is a very important subject by itself. what do you think of the jefferson formula for an effective union? a perfect individual made perfect@@@@@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ except the first step to human perception which is to stop being selfish. >> let me say -- maybe not speaking as a historian or societyologist, we are -- society yolks, we are a long way to human perfection. one of the things that president obama said in his speech, we are an imperfect vessel for this imperfect union in america. i would be humble about the

possibility. >> one more. reverend. >> martin made the comment once or twice that the masses must come together and actually force our leaders to make the changes that we want. given that racism and races have to hide their racism in order to get to places of positions where they can do what they do to keep the others down, will we really have a conversation on race? will folks really take the sheets off, so to speak, and be honest where they stand as it deals with persons of another color? >> you probably don't watch fox news. go ahead. head. >> i mean, you know, the question is really how do we

create a climate, or continue to create a climate for what we're doing today? america has to walk and be better. america, as a nation, is incredible. look to our most recent world catastrophe or two. haiti and chile. americans -- it did not matter -- americans rolled up their sleeves and gave and will continue to do that. haiti will need help for a long time. i hope and pray that we will be there. that is the commitment that we have made. when the tsunami occurred, even during katrina -- some may argue

the government was late -- but americans responded. that is the beauty of who we are. if we can continue to appeal to the goodness and extract that, that is one thing i think my father mastered. instead of always saying what we are getting, trying to figure out what we are able to come together on. ultimately, i think we will get past this issue of race. it will take some time. we're not there yet. we may be a long way from it. we made great strides and will continue to do so. >> go-ahead. >> this is touching on the media piece of this. i would also appeal for people to not be captured by the heat, but by the light. our technology allows us to have good access to the public. they're not a lot of people involved, but they are very

loud and the screen and talk over each other. not on pbs, but you know what i am saying. [laughter] we get caught up in the idea that that is representative of where the american people are. it is very entertaining. it puts more of the burden on us to force the conversation, to try to be better, to try to keep our eye and the prize. it could be obscured by the dust that we pick up in this crazy debate. the people who really want to have a conversation to get to the next place -- when we talk race and racism -- that we do not get so preoccupied that we begin to believe that is the rising -- driving force of every conversation. that responsibility ships to us because of technology. -- shifts to us because of technology. >> one last question.

>> what is the media's responsibility to help facilitate the dialogue? right now, anger and talking points sell. what irritates the most -- i was here to go years ago also -- two years ago also. the thing that irritated me most when i looked at the news coverage was that dor dissecting it like they -- that they were dissecting it like it with the final four or the super bowl. you have pat buchanan on msnbc and others on fox talking about him throwing his white grandmother under the bus. if you look at the last couple of years, what you talked about race or health care -- whether you talk about race or health care, it almost seems like a

very few people, you being an exception, there are very few journalists on tv and even the newspapers are starting to get really bad -- where people are not reporting the who, what, when, where, why, and how, but they're reporting the talking points, usually coming from the republicans. what is the media's responsibility? >> your responsibility is that you owned a remote-control and you do not have to watch. i'm not saying we do not have responsibility. i wrote to blog and which we talked about the eric massa retraction. did you see "up"? the dog would talk and get distracted. you see what i mean.

easily distracted. we are the talking dog, distracted by the kid in the balloon. or the latest thing that john edward's mistress said. it is possible to make a decision that i want to know more. there are more places to go for that now than there ever have been. when i grow up i had a choice of reading a newspaper, washing walt -- watching walter cronkite. that was all your information. it had great power because it was so concentrated. who knows what stories they did not tell. if you not like msnbc, go to box -- you can choose. go to the place that already agrees with what you decided to believe. you can go to pbs. you then go to discovery. you can go to the history

channel. there are many more places. there is the world wide web. we're not going back to where we were where everybody is responsible. these are commercial enterprises. there are places to go if you want to know more. the burden is shifted on to the consumer of news as much as the producers of it. >> i grew up watching walter cronkite. >> you are not much older than i am. >> i remember the end of the program where he would say that that's the way it is a." today it is sometimes irritating -- i remember the end of the program where he would say, "that the way it is -- that is the way it is." there is a cacophony. there are many different voices

making that noise. the burden is more on us now to interpret and analyze and extract. in a democracy, that is the role of the citizen. >> all the news that is fit to print. >> i want to go back to dr. lomax. one reason arkansas did political debate is so impoverished is because of the failure of our -- one reason our political debate is so impoverished is because of our failure. it is a place where we as educated citizens and educators can play a critical role in helping our students become good citizens. we often fail at that. >> good, bad, or indifferent -- technology is constantly

changing. there is an entire network of people who do not watch television, they go to the web. it is huge. i think about the fact that -- one of the conflicts that occurred a few years ago in louisiana largely became undergirded by the internet. it was not until after a large number of persons knew about the because of the internet that the major networks -- cnn, fox, others -- began to talk about it. the reality is that people are going to different places to get their information. what we see -- even if you look at how our news is presented to us, is about entertainment. some of the things are not necessarily the most important things that we would all want to hear or need to hear.

it may make us feel good. if you look at our networks, there is a different slant of how information is presented. it depends on who we are as to where we go to get our information source. there will be some watching fox. some will watch cnn. some will watch pbs. it is interesting. it is a smorgasbord. we want them all. >> ladies and gentlemen, here in our audience and on the web, two years ago obama gave an important speech right here at the center. we followed it up with this discussion. how did we do? [applause] let's thank our panelists, dr. lomax, professor sugrue, dr.

king, gwen ifill. by the way, you can stay and gwen will sign copies of her book. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] back

>> earlier today, british prime minister gordon brown announced that parliamentary elections in the u.k. will be thursday, may 6. the prime minister's labor party is in a tight race against the conservatives, according to the polls. we'll have -- we'll be live on bbc "newsnight" tonight at 5:30. and the enforcement of safety standards, yesterday the department of transportation fined toyota for failure to correct certain problems. tonight, two former members of the highway traffic administration discussed car safety standards. they're joined by the president and c.e.o. of auto manufacturers which represents

toyota. viewers can call in or tweet their questions tonight beginning at 8:00 p.m. live on c-span. >> c-span, our public affairs content is available on television, radio and online, and you can also connect with us on twitter, facebook and youtube and sign up for our scheduled alert emails at c-span.org. >> white house press secretary robert gibbs said today president obama is likely to meet with the chinese president next monday. as world leaders arrive for a nuclear security summit. the value of china's currency could be on the agenda for that meeting. more now on u.s. nuclear policy and other issues. this is 55 minutes. >> the white house will host the nuclear summit here in washington, d.c. i wanted to list for you all a

couple different things. first, the 47 countries, including the united states, will participate in the summit. they include algeria, argentina, armenia, australia, belgium, brazil, canada, chile, china, the czech republic, egypt, finland, france, georgia, germany, india, indonesia, israel, italy, japan, jordan, kazakhstan, malaysia, mexico, nor ocko, nesterlands, new zealand, nigeria, norway, pakistan, philippines, poland, the republic of korea, the russian federation, saudi arabia, sing apour, switzer -- singapore, switzerland, spain, sweden,

thailand, turkey, united arab emirates, the united kingdom, the united nations, the iaea and the european union will also be there. the president is currently planning to host a number of bilateral meetings. those include the president of armenia, the president of china , chancellor merkel of germany, king abdullah ii of jordan, the prime minister of malaysia. the prime minister of pakistan. president zuma of south africa. and the president of kazakhstan. in addition to the president's activities this evening, the -- at the white house the president will host a screening of the documentary film

"nuclear tipping point," a film which focuses on today's nuclear dangers. the screening will be attended by four distinguished statesmen. formers secretary of state george schultz and henry kissinger, former senator sam nunn as well as film narrator dunn and colin powell. they share the personal experience that led them to write three "wall street journal" opinion editorials to reduce reliance on foreign oil and ultimately end them as a threat to the world. >> which -- >> that is -- i want to say 6:30 but i will double check. [inaudible] >> pakistan. >> hold on. let me see. the prime minister.

i will admonish said note takers and i regret the error. with that i think we're done with our previously scheduled stuff. yes, ma'am. >> couple questions on mine explosion. the president said that federal resources are already down there. has there been any federal resources that have gone to west virginia? >> the department of labor's mine safety division and fema both have dispatched teams. they are there. the president, as you know, spoke with the governor last evening, pledged our full support and cooperation in the investigation. and that is obviously currently ongoing. >> this mine seemed to have a pretty significant history. has the president considered any review or overhaul of federal oversight of the mine? >> first and foremost, obviously our thoughts and prayers are with the families

who have lost loved ones. and for those we continue to pray for a miracle for those who are missing. i think rescue and recovery is our first in our mind right now secondly, we want to see obviously a thorough investigation, as you heard the governor and others discuss. the president, as i said, has pledged his full cooperation and resources for that investigation. i think legislative plans about that might better be addressed at the conclusion of that investigation when we have a few more details about what might have happened. >> are there any plans for the president to go to west virginia? >> not at this point, no. yes, sir. >> robert, two questions. one on the nuclear review and the other the weekend. starnting with currency. after having put off this report, what are the next steps that the administration will take at the g-20 or in other

forum to press china to move the currency? >> as we mentioned many times, the president has spoken directly with the leaders in china about his concern and his desire to see a currency that's more market braced. there are three important -- based. there are three important meetings coming up. our yearly dialogue with the chinese here. the summit. being two of those at which the administration will continue to press the chinese to -- as the president has said, value their currency in a way that's much more market based. that's -- the way we think is best at this point and i think we've seen reports over the past week or so about the chinese beginning to fake some steps and realize on their own that this is the best path forward. >> will you be pressing japan or any other countries from the g-20 to get this particular

issue on the agenda for the g-20? >> well, i think there's no doubt this is a great concern to a number of economies around the world. we -- i think the best thing to do is let secretary geithner and others work through this process and use upcoming meetings and evaluate where we are. >> and then once that three-month period is over and come back to this report -- >> don't know the exact timing at the end of the meeting period, but we can certainly check with treasury on that. >> and the [inaudible] what is the response of the criticism saying that the united states [inaudible] a possibility of [inaudible] >> look, i think this is -- first of all, i'm not entirely sure what nuclear deterrent it takes off the table. the document obviously contains no assurance for a country that currently possesses a nuclear

weapon or for a country that fails to live up -- sign the n.p.g. or live up to its obligations which obviously the two biggest examples of that are iran and north korea. so i think this is a -- and the president believes a very logical policy intended to in many ways help bring security not just to here but to other countries that have lived up to their obligations and give up if they have programs nuclear weapons. if not they're going to make themselves less secure. so i think this is -- this is an important and balanced step and this is the beginning, as you've heard the president discuss, now more than a week of events that start with the nuclear posture. the president travels tomorrow evening to prague to sign with the president the next treaty

and then return here to focus, as i mentioned, with 46 other countries on locking down any vulnerable nuclear material over the course of the next four years to ensure that we are not faced with that kind of material falling into the hands of a terrorist organization. yes, sir. >> the nuclear security summit, what were the criterion? most of the countries are not nuclear parties. is every country sending their head of state? >> not necessarily, no. i don't have specific -- who's going to be here each country. for instance, i know prime minister brown has called an election in the united kingdom. because of that and i think upcoming debates, he's not going to be who will be attending. let me as we get closer, we'll

do a longer briefing on this, we'll have a better sense of attendees for each of the countries involved and more information on what the president hopes to speak to each of the countries directly about as part of the bilateral meetings that i said are currently planned. >> ok. i want to review something. our nuclear arsenal helps deter enemies from using chemical and biological weapons. in the first gulf war we said that if saddam used nuclear weapons [inaudible] we later learned that this failed threat [inaudible] that was secretary gates two years ago. he now disagrees with that? >> secretary gates obviously was heavily involved in the latest nuclear posture revy as the current -- review as the current secretary of defense. it was unveiled at the pentagon. i will certainly say as it relates to a country, there's

two things as part of the nuclear posture view that i think is important in keeping in mind. if a country -- if we see that a country greatly expands its biological or chemical weapons capability, the posture review calls for the ability to re-evaluate any assurances that have been given. and secondly i think it goes without saying that our country possesses a massive conventional arsenal that we believe has an important decurrent effect on anybody that might make the poor decision to attack our country. >> that was your secretary of defense saying that the nuclear threat helped deter iraq in the

first gulf war. >> well, again, i would say that the secretary of defense was obviously heavily involved in the formulation of the current posture review. extensive meetings with the president on this subject, and something that, like i said, was rolled out in this building today. yes, sir. >> robert, at anytime while this policy was being developed did the president step in and object to something because it would make america less safe? >> well, look, i'm not going to get into the -- there were dozens and dozens of meetings not all of which involved the president but involved principals and deputies from any department in government that had an equity in this review. so -- then the president gets up each day with the safety and

security of the american people foremost on his mind. so you can be assured that whether it's in a meeting about the latest nuclear posture review or the president's daily intelligence briefing or quite frankly walking from the residence to the oval office the safety and security of the american people are on his mind. >> anytime during that process was he saying what you are proposing here i don't think it would make america safe? >> well, you can be assured that the document that we have come up with is done so in a way that the president believes can best keep this country safe. >> did he step in at any point? >> this is his document. yes, sir. >> i do have another question on health care. the selling of the health care law, and i'm wondering how you feel it's getting through to the american people, do you feel it's been effective in knocking down what want president has said and admits?

>> this is not a 10-day program. this is -- health care -- the law will be implemented over the course of many years. i don't -- i do not doubt that in the intervening many days you all will poll every other day to find out whether joe in peoria has changed his mind. this is a longer term effort to reform our health care system in a way that was -- in the president's mind -- desperately needed. our limitation and our efforts to ensure that what is laid out in the law is -- is that those promises are kept by insurance companies and others will be the focus of this administration and has been since the moment the president signed the bill. the first meeting the president had with the team at the conclusion of health care reform was to discuss its --

the next morning was to discuss its implementation. >> and the karzai invitation -- >> i would say that meeting is still on the schedule as of now. >> the president speaking to each of the countries' leaders or representatives directly about, what are you talking about? what agenda items are on the president's mind? >> we have dealt with the proliferation efforts. some of it will deal with the fact some of the countries we have not had a chance to sit down with. some of them -- there are issues that may go outside something like proliferation. our media comes to mind with the normalization of relations. so i think there are a whole host of things. obviously the focus is on nuclear security. >> by proliferation, do you mean what these countries are doing or not doing? >>t