>> to mark a decade of conversations on "q&a," we are featuring a discussion from each year. >> this week on "q&a," our guest is conservative commentator and author katie pavlich, the news editor of townhall.com. she talks about current issues and her new book. >> katie pavlich, a couple of weeks ago, the president of turkey said the following -- "you cannot put women and men on an equal footing. it is against nature.

differently,ated their nature is different, their constitution is different." ofi think the president turkey has some interesting thoughts when it comes to women and he certainly doesn't think they are equal in turkish society. a the united states we have different standard for what equality means for women that isn't that comparable to that in the middle east. >> what is your sense of the balance between men and women? >> i think he has a point in the sense that men and women are created differently, in the sense of their biology, the way they think and do things, the careers they go into, the things they are drawn to -- but in terms of what men and women can do, i believe that women can do the same jobs as men and that we are not created unequally when it comes to the opportunities that we can pursue. >> how is it that someone who is 26 has already written two book

s? >> i moved to d.c. fresh out of college, and i really got my feet wet and worked really hard and said yes to a lot of things. politics is my passion. i have done a lot since i have been here on presidential campaigns, covered scandals, lots of different things inside the media. it has really been a good time to be in d.c., to be a journalist and writer, and i joke with people about living in washington because i say it is dog years. you pack so much information into a day. my favorite part about my job is realizing history in the making. ultyour book came out, "assa and flattery." where did you get that title? >> i came up with it myself. after a lot of different

changes, that was the last one i came up with and the one that stuck. we had a couple of names before that but they weren't as powerful as that one. -- thereand flattery" is a lot of literal assault that happens to women, but also flattery, because that is false compe and complements. -- liments. it describes how women are treated by the left. >> you dedicate your book to merida blog which -- >> she was really a pioneer in her own right. she was the associate director of the university of arizona, in a time when women weren't held and high position. she was a feminist of her time and a pioneer in the says that she did things women had done before. she took on the athletics

department and she did it all by maintaining her status and being a lady and she always had so much class. i looked up to her and she played a big role in my college career. she was there throughout my whole life as a strong, prominent female figure. i miss her and i thought a lot of what was in this book she would relate to. >> you went to the university of arizona? >> i did. >> there's the second person you dedicated the book to. >> i detest every single one of the domestic policies. >> i think that the honorable theleman knows that i have same contempt for his socialist policies as the people of east europe. i think i pointed out that the conservative policies -- they

would rather the gap was back. [shouting] smaller,s the gap is they would rather have -- you do not create welfare and opportunities that way, you do not create democracy that way. >> why margaret thatcher? >> i think her words as before themselves. she was a pioneer in her day. forted phenomenal things the women of not only her country but for the world as a whole. she took on people with grace and class. even people she disagreed with were laughing with her. she had a sense of humor and she really was an amazing role model of women everywhere, a perfect

example of strong leadership and a strong woman, very good at taking on the evils of the world and evil men of the world. i think we saw that with the cold war. she definitely played a big role in my political perspective and i think she left a big mark on history as a strong, powerful woman. >> you have a warning at the front of your book -- i will read it. the vulgarity of many democratic leaders in the so-called women's rights groups this bookd them, contains language suitable for mature audiences only, or at least those with strong stomachs." why did you feel the need to put that out front? >> there are plenty of examples and stories in the book about democratic men from top to in sexuallyed explicit activities with women against their will, sexual abuse and sexual assault, and the

women who claims to be the ones that represent all women who do things like dress up in costumes that are inappropriate and display things that aren't necessarily the best way to make an argument. wanted people-- i to know that i talk about things that are very straightforward. i am not going to sugarcoat it like the media has and i am not going to make excuses for the kind of behavior and the kind of language that is used. it is not me saying these things, it is me quoting women's rights groups and activists and detailing stories about sexual abuse inside public office. "insidechapter titles, the real war against women," "p rofiles and liberal misogyny," and then you have "the c-word." >> it was to get peoples attention and also draw attention to the language and tactics people are using. the reason i decided to write this book came after being on

the 2012 campaign trail. i was following both the romney and obama campaigns, in the reason this book into light was because i was sitting at the dnc convention, and at that time we had already seen this war on women argument, accusing them of and yet at those conventions, after sitting there listening to speech after speech of war on women, not only did clinton, but in between the commercial breaks and newscasts, they played a seven minute long tribute video to ted kennedy, and have the words "women's rights champion." at that point i figured the war on women argument had gone on long enough, and had been monopolized long enough, and someone needed to do something

to point out that ted was anything but a women's rights champion, considering his history with women. that was something that spurred this book. close friend of bill clinton, the governor's state of virginia -- here he is in 2014. we are running and so you can pick up from what he says. there cannot be a starker contrast between the two candidates running for governor. [applause] where everybody to know i stand on the issues -- i'm going to appoint for women every single day. who works the same jobs for less than what a man makes, you are going to get paid the same amount. [laughter] [applause] let them shut down

women's health centers and take away their rights. you help me for the next six months and i will promise you i will be there every day for you. >> your reaction? , the yes-man.iffe the statistics that he quoted in his speech was the $.78 on the dollar -- it has been thoroughly debunked i many economic studies. i look at the studies on women's pay, the pay gap is a myth. it is something that the white house used to get barack obama elected. it is something that terry mcauliffe used to get himself elected. that plays on this idea that women are somehow discriminated against in the workplace and they are not paid the same amount as men when they don't explain that the $.78 on a not comparingrk,

one job that a woman is doing and an equal job that a man is doing. it comes after a lifelong work. details,look at the women tend to work less over a. of a lifetime because they make different choices. they make less money. but instead the left has successfully taken that argument and been very dishonest about where that figure comes from and try to tell women that they are discriminated against, and they will make things equal for them. really, it has been a long time since thing will -- since things were unequal. job?at is your full-time >> my full-time job as a news editor for townhall.com. >> two they pay you equally? -- do they pay you equally? >> yes. com?hat is townhall.

>> we are a political website and we cover stories that people are interested in. we have a team of about 10 and we have expanded over the past couple years. >> you used to be owned by the heritage foundation. what can you tell us about your new owner, salem? >> they are a large company that on us. -- that bought us. atwere started in the 90's the heritage foundation and was turned into a for-profit is this when salem purchased it. it is a christian company and a online's of media outlet. -- and they own lots of media outlets. there are a lot of big radio hosts, and they have the website

spectrum. now we have a publishing company, which published my first book. salem is a big media company and it has expanded from radio to online in the past couple years. >> one of the questions i have is that this book is published by threshold. but it is owned by simon & schuster. are you surprised they would publish a conservative book like this? >> they are actually very tolerant and the kinds of books they publish. the people were great to work with and my editor -- it was fun to work with him on some of the issues and the challenges that we went through and that he brought to my attention. the arguments and counter arguments that were made. by was happy to work with them

and i thought the process went really well. they have different divisions for different kind of books -- different kinds of books. the spectrum of material is wide there. chapter four. camelot."f who were the cretins? >> but men of the kennedy family. -- the men of the kennedy family. you look at the history of the kennedy family and the men, and it is not just one generation of disrespecting women, not only within their family but as a whole. i think joe kennedy set the stage with his treatment of his wife. you look at the consequences for the behavior of the kennedy men, and they have very severe

consequences on the women in their lives -- many committed suicide or were depressed. then you have the women who were abused outside of the kennedy family, including mary jo. she was killed in a car crash. she was loyal to them and willing to help them and yet he left her to cover his own tracks. if you take a hard look at the kennedy family, they have a long history of domestic abuse. thatnk that is something is upheld as an example of american politics and something to be celebrated, as they still do. i think we should still be talking about them in looking at their history. affairs, lovers on

the side, abusing women as if they are disposable. it is something we should take a hard look at and discuss. >> cretan number one -- cretin # 1 is the patriarch, who your right was not comfortable. the man who gifted the world with america's family and always had higher ambitions. in bed withently, anyone other than his long-suffering wife. you weren't even around when he was alive -- how do you know all this? >> there is plenty of extensive research to be done on the kennedys. a lot of research, you can find out a lot about the diaries that have been released, some of the stories that were told about jfk inside the white house. aidess that are told by

close to the kennedys. they are still upheld as this family that should be celebrated and they had a very heavy influence in american policy. i wasn't around but i still think it matters, especially as a young woman in politics. when i see the left glorifying these people, you have to take a look at their history. #2 is john fitzgerald kennedy. and i don't have sex every ," hei get a headache h was told a member of his cabinet, so he decided not to take any chances. runningas consistently

around on his wife, including inside the white house while she was there. the disrespect and level of arrogance and shameless behavior, and yet we can take a look at jfk's policies outside that, but he is held up as this perfect figure, and that is the same party that has been championing women's rights and women's equality and women's dignity, and yet this is the kind of person that is glorified. he set the stage for that kind of behavior. media -- mention the -- book that was written by she had an affair with jfk. how much coverage to this get in the country when her book came out? to the media pay attention to it? >> they paid a decent amount of but thereto it,

weren't really consequences when it came stupid decisions that democrats made. i am not -- the kennedys do get a lot of attention from the media, even though they have these discrepancies. the question is not at this is being covered, the question is that democrats will continue to uphold the family that really has a bad history when it comes to the treatment of women. ethel kennedy got the middle of freedom. #3 is her husband, said to be more timid and family oriented. it is a shame that robert f kennedy joined a long list of unfaithful men. you suggest that he had an affair with jackie kennedy. >> that was done outside of my research. >> do you believe it? >> i reported on it, so i do

believe it aced on the history of the kennedy family. it was aly believe possibility and it has been reported multiple times by significant sources, put forward by people who were close to the kennedy family. it has been reported in multiple outlets. there is plenty of evidence to show that that was a possibility. overu thank your editor the issue of the kennedys. was a difficult of his standpoint to include all this? >> i don't think so. i don't think it was necessarily difficult. i think we had some disagreements about what is fair game and what isn't. but my editor was very excited about the book and thought it was a good idea. he thought it was important to get out there. --creit #4 is ted kennedy

kennedy. is ted >> i was doing research for this book and decided that if i'm going to do research, i need to do a lot of reporting. to attend the national organization for women conference in chicago. the only way you can do that is to become a member or go through the press. i e-mailed and tried to get in and member of the press, considering i've done all this work in washington -- and they denied my credentials as a member of the press, despite being a female member of the press interested in learning more about the con rents and the people involved in their organization. the day beforel and i decided to go anyway. i discovered that the only way to attend the national

organization for women conference is to become a member. so i became a member. i have been a member's is 2013. i have been a member ever since. >> i they are nonprofit? c3.i believe it is a 501 they certainly act like they are in politics. they heavily endorsed certain political positions, that feel like candidates. there are the details of what you cannot cannot do, but they certainly -- what you can and cannot do, but they always certainly happen to fall on the last, endorsing women who have a different perspective. >> what is your problem with ted kennedy? >> it goes back to the idea of thee this book came from,

dnc convention where they were showing distribute video. they were for training him as a women's rights champion, when he left a young woman to drown in his car. and tryd not gone back, save his own behind, she would have probably survived. you can do an entire video at a convention claiming to be preaching and fighting about the war on women, and glorify someone like that while not including that part of his life in a video about his women's rights record. i think that is something that should be discussed and something that people should be reminded of. ted kennedy has gotten a pass on claiming when he is for women and yet he left one to die in his car and didn't pay that big of a consequence for. the didn't run for president, but he was also glorified by the democratic party up until his death. if they want to continue to glorify him i think we need to

continue to criticize him. >> let me show you the other side of this. from june, 2009. the former governor of south carolina, mark sanford, now congressman. >> i have been unfaithful through my life. i have developed a relationship with a dear friend from argentina. begin very innocently, as i suspect these things do, in a casual e-mail back and forth, advice on life. recently, over this last year, it developed into something much more. as a consequence, i hurt her. i hurt you all. i hurt my wife, my boys,

friends, a lot of different folks. all i can say is that i apologize. >> what is your reaction when you see mark sanford -- a conservative district, it didn't seem to bother the people down there. >> he was the governor at that time, and i think we remember when he came out to talk about this. i'm not defending republicans. the difference here is that mark sanford is not being glorified as leader of the republican party. he is not being glorified at rnc conventions like bill clinton would be, who of course goes around the country campaigning for candidates. mark sanford is not doing that. i am not defending the misgivings of politicians in general. there are plenty on both sides of the aisle.

the difference is that the media has a higher standard for republican. -- republicans. those types of people are necessarily glorified at a level of bill clinton are ted kennedy, ionized in the way they are. the republicans are accused of being holier than thou, moralistic, christian -- and then they do things like this and they are still reelected. >> i think that america in general is a very forgiving country. they forgive democrats and republicans for their misgivings, and they do forgive republicans who come from more conservative districts for the mistakes they make. but i think the difference is the way the media treats them and the issues that they claim to be fighting for. when you have people like bill clinton, who was accused of sexual assault, who was part of a movement on the left that claims to be fighting rape

culture, objective indication of women, it is difficult to stomach because they don't add up with it comes to the people they vote for in the things they claim to stand for in terms of women's equality. >> here is another republican, a different kind of a controversy, but it is in the same area we are talking about. fors going to run governor of louisiana. where davidana, that are made his first public appearance tonight in a week. up and what has become known as the d.c. madam sex scandal. he is one of the senate's most conservative members and has long campaigned for legislation as part of his platform for strict family values. ast week, he admitted in statement that he had made some serious mistakes. tonight, the senator and his wife spoke for the first time since.

senatorlican louisiana david better, accompanied by his wife, made his first public appearance today since admitting one week ago that he had been linked to an alleged prostitution ring. >> i want to again offer my deep, sincere apologies to all those i have let down and disappointed with these actions. and completely responsible, i am so very, very sorry. >> you also have some harsh things to say about eliot spitzer. what is your reaction? is -- i am not justifying the actions of republicans. my book is about discussing things with the media that the left doesn't want to talk about, in terms of saying they have these positions about the dignity of women, when the

issues are really only abortion and contraception, and they tolerate these things and allow these people to continue to run their party. -- he is noteld upheld as a hero of the republican party. i certainly have no stomach for him or anyone who behaves in that way. i think prostitution is a horrible situation for women to be in and men who take advantage of it should be scrutinized and condemned. but these things happen on both sides. the issue is that in 2012, barack obama's campaign use the war on women campaign to turn the election, and that is where this idea came from, and they didn't based on promising false things, using false statements, usingerry mcauliffe did, and hinging more than any campaign in history.

argumentis really an about the whole pushing back on that and pointing out that they don't practice what they preach and they talk about women in one way in public differently than they do treat them behind close doors. >> it is well-known that hillary clinton was a hated, divisive political figure, considered a liar by people on the left and the right, until her husband's cheating made everyone feel sorry for her. >> i think that is absolutely true. she was not a popular person in washington before the bill clinton sex scandal began cropping up. before he ran for president and during with monica lewinsky. career clinton built a on playing the victim card and getting to where she is now. for someone who claims to be fighting for women and standing we can talk about

her most recent history of the state department where she didn't address allegations of sexual abuse of minor girls overseas by ambassadors working inside the state department. some were deliberately retaliated against for speaking out against sexual misgivings and abuse. that was a lot of abuse hillary clinton never addressed and tried to brush under the rug. -- there was that that story from "the freaee beacon," where she laughed about getting someone off charges. wasan look at a career that putting up with a philandering husband when you look at her own record for being a champion of women and girls, her record says opposite.

>> how calculating is your language in the book to get people to agree with you? i will give you an example. it shouldn't be this easy for them -- just look at the crowd of creeps and liars who leave the democratic -- who lead the democratic party today. i'm not just talking about bill alleged rapist whose wife used her husband's embarrassing pattern of sexual's conduct and assault to launch her own political career, nor am i referring only to that vittorio's house of horndogs, the kennedy family." at youre you sitting typewriter thinking, the more strident diane -- >> i think what you just read is accurate. i think it is all very true. when you write a book you want butle to buy it, obviously,

i think the language speaks for itself and the language used is accurate. i don't think it is nonfactual. it is heavily documented, the ,ctions of all those people and the mayor of san diego, nancy pelosi helped cover up his abuse of female veterans who had been victims of rape in the military. thel stuff that people on left went out of their way to cover up for years until finally they couldn't do it anymore. the language is there because it is accurate and it is time people stopped sugarcoating it. >> how often have you personally come in contact with people who are oriented in this town to this kind of a lifestyle? >> i spend a lot of time outside of washington, d.c. this kind of thing happens all

the time on both sides of the aisle. but i do not come into contact with that type of behavior because i choose to spend my time outside the beltway. >> who were your role models beside your aunt? >> my mother played a huge role in my upbringing in life. she is a strong, independent careerho started out her working for a railway and npr. she went off to be a professor at northern arizona university and then decided she was a private sector kind of gal. to has been a person to look for paving your own way and doing things with strength and dignity and confidence, and really taking risks. she is certainly someone who i look up to. that aree models

necessarily female -- my father, of course. has servedtownhall as a great example of how to run an organization, how to allow employees to pursue their own interests because it is beneficial to the company as a whole. he has allowed me to pursue different opportunities, which has been helpful to me. he has been very helpful. i had a professor who was helpful in the sense of navigating the college campus atmosphere, determining how i wanted to move forward. they helped to develop me into who i am. i wanted to go into politics and go into journalism and learn how to do those things. there are a lot of them. i am very grateful for all the people who have come into my life to show me things.

when i was growing up, i remember watching the press secretary of the white house and saying, i want to be a press secretary. now i get to work with press secretaries. i am very grateful for that. there are lots of different people i have learned from and looked up to, and also the people i don't necessarily agree with who have taught me great lessons. i think those people are also important. >> you quoted that you might the thinking about running for senate in 2022. >> john mccain is running for reelection in 2016, but if he's not around i might take a shot. >> at the difference between your politics and john mccain? will when i say defend the border i actually mean it. there is a whole other topic,

differences between myself and john mccain. a lot of arizonans are tired. his wishes are not coming true. >> here you are in a speech back in july of this year. i believe july 19. the western conservative summit, talking about something called cronyism. >> the establishment, whenever there is a new idea that comes up from the grassroots, it is immediately put off. i see where that comes from, because when you have been in power for 30 years, you feel threatened and you don't want that power taken away. going back to the point i made at the beginning, you have to take a serious look at where the fight on the right comes from.

aere isn't that big of difference between republicans and democrats and i think it is time or big government republicans to take a hard look at the way they are voting and the way they are in bed with crony capitalism. [applause] that is really easy for people who have been in the senate or to sayress for 30 years, new ideas aren't going to work, when i don't think washington is working very well. >> what is wrong with crony capitalism? >> oh, everything. that doesn't allow the free market to work. it makes it almost impossible for new ideas and businesses and innovative ideas to come up through the economy and through the system. it is a real problem when you have the government in bed with big corporations. those corporations are never going to go away.

that is something people on the left and right have in common in terms of really taking a look at the relationship between the federal government and contractors, and also big banks, or car companies. it doesn't allow the little guy to function, and that is what e american dream is all about. we are seeing the government now working directly with insurance companies and mandating that people have insurance. the insurance companies love it because everyone has to buy insurance. sidesk it happens on both and i think we are going to have a huge problem when it comes to falling into that same trap of claiming they are all about the free market, but when it comes to the people they are working with inside d.c., scratching their backs for a campaign

donation for policy they can use. i think it is a problem that needs to be solved by limiting government. >> with you think mitch mcconnell will be as leader of the senate? >> there is a long list of things he wants to do in terms of -- to do. in terms of crony capitalism, i'm not sure much will be done about it. i think he has a long list of other priorities ahead of dealing with crony capitalism. in 2012, "morning joe" talked about something you write about in your book. but get your reaction. -- let's get your reaction. >> president obama drew a -- thet between

president's reelection campaign just launched the life of julia, a fictional character. tell us about her. thate of the things people do is create viral content for the web. this is one that maybe viral in the wrong way, that is a lot bigger on the republican side than it is on the democratic side. of the life of julia takes her from age 3 to age 67 and everything will point along the way, the government is giving her a hand. it helps her get student loans, helps her get a business loan, she is a web designer, and in the end the government helps her with retirement so she can work in a community garden. >> do you remember what your reaction was when you first saw this? >> i remember my reaction as a who theingle woman obama administration was trying to target, of being completely

appalled and offended that they would ink that a young woman like me needs the government to subsidize my life from cradle to grave. what they don't explain in a life of julia is that a life of dependency -- what it was trying to portray was that dependency is empowerment when it is exactly the opposite. depending on the government for everything limit your freedom and opportunities and the life.ty of there was no doing things on your own, it was doing things from a government that doesn't care about julia. . write about this in the book where was the life of john? the obamathat campaign only felt like they needed to make a life of julia and that women are the only side of the gender spectrum that needed to be helped along the way?

i thought it was dishonest, portrayal ofnot a what life is really like under complete dependence of government, and quite frankly, the left -- it was sexist. they didn't produce a life of john. >> did it work? >> i think the life of julia backfired but i think as a whole it got more women. i don't think the life of dependency was that effectives in gaining voters. i don't think that voters really want to go to the government for everything. when it came to targeted issues like contraception, that certainly works. it is turned on the right to argue that they wanted to ban contraception which was a complete fallacy, and brought up into the national debate by george stephanopoulos.

issues with government handouts and government doing things for women, i think that was thoroughly rejected. the right gets very upset about the mainstream media and the politics of the mainstream media. theif you look at salem, head of salem ran for congress wants, he is very much -- congress wants. once. are on radio stations all the time for candidates. upset about the mainstream media, why is the right-wing media doing the same thing? >> i think there is a difference between conservative talk radio , because them

washington post and the new york times parade as middle-of-the-road, moderate outlets that don't have a bias, when really, everyone has a bias. i just wish we would all be honest. i am a conservative writer and reporter and i am happy to offer opinions but i am also very interested in pursuing -- even though where i am coming from is a more transparent way then pretending like the new york times and washington post do, that they are straight news when we all have biases and biases can come in many forms. i as a conservative reporter and probably going to cover the food stamp issue differently than a liberal reporter. that is not necessarily because we are thinking on an agenda, it

is because we think of that issue differently, we are wired differently than the opposite. think some outlets can stay moderate, but in general, the biases on both sides and i think if we can all open up about it and understand where we are coming from we can have a more t debate. >> you write about doy ougotinsurance.com. in that copy, it says he's hot, let's hope he's as easy to get at this birth control. what is this? ng this is an advertisi

campaign, put out by a far left group. they were trying to promote obamacare and the "free" contraception. people behind the fat were male, into me, this advertisement completely does the opposite of what feminist say they want, it objective eyes women, -- it fies women, defining them by the pills they take. it is offensive and a huge step back in terms of how we think of portrayd why you would women in the sense of they are only interested in getting someone in between the sheets. i feel like it is the opposite of what the 1960's feminism was about and certainly what the earliest movement was about.

if they want to argue that you can't object if i women that you can't have advertisements like that, showing women as only useful for one thing. >> here is another one, brosu rance. crazyays kagan stands are -- keg stands are crazy and not having insurance is crazier. what is the point of this? >> this campaign was put out trying to get young people into the obamacare exchanges. the healthy young people are supposed to be subsidizing the sast insured people -- the les insured people. but this portray's young man as , and it shows this irresponsibility of not wanting to prioritize are spending.

down to the left saying to young people, don't worry about prioritizing and being and adult, just pay into this system that will be subsidized by taxpayers. from whatstraction they are ultimately trying to do, take away personal responsibility. >> to your book came out in july but in this book you read about bill cosby. >> in the news recently we have seen that bill cosby has come back into the news because of some allegations of sexual abuse and rape throughout the course of his career. i wrote about him in this book this summer, far before these new allegations, which are really old allegations which are coming to light. i talk about him because i talk about him and his overall

argument about how hollywood objectifies women, how they -- whenmen, seeing them you look at the stories that are told about how directors treat young girls, the kinds of think they're going to portray and the careers they are expected to have, and when they have a situation where someone like bill cosby -- they are told to shut up and be quiet because hollywood is protecting the old boys club. there are a lot of women in hollywood who have experienced the situations. i wrote about bill cosby because he was given a pass for a long time. they be this time he won't be given one. hollywood has a habit of pushing bad behavior by powerful men in the industry under the rug.

behavior is not only condoned what they have been celebrated and defended by people like woody allen. the kind of people who they uphold as liberals are supposed to be fighting for women, and treating women as more than sexual objects, and they are actually doing the opposite. asyou quote whoopi goldberg excusing the instant of roman polanski. know it wasn't rape-rate, it was something else." >> this goes back to what we discussed earlier about how it is a standard -- how the standard for republicans is much higher than it is for liberals. goldberg is an example. you have a republican say

"rape-rape" and he is condemned. she isn't held accountable for that and it is not just that she wasn't held accountable, it's -- hollywood as a whole pe-rape" evenra though it she was underage and that allows it to happen again. women aren't willing to stand up to that behavior and say, it was rape, it was wrong. >> another you write about is "girls." has -- why has lena dunham been so popular? >> her discussions about treating her sick sister and acting like a sexual predator -- she describes it in her own

book, luring her sister into doing strange things. before this point of controversy she had gotten a lot of attention because she does things for sex. she writes things, she appears naked a lot inside her show. she portray trays young women in a way that is helpless, needy, unsuccessful. sheep are traced this disheveled life as something that should be celebrated, as of living off your parents is ok. the shock value, but at some point shock value runs out. i think people are holding her accountable now. >> when in your life did you know that you were a conservative? >> i get that question a lot. i think that i always knew.

i think it was a kitchen table kind of thing. they never sat me down and describe the differences. but they were talking about things affecting our family. i was hearing in learning these things as an observer, but i do know that when i was six, i wrote a letter to bill clinton about tax policy and explained to him that it was unfair that he was sending -- he was spending our money. not, i i knew what are was passionate about the subject of politics and interested in how certain policies affected my family. >> you talk about single women covering political campaigns, noticed the tactics used to woo female voters are similar to the dating world. then you say democrats pull up in a shiny car, offer false compliments. they try to impress by throwing around lots of cash. they lied to you and tell you they are interested in you, but

really they're interested in using you before they move on to the next woman. a bank on you thinking with what is between your legs instead of what is in your head will stop they end up driving off with another girl in the shiny car they can't afford." what do the republicans do? difference? >> [laughter] it wasn't necessarily dating a liberal, it was comparing the behavior of people who can't afford something to impress you but are just interested -- it talks about the reason it is called "assault and flattery." the obama administration has been good at that. asmacare was sold to women this amazing program that we give them more access to health care, more access to doctors,

cheaper insurance, when we have seen the exact opposite. we have seen premiums increase by as much as 100%, 7 out of 10 doctors retiring early, we have seen the networks of doctors who are available that are available shrink. they came forward and said you were going to get all these free things, they wooed andn into voting for them, now this piece of legislation has had a detrimental effect. this,will not hold you to but if you were to -- your instinct today as to who will be president in 2016, who do you think it will be? can i give you a couple options?

i think that hillary clinton is going to run, i don't think she is going to win. i think she is a bad candidate and we have seen that over the past few years. i don't think she is as great of a candidate as people are making her out to be. on the republican side, who i want to see as president -- i like scott walker. alike bobby jindal. -- i like bobby jindal. goodnk they would make leaders, good presidents, that their executive experience would be much more helpful in terms of cleaning up the messes made over the past eight years, that maybe someone who has just been in the senate. >> what would your reaction be if jeb bush was the candidate? >> my reaction would be republicans would lose. >> why? >> if you look at the pattern in history of republican candidates, a lot of candidates

were similar to jeb bush. i think jeb bush, although he has some good things to offer, doesn't have a lot of support the conservative base. he is a candidate very similar to the one before. a lot of baggage comes with his last name and i don't think the country is going to vote for another bush. >> katie pavlich, news editor of hall.com. her book is "assault and flattery." thank you for joining us. >> thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] for free transcripts are to give us your comments about this program, is that is at q-

and-a.org. their also available a c-span podcasts. -- they are also available as c-span podcasts. this month's the 10th anniversary of our sunday primetime program "q&a," and we are featuring an encore presentation from each year. from 2005, kenneth feinberg's interview. bunch.06, lonnie from 2007, robert novak. 2008, the value of higher education. from 2009, as the cup. a decade of compelling conversations.

>> tomorrow. national institutes of health director francis collins talks about the challenges facing cancer research. he spoke and described shrinking federal resources. >> it is amazing to see the insights. and they're coming out of all storts of technologies we didn't have. imaging. the whole genomics. the efforts to understand sort of the details of clinical types and the advent of electronic health records. all these things coming together in a way that i would not imagine would happen many my lifetime and yet we are not nurturing that engine of discovery the way we could be. a standard that ihi