against obama. compare that to george w. bush who got 44%. mccain probably lost, largely because he only got 30%. this 14% number is horrific. when you talk about softening the language, what the romney campaign did, they went back to their old ways in the ohio primary. they did an ad attacking santorum for supporting justice sotomayor to the supreme court, the first hispanic justice of the supreme court. i was stunned by that. i was like, you guys just don't get it. you're still making it worse. >> jeff zeleny, before we let you go, you're covering prthe primaries in alabama and mississippi, you more than likely will be in chicago to cover the illinois primary next week. from a personal standpoint as you cover these candidates on the campaign trail and file the

deadlines which are now 24/7 in this internet age, just spend a moment telling these students and our c-span audience what it's like for you personally to cover this presidential campaign. >> well, this presidential campaign has been more interesting than some of us thought from the beginning. mitt romney has been running for president for about five or six years now, and republicans generally have a history of nominating the person who is standing in line next to be the nominee. but the electorate in the republican party has sort of a mind of its own, so if you had asked me a couple months ago if i would be in the alabama primary, i probably would have said i wouldn't have been. i would have assumed the republican nomination would have been wrapped up. it's been very interesting to see a republican establishment kind of fighting with some of the other assertive activists. there is really a resistance without question to romney's

candidacy, so it is interesting. it's not quite the level of the epic battle with senator hillary rodham clinton and senator barack obama. that was really exciting and we didn't know how it would turn out. i think most republicans, if you talk to them, they think mitt romney will become the nominee. so at the end of the day here, this has been an interesting campaign to cover, but i'm not sure it's as interesting as four years ago. but i think this general election campaign will be very interesting. i mean, the overriding question over all of this is, is barack obama going to be reelected or will he be a one-term president? we don't know the answer to that. there are a lot of positive sides for him. the economy is improving, et cetera, but we have a poll in tomorrow's newspaper that shows

a very unsatisfactory approval rating for a president whose fighting for a reelection. so this campaign is exciting because we certainly don't know the outcome, at least, in the long term, so it's another fun one. >> whether it's the president or mitt romney, you clearly do not have as much access to those individuals as you do to other candidates. does that make it more difficult for you to report on this? >> sure. i think it definitely makes it more difficult. we actually have more access to candidates like rick santorum and newt gingrich because they don't have the infrastructure around them. mitt romney has not been very accessible throughout this whole campaign through much of last year. his advisers have kept him away from the press. and i'm not sure that it's served him all that well in the end here, because he does have to take questions when -- at

certain points. any incumbent president who is running for reelection, it's almost impossible to penetrate his orbit, which is why we spend more time on his reelection apparatus, which is still fairly accessible. >> jeff zeleny joining us from alabama covering prit marrithe this week. he writes for the "new york times." his stories on line, as always. thank you for your time. >> thank you. let's take some more questions and we'll go back to gettysburg college. >> hi. my name is lydia. i'm a junior at gettysburg state college. i was wondering as one of the students was asking about objective media covering campaigns in america, whether you believe that new venues to quick news like twitter and

facebook would perhaps increase a demand for objective news coverage or campaign coverage considering it might create a more foreign citizenry and perhaps that might eventually make presidents more accountable to follow up on what they campaign for. >> nobody has used media more effectively than you in the past 20 years. >> i like the interaction with people on line and that's what always attracted me to it. with my blog, we have a community of people. we have meet-ups around the country. we're having one in gloucester, massachusetts in april. what i like about it it is there are political junkies everywhere, they're not just in washington. in fact, the political junkies in the country, particular until suburban areas and everything, are more hungry than my friends in washington because so few of their friends are political. they have so few people to talk to about politics in their

communities that on line, some of them get really obsessive about their on-line interaction. but to the biased point or the objective is -- and i was not kidding, steve. i mean, you know, going back to 2008, i broke my foot at the end of 2007 and had to sit out iowa and new hampshire. and i started watching "road to the white house." and you guys, i just loved it because i felt like i was a reporter being there. nobody was telling me what they said. i mean, the most aggravating thing to me in news coverage is when a reporter is standing there and the candidate is talking and the reporter is telling you what the candidate is saying. it li it's like, shut up, i'll listen to him myself. this campaign as well, that's where i go when i just want to know what is happening on the campaign trail so i can decide

for myself. >> how is the foot, by the way? >> that healed, and i got back on the road later in the campaign. but then i also watch fox every night because i want to. but to kocover the republican primary, you have to. they all go on fox almost every night. literally every night one of the candidates are usually -- this past week all of them are on one of the fox news shows. the interviews are not exactly hard hitting, but some of them have been very revealing, and they've gotten some tough questions. and then i go to msnbc for what i call the corporate liberal point of view, and then where i've been working with current tv, current tv is what i call the progressive alternative. they're the ones who aren't necessarily going to cheerlead

for obama like msnbc tends to do. they grib about a lot gripe abo you get a more balanced view on oba obama. then on line, there is almost everything. huffington post has a liberal recognition, but they have a lot of kefconservative voices on th. to get to the middle these days, you almost have to pay close attention to the left and right, and then you can kind of figure out what the center is for yourself. >> the book is titled "the politics of life." we're talking with craig crawford. his web site also on line at craigcrawford.com with his famous trail mix. a couple more questions. brittany felder from the university of pittsburgh, you're next. >> hello, mr. crawford, and thank you for coming to our class. my question was more for mr. zeleny, but i'd like to get your

insight on this. i noticed going back to promises made in the 2008 election, i know transparency was one of the promises that was made, and i notice throughout mr. zeleny's article, there were three times when talking about the information they were searching on for data sharing and the people they had out reach to on their twitter feed and who voted in 2002 recollection, why do you think they would choose not to share information now? >> because they're invading privacy. they're engaging in what retailers have been doing for a while, microtargeting, i believe, is the official phrase. and it is invasive and somewhat insidious. what they do, they track you on your facebook, they monitor cookies, they can -- they say they only reduce to numbers, they don't collect names, but i don't believe it for this reason. as they use that information to

figure out what sites you're going onto. they're taking it another step, and they're matching that information with voting data, as you mentioned, so they can create a profile, what they care about, what they're writing on their facebook, whether they voted and which primaries they voted in in the past. they even can collect credit card information so they know what your credit is, they can determine then, you know, your mortgage so they can make a pitch to you about their plan to help people with mortgages. i think people have given up on having privacy on line, but that's the answer to your question. they are doing all these things and they really would rather not talk about it. >> let's go to christopher conway, also from the washington center, one of my students from st. joseph's university outside

of philadelphia. go ahead, chris. >> hi, mr. crawford. we were discussing something previously in class that the republican party tends to nominate the next candidate in line, and that's something that mr. zeleny -- is that how you say it -- brought up as well. after this cycle, it doesn't seem clear to me who is next in line. do you have any insight as to who that would be? >> that's what makes this so interesting. >> after this cycle, you mean, in the next -- >> if romney loses. >> oh, loses to obama if he's the nominee. yeah, i'm sure santorum would try to claim the mantel. probably if he chooses a running mate that stays popular after the election can stay on top of the game. that would be the next in line. i'm very interested in who is next in line in the second term if obama gets one. >> let's get one of the students from gettysburg college.

>> hi, rebecca fisher from new jersey. i was just wondering, with mitt romney being considered an outsider, should the republicans seek to balance the ticket with an insider from washington, or is that not relevant in this presidential campaign? >> he's a funny kind of inny-outie? he's outside in the sense that he's never worked in washington, although he tried to when he ran for the senate, and he's an insider in a sense as governor because he's a businessman, but he was also governor for one term, so he's a bit of everything. but i think as a balance in the fundraiser crowd, the wall street crowd, he's very much an insider. >> christina brown is from bryant university. christina, go for it. >> hi. i want to talk to you about how you perceive the flip-flopping of romney to be a positive for

him -- >> maybe. >> maybe. but in 2004 it worked so strongly for john kerry, and i just to want hear your opinion. >> with kerry's flip-flops, he was flip-flopping to appeal to conservatives, certainly, on the vote, on the war that he went back and forth on. and there is some comparison for sure. i see another interesting comparison to kerry with romney is the same argument -- kerry wasn't all that popular with the base of the party, either. he wasn't a guy that inspired a lot of them. he was sort of romney-esque in that sense within the party. reporters kept talking to the kerry campaign about that, and what they would always say was, everybody hates bush so much, it doesn't matter. they don't have to be passionate about it. they are so passionate about

hating bush, we'll win the election. that's how the romney people are. yeah, we don't appeal to these passionate folks, but they hate obama so much that it doesn't matter, they're going to vote for us, anyway. the very same argument i'm hearing in this campaign that i heard from the kerry folks. >> so let's conclude on a couple points we talked about earlier. are there lessons from 1976, the divisive primary that they'll use in 2012? >> it's a healing division going into november, and that's up to the nominee. the nominee has to make the effort and be gracious -- i mean, make a very public and sincere effort so that you force the other guy -- he just can't turn you down because then he looks like such a heel and a sore loser. and that really didn't happen in

either of those campaigns after their conventions, because both sides were just so hostile to each other, they just couldn't bring themselves to do that. it's up to the nominee. the nominee has to be the one to do it. >> "the politics of life" by craig crawford. what's your message in this book? >> that politics are everywhere. life is a filthy battle for control. i hate when people say, oh, i don't like politics. i don't get into politics. that's what separates the humans from the rest of the species. we play politics at church, at work, in our families, on the roads, everywhere. that's what i do is i take the rules of machiavelli. i don't really talk about elections that much, i talk about real life and the rules for defending yourself against machiavillians in the workplace and even your own family, people trying to manipulate you. i didn't mean it, but i guess unfortunately it's also a guide

on how to be a machiavillian, which wasn't really my purpose. >> and these students, if they want to join you on line? >> please do. registration is free, easy and fun, and we have a lot of people come on every day. some of the same people, a lot of them know each other. when new people come in, sometimes they have to settle in because there is a lot of sarcastic people and tease newcomers some. i don't like that because sometimes they run them off. but the discussions are from all over the country. only about 15% of my users are in washington. most are all over the country, and in other countries. and it's just a great place for like-minded people who just like politics. it liens lefeans left, certainle have a lot of conservatives who get in the civil debate. the only thing i don't like is people calling each other names, i don't like them calling each other bad names, and that's

where i had to yell at them. >> well, we won't call you names except friend of this network, so craig crawford, on behalf of the students joining us at the washington center and also the students joining us from gettysburg college, we have a tradition of a round of applause, so thank you very much for being with us. >> thank you. it's always fun to be here. i was quite a radical as a young person, and i was the one that thought, you know, we should singing "we should overcome" was not a very effective way of gaining civil rights, and i think i thought that more confrontation was needed. >> economics professor, kohl um m -- columnist and host for rush limbaugh on being a radical. >> i believe being a radical is about individual freedom and limited government. that makes you a radical. and i've always been a person

who believed that people should not interfere with me. i should be able to do my own thing so long as i don't violate the rights of other people. >> more with walter williams sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific at c-span's q & a. >> they would wear garments of homespun cloth, and this homespun cloth would be much more rough textured, it would be much less fine than the kinds of goods that they could import from great britain. but by wearing this homespun cloth, women were visibly and vividly and physically displaying their political sentiments. >> sunday night at 9:00, george mason university professor rosemarie zagarri on the role of women during the revolutionary war. part of american history tv this weekend on c-span 3. secretary of state hillary clinton hosted the second global

chiefs of mission conference this last week. they got together to discuss their work and challenges and priorities abroad. secretary clinton welcomed the newest ambassador from iran and engaging in islamic groups. this is 30 minutes. [ applause ]

>> well, thank you all very much, and welcome to the global chief of mission conference. we are really pleased and excited to have almost every ambassador and certainly all of our leaders from state and usa here today for the conference. i just want to give a brief overview before i turn it over to the secretary, and hopefully today you will find that all of the things -- all of your questions will be answered and all of the things you've wondered about, you will no longer wonder about. just to remind everybody, we are going to start out by having the secretary open the conference, and she is going to speak about our priorities for the remainder of this year and going forward, and then we will also have our deputies bill and tom join us to actually expand on specific priorities in their remarks. and then i will take a few minutes to talk to us a little bit about where we are in the qddr and what the next steps are. i know many of you know we have

been very focused on the practical aspects of advancing economic state craft in our own deputy chief of staff and more importantly director of policy and planning. greg zel man will be leading something on that today. and we will be led into lunch by robert isaacson who will be talking about the latest auto y autobiography of steve jobs. later we have the honor of hosting senator kerry, and i know he will be super keen to answer all your questions. so we should take advantage of the opportunity to have one of the department's biggest champions here to actually ask him his thoughts and his guidance. then this afternoon we've arranged for what i hope you will find to be a very hopeful -- i mean, a very useful series of seminar style breakout sessions as well as other information on discreet areas of foreign policy. we'll actually close way town hall session that will be here

with the secretary as well as the washington-based leaders to be able to answer any questions and have a free-flowing discussion, which we all are looking forward to. i just want to take a quick moment to say that during the break there is actually an exhibition hall of different parties who have set up different points of contact who can answer questions about programming and answer other information that you all might find useful out in the field. if you could take a moment to go through there, i think that would be useful to you. before we get started, i want to thank a couple people here in the department who have been uniquely supportive about putting this conference on. obviously the comparable pat kennedy who, as always, provides tremendous leadership. but he has been ably helped by a team, including management policy chief bill haw and his team deputy, duffy winters and mike jacobs, as well as sounding boards molly moran and staff member curt vontrabuse and of

course our exec team led so impeccably by steve moll. [ applause ] so, last but not least, i want to remind you the secretary's remarks are open press, so smile for the rest of the conference will be closed press as we move forward. so without further adieu, let me introduce secretary of state, hillary rodham clinton. >> thank you, cheryl. thank you all. [ applause ] >> so welcome. and welcome home. it is a great pleasure for me to start this conference, our second ever global chiefs of mission conference. most of the time i see any of you, i am causing you more work and maybe more headaches as i'm either on the end of a phone or

actually in your country. and this time i get to host, and we've planned, as cheryl said, a full day of events. we could have filled a week but we know how busyh every one of you happen to be, so we couldn't take that much time away from what you're doing on behalf of our country. i want to especially thank, again, the team that put this together and also cheryl mills who has been both chief of staff and counselor and all-around troubleshooter and problem solveer for the last three-plus years, for which i am very grateful. and it's almost hard to imagine how much has happened in the last year since we last met. the world has changed very quickly under our feet and before our eyes. the proof is in this room. we have one more person than we did last year, our ambassador to the newest country, south sudan.

when we hold this conference in the future, i hope we can count on an ambassador to burma among our ranks, because i know that we have no status quo in the world today. it is a dynamic, challenging environment, and each of you is called on to play an increasingly complicated role. several of you have had to face not only uncertainty but danger and even physical threats over this past year. so i really want to extend my thanks to all of you. you truly are the finest colleagues i've ever had the pleasure of working with. i can't imagine any secretary of state ever having a better team than all of you, and i am deeply grateful for your service and your support. well, over the last three years, we have ended one war and we've

begun to wind down another. we are affirming our place as a pacific power in case anyone ever doubted. we are strengthening our alliance with our european and nato partners. we are elevating the role of economics and development within our diplomacy to help create jobs here at home and to advance our strategic interests around the world. and, of course, we are reaching beyond governments to engage directly with people. and many of you have been so creative and smart about doing that. conferences, seminars, travel, twitter, facebook. i mean, it's really been remarkable to see the accelerated outreach that i monitor back here in washington. and we're doing this amidst great volatility but also great possibility. as we watch these transformations, first and foremost in the arab world, but

not exclusively there, we're watching new powers rise, the redrawing of the strategic map. it brings new opportunities for partnership as well as growing economic competition, and yes, new threats. al-qaeda a is weakened but stil dangerous, and we have to be literally on our toes all the time. i believe that in this fast-changing world, american leadership is even more important. only america has the reach, resources and relationships to anchor a more peaceful and prosperous world. and as leaders within our country's foreign policy here at the state department and usaid, our goal must be to bolster america's position, not just for the rest of this year but for decades to come. last year i spoke about our institutional efforts to do so

with the first ever quadrenial diplomacy and development review you will hear more about. now we have implemented many of those recommendations, to transform diplomacy and development efforts to better position us to deal with the world we face today and tomorrow. this includes adapting to new foreign policy imperatives such as cybersecurity and the full range of cyber issues, standing up the first ever bureau dedicated solely to energy issues and all that it entails, creating a new family of civilian security bureaus so we can better address the full range of interrelated issues that fuel conflict and instability. and, of course, we have a lot of work still ahead of us to try to consolidate the progress we've already made and to build on it. i want to highlight some of the priority policy areas that we are working on to sustain and

deepen our leadership. i presented these same themes to congress a few weeks ago with our budget request. as you know, i've worked very hard to make the case to congress and the american public, and given the difficulties of our budget environment, i am grateful for the support that the president and the administration and the congress have given us. they seem to recognize that our efforts to elevate diplomacy and development alongside defense in pursuit of smart power is exactly what we need to be doing in this period of time. first, as i mentioned to congress, we are ending a decade of armed conflict. but when all the troops come home, thousands of state department and usaid employees, american and local staff, will still be there on thero