eastern on you and a. .- on q and a each week until the 2016 presidential election, archival coverage of past presidential races. we look back to the 1992 campaign of former u.s. senator paul tsongas before he announced his candidacy. we join him at a photo shoot .ith people magazine as he swam he battled cancer seven years earlier, and his health was an issue in the campaign. bill clinton would win the nomination with senator tsongas carrying seven states and finishing third. >> [indiscernible]

>> [indistinct chatter] >> [indistinct chatter]

>> one more stroke. >> [indiscernible] -- without the goggles on. could we try it one more time? >> [indiscernible] >> there is a picture, except the hands of blocking the light on their face. it is still a pretty nice picture. >> how long have you been swimming? mr. tsongas: since i was in college. and when i left college, that was the end. ago, theear and a half

radiation had affected my lungs so i had to do something to exercise. so i went back to this. and i heard about this room competition and thought that what motivates me. [laughter] it gets you going. i swam laster and then they share. and last year competed with the swim team. >> how often do you swim on a given day? mr. tsongas: now i swim about a mile a day. >> what to think about when you swim? anything? getting to the other and? -- end? mr. tsongas: i think very deep thoughts. [laughter] i just try to relax and try -- if you think about anything, it is distracting. i try to let my mind just float. >> [indiscernible] mr. tsongas: when i trained by myself, i am really wasting my time. i trained with the team.

you will not drive yourself as fast as you will be driven. i know people figure that out -- figured that out about 4 centuries ago. [laughter] when you really get a hard workout, it feels very good. >> what about your children or your wife, do they spur you on to reach for that extra lap? mr. tsongas: my daughter here swims for the team, so she has been swimming. when they came to see me, i wish her i was going to embarrass the hell out of them. [laughter] i didn't win, but i was at least in the thick of it. so they were enormously relieved. [laughter] >> ready?

>> beautiful. >> paul tsongas, democratic presidential candidate, tomorrow you make it official. what are you thinking? mr. tsongas: today is just a day to relax and to sort of wander around, be in the house, get my thoughts together and get ready for tomorrow. >> how do you view this? is it the culmination of your career thus far in politics? mr. tsongas: you are talking to someone who has been pleased to be a congressman. i consider the senate kind of dessert. i am much or what you would call this on the menu. it is not the culmination in the sense of this is where ambition has taken me. it is more than a sense of i have learned something along the way and i have my ideas and the direction i think the country should go. it is a culmination in the sense of this is what i think.

take it to the country and let the country decide whether it is something they want to embrace. so it is a bit different than the usual step-by-step ascension of the latter -- ladder. >> could you take us to the thought process of what anyone thinks when running for the presidency? mr. tsongas: i remember when i was in the senate that i thought of running for president. and that was a different thought process. at that point it was can i win? you look at it as, well, this is an election year and four years later and four years later and calculated accordingly. that is americana ambition. this is different. this is a sense i have been out here now in the private sector all these years. i see what is going on. i'm concerned about this country's economy, and wanting to somehow save that.

this began as a book. i began to write it over thanksgiving, and i went around the country again on another book tour. i did that in 1980 and then began to think about running. i went to the doctor in january and said this is what i'm thinking of doing, test to me. cancer, but the stress and how do you rest. he came back and said do whatever you want, you are fine. then a lot of family discussions, that kind of thing, to make sure we all wanted to do this. and then looking at whether to get somebody else to run on my ideas, whether to run justin new hampshire as a symbolic candidate, and finally to look in new hampshire as a symbolic added that, and finally to look at an official run. when the story broke, it broke as an all-out run.

[laughter] it kind of got away from us. so that is not where we are. > have you talked with former candidates> to find out maybe some advice on what you can expect or look forward to? mr. tsongas: well, most of the people who have run in the past i have known in my prior life, so i have had that relationship going back. i did talk to lord simpson and al gore -- lloyd simpson and al gore. in fact, i talked to gary hart. he and i served together. we were close, but not very close. and he called me back and my secretary said, gary hart is on the line. i went back in, got on the phone, and said, hi, gary. and he started laughing. the last sort of rolled and rolled. not a word had been spoken between us.

almost like there is a new brotherhood now. [laughter] rather raucous laughter that had no basis to it , i said, why are we laughing? he said, it is life. so it is a unique experience. and this is my turn. >> what do you think you will be facing the next few months? mr. tsongas: timmy, this is really a campaign of a message. so i am a candidate and the usual kind of thing, but that message has to get out there. there is so much of this is i'm getting opinionated leaders in the united states, whether they are academic, political activists, those people to read the ideas and have a sense of that, a sense of direction. in essence, it is a campaign of people who believe not only in you, which is how we used to run

campaigns, but not only you but the ideas you represent. so that the momentum is beyond any one person. so it is a different kind of campaign than the usual retail handshake i'm a good guy vote for me approach. it is this is what i think the problems are, this is where i think we ought to go. decide whether you want to go there with me. so i never ran a campaign like that before. it is usually one-on-one kind of jousting in combat, but this has a different dimension to it. >> what do you think about at the end of the day when you are sitting in a hotel room before getting ready to go to bed in iowa or other states? mr. tsongas: well, unlike other candidates, i am not going to run this campaign as an absentee father or husband. it has been something like almost eight weeks now i have been away from my family three

days. i have either brought people with me from my family for i have been here. so i'm not going to be a seven days a week hotel kind of absence. what i think about is i miss, obviously, my family, and it bothers me, but we all believe in this. i'm not going to be -- i did not cease being a father and decide to run. out hope people would respect that. >> what effect did growing up in this part of massachusetts have on paul to tsongas -- paul tsongas? mr. tsongas: growing up. in an older male city -- growing up here in an old mill city, you work and work and work, you all did. i am not saying i had an unhappy childhood, but when you have a sense of economic decline, it is

all consuming. i remember when i left high school i said i am never coming back. i want to go someplace that is on the ascendancy. but i went away for 10 years and then came back and went into politics. if you live through not even a year of recession like we are going through now, but year after year after year after year, it does something to your psyche. not only people like me, but anybody in that situation. you ever forget it. it is really a defining moment to you. in terms of who you are and where you come from. so this idea of economic decline, etc. is not a piece of paper given to me by a staffer. i lived through it, i know what it is about, and i don't believe the american people are prepared for a reduced standard of living. and i think the political consequences of that is very scary.

you can say i have been in the white house, we kind of miss this problem, the country cannot compete anymore. they are not going to say that. you turn to the democrats and the democrats have no economic policy that any economist finds credible. a lot of what you see in my ideas and in the papers i have written and is a remembrance of those years. > your dad ran> a dry cleaning store. what do you think you would think today? mr. tsongas: [laughter] my father was such an avid republican. [laughter] i know he would vote for me. the question would be would he go to the democratic primary to vote for me? [laughter] he was a staunch nixon republican. when i got to the senate, he said this is wonderful. if only you would have run as a

republican, it would have been perfect. you talk about some immigrants who came here, and i remember when it got to the senate and he said to me, when i was growing up. , i thought a senator with a silver haired -- growing up here, i thought a senator was a silver had -- i think you would be very proud. >> what about your wife, what does she think? mr. tsongas: i think both nikki and i have concerns about this. was more of as sense of we wanted to be there so we do this. we have a very good life. certain nervousness about losing that, and so it is not a question where winning would be a joy because it means giving up but we have now, but i think she believes in what i believe in, that we have a

responsibility to be out there and do this. and that responsibility goes to the children. we cannot sit back here, make a lot of money, pretend there is not something wrong. but in terms of what you think of normally as candidate and candidate's wife being totally excited about the prospect of living in the white house, it is wanting it to you can make the changes. it is that wanting it because that is a better life. >> paul tsongas, thank you very much and good luck. mr. tsongas: thanks. announcer: road to the white house rewind continues with more from the 1992 campaign of democrat paul tsongas. he officially announced his candidacy on april 30, 1991 in his hometown of lowell, massachusetts. he called his campaign a journey of purpose. arkansas governor bill clinton would go on to