transitions, but it is incumbent on each of us to choose wisely in designating whose hand should be allowed to wield the legal as it dips into the drum of power and influence. thank you. [applause] >> if you are called on for question, you should wait just a few seconds for the microphone to be put near you. it doesn't have to be -- you don't have to speak into it, but it will be somewhere near you, and that will be good enough that you will be heard. questions? yes. >> [indiscernible] terrific talk, david, but you failed to mention one name, the most mysterious president at the moment to me, mr. assad in syria.

give us your analysis of that. >> there's no question that he is not only mysteries but a president and an autocrat at the same time. clearly, this is a very, very difficult situation. how do you remove a president who has functionally no term of office and the power of the state behind him, the power of the military behind him? that is a conundrum that we have not yet managed to figure a way out of. i would like to see a system where the international community could in fact joined together to bring about a change in the regime such as assad. we are not there yet. we don't have a united nations or any multinational contract in any fashion that has been able to successfully do that. that is really a major hole in the international system today. >> is he being propped up by some of the most imperial presidents currently in office, namely mr. putin and the

iranians? >> certainly the iranians have helped out. we have a new regime in iran that is trying some kind of agreement with the west, or democratic nations. it is hard to see how they continue to support assad in the same passion they have in the past. at the same time, putin and his chinese counterpart are feeling pressure on their and to bring themselves back into a position where they can be perceived as functioning players in the international community and not just pariahs. they do not want to be seen as pariahs. putin has desperately embarked on a campaign to bring international investment into his country. he is frantic about that. he has the olympics coming up and the last thing he wants to be doing is to be seen helping an autocratic dictator who is slaughtering his people.

i would like to think that for the international forces of work they can begin to move the situation in a place like syria. >> you read about the writing of the u.s. constitution and the opinions of both sides, those who didn't want the imperial president, they badly didn't want an imperial president, and those who wanted a federal state. you see that the idea of an imperial president has been a controversial one. i would argue that the most recent imperial presidential act was our going into iraq. people thought that this was something the younger bush was

determined to do -- the father, the son kind of argument. i would ask you whether you think the imperial presidency in the large is a good thing for humanity or not. >> i knew i was going to get beaten up a little bit on this. you did it very gently and i thank you for your kindness. there is no doubt that there are imperial presidents who have abused their power, and this is true in democracies, true in the west, true certainly in the case of iraq and in a number of areas, i suspect, as well. the concept of the imperial president has to be used wisely is what i am trying to suggest. the question is whether we have so eroded the ability of a president to govern anymore that we ever moved a lot of his power to do good as well as evil, to establish a worldview. it is interesting, henry kissinger, who i have known since he was a teacher of mine back at harvard in the 1960's, kissinger had this worldview.

there are very few presidents anymore who have a worldview. they seem to ping-pong along from crisis to crisis, much like a ping-pong table and machine, and they don't have the ability to focus on what kind of world they want to leave behind them. it is a problem of the system itself but it is also a problem of the nature of how we choose presidents and the kind of presidents we choose. there are very few president anymore that really have the ability in some fashion to fashion a world that would be the kind of world they would like to see left as their legacy. i think that is unfortunate. >> would it be fair to call lyndon johnson the more recent imperial president in american history, given the basically complete involvement in vietnam, almost all just under his guidance and so forth?

>> lyndon johnson was in many respects an imperial president. i think that with johnson we begin to see the cusp of the end of the imperial presidency in that sense. there have been some who have acted imperiously since then -- the bushes, no doubt about that. but he was the last person to understand the use and abuse of power. unfortunately, he abused it in many respects, as did any of the presidents who succeeded him. but he was last person who understood that because of his consummate command of the levers of power within the united states, he understood much better how to maneuver power overseas. he was less interested in what went on oversees and his presidency was defined by his adventures in vietnam, which were almost left to him in many respects. he inherited them. he certainly did not make them any better, no doubt about that. but he did understand the use of power, especially within the

united states. he was, i think, one of the last presidents who really did truly understand it. there was one person who wanted to ask me what was my favorite imperial president. is that right? [laughter] >> i would say modern president past fdr. >> i've thought a lot about that since i knew you were going to ask that question this afternoon. i would have to say charles de gaulle. i think charles de gaulle was last real president in this world who had a real vision, a real understanding of where he wanted to take his country, france, and his region of the world, europe, and where he wanted it to end up. de gaulle made many mistakes but he created a system of government in france that is function relatively well to this day. it was probably really formed in his image. it was really formed -- the

latest french republic was formed to let de gaulle act as de gaulle and there have been no de gaulles since then. i think that de gaulle really did have an understanding of the kind of world he wanted to leave behind, what he wanted to do to improve the lives of his people. remember, he had a long history with the french, going back to the time of the second world war. he was next ordinary individual. my previous book to this, "the fourth world war," i wrote with a fellow who was the longest- serving head of french intelligence, he was de gaulle's young aide at the very end of world war ii and served as that of french intelligence

throughout the rest of the de gaulle, through pompidou and all the way down to mitterrand. he said that de gaulle was the one individual he served through who really did have the sense of what the world should be like and how to shape it. i found his perspective quite fascinating. i would have to say de gaulle would be my choice among them are chronically elected presidents in the modern era. >> just as a side comment, de gaulle saw the world according to de gaulle. >> yes, no doubt about that. >> leaving that subject, do you want to comment on the middle east and the supposed arab spring, where you have all these imperial presidents -- saddam hussein, mubarak, assad, etc., etc., etc., being pulled down, and now you have total havoc? and as an aside on the assad situation, the united states is

double thinking its support for the islamic rebels because of what possibly could replace assad would be perhaps worse than assad. i will leave it you. >> that is a very interesting subject to something i've written a lot about. i go back further. in the late 1970's, i was the "new york times" correspondent for eastern europe and i lived in belgrade. tito was interesting. he held together seven disparate countries in one, all of whom hated each other. a host of different nationalities and competing interests, all of whom would

have been at each other's throats had it not been for tito and ultimately did go after each other other's throats after tito. what happened then? what happened then is that after all of the bloodshed and the terror and the horrors that came after, we have a number of countries coming out of their that are very solidly respectable nations, part of the european union, doing very well by the people, and you have leaders in their countries who are very much of the people. there has been a positive outcome from the transition period. i would like to think that in the middle east we are in a transition period. it is likely to be bloodier, more disruptive in many respects, but i have this theory i have long had and i have written about it in world policy and a number of other places, but i have this theory that people, if left to their own devices, without any exterior forces on them, will ultimately arrive on a form of government that works for them, and i would like to think that is the path

we are taking in the middle east. it is very often a bloody path, very often a very dangerous path, and a lot of people get hurt and killed as a result. but the end result is very positive. we have only to look at indochina. who would ever have imagined that after the end of the vietnam war we would have a country that is one of the leadership countries, particularly economically, in asia, in the form of a vietnam? we have 2 other countries that are relatively peaceful, cambodia and laos. they managed to find a way of bringing government power that works for the people. >> that is true, when you talk about southeast asia. but each of these countries is run by a single party, or as in the case of cambodia, by hun

sen, a 20-near decatur, so you are back to where you started. you are back to a dictatorship- type of situation that has brought about some sort of economic chain. it is a most the chinese model. >> it is very close to the chinese model. is it moving in the right direction? we hope that development in china will produce a more pluralistic society. we had an interesting conversation -- our winter issue deals with china versus india, the competition and the concordance and so on between what -- it should be out next week, in fact. our conversation is with the noted beijing university economics professor who was fired from his job because he was preaching democracy.

this is a very interesting fellow. what he says is that democracy will come to china and many people will have to be hurt. he himself is one of the victims. but he does believe very strongly that the chinese people want a form of democracy that works for china. when i asked him about democracy in india, he was contemptuous of it. he says it may a democracy but it doesn't work for the indian people. well, the indian people probably think it does work for them, but the chinese don't see it that way. they see a country that is dysfunctional, filthy, a class society still that would not work in the chinese model. each country will ultimately arrive at hopefully a democracy with some form of government that functions effectively for a country and i firmly believe that is the case. it may take a very long time and it may be a bumpy road to get there, and i may be a bit

pollyannaish in that respect, but i am hopeful still. >> -- the older definition of an imperial president, something the founding fathers were debating, george washington and king, whatever. my question is, is there a sense that the imperial president -- the definition has changed in this modern form. could you maybe lay out what your modern imperial president looks like a bit? >> what he looks like? >> if there is a universal. >> there probably is no universal imperial president. i think there is a person who can establish a vision of what he wants for his or her country's role in the world and begin to move towards that direction. as someone who has a firm grasp of how to use the levers of power to make to make this happen, internally and externally.

it is one of these things that is kind of you know what it looks like when you see it, but you can't necessarily describe it. if you see it and it works, it is an imperial presidency that works could i cannot identify an imperial president right now in any western democracy who does that. there was great hope when president obama came to power in the united states that we did have a person who could perhaps create a vision and implement it. the result was that he didn't. i go back to that analogy of the ladle. he used so much capital on one or two specific issues that he finally discovered that basically, the barrel was empty. even when he came back to the electorate and one another election with a full barrel, it

is again almost empty. i don't know quite how that came about, but it is unfortunate because he came in with the great hopes of the world. one of my first issues of "world policy journal," when he came to office, we had a photograph we ran of crowds demonstrating on the champs-elysees. this was for the arrival of obama in power. some years later, he is just another failed world leader, and that is too bad, it really is. >> do you think it is possible in our current political climate for anybody to put forward a world view -- >> well, that is a good question, and i think that has to do with other issues and changes in the way politics is run these days. it has to do with the way campaigns are financed him and has to do with the way presidents are chosen, it has to

do with the media especially. when i first came to new york in 1965, there were basically 7 television stations, and that was the second most of any city in the country. the only one that had more was los angeles. there were 6 daily newspapers. and that's it. there was no 24-hour news. i went to work at my first job at wnix the summer it went to all news from top 40 and, all news, who would want that? -- that was the saying. the way campaigns are run and politicians are selected, it is change the whole nature of the type of person who is prepared to campaign for the presidency. i think in some respects that is too bad. on the other hand, i like the idea of openness, i like the idea of knowing everything there

is to know about the person who is going to lead us, and that is good. but itself may detract from his or her ability to lead in that same fashion. >> you kind of mentioned this before, but i was wondering if it came to mind the presidency of woodrow wilson, because he is someone who struck me as had a perspective on the presidency that shifted once he got into power. he was a big critic of the executive branch but then realized the restraints of such a position. i am wondering, are there other currencies of power such as economics that could be a way to break through and be a more transformative measure for presidency or somebody, or even as recently as obama being quoted as saying he could do

more outside of washington than inside. what could be done or what factions could take charge in creating a more transformative role for the presidency or even the country? >> it is interesting you raise wilson, because i will tell you a story. when i was just finishing my book, i had dinner with my friend michael mandelbaum a professor at johns hopkins. he is an old friend. we go back almost 40 years together. michael asked me what i thought of wilson. i asked him -- he is the scholar, i am just a journalist, a minor historian, whatever. i asked him and he said there are 2 views of woodrow wilson. absolutely opposite views. some people believe he was a great president.

others believe he was a terrible president. those who believe he was a great president look at his domestic record -- he created the federal reserve, he got women basically the right to vote. a whole host of transformative issues within the united states that he is hardly remembered for these days. but abroad, he was a disaster. it depends on which kind of president you want to look at. to some extent we face a similar situation today. presidents are incapable of making revolutionary changes anymore. wilson found himself incapable of doing that. his big mistake was probably going to paris to negotiate the treaty of versailles, because he should've left that to some of his other aides. he was taken apart, eviscerated by world leaders who were much more adept at diplomacy then he ever would be.

but in a sense, that is true today. presidents have to choose what is their great strength. they have to understand what the strength is and what the country wants. i would like to see a president who understands what the strength is and concentrates on that strength. if the strength is not international, fine, focus on what is going on in the united states and fix that. if the focus is international, if you can find a way to resolve problems between israel is in palestinians, really find a way to do it, that is transformative, whatever else happens in the world and the united states. no president in recent years is able to do everything, and most presidents when they come to power think they can do everything, that they are omniscient, omnipotent. >> is it possible for an imperial president to also be a popular president? what is the relationship between someone who is making these decisive moves politically and trying to transform a society that may not necessarily seem very popular at first? >> i think success creates its

own popularity. one of hollande's problems in france is that he is totally unsuccessful at solving the problems he was put in office to cure. the economies in desperate shape, the euro is going to hell in a hand basket. the country is in terrible shape right now. therefore, his popularity is down to the lowest point of any president in the modern era, since they began polling in france in the 1950's. how can he possibly a compass anything? if you accomplish something, you become public, regardless of how you put it through. people like success. they want to see a president who is accomplishing something, and that in turn feeds on itself. that person in power can really improve -- can increase dramatically. if you look at de gaulle, when de gaulle came to office, it was

a horror show. the governments before him were changing prime ministers every three or four weeks. he came in and established a whole new concept of the president. he changed the entire nature of the power, created a new republic, and it worked. the result was he was enormously popular. he began to fail -- there were problems in algeria, indochina, his popularity began to wane. success is its own reward in many respects. that is important, to find something you can really succeed in and build on that. yes, sir? >> to change the topic slightly, do you think, given your vast experience, that liberal democracy is the answer for most

of this world? is it truly a democracy that can function in cases like the middle east, or is the answer to elect somebody or that that party in person do what is best for the country without much interference? >> it is difficult. thailand is a classic case right now. thailand is a place i know well. i was the "new york times" bureau chief in the 1970's after the wars in indochina. there was a very strong king then who was very much in charge, behind the scenes. there was a succession of prime ministers, prime ministers operating with military leaders when there was a coup. the king now is 86 years old and he is failing and health. his son is the air, but the heir apparent.

he does not have the competence of his father. there is a huge vacuum in thailand right now. what i would say is that countries where there are power vacuums like that, there will inevitably be disasters, and i don't know what the answer is. it may be that the answer is the military has to come in and reassert control. but it is definitely a problem. we have a problem now in pakistan, and that is a very dangerous of vacuum we have their. thailand is not a nuclear power. pakistan is. we have to find ways of dealing with countries like that when there is a power vacuum and make certain that they don't get out of hand. i do believe that the ultimate answer is not the end of liberal democracy, if that is what you are suggesting. ok, good. >> any last questions?

oh. >> talking about democracy and thinking about egypt, i think democracy really depends on the will of the people. we surely could have had people screaming and yelling and burning things because of health care and this issue or that issue. we come to terms. but when people elect a president and say "we don't want him anymore, let's get rid of him," it can't work like that. the people of the country have to accept the rules, too. >> no doubt about that. the problem is that a lot of these countries have no tradition of democracy. they have no understanding of how you can remove a leader by democratic means, and it works. one of the problems, of course, is that when a democratic system such as that in egypt is set up, it is set up with -- it benefits one particular aspect of that democracy, in this case the muslim brotherhood.

we had a system that was inevitably going to bring the muslim brotherhood to power, and that is unfortunate because that disenfranchises a substantial part of that country that has no interest in having the muslim brotherhood in power. the muslim brotherhood's principal priority is not running the country or improving the economy, it is perpetuating the muslim brotherhood in power. i don't know how you cure that, except by having -- it is interesting, we did a survey, a study that examined the creation of new constitutions throughout the world. there were more new constitutions created in the year 2012 than in any previous time in history, i challenge anybody to tell me what model is most commonly used. all right, since nobody's raising their hand, it was canada's. not the american model.

there's not a lot of difference between the canadian constitution and ours. it is more of a parliamentary system in canada, no doubt about that. but the reason they looked to canada was not because of the system of government or anything else, it was because -- what kind of a country is canada? the kind of country we want to model ourselves after? benign, does not force his system of government on anyone else? it is a nice country. a country where people live in harmony. that is the kind of country that so many people wanted. we are no longer the model of the world. canada, in most respects, is now the model of the constitutional democracy. we have to change that, find a way to change that. a good, strong imperial president who can take charge and demonstrate the kind of country that others want to emulate.

>> since the united states became a democracy, a lot of other states have become democracy and no one has taken the american model. you are exactly right. it is not the ideal model. the closest they have come as maybe israel in the 1990s. but they pushed them back fairly quickly. >> microphone, please? >> would you prefer the great american imperial presence to be democratic or republican? >> i have never registered for political party in this country. i am a journalist, have been my whole life. i prefer to defer that question, thank you very much. i have voted for candidates from both parties and i will continue to vote for who i believe is the best man or woman for the job.

>> the price that we pay today, as the world policy journal we see the most recent issues here. thank you, david, for joining us, and thank you all for coming. [applause] >> president obama returns to the white house today after spending the holidays in hawaii. he brought his daughters back with him to d.c. but as part of her 50th birthday gift, the first lady will stay for a few days extra. betuesday the president will focusing on extending long-term unemployment benefits, which expired at the end of december. the president will be joined at the white house by people whose benefits have been suspended. we will bring you his remarks on the c-span networks.

of commerces returning from recess this coming week. the senate gavels and -- gavels in him monday -- gavels in on monday. it will continue the nomination of janet yellen to be the federal reserve chair at 5:30. a simple majority will be needed for her confirmation. you can watch it on c-span two. the house returns on thursday for a pro forma session. session of thed 100th -- of the 113th congress. live house coverage right here on c-span. >> obama cares about health insurance but it is about more than that.

it is about the final nail in the confident -- in the coffin of the constitutional system. obamacare is in attack on the will -- clause, which which was created to promote commerce, not kill it. property rights, trade, and the commerce. new jersey and pennsylvania were fighting with each other. the commerce clause was pro- trade, pro-commerce. notion that it could be used by commerce to compel individuals to do something against their will and best interest. force aarticular to person into a private contract with a private company. the private company is forced to offer a policy it does not want to offer and the individual is forced to pay for it and the

company is forced to provide. to our so antithetical founding. that would mean the end because it means the government can force us to do all kinds of things that we don't want to do. a radio -- >> mark levin will take your calls and questions in depth. ," the first sunday of every month. hisne we will talk about book, "the liberty amendment's yuriko -- "liberty amendment's." >> investors from silicon valley talked about their work with new startup companies at the annual conference.isrupt

>> i will stay as far away -- >> come sit here. >> do you guys want to talk about all the stuff first? you guys want to talk a little bit about failure and what you witnessed over a lot of start ups give us statistically relevant ones and talk about trends you have seen and how to avoid it. >> yes. what i did this past summer for about a month -- i took eight companies that did not have the outcome they were looking for and looked at all of the data, every single e-mail they row and all of the information we have at the time we made the investment and thought about, how can we make the process better.

>> you with that -- knowing something failed, you looked at eight companies and said, how can we have seen this from the beginning? >> or what could we have done better and how can we use that to improve our decision-making process. first of all, when we invest, we focus on founders. we focus on founders and the idea. one of the things that was pretty telling, and i learned this on day one, founder dynamics really matter. i think trying to predict in the diligence phase how these founders will gel when things are not going their way -- >> what were the eight companies that failed. is there fails, you can mention them. >> they asked not to be mentioned. suffice to say, i looked at these companies. >> a couple so we have an idea of what we're talking about? >> they preferred not to be mentioned. >> they failed. why would they not rejoice at

the opportunity to share their failure to let other people not fail in the future. let's name one and start with one. >> i will just focus -- >> it did not work out as planned. i have talked to david. we have talked about it. i am sure. >> these dynamics really matter. sometimes, how do they work together? i thought that was super important. sometimes, the chemistry -- the thinking almost becomes too alike. it forces me -- there is no exact science to it. >> what is your failure rate?

for every hundred you invest in, how many outright fail? every 30%? >> it depends on the companies that fail. >> if it is not even giving the money back. >> probably 30%. >> ok. you still make good money with a 30% failure rate. >> yes. >> our failure rate is lower because we have been doing it since 1994 and have repeat entrepreneurs who end up typically being more successful. >> ok. that is interesting. we talked about that before onstage about how repeat oshman ores are twice as likely or something to not fail as the first time entrepreneur. >> yes. there is some data there and then there is some where that is another thing you learned, that some of the founders repeat entrepreneurs who exited either very quickly -- you have to

think how they learned the lessons from being a first-time entrepreneur. the take away on the first white is to just continue to ask probing questions and be a better listener. >> effective party rounds, talk about that. tell us what it is. >> party round is when you have 10 investors who put in 200,000, let's say, as opposed to maybe one investor who put in 600,000 and other injures. the risk of that is you have a bystander effect where the founder asks for help and everybody else thinks the other person is helping and nobody helps. the data is inconclusive because there are companies that have used party rounds and have gone on to do well. it is clear when they ask for basic hell, nobody answered. the take away for me or for us

was you have to think about these founders and, are they self-aware enough to think about the known unknowns. you cannot anticipate all the risks, but if you're not great at user acquisition and who will help you with that, or if you're really good at it -- >> if you think they can be bad if people are not realistic -- >> that is where you have to ask the questions and figure out, are they being self-aware enough to think about what they need. >> to realize if they have 10 investors, if they cannot really expect much help from each investor. >> exactly. for some founders, they want that. they are repeat founders. >> ok. do you have anything to say at all or are you just the pretty guy on stage. >> i do. -- >> you joined, we talked about this in may. who is running the show? one of the things he said is important is there was a clear leader. i do not see a clear leader.

are you guys jostling for a position and one of you will go? who is the leader? >> we are a partnership. >> dave is the leader. >> david is the managing director. >> what is ryan? assistant managing? >> a managing director as well. >> ok. >> is anyone not the managing director? you guys have known each other for 10 years. you get along pretty well. ok. do you have anything to add? >> yes. i think david looked at a lot of data and feedback. i tend to, with social media apps, and some people said it was dead, you look at snap chat success and new companies, you could apply a lot of these thoughts to them. you have to look at each independently, or there is a gut feel.

it is a combination and that is what the partnership is. i tend to look at a lot of the product as well as the founding team. there are always a handful of characteristics within the product that worked. is it simple and can it be use waiting in line at the grocery store? can it carve out behavior from instagram and twitter and facebook and does it create a new media format. is it a tweet or a blog post? is it any of these things? your eyes are glazing over and you called me to talk about this. >> ok. you brought this up so i will finish this. we are looking at this deal and the founders are critical and smart and we are in. you go away for a minute and come back and whatever your answer is, let's talk about snapchat for example. you can come back and if you decide not to invest, you come back with a 15 minute explanation, and in-depth discussion, very smart, about why snap chat will never make it. you could have a yes or no discussion and you go with your

gut and then you fill in the bullshit later. >> the gut instinct is led by the facts of what the product looks like and how it feels when you use it. vines felt good instantly. snapchat is unique. >> i'm not talking about that. when we have a start up -- >> i spoke to the team after the discussion. >> social network dynamics not here same way they worked with instagram. do you believe this bullshit? it sounds really interesting. sorry, i am going on and on. go ahead. >> i think the biggest factor is when you hear the vision and a look at the product. that is the most important thing. >> all right. this is awesome data. anything that helps you with making current decisions? >> it does.

a limited sample set, but we went pretty deep into the data. we literally looked at every single e-mail. we looked at what was written at the time we made the investment aired we said, what can we do better? there was one other point and this weaves into what brian was talking about, $18 per runway, some company's attributed to things in that 18 months, that is a recipe for disaster. or raise more money. a good example is a company -- they had to build and develop an ecosystem and also get developers on the platform. a hard thing. >> to one thing unless you do two things. >> right. if you do two things -- >> do you see what i am talking about? it is all bullshit.

i have seen it. in the meeting with guys, you say, that guy is a dick. [laughter] i will not work with him. >> the purpose of the project we did last summer was so that we would go do a deep dive in the failed companies so that we could give new entrepreneurs that her advice. now that the coach is back, the coach went through this experience. so, now, we have someone who just went through it. we do more research and we can give better advice to watch the north now. we have always been proactive

about tapping in on -- entrepreneur on the shoulder and saying, do you know what a soft landing is and if you agree, we will help execute that. we do that many times with the 30% that fail. if you have a soft landing and you get the team to be part of a bigger team and you sell your company to facebook or twitter, that is a soft landing. we define that as a success. because you found a place for the team and your software to continue to be fulfilled. >> ok. >> that is important. >> do you feel like you have said what you needed to say and is there anything else you want to add? >> we love founders. >> and you are right, this is very limited. it helps us to think going forward how we make decisions.

we do not look at this and say, this is the gospel. all of this -- we have a responsibility to give good advice. >> it is more art than science. you claim it is not b.s. >> we still say the most important early stage investor will get -- we include ourselves in that. we always try to get you guys into the deals because there is a huge amount of value added where you're not just bullshitting. you started this anti-gun platform. >> it was not quite a year. december 14.

>> have there been any laws passed or guns taken off the street or anything that has been successful. >> there has been a lot of gun buybacks. are getting guns off the street. i had an epiphany on september 14 the day of the sandy hook massacre when gabby giffords happened to be a guest at my holiday party, the congresswoman who was gunned down in arizona, happened to be a guest in my home the same day sandy hook happened. karma, i guess, but as we quieted the group down, and we recognized sandy hook and gabby giffords, i say, the 10th community needs to get involved in the issue of gun safety. the u.s. congress had a proposal for background checks and every

poll said 90% of americans agreed there should be background checks. the u.s. congress ignored that and the senate actually voted it down. there is a big disconnect there. >> you have bill of rights issues. this is a long battle. >> we are not interested in taking anyone's arms away. >> i love blind people but i do not think they should be driving cars or firing guns, or sleep. >> i agree. >> you put a huge machine to work and you had senators following you around. it is a long haul, but you put a huge machine to work to fight the issue. then we see the nsa is strong- arming the companies that are part of our ecosystem to give

them data, or the companies are handing it to them on their own. they are forcing telephone companies to give all this data and grabbing encrypted data and decrypting it and subverting standards and they have hacked the operating standards on mobile phones and they have presentations that call us zombies and she then mocked us, saying if only orville knew what he could pull off now, why have you sat by and not done a single thing to stop this? this is our community. you have not done anything. not one thing. >> i absolutely agree we have to balance national security. there was a thing called 9/11. the government's responsibility is to protect the country. then, you have to balance that with transparency. now, there is a debate starting about that.

i completely agree with that debate. >> are you ok if the government stores every bit of your online data as long as they are transparent about it? >> for me personally, it would depend on how they digest the data. and how long they keep the data. but for my involvement, i have picked three issues in the last year -- gun safety, immigration, and i spend at least an hour a day right now working on immigration reform and we hope it passes right end of the year. the third issue is civic engagement. what we have done to get the tech community involved locally in their community.

i am just one human being. i cannot fight five other issues. this is an issue you are passionate about -- >> i and speaking out but i do not have the time to put together machinery with you. you are saying you're basically come for the government do whatever they want. >> no, i am saying it depends on how they digest my data. >> do you trust any government authority to do the right thing when it comes to power? >> obviously, the events of the last 60 days with the nsa says there has to be a balance between national security and transparency. there is a healthy debate going on about it.

i will probably not be the tech leader ahead of that because i would be misleading people because i'm spending between now and the end of the year working on immigration ref arm. with forward. u.s., with the awesome founder group, and i cannot sit here and say, ok, i will now do the same thing with the nsa issue. i am not a bullshitter. i personally do not have the bandwidth. right now, immigration to me is more born. >> nothing will happen with immigration reform this year or next year. >> i hope you're wrong. any senator or congressman listening, he is not representing the effort that will take place in the next few months. we have to think positive about these problems. if the u.s. congress has not passed immigration at the end the year --

we're talking about the end of civilization. the basic cuban life to have some level of privacy in your life. it does not seem to bother you to think the government is collecting everything you do and can look at it at will. what if they decide people against government -- pro-gun control like you are, what if they decide those people are basically communist in the 1950's. are you afraid at all about the government having this data? >> of course i am. that is why there is a national debate going on about the issue. >> you stand up and you could make a big difference on the issue if you were to do that. >> of course i could.

i only have so many hours in a day and i have a day job where i spend 70% of my day helping entrepreneurs. >> ok. >> i agree there should be a debate about this. you sound like the perfect leader. [applause] >> i am too dogmatic about this. i am angry about it. i want the government to be brought down on this. i am not the guy to figure out a compromise. we can talk about that more in every single discussion i have with everyone the next three days. >> hopefully, you will find a tech leader. >> i thought i found one. i thought you would come here and say he would not stand here anymore because history will not look kind. >> not when i am looking -- working seven hours a day helping us open doors and working on immigration reform. you have got to pick your issues. right now, immigration reform, for me, is the most important. i hope we can get it passed. that is why i have to be focused on that. there are a lot of congressman saying, it would be great if

connelly went to the nsa issue because he will not bug us about immigration. i am on the immigration train and cannot get off when we are pulling up to the end of the station. >> i appreciate your time. thank you very much. [applause] >> tomorrow we will be taking a live look at the future of nato centerfense minister the for strategic and international studies. we will talk about estonian defense priorities and security challenges. tomorrow, panel discussions on cyber security and cyber warfare. that is from the brookings institution at 2:00 eastern and also here on c-span.

>> we are in the gallery of the light catcher building. .e are looking at vanishing ice purpose is to highlight the rich cultural heritage of the planet's frozen frontiers. the is a photograph of greenland ice sheet by a german artist. 2008 and it is exhibited side-by-side with a photograph by camille seaman. is herst greenland, it last iceberg series of 2006.

many people understand the importance of ice, the reflective qualities that regulate the climate. unaware thatre there is a collective consciousness in western culture about these regions. in the contextt of climate change to let people know that these regions are fundamental to our identity. >> there is more from the washington museum this weekend as tb and american history tv look at the history and literary life of bellingham, washington. >> 10 or 15 years ago we started looking at the census department data and something very strange pops out. when you look at the profits of multinationals, you see germany, france, ireland, italy. if you look at the data of where

, a hugeits are disproportionate amount of was some indication that something was going on. >> more with marty sullivan tonight at 8:00 on c-span's q and a. >> more from our first lady series, highlighting first ladies from the 20th century. women in congress talk about the importance in leadership. later a confirmation hearing for janet yellen. ♪

♪ ♪ over the next two hours, the public and private lives of the first ladies of the 20th century. from season two of "first ladies, influence and image." conscientious about her family possible being, -- family's first lady edith roosevelt bought a family refuge outside of washington called pine nut. >> she sought a place for rest and repairs for the president, close enough to d.c. to get out here as often as needed, but far enough away there was wilderness. she bought the cottage and 15 acres. her renovation she prescribed, $280, the deed is written in her name. the renovation she did include this porch, which she called her piazza, and specified that they be supported by the untrimmed cedar posts. these are the original.

most of these that you see is original. the color of the house now is the color that it was when the roosevelts were here. the interior is completely unfinished, they are bare, because it edith wanted them left that way. she wanted a total rustic feel, just as the porch, and natural in every sense. this room was originally divided into two, and edith opened it up into a lodge-like room. she wanted the family to be here together. they cooked their meals by the fireplace. generally t.r. would do the cooking and edith would boil the water for the tea and the children would get what was needed for getting the meals together. when edith saw the cottage for the first time, there were no fireplaces. the cottage was unfinished. these fireplaces were done to her specification.

she designed these wonderful stone ledges into the fireplace to provide functionality and interest. the stairs were virtually on the center of the room. -- were originally in the center of the room. they kind of took up the whole thing. edith specified, she moved them to the side for two reasons. one is she wanted the bottom floor to be an open room. the other a she wanted to create a room upstairs. this is the tiny room that edith created for athol. -- ethel. the special feature of this was it had a door so that ethol --ethel could shut off her brothers from entering the room. his is where edith and t.r. slept. this was the master bedroom. you can see the light streaming through the boards, so it is no better appointed than any of the other rooms. this is the boys room. all four boys would have slept here when they were here. it also has a wonderful mantel, and even better is it has the

stone supports that edith would have designed. this was a family place, unique for the roosevelts, because sagamore hill was a place where t.r. had people and a hub of activity. this was a private family time. the roosevelts made it very clear they do not want anybody here besides family. >> sagamore hill was their primary residence. their first 5, 6 years they were married, he lived here. they lived here year-round. after the white house, they live here year-round again, even though it was hard to heat in the winter. it was the center of their life. even if they were not here, it was where their hearts were. edith ran the household, not only sagamore hill, but all of the places they lived. she managed the family's accounts. she managed the family's investments.

what we have here is an account book. this is an example of the annual accounts, from 1891, i think it is, and basically every family member is listed. then she kept track of the expenses she paid for each family member every month of the year. it is also broken down into grocery bills, what she would buy from the butcher, what she might pay for a plumber to do repairs. she counted every penny and kept very good track of what the household was spending. sagamore hill was different than earlier presidential homes because it was never a commercial venture. they did not try to be self- sufficient. what edith wanted from sagamore hill was basically to offset the expense of living there. so they raised hay and alfalfa and rye, grains they could feed their horses and reduce the cost of having horses.

they had a lovely garden that produced everything from corn to strawberries. they had an arbor with eight different kinds of grapes, strawberry and blueberry fields. the idea was to both feed the family and the staff that lived on site and also reduce the costs of maintaining a property like this. we are holding the book, the sagamore hill guest book. and people would come up to see t.r. and edith, they would sign their names just like they were visiting the white house. it is a casual list, not as formal as the white house, but usually there would have been politicians or government officials. even family sign the book. here in 1904, or anna roosevelt visited, and that is t.r.'s older sister, and douglas robinson, who was karen's husband.

that is a family visit that day. there are signatures from them. so sometimes, i mean, i don't think these people signed their name. i think edith went back and made note of who was visiting, with a wonderful illustration done by one of the visitors, "showing hope at sunset" is what the illustration says. it was a wonderful way for the family to keep track of who went to see them. and their family and friends were here and what they were up to while they were visiting. edith roosevelt came to sagamore hill in 1887 as a young bride. she lived here until 1948, the end of her life. this was done in the 1920s. it is a charcoal sketch done at sagamore hill by john singer sargent, the famous american portrait painter. edith was obviously a widow in

the 1920's. she traveled a great deal in that time, visiting foreign lands and her children, just a sickly seeing the world. -- basically seen the world. she spent a lot of time away from sagamore hill. i think fulfilling her curiosity. she was always interested in the world. after looking at it in books for years, she got onto boats and planes and automobiles and went to see it. what we have here are two of the edith roosevelt's diplomatic passports. the first was issued in 1919. after theodore roosevelt's death. her first trip noted in it is to france, where she traveled after two weeks after his death. she went to france to visit the grave of quentin roosevelt, who had been killed the previous july. she wanted to see his grave, dedicate a marker to him. this later passport is from the

1930's. it is wonderful because it has a lovely picture of the edith, but it also has stamps from her travels to europe, portugal, france, italy, and south america, el salvador, mexico, brazil. it shows some of the breath of her interest in the world and the effort that she went to to get there. >> first lady helen taft's influence is seen every spring and washington, d.c., because she was the driving force in acquiring 3000 cherry blossom trees from japan. >> when helen taft became first lady in 1909, she was addressing the cherry trees around the tidal basin. the tidal basin was a mess. there was a speedway where people would erase their race their carriages at a top speed of 15 mph. there was really nothing to draw people or make a debut novel place for people to gather and enjoy nature.

helen taft wanted to change that. so one of the first thing she did when she became first lady was to ask for trees to be planted. they were requested from nurseries in pennsylvania. but the japanese heard about her interest and they decided to give 2000 trees to the united states in her honor, from the city of tokyo to the city of washington, as a gift honoring the american support of japan and the japanese war. 2000 trees arrived in january of 1910. everyone was shocked. the trees that were sent were older and very tall and bug infested. it was decided they would have to be burned. president taft himself made the decision they would have to be burned. the japanese were very accommodating and understanding and decided to send 3000 trees which arrived in 1912. it is those that we still have a few of around the tidal basin. this is the north section of the tidal basin, with a view of the washington monument, where many of the original trees have been planted. the older ones are wider and they have gnarly trunks, overarching branches, typical of the dominant type of cherry tree

around the basin. this is where helen taft would have planted the first cherry blossom tree that came in the shipment in 1912. these would not be here if not for helen taft. while many people were enchanted with all things japanese, it was due to her the trees are here today. >> the smithsonian has very few pieces that belonged to helen taft. but the piece we do have is i think the most significant, actually one of the most significant pieces and the first lady's collection. we are going to open it up for you. helen taft was a woman of firsts. helen taft was a woman of combinations. this to me symbolizes all of that. this is helen taft's inaugural gown. she had the dress embroidered in the philippines to wear for the inaugural ball. the inauguration was very important to helen taft.

she saw it as her husband coming into the white house and herself coming into the white house. it was a very ceremonious occasion for her. she marked this occasion, not only her entry into the white house, but really then added it as a mark for first ladies of the united states, when she became the first first lady to donate her down to dismiss sony -- to the smithsonian. she happened to be the first lady when the founders of the first ladies collection were putting the collection together. they met helen taft at a lunch commemorating dolly madison. they asked her if she would be interested in the exhibit they were putting together on first ladies. they were trying to acquire something from every first lady, every presidential administration. mrs. taft offered to lend and then donate her down.

-- her inaugural down to the collection. she is one of the patrons of the first ladies collection and established the tradition first ladies would donate their inaugural gown to the collection. every first lady after helen taft who had an inaugural gown has donated it to the smithsonian institution. >> she love to travel. when taft got a chance to be chairman of the philippine commission, she jumped at the chance, encouraging him to take the job. they took the family into the philippines, where taft was later governor general of the philippines. she had a chance to travel the world. she also introduced her children to the travel. she learned differently which is. banquets were a big thing. before she and the children, william howard taft cabled about some of the banquets, and mrs. taft like to have some of the banquets and incorporate the military people, the philippine

people, and these are programs from those. the philippine people loved william howard taft and his family. they treated them just like equals. mrs. taft invited them to dinners. they attended a lot of the celebrations at the luneta, where she like to see the bands play. entertainment was a big part of the things she did over there while she was in the philippines. we are about to go into the collection storage area, where we keep some of our more valuable artifacts as well as things that are not on display. as we come in, we see this philippine chest. mrs. taft collected a lot of philippine items, chairs, furniture, and this is a storage chest they bought while they were over there. it was one of the items they picked up while they were there. what i have here are some photographs from some ladies in the philippines. they took some formal photographs here.

and they wrote inscriptions, gave them to mrs. taft. "best wishes, december 22, 1903, manila, philippines." that illustrates the admiration the philippine people had for the taft family, especially mrs. taft as she worked to make them feel integrated in the greatest society, make them feel equal to the other people, inviting them to parties, putting on musicals, those types of things, helping with education. so they really love the tafts, and to this day we still get people coming from the philippines who have that connection with the taft family and the things they did while they were there. >> while they were courting, first lady ellen and president wilson wrote fervently to each other expressing their undying

love. >> here on the shelves are the correspondence between woodrow and ellen, love letters, and it has to be the largest collection of love letters between any future president and future first lady. these letters were sealed in a trunk when they moved to the prospect house and 1902, and the truck was not open until the 1960's. it is a time capsule shedding extraordinary light on the wilsons' life together. woodrow is what living in baltimore, going to johns hopkins. he writes in january, 1894, "my own darling, when you come to my study and kiss me as i sit at my desk, it is odd how this attachment seems a force of my mind. darling, i trust it is not wrong to worship you as i do. you are the presiding genius of both my mind and heart, and in that fact insists the happiness and the strength of your own woodrow."

i think in this letter we see the extent to which woodrow wilson not only loved ellen, but acknowledged in this very clear way his intellectual debt to her. how many cases can you say that, that the first lady and husband, that he is stepping forward and saying i acknowledge you are the source of so much of not only my happiness but intellectual development? you introduced me to literature, to wordsworth, to browning. they would sit together on the couch and they would read sitting ontogether, the grass. he acknowledges this important role that ellen plays in his life. she writes back to him, "how can i thank you, dearest, for the sweet things that you say in this letter? how happy it makes me when you say such sweet things even when

i think how unworthy i am of it all. i to trust it is not wrong to worship you as i do. i had as well question if it be wrong to breathe. i am with every breath altogether your own, ellen." often she does not respond to him as exuberantly, because she is somewhat melancholy. but in this is an exuberance that is really delightful. she puts herself second to his needs again and again. throughout their life together, she is serving him, helping him. that was her conception of her role as woodrow wilson's wife. as she is dying in the white house, that tragic summer, august 1914, the world about to enter into a great international convulsion with world war i about to break out, she is dying in the white house and she grabbed the hand of dr. grayson

and whispers to him, "doctor, if i go away, promise me you will take good care of my husband." this was the home of woodrow and ellen wilson from 1902 to 1910. he was president of princeton university. they lived here until he entered politics in 1910, becoming governor, then ran for president and became president in 1912. let's take a look inside. it is in this reception hall that ellen wilson would have greeted many guests that came to prospect, including at the time of his inaugural when she greeted mark twain right here. she greeted the sun of the slain abraham lincoln, j.p. morgan, and also booker t. washington. all were entertained right here by ellen wilson.

this is the reception room. this is the grand space where ellen would have entertained people who came to the home. it could've been anyone she was entertaining, everyone from visiting foreign ministers to very significant college presidents, all the way down to freshmen. she entertained 300 freshmen in this room every fall. she was the first 20th-century person to live here, and she strips away a lot of the victorian detail. she tries to make it modern, current. for example, she love the marble mantel piece from 1850 that was here, but it had decorative roses. she did not like roses. she thought they were too thick frou-frou,rian, to- so she had been chiseled away, keeping the mantle but chiseling

off the roses. she also add the heavy details, the chair rail and the molding that came up the wall. all of these are original ellen wilson detail she personally supervised along with the architect. on the second floor of prospect, we are in the private family part of the house with the bedrooms all around. she would recognize these rooms. she would recognize the details. her bedroom around the corner has the original ivory door knob that she would have turned every day. it is these details that bring her very close to us. i think ellen wilson seems quite real and immediate. this is the porch of prospect house. it has been more than a 100 years since they lived here, but it is extraordinarily similar today to how it looked back then, the same beautiful view and lovely garden that ellen wilson designed and would recognize if she came back. the wilson family love to sit out here and have tea. we have records of them having long conversations on this porch, dictating everything from -- debating everything from is kindergarten a good idea to

should women be allowed to vote. they would often sit here in the heat of the summer underneath the veranda, the same wisteria vine growing across as was growing there in the wilsons' day. ellen wilson enjoyed the architecture of prospect tremendously, dating from 1850. it was lushly victorian. she simplified and tore out some of the details so the house could be more modern and classic. we are in prospect garden here in princeton, new jersey. this is a garden that ellen originally designed when she was the resident from 1902 to 1910. i think here we see the full expression of ellen's aesthetic vision. she is an oil painter, very competent. she knows a lot of the american impressionistic painters of the day. she loves to paint landscapes and as a corollary to that she lays out this beautiful garden

at prospect house. she plants the seed or trees. -- cedar trees. she plants roses and all kinds of flowers. in fact, she loves this garden so much, she hates to leave it when the wilsons enter politics and leave princeton. when ellen wilson is in the white house, she brings the white house gardener back here to this garden at the prospect house and says to the white house gardener, let's re-create the rose section of this garden at the white house. ellen wilson could look out of her bedroom window at prospect mansion, she could look down and see flowers all day. similarly, she wanted the president of the united states to be able to see roses when he looked out of his window at the white house. of course, this becomes the famous rose garden at the white house. ellen tragically does not live to see the rose garden completed. she is dying in the summer of 1914. she is wheeled out into the

space outside, in her wheelchair, watching as the gardener works, but does not live to see the completion of the vision she had four roses -- for roses blooming at the white house. that is a vision that really begins here at prospect garden at princeton. >> the daughter of a judge, first lady edith wilson wrote in -- grew up in a small rural town of virginia. >> this is the birthplace and childhood home of the edith wilson. today it looks very much like it did when they lived here from 1866 until 1899. originally, in the 1840s, this was two houses. they were joined together, which connected the upstairs home. the downstairs was used as retail space. the upstairs was the home of the bowlings. this is the original front door to the bolling home. this is where the bowling family -- bolling family would have entered.

let me take you inside. this is the birth room of edith bolling wilson, the bedroom of her parents. she was the seventh of 11 children, born to the bollings. she was one of over 20 family members who lived upstairs in the home. two of the most interesting pieces we have are the bolling cradle, which belonged to the family. the cradle their children would have slept in. the other piece is a child's chair we know was actually here in the home. we can just imagine all of the bolling children sitting in the chair. the cover is original and we are so happy and has not been -- are please it has not been recovered over the years. the us the bedroom of -- this is the bedroom of grandmother bolling. we know that edith as a little girl slept in the room with her grandmother. her grandmother was invalid and had back problems. she was quite spoiled by her grandmother. she was her grandmother's

favorite. but along with that came the responsibility of being her caregiver. this is the back sleeping porch. this is where edith would gather with her family, where they would enjoy evenings together. i think one of my favorite pictures is the picture of young edith at age 13. she is actually sitting on a stool in this corner. she has her books in her lap. we are very fortunate to have this picture of her. we see what she is dressed like, we see her books, we see how her hair is fixed. we see her in a place where she was very comfortable and spent a lot of time as a young girl. this is the library of her father, judge bolling. her parents sent her to washington, d.c., to keep her away from an older gentleman that was wishing to court her. they sent her to her sister in washington. there she met and married her first husband, norman, and it really changed her life. we have a letter in this box

from henry morgenthau, who was wanting to write a book about his experiences. so he is asking grayson if he can use certain information. he wants to use in the book the information you gave me about president wilson, and you're -- your having come to the conclusion they should resign and how he was influenced by mrs. wilson to give up this plan. so mrs. wilson was very concerned that her husband would not get better if he did not have something to engage his mind, that he would just deteriorate if he was forced out of the presidency. while president wilson was ill, it has been speculated among historians that mrs. wilson essentially became the president. we have one document here that sheds a little bit of light on that. it is a telegram from henry

morgenthau, the ambassador to turkey, and he is writing to dr. cary grayson, asking if the president has any objections to a citizens meeting to protest against turks being left in control of constantinople. morgenthal has been asked to speak at this meeting and he is asking permission, he does not want to embarrass the president, so he is asking for device. -- advice. at the bottom of the telegram is handwriting that is edith's handwriting. we are familiar enough with her handwriting to recognize it as such. at the bottom she writes, "thinks it well to postpone speaking on such subjects." what we don't know is, did edith take this telegram and to wilson, ask his opinion, then write that, or did she just come to that conclusion herself? the public was very interested and curious to know the

condition of wilson's health. so there were rumors that were rampant in the papers, even congressmen did not know what was going on. they only knew what they read in the papers. after it was all over, cary grayson later wrote a summary of what happened, from the time of the stroke until wilson left the white house. on the last page, the decision was made to announce that wilson was suffering from nervous exhaustion. there were no other details given as to what was wrong with him. really, nobody knew the extent of his illness, that he really was not capable of doing anything. "i dr. grayson thought it was wise to issue general statements only. further, mrs. wilson, the president's wife, was opposed to any other course." she did not want it to be known that he was really suffering.

again, she was protecting her husband. she wanted him to be able to fulfill his duties as president. she was worried about his legacy. she ultimately was concerned about his health, and she felt if he left the presidency, left the white house, he would just waste away and die. this is woodrow wilson's 1919 presidential limousine. i imagine edith loved writing in -- riding in this car. she liked the finer things. she owned a jewelry store after her first husband passed away. i imagine she relished the luxury of being transported in a car such as this. edith was very independent.

she was one of the first women in d.c. to have an electric car. she drove around town in it. to give you a better sense of her style and fashion i can take you upstairs and show you some close. -- clothes. edith wilson was a stylish lady. she was a lady of society and she dressed the part. one of my favorite pieces -- and we have photographs of edith wearing this -- is the fox stole. it was very fashionable in the early part of the 20th century. a lot of high-society women were -- wore these. we have another fur edith would have worn. another piece is this black evening dress. this is a perfect example of an evening dress that would have been complemented by one of the

furs that she owned. two very special pieces we have are two delfus gowns. these two are from the 1920's and 1930's. it would've been after wilson passed away. these are not of the wilson. but they did belong to edith. they look rather shapeless hanging on a hanger, but the idea was that the shoulders would've hung and just draped and kind of clung to the body. from this, you can tell that edith was a large woman. broad shouldered, broad chested, rather buxom. from these clothes we can tell

that edith was a member of high society, a woman of fashion. she was very comfortable wearing expensive fabrics, expensive clothes. she enjoyed going out on the arm of the president wearing such gowns. >> first lady florence harding played a major role in her husband's campaign. managed his contacts, lobbied delegates, and help write his public remarks. helped write his public remarks. >> all of the action took place on this very porch here. during speeches, worn would -- warren would stand on the steps here. they would wave to the crowd who were parading down mount vernon avenue towards the house. this was a perfect backdrop for the campaign. not only did it show the human side of the hardings, the fact they did not live in a mansion, they live in a very normal house like most of the folks coming to see him speak. they wanted to feature this town as well. warren himself often said that

this campaign was taking main street to the white house. florence was very much a part of the message. she was a visible part of the campaign. she was always near him on the front porch when he was speaking. she gave interviews herself to magazines, especially women's magazines. she alternated between being the savvy politician to being the homebody, the wife, the caretaker of the candidate. she knew how politics works. she knew the different sides of her that would have to be portrayed as part of the campaign in order to make his campaign successful for him. she is not afraid to wade into a crowd. she is not hanging back. she is in the line, shaking hands alongside the president. going to hundreds if not thousands of people.

standing there as long as it takes to shake hands and greet people. we see a florence harding who knows how her husband is going to get to the white house through the vote. it is very important politically, but she absolutely believes in the people of the united states. >> every detail is thought-out. you put a lot of energy and a lot of time into those little things that make your house different from your neighbors. this house is really florence's house. all the things in the house -- the stained-glass windows, parquet floors, tile around the fireplace -- that is all florence. she is bringing her influence of what she has experienced in life into this marriage, into the house. this really is a very, very personal space for them.

this key is a very special key. it is hinged, so it fits in your pocket. it folds up, and that is neat. mr. harding carried this key for a long time. it was the key to his newspaper building, "the marion star." while he was the official owner, you cannot speak about "the marion star" without bringing florence into the picture. she had the circulation department for 12 years. it was very much a joint enterprise between the two of them, certainly a sense of pride. it was something that was kind of their baby. i would like to take you into the using them on our site to -- the museum on our site to other things connected to "the marion star. let me show you what is in here. mrs. harding kept the books that

at the "star." this is an accounting book in her handwriting. she's keeping track of the money going in and out. warren worked the editorial side. she is running the business. she's keeping the books, running the circulation department, assembling newsboys and starts home delivery of the newspaper for the first time. so you don't have to come to the newspaper office to buy your newspaper. you can have it tossed on your front porch. also, in this case, we have the timecard stamp from "the marion star." a picture of the building at that time. that does not stand any more. florence harding had a very business-like mind. she's a little bit out of step with other women in her time. -- timeperiod because of that. her father was a businessman atop her about giving books and

-- who talked to her about keeping books, and mortgages, and other parts of the business world, things that most women would not have an interest in nor would have anyone taken time to teach them, as well. this sets her up nicely to with -- to deal with the "marion star." he needs help keeping the place afloat. he finds it difficult to hound people to pay their bills. she does not. she does not shy away from that at all. that frees him up to do what he does best, which is the editorial process. the relationship with advertisers in town. all those things that he does best. it is a win-win situation for the newspaper at works really -- and really works well for the two of them. >> after graduating from the university of vermont, future first lady grace coolidge work at a school for the deaf. it was the place where she met her husband. >> this is the school for the deaf were calvin and grace met

-- deaf, where calvin and grace met for the first time. she was a teacher living in a dorm here. he was a tenant on a boarding house on the property. she lived up here in the second floor of this building. we are standing in a courtyard area. there would have been a flower garden. and roses that grace would have tended to in her free time. right beside us is were calvin coolidge lived as a border. he was working as a lawyer in northampton. he would've stood there watching grace in the flower garden. she caught a glimpse of him standing there watching her in his undershirt. he was watching her tend the rose garden. we are now in grace's bedroom. this window here is where grace would have looked out and seen calvin in the next tilting.

room below them was available for them to meet up. we are now in the parlor room of the dormitory that grace coolidge lived in. in this room is where calvin and grace, when they were courting, would meet up and be able to sit and talk and have some time together. despite him being in his 30's and her in her 20's, and they had to abide by the rules of the school and needed to meet somewhere where they could be chaperoned. here, they would sit and talk and get to know each other. >> plymouth notch is the birthplace and boyhood home of calvin coolidge. he was born in a little house attached to the back of the store that his father operated. when he was four, he moved across the road to the building we now know as the coolidge homestead. this was quaint even back in the

roaring 20's. grace, of course, spent some of the time just walking around. that was one of her great passions. she loved to walk and would go down to the cemetery, especially after her son calvin junior died. she did a lot of knitting and other types of handwork was you -- while she was here. she just enjoyed the country area. she was a burlington girl, who grew up in the biggest town in vermont. when she was growing up her house had electricity and plumbing. when she came here, this is very much a country home. no electricity or plumbing in the house where she stayed with her husband. this is the kitchen. this is where they would've had breakfast and lunch and some suppers, too, i'm sure. there is no real dining room in the house. it is very simple. a vermont rural home. there was one running faucet in the kitchen and i was the only

-- that was the only plumbing in the entire house. this is quite a contrast to a -- to what grace had been experiencing not only as a child growing up in burlington, which was kind of sophisticated at the time, as well as in the white house years when she had all of the modern luxuries. this is a two-hole privy. it was the only sanitary facility in the house. calvin was very much a throwback to an earlier century. this is not what she was used to. hearing all the reports about grace, she probably took this in good stride and regarded this as part of her experience with her husband. the furniture in here is the bedroom set that grace and calvin used when they were here at the coolidge homestead. as you can see, it is a simple set of furniture. it is very typical of furniture

circa 1870's or so. it is country-style. the rooms are small in this house and not the spacious rooms they were accustomed to at the white house, certainly. 1923as also present in when word came that harding had died. she was among the select group in the family sitting room that was witness to the swearing-in of calvin coolidge after harding -- was witness to the swearing- in. was the sitting room, which we now know as the oath of office room. this is where the family gathered were president coolidge was administered the oath of office. all the furnishings in here are original. there gathered around the central table. the pen that was used to sign the documents, the lamp that with the scene, but the bible that was here but not official use in the swearing because that was not required by vermont law. grace would have stood about where i am now and there is a famous painting by arthur teller of the homestead inaugural.

it shows the group gathered around and she is right next to calvin's side. >> let's head into the vault where we keep specific things about the coolidge family. grace coolidge's earlier life before her marriage to calvin coolidge as well as documents about her relationship with her family, specifically her sons and grandchildren. grace is not only a loving wife, she was also a loving mother. we have some wonderful correspondence. in 1922, grace wrote to the head of an academy were both of her sons were. she writes, is there a way in which we can arrange for calvin junior to have a soft oiled egg -- boiled egg for breakfast or a time without great inconvenience? he had had a minor surgery and grace was very worried about his health. the other letter we have is written by calvin junior.

this is written in 1924. like many sons, he talked about his schooling, his clothes, because he was growing out of them, and traveling back to d.c. to visit his mom and dad. the letter reads, "i hope you are well and happy. i know you are happy. love, calvin." here is an interesting side note obviously, he forgot to put something in the letter. "send me some socks." it is sad because we see it at the last documented letter that we have before he suddenly passes away while in washington, d.c., less than a month later. shortly after his death, people wrote to the president and first lady in the white house sending their condolences. as was common at the time, grace and calvin acknowledge their sympathies by sending letters in

reply thanking them for their condolences and sympathy. these letters were always bordered in black as a way of showing they were in mourning. we have quite a few of those letters in our collection. grace and calvin had two sons. calvin junior was the younger. john coolidge did not die young and lived to an old age. we have a wonderful letter from john to his mother on her birthday. is a wonderful letter where it describes his love. dearest mother, just to let you know i am thinking of you on your birthday and loving you as no boy has ever loved his mother. john and grace had a very close relationship. he never really said much about how the passing of his brother affected the family. he was very quiet on that. you can tell from the letters between john and grace until her passing -- there were letters many times a year and they were very, very close. whether that was increased by calvin junior's passing or not,

there is no way of knowing although i would assume that is the case. >> i wish you both a very happy christmas and a bright and prosperous new year. >> it is a pleasure to greet you, mr. santa claus. and help you open the sale of sales, which begins on thanks giving day of this year. >> would you mind autographing some of the christmas seals as a special favor for santa claus? >> why, i should be delighted. it is one of the things that i do best. it is a good thing you have, santa claus. >> it is a wonderful sled. bikes must have performed like this before. -- >> it must've performed like this before.

>> my father, santa claus, give it to me. >> oh! it has some of the dog's hair in it. >> grown up a tomboy, first lady lou hoover got her fondness for the outdoors from her father. >> the father wanted a boy, which is why we think the name lou -- it is not short for anything, it is actually lou -- as a result of that, he takes her out. she becomes a tomboy of the era. she was had to go fish, shoot, camping. they are up in the mountains a lot. she is learning about the outdoors and loving it. this is a .22 rifle owned by lou. what i love about this is that you have this photograph. it is an early photograph of her on top of this mule looking pretty rough and tough there with a bunch of provisions. then she has this gun. very annie oakley to me. which is that type of error, that type of independent girl.

that typepe of era, of independent girl. one of her most famous essays is "independent girl. the interesting thing is that she is talking about being someone independent and doing her own thing, but at the end, "sooner or later she will meet a spirit equally as independent as her own. then there is a clash of arms in mortal combat or they will unite and take on the world." this is her diary from 1891- 1892. she's in college, talking about different classes she takes. she is talking about her life. one of the things she talks about her loft is her botany -- about a lot is her botany classes and going out hiking. she really likes to be in the outdoors. she refers here -- mrs. palmer and i were a good match for climbing. we beat the others all to pieces. we found a lot of flowers.

blueprints, primroses, forget- me-nots, etc. lizards and frogs. all these things that are just a lot of fun to be outside in the world. as part of that class, they are also drawing sketches of flowers. there are flowers and butterflies. different kinds of things. they had the latin name with them as well. that would be something she would know from her class. lou does not write about herself, necessarily. she writes about the experiences of her life. she is a highly educated woman at this time period. both her mom and dad created a loose, open edge here you go, if you would learn something we will encourage that and allow you to do that. she was able to do that and explore that as fully as she could. >> the first time mr. hoover came to rapid end camp, they came in on horseback on a horse trail and came up to the

headwaters of the river where there was 164 acres for sale sandwiched between two small streams. in those days it was five dollars an acre. for less than $1000 they purchased 164 beautiful acres here in the mountains. she was instrumental in the design of this camp. it very much shows her love of nature and her simplicity, we -- what she enjoyed about being outdoors. it is all wrapped up into buildings that were opposite of what they had in other aspects of their lives. they were trying to create a retreat where they could relax and get back to nature. lou wanted the house to be as much outside as possible. she had it designed where the windows would open, the panels will fold down, screens would let the air in. she could smell the outdoors

smells coming through right into her room. she could be inside but at the same time have a feeling of being outside. the sun porch was her office and it is a beautiful room with windows surrounding it so the light can be natural all day long. in fact, there are not any lights in their at all. no electric lights hanging from the ceiling. it is all natural sunlight coming in. she had a desk and there were she would spend hours writing letters. much of what we know about rapid end camp comes from the letters she wrote there. many of the guests would set out here. -- sit out here. we have lots of pictures with the hoovers and guest sitting right here on this porch. mrs. hoover loved to smell the smoke of a campfire and she wanted to have that smell in camp all day long. mrs. hoover wanted her gardens

to be different than what she had the white house. she wanted them to be very informal. in fact, she is quoted as saying she wanted them to be a little bit wild-ish. meaning that she did not want formal beds. she wanted everything out there randomly. she wanted her paths to be lined with rock so you could find your way, but nothing very outstanding. she wanted it to blend in. the rock structure behind me is lou's fountain. it is a rustic fountain made out of rocks from the local area. this was a rock garden. it is what she referred to as a rockery. she emphasized rocks because that was her love of geology. >> we are at the lou henry hoover house here on the campus of stanford university. it is significant because this is the primary residence of the hoovers. this was known as family headquarters and it is significant as it relates to lou hoover because she was the one

who designed it. she worked with several architects to come up with the plans and they gave her advice. she was the driving force behind the design of the house. it was something that impressed the architects that helped her with the formal blueprints and plans. she had such a strong grasp of design and how she wanted the house to look even though she was not an architect. that was not her professional training. she was a geologist, but she had a very good sense of space and design, how she wanted the house to look. it was something that she was intimately involved in. we're lucky to have a lot of the original documents and correspondence relating to the design and construction of the house. we are looking at the documentation related to the building and design of the lou henry hoover house. it is especially important because it shows how involved lou henry was in designing the house.

here are some the earliest drawings we have from the design of the house. here we have some details about the cabinets they were going to be installing. a little footstool, here. some design details that were likely sketched by lou henry herself. a lot of lou henry's influence came from her travels in the southwest of the united states. pueblo architecture. also from her travels in north hoover, so there is definitely an influence of native cultures, non-american cultures, but also native american cultures influencing the architecture of the house. you can see here that there was an initial design for arches above the doorway. i was changed. -- that was changed. there are definitely a lot of arches in the house, as well. what we have here are some floor plans of the house.

they show details of the rooms. the living room, there, the terrace. you can see the rooms are designed in a way where they easily exit out into the outside, the outdoors. it is a great legacy of lou and 's, because she designed the house, she created it. it was inspired by her ideas. she had very close involvement in all aspects of the house's creation. >> i am very glad that as your honorary president, is my honor to receive the support of the in its time of distress. and so it is with great joy that

i give to you the messages of thanks from many and various persons. and through the girl scouts to all the organizations working who are going to continue helping as long as the need continues. >> encouraged by fdr, first lady eleanor roosevelt bought a residence to develop her own job ideas and later became her home after his death. >> let's go upstairs to where the bedrooms are located in we will climb a historically creaky staircase. this room here is her master bedroom. in this room, franklin roosevelt takes prime footage with the largest portrait in the room. mrs. roosevelt's bed is somewhat interesting in its addiction and

, and it showson how mrs. roosevelt referred her laundry to be delivered by household staff. folded and placed upon her bed. she would place it throughout the cottage. on close examination of the laundry, it reveals it is all monogrammed. we have mrs. roosevelt's monogram on the main towels. we also have nancy's monogram on some of the linens. some of the linens are jointly monogrammed with the initials e.m.n. elinor marion nancy. that was pretty consistent. when i look to this room, it just surprises me that a lady who was born into wealth, that married into wealth, and generated wealth in her lifetime would live in such a simple fashion. the bed is surely not an elaborate bed for a woman who was 5'11" tall. she had a simple lifestyle.

it stands out. this is eleanor roosevelt's sleeping porch. it is a very important area here. this is where mrs. roosevelt would come in the evening at approximately 11:00 after saying good night to her guests. it was a private space for her. the little scottish terrier dog that is so famous with and -- within the roosevelt story would accompany her to this area and spend the night here with her. this is where she would sit, do some last-minute letter writing, maybe some last-minute reading, and then retire for the evening. she referred to this area as being like a tree house since it is surrounded with glass, screened in areas. she can overlook her property, the faulkhill creek, the stone fireplace where the picnics were

held, the tennis and badminton court, the stone cottage which was so important in the early years. this is her private space where she could get away from the activities of the cottage for a short while and be with herself. when she fell in love with franklin roosevelt back in 1905 when they got married, they would move in with franklin's mother. she owned and operated this home and estate. roosevelt, her father- in-law, had passed away. she made the decisions here. she also handled the finances of the family, and was the matriarch of the family. this is where the family gathered to take meals.

room is important, because it reflects the interaction of the family. sarah roosevelt sat at the head. franklin was at the other end. >> this was the bedroom that 18ey shared as adults until 19 until infidelity. rooseveltme, mrs. chose the bedroom right next to this room. it has a doorway coming right in. this was an area where she could be by herself. it was a bit of a private face for her. the furniture was used by mrs. roosevelt. one of the few areas where she could get some privacy. roosevelt was in hyde park and franklin roosevelt was in here, it was a given that they would sleep in the big house. if