in 1956, people forget that it was not very goldwater the broke the solid south, it was dwight eisenhower. in 1956, dwight eisenhower carried almost 46% of the african-american vote and the majority of southern electors, so because the party turned to goldwater and then in effect on to nixon and reagan and gingrich, because the party took that turn in 1964, it does not mean that that had to be history. it could have been a very different history. >> where did you get the title of the book? >> in 35 years of writing books, i have got a title that i wanted.

from the very beginning it is one thing that never change. >> how old was he in this picture on the cover? >> he would be in his mid-50's. >> "on his own terms," seemed to me to sum up his viewpoints on life, on politics, on women, and on life and on death. a quick story behind that that goes to the heart of who he was, because it took me much of those 14 years to reach what i thought was an adequate understanding of this very elusive figure -- he was incredibly close to his mother abby aldrich rockefeller, and like i said, she died in 1948, and i was told by someone very close to him that he kept her ashes in his house.

happy rockefeller was kind enough to spend half a day with me, and give me a tour -- both of the big house and the house he built for their retirement. every rockefeller house is built with the same floor plan. on the left is the mother's room, and on the right is the father's room. and at the end of the tour, i see this funerary urn. so i relate the story to her, and she says, all that story is true. because she said that there was a funeral and the ashes were interred somewhere else on the estate, and she said, oh he just reached in and grabbed a handful. now, i don't know many people who would do that, and it tells me two things. two sides of his character. one, there is almost a childlike impetuousness. he was utterly un-self-conscious. but the other thing that it also suggests that a sense of

entitlement that goes beyond the norm. how many of us would entertain for a moment the notion at such a time and place of possessing one's parent in that way? that is on his own terms. he believed he could have life, and i believe death, on his own terms. >> who picked up the quotes at the beginning of each chapter? >> i did. >> i will begin with the quote from murray kimpton, who was he? >> he was someone who was left of center. of that generation, i mean,

jimmy breslin -- first of all, new york was a newspaper town and it generated great journalists -- when nelson rockefeller went into politics in the 1950's. i don't know how many papers there were, but he was a newspaper town, and it generated great journalists who were first of all great reporters, but secondly, political analyst. >> what night? >> it was what he was that night. july 14, 1954, journalist referred to it as bastille day in reverse.

>> it was not exactly a dispute that has gone away, i suppose, one that perhaps has been at least temporarily healed in the wake of 9/11. the fact of the matter is, the republican party, going back to 1912, the theodore roosevelt and william howard taft splitted us under and tr ran a third-party, progressive liberal, or we would call a republican campaign, throughout the century there has been a divide.

it was geographical, it was more ideological, it was substantive, the conservatives in the midwest, for example tend to be isolationists in terms of foreign policy. the eastern liberals -- the eastern establishment -- tended to be internationalists, much more, for example, much more willing to get into world war ii before pearl harbor. they also, however, were divided about their reaction to the new deal. the eastern liberals were willing to accommodate the changes -- a much more active role for government. the conservatives west of the appalachians, for the most part, held out for a more hard shell view, if you will. you know, the liberals believed -- and this is critical, nelson rockefeller, as i said, had no ideology -- he believed first and foremost that a problem should be taken care of through

the private sector. if the private sector would not or could not, then he would look at the partnership for government. the idea being the eastern establishment, which first of all needed a strong, robust, growing, private economy, whatever it took, the government could be an agent is that. that is an idea that is as old as alexander hamilton. if you had that, you could not pay for the compassion and you could not afford to do all of these social programs. so they put, what they thought was the horse before the car, and they felt the new deal was acting in reverse. >> let us go to some video from the convention in 1964, when they nominated barry goldwater. [video clip] >> these extremists feed on hate and terror, they encourage rigidity. these are people who have nothing in common with americanism.

the republican party must repudiate these people. [crowd noises] >> extremism. [laughter] then as now, a topic of much discussion. first of all, you have to have a little bit of contact. --context. that convention came one month after the past 9054 -- passed 1964 civil rights act, that was passed with republican votes and that nelson rockefeller strongly supported. in fact, he wanted a voting rights act at the same time, which would come about a year later. barry goldwater, who it must be said, had personally been a leader in desegregating not only his family's department store in phoenix but also the arizona national guard, nevertheless,

goldwater was of that rugged individualist school, and he did not campaign for the civil rights of african-americans. we saw a generation -- it was like a volcano. everything about new york that you hated, everything about the eastern establishment and the media, which exercise a much greater centralized, dominant position -- earlier in the evening, dwight eisenhower, by accident, he gets up and in an attempt to foster unity, mentions in a throwaway line "sensation-seeking columnists who could not care less about the good of our party." people started saying down with walter whitman, down with walter whitman. a few hours later, there were delegates on the floor shouting at nelson rockefeller.

"you lousy lover!" it was a reference in the fact -- to the fact that nelson rockefeller had divorced his first wife and had married a woman who in the press had abandoned her children in order to marry him. >> what were the circumstances about the divorce and the remarriage to happy rockefeller, and what is her full name? >> margaretta, who is married to james murphy.

exactly when the relationship began is murky. i believe it began earlier than has been suggested until now. >> what is that mean? >> by that i mean the mid-1950's. most accounts suggest in the 1958 campaign when she worked in a rockefeller's uber notorious -- rockefeller's gubernatorial campaign. one of the things that i discovered in the course of research of this book is a year went by between when nelson wanted to announce a divorce and the actual announcement. there were people around him who even then -- there were people in 1958 who had talked him out of getting a divorce before he ran for governor, they argued that it would kill his political

career -- and he reluctantly went along. but it is very clear, that left to his own devices, he intended to end his marriage to todd, and, if at all possible, marry happy murphy. this is a different culture. hollywood adulterers -- 10,000 people turned out for the world premiere of "cleopatra" a month after the rockefeller-murphy marriage. they were celebrated, but a politician -- that is actually an important part of nelson's unwitting legacy, because the fact of the matter is, beginning with his divorce and remarriage, and sort of spectacularly advancing to the circumstances surrounding

his death, the media took a whole different approach to distinguishing what was public and what was private. and we could argue over whether that has been good for democracy, but there is little doubt he played a very significant role. today, i don't think the circumstances surrounding his divorce and remarriage would have nearly as great an impact. but you have to remember, the republican party in 1962, '63, '64, was also a culturally more conservative party than the rest of the country. jack kennedy could not believe that rockefeller would risk everything by getting a divorce. he told ted graham that no man could ever love love more than politics. which probably tells you more

about him than anything else. but it does sum up the prevailing view. >> when you spoke with happy rockefeller, did she tell you anything about the relationship? >> yes, she was very candid about it. bill scranton, the former governor of pennsylvania, recently deceased, close to rockefeller personally, politically, and certainly because of his own mainline connection, he knew both mrs. rockefellers and ran for president in 1964. he knew both todd and happy. he thought todd was very intelligent and he liked her, but he always thought that she and nelson were mismatched. he said don't make the mistake of equating warmth with sex.

nelson needed warmth. i understand exactly what he meant. happy is a very warm woman. happy could give him really what todd could not. that is a factor. the thing about the whole relationship that i think this book really breaks ground, and it is only possible because of the passage of time, if you go back and read coverage at the time and read coverage since, every single account of the rockefeller divorce and remarriage is couched in political terms. it talks about what it cost him and why on earth did he take that risk. what no one has ever asked until now, and obviously what i was interested in getting from happy

rockefeller, was to forget politics for just a moment. what were the emotional compensations that nelson got that made him overlook whatever risks? she told me that they never discussed the political consequences. i believe her. she also told me something very poignant and shrewd at the same time. she went to new hampshire and campaigned in 1964. she was in the not so early stages of her pregnancy. she went to new hampshire, and for the most part people were very friendly, and she said you had no idea how many people wanted to feel the baby. that there were people who were anything but friendly. she was standing on the steps of a church, and these women come up and say, "oh mrs. murphy, you have not brought your children with you today." which was about as nasty as you could get. and she says she learned

something wonderful at that moment. she said whenever someone he says something horrible to you, you counter it with a comment. -- compliment. so she said, "my, that is a lovely dress you've got on." it disarms -- it is an interesting observation and dispose a popular notion that this woman was totally under first in politics. nelson rockefeller had the whole estate in her judgment. i still believe, although she downgrades her role in this, i think she was a pivotal part of his decision to move on the abortion issue. new york repealed its old abortion laws and when the legislature two years later, moved to repeal the repeal under pressure from the church, he stopped that action. and when roe v wade came about two years later, he upheld a woman's right to choose.

>> happy would be 88. >> how many of all of his children are still alive? >> he had five children by todd, and two by happy. of those eight, six are still living. the eldest son, rodman, born in 1932, and died several years ago, and of course many years ago, there was a tragedy, almost a greek tragedy, it was like three days after they had announced that they were separating, that the word came from today's indonesia that michael rockefeller, the

youngest son from his first marriage, and the one that everyone agrees to whom he was the closest and for whom he entertained the highest hopes, was lost. >> how old was he? >> michael would have been 22 or 23. >> did anyone find out what had happened? >> no. as horrible as the experience was at the time, i think the family has been haunted to some degree and exploited but certainly haunted ever since by continual efforts to dredge this up and to spin all sorts of horrific theories about how he may have died. >> you noticed i have not asked you about the last chapter. >> i did notice.

>> let us go to 1968 were he made an announcement for president. [video clip] >> today i announce my active candidacy by the nomination for the republican party for the presidency of the united states. [applause] i shall do everything i can, with all of my energy, now and in the weeks before the national convention, to bring before the people the dimensions of the problems as i see them, and how i believe as a free people we can meet them. i believe firmly that true unity is forged by full examination of

the facts, and the free interchange of honest convictions, and very simply, by taking this course at this time, i feel i can best serve my country. [applause] >> now this is off the subject right there, but as i watched him reading, i go back to the very first thing you wrote, the very first two words, you wrote, "nelson rockefeller suffered from dyslexia." >> that is right. >> he did not hear the word

until he was 50 years old. he had always thought he had a low iq and intellectual deficiency. so he took his mother's advice from a very early age, and that was always to surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, which is to explain the task forces and the experts and the panoply of gurus who surrounded rockefeller. he could not spell, he was not a natural speaker from a text, but he compensated. he learned to compensate. he was extraordinary off-the-cuff. he was really one of the great, as i say, street campaigners of all time. 1968 is fascinating because one month before he got into the race, lyndon johnson pulled out

of the race, and martin luther king was assassinated, and by the way, one of the things i discovered, he was very close to dr. king. he had come to the rescue of king's birmingham crusade financially, and that of course, meant that nelson called mrs. king and the follow-up was that he sent his advance men and organized and paid for dr. king's funeral. >> when was the first known? >> he did not want it known. he said to the advanced man that i talked with that we don't want to take advantage of the family's suffering. >> so when was it first published? >> when he died.

there was a little story to that effect, but the other critical thing that happened between during that month was on april 23, he was smuggled with happy into the johnson white house. i talked to the man who took him in and took him out. >> who was that? >> larry temple. he is with the johnson foundation out. but then he was a young staff member. lbj wanted nelson to run for president. they had a very -- >> he was a democrat. >> oh yes, he understood he was not going to change parties. later on, hubert humphrey approached nelson regarding the campaign. >> by the way, you use a book from lyndon johnson, and it says that nelson's wife is not going to let him get off the ground, that was in 1964.

>> that was part of the political realities of the time. it was funny, because people also have the contemporary connections. remember the mississippi elections when senator cochran won the him probably with the support of african-american voters who had registered. one of the great climactic, epic battle of these 64 campaign was goldwater versus rockefeller in california. which, and boasters, believe it or not, there was a poll but said that 70% of california republicans considered themselves moderates through the but it was the primary campaign to end all primary campaigns. groundwater was way ahead, and stews spencer, the great political strategist from the several campaigns, including ronald reagan, told me that were

almost turned it around were african-american voters, mostly in los angeles, 50,000 of whom reregistered as republicans to vote in the primary for nelson rockefeller. that was indicative of the appeal that rockefeller had to minority americans. >> was it over for him in 68? >> the problem was, twofold. one, it was a conservative party that was moving further and further to the right. they were simply uncomfortable with nelson rockefeller's positions. secondly was his failure to understand the difference between running for the

nomination and running in the fall. every time he ran for president, he ran a november campaign. a campaign reaching out to the general electorate. but it is delegates that select the nominee. the great line -- he had an ironic sense of humor, which he mostly controlled. someone asked him at the end of 68, after nixon was nominated, that night he had a press conference. it was a young reporter, who said it is a resume, and said, why have you been nominated for president? and rockefeller looked at him and said, young

man, have you ever been quite republican national convention? >> did you ever meet him? >> three times, and passing. -- in the passing. in 1968. at the ford white house. we had a 45 minute meeting with him. >> how much money was he worth at the end of his life? >> the estate was valued, for taxation purposes, at around $215 or $250 million. the book was from trust from his father and grandfather.

the only time in his life that he made money, oddly enough, was at the end of his life in an art reproduction business. which horrified purists. but which showed real promise. he started what is called the nelson rockefeller collection, and was selling reproductions. paintings and furniture and other objects d'art that he owned. >> you mentioned earlier about civil rights and his interest in it, and then in 1971, we have video of a conversation between nelson rockefeller and richard nixon that i have heard you say, and the last 14 years, that your attica chapter is your best. >> it is the one that i am proudest of, because i think it is the first time, first of all, i have the benefit of perspective.

40 years have gone by. it is a different culture. for example -- there, atticaet there, attica>t is what? >> a correctional facility. other place in new york and throughout the rest of it was overcrowded and disproportionately populated by african-americans. it was underfunded. >> he was governor. and ran a newn department of corrections. they reformed the antiquated system. in 1971, new york state was in a severe bug -- budget crunch.

the priorities collided. make people, 40 years later, understand and immerse themselves in the culture of 1971. not only the prison culture. not only the real sense of fromance and african-americans with the justice system. where a takeover occurred in 1971. part of this was faith. rockefeller was out of state. unfolding part of the process, as it took place, the first day of the takeover. that wascal decision

not made. the critical decision that maded prevented from being time, to force, at the immediately retake the prison. the fact was that there was precedent for this. the governor who was succeeding roosevelt faced an identical situation and took the stance that rockefeller took. the state would not negotiate and, eventually, sent troops and. >> how many hostages were there? >> hundreds. -- i'm sorry, there were hundreds of prisoners involved. there were 43 who died. >> who retook the prison? >> 11 of those were security

guards. the rest were prisoners. >> who retook it? back up a bit. the criticism of rockefeller is directed at the takeover that was badly botched and the argument that was made that if rockefeller had been there and have been on the scene, at the very least, he could have prevented things. he had representatives who were there and feeding him information. involved ations number of outside observers. today, it would not have happened. would not bring in people like william, who had a political agenda, to be an outside observer. >> a liberal activist. >> absolutely.

radical and proud of it. in tvuld not bring cameras to observe all of this. of judgee any number mental errors that were made. strategically, i think a strong case can be made that, had there --n force applied initially because part of the prison was believed, hewald was a modernizer. he was a liberal. he thought he could negotiate. he could not. >> nixon was in the white house and, governor nelson rockefeller. >> the courage you showed and the judgment to not grant amnesty was right. i do not care what the papers or

anybody else said. i think you had to do it that way. if you had granted amnesty, it would have had prisons in an uproar across the country. you didn't the right thing. it is a tragedy that these poor fellows were shot. >> aren't you great, mr. president? i wanted to alert you we were coming in. when we went in, we could not tell if the hostages were killed. by thele thing was led blacks. >> i will be darned. were there any whites? >> i have not gotten the report. i would say not. when they were in the process of murdering the guards or when they were attacking our people who came in to get the guards. >> had to do it. >> otherwise, we recaptured all

the south blocks. no troopers were wounded. one of them was, and the like. -- in the leg. >> what do you hear? >> rockefeller telling the president what he wants to hear. amnesty became the issue around which this revolves. the prisoners had taken over the facility and they submitted a list of demands. a various list of demands. fly included the right to to a non-imperialist country. and, amnesty. the latter was quickly dismissed. many of the demands were met.

the observers spent a day and they went through the list. most of the prisoner demands were perfectly legitimate. one of the problems with looking people,a was that most that was the first time they were exposed to how horrible conditions were in the facilities. and then people conflated before -- the horror of the facility with rockefeller's refusal to go and then the botched retaking. what they overlooked was, to rockefeller, the matter of principle, which was amnesty. if you are granted amnesty, he believed, or if he went to the first thing is they would demand that he would come into the cellblocks with them. then they would be asking for the president. what were the long-term consequences if government gave in? >> we still have not talked about the last chapter.

we are going to. first of all, there is some video that we have found that shows how the rockefeller name lives on. this has to do with some hip-hop artists. [video clip] >> my mom with to prison in 1991. my mother, 1991. somehow, my momma ends up serving a mandatory minimum sentence of 14 years. my mother gets out in 2002. that is 11 years on a 14 year sentence. that happened all across the hood. >> rockefeller laws are unjust laws that have been on the books for 30 years. they take nonviolent offenders and mocked them up for a very -- lock them up for every long time. people who are guilty of abusing

themselves, they go to jail for up to 20 years. >> the rockefeller drug laws. >> that is a part of the legacy. put it in context. this is a dark side of his conviction that every problem had a solution, and that included drugs. he told a friend one day, before the laws were introduced, you know, i wasted $1 billion trying to eliminate the drug scourge. there have been two separate rockefeller programs to attack drugs. both of them failing. on the third try, he took this punitive approach. people gasped at the time. the sweeping, as you heard -- first-time offenders typically were sent up for 15 years.

and the law enforcement was all but precluded from plea-bargaining. it was a drastic approach to a problem that appeared to be insoluble. the interesting thing is, if you -- if you talk to lawrence rockefeller, he believed that if nelson had served a fifth term, realizing that the third program had failed, there would have been a fourth. call it a strength, call it a weakness, he was incapable of acknowledging that there were problems that could not be solved. or that he -- that sometimes the only rational response was to do nothing.

that was not in his vocabulary. >> looking at chapter 26. the title of the chapter is the day of the dead. we have talked about this a lot, but how important is this chapter to this book in terms of what people expect. >> there are people who will look at it first, rent or noncurrent. i know people who will look at it to decide if i am . there are people who will look editor decide if i am honest. whether i am a part of the cover-up, in effect. i came to the conclusion that the historically significant aspect of nelson rockefeller's

death is the cover-up that was improvised that night by a man named hugh morrow, his communication director, who thought, at the time, that he would protect the family from embarrassing revelations regarding the fact that rockefeller, at the time of his death, was with a woman not his wife. what morrow did, unintentionally, and with the best of intentions, produced the worst of result. this is a post-watergate world, and there are first rate reporters.

people who are out there investigating the discrepancies, and cracks appear. unfortunately, for a generation of americans -- sadly, i think -- it defined nelson rockefeller. i had the advantage of time. 30 plus years, i have the opportunity to talk to a number of people who were more candid they had been the past. i went through joe, a speechwriter for rockefeller, a wonderful man and a great writer, a great scholar of world war ii. joe, in his memoir, which was published just after all of this, clearly pulled his punches, and appropriately so. there are questions of taste and loyalty. he had been a part of the

rockefeller inner circle. i had an opportunity to go through all of his notes, and i was not interested in peeping through the keyhole, either. there is one historically significant question that needs to be answered. did nelson rockefeller die needlessly that night? could he have been saved? first of all, what people did not know, was that rockefeller was dying. he had very serious heart problems. he knew he was dying. he had acknowledged as much to members of his family before he died. it is entirely possible he would have died that night, wherever he was. >> so, where was he? >> on that day, he had been putting his house in order in any number of ways.

he was working on a series of art books, one of which was about to be published. late in the afternoon, he left the room at 5600, the rockefeller office, went to the buckley school for a fundraiser to be addressed by henry kissinger. his sons both attended the buckley school. i talked to people who were there talked about how grey he seemed. he usually you only drank dubin eight. he asked for something stronger. he was clearly not well. he went home, he had dinner. i talked to mrs. rockefeller, and most of them difficult for her to relive the evening. her view was that he did not want to die in front of his boys, corrupted or the -- he did

not want to drop dead at the apartment. you have to remember that his mother had died of a massive heart attack at the ability for a perfect weekend with her family. nelson foresaw the same. that is the death that he wanted when i say "death on his own terms p are co--- death on his own terms." she also told me that she heard him pick up the phone and called megan, who had joined his staff as vice president and who had been working as the head of an editorial team on this series of books. it was very clear to other people that they were a part of it romantic relationship. she was 25 at the time. and she lived in an apartment three doors down 54th street from the rockefeller townhouses. they were twin townhouses at 13

and 15 west 54th. anyway, that is where, according to the story, they met, were working on this book. he had a heart attack, died instantly. it was reported that the police found him on the floor, fully clothed, papers -- that was the story that was given out to the press. hugh morrow, for reasons that we have discussed, said that he was stricken at room 5600. for whatever reason, they claimed that he had no history of heart disease, which is simply wrong. and of course, literally, there were press going to the rca building, expecting a body to be brought down. the whole thing unraveled over

the weekend. the importance of that, 35 years later, is this. that night, in my opinion, marked a transformation as great as the second night in the cow palace marked a transformation. only this time, instead of a political party, it was the way that journalists covered the private lives of politicians. you can draw a line from january 26, 1979, to gary hart and the monkey business. and anthony weiner, you name it. i believe that, beginning with

"the new york times" and it is important to know why they did what they did. i interviewed someone at the times, who shall remain nameless, who was close to rockefeller, who told me that he had a call from "the times." they said, you people have never lied to us before. you may have spun things, but you have never lied. we are sufficiently outraged that we have five reporters working the story and we are subjecting the 911 call to electronic analysis. and with the information, and one other confidential source, there is a missing hour between when the call was made in the

story was put out. the whole story revolves around what happened during the missing hour. it was strongly intimated to me that the call, the 911 call, was not made by megan, but was made by a second woman who lived in her building. a prominent journalist. i asked to talk to her, and she declined. >> did you talk to megan? >> she did not respond. those are really the only two people. i did 150 interviews, and they are the only people who declined. the third person, by his own admission, was joe, the more advanced man, the ultimate fixer. a very competent man.

his codename was little caesar. and you could be trusted to take -- he could be trusted to take care of anything. he told me that he was one of three people who knew what happened that night. he would not go into detail, but he dropped clues. i subsequently learned from friends of his that the story that he had told over the years is, in fact, not true. but he told people, close friends, in later years, that he himself had actually gone to 54th street as a part of an emergency effort to clean up the scene and to redress the body. >> the body was without clothes? >> that is what i was told by the paramedic. the one who was first on the scene. >> you are naming jim?

he is still alive today. >> had a distinguished career in medicine. he is associated with yale. >> was he there? >> yes. and here is the remaining, if you well, mystery, because there is a clear discrepancy between his account of what he found, which i find completely credible, and the original story put out by the police. and the missing link just may be one other source, who indicated that there was a man, unfortunately deceased, a history professor, a lifelong new yorker, who taught a class at john jay college of criminal justice in new york. one night, two members of his class, police, offered him a ride home. as they approached was 54th street, they began reminiscing

about that night, and suggested that, in fact, they were called not to 13 west 54th street to 25 -- but to 25 west 54th street. and that the remains were moved from 25 to 13. i do not know if that is true. i think that it fits. my approach to it is as a cold case. i think that the historical significance lies in the fact that, based on what i have learned, that historical question that i mentioned

earlier. i believe nelson rockefeller died instantly. i do not believe he could have been saved. i do not believe anyone was responsible that evening. and the only other real historical significance, and it is lasting, is the impact on journalism. >> you quote happy rockefeller in the book, heading up one of the sections. "once, a small creature came into my world. he took the largest fortune in the world and decided to enjoy it." did she say that to you? >> yes, she did. i understood, and the time i spent with her, much of what rockefeller found irresistible in this woman, including a kind of wisdom. i pointed out that she did not go to college, like lots of women of her class at that time.

but she is a lifelong reader, a voracious reader, especially of history and of literature. beyond that, there is the street smarts, and instinctive grasp of human motives. you can understand why he relied on her judgment of people. >> this book is 14 years in the making. "on his own terms" is the title. if you have something final to say, you can, but i want to finish by showing a video clip of your first appearance on this network, because you had a tremendous impact on this network on history as your help guide us through these years. here you are, and again, but may mention, it is "on his own terms: the life of nelson

rockefeller." but before we and today, i want to ask you. you are on to a new city. what are you going to do? >> i want to move back to grand rapids michigan, or the next six years of my life is neatly programmed out. i will be working on writing a biography of gerald ford. >> here you were about 21 years ago. thank you for joining us. >> your library is located where? >> here in iowa, west of davenport. we have not been untouched by the flood. but i want to add, and be grateful for the opportunity, that we are open and have been open to the flood. put in a good word for tourism in the midwest generally, a lot of people think that everything is underwater, and that is not

true. there are people in the tourism industry who are hurting. >> for free transcripts or to give us your comments, visit us at q&a.org. they are also available as podcasts. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] >> coming up, calls and comments on washington journal. thomas perez talks about jobs and the economy at the national press club. tonight, technology and the

campaign. weree digital tools thought of as e-mail tools and online contributions with the website. it has evolved. our company offers tools that enable the shoe leather part of the campaign. the canvassing and the phone calls. more.e seeing there are online ads and we can do for sin-addressable interactions. -- person-addressable interactions. >> we have moved from the broadcast era to the tail end of the early 1960's as broadcast television. we evolve and all of that stuff.

it is moving into the relationship era. if you are building brand advocates and you have someone advocating for influencing a sphere of friends, how is it to know what the message is and what to deliver to people? we do a better job of making sure we know the right messenger. >> tonight, on the communicators. morning, cameron looks thepending strategies by democratic and republican campaign committees in the final weeks before the elections. the former u.s. ambassador to theabwe will talk about u.s. and international community's responsibility on the ebola virus. they will discuss several federal programs that provide

money to states and localities to assist in preparing for medical emergencies. we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. ♪ politico put out a new poll in the past couple of hours and talked to voters in the most competitive elections the cycle. the takeaway headline at politico is that there is alarm and anxiety out there as the election looms. the overwhelming majority of voters in these districts around the country say that the u.s. majorst control of challenges. we want to get your take on the poll results and get your reaction to if they have lost control.

here are the numbers. has the u.s. lost control of major challenges? one of the findings of the politico poll. you can weigh in on twitter. you can send us an e-mail. here is more from the politico piece. in a political poll testing the hardest-fought states and tworessional districts, thirds of voters think the u.s. has lost control of major challenges. only 36% of the country say they thein good position to meet economic and national security hurdles. no individual issue has come to define the selection --

>> they speak to four specifically. they are telling about the anxiety and apprehension. has the u.s. lost control of major challenges? we have calls coming in. we will start with a facebook comment. the u.s. has lost its vision and priorities, he writes. host: one of the many comments

coming in so far. we go to appleton, wisconsin with paul on the line for democrats. >> hey. i don't think we have lost control. if you watch fox news, you would think so. that is all they do is drill obama from morning to night. you have all of these corporate sponsors who want to get control of the government to they can take away social security, medicare, and medicaid. even with ebola, there was one of couple of years ago who said we do not need the centers for disease control and now, they cry about what is going on. watch that channel. host: do you plan to vote? caller: i absolutely do. host: who will you vote for and what issues drive you? caller: i am voting for mary burke.

what is driving me to scott walker not expanding medicaid. host: did you watch the debate? caller: i did not. host: you can check it out at c-span.org. mark -- else was anything else? toler: i want to get back the expansion of medicaid. he turned down millions of dollars. we have commercials about bernard taking your tax money to expand medicaid. she is not taking anybody's money. ensuring poor people. scott walker turned it down. we are going to new mexico for democrats. caller: it is great to be on. host: what is on your mind?

lost our think we have way and partisanship has torn the country apart. we do not really look at the bottom line of the humanitarian part of it. our naples are taking care of themselves. -- neighbors are taking care of themselves. we are looking at politics and what people deserve is what they get. they have let the economy go to such an extent that there is no hope of earning a dollar. this is a real problem. when a man wakes up in the morning and feels like there is nothing he can do to affect his own family situation or his own situation positively by earning money. -- premise oflem making it in america by pulling ,ourself up by your bootstraps people do not believe that anymore. you. thank

the restoration of the capitol dome is continuing. unusual shots. that is a live picture on monday morning. o poll ande politic the core issues. here is more. when it comes to terrorism, 84% say the islamic state poses a serious threat to the united states. 43% says that it poses a very serious threat. . most voters believe health care costs will go up under the affordable care act. only 7% say they will go down. that is how people are fearing -- feeling. voters in the battleground states are even lease lid on whether obama or bush was more effective at managing the federal government. ebola, only 22% of

respondents say they have a lot of confidence that the government is doing everything it can to contain the contagious disease. byre was a poll put out politico where they talk to voters and got these numbers. greg is waiting. has the u.s. lost control? caller: yes. mr. obama has been lying to the american people for his last six years and it continues to get worse. goeskes up stories as he with the storyline. the other thing i am looking at , our taxes,prices and all of the money spent on

that. obama has lied to the american people. host: is there an answer to your concerns? you point to the president will stop it -- president. caller: they need to impeach him. host: ralph. caller: good morning. the we need to impeach illegal and criminal president. the point is, the private federal reserve needs to be dealt with. what is the united states not issuing our own current state? why is the united states not issuing our own currency? there is cashand in the city of london. if you do not realize the city of london is one square mile

within 311 square miles of the queen ofn, england has to have permission. it is ever negate financial zone. there is one word for those out there who know about finance. this is the only place in the world that allows unlimited rehypothications. i will finish in 30 seconds. when they bundle of the mortgage loans, it hits the city of london and you have 1000 or 2000 owners for every single home. this is a place of unlimited hypothication they can turn a dollar and that is why we have a two quadrille you and -- deficit.on

host: we had your 30 seconds there. let's get some other opinions. has the u.s. lost control of major challenges? the questions come from a poll we have been looking at. the last couple of callers find fault with the president. the mostys it is irresponsible congress in the u.s., especially the tea party controlled house. that the u.s. is becoming more collectivist and we get more corruption and incompetence. some other headlines on ebola. the richmond times dispatch has this. we have a nurse and protective clothing taking a temperature of a simulated patient at virginia, love university. they say that care teams have

undergone training and we have been reading about various hospitals. the richmond dispatch. you take a look at the atlanta journal-constitution and they remind us that the cdc will guide ebola policy on skin safety and dividing guidelines -- providing guidelines for protective gear with no skin showing. this is from a top federal official. we are talking with the head of the nih. iny said that the people dallas were vulnerable because some skin was exposed. let's hear what don has to say from greenville, ohio. caller: the morning. -- good morning. we have lost our way. we have seen that with 40 years -- host: are you still there?

we lost don. -- we lost the calls for a second or two. in,nyone was trying to get call again and we will try when things are up and running. in the meantime, we have more headlines. this is from the houston chronicle. they said the 14 is lifted for dozens in dallas. dump-in'sotifying fiance and the paramedics that they are virus-free. we go on to the miami herald the stuff they have a twist on the story with latin america. caribbeanlatin and travel bans. , severaling fears latin american health ministers are meeting today in have been a to agree -- havana, cuba to

agree on measures. that is according to the world health organization in the miami herald. we have the calls and scott is with us. caller: are you there? yes. hello. host: we have you. caller: has the u.s. lost control over major problems? sit, it looks like we have not lost anything. we have given up control. senate -- andhe upsideate, there is no for them, apparently, politically, to address the problems that we face or fix them. host: why would you say that? caller: politically, to move like that would take no small

amount of courage. and, leadership. it does not seem to pay off for them. the public is the other part of the equation and they can move to vote them out of office the next time around. that is the big downside. when you have political power and do not use it. .hat brings me to the public and notuld be demanding just name-calling and pointing theers, saying here is what problem is. we are all aware of what the problems are. is a matter of saying we need to up our pants and take the steps forward. the inertia was contributed to the mindset that the republican say, when my guy becomes president, we will address these things.

the democrats say, when we have the house and the senate, we will address things. meanwhile, everything gets worse and nothing gets done. host: thank you for calling. ted cruz talked about the choice for the ebola czar. >> is not a doctor or health care professional. >> there are lots of those on this. doesn't this need -- the republicans have been saying, who is in charge? has't it need someone who organizational skills to give the public the feeling that the government is on top of this? >> candy, we should be less concerned about giving the public a feeling that the government being on top of this and more about the government actually being on top of this. this is a manifestation.

we do not need another little cool operative. we need presidential leadership. the person who needs to be on top is the president, treating it as a public health emergency. callerhost: ted cruz. we have a call from jeff. thank you. go ahead. caller: not too bad. has america lost its way? i would say, i am not one of these guys who is a theorist that the world is coming to an end. was spoken at what about with the agenda and the decline of america, this country start with a constitution. is being followed 100%?

-- decline of the movement the rise of the feminist movement took the woman out of the house and who was left to raise the children? the village. then, gay marriage. now, we are taking god out of everything. lost its way.s the people have lost their way from what the founding fathers and what the country was really started about. if you look around at the realities of everything, you will probably come up with the same conclusion. you know? how do we fix it? we heard a gem and speech, ted cruz. speak, ted cruz. he is founded in his constitution and religious thinking.

he is founded in the way the government should work. i do not need another community organizatioer taking control of ebola. that is what has happened. he has no credentials as a medical to know anything about it. i just want to voice my opinion this morning and, i appreciated c-span and i listen to you every day. and, i listen to a lot of all of your podcasts. keep spreading the news, is all you can do, on both sides. host: thank you for calling. that talkshort video about the protocols we mentioned this morning. . here's a look. >> the protocols were based on a model where people took care of

people in a different environment, in the bush. remote places outdoors. they did not have to do tertiary care and intensive training. there are parts of the protocol that left vulnerability. when you go into a hospital, you have to intubate somebody and be completely covered. that is one of the things. the protocol will be finalized and one of the things is complete covering with no skin showing. >> the doctor from yesterday. he had a response to what ted cruz and others said about ron as the ebola czar. the doctor says that the homeland security advisor and susan rice are coordinating the response right now. isht now, what we have

somebody who has a full-time job of doing that. so, we are looking forward to working with him as the coordinator of what we do. , with theefense there response effort, mary is on. independent color. -- caller. caller: i want to say that i believe that we have lost our way in this country. we have lost our civility towards one another, whether or not we agree or disagree. people are now targeting churches in our texas. i am not particularly religious. i do know that i was. and constitutions

are based on the 10 commandments. everyone wants everyone to treat others as they want to be treated. and so on. and so forth. that is the way things are and the natural order. people are too interested in political legacies. right now, we have, interestingly, more czars than they had in russia. i do not understand why. if we target people preaching and utterances of speeches in this country, it ought to be the people who are undermining this country and trying to kill people in this country, who want to take over the world. host: that was mary from michigan. james, you are up now. caller: good morning. host: how are you? concernsne of my main

is that my wife is a registered nurse and she has voiced concerns about screenings and talked about the protocols that is put in place for the skin. no exposures to the disease. given thatned, failed leadership in the white house. i hate to bash obama. the buck has to stop somewhere. policies and had a lot of scandals in various affairs in different agencies. i am real concerned about the priority that the new challenge facing everybody's health. host: to the extra training, what have they gotten so far? caller: it is on a case-by-case

basis and it is like having everybody reacting to any event that might occur within a certain site. i do not think there is any specific policy in place right now for a contractor or a company working in the hospital to actually guard against any infection orknow, contaminated. caller: is there concern? -- host: is there concern? caller: i am concerned. she works with intense patients. you just don't know. it is something that is kind of like -- excuse me -- something that is kind of like on the front of your mind, thinking about what if kind of thing. host: back to social media.

asked, its, when depends on how you define major challenges. host: to twitter this morning, this all stop -- this. speaking about the patient's level of people in this country. mary is calling. caller: good morning. i think we need structural changes to how the government operates and how a lot of industries operate. some of these changes were made

during the clinton administration with the repeal of glass-steagall and the regulation of a lot of industry. theg change was made during 60's -- the 1960's with tremendous immigration reform and a collaboration between industries and universities that had never occurred before. a lot of what we are seeing is the end result of the 30-40 years of changes to how the government fundamentally operates. what we are seeing, in my opinion, with the obama administration is the belief ist how a problem is handled less important than how you tell people it is being handled. you keep telling them everything is fine and they believe it,

even if it is not. host: ok. that was mary in california. the washington post and other on thetions follow-up pentagon training the ebola support team. pentagontten that the will create a 30-person team. provide support for civilian doctors who lack proficiency in fighting the deadly disease. this came from the defense secretary, chuck hagel will stop the order the pentagon's northern command to send a new team to fort sam houston in anys to prepare to respond other additional ebola cases. eleanor is calling from memphis. hey. caller: that evokes a response.

i cannot imagine what the military can do about ebola, other than heard everybody into a ditch and shoot them. not for thef is military and obama does not seem to understand the military at all. the only person who can save us from this is alan keyes. he was steps ahead of obama all the way through his career and the only thing that stopped us from saving us was the rino's knocking him down. i think it is wonderful that obama has found a way to close the borders. an epidemic of ebola, no one in mexico will want to come. host: carlos, go ahead. caller: how are you. host: doing fine. caller: i have two comments.

me, are theyou, to best commentators because you do engage with the college to: and i like that. inwith the callers who call and i like that. host: it is all about you and the voice of our guests. caller: has the united states lost its way westmark -- its way? we did before obama. stop putting it on the president. all, iook at, first of auld like to say we do have lack of memory. because, i don't know if the , in iraq,ember

president bush had the banner that said mission accomplished. the mission was not accomplished. president to accomplish a mission. which, he has. hearing -- i of love c-span and watching and everything will stop -- everything. ebola. to hear about .e have the callers he did not import ebola. i do agree that we need to secure the borders. how are we going to tell other countries to protect their borders when hours are broken? thank you. host:

host: we have some more calls and social media commentary this morning. but we want to give you an update on one of the president's cabinet positions. dell webber is with bloomberg news and we're talking about the attorney general's pending resonation and the short list for -- resignation and the short list for replacing the attorney general, eric holder. who is emerging on this short list as the replacement for the a.g.? >> there are three names being primarily ban terd about. one is president obama's former white house council. hey were very tight. and a guy