question and a very hard one to answer. let me answer it in a little long way. one of the things that obama promised to do was to change politics and change the highly partisan politics that we've witnessed since clinton and newt gingrich. he's been able able to do that, as you know. and the opposition party the republicans, have not supported his economic program and have not supported health care. and they have successfully roused they're fateful angle another and that's produced from the liberal side of the democratic party. so there is a lot of that hostility out there. but when it breaks over the line into an illegal activity i think the american people will step back and say, hold on. that's enough. one of the failures so far of

the an obama administration has been to change the mood in america. the fact of the matter is that congress is not a representative institution. it over presents the members of congress in the house and senate, over presents the ideological extremes of each of the party. and unfortunately what you're talking about the tea party and revolt, seems to suggest that situation i was going to call a disease, has now spread and infected some of the population. i think we need to shout less and deliberate more. host: in ann quail in the out section of "washington post". guest: with no spelling errors. host: he said the tea party people should not try to create a third party like ross perot did. your thoughts on his piece this morning?

guest: well, i don't think if you have a conservative group which usually is the core of the republican party and that becomes the third party, then you split the republicans even more and you're not really opening the door for a lot of independent and democratic support. the parties now are almost evenly divide. about 33 percent of the country in the latest poles say their democrats. maybe about 25-27 percent say they're republicans and the rest say they're independent. that's pretty even. but of the republicans, they're very conservative and if they leave to go to another party, what is it going to present? but the conservative side of the republican party and in essence, that will enlarge rather than decrease the democrats success

in the 2010 and maybe 2012 elections. host: erik from lincoln, nebraska. independent line. caller: good morning.. one of the criticisms of barack obama running for president, it became quite a popular talking point was that he had no experience. i always found that to be somewhat disin genuine. he had been in the illinois, legislature. prior to that had been in community organization. professor land view, do you agree with that or disagree with that? guest: he didn't have much executive experience but he did have a lot of experience. he was quite well read. he was the - a law professor another at the university of chicago and was in the u.s. senate. i think the fact that he didn't have a lot of executive experience, caused him to make some mistakes. he over delegated to congress

initially. both with respect to the big recovery and reinvestment act, and secondly with respect to health care. and that under cut his leadership image. he wanted to be a transformational leader and you don't become that by delegating to others. you gain the vision and then you move forth with that. secondly, he has not emphasized very much and it's still early in administration the management of government. we have over 2,000,000 civil servants not counting postal employees and over another million in military uniform and he's the boss of them. - and he needs to promote policies that will promote the sufficient working of government and he hasn't done that yet. he has experience in making decisions and in building coalitions and he was certainly - is certainly a very

knowledgeable man but was never head of a huge corporation and i think the biggest group he was ever chief executive of was the harvard l law review. so yes, i think it's presented some problems and ironically, that's why he brought into the white house all people that have experience either in clinton or back further in the carter or george w. bush and min administration with secretary gates. remember experience is a big deal in the 2008 campaign. mrs. clinton had the ad with the red phone and who's going to answer it. and the president is not going to answer it, but somebody in the security operations will. but the fact is, he was sensitive to the fact that he hadn't been there and he brought

into the white house a lot of people who had. host: a professor of history writes this. obama ends the first year in office with the potential to be as popular as reagan or ineffectual as jimmy carter. he also reveals a carter tendency to lack backbone facing americans energy miss and domestic challenges and over confident congress. but he has year two with three great assets. clear talent and savvy battle tested staff and the good will of american people and billions the world over most of whom want this new president to succeed. your thought? guest: i don't see carter-like tendencies in president obama's behavior. when pushed to the brink, he's

pretty tough. i mean, who would have thought that he would have - in early december made a decision to send 30,000 more troops to afghanistan. who would have thought he wouldn't go be search in not being able to close the guantanamo naval base in one year? who would have thought after the election of mr. brown to replace senator kennedy in massachusetts that president obama and him alone, would have pushed the health care debate and resulted in the health care bill coming through? he certainly is tough enough. he's using that toughness now to try to get the chinese and the russians to support increased sanctions on iran. what you have to realize about president obama, for him words are powerful and he uses them as instrument office diplomacy.

for president george w. bush actions spoke louder than words but for obama, he tends to speak first and he's willing to spend more time where as bush was more impatient. he's willing to spend more time in order to build agreements together. so i reject the notion that he's not tough enough. i think he is. i think he is a fairly skillful politician but we'll see how that plays out down the line. the american people do want him to succeed. and one of the interesting things as the president's approval rating in the presidency declines in the fall of the year and as we approach the health care debate, his policies were far less popular than he was personally. on most of the personal traits. understands the issues, can make decisive decisions and cares

about people like us, cares about american very lose and he continues to do very well across the board. host: next phone call comes from pennsylvania. bill on the democratic line your on the air. government professor at george tt ssor at george t georgeto georgetown. go ahead. caller: hello? yeah, why you - host: we'll move on. cory, on the republican line. go ahead corey? host: hi.. nice tie by the way. one question. with basically when barack obama started in the presidency and i'm a republican and registered republican, but i notice one voters for the act and not one voted for the health care bill. i'm starting to wonder - um... with all the speech coming from the rush limbaughs and glen

beck's of the world, does it have to do with his race, when it comes to his draw of approval rating as a whole? i mean, what is this all about? host: let me add to that. there's been stories more often than not that presidents in the first year watch their poll numbers slide. guest: your question is a good question and it's really impossible to answer even if you had data, you're not sure people will say things that are politically incorrect. if you asked a person if your prejudice, most people whether or not they were would say, no. because that's the right answer. i think the republicans have followed a strategy that is not going to help them in the end. i'm not attributing it to racism although some of the people out there may feel very strongly on the racial issue.

i don't see how a party who votes against evid everything c make a claim to govern. you have to be for something. in times of economic recession like we've had over the last year, in times where we have still these terrorists attacks. you have to use the government in some way as a vehicle for handling our economic problems in some way for handling the health care problem and in some way for handling national security problems and shim- mri to be against it, because it spends a lot of money. how can you be elect on a

platform that i'm against government. host: tweet from a viewer. can a president's policies pull from the rest of the country. johnson and the civil rights act for instance? guest: well, yes. the reason we're so concerned about what a president does is that policies have great impact. if president obama didn't act the way he did at the - when he came into office, given the state of the economy, the recession might have been a depression and probably would have lasted longer. if the president did not build up our forces in afghanistan, yes - might take on more casualties but two, the taliban would continue to expand so what presidents do can make a difference. in our society, you know, we're a little bit sort of ambivalent

about change and if you've looked at the last presidential election it was all about change. both senator mccain and obama all both urged change. we greed things were bad and we needed to change it. we just had no agreement on what those changes should be and how large the roll of government should be in the changes if president obama is able to change policy with respect to homosexuals in the military, that will have an effect not only in the military but on society down the road so. i agree with you. presidents what they do can make a difference in our lives and in particular those of our children. host: headline in the "new york times". white house and off peter baker writes. legacies like bush, reagan and maybe obama and clinton noting president obama has taken up many unfinished agenda items of

president clinton. things he couldn't get through in congress. on the issue of don't ask, don't tell, economic stimulus bill. clinton could not get done but president obama has done. guest: one is, society takes time to adjust. a new generation comes in and they have different views. i think had president clinton not raised the issue of homosexuality and gays in the military and by implication, same sex marriage. obama might have not had the foothold he has today to move it forward. in one sense, he's bringing some policies of the clinton administration to fruition and one has to the bush administration too, as president bush and secretary paulson and

the talk funds to save businesses too big to fail because of the impact they had on the american economy. but one also has to say if president obama has a hero, if there's someone he looks as the great american president it's clear it's abraham lincoln and not bill clinton. host: pittsburgh. go ahead. cynthia, are you there? i'm sorry. i think we have the wrong - go ahead. caller? caller: i wanted to make a quick comment. my prediction i think would be that obama's pole numbers and the democrats as a whole would probably be on the rise. i think early on in the health care debate they didn't show backbone and that's i why democrats and were disappointed and now they pushed through the policies they wanted and the republicans had been in the same

majority position i think they would have done it faster. i think, my personal prediction the pole numbers will come up. host: brandon in wilmington. guest: two comments. it's clear the american people evaluate congress in a different matter than the member of congress. they evaluate their member on what she or he brings home to the district. they evaluate the congress on what it does and sometimes how quickly it does it. so, passing legislation if this was a calculation by the democrats they would be worse off doing nothing than passing bill to which some people objected. that's one thing. but the proof of the pudding is in the eating and i think how the democrats do and the president does depends in large part on how the economy does and how we feel about the economy and whether we think our future will be brighter or not

brighter. if the economy continues to move, all be it slowly in the direction it's moving, it may not have come that far by the 2010 elections but it's clearer if the economy improves, that will benefit the democrats and if it stays the same, well we have another drop, that will benefit the republicans in other words, people are pretty smart and they vote not only on the basis of what people in government done but how they perceive things are. host: stephen wayne of georgetown university about the job of the president and looking at past presidents if your interested in going back over the years and watching some of the policy debates or speeches that we've talked about from past presidents go to our archives at c-span video.org. we have over 160 thousand hours of programming we've covered over the last 30-years and you can go in there and type in the

database, something you want to see from the past and watch it on c-span video.org. lake charles, jesse on the democrat line. thank you. caller: good morning.. hopefully you can hear me. i want to apologize for the people calling in using the shgs n-word and f-word. host: let me take a moment to remind viewers we don't have a time delay or screen phone calls because we want this to be an open conversation. reminiscent of democracy and that's why we don't do it. we want to hear from all different viewpoints. not just republicans or democrats but it has to be civil and appropriate. go ahead. caller: great. l b. j. was known for civil rights and martin luther king behind it.

j fk known for the crisis and clinton was known for welfare reform. and president bush was known for the thing use don't do. obama is going to be known for turning the united states toward the 21'st century and i think americans are scared on that. he has a worldly view for the future. as far as rush limbaugh and glen- black i have an an arm t armageddon view. gays in the military is something that should have been changed a long time ago. also coming back with education and leading world in education and getting our kids back to the level of education to compete with china and japan in the fast growing markets. look at the accomplishments heed made. yes he's in the process of

closing guantanamo bay, also the improvements in afghanistan and the procedures of pakistan. host: let me jump in and get a response from stephen wayne. go ahead. guest: two things. sometimes we make adjustments on the basis of history that we wanted but a history that didn't exist. a lot of times people are looking at a fiction and not a fact. your certainly right, change is scary for people. particularly older people and particularly people who have an orientation that think that america has gained it's greatness from individual initiative and private enterprise, and a limited government activity. the fact of the matter is. president obama has a different view of government than had president bush. both believe how to use government in times of emergency

when there was no place to turn. obama believes two things that president bush by and large did not. one, he believes that in a capital is cap capitalistic society where the key motivation is to gain money you have to curb the abuses that develop in the system. we began that in the 19th century trying to prevent the railroads from getting mo non mri. republicans don't believe that nearly as much. secondly and the most controversial. obama believes in his heart that government needs to help those that need help the most. and that help comes in redistributing resource and that was where health care fit in. he saw the outreach to health care for people that were poor and people who were young and people who couldn't afford it's

a vital role in the u.s. system. because obama believes there is an american dream, and that's wonderful dream but there has to be more equal opportunities to obtain it. host: amanda in michigan. go ahead. caller: good morning.. before i make a comment regarding job of the presidency, i want to say, when you say your callers are unscreened and there's no delay, well i had called in a while back and then i went on the internet to hear myself and it was completely cauca cut out. i guess they didn't like what i said so they deleted it from the internet. but in as far as that goes, when it comes to president obama, his job is to be for the whole of the american people and when you got the whole of the american people speaking out, and he's just disregarding them and

putting them down and thinking he's so smart along with the democratic party that they can come in and just take control and taken tire companies from families that were in business for 70 years and giving it to someone else and those types of things a looking the the united states and wanted to turn it into a global thing and taking a way sovereignty and running one way and governing a different way. host: amanda we got your point. i'll have the professor respond it to. we want to hear from all different voices and when i said we don't screen, we don't when you call up, the person who answers the phone asks you what you want to talk about but beyond that we don't screen the phone calls, so to get as many voices as possible we have to move the conversation along. guest: you're right. a lot of people are speaking out and some angrily. if you look closely at a whole

variety of poles there doesn't seem to be a consensus. americans were divided on health care and how that was depended on how you asked the question. is our health care system needing reform? yes. are you satisfied with the health care you and your family get? yes. do you think congress should pass this bill? evenly divided according to gallop poles. so i don't think president - you know when a president makes decisions he's obviously going to make decisions some find good and others find bad, but he's certainly not pushing the american people down. he's acting on the basis of what he thinks would be best for the american people, and he has another issue, which i just mentioned because i think we should mention this. president obama is a very bright guy.

and like any bright guy there's certainly tendencies and there's a bubble in the white house and you can be a philosopher king. in every day he reads ten letters trying put himself in touch with every day americans. ten letters in a country is not a lot, but he continues to point to personal issues in his speeches and in his justifications for policy. so, i think what i said before - is fairly important to understand this here. we're, as a nation were angry with conditions and blamed them on president bush in the 2008 elections, but there wasn't and still isn't a basic consensus on which way to go and how to move. host: san diego? caller: is the president navigateing the waters as accurately as he could be?

for instance earlier he became under attack that race was an issue. then, when so tto mayer, the incident they use is to accuse somebody of being racist so they accused her of being racist to introduce the issue into debate and then when the hearing took place they talked about the comment of a wise latina that was - it was amazing how much of her hearing concentrated on the one issue. host: we got your point about navigating the waters. guest: we have a very diverse society. following world war ii, for years we talked about our country being the great melting pot, but some times in the late 60's, early 70's we began to see all these different groups and all this diversity.

president obama - that's his life story. he had a foot in many camps in a multi racial society in hawaii and in a black society as a teen and in the first years of college. later on, as a community organizer and he believes that it's what we have in common that we should emphasize, rather than our diversity. the last thing a black president wants to do is emphasize race. he wants race to be irrelevant and if that's irrelevant, he's succeeded. host: maryland. go ahead. democratic line. caller: yes, i wanted to make a point. i keep talking about people that talk about obama not having enough experience or tough enough. i think when president obama came and he did not work in office and health care, but no, he held back and let the people,

the senators and everybody have something say about it until there was consensus and then he walked and make it happen, like a gentlemen comes to sending more troops to afghanistan. he took his time. the man has a strategy, he takes his time and thinks about hit until he comes up with the best possible decision and he goes ahead and makes it. i don't think he's - like they say, lack of toughness or in decision. guest: president obama's belief is that the decision that a collectively made following a deliberative process, tend to be better decisions substantively and gain more support because of the collective manner they're made. his tendency is to assemble experts and talk out the issues and ask a lot of questions and look at the options. he doesn't want to be blind

sided, and make a decision and try to see to what extent everybody buys in. once they do as in afghanistan he announces it. this is the style, the decision-making style of this man. he believes that bringing people together in a discussion will produce better policy and more support for that policy. host: why does the first year of any presidency, why is it - by those in the white house and outside the white house deem it the most important year? guest: well, the first year of the presidency is important for three reasons. number one, it's - you can look at the fit between the man and the job and whether the imagery during the campaign - whether he can live up to that image at president. secondly, the time you can m