were the better pill tear. i think this is -- military. i think this is just nonsense, because it's pointless. global war is a clash of systems. it's which system can produce the wherewithal to project power in the atlantic, the pacific, the indian ocean, southeast asia which system can produce the civilian leadership to create the transportation systems, the civilian leadership that's able to produce 96,000 airplanes in 1944. ..

♪ >> thank you so much. nice to see you all. what sandy did not say is that i lived one-third of the history of our country. [applause] which tells you what a young country it is.

or what an old man iamb. well, i'm so pleased to be here. sandy, thank you for the moderately good introduction. george and all the members of the presidential council, thank you so much for supporting this important institution. i appreciate it. i'm a supporter myself, so i thank you. as sandy has said, i've been traveling around talking about this book, "rumsfeld's rules," and i might just take a few minutes. i'm told you're ready to ask him questions. and i will answer the question i know the answers to. and i will respond. but before i do just a few words about this, i spend four years

writing my memoirs, "rumsfeld's rules." unknown and known. as i can't think about that i can't think about "rumsfeld's rules" and i decided why i should do that. it started because my mother was a schoolteacher. and i would ask her what the word meant and she would tell me to look it up and write it down. and i started carrying little three by five cards. i still do to this day. she said at the end of the week and read them and remind us ambassador writing down the thoughts or ideas and things that i thought were important. and i did not as a young man, as a boy scout. i did as a navy pilot. i did when i was in congress, and then as sandy said, i resigned from congress in 1969, my fourth term, and went into the nixon cabinet and served in the office of economic opportunity. and i started making notes about

that. and then when president ford came in, he called me back to chair his transition. i came back and answered as his white house chief of staff at one day we're an oval office, and i mention with these rules. he said what's that? i said -- even a legislator. he had never served in an executive position and i told him that we keep those kinds of little rules. and i don't know what i said to them, maybe something like, the staff should not say the white house is calling. buildings can't call. [laughter] and so he said, well, let me say this. so i had it typed up and assured him and he said, you said circulate that to the senior staff in the white house. i did and ended up to he named rumsfeld's rules. it gained a life of its own and

"new york times" wrote about it, "the wall street journal." people had been reading it for now, well, a court of a century i guess. i decided to write a book about the rules and that is what is not just come out last tuesday. i try to ride in the way that it would be interesting to college graduates who were starting at the very beginning, a people or in the middle and had to have meetings. i had this chapter on how will that meetings and that type of thing. i have a chapter on, oh, a chapter on wrestling as i wrestled for 10 years. that's we learned the relationship between effort and results. and it's terribly important to the other thing to learn is to try to put yourself in the other fellas shoes and see what the world might look like from their first -- from their perspective and that's useful in negotiations as well. i then spent time in business and learned rules like a's hire

a's, b's higher bees. and it's true. one, and are said to me, gtech and what you think, what you think i have to do? what company should i go to or what business or what state, and i said, you're asking all the wrong questions. the real question is who are you going to workaround. find someone really bright, really sparkly. because you will find the people around them will be sparkly and you'll learn a lot. what do i do? it doesn't matter what you. be around those people. and she said, well, like you? the first names they came to my my, one was doctor herman kahn was a futurist what happened to know and was an interesting fellow. he has long since gone, and another was william buckley. i said just because you're so intelligent and interesting as a person, but i proceeded to drink

other chapters, and towards the end as i was finishing the book, i thought about the fact that american bases does not defend the capitalist system very well. and i saw this occupy wall street and occupy everything, and people sleeping out in the parks intends. i listen to the national campaign and i hear people talking about government growing jobs. [laughter] and it reminded me of one of my rules that washington, d.c. is 60 square miles surrounded by reality. [laughter] [applause] the chapter on capitalism i

wrote because i was worried that people in business, first of all there are very few people in government have ever been in business because it's hard. it's easy for an academic to go into business. they can leave and come back to the world. it's easy for a lawyer to go into government and then come out. it's very hard for a business person if they're a small businessperson, it's their business and they have to be there. if there any large corporation, then they get knocked off the ladder and they are out. and it's very hard to reenter. and as a result of people in business who don't, i will admit, confession is good for the soul my wife tells me, but if you're in government looking at business, you understand it intellectually. but it's one dimensionally. you don't have any idea what delay does if you're in government, what government delay does to business but you don't have any idea what uncertainty does business.

you don't really feel the impact of the regulations. i send my taxes in every and i always add a letter, to whom it may concern, here are my taxes. i want you to know i haven't the vaguest idea if they are accurate. [laughter] i said, i went to college, you know, i've got average intelligence and my wife went to college and she won't even read them because she knows she doesn't understand them. and i just want you to know that that's the case and that the money to an accountant and he helps me. i hope they're right but if you got a question just give us a call. [laughter] let's see, i don't see many hands going up. but i wrote the chapter because i felt that i was in business,

and i know that a businessman has come in a large company, has shareholders, they have customers and they have employers. their shareholders, customers and employees are all across the spectrum and political views and ideas and parties. and, therefore, business people are very reluctant to challenge the government, to criticize the government. they don't want to divide the stockholders or their employees or their shareholders. they also worry about the irs. they worry -- [laughter] if you don't understand, you ought to worry. i worry. i mean, i know, i don't know. and they also, if you are in the pharmaceutical business like i was, he got the fda. they'll have the securities and change commission and all these alphabet regulatory organizations. and to the extent someone

criticizes the government or challenges and approach they're taking them they worry that the government could be turned on them. that is in my view why this current irish thing is so critical because the american people don't want to feel -- current irs thing, could be turned on him in a way that targets in you can target one person, you can target someone is but doesn't matter if you're liberal, conservative, republican, democrat. i think that's why they are so central. now, what i'd like to do is have seen the, or somebody, where are these people? do you have microphones? i think you do. there you are. and i would be happy to respond to questions, as i say, and even answer some and i will do my best. and what you need to do i

suppose is raise your hand, and sandy will bring a mic. i always take the first question. [laughter] anyone who pops up like a jack-in-the-box with the first question, oh, scares me to death. boy, those lights are bright. make it a good one. i'm going to embarrass you if you don't. [laughter] >> is what we will do, you should secretary from fma -- >> someone laughter turns mic on. you have the floor of your, sandy. >> who has the first question? okay, you've got it. okay, anthony. is your mic on? >> well, mr. secretary, i just two quick questions -- >> no, no. i'm 81 in july. i do not, i do not need multiparty questions. [laughter] >> okay. >> its 17:15, 10:15 in washington were i flew in

yesterday. single part question. >> okay. >> but feel free to go ahead. [laughter] >> first question is, will you speak no, no. you only get one. [laughter] turn-off is mic. [laughter] >> will you write a book for republicans called the al shall not tax that during a tax decrease? thou will not raise expensive without some sort of cut in the build? i mean, i remember when i watched your interview on the letterman show you have suggested that there was a time in which our debt, i forget like was the $100 billion or something, the world went crazy. >> i was there. it was the presidency of lbj. i was a congressman and it was the first federal budget in our

history that it $100 billion. and everyone just gasped at the thought. >> but now doesn't doesn't seem like -- >> but now we have trillion dollar deficits. >> it doesn't look like the republicans are helping us any, so will you write a book for that? >> well, let me say about him something about that. i think the republicans, you know, there are people all across the spectrum in both parties. but i was asked, i was speaking about my other book, known and unknown at fort leavenworth. the military base, not the prison. [laughter] and there were i think 1490 majors from most our country but from around the world, too. it's a big school there. and someone asked me what's the biggest problem that i worry

about when i go to bed at night. and the answer was, american weakness. why do i say that? i think the signal being sent out from this country is that basically we are modeling american economy on europe, and it's a failed model. it doesn't work. and there's no way you can have the deficits we have and have the debt we are incurring without sending out a signal to the world that this country is not going to be what it was in the past. there's no, we can do that. is not going to act responsibly, people take that message and they see. and then you turn around and when i went to washington, eisenhower was president. i came out of the navy and then i served there during kennedy-johnson in the congress. we were spending 10% of gross domestic product on defense. they were spending less than 4%.

our allies in europe are spending less than 2%. and the signal that goes out to the world now with this sequestration is that we have got $493 billion out of the pentagon budget, defense budget and we're about to cut another half a trillion, which brings it close to $950 billion out of a 10 year budget. the signal that sends to the world is that the united states is not going to be in a position to contribute to a more peaceful and stable world in the decade ahead. [inaudible] [shouting] >> u.s.a. u.s.a. ♪ [shouting] >> mr. secretary, in the rear of the room a question or.

>> we will count him as and decided. [laughter] [applause] >> mr. secretary, i'm in the back. >> yes, i see. >> first i want to thank you for your service. second, i want to ask you, it's been 10 plus years since the start of the iraqi war. i would like to know what you thought about what happened and i like to know what you think what's going to happen in iraq over the next few years. >> sure. well-versed with respect to the popular slogan that bush lied, people died. bush didn't lie. the intelligence was fashioned by george kennan envious intelligence community. it was studied exhaustively by colin powell made the presentation for the country. to the united nations. it was supported by congress to

united states including senators hillary clinton, senator john kerry, senator jay rockefeller. it was agreed to by our allies. it had been the policy of the united states for a decade that there should be redeemed change in iraq. was passed by a democratic senate, signed by bill clinton. president of the united states. and the ideas that that has become a theme against president bush, seems to me, it's unfortunate and a result of the fact that a narrative has been promote in much of the media which actually isn't the case. now, on iraq what's going to happen? i don't know. we do know a couple of things. we know that saddam hussein is gone your the butcher of

baghdad. he used chemical weapons on kurds, his own people, on his neighbors. we know that he killed hundreds of thousands of people. the mass graves in that country were heartbreaking to say the least. we know that the country still has ethnic divisions among the kurds and the shia and sunni. we know, however, that they've elected a prime minister and a president. we know they have a parliament. we know that the people were proud that they voted, the sunnis didn't participate the first time around and later jumped in and now are participating. is a tough part of the world? qubit. can it be an easy path from where the words were they're going? no way. it's going to be a tough road. but it was a tough road for us. look at our country. we had slaves in 1800. we killed 600,000 americans in a

bloody, horribly bloody civil war. women didn't vote into the 1900s. it's a bumpy road for almost every country. how it will come out i don't know. i do know they have a chance, and i do know i have a lot of respect for the young men and women who served over there and fought on behalf of our country. [applause] >> height, mr. secretary. things are coming all the way to the wild, wild west to see us all. we appreciate it. you said that you have seen about one-third of this country's history, so i would like to know -- >> i've lived it. >> you led the, that's right. so the question is, can we turn it around? because right now you keep saying one thing after another after another come out of this

government, and you think that's going to do it. that's going to do it, that's going to turn the american public record they'll start paying attention to what do we do to turn it around? [applause] >> i think the first thing we have to do is recognize that the idea that anyone citizen can't do very much is simply not true. our whole system is rooted in the reality that for it to work each of us has to participate in helping to guide and direct the course of this country. and some people say, well, maybe i won't vote for someone and neighborhood, why bother? it does make any difference if you write a letter to the editor. if you stand up and you've got some mayors here and since it officials and local officials. people are picking on them

unfairly, doesn't matter much if i stand up. it does matter but it makes a lot of difference. each individual can do a lot. what happens? i've watched it over the history every time things got really bad in this country, there are plenty of times they have been that, a lot worse than today. the american people of gotten out of their chairs and change their priorities and if the pendulum gets pushed too far one way, by golly, they get up and shove it back where it belongs and they've done it. now, is it possible there's a tipping point where the pendulum gets shoved too far one way and you can't get it back? and i suppose it is a tipping point. have we reached the? i doubt it. i think that -- i've got enormous confidence in the american people, think of all the people who rushed into the world trade center in new york, windows attack. think of the people who rushed

into the pentagon and started pulling people out were burned and dying and injured in fighting. the american people have a lot of fiber. i mean, this country's streets were not paved with gold with all the people came from other countries and built it into what it is. i've got a website, rumsfeld.com which i put a speech by adlai stevenson on their that was given to my senior class in college in 1954. and if you've got young people who are fainthearted, who are wondering, gee, about the world, read that speech by adlai stevenson. he was governor of my home state. i don't think he would have been a delicate president to be honest with you. he was kind of cerebral type. one of his campaign slogans was, a kids of the world unite. we have nothing to lose but our

yoke. [laughter] but his speech to my senior class in 1954 was absolutely brilliant. and i think if you read something like that you are reassured. and if you think about the people who do stand up and support people and understand how precious what we have -- you know, i've got a couple of titanium hips and a titanium shoulder. i wanted on the body parts but they wouldn't give them. [laughter] so in comes a therapist to the house one time after one of my hips was done in animation with his wit and after -- and that way. he did it for three days and i said look, i'm a good student. i can do myself, and very much. and i sent him on his way. he got to the door and he turned around and he said, mr. rumsfeld, would you mind if i said something personal? and i said no, go ahead. he said, well, i came from

nigeria and i've been your, i don't know, five or six years, and he said, this country is so special. and he said, i don't think those of you who were born here really appreciate it. he said, if you went to any embassy all across the globe at 10, 11, 12:00 at night you would see people sleeping, american embassies. you would see people sleeping out on the lawn trying to be first in line to get a card to come to the united states of america. it's that important. and we have to cause and think how lucky we are, and how special this country is. and even that, i guess my answer to that question is, and i tried to write this in the last chapter of my book, it is i

think not a good period for our country right now, but i think there will be a good period ahead. and we've been through tough times before, and i personally have a lot of confidence. of course, i came from the midwest and i guess we are optimistic people. thank you. >> mr. secretary, in the rear of the room -- [applause] >> thank you, mr. secretary. i'm a current u.s. state department employee and i just want to get your opinions on the recent benghazi situation. >> i think that the question was about benghazi, in libya. i think, first, if you going to put people into a position of danger, you ought to provide security for them. [applause]

and then if for some reason you can't come you take them out. it's not complicated. the braves were in benghazi -- the britons wer were in benghazd people to give up because they knew they didn't have the right protection and they saw the threat level. the threat level was obvious. they were al qaeda and related terrorist groups in the neighborhood that were well on. they knew that so they pulled their people. our people were not pulled out. they requested additional security because they, too, knew that there were al qaeda and related organizations in the neighborhood that were well armed, and they did not receive the security assistance that they requested. second, the bush administration had to deal with september 11, and in my view they put in place the kind of structures that have helped to protect the american people for the 12 years since

then. and have done a pretty good job at what we did not do a great job in was competing in the ideological space against radical islam. and the administration not only has, this administration won't compete there. they will not do what is necessary to do, but they pretend it's, almost doesn't exist the to talk about fort hood as being workplace violence. which, of course, is simply not true. it is people who are radical and determined to oppose the concept of the nationstate and to impose their views on the world. it is, people think when you say it's a war on terror that it is a war and it will be one with bullets. it isn't going to be one with bullets. it's more like the cold war. it's going to take decades. and we do not today, we're not

even competing in the ideological space as we did against communism. and it's because people do not want to be seen as against a religion. the american people are not against a religion. if there's anything that is always in our country is that we are tolerant of all religions. and yet there is reluctance to name the enemy, and you can't win if you're not willing to do that. i -- [applause] on my website at a meeting with the combatant commanders back in 2003, and i got back to the office and i was concerned and i wrote a memo and it's on rumsfeld.com. i think it's dated october 13 or 16th 2003. and basically i said we don't have metrics to know if we are winning or losing. the war on terror.

we have a pretty good idea the number of people that are being killed or captured. but we don't know the number of people that are being recruited. we don't know the number of people that are being trained in pakistan, funded from people all across that part of the world. we don't know the amount of money that is being raised and contributed to train terrorists and to teach people how to strap on suicide vests and kill people. you know, the purpose of care, i think it was lenin who said, the purpose of care is not to kill. terrorism is not to kill people but if you care i spent it is to alter their behavior. and you can't defend against terror because the terrorists can attack anytime, anyplace using -- you can't defend every place at every moment that they are tied to every technique that it's physically impossible. is the only thing you can do is to go after them, where they are, put pressure on them, make everything that they do more difficult to harder to raise

money, hard token bochum argument between country but ours find a country that will be hospitable to them. and above all harder for them to recruit and fund the training of additional terrorist. it isn't that complicated. it's hard and it will take decades, don't get me wrong, because it's a very strong strain of radicalism. but it is doable. just as even with the communist threat was over, again, not with bullets but by competing against their ideas. so i'll take the next question. i'm looking for one i don't have to answer. >> this is probably -- >> the man said i stand by what i meant to say. [laughter] >> i can't see a thing around you with the likes the weather. someone yell at me. 12:00, good for you. you must've been in the navy.

the air force. >> not really. >> i wanted to know what you thought of a democratic president who has been compared to two major republicans, entering as abraham lincoln, the next one, and now -- >> you have to speak up a little better for me. >> eisai answering this a democratic president -- >> say it again. i don't understand the word. >> okay. wanted to ask you about a democratic president who has been compared to two major republican presidents. one entering as abraham lincoln's next successor, and now the nixonian politician to dish i'm sorry, i can't follow the question, i apologize. what's the word you were using, intrigue? >> no, no. what i'm saying is this. what do you think of a

democratic president who has been compared to two major republican presidents? first when he entered he was compared to abraham lincoln. now he compares to the nixonian politician. >> i think i get it. [laughter] [inaudible] >> what do i think what i didn't vote for him. [laughter] [applause] >> now, mr. secretary, what we're going to do next is we are live streaming this program globally tonight the youtube, and we've taken questions over the last few days. we will put one up and i'm going to read you because you can't see it. the question is, what lessons or

practices can politicians and government leaders learn from the private sector? this is from brian wilson in toledo. >> first thing that flashed into my mind was what mrs. thatcher once said, that the trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money. [applause] the big difference between government is, and business, is in business you are using your money. in government you are using other people's money. and there's a big difference between how people handle their money and how they handle other people's money. and it's just, it's true. it's true anywhere you look.

we all behave a little different. if it's other people's money than when it's our own. i, and the pentagon, it broke my heart when i turned my head for a minute and use the fancy expensive wood paneling going up in one of the halls. and i think, we wouldn't do that if we were a corporation. the vantage of a corporation or a company or business is they can go broke. and that's a good thing. if it's badly managed can walk into any retail street in america, go back a year from then they will be 10% of the stores will be different. one is gone, something else that gets place. in government, they don't. they go on and on and on. and trying to find some technique you can use to get people in government to manage

money like they've managed to own money instead of how they manage other people's money, it's a difficult thing. only way you can do it is for people to be vigilant, for people to understand that the federal government ought to be the very, very last resort. you start with individuals and if individuals need help, by golly, you look at charitable and nonprofit organizations. next electrical local government, the closest to the people where people have a field they have some strength and to talk to the people and they can pick up the phone and call the mayor and said, i golly, i need help on this. and if the state come at the local hindu, then the state. only as a last resort should things go to the federal government. and only if we have people who feel that way and recognize

that. this is such an amazing country it's the most generous country on the face of the earth. you think of the things that voluntary organizations do, and the assistance they provide people, not just in our country but all over the world. and tom curtis, congressman from missouri who was kind of a mentor of mine when i was in congress, he used to say, public money drives out private money. if they see government, federal, state, or local taking over an area, people don't want to help in that area. why should they pay for it twice? first in taxes and then separately. so they back off. and it is true, that is a truth that's in the book, public money drives -- another one, we started talking about president. the first thing akin to mindless harry truman who did a pretty darn good job, but one of his company went out of the white house way down, people talked

about the fact that when he was president, my goodness, think of the things that took place. we have the department of defense, the cia, the national security council from usia, usaid i believe, always, any number of things happen. nato. but one of his roles was if you want a friend in washington, get a dog. [laughter] and the rumsfeld corollary was, get a toxin, he may turn on you. [laughter] get a very little dog. what's the next question? >> mr. rumsfeld stated there you are, yes spent since we are in the nixon center and he made the opening to china, what do you think prospects are for continuing a good relationship with china? >> i think it's possible.

china is a big country. it's an important country china has trouble with its neighbor, india, border color. it has trouble with his neighbor in vietnam, border trouble. it has trouble with mongolia and tibet. it is making a lot of mischief in the south china sea and causing difficulty for the south koreans, for the taiwanese and for the japanese and other countries that have been operating in that part of the world. they are investing in double digits in their defense capabilities in developing the blue water navy and they will have a growing presence. could be wrong, the expert on this is not donald rumsfeld but as i look at it seems to be that there is a tension between a growing economy, which means there'll be a lot of people milling around the country with computers, cell phones, of the

electronic stuff, probably face books and twitter and all that stuff that these younger folks understand so well. and that is not highly compatible with a dictatorial communist political system. you know, they give, where will they give come from? if they try to repress all of the activity that is inevitably going to go on if they allow cellphones and computers and all that stuff, if they try to repress it the economy will slow down. think, and if they don't, the economic side of the economy will be well, but i think you'll probably cost pressures on their political system. i don't know what that means quite but it think you'll probably have to be changes.

and in their political system and how it functions, how it operates, but i guess time will tell. one of the chinese proverbs that have always been amused over was, is sometime you have to, sometimes you have to kill a chicken to fight with the monkey. and they do that. they do something that's, they invaded part of india not too long ago. or they captured some fishermen, to frighten the monkeys, and us and everybody else. and, but they are measured and they take a long view. i remember reading about mao zedong had a defense minister,

and he fled the country to go to the soviet union at a certain moment. he must not have been doing well with mao zedong. and his plane was shot down and he was killed, and a messenger came in and told mao is defense minister just been killed in a plane crash. and mao's comment was, rain will fall and widows will remarry. do you get a sense of, they don't spook easily, but i personally think today, when i was running and elect tronics company we had i think 5000 employees in taiwan -- electronics company. and today, the interaction

between taiwan and the coast of china is just extends. planes are flying back and forth. people are working. i bet you three quarters of those employees are now chinese and they're being led by taiwanese businessmen. what's happening? well, what's happened is i think the chances of anything, if there were to be a conflict between taiwan and the people's republic of china i think it would be the most colossal diplomatic state of the birth of modern times. they are just doesn't need to be, and i don't think there will be. what does that mean? where will all in the? i don't know. but india is going to end up i think being bigger. china has some real problems. china still has a lot of government corporations, businesses that are enormous, way overpopulated, have to be privatized at some point each means you'll have enormous

numbers of people out of work and they'll have to put security forces in to put down the demonstrations and the criticism and opposition's that are in place. and i should add that the one baby policy is mindless. it means they're not accepting female babies. they have male babies, they would end up with millions, tens of millions of men without women. and their population is, the demographics are being destroyed. so they don't have a particularly smooth road, in my view. i think that if we manage that relationship, well, it may very well be possible to navigate through some bumpy times, but you know, some people are running around saying the solution and the south china sea is the law of the sea treaty. and, of course, all those countries that signed the treaty, china keeps on doing whatever it wants.

and it doesn't do any good at all. i remember when president reagan's in the over to meet some world leaders and talk to them into opposing the law of the sea the -- mrs. thatcher, i sat down and i explained what we felt was a key element. and she said, well, mr. ambassador, that sounds to me like the international nationalization of two-thirds of the earth surface, and you know what i think of nationalization. you can tell president reagan i am within. and it's not solving the problem. yes, sandy, you look -- >> young lady in the front row. >> i had read your last book, "known and unknown" and i couldn't help but one as i'm sitting here and thinking about all of the tough losses you had

when you set out to do this book to her, what did mrs. rumsfeld say? >> mrs. rumsfeld, whose name is joyce, and i met when we were 14 in high school. we have been married since 1954, and if it were a little earlier in the evening i would tell you how many years that's been. [laughter] but i don't want to guess and be wrong. but what she says to me when i go off on a book tour is, don, avoid being infatuated with or resentful of the craft. they have their job and you have yours. and pretty good advice when you're dealing with the press. i take that advice about half

the time. [laughter] >> you've been at so many different levels of the government, including secretary of defense. when you were there you would know all the inner workings of how the government works. with regard to benghazi, what's the time when it should the president have known what was going on? and did he know and just not saying that he does know? [laughter] >> it seems to me that a leader, if people are being killed, gets people in the office, talks to them and says, i want ground troops. what's happened, how did it happen, what do we do to save

some lives, and how do we get this system which is obviously broken, fixed. and instead he went to a campaign event in las vegas. and the thing that political leaders have, the currency they have, we don't lead by command in our country. we lead by consent. and we have to be persuasive and people have to trust. and to the extent you about trust to be eroded, you are weekend, and our country this weekend. and it seems to me that when president obama went to the united nations, after everyone knew that it was an al qaeda related attack, but they were very well armed and very well organized, and contended that it was a you tube video that sparked a spontaneous demonstration, this was days

later he went to the u.n. and said that. and mrs. clinton went to the families of those that were killed and said to them, we're going to find the person who did the youtube video. and it didn't have anything to do with it. now, admittedly it was a political campaign and there's no question that people are running in a political campaign want to win. and there's also no question but that we have inherited out there, that al qaeda -- kill osama bin laden, it's uncomfortable for there to be terrorist attacks, but, you know, as huckleberry finn said you can't pray a lie. the truth is the truth and you need to get ground, and even if you are well-intentioned you say things that turn out not to be true. goodness knows we've all done that. and we say something and find later that it wasn't quite that

way. and you need to fix it. as a navy pilot, when you airplanes loss, the handbook says klein, conserve and confessed to get some altitude, take a deep breath and say you're lost and get help. and by golly, that's not bad advice to people in government. we all get lost sometimes. you need to stop, you need to step back and do people in there and say, look, this isn't right. we've got to get it fixed. and one big problem for the white house is really tough. i mean, the pressure in that place is enormous. two big problems. it's like 10. and three is a perfect storm. and they've got a tough job. let them know -- let there be no doubt about it. and the things that have in front of your mind is they've got to preserve the trust of the american people. the way you do that is by figuring out the truth, getting ground truth and same ground

truth is even if it's unpleasant. >> mr. secretary, we will do two more. the next one we will take from our live stream youtube audience, and the question is, what was your favorite part about working in the white house? this comes froe part about working in the white house? this comes from charlotte, north carolina. >> well, my favorite and but working in the white house was going home at night off mike. [applause] >> it's a pressure cooker. that's a tough place to work. as george schultz said, the days are long and the years are short period spent come uncommon standing. let's have the next question. [laughter] >> your next question is right over there.

>> good evening, mr. secretary. i applaud your leadership and i think is a much for your service to our country. i'm a recent law school graduate and they know, like many of us, the job forecast is a well enough in our economy and am wondering if you think that the road for this generation of professionals is harder than the ones that those have acted aftermath of the implementation of lbj's great society. >> you know, first of all, congratulations from graduating law school. i dropped out last night i [laughter] is a true story. story. i want a year and a half and had a wife and a child that i went off back to how to manage a campaign and then i decide to come back to illinois and run for congress. deny him many lawyers are there are in the department of defense? 10,000.

is that a breathtaking thought? we have such a litigious society that everyone has to get loaded up at every layer down the chain of command. it's something. you know, your question is an important one, and i think that i am, as i say from the midwest. i'm an optimist and i think that it is tough and there's a wonderful editorial in "the wall street journal," not an editorial, a book review in "the wall street journal" today on a book bill bennett wrote about his is college were the, which talk to the cost of going to law school or college and the value that the society is that, enormous investment of time and money. my goodness, it's enormously expensive, and the debt these people get when they're having to come out of college. is tremendous. but the short answer is, for

people who want to stick their head down and work hard and contribute, there's a bright future. my guess is you will do just fine. thank you. [applause] >> i think i'm going to get the hook. and i'm going to get the obligatory cup. spent let us thank him for being -- [applause] >> you are watching the tv, nonfiction authors and books every weekend on c-span2. >> that should make you

encouraged about the power of probability. so now i'm going to make you scared. so this is act of -- after the end of the book and it's a question, the question is who gets to know what about you. and last summer we hired a new babysitter. when she arrived i began to explain our family background. i met professor, my wife is a teacher. she cut me off and she said oh, i know. i googled you. i was simultaneously relieved that i did not have to finish my spiel, and mildly alarmed at how much of my life could be toppled together from a short internet search. our capacity to gather and analyze huge quantities of data, things are referred to early, the marriage of digital information with cheap computing power and internet is unique in human history. we are going to need some new rules for this new era. let's put the power of data in

perspective with just one example from the retailer target. this is a story that was in "the new york times" magazine, i will summarize here. like most companies, target strives to increase profits by understanding its customer. that's a very good thing to do that the company hired statisticians to do the kind of quote predictive analytics described early in the book. they used sales taken by with other information on consumers to figure out who buys what and why. nothing about this is inherently bad if it means when you go to target your likely be caring things you want to buy. let's drill down a moment on just one example of the kinds of things that statisticians working in the windowless basement at corporate headquarters can figure out. i don't know if it is a windowless basement. i'm assuming. all the statisticians i know work underground. target has learned that pregnancy is a particularly important time in terms of

developing shopping patterns. pregnant women develop what they call a retail relationship that can last for decades. as a result, target wants to identify pregnant women, to those in their second trimester and digging into the stores more often. a writer for the new york times magazine followed the predictive analytics team at target as it sought to find and attract pregnant shoppers but i can assure you target deeply regrets. but i'm very appreciative. the first part, target has a baby shower registry in which pregnant women register for baby gifts in advance of the birth of their children. these women are already target shoppers and have effectively told the star not only that a pregnant but specificall specifo do, so how far along they are to is the statistical twist. target figured out that other women to demonstrate the same shopping patterns are probably pregnant, too.

for example, pregnant women often switched to unseen and lotions. they begin to buy vitamin supplements to they start buying extra big bags of cotton balls. this is true. who knew? target predictive analytics do is identify 25 products that, together, made possible what they described as a pregnancy prediction star. the whole point of this analysis was is in pregnant women pregnancy related coupons in hope of hooking them as long-term target shoppers. how good was the model? a man for minneapolis who walked into a target store and demanded to see the manager. the man was irate because his high school daughter was being bombarded with pregnancy related coupons from target. quote she is still in high school and your singer coupons for baby clothes and chris?

are you trying to encourage her to get pregnant, he asked? the story manager apologized profusely to be even called the father several days later to apologize again. only this time, the man was less irate. it was his turn to be apologetic. he said, it turns out there's been some activities in my house i haven't been completely aware of, the father said. she is due in august. the target the statisticians had figured out that his daughter was pregnant before he did. all right, this is not even the creepiest part. that is their business and it's also not their business. they can feel more than a little intrusive. for that reason, some companies now mask how much they know about you. for example, a pregnant woman,

and your second trimester, you may get some coupons for cribs and diapers. along with a discount on a riding lawnmower and free bowling socks with purchase of any pair of bowling shoes. to you, it just seems fortuitous that pregnancy related coupons came in the mail along with the other junk. .. >> and then i have a new one on