over there. then you've got libertarians then people that are just really, really, really, five reallies, conservative. so that's the exotibbling group over here. -- exotic group over here. i would argue what's happening and weird things happening on the conventional side are totally different from the things happening on the more exotic side. on the more conventional side i think what we see, if someone told us two years ago jeb bush is absolutely positively going to run for president, what would ost of us have assumed? that he would lock up about half of the conventional party, and it is about half, he would lock up almost immediately and would have a very, very, very good chance of winning the overall republican nomination.

if bush doesn't one and then chris christie, there were a group of people that thought they could or would do really well and what's happened is they've all underperformed and walker is already gone but it's left this big vacuum in the conventional side of the party that nobody anticipated. and so, now, what was going on here? well, first with bush. i think you can say first that the bush brand has been kind of dinged up some. this is not the brand dad left in 1992 or that w inherited in 2000. and i kind of wrote a column a year or so ago where i likened it to jeb bush is kind of the teenager whose older brother wrecked the family car just before you need it had for homecoming or prom or something and it's not your fault that he wrecked it and you have to deal with the consequences and so

there's that but closely associated with that is that the bush brand that was once a terrific brand in the republican party but it's also, w notwithstanding, it is associated with sort of conventional historic, traditional republican establishment and that that has taken on a bad thing. that's the sort of the bush part. then we've already talked about the ideological part where the republican party has just simply moved way, way over to jeb -- to dad's right to w's right to jeb's right has moved way over. so that's part of it. but i also think that there's one other factor here and that, you know, when i look at -- i hardly know jeb. i met him a couple of times. i don't know him well at all, but he strikes me -- jeb bush always struck me as a smart guy and an intellectually honest guy.

not a chameleon in any way, shape or form and he's being asked to take changes in what he feels is important and both in terms of substantive issue positions as well as rhetoric, take on a rhetoric that i think the guy is just really, really uncomfortable doing. and, now, conversely, hillary clinton was more than happy to go ahead and move over on keystone and trade and things like that, but bush is showing sort of a lot -- a considerable resistance and so it's not only created a political problem but it comes across like -- it's almost like his heart's not in this and that the guy that was sort of an 800-pound gorilla when he was governor of florida who exuted strength and confidence and great certainty and now we're sort of not seeing that anymore.

i had a c.e.o. of a big company that dealt with him a lot when he was governor say, you know, that guy when he walked into a room, you knew somebody had just walked in a room and he just projected this air and he says, i don't see this happening now. and i think we're seeing that in the debates. we're seeing it in interviews. we're seeing it on the campaign trail so that, you know, underperforming is not even -- is an understatement but where he's at a position where he's going to have to turn things around. e needed to the other night. in the next couple two, three, four weeks because i don't think he's getting any new donors onboard and there are big bundlers and fundraisers in the party that was prepared to go his way but sit back a little bit and they're not jumping onboard right now and they're starting to look at rubio or other folks so we're - i think the idea that the --

and exists facing ential threat. vacuum. and then chris christie. i think with him, a lot of his momentum was back when there was uncertainty about where jeb bush would run and that i think a lot of the people that were pushing christie, perhaps, particularly in the new york metropolitan area, new jersey, all of that that once it became clear that jeb bush was going to run, it was like the wind came out of his sails and then you had the bridge mess and then a little bit -- not that much, but a little bit of the jersey state finances. but what is chris christie's

schtick? the big tough guy that will shot, he truth, he got out donald trump stole his act. trump and chris christie are totally different people. but that role sort of got stolen and while you watch christie in the debates -- and he's actually -- i think he's pretty good but he's never been able to recover or match up to what those expectations were. -- let's do get to marco rubio and john kasich next and then we'll go over to the other side of the party. with marco rubio, to me, you're looking at the best raw talent. if we were talking about sports, you would say that marco rubio is the best all-round athlete in this race,

that he's got a very, very, very good skill set and that when he announced -- you know, if you look at his announcement speech -- not in terms of skills but also in terms of reach, if you look at his announcement speech, it was about hope, opportunity, the american dream. it was the sweeping inspirational, aspirational speech that was not unlike obama, i might add, but the thing about it is the incomes night i had dinner with a democratic strategist who said was like, you know, a democrat could have given 80% of rubio's speech. because it wasn't ideological, it wasn't partisan. it was a message that could resonate across a lot of lines and particularly to independent and moderate voters. now, that's really good. the fact is the clinton folks have been terrified from marco rubio from the very beginning

going after latino voters but the other thing is going after younger voters where republicans have had such a really hard time. if a republican can close the gap -- i mean, for example, obama's strongest age group in the 2012 general election was 18-29-year-olds. he got 23 -- he won that group by a 23-point margin. mitt romney's best group, 65 and older. he won them by 12. if a republican could cut into the democratic margins among younger voters, wow, that would be huge. but the problem, though, is that he's running a general election campaign not unlike bush but while running for a republican presidential nomination. in other words, he needs to be throwing red meat to the party base and he hasn't been throwing that kind of red meat which is why i think rubio, you know, he's moving up in the polls but not moving up at a pace that you might think but it's because he's -- he seems

to be running as much for a general election as for a nomination and i suspect that kind of needs to change. and then you get to john kasich. i knew john was in the house and i liked him a lot. i haven't talked to him much when he became governor. i say as marco rubio has the best skill set, i'd argue that john kasich is probably the most qualified person running in either party right now if you think about it. you know, 18 years as a member of the house back when it was a functioning institution. you know, remember the house armed services committee, the entire time he was there which is sort of checking that national security box. you know, governor of ohio. that's kind of a big deal. you think of -- then you think, wait, it's ohio. no republicans ever won the presidency without winning ohio. then you look at sort of ideologically where he is, and i always thought of the electorate like a bell curve, a

slightly asymmetric where the center of the bell curve is maybe 40, 45-yard line on the right side because the country is a little bit more conservative than liberal but slightly asymmetric and then kasich is on the, say, 35, 40-yard line, which is, you know, in the same sort of zone with bush and rubio. and so it's not optimal to win a republican nomination but, boy, it sure as heck is a pretty good place to be in a general election. and so kasich has all these strings. but then he's got one shortcoming and he's -- and i is that -- again, alluded to earlier that i have adhd which is no surprise to the people that work with me -- thatted a rale or rid lynn would probably change john kasich's life. you've never seen a highly

successful person as unfocused and undisciplined as john kasich and whether it's watching his announcement -- h that was the sort of i compare him to ted cruz. ted cruz duss this announcement speech that he memorized -- does this announcement speech that he memory -- memorized. perfect. but what about kasich? there's not a teleprompter. i don't think there was a speech written, to be honest. he just kind of got up and went on the string of conscious thing for close to 50 minutes. john, john, hey, this is kind of an important event here. that sort of thing. i'm aware of a fundraising phone call he made within the last month to someone and this guy -- big republican donor-type, very wealthy

person. and it became clear that kasich was having at least one, possibly two other conversations with people in the room with him while he was on the phone to this really, really rich donor type and the guy finally said, john, if you want to talk to me on the phone, call me when you're not having other conversations. you can't do that. anyway, point of all this is i think if bush doesn't get stuff together real quickly, and i think it may not quite be too late, but you're going to see rubio take the conventional thing. christie's showing some sign of life and things but i think it's going to be more rubio. so let's go over to the exotic side. i got to really, really speed up here. donald trump is clearly tapping into this visceral anger. he is a -- it's like giving the finger to career politicians

and to the establishment. and -- or let me do it differently. let's say you have people that are sort ofess traininged from the -- of estranged from the establishment and they're looking at whatever is the tit ute opposite, the an cisof -- and for some, and it tends to skew a little bit more blue collar, a little bit more male, a little bit younger but not exclusively in any of those things. their idea is donald trump. he's the opposite of a politician in their mind. he's angry, he says what's on his mind, he doesn't care what anybody thinks and it's a pretty good act. and so one group gravitated to him. but then there's the second group and these are not people -- there are people just as estranged but they're not angry so much. and these are people that are

gravitating to ben carson and hey see him as a kind, decent, gentle man and gentleman and they see him as someone -- and he's a role model. they see him as someone, you know, this is what politicians ought to be like who tell the truth and are fundamentally decent people. and then so in their mind -- and it tends to skew a little bit more white collar and upscale, deeply religious. a lot of -- not a lot of them but a lot of it is about religion. but in their mind, ben carson is the opposite. and then in a somewhat smaller group it's carley fiorina. business person, you know, hard charging woman, business person, doesn't fit the mode of a career politician either over here. nd so a lot of it is sort of socioeconomics, it's temp represental. what are you looking for -- temperamental.

what are you looking for in this half of the party? we look at the republican party as sort of country clubbers and that's exaggeration. it was never completely that true but it wasn't entirely untrue either. keep in mind now that roughly half of the republican party is college educated but roughly half is not. a lot of these are or their parents were conservative democrats who moved over into the republican party and has completely changed the mix of the republican party. and so they have moved over. now, the thing is i think -- my colleague, amy walter, wrote a column over the summer where she said about nomination politics that summer is for dating and winter is for mating. and i thought -- i've heard -- i've heard republican voters say, particularly last summer, that this was like walking into

a baskin robins and the 31 flavors of candidates up there and they got the wooden spoon. they're tasting a little bit of all of them and they're having a great time. the establishment is petrified but the voters are having a great time because they never had a selection that was quite like this. now, the question is, we already seen trump's averages start to come down. carson has sort of slanted him in some. let me -- sue planted him in some. supplanted him in let me rant a little bit. whatever is the new poll, and even though they have no earthly idea who the pollster is -- and nobody's ever heard of this pollster before and it's like, polls have become a commodity. they're all the same. and remember a few years back, there was a firm out of atlanta who turned out they were making stuff up.

[laughter] and i saw this morning some people on a morning show who were going crazy over a couple state polls that i never heard of the pollster before. ever. d like -- you know, any of you. you could -- what's your mother's maiden name? tata. tata research just came out with a poll that shows -- and the thing is, you could get it on television. i shouldn't say this. this is on c-span. and so i will. but -- and they give it just as much credence as if it was nbc-"wall street journal" or cbs/"new york times" poll. really. i'm going to -- i think that as t gets closer to february 1, february 8, the new hampshire

primary, i think as it gets from the sort of dating around phase or the having a little bit of this or that, i really -- and i think we've already seen it with trump. the act is starting to -- the novelty is wearing off. the act is starting to wear thin and people are noticing that he knows very, very little about very, very few of these things. and start to see it fade. now, i think carson is going to have some legs and that he'll last a little longer. funny thing about -- the trump and carson vote is not interchangeable because -- take for the carson-type voters. they see donald trump as this vain and profeign man who brags about having been on the cover of "playboy" magazine fully clothed. that's a little inconsistent about the people, the deeply religious faith-based people who are backing ben carson, who

is the antithesis of donald trump. so we're talking about different constituencies here, but when you listen to carson -- i'm sure, first of all, as a neurosurgeon, gosh knows the guy has twice the i.q. points of any of us in this room but when you listen to him it is clear. he knows very, very little about any of these things and that -- and when you heard him trying to talk about the debt -- when asked about the debt limit recently and it became clear he didn't know what it was. now, the question is, once you get into caucuses and primaries, once you get from messing around, dating around down to getting to who is going to be the republican nominee, who can beat -- win a general election, who do you want to be the commander in chief to deal with all these problems, i suspect you're going to see this start to kind of fade down a little bit. nd i think it's going to go to

someone, this more exotic wing of the nomination, it's going to go to someone who is a vehicle for that anger, that outsider but knows more, is sort of more -- is not quite as sort of flawed in one way or another. and obviously trump and carson are very different people than some of these others. now, could it be a carley fiorina, could it be a ted cruz, who could it be? well, carley fiorina in a funny sort of way -- i know i am in overtime here. but carley fiorina to me is a -- someone e of how who never held elected office and shouldn't necessarily know about a lot of these foreign policy issues and things, man, she has flat been to school. she's studied this stuff. she knows these issues inside and out and she is honed in.

she is on message. and the thing about it is what carson and trump don't know and understand about public policy clearly fiorina has figured it out. and she's -- and she is -- watching her in these debates she's really, really, really very good but i think fiorina's challenge is this. the fact there doesn't seem to be a campaign underneath her which is a deal-breaker once you get into primaries and caucuses but the question is who is going to control her narrative? is her narrative going to be a smart, decisive c.e.o. of a company in a very difficult time for that industry who had a board that went rogue on her and pushed her out? is that going to be her narrative, or is her narrative failed be a flawed and c.e.o. who was pushed out and has become sort of untouchable

in some ways? i mean, like, usually you think about baseball or football. you know, a manager, a coach, whatever, they get fired from one team, what happens? they pop back up someplace else. and c.e.o.'s are oftentimes like that. where did carly fiorina pop back up? or go on corporate boards. i mean, you could make a fabulous living going on the boards of big companies and as a woman, former c.e.o. of a big company, you know, you ought to think about boards and other than taiwanies of semiconductors, i never heard of any company that put her on a board. you think of, that tells me that narrative will likely go a bad place for her. and then you get to ted cruz. now, remember i talked about how kasich may have been the most qualified of all these -- certainly republican candidates and cruz -- i mean, and that rubio probably had the best skill set in terms of skill

set, but one thing that rubio, that fiorina and cruz share relentless, focused, discipline. i mean, they are -- they are absolutely on task and nothing you can say or do will sort of peel them off of what they are planning to say which is a very, very valuable commodity in politics. but to me when i look at cruz, i see somebody who -- and, again, look, i'm a registered independent, very middle of the road guy. i don't agree with ted cruz on a whole lot, but when several of us had dinner with him last year and just in the back room of a steak house and sitting across the table and listening to him, cruz said things that the day before i would have thought were crazy and that the next day i did think in fact were crazy, but you know what, when he said it didn't sound crazy. [laughter] in fact, it made of a heck of a

lot of sense and to me this guy is brilliant. number two, he is a very, very, very skilled communicator. it's not -- it's -- you can't listen to him and say, wow, this guy was a championship debator in college. and then finally, is just focused and he's got a strategy. and you notice he's never criticized trump. he's never criticized carson because he wants to inherit. he believes that their support is going to start melting off and we're already starting to see trump melt off and he wants to be there to be the remainder man. to sort of pick up the support. and you don't do it by telling people that their first choice was a stupid first choice. that's not how you do it. so i'm watching cruz as the guy that i think -- and i don't have data to support this -- is most likely to be the person that inherits this outsider, more exotic side of the republican party.

and so that's how i see it. real quickly, first of all, this election is going to be about change and it's going to be what kind of change do you want? do you want risky change, more safe form of change? and that was something that peter hart was saying the other day. what kind of change do you want? but to me, you say, is this going to be time for change election or about changing american demographics? and if it's time for a change, it almost inevitably leads to republicans winning it or demographics, that could be a challenge for the republican party. that -- and this is going to be -- one thing is, we're waiting to get the rest of the new nbc/"wall street journal" poll. their september poll they ask, would you rather see a democrat or republican elected president? 37/37 either 27/27 or -- or 38/38. then candidates, events, circumstances, toward of start

leaning one way or the other. sort of watch that real quickly in the senate and then we need to open it up. senate, and this room knows most of the people watching c-span would know the senate is 4 republicans, 46 democrats. now, one thing that's important to remember about the senate and that is that we've gone of late into this boom-bust cycle. 2000 -- john edwards used to talk about two americas and i agree. i don't do the haves and have not. i have presidential election american and mid term election america. and in presidential election america it's broad, it looks like what the census bureau reports but mid term election, turnout is 60%. it's older, wider, more conservative, more republican. so when you see that, it's just a different, different, different environment.

so what we're having, 2008, democrats have a great year. win the presidency. pick up seats in the house and senate. 2010, republicans have a great year, pick up house and senate seats. 2012, presidential year again. democrats get re-elected in the presidency. pick up house and senate. 2014. so it creates this boom-bust cycle. but keep in mind, six-year terms in the senate. if you're republican and elected in a mid term election year, congratulations. you just had a 70 -- you won with a 70-mile-an-hour wind at your back. but guess what, six years later, you're up in a presidential year or the other way around. you're a democrat, elected in a presidential year, congratulations. you just had a 70-mile-an-hour wind at your back. six years later you're up in a mid term election. really, really different. so last year, 2014, democrats had a whole bunch of seats up and they were in really, really, red republican states and they just got completely hosed. that's a political science

term. [laughter] 2016, the shoe's on the other foot. republicans had 24 -- these are the seats that were up in the 2010 republican wave election. republicans have 24 seats up. democrats only have 10. but more importantly, republicans have seven seats that are up in states that obamacare -- there are zero -- excuse me, zero democratic seats up in romney states. now, one of those republican states, one of those republican seats is in an obama state is chuck grassley and he's not going to lose. basically you got six republican seats that are in real, real, real danger here. and conversely, you only have one on the democratic side. that's in nevada. now, if you ask each side, well, what's one more? and republicans would love to talk about colorado, but that doesn't look that promising against michael bennet. democrats would like to say

richard burr and north carolina. it's really six and one. you look at mark kirk in illinois, good guy. but if he got re-elected it would be an enormous upset. frankly, i think ron johnson in wisconsin would be something of an upset. then you look at some republicans, it wouldn't be in those that have significant challenges. rob portman in ohio. pat toomey in pennsylvania. kelly ayotte in new hampshire. and then finally rubio's open seat in florida. so six republican seats that are a prime vulnerable versus harry reid's vulnerable seat in nevada, the only one on the democratic side. in my mind, i would bet you if you went to mitch mcconnell or -- and you gave him a shot of

sodium penethal and you gave him a choice, you want to take a two-seat senate loss or do you want to take your chances in the election? i bet you he'd take that two-seat loss and run like a thief. at would be i think pretty realistically best for republicans, dropping from 54 to 52. i think a three-seat loss is more -- is more plausible. it would take republicans down to 51. wow, that starts getting close. and four seats is entirely possible. that's 50/50. and, you know, which way is the presidential race going to go in terms of tiebreaking in the senate and five seats is not out of the question. but also keep in mind that some of the very closest senate race states are also some of the very closest presidential. like florida, like ohio, like new hampshire, like nevada. so that it's not necessarily true that as it goes

presidentially it will also go in the senate but keep in mind whatever's the turnout dynamics, whatever's the issue agenda, whatever's going on in each of these states, for one, is also there on the other so that there is some connection there that you could see more of a pop one way or the other. and so we're looking at a real -- a heck of a race for the senate underneath what is obviously one of the weirdest and most fun presidential races we've ever seen. now, i've gone overtime but i know -- i think we have time for some questions or comments or accusations. i know we got some microphones here and i'm told there's also a way to tweet questions in. those of you watching elsewhere can do that. but questions, comments, accusations. and i think you're supposed to state your name and what organization you're representing or with. so anybody?

my god. did i answer -- oh, you have ome. wow. these are two good ones. first, how can establishment republicans win in a populist friendly year? and i guess that -- i mean, that's a great, great, great question although to me trump is more populist. carson is less. populism is going on but it's not the only thing going on. and to me i don't really call what carson is doing as populism. i mean, it's something different and it's something that's big and meaningful but i think it's something that's other than populism. that's a really good question and where clearly -- either one of two things happen. either republicans change their

stripes and do something that they've only done once since the end of world war ii or like 2012 where they sort of flirt with all this and really do this and ended up doing that. that's one course. the other course is they just go with someone that's outside of the box or that's running from the outside. see, that's sort of my cruz argument is that he is an has better he candidate skills than trump or carson. he's smart. he knows this stuff. he knows the issues and in a debate he would be very, very formidable. that's why i think you could ave a somewhat populist or outsider run and possibly win the republican nomination but that it is one that's got -- that doesn't have some of the shortcomings, candidate shortcomings that both trump

and carson have. but let's face it, the republican establishment is under siege. i mean, gosh, look what happened to the r.n.c. after that debate. they are trying to shift it quickly from being defense to offense once again. how, if, can jeb turn things around? i think -- i think he's trying to build -- put kind of an edge back in. i mean, if i were -- look, i have a very high opinion of jeb bush. i'd give him a b-12 shot. i personally like five-hour energies and just pound them away and, you know, maybe a little bit more -- some caffeine. you know. and say, you know, and -- you know how you kind of -- i have -- you've seen before a football game where some of the football players bang heads, you know, before the game? it's like a pair of rams.

just sort of psyching themselves up for a game. and this guy needs to get psyched up. if i -- i'd say whatever i needed to say. you want to go to thanksgiving having lost a -- look across the table? i'd say whatever i needed to say to get him angry, to get him passionate and to sort of get him to show that this is -- that this is not something that he -- and i don't think he thinks it's his right or that he's inheriting it or anything. no, i don't think that a all but i do think it's the perception out there and he is a different person than his brother. maybe he's better. maybe he's not. he's a different person. but to be honest, i don't think this is a campaign problem. i think this is just a -- it's a -- i think he's got rotten luck about what when he's right. he won the florida governor's

rate in 2004 and w not. it's both timing and he's got to show he desperately, desperately wants this and will -- as he said the other day not terribly convincing would chew on nails first day in the morning. so more questions. es, sir. there's a mic right there. >> given the impact of donald trump's campaign turned this basically into a schoolyard politics, how do you see that impacting campaigns moving forward? ill they be more less genteel? charlie: i don't know. i think jen tilt started going out a while back because -- is trump going to be a role model for some candidacies -- candidates in the future?

yeah, i think so. i think so. now, i think there's only one donald trump and that's something probably a lot of us are grateful for. [laughter] and that he really is a -- something of a performance artist and where -- you know, it's funny, for a guy that's never been involved in politics before he seems to have a very, very real understanding of how the media works, how to manipulate the media, how to take advantage of it which is kind of interesting for someone that's never run for anything before. but i'm tempted to say that trump is part of a trend that e're seeing towards more outside, passionate, agery. it's part of a trend that we've already seen but i think also he is a pretty unique character. and so it's not something we're going to see exactly like manifest itself like that but

we're going to see a lot of little trumps coming up along the way. but he is awfully unique. i mean, he really, really, really is. the other thing about trump, to me, is i don't know this is a guy that could deal well-being in second place for a very long period of time. i don't think his ego could really take that. keep in mind he's only into this for $2 million so far. you can look up in the house and senate and find a heck of a lot of people up there or people that didn't make it there that put in far more than $2 million of their own money. you know, he said at one point that he'd spend $100 million if necessary. well, first of all, let's just assume he's liquid enough and that he can but $100 million, do you know what that represents? obama and romney each spent $1 billion in that election. so $100 million, you know, it's

more than pocket change but i don't think he'd see the republican party, republican party donors, you know, stepping behind him to kind of pick up the tab for him. i don't think that many people jump up and pick up the tab for donald trump. i do think we're seeing politics go for a time to a very, very different place. and that's why i think it's important that while i personally don't think that carson and trump are going to go the distance and win the republican nomination, i think that that anger that they give voice to, that they are vehicles for that anger, i think that's real and i don't underestimate that at all. that's going to carry on. the question is, who's going to be the jockey that rides that anger through to the finish line? and i'm just -- my hunch is it's not trump or carson. right over here. >> do you see any viable scenario in which the

republicans lose the house? charlie: any viable scenario that republicans lose the house , well, first of all, the most -- it's hard. i mean, it's really, really, really, really hard and would take an enormous amount of effort to lose the house and that because -- basically democrats would have to hold onto 100% of their seats and when every single republican seat that's in any danger at all, 100% of those, which rarely, rarely happens and then starts knocking off people that aren't even appearing to be vulnerable at all and just given where people live population patterns, given where the congressional district boundaries are, boy, this is really, really hard. if you're going to tell me, ok, republicans have lost the house in 2016, what happened? i would assume one of two

things. trump's name is on the general election ballot. either as a republican nominee or independent. and i don't think he's going to run as an independent. i don't know if carson would do that or not. but the thing about it is republicans -- i think speaker ryan owes speaker boehner a lot because -- well, a year or so ago tom cole, who i think the world of, said something about taking all the sharp instruments out of the room. and by doing a debt ceiling and a budget deal they did remove the instruments that would be most likely to -- for them to impail themselves. look, you never want to say never. but it's awfully, awfully, awfully hard. if i were republicans i could

say -- republicans should be worried about the damage they're doing to their franchise both internally, within the house of representatives. when i think of 40-something members that thought that paul ryan's not conservative enough it's like, wow, this is -- this is really, really interesting. and that -- and i do think that a month or so ago, eric cantor, who, yeah, he let his district get out from under him but is a really, really smart guy but cantor wrote a piece in i think it was a "wall street journal" op-ed piece that he warned conservatives of following leaders who are misleading them. and have given them -- there is this pervasive view among conservatives that we were told -- and i think the establishment played into this a little bit. we were told if we elect a republican majority to the

house and to the senate that we could repeal obamacare, we could turn back all the e.p.a. regs, we could undo everything obama's done and democrats have done and put forth our agenda and get a bunch of things done. and the next day actually speaker boehner warned of false profits, the same sort of thing. it sort of ignores some basic civics that you may have a majority in the house and a majority in the senate but until you have veto-proof -- if you don't have the presidency, if you don't have filibuster-proof majorities, you don't have that kind of control. so these conservative voters feel like they were misled. we were promised we could get all of this done and to them

republican leaders, obviously they could get all these things done and they have chosen not to. well, they didn't choose not to, they couldn't. look at the rules, look at how the place works. that is i think primary source of all this you're seeing within the republican party is they think they got lied to. nd the thing is it was exaggeration. put us in office and we can do x, y, z and they took it literally and they feel betrayed by their leaders and their leaders exaggerated somewhat. you can't do that unless you have filibuster, veto-proof majorities, you can't do the things that you guys so desperately want to do. so another question in the room r --

is there a path to victory for the g.o.p. in colorado senate? cory art aleck says, get gardner leave one seat to run for another. here is the challenge for republicans. number one, it's a presidential year as opposed to a mid term year so the electorate in colorado -- colorado is one of the closest states to being 50-yard line states out there. but it's a big difference between -- between presidential year and mid term year, number one. number two, mark udall was from a storied family in democratic politics, but the thing is i don't think he was a natural politics. he's a really good guy. i don't think he was a natural politics. and while michael bennet is relatively speaking new to politics, wow, i think his

understanding of politics and of campaigns and how to win is very, very, very highly developed and i don't think he is as beatable as udall was. finally, there's only one cory gardner that we can -- you know, i haven't seen -- you show me another cory gardner, someone that could cut into independents, cut into moderates, who can cut against the problems that party is facing in umpteen different groups and that person could win a general election. so far republicans haven't found someone there yet. so i'm pretty skeptical there. and to be perfectly honest, it's a different set of -- i'm fairly skeptical of north carolina. does sanders outreach to white male voters something the g.o.p. with key demographics -- rt the g.o.p. with key demographics? to me, yes, bernie

sanders' supporters is overwhelmingly white and that -- but i think the white males that bernie sanders is winning onboard are not voters that have been swing general election voters in a long time, if ever. i'm trying to stay away from volvos and birken stocks and soy lattes because that's not fair. but sanders' voters, supporters are very, very, very passionate liberals and they're not anybody that would ever contemplate voting republican. now, what's interesting -- and so i don't -- i don't think -- i mean, if there is a path to

the white house for bernie sanders, it's a subtle one and it probably requires republicans doing some pretty exotic things themselves and then getting a whole bunch of breaks. it's -- it would be a long process. yes, sir. >> back to rubio, the question that keeps popping up that i hear is, what's his path? where's he going to win? how's he going to get there? second part of the question, who does the revamp primary schedule most favor, in your opinion? charlie: cohen on "the new york times" upshot wrote a piece earlier this year, and dave wasserman, our house editor, has been working on some things. it's very interesting. there are -- i'm not sure i'm supposed -- i don't think he's written this yet or released it yet but there are an enormous

number of delegates to the republican convention that are not from republican districts or conservative places. and that keep in mind that basically every congressional district has three -- each one has three delegates for republican delegates. now, there's also some to states that voted republican. but for example, in the most republican districts -- david's obably going to shoot me for doing this. in the most republican district in the country, according to wasserman, romney got -- there votes for romney each of the three delegates from that congressional district. in, i think hser isano's, new york 15, there are 1,772 romney votes per republican delegate

to the convention so that there is -- there is in a perverse and i think not -- in a perverse way there is a foot -- there is a thumb on the scale for republicans that can pick up delegates in not very republican places. now, on one level you'd say, well, that might favor a more moderate or a less ideological republican. ok. you can make that. or maybe just one that's really, really, really smart and employs strategies in each one of these congressional districts to win the three delegates in that district even though nobody knows -- people who live there doesn't know republicans there but there is a path because the delegate selection process does on the republican side does tend to

ut a bone -- does give non -republican performing districts a boat load of delegates. impressive e pretty numbers i won't go further on it. >> you haven't talked a whole lot about independents so my question is number one, your general thoughts on independents and in particular, could a nominee from a party be so ds liked by independents that it would drive them to the other party rather than there -- their being attracted to the other party? charlie: and that's a good point. and i use -- to me, the independents is the best number to look at, but i also look at self-described moderates as well. and that -- let me make sure i'm looking at an exit poll here. want to make sure i'm looking t the right tab.

ndependents. no, that's a vertical. i'm looking at the horizontal tabs. independents split, romney won the independent vote by a five-point margin in 2012. now, part of the problem is -- is more here self-described democrats. but romney won the independent , te by five percentage points but among self-described moderates, obama won it by a 15-point margin. and so i kind of look at both those groups. independents and moderates. and so is there a way -- i mean, obama won without winning a majority -- without winning more independent votes, but he

did it because his party had an advantage in terms of party i.d. is there a danger there? well, you better hope like heck if you're a party that's going that route, you better hope hat you are getting absolutely off-the-charts turnouts among your members to make up -- to make up for that. now, there's an argument that conservatives make that a lot of conservatives didn't vote for romney. therefore, that depressed the republican number. at the same time, if he had done what it would take to jack up the turnout among conservatives, to what extent might he lost that independent vote? so the point is in this whole exercise, obviously, you got to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, you know. you got to be able to hold your base, get a good turnout with your base while reaching in and grabbing as many votes as you possibly can from the middle whether that's the partisan

middle, independents or whether it's the ideological middle, moderates. also, keep in mind that great umber that they asked people -- actually, i got it in my other notes. that was a decisive factor in 2012. they asked in the exit polls, hey asked people four factors. which of these was most important? which of these factors mattered most, in your decision? 29% has a vision for the future , and romney won that group by a 9/11-point margin. the second most was shares my value, romney won that group by 13 points. that was 27% chose that. the fourth group -- i'm skipping over one. 18% is a strong leader. romney won that group by 23 points. but what was the other group?

21%, cares about people like me, and obama won that group by a 63-point margin. so romney won three out of four but got clobbered there. and so that's why for a conservative i think the key is, how can i maximize the republican vote, maximize the conservative vote but not coming across as this cold-hearted person who doesn't care about regular people? and, you know, that's why -- you say, how does a republican do that? the answer is, very carefully. it's not something that just happens automatically. ok. i'm getting the hook. ok. last question and then i get the hook. >> in case of an emergency candidate for both parties,

michael bloomberg. charlie: first, let me state my personal bias. i think he's a really, really smart guy. he was a very good mayor of new orleans -- new york. republican side, that would just be a complete nonstarter. i mean, you can't do what he's done on guns and have any chance on the republican side. and even on the democratic side , i think it would be safe to say that elizabeth warren and the occupied people would -- i mean, if they think hillary clinton is a wall street candidate, try somebody that actually did work there. they would go completely out of their minds. the thing is i think joe biden would be -- i mean, to me if things -- if there was a break the -- in case if i break the glass, if it's early, you might very well see the party head towards -- head towards back to

biden. if it's late in the process like really late, then where it's almost like too late and we get into filing deadlines and this and this and this, but i wonder whether -- i don't think -- i have a very hard time seeing any circumstance, even including hillary getting in deep trouble, that sanders actually wins the nomination. and so the guy within the existing field that i would have looked at would be owe mally. now, is o'malley, is there any signs of life in his campaign? no. it's flatlined. if you would say, what kind of person could plausiblely win a democratic nomination, and i think it would be more likely to be somebody that's going to be 53 years old next year than someone who will be 75. and i think it's -- and

somebody who's been two-term governor of a state and sort of widely considered to be in the mainstream of the party and politics, where bernie sanders has been -- bernie sanders is his own unique character, but let's face it. 's not been the most effective member, democratic senator, liberal democratic senator. if you want to look at effective democratic senators, ted kennedy, tom harkin. there is a boat load. but sanders has chosen to basically be a voice but to actually do stuff, get things done, drive an agenda, that hadn't really been sanders so much. i know his supporters are passionate and they believe in him. that's great. but the thing is, would a party

-- would the democratic party move to him in a pinch? i really have a hard time seeing that happen. anyway, thank you, all, for coming out today. thank you, united technologies camp. thank you very much for doing this. thank you very much. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> coming up here on c-span, president obama will be speaking to the tribal nations conference in washington, d.c. leaders from 160 federally recognized tribes were invited to the seventh annual conference. this year the focus is native american youth. president obama scheduled to address the gathering at 4:15 p.m. eastern time. you can watch it live right ere on c-span. every weekend the c-span networks feature programs on politics. nonfiction books and american history. as the nation commemorates veterans day, saturday starting at 11:00 a.m. eastern, american

history will be live from the national world war ii museum in new orleans as we look back 70 years to the war's end and its legacy. we'll tour the museum exhibits and take your calls and tweets. and starting this week and every sunday morning at 10:00, our new program "road to the white house rewind" takes a look to past campaigns. we'll feature ronald >> saturday night at 8:30. steamboat debate to legalize marijuana in colorado and other states and governor o'malley. and saturday afternoon on book tv starting at 4:00 eastern, ston book festival jessica

stern on the terrorist group isis, joe kline, two iraq and afghanistan war veterans who use their values to help others and james wood on the connections between fictional writing. and sunday night at 11:00, a book discussion with former first lady of massachusetts, a nmp n romney, about her journey with m.s. get our complete weekend schedule at c-span.org our "road to the white house" stopped in jackson, mississippi. jackson mayor spoke with students from the boys and girls club aboard the bus. the c-span bus visited jackson state university where the heerleading scaud posed.

cspanbus.sh tag >> c-span takes you to the road to the white house. at town hall meetings, news conferences, rallies and speeches. we are taking your comments on twitter, facebook and by phone and always every campaign event we cover is available on our .ebsite at c-span.org >> president obama addressing the tribal nation conference. live here on c-span. a conversation from this morning's washington journal. wr w host armstrong williams an advisor to the ben carson presidential campaign. thanks for being here. guest: thanks for having me. host: what is your role in the ben carson campaign? guest: i have no role.

it's friendship that has developed over time, through good times and bad times. havethe last 20 years, we forged a brotherhood with dr. carson and his family and all of his sons at work for me at some point. mey have gone to alaska with producing shows and gone to israel. we have vacations together. my mother and my family have been guest in their home. it's just a long family relationship. host: you are an advisor to him -- how often are you talking with him about what's happening in the presidential campaign? it's no different than in the past. we speak often but especially now. he is a candidate for president of the united states. when you are a candidate for the

president of the united states and you have the arrows slinging at you and you have the overwhelming praise and at alicia and, some -- and adulation, sometimes you need to fall back on the friendships you have forged with the trust and confidence. those people are in your life for the right reasons and they don't care whether you are rising high like the sun or lowering like the darkness. those people will always be there to steady you and support you. it does not matter if he is running for president of the united states or he is at home playing pool with his family. friends are not seasonal, it's for lifetime. host: when did dr. carso start thinking about running for president talk about how he has prepared for that journey? very smart man, a nurse surgeon, but there is a learning curve there. when did he start thinking about it and how did he start preparing? and his wiferson

candy, their intellectual giants. often times, we would sit around the dinner table was some of us would have a fascination with medicine, the carson's always had a fascination with the country, america, and politics. dr. carson and i would always have conversations in the wee hours of the morning when he was driving to johns hopkins or one of his many surgeries. was something about health care or a terrorist or 911, the economy, creating jobs or strife in the city, something going on with the eu and what was it about when they were forming the eu in bringing the currency under one umbrella, how is it you will balance how some are stronger and some are weaker.

he always had that curiosity. remember having a conversation where he spoke at he had been re-invited back to the national press club breakfast. it's unusual to get a second invitation. for some reason, the white house was inquiring about his speech. they were curious. host: this was an 2013? guest: they were curious as to what he was talking about. dr. carson never gave speeches. he spoke from the heart but at the same time, he had been trying to reach out to the white house and the president as they were beginning to talk about affordable care and how it would look and the details. he had serious issues with it. that's his profession is health care in hospitals. he thought the president was being misled. he cannot get an audience with the president and the more and about theought

speech, he knew it should be about the speech, he knew it should be about faith and uniting people together and you should not venture off into politics. he agonized whether he should even mention affordable care. even at the last minute when we were at the hotel, we were in the holding suite and he said i'm still not sure what i will say. ken and i were sitting at the table and he made this gesture and we knew he had come to peace and he was going to say to the president and give his thoughts on affordable care but in a respectful way. once he gave that speech, i will never forget, we were headed back to the suite and someone i think from the cia or the president security approach dr. carson and whispered something in his ear. i wondered what the guy said because he looked serious. he said to him that the president was not too pleased with his speech. yes, this happened.

dr. carson asked why. i was honest and respectful. some people would say it's not the place or the time. it was not something that was planned. i said to him as a friend, i said this speech has launched 1000 ships for you and your family. your likely never be the same again. from that moment on, people started the drumbeat of his running for president. he was going to retire in west palm beach. the more it became louder and -- last julyarson in west palm beach, florida, he gathered a team to discuss the probability of running as to what it takes and how someone runs for president. we had to organize this for him. finally, he had not announced and people started saying we are not going to give you our hard-earned money. we will commit to another candidate.

cheers and applause] >> remarks first or say something. >> we can do whatever you want. president obama: i think i'm supposed to make remarks first. i was feeling so comfortable, i sat down. i'm going to go to the podium. [laughter] [cheers and applause] president obama: i feel comfortable with friends here that i was getting kind of elaxed but i'm going to make some remarks. please everybody have a seat. it is wonderful to be with you

and thank the outstanding young people who are going to participate. i thank our outstanding secretary. [cheers and applause] president obama: thank the members of congress who are here who are supporting the outstanding work that not just the department of interior is doing but we are trying to get every agency to really focus on strengthening the nation relationship we have with the tribes. thank you, members of congress. i want to thank everybody who's here, young and old, but especially the young people, who are participating in this terrific forum. you know, when i ran for office, i pledged to build a true relationship with all of you and back then i was just a young, dopted son of the crow nation. didn't have any gray hair.

barack black dent eagle. and what started out as a campaign promise has now become a tradition. welcome to the seventh white house tribal nation conference. what we have done, i have come out and given a big speech and i was telling jude and others, i get tired of hearing myself talk and just talking all the time. instead of a long speech, i thought i would have a conversation with young people from indian country. and i just want to start off with a couple of brief thoughts. i have acknowledged the painful history, the broken promises that are part of our past and while we couldn't change the past, working together, nation to nation, we could build a better future. i believe it's not only because

america has a moral obligation to do right by the tribes and treaty obligations, but because the success of our tribal communities is tied up with the success of america as a whole. and over the past seven years with tribal leaders and federal federal officials working together, we have made a lot of progress. we have strengthened your sovereignty, we've expanded opportunity, we delivered justice, but i think we all understand we still have more work to do. we need to do more to safeguard tribal consultation rights. we can consolidate and restore tribal homelands and create more opportunities for tribal communities. the budget would have increased our investments in indian country by $1.5 billion and we need congress to show that same support for indian country. and one of the reasons i'm so

invested in your success is because i have gotten to know so many of you and have become friends. i visited more indian country than any sitting president. cheers and applause] president obama: last year, michelle and i visited the sioux nation and invited their young people in the white house. choctaw h in the nation. in alaska i visited native americans and i reiterated to working with tribal nations to protect your natural resources and honor your heritage as we did with denali. we will review proposals to permanently protect you sacred land for future generations. in alaska, i had a salmon spawn

l over my shoes, which i was told the salmon was happy to see me. [laughter] president obama: what struck me on each of these trips is when we talk about the future of indian country, we are talking about the future of young people. i don't need to tell you the enormous challenges that they face. native children are far more likely to grow up in poverty, suffer from significant health problems, face obstacles in educational opportunity. a lot of the young people i have met have gone through more than anybody should have to go through through an entire lifetime, losing family members to violence, suicide or addiction and struggling with the kind of poverty that is unacceptable in the richest nation on earth. in these circumstances, sometimes it's hard to dream your way to a better life and

these challenges didn't just happen randomly to indian country. the result, the accumulation of system attic discrimation, but for all our young people have endured, the young people that i have met have given me incredible hope. i see so much promise in them, so much determination and in the words of a native american writer, courage has been bred into you and it is in your blood. and you're not alone. i want our young people to know we believe in you. we started something called generation indigenous and cultivating the pones of our native youth and at least 20 tribal nations have become my brother's keeper communities to give young people a shot at success. even as we prepare our tribal youth, we have to preserve and

protect native culture and heritage. if you start losing your language and culture, your sense of connection to your ancestors and touchstons that date back generations, you start going adrift. you may be devaluing yourself. we have to preserve those bonds and break stereotypes. i believe that includes our sports teams, because we all need to do more to make sure -- [applause] president obama: we need to make sure that our young people feel supportive and respected and that's what this tribal nation conference is about, extraordinary young people not just representing their tribes or indian country but the united states. because ultimately we are one family and these kids are our kids. they deserve to be cared, loved and nurtured and given a shot at

opportunity. if we do our part, there is no limit to what they can achieve because they have extraordinary talent and extraordinary resilience. i could not be prouder of them. so with that, i'm going to sit back down and let's start our conversation, ok? cheers and applause] >> good afternoon and welcome to the final session 2015 tribal nation conference. before we get started. years is jude, i'm 21 old. i had no idea i would be in the position i am in today. i was able to receive a scholarship to the university of louisville and earned my degree

and i have spoken to native american communities within the united states to inspire young natives to go out and follow their dreams and do what they love. i truly believe if we work together we can get to the point where we preserve our culture and tradition and allow and create the opportunities that young native americans deserve. lastly, i would like to say how honored i am to be here. and i would like to hand it over to our panelists. native language]

>> i was born and raised in alaska and i'm 16 years old. [applause] [speaking native language] means he itional name carries the bowl and i'm from the mohawk nation and i would like to say, they tried to bury us. it was a seed for change. [applause] [speaking native language] mesa, navajo and i'm from

arizona. [applause] . >> i'm stuart douglas and 15 years old and i'm a member of the seminole nation of oklahoma and i'm intent grade. [applause] >> i would like to clarify and let you know in addition to the nelists' questions we have some online. >> my question is is there any way you can get teachers to understand alaska and and native eliminate udents and

racism in schools? president obama: it's a great question and i appreciate you guys being here and we're so proud of you and it's fair to say when i was their age, i was not making presentations with the president. i just want to point that out. i think it's important to point out that jude can really ball. she was being kind of modest in talking about her basketball skills and since i'm a basketball fan, i'm very impressed and her and her sister have really made all of indian country so proud. so we appreciate it. you know, i think that in education, the single most important ingredient is the

person in the front of the classroom, the teacher. and we've got incredible, dedicated teachers across the country. my sister was a teacher, my mother taught, i taught in law school. so i have a deep appreciation for the art of teaching. and i think it's one of the most important professions in our society. but part of being a good teacher is being able to connect and being able to see each individual stupid and say how do i motivate them and how do i relate to them and how do i make sure that the subject matter that is being taught, whether it's math, science or history or english that i find a link between what's being studied and what people are feeling. and what they have gone through in their lives.

and that's true in any community. but it's especially true, i think if you've got schools with native american students or alaska natives. when i was in alaska, when i was in your home state, it reminded me a little bit of hawaii in the sense that you have this .ncredible indigenous culture but sometimes it's not reflected in the curriculum and not reflected in how the schools are teaching and interacting and what the reading materials are. and so, i think we have a special obligation to focus on them and one of the things that we've asked -- that i have asked sali to do is for those schools

under in the bureau bureau of indian affairs jurisdiction that we revamp the curriculum to get a lot more input from the students and from the native community and provide more local control so that we are helping to shape and assist what is going to work for those students. for schools that are state-run or local school districts, but have a large native population, what we are doing is we are giving grants to help those school districts think about these issues in a much more serious way. and to your last question, in rms of eliminating racism or

stereotypes, that's an obligation of the entire society but especially important in the school. and so my hope and expectation would be that anybody in thority in a school is being very clear that they -- first day the kids walk in as to what is acceptable and what's not, in terms of how they are interacting with each other, how they are respecting each other and respecting different cultures. if the school is not doing that, it's failing. and one specific element of this that we have talked about and i want to give some credit right ow is on this issue of schools because if you walk into a school the first day and you are already feeling that stereotypes are embedded in the culture and the cheers and all that, by the

way, that kid is feeling set apart and different. to so i want to give credit adidas and a number of officials that are here today, they have come up with a smart, creative approach, which is to say, if we can't get states to pass laws to mascots, how can we incentivize schools to think differently. and so what it has done, it said to the 2,000-plus schools that still have native american or alaska native mascots, you know what, we will work with you to redesign your entire sports brand. [applause]

president obama: i don't know if adidas made the same offer to a certain nfl team here in washington, but they might want to think about that as well. but i tell you for them to make a commitment, it's a smart thing to do because those schools don't have an excuse. what they are saying is one of the top sports companies in the world, one of the top brands in the world is to come in and use all their expertise to come up with something that's going to work and the entire community can feel proud of and bring people together and give a fresh start. and i really want to give them a lot of credit for taking that step. [applause] >> thank you for your question and thank you, mr. president for your remarks on that subject. we have braidon.

-- bradon. how will your administration help tribal education departments empower low-income native american youth trying to get to college that don't have the money to go to college? like how can they be empowered to have equal opportunities? president obama: i'll say to all the young people who are here and the parents of young people who are here. the fact is that an education is really the key to a middle-class life in the modern world. and there was a time whereas long as you were willing to work hard, you could support a family without a college education, some sort of advanced schooling beyond high school. it is very hard to do now. every job requires

specialization and understanding everything from computers, how to communicate effectively. so it doesn't have to be a four-year college but you need some advanced training. so the first thing i would say and rms of native american alaska youth is we need to do a better job telling you what's already in place, what's already there. the fact of the matter is we expanded pell grant to reach millions of more students. we have tried to simplify something called fasa, to make sure that -- it's basically the form you have to fill out to qualify for the various student loans and programs out there. it used to be so complicated that a lot of people wouldn't

fill it out, especially if your parents didn't go to college, right? so now, you may not have enough counselors in the school and don't know where to go and you just figure you can't afford it. the truth of the matter is between pell grants, federal loan and grants and scholarships that are available, there's really very few young people who should not be able to go to college if they've got enough motivation. what we would like to do is work with the department of education, department of interior, local school districts to spread the word of what's already out there and we are going to spend a lot of time on eaching into the various communities and make sure that you are getting that information out to students. now, the other thing we are trying to do is strengthen

tribal colleges because we think there's an opportunity for more young people to get a good education in a way that is culturally linked and allows young people sometimes to stay at home. i remember one of the first times i saw you and your sister, there was a story done about incredible native american basketball players who often had trouble transing to college because they weren't used to be ing away from their tribe and community and being in an environment where you are cut off from your people and what you know. and i think the tribal colleges can serve as an important bridge . in some cases you may be you start in that college and then transfer to a larger university once you have gotten more

familiar and comfortable with what's required. so we are going to work a lot on that issue. >> next question we got online, but it may be more. how can we best encourage our native youth to pursue an education and integrate and maintain our culture, traditions and languages. president obama: maybe i turn it to you guys and see what you guys think. anybody want to volunteer some thoughts in terms of something i should know that you think would be especially helpful? >> they are doing a word on the day on the morning announcement. all the other schools should do that as well because it raises awareness for your culture and language and teach non-native

students as well. [applause] president obama: that's a great suggestion. >> for the education part where students can't pay for it or having trouble paying for it, some after-school programs can provide more information about scholarships and maybe even grants to go to college. president obama: you are absolutely right. if we don't have enough counselors in the schools and having tribal organizations and not-for-profit organizations kind of fill some of those gaps, i think that's really important. >> she pretty much touched on -- president obama: my man is kind of low key over there. let me say one thing and i'm interested in anybody who has an

opinion on this and i know when i went to standing rock and i was talking to the young people about that, part of the challenge here for young people and i think it's true for young people but especially true sometimes for african-american or latino or asian american and native americans as well. is this age-old question in america like how do you stay true to your roots and your culture, but how are you part of the larger community and how do you balance that out? i think the one thing i would say and there are some communities that have done this better than others, is to recognize that in order for successful to be

today, you're not cut off from the rest of the world. you have to compete. you have to have knowledge which will empower you about how the world works. and it's not a betrayal of your traditions to understand those behalf of se them on your community and on behalf of yourself. now i think what you have to do is be in touch with where you are coming from and not forget that. but that's not always going to be in the environment that you find yourself in and you can't shy away from breaking out of what you know and going ahead and reaching out and striving in environments that are unfamiliar to you. kind of breaking out of your comfort zone. as long as you know you have home base and i think that

sometimes people get in a situation where they think, if i am going to college and i'm learning this, that or the other and a bunch of my friends are still back home and they're not doing the same thing and somehow m not authentic really being true to my culture and so forth, that i don't think is productive thinking. that i think we have to get rid -- because you know, if you if you learn spanish, that doesn't mean you're not an english speaker, means you have one more thing that you know that you can use and you can translate. , that earn engineering doesn't mean you have to forget

traditional ways of your people. all st means you got both, right? , your hunt and fish native beliefs, but you can also build a bridge and write code and that's fine. so i say all that just because on the one hand it's important for native youth to be supportive, connected and have a place where they're learning who they are and where they come from but that can't be a crutch r an excuse to be avoiding what's outside the tribe. because, you know, cultures have to adapt and they have to grow

along side the world. and there are communities that do this really well. you think about the jewish community in america who very successful in all fields, but also deeply rooted oftentimes in their faith. of ink there are a number asian-american communities where then there'sol and a whole set of institutions that teach them their native languages or the languages of their homeland and they don't see a contradiction in it. and we have to tchi about this the same way. this isn't unique to native americans. michelle came out of a

working-class neighborhood and a lot of her friends didn't go to college and sometimes when she came back from college, they said you're all that, aren't you? she said no, i'm going to college. .hat doesn't make me less black i'm a black woman who went to college. and that's how i think i want our young people to think. you can do both. [applause] >> up next is blossom with her question. > thank you for creating the obama scholars at a.s.u. i want to speak about poverty ecause i currently live on a

navajo reservation. when i go home and i don't have a suitable home and don't have running water or electricity. i understand you went to visit standing rock. i want to know what kind of programs you have to offer native american communities who have the worst housing and living conditions. president obama: a lot of this is run through traditionally has been run through the bureau. d let's face it, for decades it was underfunded, it was oftentimes not well managed, kind of an after thought and part of the reason why when i came in, we started this conference was to make sure that we had a direct nation-to-nation

the ionship with all different tribes. and our first thing was to just listen to people and find out what is it that you need, what are the opportunities that you have and then we'll try to design ways to help based on what it is that you think would make the biggest difference. obviously not every tribe is the same. there are now tribes that are ing really well because of gaming or because of natural resources that they have been able to harness, development ideas that they are moving forward on and then there are other communities having a tougher time. the first thing is to listen to each tribe and find out what can we do. on almost every measure, whether housing, education, economic development, health care, we

have been trying to boost resources that are available. and that's really important so 're focused on how do we buildup the infrastructure in reservations that are having a tough time. no one acceptable that has running water. that is getting the help from congress to help build out the infrastructure that people need. but one of the things that i have learned in conversations presidents andhe governors and others who are in the audience is we have to think about sustainable development so the idea is not just that the tribe is getting money from the federal government, the question

is how do we give tribes the tools whereby they can start generating jobs and economic development and progress on their own terms within their communities. and i think that is where you have to focus. i was just talking to one gentleman, because we took photos before we came out who said they had just signed a contract for multimillion dollar clean energy facility. and that suddenly brings resources to the community. it creates jobs and now that's an economic engine you can start selling power to surrounding communities using in a sustainable way the resources of that tribe and then take that money and plow it back into

create more businesses and more jobs. and that, i think is something we want to spend time on and focus on. but the first thing is to get running water and that requires an investment and something we budgeted and we're aware of it. congress doesn't always cooperate with me. [laughter] president obama: i don't know if you have noticed -- yeah. thank you for the question. >> up next, we have phillip. >> mr. president, my question is, do you have any ideas or programs that could prevent childhood obesity and diabetes for native youth? [applause] president obama: because i live

with michelle obama and she's all about this. when we had the generation indigenous and youth summit, how long ago was that, couple of months ago -- in july? i know she talked about this. this is a problem for the entire country, not isolated, it's a global problem. part of what's happened is that our r culture has changed, that createing food obesity. they're not getting the exercise that they did a generation ago those two things

and we are seeing this explosion of childhood obesity and since michelle started let's move and my place, we have seen some progress in some areas. but it's still something where we have to make a lot more progress, because when kids start off unhealthy and obese early on, the likelihood of them having severe health problems later in life are much, much higher and that means much and r health care expenses then have less money for investing in education and college scholarships. this is something we can turn around and it starts with young people, just having ways in which on a regular basis get exercise and get healthy meals. what we are going to try to do is work with all the tribes and

a schools and make determination, ok, based on traditions and cultures and budgets, how do we get more creative about creating a meal plan that are better for our kids and how do we program in exercise that is going to keep them healthy. hot shot division one thlete, making sure -- what is true is that the incidents of obesity among native american youth is higher than it is for the general population. some of that is poor children are more likely to be obese because they are eating

different stuff and sometimes it's more challenging and native communities, it's hard to find healthy food. it's easier to buy a bag of chips but harder to get some fresh fruit or something. what do you think? >> i would agree that it definitely starts with the youth. i know and you said -- the last generation -- i remember playing outside playing sports 24/7 and that has changed especially with the technology these days. but i also know living in a rural place like you said it's hard to find nutritious food and things like that. i'm wondering how can we make it to where the food that is available isn't necessarily fast food and it's healthier for you. president obama: one of the

interesting things we are trying to do is to link up local economies with school systems so -- this whole movement of farm to fork or whatever you want to call it. right now, most school districts and a lot of rural communities, even though there is food all around, people aren't growing it there anymore. if they do grow it, they ship it to somewhere else. it gets processed, manufactured, stuffed with a whole bunch of stuff that isn't necessarily bad for you, gets frozen, gets shipped back and the question is -- and this is going to be different for each community, there ways to link up with local

farmers, are there ways to link up with traditional food sources. onn i was in alaska, we went bristol bay and that's where the salmon did his thing on my shoe. [laughter] president obama: in alaska, alaska natives get 50% of their calories from traditional sources. gathering and g, that's an example of where -- how do we adapt that so that that becomes part of the food chain for kids when they're in school, because if there is all this salmon out in the ocean,

then -- which is really good for you, but then you go to school and all you got is tater to thes -- nothing wrong with tater tots, but you get my point or you have some frozen pizza that got shipped in when you could be eating this incredible salmon that was fresh caught and is going to be good for you and by the way, that then gives the fishermen a market so they are now making more money. those are the kinds of opportunities i think that we've got to look to. and local school districts, in fairness to local school districts, sometimes it's easier for them to take the processed food and one of the problems that's happened in the way

schools are organized these days is that recess is so short and lunch breaks are so short that the easiest thing to do is kind of defrost something or stick it in the micro wave and plop it on a tray because you only have a half an hour before we send you to your next class. this goes back to the education point, one of the things we should be trying to do is to think of the whole child. education is not just books. fitness. is physical education is the arts, education is music and dance and movement nd learning how to eat right and if we have schools that are not designed to do all those things and take care of the whole child then we are probably

making a mistake. [applause] >> i have something to follow up with that, but as you know, all aspects of life connect but i'm wondering since financial situations are typically an issue among native american families i'm wondering how we can decrease the unemployment ate and increase -- to get better financial situations. if we have better financial situations, we would have better opportunity to eat healthier. president obama: as i said before, we are working with tribes to come with economic development strategies. it is very important for us to have -- in our nation-to-nation relationships to have a strategic plan, it's not just a

matter of each year get a little more in the budget, give to indian health services, this, that or the other, that's important but the goal is how do we create sustainable development for the nations. whether through clean energy projects, whether it's through tourism and if it's controlled, but the tribes benefit from it, whether it's utilization of native lands, whether it's starting incubators for small businesses on the reservation, all those things have to be stitched together. so if we are building a road in navajo country, let's make sure that road connects to a hub that

makes it easier for navajo to engage in commerce with the local community. if there are things that the tribes are purchasing from the outside, there's a way to start a business where it's produced on the inside, because the tribe is spending money, it would be useful to find areas where potentially you could -- a young person like you start the business and suddenly you are producing the pencils or the lunches or what have you. and then that money gets recirculated and that increases incomes for everybody. but as i said, i think when you look now at communities that are most successful, nothing is more important than young people and talent and education. the way that the most important

way that indian country is going to improve its economic prospects is to make sure every young person has the skills and talent they need to succeed. and in some cases that's going to be because they come back to a reservation and start a business or they are managing a not-for-profit or a tribal development organization and in cases, they are working, succeeding and making money and now they are finding ways to reconnect with their community. and both things are legitimate. there's -- if anybody here on this panel, you graduate, you acide and decide i want to be

business person and you are successful, i have confidence that you are going to stay connected to navajo country and you are then going to be able to give back and you're going to open up opportunities for cousins and brothers, not just by way of example, but because you are part of that community, part of that tribe. and that is going to be part of how we also grow the economy. young people investing in education and really being focused on being able to compete in the larger economy, that's really important as well. >> our next question -- we got it online also. what measures have you and your team taken to ensure that the next administration pays attention to native voyes? president obama: i'm bias here. i'm trying to make sure it's a

democrat. [laughter] [applause] president obama: there are some republican members of congress who represent native communities and are really supportive of these issues like tom coll of klahoma -- cole of oklahoma. part of what we have done is we have tried to instaugsalize new practices. and my expectation is whoever is the next president, they bill see we have been able to build some real trust with tribal nations and if they're smart, they'll want to continue what we've done because i think we are really making progress and the good news is that the tribes now know what's possible so they can hold accountable the next

administration and say hey, we were meeting with obama and his team once a year and they were going out and visiting us and doing all kinds of things and we haven't seen you. a i think that can make difference. but i do think it's important for the next president to be able to articulate very clearly how they are going to interact. one thing i'm proud of, one thing i knew before i wasn't, i made a commitment, i made a promise about what i would do and better, but it starts with, as you are listening to various candidates, making sure that you ask them now before you offer them support and it's true whether it's a republican or

democrat, ok, here's what we have been able to build over the last seven years, are you willing to continuity? if they say yes, now you've got something that you can hold them accountable to. applause] moderator: since we have more time, would you like to ask your second question? >> yes. i just wanted to let you know that i lost four friends to suicide since middle school. and i want to know how your administration can support health and mental wellness of native youth and our veterans. they're obama: well, two different groups. veterans have some very specific needs. and through the v.a.