springsteen fan since 1978 and one of my first concerts' from thanksgiving eve 19801 of the best nights of my life my best friend that was killed and 9/11 replayed guitar together. so what went into shaping and molding that music i look forward to finishing that.

. >> with your book the hodgepodge of past reform movements to have strategic behavior's the action of canapes professionals say and contributors so can you break that down?. >> probably the most recent to create those rules and with better process they were using and with those presidential primaries in the '70s to change that process of the national process where the candidates to do well in the early

primaries cop could do better in the subsequent primaries to watch the race unfold across the nation. and there were no national rules sometimes they were appointed many of them were appointed before the election there are only 15 or 16 presidential primaries that the time but even then the connection of the primary may not be directly related of who was sent to the convention so the process had to be timely within the election in your -- year in the mid negative to be publicized following

rules if it was a caucus in the presidential primary is the easiest way to conform. >> why did they change the rules?. >> the 68 convention where that was a disaster where hubert humphrey won but the opposition of mccarthy and robert kennedy delegates and they felt they were shortchanged to get support at convention with fighting on the floor so one of the last things they dead -- they did that would develop a committee to look into the election. >> to the republicans follow suit?. >> no. they were generally more

likely to leave it up to the states so they could select or have caucuses for a state convention. bed generally because when the state would switch to the primaries they did that for the republicans as well. >> win with the first primaries held?. >> in 1912 the also turned out to be a disaster that was the year the roosevelt decided he wanted to be president again and taft was getting the traditional players in the party but it wasn't enough to get the nomination that resulted on

the republicans losing the presidential race. >> did they stop?. >> they put a halt on it but then the primaries were not important again intel after because there tended to be states with there were not always connected to the delegates said they were not important in tow after world war ii. >> when did this smoke-filled back rooms fadeaway?. >> in the early 1800's not because of the primaries but other influences to take that opinion polling and the name of of a convention is to name a candidate it

seemed to have a lot of influence also pressure from interest groups from radio and television so that limited the ability of those backroom deals. >>. >> host: early victory hopes later victories?. >> classical momentum ideas so to get the candidate to get attention and contributions the poll standings will go up the momentum does not always last some win in iowa and a place else and sometimes the momentum can reverse but

that ability of obama to overtake clinton as a front runner in the beginning. >> so what is the philosophy of the caucus?. >> that is the oldest format with the idea people coming into a community center or library or a museum to discuss the candidates to have that grass-roots democracy now they or a cover their preferences firm but they can socialize with their neighbor but it is very drawn-out so those delegates go to the national convention for those

congressional district caucuses. >> does this system work?. >> it works as well as anything right now it does bring in different voices through the primaries and caucuses are more of those activist or those seats endorsements of the members of the house so informally we get a lot of different voices it doesn't do is produce a smooth results. >> has a weekend of parties parties?. >> it depends a you talk

about that then again the state party's have been weakened by lots of things like the demise of the economic benefits the state was were regulated pretty heavily and there is a lot of competition for a the parties of those consultants of social media so it isn't just because of this.

>> why would one state hold a closed primary and the other have the open primary? >> has to do with tradition and the 1900's so the states that have the stronger political party to restrict participation in to those who are registered from with the progressive movement was a bit stronger they don't have as much of an effect on the composition but they look pretty much the same. >> really?. >> yes. >> the author of this book

with the strength of u.s. presidential nomination. >> it is all i do have primaries and caucuses or the fact a lot of people try to influence what is happening also because most don't use those primary elections to make nominations. >> what is a superdelegate?. >> usually the elected official or a party leader developed in the '80s by the democrats in response to the initial reform they found out the convention did not

have the traditional senators said they wanted to bring the voice of those individuals so they develop to those in the '80s and then change the number of people who are superdelegates but they have the ability to decide which candidate they want to support. >> why did you write this book?. >> are trying to explain where we got to where we got today and read that bias comes from and to give people a more historical context and understanding why we have a we have today. >> they were chosen by a

convention they didn't have much information was happening so they would go through a series of roll-call of votes to get the required number of delegates to win abraham lincoln was nominated on the third there was a democratic convention in the early 1900's with over 100 ballots so there could be a more extended race so within the convention generally they're not even supposed to campaign. it was even more in journal to the convention.

>> they have been tinkering with the rules the republicans between 2012 and 2016 made it so those delegates selected would reflect that initial caucus vote and not what is happening after the fact the democrats tinkered with the number of the super delegates so a widespread reform is not very likely because it is difficult to do that and nobody can control that process. >> booktv on c-span2 speaking with professor and her book the imperfect

primary is herblock. >> next on my list is a fantastic book everything i have heard about it is wonderful talks about life in america of an issue i have been looking into and the struggles of the people and napoli shut and throughout the country. [inaudible conversations]