offenders jamming up our prisons and running up state budget so much so that even texas now has taken the lead on finding alternative sentencing and releasing non-violent offenders. .. ever since the crack wars of the 1980s we have had this push to lock them up and throw away the

s still something that determines politics even now. we look at, i was writing, reading a fascinating essay last night that showed how the water from the great hbo series predicted isis. a remarkable parallel when you look at comment the wwire is all about the drug wars in baltimore and at one point the towers were torn down and the social good resulted in the drug traffickers turf being scattered at home and around of wars as they began to regard their turf. that's exact what happened in chicago. we're the world's biggest public housing development and that has led to this tale for problem of homicides now.

in baltimore, they have had something like, the parallels to help isis informed out of the dispersal of various tribal and political groups. very similar to the way drug wars have broken out over here. these come about as result of a certain reality of shifting the people, the statistics, you know, in iraq, reduce the violence and they thought we've got good governance and all let. this problem isn't going to go away. it turned out the perceptions of most iraqis who happen to be sunni was they were being frozen out by the maliki government which was dominated i shia and they have this tribal war going on which has now erupted in isis

among other things. prices is partly always displaced sunnis as well as other people. this happens all over the planet part because a lot of us felt asleep in math class. i appreciate your keeping, keeping what we call presses and -- precision journalism. backup the assumptions and not just going with the first impressions people have at the same time, elections tend to swing on impressions. if people don't feel safe then they will vote for those policymakers who make them feel safe, and vice versa. thank you for your question. about halfway through the answer i think, there's a column in that. i keep talking, there's a column in my head. >> a quick one. after the inauguration, i think

the second inauguration i was down with the tour group, and to match records were not so filled up at that point, kind of indiana sitting next to a large african-american family, women and kids and we get to chatting. the question that came up was, do we think that this is, that this participation that people of color had in the election, the way it took that election, do we think that this is kind of centered around obama? isn't obama's centric? or are we seeing the making of a sleeping giant? >> that's a very good question. that's a good question which was raised the other day like gary young, a columnist for the british guardian who ain't even american buddies lived here a

lot. he was talking about obama's current troubles, approval ratings. the democrats problem going into this midterm election. once again republicans are fired up and democrats are, i don't know if disarray is the word but less than enthusiastic shall we say. gary young was talking to me about, that people talk about barack obama interest in the job? is he too detached? he was saying that it's not so much these detached as the impression he gives of being detached, that folks question his own enthusiasm about the job

and the task at hand. they don't call him the professor for nothing. he's always been rather cool and aloof, and that was a virtue to his first election campaign. no drama obama. now people on the left are saying give us some drama. they won't let him alone. obama does not have a movement behind him. i agree. i was saying this back in 2008. remember rudy giuliani was talking about obama the community organizer. yeah, community organizer. comes to chicago. community organizers are what make politics move. organized around a certain cause. we know in 2009 get the tea party movement which was a

tremendous example of community organizing, grassroots organizing efforts, helped along by some wall street lobbyist. regardless there are lots of liberals out there, lots of progressives, lots of articles. i have to go back to will rogers. i belong to no organized party. i'm a democrat, right? was that his line? there's something marvelous about liberals that they love nuance and love to debate and discuss. and conservatives love doctrines. here it is. you are a rhino. colin powell, you are right now. how dare you have moderate views. these are the folks who write about the party of lincoln. to think about lincoln, this guy today would be a radical. a radical republican back then,

are actually not as radical as frederick douglass. if that meant shipping black slavery confine, find or anythie just wanted to solve the problem. he wa was the ultimate middle-of-the-road pragmatist. frederick douglass was the radical. he wanted to give like folks to vote, blah, blah, blah. radical idea. i was saying when obama got elected that this is a combination of the will and energy of many people who pulled together into strong movement, and the genius of a young man named david axelrod who just happens to the intern of mine in the '70s. thank you. i just have to drop it into every conversation in washington, and still proud of him. quite often here since he went

back to the hollowed halls of university of chicago. nochicago. i've often said why aren't you at the white house where obama need you? but they're young was and it was not the progressive movement behind obama, that say, i forget -- of ted cruz or i want to say rand paul but it's not always clear from day today whether he's with the movement or not come our which movement these with. you get the idea though. i have been quite impressed with paul ryan. i've talked with several times. i've been with him as he met with black and hispanic grassroots organization but he's the closest to jack kemp these days. jack kemp is my can of republican. he was a guy who believed in working with grassroots people and getting out. before you start talking, listening to people, find out

what they want from government and how can the party respond to that with an alternative idea what the other party has been i love to see the return of healthy debate but we are always from that yet. in the meantime we've got the upcoming midterms. i don't see democrats plenty to. -- democrats pulling together. if you're a member of the house, you don't have to go to the party leaders anymore. if you have any charisma, good

clinical advisor you can go on the web and do your own ads et cetera and raise money. like barack obama single-handedly undid the post-watergate reforms because he could raise more money on the web than matching funds to provide from the federal government. this has been a state of our politics. what does the to? party organization breaks down, different hierarchy. can lead to gridlock, chaos. i'm optimistic looking back through history. we are about to finish the

election cycle for the tea party. of the anxious to see how well they do. first we have to get through 2014. i go from one point to another but it all comes together in the end. how we doing on time? [inaudible] >> ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much once again. a delight to meet you all. >> the books are right outside. you ask additional questions. >> my pleasure, thank you. transforming. >> -- [inaudible conversations] >> is there a nonfiction author or book you would like to see featured on booktv? send us an e-mail to

booktv@c-span.org. >> it seems to me it's important to start talking in persuasive and critical terms about what an athletic education might be all about and how it might dovetail with the intellectual education. in the book i want to talk about the acquisition of character. i had opportunity to acquire character. i was terribly bad at football, that the most basic kind of football activity took me days and weeks and planning and reflection and vision. it took me to a half weeks simply to learn how to run in my pads. i would get out there everyday and i would feel like i am locked in a closet, chained up. i cannot move. everybody else was lying around me. winick icu can't move and you're

on the scrimmage field, they think i have an idea. you are their idea. the next thing you know you have blood coming out of your nose and you're looking at the sky. the sky is beautiful but blood does not help. i have to learn to run through my pads and it worked and i work. i repeated and repeated. finally, like a bolt from the blue, a coach said, stop that. run through your pads. nirvana. you had to push her muzzle against the pats in order to get where you're going and somehow that just clicked. it works. there's a lot of definitions to character. i love emerson's definition, and that is character is that which is hailed endeavors by an individual, that which is not pronounced and not expressed but you sends it back behind you.

my sense of character in this book is more of the now. my sense of character is the process of setting goals and working towards them very slowly learning what you can, developing as you can and then finally reaching a goal only to see your further and further to go. character is about practice. practice, practice, practice. character is about repetition in to get it right. there's no doubt about this. off to the book i'm thinking about not only the writing of this book of those other nine books and books that are yet to come. i feel a lot of what i learned about writing books i learned on the football field. i learned how to revise and revise and defensively time she thought this is impossible. above me was that voice, runs through your pads. somewhere in my head for every book, some kind of voice is likely to come through and