presidential candidate mitt romney. he appeared on c-span morning program washington journal in january of this year where he took your phone calls, e-mails, and tweets.tu this is about an hour.ec >> and let me introduce you. joining us from boston. he is the co-author along with scott hellman, of a newdu biography of mitt romney.chael along with reporters from then, boston globe, four years ofll reporting into this profile ofap the presidential contender. let me ask you, of the big question about mitt romney, what is it that informs his desireisl for public office?s >> well, i great question, andit in the book we reaeslly try to explain a little h bit about the family history and about his relationship with his father who, of course, was governor of michigan, tried to run for president and drop out before the first primary in new his hampshire when he had problems.o

and it is really very easy torei see a straight line there wereot he is trying to fill where hisrw father failed, not just there, o but because the shares, of -- some of the same ambitions.ll we he has a calli hng for public fl service as he sees it, but he has been thinking about thisecah from a very early age.so ..ame ambitions. he has a calling for public service as he sees it. he's been thinking about this from an early age, as a teenager, he was following his father around when his father was running for governor, he was in the state house as a young teenager. late at night, there is anecdote described in the book, past midnight, he's advising his father what to do with legislators. it is something he's been thinking about for a very long time. with a core conviction, believing that business has a lot of answers. he certainly, one thing he says everyday on the campaign trail is that government doesn't create jobs, business does and that in turn creates questions about his own record that i'm

sure we can talk about. >> to that life-long desire to be in politics, in new hampshire, mitt romney on one of the campaign events talked about that and gave it a little cast, let's listen to how he described his interest in politics. >> this chance to run for president of the united states, i never imagined i'd do it. i mean, you know, this is just a very strange and unusual thing to be in the middle of. one of the -- i mean, i was just a high school kid like everybody else with skinny legs. you know, i imagine i'd be in business all my career. >> how does that square with what you just told us in your reporting? >> it doesn't square entirely to be completely frank. the idea he was just another high school kid was not the way other people might see it it. he went to one of the most elite prep school necessary bloomfield hills when his father was governor of michigan. it's not the typical upbringing

of most people. he lived in a rarified climate, i'm not saying that in a negative way, it wasn't typical for a lot of people. maybe that is the way he sees it. when you are looking at it, hopefully a fair biography, that is not typical and shaped the kind of person he was. so, i'm sure it is difficult for everyone to imagine running for president, but more than most people, probably something he thought about given that his father had run for president. he was extremely interested in what his father did and many friends told us and are quoted in the biography about how from an early time, mitt romney was thinking about public office. we go back really several decades, three or four decades, he was telling colleagues, i'm not sure if i want to do that deal, i might run for public office one day and that might not look good. it is something his colleagues thought he was interested in for a very long time. >> for our viewers who like to engage you with questions or comments about mitt romney

through the lens of his biographer, michael kranish, joining us from boston, send us tweets or e-mail. we'll put the methods on the screen. we'd like to get to your calls and comments quickly to have a chance to ask more about what the reporting suggests. you talk in the book about how one of his challenges is that his -- the camera lens is translates his personality different from the way people around him see him. so would you talk a little bit about what the public sees that people in his circle see differently. >> right. well, his friends and his family are surprised at the way he's characterized publicly. the man they see is funny, warm, relaxed, jokes easily, tells stories, very fun to be around. the public persona has been portrayed oftentimes as sort of cold, robotic, detached. why is that?

we try to explore that step by step in the biography and one reason appears to be that mitt romney has grownup in this series of bubbles. he grew up in this rarified world of bloomfield hills and the prep school and so forth. he went off to mormon mission in france. he was at brigham young university, the world of private equity he was in was a pretty closed circle type of world. it's not like he ran for the city council and he was mayor and he's a glad hander, he's anything but in the way he's lived most of his life. as a result of that, it has been difficult for him to connect and it is one of the great challenges that he has in running for president, translating the way his friends see him to the way he comes across in public. obviously he's a man of great wealth. his background is in business in which he earned tens of millions of dollars at times. you just try to relate to the average person and when he does so, it comes off awkwardly.

even his closest friends would acknowledge he didn't have a typical life growing up, it is not something he's used to doing and that is a challenge for him. >> so much in the news this week regarding the romney campaign has to do with money. 15% estimated income tax rate. the reporting of offshore accounts in the cayman island, keeping some portion of his wealth. want to ask you because in the -- in your book, you talk about the mitt romney who hit the campaign trail in 2002 was very different from the political neoph yte, and can how campaign staff anticipated questions like the corporate reader question and tried to inoculate the candidate. when one watches this week, how is it that this team of advisors who have been with him four years let the issues get ahead of the candidate? >> well, that's a really great question, susan tochlt take it back to 1994, when mitt romney ran for the u.s. senate against

ted kennedy, he seemed unprepared for the most obvious attack, the same attack we're hearing today, in his business of leverage buyouts that question whether jobs were created or jobs were lost. there were ads similar to what you see now run against him then, pretty devastating and were a major reason he lost that race. particularly on the tax issue you mention about the tax rate, zero surprise to anyone who covered mitt romney his tax rate is essentially the capital gains tax rate on most income. most of his income comes from capital gains or carried interest, not from typical salary. when he said recently he hases paid 15% tax rate, that is not surprising to anyone who looked at his financial disclosure or watched him over the number of years because that is the way he earned his money. what strikes people, when he said it himself, it comes across in a certain way he's essentially acknowledging to the general public that's the case and that's a lower rate than many people pay.

very interestingly back in 1994, he was quoted in boston globe as challenging ted kennedy to release his tax returns and he questioned whether kennedy had something to hide and went on to say if kennedy would release his tax return on the same day mitt romney would release his. susan, it never happened, neither released tax returns n. 2002, this was brought up when mitt romney ran for governor. he was asked, you mentioned in '94, you would be willing to do so, would you do so now? his aid said he would not do so due to "privacy" concerns. it's been something going on for years. there is a saying in politicss that you should get the story out and get ahead of it and get it out right away so that anything that might be a problem or embarrassing is long since past when crucial days come up. this is something he's been avoiding doing for many years, the boston globe for example, i can tell you for 18 years since he first ran for office has been asking him to release his tax

returns and the reason it's important to look at tax returns, not just from the last tax year or even a few years, he has not been clear what tax returns he would release. you would want to see the tax returns from 1984 to at least 1999 when he was running capital and beyond because those tax returns would tell you exactly how he personally profited from certain deals and give you a much better idea about whether he profited to a certain extent, for companies that lost jobs or factories closed f. he releases tax return for recent years, that will not tell you the key information and we don't know whether he'll do that and if he doesn't, and he is nominee, certainly the obama administration would say, what have you got to hide just like you asked ted kennedy what do you have to hide 18 years ago. >> here is a tweet about money and mitt romney from mike murphy. we assume this is not the political consultant who you talk about in your book. the question is how truthful was

the statement he didn't inherit money? >> the question of whether he inherited money or not, as i understand it, there was a loan, i think, some help with his first house a long time ago in massachusetts from his father. and i saw this morning in the "new york times" i think it was, there was a comment, i think on c-span in fact, mitt romney said he did get inheritance of some sort from his father and turned that over to brigham young university where he had gone to school. so that's what i know about that. more broadly, clearly, mitt romney benefited from a lot of his father's wealth basically as a child, growing up, going to prep school, having every advantage you could possibly have, in that way, certainly he benefited significantly. mitt romney as far as we know has never lacked for financial resources. >> george, a republican, you are on. >> hi. that was my question, was

inheritance he mentioned last night. i think you covered it. thank you. >> thanks, george, sorry to preechlt you. since george was interested in that, david brooks with headlines "the wealth issue," was written around your book. here is the way he opens the book. he writes, mitt romney is a rich man, is mitt romney's character formed by his wealth? is romney a spoiled character? has he been corrupted by ease and luxury? his column answers that. i will ask you from your reporting to answer that question. >> right. susan, i read that column before going on the air and liked it not just because he mentioned our book, but because he really understood the point we were trying to make. there is a chapter in the book, i think is interesting because i got to do some research on the romney family history. and this goes back four generations, you might ask, why is this biography of mitt romney going back that far in history?

it's a really intriguing compelling tale about the history of mormonism is the history of the romney family and part of mexico. it is basically to summarize briefly, mitt's great, great grandfather came from liverpool, england and settled in illinois, the heart of mormonism in this country and the mormons were kicked out, this ancestor stayed behind to finish the temple, had to flee and the family went to the state of utah and eventually this person's son, mitt's great grandfather was told by brigham young to marry and then to take multiple wives and this person believes strongly in polygamy when polygamy was outlawed in the united states, the church told mitt's great gathfather to go to mexico and continue polygamy there. they did that and that in fact is where mitt's father, george,

was born. his father was not a polygamist, but that is where george was born. at the age of five, there was a revolution in mexico, the family had to flee back to the united states and that's what happened, george then built extraordinary life for himself, became the head of american motors, became governor and ran for president, as we've discussed. the point of that and the point i think david brooks takes in the column, this family has gone through this extraordinary journey. there has been struggle and flight and rebuilding and perseverance and determination. mitt hasn't had to have the struggles, clearly because he's had a lot of advantages from birth. but it's ground in him that that is where he comes from. what's really interesting is that this extraordinary family story is not something mitt romney talks about. he doesn't feel comfortable talking about it, in part because a, the background of mormonism is not something some people want to hear about and b,

crucial element of the story is polygamy. history factors made him not so anxious to talk about it, but it is deeply engrained part of the romney story. i had a chance to go down to mexico for research and meet with many romneys who live there, many cousins who returned there after the mexican revolution, unlike mitt's direct family. a lot of cousins still live there. one took me around and expressed great pride in the family story that this romney family helped build part of the united states and part of mexico and played an important role in history and obviously great pride in mitt romney. it's not something he himself can talk about, it's a great part of where he came from. >> a viewer wants to follow-up with you writing on twitter. he says, the question that brooks' column raises for me is was the romney family history or his privileged upbringing more influential in shaping him? >> right. exactly what we're talking about. i think there is no question

that his family history privately, sort of in a private place for mitt romney is the way we describe it. it is important to him there is a scene in the book, we describe inside the hallways of his house in massachusetts, where he has five portraits on the wall, those portraits do include the person i mentioned about who came over from england and then the great grandfather who went to mexico and so forth there is no question to us that this is a point that is important to him privately. he just doesn't feel comfortable talking about it publicly. and certainly his privileged upbringing, it's part of who he is, it just is. just because you are extremely wealthy doesn't mean you can't make a connection to people. many politicians have successfully done that, for example, in new york city, the mayor of new york is a very healthy republican and democratic city and somehow managed to overcome that. it seems to be more difficult for romney to do that and what he does say things sometimes

they come across awkwardly, for example, a few days ago he was talking about his overall wealth and he mentioned that most of it comes from capital gains and then he talked about the part that is regular income, the same type people would get if they are getting a salary in the same tax rate and he said it was not very much, referring to $374,000, which is more than most make in a whole year. when you make a comment like that, you can imagine the obama campaign team rewinding the tape and cutting it right for a commercial. >> next is manhattan, jack is a democrat there, you are on. >> yes. good morning. i'm calling concerning what i would call a jealousy issue. not just mr. romney's financial wealth, but his overall life, his family, the religion is immaterial to me. you know, you take a look, he's been successful financially. his personal life is successful

you know, it seems to me most people in life when they go through, they get failures here and there, but maybe this man has a midus touch. you look at his personal touch, five strapping sons, grandchildren, he's healthy as a horse and his young sons seem as healthy as horses, so i think some of it could be just plain jealousy and on the financial wealth issue, a lot of my democratic brethren who support barack obama happen to be jewish and they're also liberal and ones that i don't know are much wealthier than barack obama. look at the hedge fund managers, the top ones, they are the guys and as far as just financial wealth, they leave mitt romney in the dust.

>> thanks. >> well, mitt romney has essentially taken the argument recently that there is a jealousy issue there. he used that word, as i recall it. the way i would respond to that is the issue that's come up in the campaign directly from his opponents hases not been a jealousy issue if you look at what his opponents have said. their complaint is whether he was using his business background to profit personally even while jobs were cut. so at this point, what you can do is look at what the opponents have said and it is a whole chapter, a long chapter in the book, where we try to explore what actually happened with mitt romney running capital for 15 years. certainly tell you and want to express it's a more complicated story than the 30-second sound bites you see typically in a campaign. understandably, mitt romney cast it in the most glowing term its, his opponents in the most negative terms, but it is a 15-year interesting and complicated story and that's

worth looking at. i think during a campaign, that's what opponents will focus on. whether individual voters see it differently, that's another matter. but looking at individual deals and how he personally did become wealthy from certain deals, that seems like grounds to examine that i think everyone would want to look at. >> you title the chapter about his governorship of massachusetts the c.e.o. governor for emma, who is racquetball first on twitter and asks, will romney run government as he ran and privatize government assets. >> the c.e.o. governor, his background was as business executive, he ran this company for 15 years and when he came in, he was viewed as trying to run the state sort of emulating the vein way and the methodology and brought in partners to help

him. certainly a driving characteristic of mitt romney is that he is a data drich person. there is a phrase about him he likes to quote "while in the data," he likes to look at spreadsheet, use powerpoint presentations. this may be one reason people don't connect to him. it is not the typical way a politician tries to relate to people. that is who he is. his own spokespeople will say he's data driven person and wants to gather facts, gather people around him and his management style was to gather partners and have him discuss for him and argue about what they thought should be done on a particular deal? oftentimes romney would not interject own views, he would listen and later on go talk to individual partners, can we work this and work that? that worked well for investors during that time. when he ran for governor in 2008, he tried the same methodology and it did not work well. he had several layers of

advisors and wasn't able to choose between which advisor had ultimate say and delegate as much as he might have wanted to according to those who work with him at the time. this campaign has been a little different. he delegated more, single layer of advisors he's given more responsibility to, but how that will translate into running the white house. you know, when you are running for the white house, you are running to be commander in chief, you are running to be many different things, not just analyst and a data-driven person. you have to bring many, many skills. you can look perhaps more at goff his governorship to draw clues, certainly he would like to, i don't know if he would privatize certain things. he talked a lot about scaling back government dramatically and his core belief being business creates jobs, not government. stripping away regulations and things like that, other people will disagree with how far things should go on that. but that is certainly going to

be a core part of his campaign. >> back in an earlier campaign with his team of boston globe reporters did a profile book of john f. krary, your team keeps lucking out with massachusetts politicians making it to the presidential contender stage. what was different in writing the two books for you? >> it is interesting, i did write a similar biography back in 2004, about john kerry. i would say the main difference in writing that book, i've been in washington for quite sometime and i uncovered myself kerry since he was a senator. in this case, we worked together, my co-author, scott, had covered mitt romney and the state house here in massachusetts and i wrote an awful lot about family history and about the company and the 2008 campaign. looking at it through a different lens, what was really important in both cases, we were able to rely on great resources

that we had collected at the globe in covering him for the last two decades. one thing, for example, is that we have the equivalent of an oral history of romney and his family at the globe. what i mean by that, reporters have done interviews with romney and his family and friends over the years, saved transcripts, a lot of material had never been published. so we set out to do this book, i and my colleagues were able to go back and look at the transcripts, sort of like writing about historical figure and going to the archives, which i've done for a different book. it is similar type of thing, you can go back and read many pages of transcripts and see things that may not have seen interesting or relevant at the time that absolutely jump out at you and say, here is the key, here is the clue to something that explains things that i didn't understand. we have the time and the space to go much deeper than we could in a newspaper story or series of stories, which we did four years ago when romney first ran for president. so all that was extremely valuable, but the core thing of

being able to rely on the globe's background and experience of reporters in covering, that was pretty similar and certainly was helpful to have written the kerry book and a book on thomas jefferson before setting down to write this book with my colleagues. >> next from virginia, michelle. good morning. >> good morning. thanks so much. a quick comment and a question. my comment is that i would much prefer 15% of his larger earnings and great companies like staples that create jobs and provide that. i appreciate 31% of something else. my real question was when he spoke about the private man and if i remember correctly, i saw on c-span, governor romney announced four years ago, you have segments afterward, when you see the human side. shortly after the announcement it appeared he was bringing supporters and there was a mom with a child who had down syndrome, but seemed to be a family friend. he got down off the stage when he learned the boy, i thought

johnny or something, was missing and went to try to help find him. i have also read when he was a bishop of his congregation, he drove a beater car, even when he had a lot of money because he was sensitive to those in his congregation who had less. i wonder if he could comment on does he have this kinder, softer side, but maybe he's following the scripture to do your good deeds privately and different trumpet that as much. from the c-span moment it was impressive to me this huge big important moment, he would leave the stage and try to find this lost boy.

>> a partners daughter had gone missing in new york city and mitt romney took the partners to york and did everything he could to help find the daughter. the daughter was found ann romney said it was one of the most important moments at his company that there were able to help find the daughter. that was turned into a campaign ad which come across to come as awkward -- to some as awkward. mitt romney does have a compassionate side of iran that

at about that incident to try to bring that side of him across. >host: next as an independent call from florida caller: caller: i was troubled more than anything else by mitt romney's comments in nevada with people in foreclosure that they should let the free market to its business and people should be kicked out of their homes and then the corporations would come in and rent out those houses and wouldn't that be in a lovely resolution to the problem. also, i only got a little bit of money from my speaking engagements, 3 and $75,000 is a little bit of money and corporations are people, too. the democrats -- teddy roosevelt was a wealthy man, aftere was a wealthy man. kennedy was a wealthy man but they identified with the common person, the fireside chats and so forth.

i keep remembering anatol francis talked about law and its majestic equality to serve the rich and the port. it seems all the republican candidate, romney especially with his $230 million personal fortune, has not a clue as to what is going on with the middle-class and working-class. this $50 that he gave this lady had one of his he vance, this kind of hear let me throw you a bone and let them eat cake type of thing is all obscene. -- is a scene. i have seen people who have to choose between medicine and food because i am in the health-care profession. no one has said that 34% of the people on food stamps are white. they are not black. these republicans, everyone of them, are coming out with this

social commentary. rick santorum had -- say the black people have paychecks instead of food stamps. newt gingrich had his comments and ron paul with his newsletter is going back in time about big- footed black felons -- host: thank you for your call. guest: those issues would likely be his shoes that would be raised if he was the. nominee. mitt romney calls creative destruction of the economy, whether that would be helpful to the average person. those to be the issues that would be front and center and presumably the way -- that is the way robbie wood wanted. i don't think he would agree with the power phrase of the caller's comments underscore

believe is in the power of capitalism and business to work its way and to help all sorts of folks that is certainly the corps center of his beliefs. there is no doubt that is the way he feels about things, in massachusetts, he is known for the health care measure which was seen as a very compassionate measure helping all sorts of people, not the kind of thing he likes to talk about in the republican presidential primary and maybe something he will come back to in the general election. he wants to repeal president obama's health care measures so he will have to explain what he would do to replace that. he says it's important to have held insurance but why would you want to get whatever -- rid of the one that is passed. we will see woody says about how it can be done in a -- we will see how he says it can be done in a effective way. there is a balancing out if he is the nominee and runs for the

general election. host: new york city, mike, a democrat -- caller: mitt romney has been trying to run for president a long time. if he were not to become president this time around, do you think he would try again in 2016? he has five sons, all of military age. have any of his sons ever been on the military or thought about being in the military? thank you very much. guest: it seems likely that a person would run a third time. that it would be extraordinarily difficult. rather than get into his son's, let me bring uppe mitt romney ad

self and what he did during the vietnam war. i write about that in the book. he got deferments. he was a student at stanford. he went on a mission in france and there were deferments given out for mormon missionaries. there were limited and if you're in utah, their only so many available per each church district in michigan, because there were few mormons, most people wanted and got them and he did. they got a deferment for his time when he was a missionary for 2.5 years if and when he returned to the states and went to brigham young university, he had a deferment for that time. after that, he had a draft number but it was so high it was not called. he did not serve in the military and there are a couple of quotations and the book about that. we go into that a little bit

further. i am not familiar if the suns have gone into military service that i can recall. that is in a book regarding -- regarding mitt romney himself. host: we have a brooklyn night. caller: [inaudible] subway and dunkin donuts, most of those people pay more taxes than mitt romney. it is very concerned. -- concerning. what about the county pays no taxes on? is that in your book? guest: his tax rate being 15% is

not surprising. gets most of its money from capital gains but the money he earned on speechmaking which he described as not very much, being $375,000 would be a higher tax rate. it would be interesting to see, talking about what money went where and he said he did not pay less in certain taxes that may be in accounts of sure, you can see the details of the tax returns to go fully into that. we're talking about tax returns going back to 1984 when he began running bain capitol. there could be tax shelters and all sorts of things. we want to see tax returns going back to that time to get a full accounting of what his taxes were and what the tax rate was and companies he invested in what happened with those companies. all that will give us more information. right now, we're mostly discussing this in a vacuum. when he runs for office, he puts

forth a financial disclosure form but it is extraordinarily vague. they talk about ranges of income and it only comes out when runs for office. they really don't give you a full accounting. if he is the nominee this discussion will go on all the time. democrats will make sure of that. some of his advisers are suggesting he puts out everything. it will not be comfortable but he will deal with them at 1 scalise gori wants to do it after the primary is over and we don't know when that will be. it is an issue that will come up again and again it does not release everything. host: our next call is from los angeles, independent -- caller: i would like to talk about how mitt romney is embracing the neocons. host: i'm going to interrupt you

because don is not your name. remember the 30 day policy. next up is a call from middlebury, massachusetts, republican, go ahead. caller: when you mention romneycare, he tried to veto much of it when he was governor but the congress and massachusetts overrode it. look what happened. that raised taxes more. many people left the state because of the higher taxes. peopleay just because get something for nothing that everybody is happy with runningcare, thank you. guest: when mitt romney put forward his health-care plan, one of the rationales was the concern that people were getting something from nothing. he argued at the time that it

was a conservative idea to require people who could afford it to have a mandate to get health care insurance because the concern was that people were going to emergency rooms and getting free health care on someone else's time when they needed it even though they could afford to buy health care. he was following what he perceived to be a conservative idea that people should have a mandate if the state chooses to give it to them to have health care insurance. i am not speaking for him at all. we are an independent biography of that circuit was his argument at the time. the caller is right that there are provisions in the bill that the massachusetts legislature that he vetoed and was overridden by the legislature but the bottom line is it is his bill. he took great pride in the bill when he signed it. standing beside him with senator edward kennedy. it was an interesting moment.

one of his sons said to him watching ted kennedy's stand behind his father as this legislation on health care, it seems to signal another problem had been solved of climate change because "hal had just frozen over." mitt romney and senator kennedy were standing side by side. it is an interesting moment and it is one you would not have expected perhaps. massachusetts was uniquely able to deal with this. there are far fewer uninsured people in massachusetts than other states. he viewed it as a signature the achievement that help them run for president. right after he signed the legislature, he walked across boston, to go to the ritz carlton hotel to meet with advisers from iowa that he hoped

would run his presidential campaign in the iowa caucus. it is something he thought would be important and he thought would be helpful politically. >host: does the massachusetts constitution require a balanced budget in the state? guest: he talks about the balanced budget but i don't want to say a wrong answer. host: did he more frequently choose to balance it by cutting government programs and services or by raising taxes? guest: there was a lot of controversy over some statements about fees because he raised a number of fees and does not like to call them tax hikes. same deference. he did a combination of both. it is fair to say. he worked with the legislature who were 85% democratic. you have to make compromises and

the pragmatic. you cannot come in and say you will tell them what to do. he had to work with these folks. he was not the glad handing politician. he was a very workmanlike person trying to get this thing done when he decided he could do health care. he sat down with the data and his advisers and asked how he could do this. there were federal funds that are described in. detail in. there were parts of federal money that helps things happen that might not be so easy to do in other states. there were a combination of factors that were relatively low on the insurance rate in massachusetts than they did not deal with the cost control issues that are still left to be done in getting that legislation passed. host: next is orlando, a democrat, you are on, good morning. caller: i have a question

regarding mitt romney. how is he proposing to win over the injured -- evangelical vote in florida or in other states? regarding a current state of affairs, i am concerned regarding keeping checks and balances. how does he propose to keep our leaders held accountable by concerned citizens? i am a concerned citizen and i went to occupy wall street because i am a concerned citizen. guest: "was the first question? caller: how does he propose a -- what is his plan of action to win over the evangelical vote? guest: right, good question. in the last campaign in 2008,

they went to great lengths because they were concerned about the view that some christians have of mormons. some christians don't believe that more monism is true christianity. he knew this was an issue. a number of key and the -- evangelical leaders came to mitt romney's home in massachusetts and sat down and try to discuss with them how he would overcome this issue. he went to great lengths and spent $2 million on the straw poll in iowa in 2008 in an effort to win their to make the issue go away. he won the straw poll but lost to mike huckabee large they do to the influence of evangelical christians in iowa. this time it has been different. the response has been that they have not set up a committee to woo evangelicals directly as they did last time. when he is asked about this, he basically points to article 6 of

the constitution and says there is no religion -- no religious test for president. he hopes that the main issue here is the economy. at the same time, he has tried to reassure evangelicals that he is a very religious and faithful man and begin -- and believes strongly in his faith and they share common values. he has tried to deal with it that way and in south carolina tomorrow this will be an important factor for certain voters. we will see how that plays out there. it has been something he has tried to deal with and he knows it is an issue but they feel it is less of an issue than last time but there are polls that show a certain amount of people may not vote for a mormon based on his religion not withstanding the clause in the constitution. host: "the financial times" has an article about what mormons

believe -- we have a couple of minutes left. victor is independent there. hello. you're on. a >> caller: yes.ndepnt i have a question. regarding the 15% tax return romney dividend income.

my my question is -- how does he explain where balance this against in come -- warren buffett also earns mainly from in comes. warren buffett's secretary is paying more taxes than he doesthe bain history -- the white house chief of staff selected recently as a previous bain execs. how you balance these two positions, the 15% and debate bain history for the white house chief of staff? as a citizen, i have no issue with the president being a mormon, thank you. host: as is our last call. guest: i have not reported on

the latter part of that question but this is something that will be an issue for governor romney if he is the nominee. his tax right, it is not surprising he pays the tax rate because most of his gains are from capital gains and a policy of this country is the capital gains are taxed at a lower rate. there is a legitimate debate whether that is appropriate and whether people like that should be paying a lower tax rate. as the caller mentioned, warren buffett has said this is not fair. he said his overall tax rate is 17% and he said that is lower than his secretaries tax rate and he has called for that to be changed. you have one of the wealthiest, most respected people in the country saying this. he says it is a different type of in, and it is complicated because part of mitt romney's carried interest is involved.

he benefited in many ways. those in the industry would argue that there are all sorts of reasons why that should be kept garden i have written stories about it over the years. there are proposals in congress to change that system so it is more equitable and the eyes of those who think there should not be that lower rates. some people believe you have a low rate for capital gains, it helps job creation. it will be a major issue in the campaign regardless of whether mitt romney is the nominee. host: i want to thank mike kranish for taking your calls. you're watching booktv on c-span2. 48 hours of non-fiction authors ands every books every weekend. [applause]

[cheering and applause] how are you guys doing? [applause] [cheering and applause] >> hello, everyone. can you hear me? good! wow! [applause] >> this is so exciting! [cheering and applause] >> this is my first book, and my very first and probably only book signing! this is so good! this is so good. [applause] well, you know, let me say i am so proud of this product. it is the book "american grown" is everything i would have imagined. i wanted the book to be beautiful, and i think the pictures are absolutely beautiful. i can tell because what malia and sasha picked it up, it's like mom, your book, how nice.

they actually got pulled in by the pictures and they couldn't put it down. they started looking through and started actually reading it. then i eventually got a thumbs' up. that's what we hope the book will be. the book is not really just the story of the white house garden and how it came to be and how we had the ups and downs and trials and tribulations. it's also a story of community of gardens across the country. everything from a wonderful community garden in hawaii to some excellent school gardens that are happening in -- right smack dab in the middle of new york with great school kids. the stories of the people of are doing are an important part of the book as well. we talk about my key initiatives which is "lets move." it's about getting our kids healthy. the book shares that journey and some of the interesting

statistics and work that are going on across the country to help the kids lead healthier live. it's practical too. it gives a few tips. i'm not the best gardener in the world. i had a great team of national park service people. i had my tubman and ban kroft kids [applause] they are my partners in crime this in this respect. these two schools have been with us since the beginning. that was one of the things we said when we started exploring whether or not we could plant on the garden on the south lawn. it would have to be a teaching garden kids would participate in and understand where their food comes from and engage in the process. that's what i learned in my own life when i involved my kids in the foot they ate. we didn't garden in chicago. we went to farmers markets and got them involved in really changing their diets and owning that process they accepting it a

lot more. we have seen it with the kids, you know, these kids are working in the gardens in their own schools. i know they're bringing back idea and questions to their own families and helping to change the way they eat and do great things. these kids have been amazing. and they have just been a pleasure. they come to the white house, they don't get star struck, they don't get around. they get to work! they get to work! and they get our garden planted and harvested in a matter of ten/fifteen minutes. they get it down. we couldn't do it without them. i'm proud of you. so proud, proud, proud of you all! thank you. [applause] thank you for hepping me! [applause] thank you for helping me. i want to thank you all for standing the rain. for coming out. i'm thrilled and i hope you enjoy the book. i hope it becomes the beginning

of many conversations in your own homes and your communities. and i hope that it leads to a healthier generation of kids at some point. there are good recipes in there too that are easy to follow and they're pretty good. white house chief! i urge you to try them. thank you so much. i look forward to seeing you all up here! [cheering and applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

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[inaudible conversations] thank you so much for coming. oh my goodness. hi, how are you? [inaudible conversations] i remember! [inaudible conversations] where you ready to party? you're going keep reading, right? [inaudible conversations] all right. thanks so much for coming! we appreciate it. thanks for coming out. we appreciate you coming out. [inaudible conversations] good

to see you! [inaudible conversations] you know me, i -- [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

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