and next week, on speeches that defined a presidency, george w in 2000, two, five months after the 911 attacks. a reminder that all of the speeches that we're showing you on this series are available. watch online at c-span dot org. org's

visiting our website cspan.org/history. and welcome to this program titled in her own words. this is a program brought to you by flare which stands for the first ladies association for research and education. my name is myra gooden. i'm president of flair and i am so happy that you joined us for

this very interesting. look at four different first ladies and some of their rhetorical responses. um before we begin this afternoon, i'd like to thank floyd flares inaugural institution lifetime members american university rider university the white house historical association, the massachusetts historical society and our newest inaugural lifetime institutional member the gerald r ford presidential foundation. we're glad to have you with us. in the interests of time. i'd like to take this next few minutes to introduce the four people who will be part of the afternoon's program. we're going to be starting with nancy keegan smith. nancy is former director of the presidential materials division at the national archives and records administration. she has written lectured and

published on first ladies. since the 1980s including lady bird johnson michelle obama and the records of modern first ladies a founding member and inaugural lifetime member of flair. a founding member and inaugural lifetime member of flare she served as our vice president. doctor diana carlin is professor of communication at st. louis university and retired professor of communication studies at the university, she has researched and taught about first lady for 30 years and has written chapters on march on washington -- martha washington, lady bird johnson, hillary clinton, and michelle obama. diana is a founding member and inaugural lifetime member of flare and she serves the organization as our treasurer.

doctor anne mattina is professor and chair of communication, her research focuses on americans women's public activism from the early 19th century to the current day. in addition to presentations on first lady as she has published several rhetorical studies of hillary rodham clinton and is and inaugural lifetime member of flare. finally but certainly not least, doctor tammy vigil, professor of communication and senior associate dean of the college of communication at boston university. her books include the rhetoric of republican motherhood and spouses of presidential nominees 1992 through 2016, milania and michelle, first latest in a new era, and connecting with constituents,

identification building and blocking get in the contemporary national convention addresses. tammy is also an inaugural lifetime member of the layer. it is my pleasure this moment to turn the program over to nancy kegan smith. you are muted. >> it is a pleasure to be here today and to welcome all of our people, i think we have a very interesting program lined up. first ladies and their speeches have often tackled issues as leaders of society. lady bird johnson said that while john had no assigned duty, a podium was there if she chooses to use it. from the very rich holdings of the presidential library of the national archives and records

administration on first ladies, we will hear 14 segments by barbara bush, hillary clinton, laura bush, and michelle obama, which had a powerful impact. after watching these, our panel of experts will analyze and discuss them. we can go to the next slide on mrs. bush. mrs. bush's humor and attitude toward what is important in life are clearly shown in a speech she made at wellesley college on june 1, 1990. she had not been the first choice, and her selection caused controversy on campus. let's see and hear some of her speech. >> i know your first choice today was alice walker.

guess how i know. [applause] >> known for the color purple. instead, you got me, known for the color of my hair. as you set off from wellesley i hope many of you will consider making three very special choices, the first is to believe in something larger than your self, to get involved in some of the big ideas of our time. i chose literacy because i believe if more people could read, write, and comprehend, we would be that much closer to solving so many of the problems that plague our nation and our society. early on, i met another choice which i hope you will make as well. whether you're talking about education, career, or service.

you are talking about life. life really must have joy. it is supposed to be fun. one of the reasons i made the most important decision of my life, to marry george bush, is because he made me laugh. it's true, sometimes we laugh through our tears, but that shared laughter has been one of our strongest terms, find joy in life, the professor. buehler said on his day off, life moves pretty fast, you don't stop and look around once in a while you are going to miss it. [applause] >> i won't till george you clapped more for them for george. the third choice that must not

be missed is to cherish your human connections. your relationships with family and friends. for several years, you have impressed upon you the importance to your career, dedication, and hard work and of course that's true. but as important as your obligations as a doctor, lawyer, business leader will be, you are a human being first. those human connections, with spouses, with children, with friends, for the most important investment you will ever make. >> reporter: from that powerful reach we will go to. missus clinton was clearly a first lady with many different public roles, one of which was to use her platform as first lady to push strongly throughout the world for equal rights for women. let's hear some of her.

>> there's one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights, once and for all. [applause] and among those rights are the rights to speak freely, and the right to be heard. women must enjoy the right to participate fully in the social and political lives of their countries. if we want freedom and democracy to thrive and endure. it is indefensible that many women in nongovernmental organizations who wish to participate in this conference have not been able to attend or have been prohibited from fully taking part.

[applause] >> let me be clear. freedom means the right of people to assemble, organize and debate openly. it means respecting the views of those who may disagree with the views of their government, it means not taking citizens away from their loved ones and jailing them, mistreating them or denying them their freedom or dignity because of the peaceful expression of their ideas and opinions. >> just like missus johnson, mrs. bush's early goal was to find by an unexpected national tragedy, 9/11. never december 17, 2001, laura bush made history while advocating a worldwide effort to focus on the brutal treatment of afghan women and

children by the taliban regime during the weekly presidential radio address. missus mrs. bush was the first first lady to deliver the address in its entirety. >> good morning. i am laura bush and i'm delivering this week's radio address to kick off a worldwide effort to focus on the brutality against women and children by the al qaeda terrorist network and the regime it support in afghanistan, the taliban and. that regime, across much of the country, the people of afghanistan, especially women, are rejoicing. afghan women know through hard experience what the rest of the world is discovering, the brutal oppression of women is the single goal of the terrorists. long before the current war began the taliban and and its terrorist allies were making the lives of children and women in afghanistan miserable.

70% of the afghan people, one in every four children won't live past the age of 5 because healthcare is not available. >> reporter: in may 2015, michelle obama in her speech to university students challenged in the way that only missus obama can do to make education a priority and to set an example for those who would follow him. >> when it comes to getting an education lady of our young people just can't be bothered. today, instead of walking miles every day to school, they are sitting on couches for hours playing video games, watching tv. instead of dreaming of being a teacher, lawyer, business

leader, they are fantasizing about being a bowler or a rapper. right now one in three african-american students are dropping out of high school. only one in 5 african-americans between the ages of 29 or 29 have gotten a college degree. one in 5. let's be very clear. today getting an education is as important if not more important than it was back when this university was founded. my husband has said often, please stand up and reject the slander that says a black child with the book is trying to act white, reject that. [applause] >> be an example of excellence for the next generation and do

everything you can to help understand the power and purpose of a good education. >> we heard four segments were first ladies have effectively used their podium on the subject as different as the role of a woman in society, on the telephone, on human rights, and on the importance of education. i would now like to turn over the panel to my good friend and colleague, diana carlin, to start discussion and analysis of these and other first ladies's speeches. >> thank you. we will run this almost like a panel so you see all three of us. we will take the speeches in order and throw in samples of other women, just that

particular speech and there's an e-mail address to send the questions to and you don't have to ask just about these first ladies, if you have questions about any others please do that also. as nancy said when she started, barbara bush's speech was mired in controversy. alice walker with the choice of the class and when she turned them down the administration decided on their own to invite barbara bush. i did a lot of research on this speech at the bush library and among the papers i found where the scheduling papers where they had originally decided, they put this invitation in as if it were any other, they were not aware what had happened to the invitation. at one point they were not even sure about it because the gorbachevs were going to be in town and she had another commitment in boston to dedicate something to watch out for the ducklings at the park,

they decided to do it and when they worked on the speech they worked on it along with other commencement addresses. it wasn't that much different from other commencement addresses. one thing tansey didn't mention is the speech was one of the top one hundred speeches of the twentieth century. as was hillary clinton's beijing speech. george h w bush did not have a speech in the top 100. to kind of kick this off. commencement speeches aren't usually very memorable and don't capture first ladies give tons of these now, capture a lot of attention, except in the city where they happen, and this one got worldwide attention not just because of the controversy but also because of the message. she was the last of the world war ii generation first ladies. really dealing with some general things.

so which of you want to start first? why do you think this captured the attention of these women after they were not real excited about having somebody they believed had simply gotten where she was because of who she married? >> if you would like to start. >> no problem. there are a couple things about this speech that make it worthwhile, a bunch of things that make it worthwhile but i think one of the reasons why it was so captivating for that audience was because it was so unexpected. they had come in as an audience with a chip on their shoulder, with those expectations of what could she possibly say to us and the speech itself is really built around the question of diversity and embracing diversity in different kinds of ways. touching the conversation the way that she did barbara bush actually made it so much more

relatable to the women in the audience and the broader audience and so because it was unexpected, because they didn't think she was going to deliver and she thought so much of her personality into the speech as well and demonstrated her ability to be thoughtful, to be engaging, to be really respectful of who they were and challenging them to be more than what they thought in ways they hadn't expected was why it captivated the particular audience and the ways in which she used different kinds of metaphors and stories and anecdotes throughout and had lots of wonderful laugh lines, some of them planned, some of them were spontaneous, those moments made her so endearing and also reinforce the overall message she was trying to get across. that's why it is a message that still endures plus the message itself is entering, believing

in something larger than yourself, life must have joy, cherish your human connections, hard not to like that message and the way she delivered it. >> i also was very interested in the fact that one of the things she does immediately in this speech is recognize the controversy. we heard the little clip at the beginning about i know you wanted alice walker from the color purple, she makes a joke about the color of her hair but there's also a line in the very beginning as well that we didn't see where she kind of gives a shout out to the class president, her new best friend, that is how she refers to her. you can only imagine, you probably know the answer to this, they must've had some

discussion prior to actually arriving on the scene, up on the podium to deliver that speech. clearly had spoken with the class president earlier about this. what she's trying to do and does beautifully in this speech is she gives a set of very gentle reproach to the class. it is about women's choices in life and she does it in only the way barbara bush could do it in terms of her humor and that self-deprecating humor and also a little pop culture in their, tell george ferris buehler had higher, louder applause than he did. that kind of thing, she's very

comfortable and she is very informal in a lot of ways. i also think that it's very important to point out she had missus gorbachev with her. the two first ladies being on that stage together was also a very powerful visual in terms of historical memory as well. i would also say to you she speaks to even though they are generation only different, she speaks a lot to things that hillary clinton picks up on later as first lady, and that is women's choices, women's choices, they should not be

dictated by whatever the political whim of the day is, we are lucky to have these choices. i find it remarkable. >> for some background, she and the class president had a phone call. he writes about this in her memoir, they had a phone call prior to her arriving, which is why she talks in her speech too about women having a conversation. this was when they were planning this speech, it was going to be the speech she gave at st. louis university, at community college and when the controversy hit and the students found out she had been invited and 125, 600 signed a petition proclaiming it to be withdrawn and also asked the president if she could invite

missus gorbachev before all the controversy started. it wasn't like she did that as a way of deflecting the controversy. she had done that ahead of time. when all this hit, they pooled in the sum of george bush's speechwriters, said we have to do something, and she said she didn't want to complain, explain, or apologize in any way for any of this. one other thing she did at the beginning you didn't see, you could watch the whole speech on youtube and at the bush library site, she talked about the fact that she had been invited along with her husband, when they came back from china and her husband was not an ambassador yet but they went to china right after nixon opened it and the two of them jointly spoke and she talked about how open the students were and how they embraced diversity.

tammy's point, she really set this up to say this is a place where you accept these ideas and she went on to say i am of a different era have i followed the path of my era, you are following yours, you don't necessarily understand mine, i don't understand yours, and there was the final incredible line, you want to give it? >> i was loving your build up. >> she then says that the conversation doesn't end here and i think you are right. this was a bigger conversation than her being married to somebody famous. it was about women's choices and the struggles that women have. and the first want to get married, i think about the julia roberts movie with julia

stiles, it was similar, they were getting married, that's what they were doing, then it became who was going to be the ceo and she said so now, it is which of you will achieve your personal dream, not society's but your dream and she said in one day in this audience, one day you may be whistling to another presidential spouse and i wish him well. and that of course got the standing ovation. everybody said it was -- that brings -- go ahead. >> just a couple quick notes. when she finishes she says may your future be worthy of your dream as opposed -- to reinforce the idea of not society's dreams but your own personal dreams but one of the other things i really enjoyed about this speech and every

time i watch or hear or read it i find other things that just bubble up out of at each and every time, just a wonderful experience to have, one thing i couldn't help but think was this was an interesting thing to happen in 1990 as a sort of preview for what happened in 1992 when we had barbara bush and hillary rodham clinton as the two potential first ladies in that campaign. some of the conversations that came up with barbara bush in the wellesley speech came up over and over again in the 1992 campaign. this is a preview to that and as a sort of earlier than happened response to it, and interesting historical moment. >> the other thing i think about when i hear the speech, don't know if any of you remember an article anne-marie slaughter who was working for hillary clinton at the time,

about, she left the state department because she had a child in middle school and one in high school and she was commuting from boston and she said we can't have it all. women cannot have it all. i think of this barbara bush speech, here's a woman who was at harvard, was at the state department and he, like 20 years later, was saying basically that you have to make choices and they have to be your choices. talking about choices we get to hillary clinton and this also got rave reviews worldwide and several believed it was the speech, not her working on healthcare which didn't go very well but this was a speech that set her on the path of her own independent career, her own independent thinking and her own stage on the world scene.

what are your reactions to this speech? >> one of the things i discovered a long time ago about hillary is that she had a much, much more sympathetic, as you would say, audience internationally than she did the next. she did spend an awful lot of time out of the country after the so-called healthcare debacle. we can go into that. after that, people, lots of pundits were referring to the fact that she wasn't making herself as publicly available as the time before the healthcare, healthcare fell

apart but in fact, she had started with madeline albright something known as voices, one of the main things vital voices did was call attention to women seeking ways out of poverty worldwide and doing that through education and also through small business loans. madeline albright's and she made a terrific team. mrs. clinton would go into a country and give a speech and get a lot of people very excited about this. they set up with this program to give microloans to women, microloans as small as $100 to

purchase a cow, a particular woman in a particular place needed or access to a bank account, she did that for several years. i think between the two, between the two terms her husband was in office. absolutely minimal coverage of it. the press and the united states. no one was paying attention to her and what she was doing internationally. china, her signature speech for women's rights and human rights and international relations. he set out to accomplish a couple of things on her way there. one was to call attention to china's miserable record on human rights.

her husband couldn't actually do as president, he didn't have that freedom that she had but she had an audience that was extremely sympathetic and she delivered, as we say, one of the top 100 speeches of the 20th century on that occasion. >> to jump in on that. one of the things i thought was interesting, looking at the coverage of this particular speech, thought was interesting there were several reports but said clinton said what many people said she could not say because of the rocky relationship that was going on between the us and china at the time. i thought that -- kind of interesting and ironic because it meant she was enacting the right she was claiming for everyone, for all women and saying women should be able to

speak up, the line is they should have the right to speak freely on the right to be heard so for her to say that when she was not supposed to be able to say it was more moving and the way she said it in clear declarative statements, certain and direct, without sounding sort of but not aggressive, the tone she struck was perfect, can't imagine how she could have delivered it any better in terms of reinforcing the notion of what seems like it should just be a common notion of humans rights or women's rights, women are human, women are human, and to have to say it has to be frustrating. to get to say it when you are not supposed to say it has to be so liberating. that is part of why this particular line in this speech

resonated beyond that particular moment. >> i was wondering if you noticed in your review of the coverage of the speech how little there actually was in the united states, press coverage in the news, just wasn't covered. not until later that it becomes such a defining rhetorical moment for her. >> definitely after the fact. >> when -- on the 20th anniversary there were articles, cnn, various stories on major networks, 20 years after beijing and at 25 years after beijing there were more. so this one also deserves to be one of those top one hundred. you touched on something really important, she said something

that should be obvious. i also studied the nineteenth amendment and women's suffrage after the 17th century and everything -- it really wasn't a human right, this is something women wanted and the obvious declaration had never been said in that kind of aware. it was that kind of a worldwide audience and so let me ask a couple other questions. i think one of the things first ladies can do is speak about something in a way that a male president cannot speak about, this was one of them. can you think of some other historical examples where first ladies used their podium to talk about something their husbands would not have had the same credibility for? >> not sure it's the same level of credibility, but i certainly know that laura bush, you know, especially toward the end of

her husband's second term, really struck out on her own, spoke about issues that were not traditionally affiliated with her such as a woman's right to choose. i don't think she ever came right out and advocated for that but certainly through her work with afghan women, every thing going on there. she definitely pushed the boundaries that george was not able to. the other thing about laura bush and having this ability where a lot of her credibility may have come into play was the fact that she was the mother of two young women experiencing a lot of things for the first

time. college choices, once in college we know that barbara bush junior enjoyed her time in college, jenna was a little more serious but here is, she was a mom and she had that experience as well. she could talk about young women and their choices. that is one example i can think of. >> i would add to that barbara bush in the 1992 campaign, when people started to talk about her finally finding her voice because she had been so reserved about sharing her political opinion and in the 1992 campaign, started to do things like reframing the notion of family values, one her husband could only really stick to the traditional family values because that's what the republican party was talking about, barbara bush started

reframing family as whatever kind of family you are a part of so she expanded the notion of what family could possibly need and expanded the idea of what traditional family values should mean outside of traditional boundaries. that was a space where barbara bush had more credibility and ability to expand a conversation. >> hillary could do something to her husband couldn't do. other things the first ladies do at the podium, joshua is an excellent example, how she promoted head start and the great society programs but what about the relationship with this particular speech and how it might have helped with bill clinton's policy? >> i think that hillary was an

asset to bill especially in the second term in so many ways not the least of which was in foreign policy. he has never been shy about speaking of his admiration for how sharp she is politically and intellectually, and i think that he definitely, a decision was made and i would have to spend more time researching this but at some point a decision was probably made the she may have made it herself, she talked a little bit about this in her first book. the decision, people at home domestically are not appreciative of her intellect,

her political power, political will and all of that, she would go elsewhere and she found a lot more sympathy and more understanding outside of the united states than she did within. again we know the second term is where clinton's presidency with credibility as it related to monica and the rest of it and the impeachment just fell apart and hillary is off creating this wonderful image for herself and doing the country a lot of good i think. >> and setting herself up to be a really effective secretary of state eventually because she

was developing those relationships, establishing her image, learning more about governmental norms. really cultivating her own future position even though she may not have thought about it as secretary of state but certainly thinking about where she was going next. so helping him out, probably a good thing she did but helping herself out an excellent thing that she did. >> the speech that has gotten attention until a few years ago, people thought about it given what is happening now in afghanistan which brings us to laura bush in that speech. first thing i thought, if she would give that today. why do you think they selected her to give this speech. it was done a week before thanksgiving and in the latter part of the speech she talks about that, very maternal in

pulling this back to where we are post 9/11 or two months after it. why did they select her to do the presidential radio address? want to start that one? >> she was always a well-liked first lady and also a very relatable person. in academic jargon we would say because of substantial bonds, comes down to she was very relatable and that she was one of the keys to her husband's campaign for each election cycle, people liked her, people felt her compassion both after 9/11 and before that, she came across as sincere and genuine, giving this particular speech, she had the credibility of being the sort of maternal figure for the nation and also

the credibility of having already established herself as the consoler in chief if you will and so it was very personal to her and that interest comes pouring out of her in the way in this speech and other instances about the situation, that's a great decision to address the nation but mostly based on who she was, she already developed. >> i really think particularly the fact that it was so close to thanksgiving. the first major, quote, family holiday, that we were facing as americans at that time. and mrs.

bush had pretty much stuck to the background while george bush got us through the first few weeks particularly after the attacks on 9/11 but then when she stepped forward again as his partner and spouse and it was a persona she had already established, and it was a really good choice on the bush administration's part to have her do that particular address at that time. >> one of the other things about first ladies, just like presidents, they don't go away after the term is over and her commitment to afghanistan has continued since they left office and in that sense it has given her the credibility to speak out we had the withdrawal. that's true of so many other

first ladies, they established those connections, that credibility, they have that platform and continue to use it. the chat function is not working on youtube for some reason. if you have a question or comment, please send it to flarequestions, all one word@gmail.com. that is flarequestions@gmail.com and we will monitor those questions. this brings us then to the last speaker, you talked about the maternal piece that laura bush used effectively as consoler in chief. when michelle obama cayman, princeton harvard educated with a major law firm, hospital

administrator, this is a woman like hillary clinton who had power positions, there were a lot of weight minute, wait a minute, a chance to move things forward. what she chose to emphasize for education, military families, healthy children. so what about this particular speech? why was it only michelle obama could have given this speech? do you want to comment or do you disagree with me? >> it was a very powerful speech to a very specific audience. already recognizing, obviously she recognizes that it is going to be a speech that is broadcast that can be looked up

on youtube later. showed an enormous amount of speaking during her time as first lady and after as you just mentioned, diana. she was speaking to newly minted black college grads and i think it was really important for her, only a speech that she could give as the first black first lady. it was -- because again, almost as i mentioned with barbara bush i think it is almost as if she is chiding them somewhat, her audience, don't make this -- we cannot equate a black child with a book to acting white, we've got to throw that out.

got to move forward and i don't think that a white first lady could have delivered those remarks in that way. again, i think she recognized her audience and adapted to it accordingly and in a very powerful way. >> it is an interesting speech in that i understand about chiding the audience but she was chiding the broader audience, not the specific audience because when she says to reject the idea that a black kid with the book is trying to act white, she's not talking about the audience that just graduated from college, giving them a sense of empowerment, you have a space in this world, you've done something that is important and good and even though she is saying it in a chiding voice, saying to them don't listen to the critiques. what you have done is you are

be an example of excellence for the next generation. she says to be it but she is showing them that they are. this speech is really interesting and i was reading through the youtube responses to the speech. one of the things i thought was kind of fun and speaks to the idea of michelle obama as being the one who was able to give this speech is the part we saw, the clipper that we saw starts from the 11:34 mark on the actual speech itself, people kept commenting on that mark as where it got real like it really got real, those comments, she is getting real at this point because they could feel the authenticity, the genuineness of what she was saying and the passion behind it and that is one of the things michelle obama was very and is very good at saying what she feels in a way that lets everybody feel what she feels as well and that was being

shown in this particular speech. the kind of frustration, the kind of hope, the kind of reassurance for the specific audience and the chiding of the broader audience, very effectively done and we all know michelle obama is quite an effective speaker. >> i'm sure members of that audience, when they were reading books are going to college or getting a degree and talked about being able to identify, they can identify with what she was saying. one of the other common stories she told in her commencement address is jackson state or when she went into a high school that was predominantly african-american high school was her own story about counselor telling her she wasn't good enough to get into princeton, she could not get into princeton and she really

makes -- don't let anyone do that to you and that's another of those common messages. she certainly doesn't shy away from the controversy and she did it very effectively. don't have questions yet but please, flarequestions@gmail.com. i could throw out smart questions to the audience but in general one of the other things that was interesting about michelle obama was she didn't rely on traditional media to get her story out. she used nancy reagan started it showing up on different strokes in a cameo. she was doing cameos, joining

forces, she was on nashville, she was on sesame street how many times, she was a wonderful video of her sending out vote the first week by a first lady, twitter, instagram, she was everywhere. reactions to the fact that she sidestepped and was able to tell her story, create her narrative. >> i have found that it is interesting you bring that up, because most recent thing that i published on hillary was looking at her relationship with her press, press secretaries, directors of communication in two different terms. early on in the first term, her press secretary at the time really wanted her to do exactly

those kinds of things like nancy reagan. she wanted her, one of the things she wanted hillary to do was on i want to say to time, that was the name of it, tool time with tim taylor, a very popular sitcom at the time, she really -- a fascinating document in the clinton library where you see this whole media strategy, using popular culture at the time. instagram or facebook or twitter at the time when hillary was first lady but the idea of going around the mainstream media to create a more likable image was something that i think presidents and first ladies have done and other elected officials have done. >> question?

danny asks, are living first ladies afford appropriate coverage by the media? the incumbent and others? >> it depends on the first lady. it depends on the first lady. some first ladies just want to kind of go back to their private lives. first ladies don't always choose this position. they choose how they and act it but the women who have been in this position so far have had the title foisted on them so some of them don't necessarily want to be in the limelight in the same way "after words" so taking some time away, you don't want cameras in your face all the time but you also see some first ladies who embrace the attention they are able to garner and use it for a lot of different activities and events to draw attention to issues.

michelle obama, for example, wrote about this for a book chapter, gained more attention during milania trump's time as first lady than milania trump did. doesn't have any problems gaining attention after leaving the white house. some people argue milania trump didn't receive enough attention but that's a different argument we could save for another conversation. >> it is interesting that even today, a first lady is not the same, the white house communications does not cover consistently first lady speeches or public appearances the way they do the president. when looking for something, wondering why isn't there an

official record of this and you are picking it up from news media instead of from the official. i think that is interesting, there speeches have powerful effects. the panel has pointed out it would be nice to have a more formal process of what was covered and sort of like the president over paper and first ladies, no real easy way of getting into thees. >> we have another possible program. warren harding would do informal events.

they were not formal speeches and henry hoover gave the first radio address by our first lady and did several of them. eleanor roosevelt did. we have a battle. about four minutes. anita had a comments. this is anita mcbride, laura bush's chief of staff, that was george bush's suggestion that laura give the address on the topic of afghan women. president bush was the one who thought this was absolutely right. we also have something from bonnie, talk about michelle obama's speech in new hampshire in response to the hollywood access tape. you want to pool that from your memory?

>> i think an incredible opportunity to watch that speech, gender conference, everyone was talking about it. we watched it later on, a group of us, later that night, we had a 3 for all on it. i think that is when people say talking about michelle obama running for the presidency. you probably remember that. that was something michelle could have given at that time. >> michelle obama during the

2008 campaign, she was the main person who talked to african-americans, staff, while he covered more mainstream groups. they used her for a specific reason. >> these speeches. >> lots of quick points. what happened to barbara bush, and if she ever considered not going to wellesley because of the controversy, absolutely not. and the same speech was also

given at the university of pennsylvania but there wasn't that level of interest at that point. i had a teaching colleague in the audience in beijing when hillary clinton gave the speech. the location of that speech -- the day of the speech, the news media couldn't cover it. they shunted away from packing those locations, my point, because of my work on betty ford, betty ford says some the things her husband could never have said. a good example.

they are spot on, i would welcome a panel, the press coverage. >> can i ask who decided to move hillary's location in beijing? >> according to my colleague, it was an official decision buys some level of bureaucrats. this colleague of mine said there was absolutely no mention of mrs. clinton's speech in the next days in china. so it was official. >> we reached the 530 point. we will let you out in an hour.

this will be on our youtube channel. type in first ladies associations, research, it is easier to find this by going to our website, flare-net.org. in the lower right-hand corner we have a youtube icon. it will take you and our programs on their. we could find a lot about what we are doing, there's a lot of educational material, hope you might consider becoming a member. thank you for putting the speeches to gather. goodbye, everybody. >> thank you very much. >> if you are enjoying american history tv, sign up for our newsletter using the qr code on

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