they arrived on their own. they had no welfare. they found work, they saved money. they headed west. there were no birds, no but tamils. they hunted for food and shared it with others on the wagon trail. why did they come? they came to be free and use the religion of their choice.

they fight for independence against overwhelming odds and won. they didn't have the weapons, but they have to drive and the will to do it and they wanted to be free and they paid the price and they did a. i want you to never forget the center for the declaration of independence paid dearly for signing that document and starting our independence. 56 men signed the declaration. 24 were curious. 11 were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners. these are men and women and well-educated. they signed the declaration of independence knowing full well the penalty would be death if they were captured. standing tall, straight and unwavering, they pledged for the support of this declaration with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortune and our

sacred cow. very soft-spoken men of means and education. they had security, but they valued liberty even more. they were captured by the british as traitors and can tortured before they died yet they had their homes ransacked and burned. they lost their sense of the revolutionary war. and under it to captured, nine of the 56 died or was in the revolutionary war. carter braxton of virginia, a wealthy planter and trader saw his ships swept from the sea by the british navy, sold its own to pages that. thomas mccain was so hounded by the british that he was forced to move his family almost can't delay. he served in congress without ailing and his family was kept in hiding. his possessions were taken away from him. thomas nelson junior noted that

the british general cornwallis had taken over the nelson home for his headquarters. he quietly urged general george washington to open fire. the homeless destroyed and nelson died in grants. he was driven from his wife's bedside issue is died or the 13 children fled for their last from within a year they lived in caves, returning home to find his wife dead in its children finished in a few weeks later he died of a broken heart. in closing, i want all of you to remember that every day, think about the last phase of the first verse of the star-spangled banner. because it is a question. zero say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the

brave. that is a question. and the answer to that question would be yes if we must have -- we must have great leaders like you defending the gates of freedom. we are so fortunate to have you with that mission. i know that you will continue to do great work and you'll make our country better as it goes forward. i want to thank you for your service to our country. it's an honor and privilege to be with you today. thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, we now have the opportunity to have a more personalized question-and-answer session with mr. perot. take your seats. the last few questions compiled from the cadet wing and give

another side of this. yes, sir. here is your microphone. there we go. i think you are good, sir. >> now can you hear me? okay. >> the first question cadets were wondering. and your time in annapolis, did you have any time for your character was tested and you had a difficult time making a decision there, sir quiet >> that was the one of the greatest experiences of my life. never seen the sea, never seen the ocean. when i wanted to go to the naval academy, it took me a lot of time to get there. and finally i went. i passed everything except one little segment of the physical exam. either broken nose for breaking horses as a boy and the doctor said you'd have to have that nose operated on.

i sits there and sorry i can't do that because they can't afford the trip home or the operation. he said, and i'll fix it. he never touched it, so you still see a broken nose here. i met people from all 50 states. they couldn't have been finer people. just as you are today cannot be associated with so many wonderful people. at the privilege to do a lot of interesting things around the academy. we have no class officers here. i was the vice president of the class in my second class here. first president third and fourth year and in the middle of all of this comes superintendent contacted me and asked me to take full responsibility for creating a new honor code at the naval academy that was involved in creating so as as to better honor code. everybody worked for the rollover if you're on it. but every single shipment was on

board and interesting enough notice in 1952 by the time that went into place. i graduated and 53. that is still in place today and is completely responsible and i just find it interesting that for all these years somebody would say this is obsolete. so far because they check here and one of the things that naval academy agreed to was to check to see if they still felt everything about it was appropriate. and as the highest moral and ethical standards the midshipmen set coming out the superintendent, not me, not anybody else. that came straight from the troops and boy did that work well. a lot of great experience in the navy and i could talk forever about that. i would never have the success in life i have had if i had had that experience in the navy and learn some leadership i learned in that experience in the navy and it made all the difference.

>> thank you, sir. sir, our next question for you is, who is your most influential role model in your life? who have hitherto to gain leadership and he was taken to render ring two help you gain great leadership? >> i'll break it down to different people at different times. the person who has really captured my life from the time i knew him was robbie rogers. i wish you could know robby. robbie would give anything to be here with us tonight. but he was just the epitome of everything a person should be in times of a great theater, character of the streets and putting others first. and i learned all of those lessons at the naval academy reinforced in the navy, but then once i was a father of a prisoner of war project, i got to meet robbie and all of the other pows. and survived because i do

strengthen leadership. i'd have to say there's not a whole lot of a change in what i said today. i would've changed it for the speech. so you heard just about everything i have to say. >> server, my next question for you is when you're hiring people for dominance of leadership that are across the board, military civilians, would he let foreign someone you're hiring? >> this is really interesting because i've been in the computer business for decades and you got a bunch of geeks and nerds. [laughter] they couldn't lead a group in silent prayer in an emergency. so by the time i started my copies come i started training all my systems engineers, which really had to do with that done because they were so few. and just what i did, i take young people in the military only after they had decided and

am therefore your tours or they decided to leave as officers and train them in systems engineering. that was a piece of cake compared to the leadership they want in the doorway. i could tell you stories. for example, a lot of the people i hired into the company were enlisted men who just left the service, but were so bright and talented they could have gone to m.i.t. they fight in combat and had leadership at the platoon level. but they have one mission in life. it was to get a college degree or less in their second lieutenant and they were determined to get a college degree. they could get a college agree in any one of the three ships. the computer centers never close. there are very few colleges that a third shift. to make a long story short,

everybody that would visit us was just overwhelmed. these were enlisted men going to college. now when they finish and got their degree can we train them in systems engineering, although many had training in college in systems engineering. and they were unbelievable in terms of letting the company grow successfully because of the leadership he brought to it. you know, leading a group under fire is a piece of cake. i mean, leading a technology group is a piece of cake compared to leading people under fire. they then tested the way people have. i could tell you story by the hours of things they do all over the road from mission impossible that they did on the run because it was the right thing to do. taking care of one another. and so that's one good example right there of the quality of the people who come out of the

military and how unique and special they are. no one could ever understand why wines you and people at caltech in places like that. all those guys wanted to do is bring me a copy and be my aid. they wanted to go out and get something done. and they were very talented, but the leadership level with about zero and had a long way to go. so that has been a wonderful factor and it's just been wonderful to see all the great things they've done and they made the company successful. they all have stock in the company. they are successfully financially and on and on and it was just a perfect example of the impact military experience can have in your life and if you finish your career, even 30 years or however long you stay, you are a very special, unique person in terms of how to get that done and keep them all

excited. >> thank you, mr. chairman. an expression for years you have a gigantic family. five hits in the 16 grandkids faster. what would she say is your legacy message you would like to leave them, sir? >> well, i want all of them to be honest, tough, smart, learn leadership, take responsibility for other people, help other people at all times and keep themselves physically strong, mentally alert and morally straight. and so far i couldn't be more proud of than. my son is the best possible example i could give you because of all the work he's done in his life. of course that mentioned to you he was in the air force as a fighter pilot in the reserves. but imagine 15 years with all the work he had to do around the company is, putting together the air force memorial, he's really

unique person in mexico throughout the different family members. i have four daughters with perfect mothers and that makes me happy grandfather. and also a perfect wife. i couldn't be more proud of my family. i wanted to make sure we didn't spoil future generations because they felt like well, we don't have to do anything. they'll understand they have to go out and build their own futures and so far it's just too good to be true and there's nothing i enjoy more than seeing what they've just done. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> sera, second question i have for you. have you ever had to release an employee based off of a character flaw or an employee doing something that is morally wrong but she had to fire them for? >> you know, if somebody is stealing something or somebody is doing something, don't ever get involved.

that's out the door now. and we don't tolerate that at all. and people all hear that with a big interview to join in most people say this is a weird place. i do want to be around here. that's fine with me. the people we have ursula the people we have ursula the people we have ursula and being as though highly motivated and committed to the company and so committed to their team members in the company. they would go anywhere, anytime to help a team member that has a problem. >> thank you, mr. chairman. refer you to pick swap of a future leadership, do you have any final words of advice for them? >> i just take it up every morning, make things better and let's assume you've had 15 great successes. that's all history. don't even think about it. just go find a taller mountain climate until you work in the class.

the point being, don't never become complacent. just keep making things better. just thank our great country has a lot of problems right now. if we have people like you involved in all of that, i think things would be a lot better. but our biggest problem in the country right now is to get it back on track and not just financial track is obvious, but we've also got a strong moral, ethical base. we've got to have sharing for one another and all these things i've mentioned. these are things that made our country go. these are the things they must have two continue to move forward and have his best years during your lifetime. undoubtedly wonderful with all of you out there. thank you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. [applause] >> sir, as a token of our --

[cheers and applause] sir, as a token of our appreciation, the cadet wing would like to present you with the flag. now, general kool and general lorenzo, for a second presentation. come on out. >> wow. >> i can't think of anything i'd rather have. [laughter] [applause] >> somebody must have gotten the word that i really, really valued the sword and dad i gave

stories rarely to people who have done great things. the last two people like dave a sword excalibur too, do you that? tonight sword excalibur. well, the two men who did the job on bin laden. [applause] this will be my best treasure and a thank you so much. for more than anything else, i thank you are who you are, what you do and what you're going to do in the future. keep it up. god bless you. [applause] >> ladies and gentlemen, mr. perot has allowed us to start asking questions. he would love to meet you.

if you would like to, line up on the right side of the stage, on my right side. otherwise, there are buses moving to and from fairchild hall every 20 minutes. so thank you very much. [inaudible conversations] >> show you one more thing here. this is about robby roger brooke when he came back. i know you have it in your library. it's the passing of the night by seven years of the north vietnamese. brickbat nov really inspired. thank you.

>> click on c-span's convention have to watch my video like this. create and share clips from a live gavel to gavel coverage of both the republican and democratic conventions. add your comments, watch, discuss, share and connect with other viewers at c-span.org/campaign 2012. >> "washington journal" has spent the week talking to reporters from different online publications. this morning we talked with a congressional reporter from talking points memo. it's about a half-hour. >> i'm your screen is sahil kapur come are they discussing a weeklong look at the online political coverage that's available to you. i want to take a moment to tell our audience, sahil kapur, we've been doing this week and then

have you explain your publication and its role in the political dialogue. on monday we visited the grillo. on tuesday we had a guest from town hall. wednesday, "huffington post" are presented here. thursday the daily collar and today, "talking points memo" at the table. sahil kapur is a congressional reporter. as i said in the league and it's been around since 2000. why is the online publication started and what is your particular niche or goal? >> guest: the publication as he mentioned was started in 2000 by the editor and chief and publisher in 2000. it started basically is a one-person blog, offering perspective and reporting on the most important issues and it has grown into, you know, a news website, a news portal with a staff of close to 35 if you include publishing, business had

an editorial. >> host: doesn't have a political point of view? >> guest: i think every newspaper has a point of view. we try to cover stories based on what we think are the most important issues. >> host: george of his congressional reporter, database a really interesting couple of weeks and the lame-duck session coming. let me start by asking how you approach your job as a congressional reporter. so much to cover capitol hill. where do you do your deep dives and what motivates you to report? >> guest: i think the key thing that i look at in the key thing we look at on the congressional side, the d.c. side is trying to keep in touch with what the most -- with the critical issues are that are underlying the political debate and the political discourse on a day to day basis. we stay focused on public policy issues as well as ample political horserace coverage and keeping readers up to date with what the meaning is behind

certain tanks that have been coming to base it happened, there is the federal budget and tax code, health care policy in the future of medicare and medicaid. we try and give readers a rounded sense of where we are going in terms of the bigger picture with these major issues. >> host: for whom do you write? who is the pbm reader? >> guest: academics or people are political junkies and d.c. people who are interested in knowing people and are very plugged in and want to keep in touch with the most important with what is happening in politics and in washington and with a lot of readers around the country who are interested for their own reasons. >> host: and you are in new york today, the worse your regular headquarters? >> guest: so, our headquarters tpm, they send new -- it's about

one third of the organization chemist is roughly 10 or so. and in new york is just over 20. >> host: here in washington, where are you located? >> guest: where the located downtown, very close to 13 square. >> host: as people are looking, it's probably three, four masterman n. ride in the heart of downtown, business part of washington. is that correct? >> guest: that's right. >> host: you mention josh marshall. josh marshall was a guest on c-span at the q&a program for is discussion about himself and how he got interested in reporting. we have a clip of that just so you cannot meet demand who had the idea behind the talking points memo. let's listen. >> remember the first mummy is that i want to do this myself.

create this website. yeah, you know, i think they're a couple moments when i had that, where i didn't do it yet, sort of false start. when i was in graduate school i was involved in web design basically to support myself. and i put together a newsletter that was about things having to do with the internet and stuff like that and i likes it. i think i liked being a publisher. i like putting something together. and then when i got into being a political journalist, i had an urge to do some thing like it. and it only really came together at the end of the 2000 election when the place i was working at the time was called the american prospect. it was biweekly.

came out twice -- came out twice a month. so you know, a very different time. i had this sort of urge to do something like this. and i was on vacation, what was supposed to be the week after the 2000 election, which as it turned out was still the 2000 election was still going on in florida. and i started then and i just visited there from the beginning. >> host: that is a view from our video library of our interview with josh marshall. me ask you about how his knee fantasies reflect it in the work that all of you do, the work for him. >> host: >> guest: i think josh is a

important work in the editorial vision of the company. it's obviously trying to grow and expand. eddie tries to keep and stay involved in the editorial side as well as he's working on the business aspect and trained to grow the company and move it in the right direction. >> host: i want to invite our audience, our regular online, regular check-in. the part of the conversation are welcome to offer opinions and ask questions about how it all comes together. so to dive into that, mr. kapur, let me ask you about the announcement of ryan as the running mate. part of the leadership in congress, the institution you cover. how well mr. ryan's addition to campaign as fact the

relationship between the campaign in congress when congress returns in the agenda? >> the selection of polygram mythmaking clarifies and it makes clear that the republican party has embraced his ideas to remake the federal budget and the safety net and to remake the past code in ways that conservatives have wanted to do for a long time but haven't come around to doing. the last two years, since he was buried before, but especially since they took control of the house of representatives in the 2010 sweep and expanded their seats in the senate that this is the direction they want to go in. paul ryan has been a visionary behind them. here you have on the republican presidential ticket and nominee, named remy who is likely going to be following for moving in this direction and now he's got the best spokesperson to advocate for this cause and

policies that he wants. in that sense it certainly rounded out the ticket and clarify the choice in the election. in terms of the impact on the election, what sort of impact it's going to have on the race, it is not clear the selection has helped significantly. he still a very divisive figure in polarizing figure. he's a talented politician and he's been out there on the stump and he speaks very well. the defense policies that romney is to defend very well. but in particular, his plan to convert medicare and to a voucher system is not popular in the something democrats have been hammering away at for years they have used that against them. >> host: with that short view of the campaign, but made turn to call us and we'll hear some of the things they want to talk about. let's begin with san diego. the soldier who is a democrat.

>> caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call us. so i agree with newt gingrich than that romney is a liar. we arrived herein could see you guys almost every time he opens his mouth as does paul ryan. lie and brian. when we see this on the tv, we really would appreciate the media. you are there, you talk to this. would you please get the truth out of them? >> guest: heldreth, before you this, let's go from generalization to a specific issue. where have you heard the romney campaign lie? >> caller: where have we heard? every time they open their might. about the welfare. he's not cutting welfare. that's a lie. just go thanks very much. when we pick up on the characterizations of welfare of what the obama plan would do that the romney campaign has

made? >> guest: this is an important part of the campaign brownie has tried to turn into an issue. a few weeks ago the obama administration in response to requesters several governors, some of them republicans decided that they negotiated with the republican congress that the obama and an assertion offered a waiver from a part of that thought and they said if the states can move people from welfare to work using alternate means about following that require me, then we're going to make a cast of avenue. the obama administration made clear when i offered that waiver that it was only going to apply to states that achieve the same goal another race. so the characterization is cutting welfare reform that the romney campaign and its supporters is not accurate. this is something we've written in a number of stories about and

the president himself addressed in his first press conference earlier this week. so i think the general point the collar is trying to make with regard to the accuracy of this aspect of the romney campaign is true. we've written a number of stories about this. another thing that comes to mind we've also been talking about is the romney campaign's characterization of the medicare plan with specifically a little over 700 billion cut to provider payments and the affordable care act. i think largely in an effort to deflect criticism as his running mate paul ryan and his controversial medicare plan is for trade the president for current seniors, which is not really true. the congressional budget office says the cuts are entirely on the provider reimbursement site and now going to affect beneficiaries. taken a broader picture that with regard to what the caller was saying, we do view our role,

tpm's role as an important part to fact check statement and separate from fiction. i think on my media organizations are better equipped to do this better equipped to do coverage of issues and discover from every angle possible and try to get what we think is the truth. posts go well, that's the gist of the question asked by viewers. ask them to make you feel on my new cd is better from an entry from candidates or surrogates over networks. what are the advantages that she might have versus people who are trying to do this job for network news coverage? >> guest: i think one of the big advantages we have is we're closely in touch with readers. were constantly monitoring e-mail from readers, you know, who tipped us an important things happening and alert as soon as that we as a small staff

don't necessarily have the opportunity to view every aspect that. i think i might media, where we benefit the most is we can cover things in real-time unawareness network news, network newscasters have to plan in advance, their task in other segments. news can break news can break news can break found out saturday morning a few weeks ago. we can jump on it right away and within minutes our goal would be to have readers on our love for her session, which would be to keep them updated but i guess some of support things that happen in the last few minutes and within half an hour we could have a falling story talking about, discussing the location behind it. >> host: how many people at his talking points memo typed on a daily basis? >> guest: i don't have a number on that.

and the month when millions of viewers. >> guest: richmond virginia next. john come independence, good morning. >> caller: good morning. two points here. when i would like to say that i think with two points here. one i would like to say that i think with include a come at the right wing talking point of that i think with include it, the right wing talking point of the liberal media is nothing but a hoax. you have fox and radio and online media, just a right-wing opinion dominates at all. and second, i wanted to point out that the lies that the first collar type that was that romney. another one of the lies being spread is that paul ryan is a fiscal hawk. he spends every penny george bush wanted and more when george bush was enough to and never once even talk about a balanced budget. so i'd like for the media to finally start calling them out on their lies. >> host: thanks very much. a profiler test it on the

congressman after his august 16th and i have mine on social issues. your response to that collar. >> host: the caller makes an interesting point about paul ryan. a number of aspects. it's true during the bush administration in 1998, 1999. throughout the bush administration, he sided with republicans and voted with the bush white house on a number of bills that considerably added to the deficit and help turn the surplus into a record deficit. and these bills include the tax cuts tilted mostly to high incomes, included the wars in iraq and afghanistan and they

included the medicare prescription drug part d program as well as the auto bailout and the bank bailout. paul ryan voted with the bush administration on all these bills. the one thing that has been true and i think there's evidence for is that he's always been there he anti-tax and he's always been very anti-social safety net. a good example of this even before his new transformation in 2010 was a bill he sponsored -- he cosponsored a believe in 2004 to partially privatize social security, to start moving funds into individual retirement accounts. it seems clear he's always had these five stories always had these ideas. in a recent new york profile to that have least embarrassed by the bush administration for all the big spending those an outsider portrays himself as performed. even now though, it is important to note that a bit part of the

promises he makes in his budget with regard to deficit reduction depend on promises that haven't been detailed. for example, he talks about balancing the budget and recovering revenues from large tax cuts by closing loopholes, closing deductions and credits, but he consistently refuses to identify which was so close. the big issue with that if it's not simply a political dodge. the big issue is in order to really achieve the numbers he wants, in order to achieve the trillions upon trillions of dollars in recovered revenues, they're going to have to do things that close a mortgage interest deduction, things that benefit the middle class and have tremendous support in congress. and the notion that this is really doable is very questionable and of itself. so i think it's very much up for debate just how -- i guess how strong paul ryan is in the fiscal hawk. >> host: garriott twitter rice

is your guest able to give one or two examples at the obama campaign lying about romney? just wondering. >> guest: sure. recently i did a story and this was before the week when the todd akin comment on quote, unquote legitimate cano. they had out about how basically accusing that romney or applying very strongly and insinuated that romney opposes abortion even in the case of rape and it eskimo which is not true. we wrote a story that mitt romney has supported those misconceptions. back in 2008 when he was running for president, he sort of flirted with the idea he would oppose abortion in all cases. but when he was actually asked specifically -- by the way companies suggesting he would oppose in all cases is that the obama campaign seized on and used against him. when he was asked, he pretty consistently said he supports

those exceptions, so we pointed that out. just this week to give the reader a second example he wanted. we had a story, reporter benji hardy story about how the obama campaign was attacking the romney campaign for a comment on education and class size that pretty closely mirrored what the president secretary of education i said. there's some important nuances and differences between pointed out, but i think it was worth noting the attack had that aspect to it. >> host: next up is a call from dublin, california. this is nick, a republican. >> caller: good morning. i've been watching c-span "washington journal" for years. in a way it's getting harder to do it because of all the gas. i would like to ask this person. it's not just him. it's all news media. all they talk about his talking points. what concerns me is that they're not talking about, especially

although large groups and regulations the congress passes. we don't hear any and much about them except a few words that they're not talking about, like when they pass an amendment or a bill about to be voted on, somebody had sent into it and nobody knows what it is. when are we going to start getting some real, honest information from all these thousands of news experts? >> guest: thank you. well, i'm not sure what regulations are what amendments are what specifically the caller is referring to. certainly a lot of those bills get passed and a lot get passed on and we don't know the full details of an because for one at tpm, were not a very big staff. we are two of us covering the hill. but i do think we work hard to

try to stay on top of the import aspects of the legislation that does get passed. we cover very closely. one example i can mention his legislation passed under the radar that has been very controversial components in it was a couple -- i think a couple months ago now the house appropriations subcommittee passed legislation that sword over a five-day debate from earlier on this year about whether or not a health insurance plan ought to cover contraception for women. and there is an amendment passed on to an appropriations bill that sort of went unnoticed. we worked hard to point that out. i'd actually be interested to hear what specific -- with sets of regulations and the source of harmful bills are up to that the media doesn't give coverage to because we've been interested in

looking into that more if that's the case. >> host: next is a call from south dakota, g-golf force, south dakota that is. our viewers tanner, independent, you are on the air. >> caller: i was curious which is that of other intermediate site. that's all i have. >> host: thank you very much. >> guest: as to info words specifically, i don't have a strong opinion on them. i think a lot of what they do is sort of conspiracy oriented, or at least that i've seen has been conspiracy oriented. with regard to online media in general, we obviously try to keep in touch with her keep up to date with what other online media states are writing because we try to stay -- we try to stay with the latest developments on the news and present them in the most important ways. >> host: how are your -- how

are you to plan yourself to cover the presidential campaign? >> guest: so, we have a team of three reporters that are working full-time in the presidential campaign. the presidential election is permeated a lot of coverage recently. it's sort of fans into many aspects. obviously a lot of what's happening in congress is about the presidential election. a lot of it is posturing a lot of what's happening in the presidential election for shadows of the future public policy would be on the cover that. major battles go on and see thigpen said the import about our investigative reporters covering not. as far as the election coverage specifically, we have two reporters covering that closely and will have to reporters and editors go down to the convention in tampa and sure to cover the democratic and republican conventions.

>> host: what they ask you about the todd akin story as has been unfolding because there's a headline from holly brian buehler says akin says gop's chance of regaining out of legitimate risk is further than you might think. how is happy now? >> guest: the comment by todd akin have been a major focal point of coverage because they raise a lot of issues. one is just the sheer outrage in the backlash of those remarks, which i think has been led by republican because republicans have rushed to distance themselves from that. that has major implications on the race itself. this is a race where what should've been a slamdunk for republican is the one term democratic senator, claire mccaskill who won the 2006 democratic sweep is very vulnerable in a state. it takes a certain democrat to hold that seat and a lot of people wrote her off as probably

endangered and now she has certainly a fighting chance is not a good chance of winning. this also matters a lot on the presidential stage because romney and ryan have worked diligently to distance themselves. not a big distance themselves from actively can then, you know, and repeated the remarks. the above, i believe elise paul ryan called todd akin and asked him to drop out as it any republicans. the reason the issue is important is because paul ryan is a vice presidential nominee has worked with todd dakin on antiabortion legislation in the past and paul ryan has a fairly consistent record of also opposing abortion in these extreme cases like rape and. this is something the romney campaign has tried to finesse, distance themselves from, tell reporters that he supports these exceptions on paul ryan i think

the word he uses is if he's comfortable with those exceptions. a number of ships going on have to do the romney campaign train to protect its advantage as the story kind of that. and at the same time, this gets to the republican party is, they're pro-life agenda and how and whether or not the party is going to include such a platform and its official party platform. usually the republican party can put the range is not operation to abortion in all cases and most people wouldn't notice. given the intensity of coverage and the extent of coverage that todd akin's comment has gotten, there is a big microscope right now on whether the republicans will include the platform. so that's been a major topic of coverage. but this comes down to at the end of today's women's vote. republicans have been working

hard since early on this here to close the gap, the gender gap as you might call it were really the advantage democrats have had. >> host: earlier attacked by a comparison of what you can do online versus news and reticular networks can do. how easy is it for you and your colleagues at tpm to get access, particularly to the presidential campaign? >> guest: i think the presidential campaign has realized that they want to at least have their say and they want the best coverage as far and wide as they can do. the presidential campaign on major stories are very clear to go to the papers at "the new york times" advance a story to break an big papers have greater access to them and they always had. but you know, we've been pretty fortunate in terms of having access to both campaigns and having our questions answered to the extent that they answer

anybody else's questions. >> host: if you had the opportunity, the following take talk of the campaign or doing work on policy positions and ferreting out how they would play out? >> we sort of divide that out. we have election reporters focusing on the day to day debate and trying to pick out the most important things that are said and what they mean. and on our congressional team, since there is made a lot of activity on capitol hill, especially august when they're awake, we've been trying to cover the underlying policy issues at least with the debate foreshadows for the future public policy. so it's a mix of both. >> host: schenectady, new york. >> caller: i am a democrat in name, but you know, he's really bending this medicare information really out of proportion. he is not mentioning that what they're doing is taking our tax

money and tended to medicare in the future. so there will be no increase in the medicare is going to be worthless. so the democrats are saying about, will cover more people under medicare, it's going to be worthless if doctors are going to take it. and also, he had to look at a "washington journal" page one he started democrats, he's obviously not an independent journalist. democrats actually make more money than republicans on average than they are actually the ones that gutted welfare onto clinton. they are the ones that actually took away at work had taxes on the wealthy in the 1960s. this should not be a fight between democrats and republicans. it should be a fight between right and wrong. he apparently has a democratic wacky. i'm a registered democrat and i will never vote democrat again. i played the parties in 1990 toby sat me in the face.

cuomo gave tax breaks to people making over 40,000 a year come which pretty much says what the democratic party are about. cold, hard cash. future medicare is going to be worthless. they are legally taking -- we have to pay medicare taxes and it's not going to go to medicare. 50% of the affordable care act will end up in a pocket of wealthy insurance companies. that is where it's going. and the average poor person is a homeless mother. she's the one that's going to be facing problems under the health care platform. she's the one facing fines if she can't get coverage and she's the one of the democratic party is getting her bow. both are not getting my vote and i don't think to get her vote either. so he seems to be a democratic lefty and it's very sad. it's between coke and pepsi at this point. democrats are going further and further to the right. it are considered to the right over again and he shouldn't be

considered a journalist. >> host: how would you like to respond to this? >> guest: i'd like to thank the caller for expressing her opinion. first off, take to start by asking -- i'd be very interstate to see evidence that the medicare cuts in the affordable care act of 700 billion or so that will harm beneficiaries. at beatrice to defeat evidence because the impact of the minimal. there's going to be transitions obviously. there need to be in order to sustain medicare. the overall impact of those reimbursement cuts was to strengthen the life of the program by eight years. it's posted on 2016. now we'll go into the red in 2024. that's an important aspect. the caller mentioned that democrats gutted welfare, gutted welfare in the 1990s. well, that was the 1996 bipartisan law negotiated between bill clinton and the republican congress. obvious critics on the left,

some of them believed was too harsh. in the wake of the recession, it is that low-income people pretty hard to that's a legitimate point to make. at the same time, and had a lot of success. the numbers are moving people from welfare to work, which is what a lot of people think it was a good idea. i'm not really sure what i have to say about the rest of the caller's comments. >> host: does "talking points memo" invite comments to your article as you post them? >> guest: absolutely. we have a comments section on one of our articles and we recently transitioned away from a system where people post anonymously because that opens itself up to issues that many should be policed more because people can pay inappropriate or offensive and racist things or if you behind in enmity, it becomes all the more tie for to clean up and make it into a healthy place for discussion. so we do it through all of our

stories have the option for readers to comment. >> host: how often do you read for people post about your stories? >> guest: every so often. it's hard to measure that. i tried to keep in touch with what readers think about my stories. we hear from readers a lot over e-mail. that's one of the main ways if readers have said they directly to say to as opposed to the gradients are issue with others had one of the advantages at tpm and keeps me on my feet as readers are engaged in a right to left. if i get something wrong or make an error in an article, i'm sure i will be hearing from our readers about that. >> host: according to the bio, have worked in journalism for your entire career thus far, is that correct? >> guest: that's right. >> host: what is the best advice you ever got from a mentor along the way to tell you

how to do the job of journalism while? >> guest: the best advice, it is hard -- tampa and in particular to mind. i didn't exactly grow up wanting to be a journalist, but i got more and more into politics and public policy laid in college. and that sort of led me to the place where i wanted to write on a regular basis and not the public decision on a day-to-day basis but i believe are key issues that underlie. i'll have to get back to you on that one. i can't think of anything particular. >> host: linda is a republican mayor. linda on the air, welcome to the conversation. >> host: most people pay attention. the media's only 11%. you regularly have callers hear wanted to shut down fox, which is the only conservative channel. the second caller you had is just another democrat. used to have integrity and cut them off on the line.

the color from a couple months ago but got an argument when it's about how liberal c-span has become during this election year. he was outed years ago by the press and most of these moderators have come over from npr, so that tells you where c-span is coming from. they are in a re-elect obama mode. and it poured money the first 45 minutes, they seem to have a straight line into c-span every morning because vacant and weigh about there at large population average. >> host: and that, you are an unhappy viewer. where'd you get your information from? >> caller: i read. i recently discontinued and i said the same that c-span is an. i listen, watch television and i watch all the stations. i pick and choose the truth. >> host: i won't argue back

here, but i tell you our staff is not from npr. we've hired people from a number of organizations around town, which wouldn't fit into the categories and they're all here blending them together with our nonpartisan approach and bipartisan approach to covering issues. speak in a bipartisan, this question on twitter. sahil kapur, do you cover other parties such as green party candidate such as jill stein in 2012? the >> guest: i think we have it devoted much coverage to the candidate of the two parties. i think it is a very legitimate point to make that the two-party system, you know, the point to be made on the two-party system. the limited factory have been the limited resources we have haven't really found -- had a really found the capacity to cover the parties beyond the two major political parties to which we no one is going to be

president and one of the candidates. in either of the parties are going to be elected to the house and senate races. >> host: seattle is up next. you're on the air. >> caller: i was just wondering, mrs. kapur, dg research the stories for facts? and now, basic journalism, who, what, when, where, why, how. that's all, answer the questions. if you have to go to more than one store, i understand you only have two people that cover the hill. going to need more to cover the hill. and more objective i guess points of views. >> host: banks, appreciated. >> guest: the answer is we do look at who, what, where, why,

when you do that at every one of our stories, we tried to save the issues or the angle from which we can size it has the dead of every cybercovering. we work hard to make sure the points of view of both sides are adequately and appropriately represented. >> host: we just hit the top of the hour. we invite people who are intrigued to find your work and that of your colleague on the "talking points memo." this is what today's issue that site. sahil kapur, thank you for the introduction to tpm and also you're reporting this morning during a program. a >> guest: at the pleasure. thank you for having me on.