tv Washington This Week CSPAN December 29, 2013 5:05pm-6:01pm EST
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rating in a gallup poll declined to 41%. guest: first of all, you have two different situations. in the case of the bush presidency, there was a slow, steady, almost leaking of the air out of a balloon. katrina was a critical moment, but you had a fairly steady loss of support for the iraq war and that was kind of a heavy baggage that the president had to carry. if you remember, he also tried a couple of instances of social security reform, and he tried immigration reform, and he was unable to get his own party, let alone the democrats, interested. president is unique. in this case you have a president who actually is coming off of some pretty good numbers at the time of the government
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shut down, when people were contrasting him and what he offered, what his party offered, with the republicans who were at a low point because of popular dissatisfaction. >> just two months ago. on the other hand, almost overnight the conversation government shut down to what most people would agree was the disastrous rollout of obamacare. the interesting thing is there seems to be more fluidity, i would say, with this president. he is certainly down now. let's see six months from now if there are 7 million people signed up on obamacare. host: are there examples of presidents overcoming a tough year five? guest: that is a great question. although it is a jix, i don't think it is a curse -- jinx, i
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don't think it is a curse. bill clinton is a good example. people zero in on the impeachment efforts, on the other hand they overlook the fact that he turned in a balanced budget, welfare reform, and significant process on -- significant successes on the foreign policy front, in cozumel, for example. ronald reagan, to be sure, had to deal with iran contra, but in his second term he achieved tax reform, immigration reform, and most important of all, the inf treaty doing away with an entire class of nuclear weapons, paving the way for the end of the cold war. me ist is interesting to to look at reagan and clinton, just a generation ago who had , more mixed records in their second terms.
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as time passes, historians are more and more generous in grading their overall performance. successesook at their , one republican, one democrat, and it seems to be much more in focus, much less generous. term: talking about second- presidencies with richard norton smith, author of several books about the subject. a recent headline from cnn.com. you can read that story on cnn and also listen to our discussion with richard norton smith and call in as well. our phone lines are open. if you are outside the u.s. --
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several folks waiting to talk to you about this subject. brandon is first from las vegas, nevada on our line for democrats. up with us onting "washington journal." go ahead. caller: basically, you said something about how historians will be nicer after a long time. do you think in the future richard nixon will be absolved of the watergate scandal and people will pay attention more to his positive impact on the world, such as opening up china? guest: that is a good restaurant. i cannot answer because i am not clairvoyant, but i can tell you that certainly, even at the time of mr. nixon's death i remember stephen ambrose who had written a biography of him had expressed amazement at the genuine outpouring of emotion.
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nixon had regained, at least among some people, some of the admiration for the very things you talked about. 50 years from now, if it is indeed the china century, will the first line of richard then's historical opus be only president forced to resign, or the president who opened china to the world? host: in twitter -- guest: let me see. andrew johnson, who succeeded abraham lincoln, was impeached. bill clinton, there was talk about impeaching both john tyler
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, who was over in one term, succeeded to the presidency as well. that is it. host: let's go to our caller from indianapolis, indiana. on outline for democrats. you are on with richard norton smith. caller: good morning. my name is earl gordon. good morning. i have been a firm democrat all my life, and i just feel we was looking more at obama when he first got in office, and the way he cut people on disability with the cost of living raise, and a lot of things that are uncharacteristic for a democratic president. he let a lot of people down, you do not promise things you cannot deliver. he did have a chance to deliver.
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as a president, i go back in history and i look at a lot of presidents that did the things they say they were going to do, , george bush,agan george bush junior, people are down them, but when you look at them they did not hurt anybody. the rich.ed out he bailed out wall street. there are a lot of people very upset with obama, and i feel that after a time his rate will go down even farther, and i feel and if the president lies puts your hopes up he should be impeached. guest: i do think it is interesting at what point you rate this. the shared rescue, if you will, of wall street by the bush and obama administrations.
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one thing that i don't think has gotten enough attention, and will over time, you think back to 1932, when roosevelt and hoover were not talking to each other, at the very depths of the great depression. by striking contrast, for better or worse, i would argue that from november of 2008 to january of 2009 we had one and a half presidents. the outgoing bush administration cooperated in a historic way with the incoming obama administration. they both bought into tarp, which was a very unpopular program. i suspect if you went out and still be a, it would very unpopular program. notwithstanding the fact that it in all likelihood kept a bad situation from turning into something infinitely worse.
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host: what about the ability to follow up on promises in their second term? in your first term you can say we will get to that. but in your second term -- guest: it is an interesting historically the view is presidents get the most big things done in the first term. lyndon johnson, after the huge landslide in 1964, made it clear that he had one year. he knew capitol hill better than anyone. he said he had one year. two to one majorities in congress. he had basically one year to get the great society, however defined, enacted into law. and he did it. he turned out to be right. 1966, it was already midterm elections, and then of course the impact of the vietnam war diminish his clout.
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presidents use first terms to do their big, historic achievements. that theld suspect president's defenders would point out that the very large promise that he cap, a promise that presidents for over one and reviews have been trying to keep successfully, universal health care. host: one of the news conferences remembered resident -- is president obama accepting blame for the health-care website failure. i want to play a little but of a clip from that and have you put us in perspective. >> i understand why folks are frustrated, i would be too, because sometimes people look at what is taking place in
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washington, and they say not enough is getting done that helps me with my life. and regardless of what congress does, ultimately i am the president of the united states, and they expect me to do something about it. so in terms of how i intend to just going to am keep on working as hard as i can around the priorities the american people care about. and i think it is legitimate for them to expect me to have to win back some credibility on this health care law in particular, and on a whole range of these issues in general. and that is on me. we fumbled the rollout on this health care law. host: in that clip the president talks about winning back credibility. wonhave other presidents
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back credibility in their second term? guest: that is a good question. ronald reagan had a real problem with iran contra. his poll ratings dropped overnight because people, even people who do not even vote for reagan, there was a special kind of bond that existed between reagan and the american people. it may have gone back to the assassination attempt, or the air traffic control strike situation. him with wanting to do the right thing. and then iran contra came around and there was no way to fit that into that assumption. in the end, he appointed an independent review committee. there was a congressional committee. he took his lumps, he went down in the polls, but the
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interesting thing is that really successful presidents -- fdr, on march, established an emotional connection that kept him in good stead through all sorts of controversies. or lincoln. helm.y he took the never a majority of loyal americans who thought lincoln, in fact, was a dictator , which is what he was called by his critics. reagan had some of that as well. lucky presidents have it. it sustains them. so at the end of his second term, he was able to come back with a policy, a historically significant policy, arms control , and you saw his numbers shoot back up again. weres almost as if people willing to say, no one is perfect, you made a mistake, you owned up to it, we are willing
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to move beyond it. not forget it, but move beyond it. host: we're talking with richard ofton smith, a scholar public policy and history at george mason university. a man who knows his presidents very well. he served as director of the gerald ford presidential library of museum, the herbert hoover presidential library, the ronald reagan presidential library. and lincoln. let's not forget springfield. host: he is here to answer questions. margaret is up next. caller: hello. happy new year to everyone. the lack of majority in congress senate for a second-term presidency, does that have anything to do with the polls
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, and the less effective the president has become? guest: that is a great question. there is something called the six-year curse. that affects great presidents, insignificant presidents, across the board. that is in the sixth year of a yearidency, the off- elections tend to go very badly against the party in the white house. it happened to dwight eisenhower . it happens to franklin roosevelt in 1930 a. 1938. in recent years, george bush experienced it in 2006. 1998, inton did not in large part because it was a perception that there was a backlash against the impeachment attempt.
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by and large, the sixth year is a year that the party in power dreads. right now i have no doubt the democrats are looking at the senate majority and worrying about whether they will be able to keep that. host: on twitter-- tom is on our line for independents. you are on with richard norton smith. caller: obama took on policies of bush. there are so many problems here in this country, and the rich are making the poor even poorer, and the rich are running with the money and nobody is doing anything about it because they are putting money in their pockets. also, so the outsourcing of jobs was the worst thing anyone could have done.
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and 9/11 was an inside job. host: that is tom calling from illinois. we will go to joann now, from maryland, on our line for republicans. good morning. caller: as i am watching, i'm hearing him say how second term presidents have such a hard time. i wonder why there is a magical number that they can run twice, and if anybody has thought about only having one term, and it -- they would not be spending their last year running for a second term. i also feel there should be term limits on our congressmen. guest: you might be surprised to know, if you asked all of the former presidents, they would all agree that a single six-year term for the president might be better than what we have now.
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certainly it is true with two four year terms, they give a lot of thought to being reelected, and then they become lame duck says soon as they are. it has been suggested that a single term longer in duration might be a good idea. wasourse, intel 1951 there no limit on how many terms they president could run for. when the republicans took congress, they basically beat up on a dead man, franklin roosevelt, who had won four terms. the irony is that once they amended the constitution to limit the presidency to two terms, they then elected a president of their own who was sufficiently popular that he wanted a third term in 1960.
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there are people who think dwight eisenhower could have been denied. who thoughtpeople dwight eisenhower could have been denied. host: can you talk about the state of america's pocketbooks and how they play into success or failure of the second term? guest: economic issues are always going to be predominant. ronald reagan's, he said they don't call it reaganomics anymore. once his economic policies turned the economy around. people forget, in 1982, and off year election, reagan's atularity bombed out at 39% one point. thatepublican campaign
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year was "stay the course." they lost 26 seats in the house, managed to keep the senate. so clearly, as the reagan boom to go over, first in 1984, it powered his reelection. on the other hand, it did not keep the democrats from retaking the senate in 1986. ,hat's six-year -- sixth-year there is something about six years, people are eager for change. host: we are talking with presidential historian richard norton smith, involved in several projects over the years about presidential history. a recent one, coming up in 2014 is your presidents and patriots tour. what is that about? guest: in may we are doing our newest tour, brand-new itinerary. a southern trip. we are starting in birmingham,
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alabama, down to montgomery, over to warm springs, georgia and atlanta. andersonville, jekyll island, savannah, charleston. nine days, several presidential sites. what we have done this time, we designed a tour that is equal parts civil war and civil rights history. host: is this a lecture series? guest: we get a bus and we put 35 people on it and we go to great historic hotels and historic restaurants and lots of historic sites and museums and libraries. you name it. it's a great adventure. we have lots of repeat participants. if people want to call, they can go online if they want information to presidentsandpatriots. all one word. if you want to talk to a real, live human being, call 202-657-
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7444. host: richard norton smith is with us for the next half hour or so. as we talk about second-term presidencies. ginger is up next from louisiana on our line for independents. good morning. go ahead. caller: i am somewhat of an anomaly, or was. not in the majority. i live in louisiana, i am a caucasian, and i was so excited when obama came out. i fell in love with this man. of course, i don't tell anybody who i voted for. i voted for him because it would start a brawl down here. i voted for him in both elections. in the last six months i started
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to think, did he not mean what he said in all his campaign promises, or are the republicans preventing him from accomplishing these? in more recent months, with the nsa, i've started to feel that the president has not been honest with the citizens. my husband and i are both disabled. i'm 51. i have been disabled for 10 years. our governor, bobby jindal, shut down the hospitals. i have cataracts in either eye. i'm going blind at 51. i need both knees replaced. i called about the government insurance, obamacare. we are both disabled. we make $32,000 a year. i have not had health insurance in over 10 years. it would cost me for the lower,
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the bronze, it would cost me a minimum of $300 a month, upward. the max on the platinum or gold was over $800. i am lucky if i have $20 left at the end of the month. host: can we ask you what you think this president president's second term will be remembered for at this point? caller: it is caused me to doubt everything i believe about this man. jimmy carter -- was not a popular president. i believe that is because he was too good a man to play the game. that was the impression i had of -- have not had of obama. i think he hoodwinked me. host: richard norton smith, i will let you jump in here. guest: i'm not going to try to argue her viewpoint. i would be interested to know what it was about the nsa that
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disturbed her, and led her to believe the president had been less than honest. host: do you think that might be an issue that is remembered most? if you look at the internals of the polling -- the president has dropped most sharply among many of his own former supporters, particularly younger voters. i think the nsa cuts very sharply. host: nsa a very big story of 2013. what are you going to remember about 2013? guest: i'm a biographer. so i will put it in biographical terms. i'm going to say goodbye to two very different giants of history, each in their own way demonstrated against the cynicism of our time, that individuals can positively
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affect, change the course of history. one is margaret thatcher, and one is nelson mandela. i am going to say hello to someone who very few of us a year ago would have recognized, but who is making history almost every day. pope francis. host: sandy beach asks about president obama and his qualifications. wouldn't you agree that mr. obama was probably the least qualified candidate for president in the last 100 years? guest: i don't know about that. i will say this. it is really interesting that if over the course of american history, we don't you lacked legislators -- you lacked -- elect legislators to the presidency. in the 20th century we have done it three times. i'm sorry, in the last 100 years
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we have done it three times. most recently with president obama. before him, john f. kennedy, who as soon as he got to the senate was angling to get out of the senate, and warren harding, enough said. by and large, there is a reason we tend to favor governors. because we see it as an executive position. in many ways, an extension of what governors do, as opposed to senators. stop to think about it. one of the unglamorous functions of government is to make it work. simply work. senator, you don't have a lot of people to manage. you don't have a lot of administrative experience. as a governor, that is par for the course. host: kathleen is up next from pompano beach, florida on our line for democrats.
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caller: good morning. it's pompano beach. host: sorry about that. caller: not a problem. as a descendent of american slaves, i feel like every president second-term has really kicked us under the bus. i am very upset when it comes to president obama. 99% of the descendents of american slaves voted for our president obama. anythingt recognized to help us and our kids. also, i would like to know, what dreament came up with the ? come january, it will be martin luther king's birthday. , andi look at my dreams
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they say to dream that, i should have the dream. not being mean or anything. i want to know who came up with this dream act. thank you, and have a good day. guest: i don't know what the origins are. it was something that was debated during the previous presidency, during george bush's presidency. host: in 2006, president george w. bush delivered a primetime national address calling on congress to pass comprehensive immigration reform. i want to play a little bit of that and talk about the history of this issue. [video clip] >> tonight i want to speak directly to members of the house and senate. an immigration reform bill needs to be comprehensive. all elements of this problem must be addressed together, or none will be solved at all. the house has passed an immigration bill. the senate should act by the end
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of this month, so we can work out the differences between the two bills in congress can pass a comprehensive bill for me to sign into law. america needs to conduct its debate on immigration in a reasoned and respectful tone. feelings run deep on this issue. as we work it out, all of us need to keep some things in mind. we cannot build a unified country by inciting people to anger or playing on anyone's fears or exploiting the issue of immigration for political gain. host: that was president bush back in may of 2006. this issue of immigration, how tough has it been for presidents to move through congress? guest: it goes back to the 19th century. it traces the changing pattern almost exclusively
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european to a much broader, much more expansive global, inclusive pattern, if you will. int speech of president bush 2006 belongs to a species of presidential leadership -- is one reason why, with the passage of time, presidents often tend to get re-reviewed more generously than at the time. one of the things that we remember harry truman for is the fact that in 1948 he was campaigning for what became medicare. he wasn't able to achieve it in the political climate of his time, but he was credited with having the vision, in effect being ahead of the curve. days entirely possible some when the next round -- because
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it is an ongoing process of immigration reform -- that some georgecredit will go to w. bush, who was unable at the time and the political climate he was in to get a bill passed, but who will be likewise recognized as someone who was something of a visionary. host: we are talking about presidents' second terms. dean on twitter says it is kind presidento decide on obama's term. give it three years. guest: absolutely. host: a caller on our line for republicans. you are on with richard norton smith. caller: i wonder if the american public attributes too much the effect of government policy, specifically presidential policy on the economy and culture in general. for example, everyone says good
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things about president clinton, but they never say anything about newt gingrich. twice they shut down the government for spending bills. the more so, the fact of technological revolution. in my opinion, the effect of that, the increased gdp we are able to tax, the private sector had more of an effect on government budget than anything else. in 2008, everyone says it was president this, that. they never specifically say policies and effects. then a little about american culture, buying houses, flipping them, driving up prices. what we do. does us always looking towards
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the president take away from some of the other issues and problems we need to fix ourselves? guest: the caller raises a valid point. one of the interesting byproducts of the clinton years this goes back to when he was talking about -- pollsters started asking questions different from the traditional questions focused almost exclusively. the president got blamed for bad times and credit for good times. it was as simple as that. in the 1990's, pollsters went out and said, tell us who you think is responsible. the president during good times got a lot of credit. but guess what? alan greenspan and the federal reserve got a lot of credit. entrepreneurs got a lot of credit. i think what the caller says actually is already in effect in many ways.
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the media is often a step behind real people. tends tois, the media , toonalize, to dramatize focus upon the presidency in a way that probably does exaggerate its impact on how most people live their lives. host: you bring people who work for the president. can you talk about second term presidential cabinets and appointments and how they are different from the first term? guest: that is a significant factor. it is hard to quantify, but the fact is, even a president who wins a big endorsement going into a second term with the public behind him, the fact of ,he matter is -- the excitement the sense of history in the making that attends a first
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is largely missing the second time around. that -- there are people who are basically worn out. it does not matter if it is a liberal or conservative, republican or democrat. if you are working 18-hour days of the white house because you really believe in what you are doing, the fact is you can only do it at peak efficiency for so long. so one thing that happens, by the end of the first term you have people who have made that kind of sacrifice, sometimes financial. they have burned out. and they are replaced. the replacements may be just as dedicated, but quite frankly they may not be of the same caliber as the originals. host: a cnn puts it, gone in -- in the story we pointed out earlier, "gone in that second term is the energized a-team from the first term.
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tammy from riverside, california on our democrats line. you are on with richard norton smith. caller: i really admire and respect your fairness towards our president. i think a lot of people follow the conservative media too much and fall for so much b.s. that is put out there. if he had half -- to follow through with some of the plans and dreams he wanted for this country, it would be so great. -- he has been stopped at every turn. also, president woodrow wilson was told about this behind-the- scenes group that everybody had to be cautious about. thate felt for a long time the president is kind of a front man, and military or elites are
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really running everything. they can do so much. they are allowed to do so much. on this website, who what why, went into it. this really interesting -- anyway, i hope and pray for the american people that they don't put so much trust or look for trust in what is going on in the to godbut kind of turn because he is really the only hope for an internal, good future. host: i went to ask you about this headline from a recent "washington post" story. senate's filibuster rule change should help obama achieve key second-term priorities. talk about that. guest: there is a classic instance of something that probably frankly is not being discussed by millions of americans this holiday season sitting around their kitchen tables.
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-- in fact, it may very well turn the tide in terms of second-turned -- second-term effectiveness. there is no doubt that an absolute stalemate had ensued, for whatever reason or reasons. the opposition decided to be the unyielding opposition. and the president was having a devil of a time getting positions filled. judicial positions, and basic administrative positions. harry reid, who had resisted several times pressure to go nuclear, as it was called, finally had had his fill. so basically what this means is, for most appointments, not supreme court appointments,
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critically, but for most appointments the simple majority will avail. significantmously as long as the democrats, obviously, have a majority of the senate. it has already broken the logjam in some judicial and other appointments. one of the things that is new about this -- obstructionism is a loaded word. specific -- a significant part of the republican minority that appears to be interested not simply in blocking someone because their credentials are questionable, or even because there -- their ideology is offensive, but because by blocking someone, basically that particular agency cannot function. it certainly cannot function at a peak of efficiency. it is a way, if you can't block a budget, can't prevent the
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agency from being created, you can make it difficult, if not impossible, for the agency to function at anywhere near peak efficiency simply by lopping off its head. host: here is a question from james on twitter. does smith see any chance america will give another bush the presidency? could he give odds? guest: i could not give odds. i have no idea. 2016 is a long way away. host: chris is up next from danville, virginia on a line for democrats. good morning to you. caller: good morning. nice to meet you, and happy new year. i want to speak about term limits, and also about the health care program, the affordable care act under obama. but i want to break it down in two parts. first, i think the speaker has a
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good idea about six-year term limits, but i think it should be five. one person, they get elected, they get a five-year term. the country would be better off. for four years they are worried about governing, and that fifth year there would be a lot of campaigning going on. i think five years is a good limit. and i definitely think congressmen, senators and representatives, need to have term limits to be established. that said, specifically about obama, i believe that this health-care thing is causing him a problem in his second term. there are a lot of things in here that people don't know about. a lot of people are saying that, but i'm actually on the site right now, healthcare.gov. it's amazing to me because i'm a veteran, i have a part-time job. basically my annual income will
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be $9,000 a year. i also go to school full-time. i receive a stipend every month from the g.i. bill to go to school. it helps me to cover my bills. that said, i just went onto the website and looked up some sample information. based on me living in virginia, and of course you can get subsidized because virginia would not accept the funds for medicare and allow us, -- i believe that is about to change. i believe the incoming governor indicated his intention -- host: on medicaid. guest: to change that policy. host: did you want to jump in on chris's other comments about the presidency? specifically the idea of obamacare being named after this president.
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it goes again to what i said, the intense personalization of the modern media in particular has. host: were there any examples of this before the 1950's or 1960's or the rise of television? guest: sure. fdr had the roosevelt revolution. then the roosevelt recession. in the modern era, as presidents become more visible -- first radio, then through film -- as presidents have almost become adjunct members of our family because of television and the internet, the constant exposure they have, it is only increased that tendency. i think probably the greatest single danger to presidents, and one reason why second terms tend to be drearier than the first is the danger of overexposure. host: a caller from new mexico
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on our line for independents. good morning. caller: first of all, he says in his past term that jobs had been his number one issue. that clearly is not true. the aca has been his number one issue. i wonder if he has ever had a real job. please correct me if i'm wrong. my question is, will he negotiate in the second term on anything? guest: that's an interesting -- i'm not sure. i don't work for the white house. i have heard the president offer to negotiate on a number of things. specific,hing very though, very concrete that everyone can get their arms around. what happens on this proposed extension of unemployment. unemployment benefits. while this debate is going on,
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there are real-life people who are hurting badly. in some ways, at the worst time of the year, they have lost their financial lifeline and they are waiting. they don't care who negotiates what. they just want to see the system work. throw them a lifeline. host: let's go to al in boston our line for independents. let's -- you are on with richard norton smith. caller: it seems like the obama second term is turning out to be george bush's third term on national security. it seems that someone on the -- some on the left don't understand that there are people out there who want to hurt this country. lines,read between the you see that mr. obama with nsa, the drone issue -- obviously, he is doing something that is necessary. that george bush was doing, because they know something we don't know. after a president comes in,
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within 24 hours the cia sits him down and goes from a political map to the reality of the world, that people want to hurt us. guantanamo is still open. i believe this president and his second-term, he will deal with the realities of what the bush administration did. there are people who want to hurt us. in closing, in our own neighborhoods we lock our doors, we lock our cars, put money in the bank. but for some reason we look abroad and assume that fellow would hurt one another but we don't assume there are people out there who want to hurt this country. national security is paramount. without national security, there is no economy. guest: i would say, again, it is much too soon to be drawing conclusions, but i think the collar -- caller is onto something. ofhink the elements
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continuity between the bush and obama presidency is what's -- presidencies probably do surprise a lot of people. obviously, in terms of national security policy, but also economics, like tarp. he brought up his belief that presidents after they are elected, they have something like a reality check with the security agencies and other members of the president's cabinet. is there a history of that, a president having to change from the campaign trail to what they find out when they become president? other sure, but lots of decide that is the case. it is interesting. we have the civics 101 notion of the president as the most powerful man in the world.
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i suspect that if you asked most presidents once they get out of office, may be the biggest surprises they find out how powerless they are. presidents spend much more time reacting to events they did not initiate, and may very well be beyond their control, than they do controlling events. host: let's go to bette in pennsylvania, on our line for republicans. you are on with richard norton smith. caller: good morning. it is a pleasure. thank you. you touched on something i had never really heard before. from sort of the beginning of our country, presidents have been trying to have some sort of a health program. i have never heard that blanket statement before. because you are the historian, may be you will just hit the high points. it's a terrific morning. everyone is really sinking, good
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americans out there. i agree with everyone who is saying we need the term limits. these men and ladies come in and are great, wonderful, but you can only take it so long. guest: with the rise of industrial america, government expanded. theodore roosevelt was the first person who talked about some kind of national health insurance. proposed a plan that is actually in many ways a forerunner of obamacare, with an individual mandate. ted kennedy later on said he regretted having opposed the nixon line when he did because he thought it could get better.
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harry truman, as i said, went to bat in 1948 for what eventually became medicare. play --isenhower had a land based the private sector, where the government would reinsure private insurers, encouraging them to take risks, particularly in catastrophic health insurance. so most presidents have approached the problem one way or another. that is why, like it or not, it is certainly a historic achievement for this president to get a program past -- passed. host: several callers bringing up the idea of bringing it to one term for a president. how possible is that as you look at the situation? guest: we are in a period of gridlock. of stalemate.
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political, intellectual, ideological. anyone who thinks were going to amend the constitution, to undertake such a radical change in how we govern ourselves -- good luck. host: richard norton smith is a scholar in residence of history and public policy at george mason university. you can learn about his upcoming efforts at presidentsandpatriots.com. we always appreciate you joining us on c-span. pleasure. happy new year. >> on the next "washington journal," we look at housing and mortgage trends and the impact on the u.s. economy with a guest from the national association of realtors. then a discussion on the health care law as health insurance coverage begins on january 1. our roundtable guests are from "los angeles times" and national public radio. everyngton journal" live morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span.
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book tv is in primetime all week. tomorrow night we look at the courts. about herle talks work, "the roberts court." then the thomas healy discusses his book "the great dissent." elliptic guantanamo bay in the book "the terror courts." tv in primetime all week on c-span two. my education expires after five to 10 years. everything is new. of the cloud is new. facebook is new. a lot of these new coating languages -- coding languages. human life, a play phase, a learning phase, a work phase, and a resting phase
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afterwards, and eventually dying. ,hat i think we should be doing we should have these phases at the same time. we should play, learn, work, all the same time. you get the world moves so fast, you can't have a single time for education any more. we have to stay up-to-date. >> new year's day on c-span, just before 1:00 p.m. eastern and throughout the afternoon, ceo's of twitter and others on the future of higher education, robotics, and data in the new industrial revolution. on book tv, unflinching courage, former texas senator kay bailey hutchison on the women who helped shape texas. and on c-span three, american history tv, daughters of civil rights leaders and a segregationist share memories of the civil rights europe -- era. >> "newsmakers" with the american federations of teachers resident randi weingarten,
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followed by a roundtable discussion with journalists discussing news from the past year. then, women entrepreneurs talk about networking and their careers during politico's women rule summit. >> this week on "newsmakers," we are joined by randi weingarten, president of the american federation of teachers. here in studio in d.c., allison klein, staff writer for "education week." and, kaitlyn who covers questions for "politico." >> 46 states and the district of columbia have adopted new college and career ready standards in reading and math. this has been somewhat of a bumpy rollout. you said that the rollout of common core has been worse after the affordable care act. can you talk about what you meant there?
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