of those improprieties and folks like caroline flint and others, including the former defense secretary, margaret beckett, i believe, has had some issues and tax reimbursements. both cameron and gordon brown have had to come up and it has hurt him. >> this is what part -- record and brown said. "to be honest, i'm not interested in what companies being in power. i would worry if i never returned to those places, down the street, checkers, and it probably be good for my children." he went on to say that labour could win the next election. >> he has to say that last statement. it does not say that, he would be justified in getting a new leader. it is very hard to be at the tail end of a long issue like

this. it is now brown after blair. the party is exhausted. there tends to be more corruption at the pet to a level. they have been in power too long. it is very hard to be a leader showing bigger to the nation at that point. der that shows vigor to the nation at that point. brown has played his hand remarkably badly, including that line about fighting on. obviously much less heroic in churchill. blundering around, the fact that his cabinet is quitting around him, that is very shocking. i cannot remember the last time this happened. guest: it is a very different kind of system, as we all know in the states. these cabinet members are party members. when i tell people at sky news

the same person might serve under a republican and democratic administration, they cannot believe it because it does not happen there. we had a number of people under fdr. secretary gates. absolutely. it's unimaginable in the british system. also, steve, remember, tony, you know, wealth. gordon brown was never elected. the party put him in after tony blair left. host: when tony blair was running for a final term with labor support, the two of them would appear in infomercials. people knew that he would take over. guest: of course. guest: for many years he had been weaving to come up stage.

guest: they cannot wait to stand for election. he has been pushing and pushing. he also had some problems with expenses around the house. one of the braham expenses was firm in relief and pass control, which i thought was interesting in politics. host: our guests are with us for the full hour. you can give us a phone call or send us an e-mail journal@c- span.org, or use twitter, twitter.com/c-spanwj. both of our guests made the transition from campaigning to reporting periods jon- christopher bua, now a political analysts. tony blankley, working for ronald reagan, former editorial page editor, now working for

"the washington times." st. louis, missouri. good morning. caller: hello. about the iran situation, i hope that what they're wanting to do, the people that are trying to overcome the people in iran, like ahmadinejad, began to converge on the main government offices. with the communication explosion in the last couple of years, people will not tolerate talking to regimes anywhere in the world. there will be more of this. host: before you comment on that, tony blankley, you have been around a long time, looking at the evolution of the media. jon, you talk about the role of

twitter. is this pushing a debate more than a discussion? guest: it is extraordinary. we have all been sitting at home, watching blood come out of a woman's eye in tehran in real time. to have that kind of access into the moment is unprecedented. usually you have to wait for correspondence to file those stories. we have to be careful, even with the technology, it is very hard for the people. i agree with the caller, i hope the people storm the best deal, as it were. i have been in different places around the world, in political mobs. it takes a lot of courage. there are people who are going to get shot and beaten.

that is usually white a regime hangs on. you have to have a lot of people find their courage. it happens in a magic moment in a crowd. the people have to pay the price in that streak. guest: it takes enormous courage. in my lifetime, and i remember budapest, the velvet revolution. we have come such a long way. really, the american people in the american youth are seeing something special. they are seeing that these kinds of changes are so needed by young people of a completely new generation. this generation is sons and daughters of the revolutionary republic revelation --

generation. 3/5 of a country is under 30, they are saying that they want to be like kids in france, the u.s., great britain. that has empowered them to say enough. it has become about their own personal freedom. guest: wonderful as digital by analogy is, ultimately, you have got to get the passion on to the street. in these situations you cannot just say talk to each other, somebody has got to knock down a door in reality, opposed to virtual reality. the other irony is that this regime came into power on the new technology. ayatollah khamenei sending out audio tapes with messages of persuasion and propaganda for years. he was using what was the high technology of audio tapes. he was able to give millions in

the street. now we have got twitter and facebook. >> remember, ted koppel started nightline that way. that is how it started in the u.s., broadcasting every night about those hostages. host: is this your first time on c-span? guest: years ago, i was not quite communications director, but i might as well have been. we talked about third parties in a round-table discussion. we talked about ross perot and a third parties would make any difference. interesting, not a segue, but we talk about the deficit. ross perot made people aware of the deficit and deficit spending. that was in 1992, when i came to washington and work on the first

clinton campaign. host: tony blankley, on this official day of summer, that is definitely a summer suit. you can wear that for the next three months. [laughter] kentucky, good morning. caller: i want to comment on this iran situation. i am so sick and tired of everybody hollering that our president needs to step in, doing something. our president is doing what he is supposed to do, worrying out our own country. what is going on there has nothing to do with us. that this -- that is the iranian people's problem. people do not like the government the way that it is? stand up and do something about it. we did that during civil-rights. we came through that ok. the iranian people need to fight their own country.

they need to do what they want to do to make a right to them. -- make it right to them. guest of this president has two young daughters. this iconic young woman on youtube, the president's part has to be breaking. he must have to deal with it in a certain way for political purposes, but he has children in the knows about the suffering of young people being killed. these folks have a legal right to assemble, according to iranian law. now the nko is being declared a terrorist group, anti- revolutionary in great britain. so, what they are trying to do is they are trying to say that

u.s. and foreign influences are driving this conflict. when that happens, it becomes seditious. they will be hanging from the rafters as they have been. guest: the lady caller epitomizes what the great debates that has been going on in american politics, since the beginning. which is that they get involved in the world or stay home. they have had this debate for hundreds of years. john abbott -- john adams, woodrow wilson. george bush has been closer to wilson. the lady caller is closer to john adams. the fact is that nations and people and nations play critical roles. lafayette of the french held,

without them the american revolution might have failed. there is no doubt that what reagan did in the 1980's helped to bring down the fall of the soviet union. ultimately, the people have to fight their own battles. the iranians are going have to fight their own regime. that does that mean that the rest of the world has no interest. when the greeks fought for their freedom in the 18 twenties, romantic poets for, there was a rally for freedom that help them to throw off the yoke. we have to be careful, the president has to be careful not to act against our own interests. i think the american interest is usually for people gaining freedom. guest: you can actually quote the original historian --

host: you can? guest: note, but i can read it. it is a very dangerous place. the president has got to keep the door opened. the nuclear issue is number one in that area, especially with israel going and going, getting in there, and the recent events in israel. speeches from netanyahu and all of that. it is a dynamic time. guest: i agree. every president's only responsibility is to american interests. the question is what is in our interest. if every president things that they have a responsibility beyond our interest, that is a constitutional error. host: the president, in a "parade magazine." america's most red. standing with his daughters.

guest: i got that alert. they went and had ice cream. i called my colleagues in london and said that the president could be coming out with a major statement. steven and i waited for that call. we are very attentive. well, they went out and had ice- cream. . i don't know whether he worries about. to all of us who have been in communication responsibilities, we have been discussing it since the beginning of the administration. according to what we thought or the principles of white house communication, he is overexposed. on the upper hand, he may have figured out something that the reagan people and the clinton people did not figure out. i still think that he is in

danger of it. it is ambiguous evidence. the thing i look at, every time the president has to take a stand publicly, he antagonizes somebody. you would rather have him -- you would rather be able to send up somebody other than the president to knock down a story. if he bash is something down, he read -- he risks taking the brunt of being out there. at least there is a hint that he might be overexposed. so far, he is around 60% and he is doing fine. guest: he has a lot on his plate. he is a president that wants his staff out there talking about health care and the bailout and the recovery and reinvestment programs, talking about the car bailouts, the deficit, this regulatory plan that he launched last week. it is hard to keep up. i called him the energizer president. he has to get out there to sell

his products. guest: the more that any president is out talking about issues, the less the media will accept the substitute. the public is used to seeing the president. they do not want to see the assistant secretary of state if they have seen the president. to the extent that the president can get other people to be accepted by the public, he is better off. when you are out there more and more, it makes it harder to bring people out. you have to be out there all the time and that is the danger. host: the front page story on "the washington times" and "the new york times," sue is joining us f. caller: i like the way people can call and give their opinions. from the outside looking in, i think that what president obama is doing makes a whole lot of sense because i think sometimes america meddles too much.

they need to take time out for themselves. -- america meddles too much. and let everyone has their own opinion. sometimes you do have to intervene, but this time it is not the time. america needs to strengthen themselves, get on top and where there were. sometimes you just need to leave things to god and i think that is where america is going. the people who are suggesting that obama does something -- do they want to send their daughters or their child? they want to sending their spouse to fight? take that under consideration. when they are eager to fight the fight or intervene they must remember that america needs strengthening. that is the key thing. and they need god.

guest: there is a lovely island there. what is the alternative? the former administration called iran part of the axis of evil. since that time i think the supreme leader has more acolytes to build a nuclear arms. that did not work so i think something must work. the president is trying to keep the door open. to try to keep some dialogue open. host: with this time difference the associated press is reporting from iran. the daughters of the former president as well as others are arrested for participating in the purchase. guest: that is sad news. he is a national player. he is very influential.

host: he is extremely critical of president ahmadinejad. guest: that's rare we had heard he was trying to get his family out. he wanted to make a stand and protect his family. if his daughters had been arrested in makes it harder for him to do what he wanted to do. host: mike joins us from los angeles on the republican line. caller: of elect to speak to the iranian situation. the previous caller said it is none of our business. the changing of the regime, the terrorism over there, and of the suicide bombing -- it would be reduced. i think that iran has a major influence on terrorism happening in the least. i think with a change of regime this terrorism could be reduced.

that is why america should take part in this overthrown of the regime. guest: it is interesting because the iranian desperate is very large. here in washington we have the large -- we have a theiranian population. people have seen me on tv and a perch ministry. they tell me please, send this message. -- they approached me on the street. i know that the iranians living here, many of them thinks american needs to help, others are afraid to influence. but the idea that automatically we do not do anything because it is none of our business is not the analytical place to be. the question is what can we do

in our interest in to help the freedom fighters? host: great that the iranians our industry. -- in the street. guest: i agreed that our focus should be on domestic issues. it is a hard story, though. this is the wacos, this is the where the regime works -- the hope is that this young generation who has not adhered themselves to the revolutionary movement will now be considered counter-revolutionaries, dissidents, they can be jailed. you can tweet me. i mentioned of the show a beyond this morning with you gentleman. host: good morning on the democrats' line.

caller: first of all, i think there is a universal problem with oppressive governments like the shaws and everyone else. president obama and the american people stand for not pressing people's voices. the second thing, the president's character -- i do not think there is any risk for over exposure. he is an authentic character. for the person who has authenticity there's an unlimited amount of interest. we want to see often to people before our eyes. the third thing really powerful is that iran is going through a new nationalism. it is not controlled by religious czars or even --

people like ahmadinejad. i would like to quote something from the book of rahm emmanuel -- we believe the popper judy for all special privilege for none is america's special mission. -- the opportunity for all. i think if we stick with that we can see iran overcome its situation. another said that at every stage and under all circumstances the essence of the struggle is equalized the opportunity. host: thank you. guest: to be courted alongside fdr, rahm if use watching the show and i'm sure that he is, would be very pleased. i agree with the gentleman. i also want to say if you pay

this despot into a corner -- if you remember during the cuban missile crisis, bobby kennedy said let's not paint khrushchev into such a corner that he will react so violently -- that is what they did the deal in turkey. you have to get someone out or he would just lose it. there's no measure to the damage he can do to his own people. host: here is another message from twitter. let me turn to one domestic issue concerning sonya sotomayor and her nomination. these writers say that the poll

found that most americans would be willing to pay higher taxes so everyone could have health insurance and the government could do a better job of holding down health care costs than the private sector has. your reaction? guest: i have not seen the internal on the pool yet. but it is remarkable how precisely the poll comports with the editorial position of "the new york times." we have all the with polling and you have to be careful with the freezing. i have dealt with health care since 1993 with the clinton health-care plan. that is not what i have seen in the pulling of the years and recently, but it depends how you phrase the question. -- with the polling over the years. there are polls recently that americans eat less of a crisis now than in 1993.

it is now and the low 50s as opposed to the 60s. if anything there is less energy for radical change now banned in 1993, but we have to look at the internal on those polls. this is also a moment where the public is concerned about deficits. the president is out there saying he is trying to get it under control. the program that will increase the deficit by $1 trillion or more in the next tenures may not be popular. so, do not cherry pick polls. host: let me go into detail about how the poll was conducted. here are more specifics. guest: this president even more than the clintons, when i came down to washington to work on the health care program, he has

paid more to the economy. you and i both tony were part of the government health care plan, part of the federal employees health benefit program which everyone on the hill is and so is the president and his entire family. if this is a public plan we benefited from a. it was the best health care i ever had. the government provided for applicants a huge assortment of terrific health care plans and because they had such an enormous pool of people applying for them they were able to pool the resources and get a really good health care rates. guest: if you are willing to spend enough you can get almost anything. but you and i did not quite have the best. elected congress and senators have it a little better. they were able to go to the hospitals in bethesda and get treated immediately with no paperwork. they just went there. it was taken care of. when you have 300 million

people supporting the health care costs of a few thousand people here in washington of course you can buy the gold- conversion, but the problem is we do not have enough taxpayers to pay for that kind of service. guest: because of the coming guys like you and i will not be guys like you and i will not be retiring soooon so we can contie >> tomorrow and "washington journal," a chief correspondent previews this week's congressional action. corey boles talks about a bill that offers consumers cash vouchers to purchase more fuel- efficient cars. bradley graham discusses his new

book about donald rums felt -- rumsfeld. >> people do not want to think of roosevelt's conservation as a policy as much of a passion. he put together almost 240 million acres of wild america. as people are talking about environmentalism and green movements, roosevelt is becoming the key figure to understand. he was the only politician of his day who absorbed darwin and understood biology, understood birds migratory patterns, understood mating habits of elk and antelope, and actually did something. >> sunday on "q&a," the first of two hours with douglas brinkley on "wilderness warrior," tonight at 8:00 on c-span, or listen on satellite radio, or download the c-span podcast.