the bookstore. it is a pretty nice life being a book seller. and we've been doing it for about five or six years. and then kind of tired of the city a little bit. and decided, lts go try this ourselves. and we both had kentucky connections, so louville was a

good place to start and we started small and kind of stayed small. we've been at it for almost 35 years. in the '70s the competition in chicago was enormous because there really lots of old-line bock stores that had been there for sixty and seventy years, and some of the first crown books, which some people may remember were one of the first big discount bookstores. they had a lot of stores in chicago. it was a little tougher than when we first came to louisville and it was before the super stores and everything, all people worried about were walden in the mall. there was not book -- big box store competition until much

later. there was a struggle. it was really, you know, it was really stuff because, you know, books aren't food. everybody eats. but, you know, buying books in a bookstore, it's a really small percentage of the population. it was a struggle, that's true of every small business, i think. you know, you kind of take a little while to build up critical mass and repeat customers, and you make somebody happy one time, and then they come back, and you make them happy again, and then they three friends and, you know, it takes awhile to build a small business. a lot of the stories i have seen fail are stores that were opened by people who were interested in having a business, not they were having an attachment to books or a love books. you know, they were business people and they saw