that is why it is so important to get in that fight. unlike the republican side, democrats want to beat hillary clinton. they want to be on the ticket. they know this could lead to them becoming president themselves. >> they would have to deal of bill clinton as well. >> and bill clinton has said -- he wants to take the lead on the economy. elected, he will be the liaison to capitol hill. one of the criticisms of president obama is he didn't communicate enough to fellow democrats, much less republicans. i think bill clinton would love to do that, but you are right, that would be tension between the vp pick and bill clinton. >> is the country ready for an all-female ticket? >> i think so, more than ever. i've seen some political cartoons that said, one in particular, talking about this

issue, where they had two operatives assaying, the country is not ready for two men to be on the ticket, and the caption is "things that have never been said." >you want to win; that is the most important thing. you don't want to make history and then lose. but i think it's important, the country is ready for it. we saw alaska elected's first black president; he could see the country elect the first woman. i think it is but the voters, will have the final say. >> we set down with senator klobuchar a few years ago. what are her strengths, weaknesses? what could she bring to the ticket? >> i think the strength is that you can't pinpoint her as a liberal democrat or a conservative. she's in the middle of the democratic caucus. she was appearing at the

congressional correspondents dinner a few years back, where you have one republican and one democrat; she was quite funny. a lot of people didn't think she would be funny, and she was overshadowed by al franken. she is definitely interested. she went to iowa in the 2013-2014 cycle. s certainly laid the groundwork to run in either 2020 or 2024. she is respected by her colleagues; she's a very average, everyday person. senators aren't everyday people that can laugh at themselves. she hasn't gotten into a lot of ink aoversy, and i th lot of women are interested in succeeding hillary clinton, whether she wins or not. kirsten gillibrand is also interested. you will see her run for

president. >> bob cusack, thanks for being with us. from january, 2014, part of our american profile series. the interview is available at our website. >> when did you first think about running for elected office? >> my first office was in high school when i was on the student council. back then, the girls did not run for class president, sadly. i was the secretary-treasurer of the high school class and my claim to fame was that i coordinated the lifesaver lollipop drive to raise money for the high school prom. it may not have been a major ideological battle but we really did not have enough money for the prom and i was able to raise enough. by the time it got to be a senior the juniors failed at their job and we had to have it in a shopping mall and we danced

around the fountain and my date went in the fountain with someone else so that was luckily not the end of my political career, but it was the first time that i ran for office. i got involved in politics, ran campaigns, worked with walter mondale. it was a defining moment to run for major office. in my case it was county attorney. when our daughter was born and she was very sick and she could not swallow. it was at a time when they had the insurance role in place that you could only stay in the hospital for 24 hours, a mother could. she was sick, she was in intensive care and they did not know what was wrong. i got kicked out after being up all night with her. and so she was in the hospital for quite a while in her first year. one of the things i did as a citizen was i went to the legislature and worked for some of the legislatures -- legislators and testified in it was one of the first bills that

guaranteed new mothers and babies of 48 hour hospital stay. after that i was pretty hoped that you could get something done and i took on the companies who were tried to slow down, i brought six pregnant women to the conference committee because they were trying to have it take place later knowing that they were against it and the outnumbered the lobbyists two to one. i decided to run for office. >> your daughter is how old now? >> our daughter is 18. >> how is she doing? >> she is doing great. she has a really rough first few years and she was fed for a stomach tube through the first year and got better and better and she was an incredible girl and did well in school. we're pretty proud of her. >> you became county attorney and one of the things you worked on was to make sure that drunk driving was a felony.

my question is, why was that even an issue? >> minnesota was one of the few states that it was not a felony. some of it was in the spirit of our states and some of it was a fluke but we did not have a strong drunk driving law. there was a notorious story of one of our legislators taking to the house floor when they were trying to pass .08, and said if we pass this, how will my constituents get home in the morning? i had a best case to use when i testified. the guy had been arrested 16 or 18 times for drunk driving and when the cops stopped him in minnesota for this one, they said why did you move here and he said colorado has been a felony, i would have been in jail. we were able to use that case and i worked with republican and democratic legislators it took two years and we passed that bill that made it clear that if you had more than three dwi's

that it would be a felony. >> where did you grow up? >> we -- it was in plymouth. we had a nice family. we went on our family trips to the black hills and the tetons. i never went anywhere that did not involve a tent or a camper. i went to public high schools my entire life. my mom taught second grade until she was 70. >> she recently passed away. >> she did. one of the things i loved about going and public service is my mom and dad in their own ways performed public service. my dad took on public causes -- people's causes and my mom was a teacher. i was reminded of that when

there was a visitation when she died and people i did not know came. there was one family who is disabled and they recalled how my mom's favorite unit was about monarch butterflies and she would dress up as a monarch butterfly and she would carry a sign that said "to mexico or bust" because that is where butterflies fly. she would go grocery shopping. what she never told me until i found this out from the family is that she went to this particular store because this kid that she had in second grade was now 22 years old and he worked bagging groceries at that disabled and they recalled how store. he loved that monarch butterfly unit so she would go to that store and give him this big hug when she went through the line with her groceries. that family and that kid came to her visitation to tell me that story so it is an example of what teachers do all the time and how she loved her job and what she did. >> you have been candid about your dad's alcoholism. what was that like growing up and what did you learn from all of that?

>> my dad had a struggle with this. he grew up with a hardscrabble life at the iron range in minnesota. there was a lot of drinking in the culture up there. then he was a newspaper man, a lot of drinking in that culture. at some point he started drinking too much and it was when i was young. i would remember we would be waiting for him on christmas morning. my sister sitting over the couch looking out the window for hours and he would finally get there and it was things like that that made it hard, and i remember fight to my taking the keys away from them when i was older when we would drive up north to see my grandma. over time he got three dwi's and it did not mean much then. my husband and i got married in 1993. he got his third dwi and it really meant something. he got good treatment. he had some actual time hanging over his head. he changed his life around and

he is happy, married for the third time, and doing quite well at age 85. >> he has described you this way. there is a lot of joy in his daughter and she has an eye for the absurdities of life. does that describe you? >> i think to survive in washington you have to have some eye for the absurdities of life. what he meant by that was it is important to be able to take your work seriously and not necessarily take yourself seriously. you have to be able to stand back a little and realize this is just life and people will do some crazy things but you try to find the common ground and get things done. certainly he and i on our travels, bicycling all around the world, we bicycled in russia, through red square and bicycled in slovenia looking for our relatives. he felt that he had found his relatives when the man said there was one -- someone with

his mother's name in the town. they were minstrels and they were always drinking and play the guitar and the man would get drunk and play the guitar and he would offer to sell his house late in the night when he -- for a dollar and someone took him up on it and he went to america. having those experiences with my dad who has this amazing way of seeing the humorous things and also seeing the joy in ordinary lives and the extraordinary stories of ordinary people really taught me a lot growing up. >> he has been described as a legendary sports columnist. >> he started out in sports and did that when i was growing up. at some point at 1965 he got a full-time column, anything he

wanted to write about. he would write about politics, consumer stories, always pushing and helping someone who had called in. he did crazy things, he went for the abominable snowman, the paper said him there in california. they said him to sweden because minnesota is a scandinavian. when they changed sides of the road that they were driving on in the entire country, his story was supposed to be all the problems and the swedes had deputized a neighbor for every street corner. there was not one problem except for a norwegian truck driver on the wrong side. he literally went from this mining life where he worked 1000 feet underground in the summers, going to everyone interview everyone from mike ditka to ronald reagan. >> how did you meet your husband? >> we met at a pool hall to some

friends. then we went to see "wayne's world" with someone else, that was our first day. -- date. he grew up close to me, an hour and a half away. he grew up in a trailer home until he was in sixth grade. he has five brothers. his mom really wanted girls and got pregnant again and had identical twin boys. they had six kids in a trailer home. they eventually move to a small house and they are an incredible family. his parents are a lot of fun. we do a lot of things with their family as well. he is a lawyer and cares a lot about the world around him and teaches law school. he has been great. i do not think we could have done this and had me have this job if he had not shared in a lot of the work load and done things together and been incredibly supportive. >> her daughter abigail, how

would you describe her? >> she is humorous, she just sent me an e-mail yesterday telling me that she had found out that this book of that she had never cared about that i wrote when i was in college about the politics behind the building of the dome stadium in minnesota, i never have been able to get her to read it. she found out they were using it at brown university still. i get $.68 on book. she sent me an e-mail saying they were using it at ground and i said how did you find out and she said she found out from some guy named david something. i got the typical freshman e-mail back. he was my middle school prom date, duh. she has always attempted to keep me real. i was going to take her to target to buy a swimsuit for a pool party for eighth grade. they had a vote in the senate so my husband had to take her.

she called me and i picked up the cell phone as i am walking into the senate and she is in tears and said, they said we cannot wear a bikini at the pool party but you can wear tankinis. she said dad does not understand the difference between a bikini and a tankini. i said, get him on the phone right now and i walked into lindsey graham and i almost knocked him over. i am not doing this balance right now. if you are trying to balance the family in the work, you never do it perfectly and anyone who says they do is wrong. for me, having my husband there has been a great blessing and a help. >> i want to come back to that. in your official biography, that lists the essay that you referred to.

what is it about? >> on the dome stadium? it is called "uncovering the dome," and i based it on a same analysis of how you look at things first on the macro level and that would be the world of pro sports and pro sports teams and the second part is how you get a bill done with the various special interest groups and everyone is fighting with each other and the weird alliances that take place in the case of the stadium to get it done. and pro sports teams and the second part is how you get a

let's forget about the fact that it is collapsed a few times. what was finally deflated for the last time, it was a plan to deflation that we would stop hearing the jokes in minnesota about how you have to wear pointed hats in the top row. it has been a great stadium for our state. we won two world series. precious moments for minnesota sports. ,> you are in the u.s. senate your first week, and you walk into the men's room. klobuchar: we finally have had a traffic jam in the women's bathroom. i really didn't know my way around when i was brand-new. i've been a prosecutor elected for eight years.

i did walk right into the men's bathroom. i believe that john kerry was coming out of the same time so i didn't catch them in the bathroom. thether first day was official lunch in the lbj room with this major portrait of lyndon johnson looming above us. soup a salad and a cup of and i'm ready to dive in. up and grabsgets says you just took the entire bowl of thousand island dressing. that's what we do in minnesota. it was another example of women coming to each other's rescue. it was a hard adjustment for me. hard adjustment for my family. out here with the shower curtain from college.

good to make some very friends here. i love my work. i love being on the commerce committee. i got to manage an office of 400 people which was actually very fulfilling. but i also had worked on legislation that area. agriculture, which i was very interested in. and later joined the judiciary committee. steve: why did you decide to run for the senate? i have loved my job as a prosecutor and i made some really good changes to the office and got positive results. toad seen what you could do make a difference in government anding people accountable publishing what happens when you got things done. i wanted to take that kind of i knowphy to somewhere

everybody believes things are still broken but i have this optimistic belief that you can get things done. that drove me from a professional standpoint. it was all about standing up for people. doing things for the good of the state and the good of the country. little did i know when i got to the senate about a year later that bridge would collapse in the middle of the summer day. an eight lane highway. i sit a bridge shouldn't just fall down in the middle of america. we decided we were going to rebuild it. we were able to get that money in a record amount of time. a dozen people lost their lives. many more were injured. what it reminder of means to represent an area. the little girl who died in a swimming pool.

waslement drain that defective and was dismembered. said thedied her dad one thing i want to get done is this pool safety bill. he believed in democracy. freshmaned that a senator was going to be able to get a build on that of been sitting around congress for five years. that moment when we were able to attach it to the energy bill and a reality.afety moment when i got to call him from the cloakroom is a brand-new senator and say we pass that bill was probably the proudest moment i had. steve: the approval rating for congress is pretty low. some say congress is broken. -- howu view the senate

do you view the senate? klobuchar: i hold hubert humphrey's seat. i asked for his desk. they mistakenly gave me gordon humphrey's desk. one day when jeanne shaheen had come to the senate and a quarter the story and i said he signed in the name. new congress they had corrected the error and i had hubert humphrey's desk. through it all hubert humphrey was optimistic. he believed you could get things done. that is what guides me. i have found the best in my colleagues. at least half the senate comes

once a year and does their life story. i work with the women senators across the aisle. i tried to find the common ground. passing a bill with senator blunt or senator inhofe. on adoption. productsre our forest are safe from formaldehyde which i did with senator crapo are. in high skilled workers which i did with senator hatch. we were voted the least likely senators to get into a scandals so we did a lot of bills together. to find that common ground on an issue in an understanding of the person i go from there. it really helped me not only to get things done for my state but to feel good about the work that we do every day. it gives you some hope which we have now seen. i would argue that in fits and

starts it has been borne out in the last year. whether it was that moments thee the senate passed bipartisan immigration bill with marco rubio and to john mccain working with senator durbin and senator menendez and senator hatch and i contribute to that. patty murray and barbara mikulski worked with congressman ryan and others to get that budget done. or the work on the farm bill that senator stevan now has done recently. fights and the 24/7 tv shout fests, people standing in the opposite corners of the boxing ring, people still find themselves to have the courage to stand next to someone they don't always agree with. that keeps me going. ofve: you have a picture hubert humphrey and muriel humphrey. amy klobuchar: my dad covered

hubert humphrey. and i met to meet him muriel later and their family and their sons. -- thing people do realize did not realize. there was a movie about him that showed how much he worked across the aisle. his effervescent manner and how we dealt with people. it really transcended party lines so in that way he is a role model for me. steve: do you enjoy being in the senate? amy klobuchar: i do. i think it is a place that needs improvement. rule changesof the while they are tough to deal with is the way to go. we shouldn't be wasting our time on hours and hours of debate on a person. we should offer downloads more often.

we should move things along. i think that would make people feel a lot better about themselves in the institution. they would be serving democracy better. the soldier who was in a coma after sustaining a roadside bomb attack. and then getting to the point where he could be sitting there next to the first lady. the state of the union was a message to everyone. america has never been easy. never beency has easy. it was a message to congress that we have to keep shouldering on. steve: you keep working on equal pay. in 2014 why is that even an issue. amy klobuchar: you still have notations where women are treated the same way. look at lily ledbetter. she was told you don't get a raise because you can find out what other people were making you don't get to have equal pay.

we fixed that. the idea that women should be paid the same for work that mosta is was wor something republicans stood up for. the president said we don't want to live in a madman world with discrimination. of theut of the women senate is changing. it's not just the numbers. we have 20 a hundred. sweet 16 anymore. but the jobs that they have. we are eight major committee budget tom intelligence to transportation. major committees chaired by women. i am the chair of the joint economic committee. you get to hold hearings on whether income inequality or the immigration bill or women in manufacturing, it just changes things. i get to go to the chairman's lunch.

what is see firsthand happening. when you look at what is in charge of those committees. the women have tended to get reelected. so they chair committees. thing fore best changing the way things work around here. i lead that effort to end the shutdown. half of the group was women. we said here's how we think we should end this. we went to our leaders and we said we are going to go out and get a press conference. this is what we're going to do. i don't think it's a coincidence that half the people were women. steve: how would you describe your ideology? klobuchar: i am somebody that stands up for the people in my state. summary who believes we need more civility in washington. word,stic is one

optimistic for the future. steve: some have said that you would be perfect the u.s. supreme court. any interest? amy klobuchar: i love the job that i do now. that was a surprising question. in minnesota we've had tragedy with paul wellstone's death. we haven't had people who stayed in the senate for very long. yet he go back to humphrey and mondale actually. so that means a lot to our state. i have a lot of work i still want to do in the senate. steve: what about the presidency? amy klobuchar: it looks like hillary clinton may be running on our side and that's very exciting. i'm not making any news here. steve: the new york times said you are among the dozen or so people that could be president. amy klobuchar: it's an honor.

you have to keep your eye on what you are doing now. enjoy what you are doing. be humble about what you're doing. when i first considered running for office a lot of people told me i should run for secretary of state which is a very important job especially in a state that for as garrison kaylor said the women are strong and the men are good looking and all the recounts are above average. the job has traditionally been held by a woman. you run statewide in the one have as much controversy. no i want to do the things that i want to do now. that's what i did. managed 400 people for eight years. and then this other opportunity came up. it is very important that while you are doing your job you like what you are doing in you keep focusing on that. other opportunities open up,

that's great. but people who spend their whole time looking for the next job they was out the grass is greener. they don't enjoy or do well at what they're doing. that's always been my philosophy. the opportunity comes along for higher office? amy klobuchar: i appreciate the question. i appreciate that you are wearing viking purple. we have faced the vikings are going to emerge again. steve: they have never won the super bowl. amy klobuchar: my dad wrote a book called willow vikings ever win the super bowl? he wrote in the early 80's and it is still relevant today. steve: yale and the university of chicago. why those schools? i got into a lot of schools.

i remember my dad really wanted me to stay in minnesota. some editor of the newspaper asked where you going. i said i don't know yet. i said i got into yale. my dad said that she's not going there. the editor said what? somehow we were able to scrape together the money. i brought my pink polyester prom dress out there. i've never been to the east coast except for one trip. i brought my pink polyester prom dress and matching shoes. i would often take the greyhound bus back and forth from college to minnesota to save money. it wasn't exactly a glamorous life. i met many good friends there. it really opened up a new worlds for me. exposure to the rest of the country. i always want to come back to

minnesota. steve cohen is your daughter interest in politics? klobuchar: my husband said widger -- would you be interested in it if your moms job had an approval rating of 10%? she is volunteering in college helping immigrants learn to read. newspaper,g the writing for the newspaper. a focus on politics. who knows? i want her to do whatever she wants to do in life. and not direct her in any which way. it seems like it is going fine right now. that waltmment was whitman's poems were too repetitive. is a girl who thinks on her own.

for two yearsrch with barack obama. what is your relationship with him like personally? amy klobuchar: i get along with him well. taken oneone who is some major difficult issues. when he got into office have challenging that was. in one losing more jobs month and then there were in the state of vermont. so many international crises. wanting to bring the troops home from iraq and from afghanistan. e is someone who has been steady in sticking to what he wanted to do. it has been frustrating for him to not get more done. but he got a lot done. if you get this immigration bill that you will be able at some major changes he has made in the country. some major social changes.

repeal.k don't tell his position on gay marriage. so many strong women in his cabinet including hillary clinton. spending his devotion to doing something about keeping the economy going. against a lot of attacks that he gets. i continue to work with him on every issue that comes along. we like it when he comes and visits our state. steve: how often do you get back home? amy klobuchar: three out of four weekends. especially with the weather being so lovely in minnesota right now, you don't want to miss it. there was a day where we were colder than mars. but that day has passed. we have moved on to warmer pastures. offe: if you have a day

what you enjoy doing? amy klobuchar calling i enjoy bicycling in the summer. we once bicycled from minneapolis to jackson hole wyoming. i like going to movies with my husband. i like taking walks. and let's check in with my daughter. to take that time to be outside. even in the winter. who has a bigger sense of humor you or your colleague? amy klobuchar: the president said after my gridiron speech that al franken was only the second funniest senator from minnesota. al franken is incredibly humorous. he