the professor political science joins us to discuss pennsylvania's role as a key battleground state in this election cycle. >> love is something we immediately said when i met donald. he loves this country, and he knows how to get things done. not just talk. he says that he knows how to fix things, doesn't the? dallas melania trump in pennsylvania yesterday, a key suburb of philadelphia in a key battleground state. bill clinton out there on the campaign trail as well with four days to go before the election. we thought we would ask you about the candidate spouses, do they influence your vote? we look to hear what you have to

say. democrats at (202) 748-8000, republicans at (202) 748-8001 and independents at (202) 748-8002. candidate's spouses influence your wrote? if not by phone, you can weigh in on social media. you can post a comment to facebook.com/cspan. writeupsne of the many on melania trump's visit to pennsylvania. it is her first speech since pennsylvania. the headline says melania trump tries to repair husband image with women. a likely last-ditch effort to build women voters. donald trump said his glamorous under thenia, campaign trail to vouch for his respect for women into town to family values she would bring to the white house for services -- trump, a former fashion

model, said she would take on cyber bullying which inflicts deep wounds on children. this is more from melania trump. [video clip] husband, themy language is inappropriate. it is unacceptable. i was surprised, because that is not the man that i know. as you can see from the tape, the cameras were not on only a microphone. knew thatf they even the microphone was on. talk.ere kind of a boy he was egged on from the host to bad stuff.nd few tvne of the appearances be of seen a couple

of weeks back following the release of the tape several fridays ago. after the rally, the wall street journal says at this rally melania trump calls for civility, and in the washington post today, the headline says "the un-trump?" the candidate decries what she calls mean words, in her view. this is part of a larger isry where donald trump enlisting friends and family in a last-ditch push. the clinton campaign is going all out in search of support from black voters. the trump them and makes the point that trump is continuing to lean heavily on his family with donald junior campaigning in colorado and nevada. ivanka in michigan, and new hampshire. eric trump in wisconsin and his wife in ohio. he deployed his own party

luminaries in pennsylvania, and ohio. newt gingrich and a lot of, and ben carson in iowa. clintonhear from bill in just a couple of seconds. we will get to your calls, but want to point out this piece in the hill. the obama's and the clintons will together right before the election. campaigncap off the with a blockbuster lineup better final rally and on the night before the election. the nominee booby joined by her husband, bill clinton, daughter chelsea clinton, -- the nominee will be joined by her husband bill clinton, her daugther chelsea. here is bill clinton on the campaign trail. [video clip] >> what does it mean to be an american in the 21st century? it is profound. that is the reason all these republican newspapers and national security people, many of whom probably disagree with her on her economic plans and

her specific social policy say nonetheless, she loves this capable ofd she is being commander in chief. we do have to have an economy that works for everybody. [applause] lots of calls coming in now on the role of the candidate spouses, to the influence your vote? paul is our first color from wisconsin, a democratic collar. wisconsin,ller from a democratic caller. with hillary clinton you're getting 241. in the 1990's bill clinton was probably the best president we have seen. that is why republicans are so jealous of him. all those investigations never went anywhere. i will tell you what, all this stuff about hillary's e-mails, what a smokescreen. he said the other day what is

trump's message? that i hate all the same people you guys hate. that pretty much sums it up. host: you said to for the price of one which is something we heard 20 years ago as well in reverse. what would you expect clinton's role to be of she becomes president? caller: advice with global affairs, and everything else. if there is a big, something unexpected she could go to bill, instead of blowing up the world they can talk about an figure out what is going on. he is a very smart person, a very levelheaded person. i don't think you'll get that with melania trump. host: thank you for calling. let's hear from lily now on the republican line. what do you think? that doesn'tnk

reflect on the candidates for stomach kind of their ideas and where they stand -- the candidates. it kind of shows where they stand. host: what did you learn from the lumia from bill clinton in this campaign -- melania trump or bill clinton on this campaign? yesterday, i think she was stating more about cyber bullying against children. it, she wasoing more concerned about ad -- children doing it. closerlay -- pay attention to that. bill clinton come out rather not comment. -- all right, let's take a call from tom on the independent line in south carolina. go ahead. caller: i just finished

melania's speech earlier before hillary's. i thought you gave a wonderful speech and would be a good first lady. host: what did you hear from her specifically? caller: everything, she, her afterward, it -- listened to the opposition. not pushing- he is bigotry. he wants to build a strong country for everybody. as far as bullying in the schools and every thing like the she concentrated on 12-year-old example because a lot of that goes on. that keepsreat, and them from developing themselves. that is important. i disagree with the people that oppose her saying you have to watch her. you have to listen to what she says because she is a wonderful woman and knows what she's talking about. host: thank you for calling post a let's go to bob in new mexico,

democratic caller. go ahead, bob. personally think what melania trump said is ridiculous talking about bullying. she obviously hasn't seen her husband's twitter account. anyway, what i look for in a first lady is one, she has to support good causes. host: let's move on to some hopefully some more substantive phone calls on this friday morning. a lot of you trump, little bit more from pennsylvania now. -- melania trump, a little bit more from pennsylvania now. [video clip] >> we have to find a way to talk to each other, and respect each other. we must find a better ways to honor and support the basic good this of our children, especially

in social media. it should be one of the main focuses of my work if i am privileged enough to become your first lady. [applause] >> i will also work hard to improve everyday lives for women. the women in america, incredible. they are strong, intelligent, generous, committed, determined. the opportunities we will advance and achieve. but some women have been left behind. i see that. we cannot call ourselves a fully developed or advanced nation when 50% of our women live in poverty. when 60 million are without health insurance, when too many are choosing between basic needs

like rent, food, and health care. this cannot be. we cannot afford to have more of the same. we must break with the failures of the past, and embrace a feature that is worthy of this great nation and her beautiful people. [applause] host: more of your calls in a moment. back to the washington post these. the candidates wife decries mean says somey jordan supporters listening were critical of the crude language her husband has used including calling women "ms. piggy" and "dogs." it bothers me, says victoria, noting that poll; show the nominee is trailing with womens and his wife offered a refreshingly different approach. carefully considered and talking about children and

kindness. only now getting to hear from melania. why didn't he send her out earlier? also in the post, other women found it ironic that melania champion ending bullying on the internet. what about the tone and voice he uses? he does people to shut up, and s ays about a woman "she is ms. piggy." ont from a woman working local voter turnout. the race is close in chester county where mitt romney eked out a win by us than 1%. caller: i do believe the candidates family's influence the vote. it influences my vote.

on the one hand, there was an educated family who even collaborates, which is significant enough with the campaign and the husband and wife. they all collaborate for stuff on the other hand, you have people and family members that are plagiarizing and using scripted language that the campaign has written and didn't bother to understand the significance of questioning the validity of the language. barely understand this person. that is not typically a problem for me in my day-to-day life. i just felt that it is hypocritical when one side is saying the other lies, and they are using plagiarized words and scripted information. they are run by their own lies. i woulder to me is yes, choose education over non-educated. host: all right, let's hear from

lori now in california, a democratic caller. caller: good morning, i haven't been sleeping. host: sorry to hear that. caller: it really worries me if trump gets in the white house because i believe it will be like having it learned the white house. house.er and the white host: why do you say that? caller: because of how he treats people. he doesn't think he can do any wrong. they said he was a psychopath. anyway, melania trump, i think she is a nice lady and everything, but her speech was totally red of the teleprompters yesterday. i mean, all of it was read. it was written for her. that is probably because she was

scared of giving a speech because she hadn't given one before. i can understand that. but, i am not a real big hillary fan. it just, trump is a dangerous man. i don't want to see him in the white house. host: all right, angelie compares the spouses to the candidates themselves. she said she lowered her and who is the nuclear launch codes not to can get the most kids in shape. theie writes that sways votedon't right now so why would the spouses? caller: good morning, i believe that spouses to influence my vote because i was thinking a bout changing and going to hillary. if anybody in the whole thing

actually change my vote it would be bill. was president he was supposed to be the biggest role model we ever had. look at his sex scandal when he was in the presidency. and hillary didn't even divorce them. have divorced them as soon as she found out. i think the clintons shouldn't be bringing up things about trump's womanizing and everything, bill did the most worst thing when he was president. host: now hampton, georgia now on the democrats line. oneer: my call is that no spouse influences a voter's choice. what it tells me when i look at is a veryhe attractive person. i think she is a lot you want to say and do. you can tell when a woman sort

of fears her mate. she fears her mate. i saw that when she was doing the interview the other day when donald trump told her she is going to be interviewed. she looked shocked and surprised. for us christians and evangelists, we should remember that. i admire hillary but also am sad for her. she tolerated but most women wouldn't tolerate, cheating with their spouses. at this point, it has been over 20 years since i was divorced. to this day, i would shy hadn't for the sake of my children. somehow, relationships in the white house send a message to all of us. at this point, i am for the sake of myself, even i'm a democrat all my life. duringot vote democrat

the primaries. so, spouses do influence that. my main issue with spouses is that they have great causes. laura bush, barbara bush was my role model. whenhappens at the end, they leave office, none of these things get carried forth. that is the issue i have with spouses. melania makes a great point with cyber bullying because it exists and hurts our children. i really think that probably once this election, if they get into the white house, she will make a great person and great spokesperson for it. will it carry on? will it help? michelle was losing weight for children, but will be carried out on? barbara bush had the reading program. she was everywhere. i have spoken with her.

she sat on many, many boards. she was for education. when these things get carried on, that is my biggest issue with spouses being in the white house. host: thank you for weighing in and sharing your own situation. the new york daily news front ?!ge today, you don't say weuote from mrs. trump -- must treat each other with kindness. that overlooks hubby's bullying. d lonnie at the least favorably viewed candidates spouse sends hillary clinton. that is the headline, they say. they begin by saying melania trump did not sign up with this. she signed up to be the wife of a wealthy celebrity and doesn't seem to have bought much

into the life of the t.v. star. but it doesn't seem that she did that to become the eventual first lady of the united states. thew poll we asked people four people not of the top of the ticket. bill clinton was picked up with the best-known with more than half of the respondents having a favorable view of him. was slightly better known than either vice presidential pick but others viewed her more negatively. she is viewed about is positively as negatively, by contrast tim kaine and mike pence have net favorability is plus 1719 and respectively. that is in the washington post

if you want to read more about that. we have joe from pennsylvania on the independent line. where is bath exactly? caller: it is by nazareth, and pennsylvania. host: our folks feeling with the campaign there? is that clinton territory or trump territory? caller: i see tons of trump science but i don't know about that. is problem we got here people being misguided by the media. he is all over the page. lania, doing all this stuff. donald trump had an argument with rosie o'donnell. -- idn't call all women know he loves women. the man -- let's talk about deplorable. let's talk about basement to against catholics

and evangelicals. let's talk about that this morning. host: let me jump in and get to the question itself, how about the candidate spouses? to the influence your vote -- do they influence your vote? caller: bill clinton, i never cared for him, even when he was in office. they said there was a market coming up with the computer industries at that time. computerseft, the crashed and people were losing $100,000 jobs. he didn't really do much. women, and it bad things in that office. people need to wake up. the nothing but thieves, worse than the mob. these people don't care about america. right, let's hear from

brenda in houston, texas on the line for democrats. caller: it is been quite a few years since i have spoken with you. host: well i'm glad you are on. what do you think about the candidate's spouses? to the influence your vote? caller: before i answer that i wanted to say this -- back in 2000 when the election was for george bush, i said to everyone that would listen there someday so catastrophic behind this administration, america will never be able to bounce back. obama turn give us barack with a sense of humor. look of the kelly whiteside of him try to destroy him. now they want us to pick this clown, trump. i sit to white america that to america., woe

in answer to your question -- wow, i wish we had been asking, i wish there was someone we could take this time and put it in the 50's in the 60's. can you imagine a woman being touted, one that is being put before us who has posed nude for just cannot imagine, who also stole the previous superior first lady's words. buit nothigng is said. we are twisted and we are sick. seople should go see sicari' program on cnn, when one of the four leaders that even if trump did -- even if hillary did when, at this point they question the

leaders around the world whether or not america is up to the task of leading. people, we better thing. -0- think. a republican caller. caller: i find it ironic how everybody is forgetting what bill clinton did in his time in office. eorgeality, he brought g bush senior's financials forward. he had an attack on the tower, and three embassies. he had an attack on the uss cole, which he jumped -- dumped in george bush junior's lap. he had so many awful things happen to him that were just so irresponsible. it just seems like everybody forgets that.

how many times did he have a chance to get bin laden? he just passed up because he didn't want a headache. i think people need to look at that. i am absolutely not in favor of trump, no more than i am hillary clinton. terrible mess. a the american people have, and a really think that this is something that we will pay for. host: thank you for calling. more about bill clinton, new republic has this piece and headline goes like this -- will bill clinton come out of hiding after the election? he was supposed to be one of hillary clinton's top surrogates, instead he disappeared from the national spotlight. -- won'tit will last last and the piece says that they tweeted a video earlier touting her most popular surrogates for that that is the

setup you we take a look at that piece right now then come back. can i just say: i'm really into electing hillary clinton. this is not me going to the motions here. i really, really, really, want to elect hillary clinton. are going to work our hearts out to make hillary clinton the next president of the united states. i can't hear you, are you with me? this is aobama: fundamental choice about who we are as a people. we're strongest when we bring our people together. president obama: in every state, men and women young and old -- bernie sanders: everybody, that is who we are. there's oneama: candidate who devoted her life. michelle obama: who fights every

day for us. >> i've known hillary a long time. we have talk about what i know what hillary cares about, immigration reform student at climate change. the answer is 100% clear. that is on every issue. hillary clinton is the superior candidate, hands down. obama: i am inspired by her persistence, and her gut, and her lifelong record of public service. no one in our lifetime has ever much experience and exposure to the presidency. and yet, she happens to be a woman. applause]d wille choice that we make determine the direction of this country for a long time. last need to pour every ounce of our passion and strength and love of this country into electing hillary

clinton as president of the united states of america. >> i intend to be in every corner of this country to make sure that happens. >> i need you to knock on doors nad make -- and make phone calls. talk to your friends, including a republican friends. >> we can't afford to squander this opportunity given the alternative. >> i just have one message for you -- don't screw this up. >> let's get to work. you hear me? alright. host: this new republic piece points out that barack and michelle obama are there, joe biden, bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, but what about bill? he was not part of that piece. where was he? inwas in blue beell

pennsylvania for study could barely hide his bemusement that is saric as he was taking him to these remote places. he said i'm trying to going around a little bus tour's in ohio and about to do in western pennsylvania, i'm about to go to north florida he said. people whyto tell they ought to be for her. they write that the little bus tour perfectly captures the unexpected modesty of bill clinton's work, the striking contrast to 2012 when he was barack obama's most important saric it. -- surrogate. mores had a much specialize role of yet world are now donaldo trump's base. one more paragraph, bill clinton has a report with the white working class would make sense

to do ploy him to shore up their constituency. but these voters are much less important to democrat in national elections than when he was running in the 1990's. the parties become much more reliant on people of color, and millennials. you can read that entire piece at the new republic. he quebec to the phones now, linda, new york city democrat, go ahead. caller: thank you for having me. we can he just fine, go ahead. we can hear you just fine, go ahead. caller: i am a democrat, but i'm not voting. i was going to vote for trumpet until -- trump until i heard the way he speaks. he never even went o undergraduate. -- graduate school. he doesn't have the intelligence to be president. host: let me jump in we are

asking specifically. caller: and his wife, she is not intelligent either. a scriptede was speech that michelle obama wrote, she copied it. yesterday,d a speech it was right off the teleprompter. she also isn't very bright. she said to everyone that she graduated college. they found out she dropped out after one course. host: all right, now on the line from niagara falls, new york, on the u.s. had a republican color. two spouses of the candidates influence your vote -- do spouses of the candidates influence your vote? caller: shame on the people of insulting theor lumia trumbo top she's highly educated, speaks five languages, when she was referring to cyber bullying she was speaking about

children, not adults. i have two grandchildren that is been bullied on the internet. when donalyd trump tweeted what he did, which they called bullying it was in retaliation --his wife, defending her defending himself, basically. shame on the people of this country. shame on them. let's hear from christopher from englewood, new jersey. caller: thank you for taking my call. thelieve that people -- couples tdo make us vote, but the issues is how we vote. i am fired up to vote for hillary clinton post-up she is the only candidate who cares about people with special-needs.

donald trump on the other hand does not. as a person who was born with special needs such as autism i do believe that the issues really affect me and have an influence is my vote all the more. i am determined to vote for hillary clinton. i hope you think of the person with special needs, think of the families on the autism spectrum and you go to the polls. ask yourself, what kind of president but i want to go and support my family's future? do i want a person who does not include people with special needs, or somebody who includes all people and everyone else? that is the choice we must oflly look into, is that these e-mails and everything else. that is the him -- that is what influences my vote. the dissemination i have to see that. that is what i do. host: christopher, thank you.

let's get back and look at the congressional campaign for a moment. in the senate, democrats need a net gain of four seats if hillary clinton wins the white house it would be five seats. if donald trump wins it would be five seats. moreme congressional news, out of pennsylvania, senator pat toomey remains his mystery over the trump vote. mum on how heing the ballot despite being pressed repeatedly on thursday as he seeks reelection. he is in a neck and neck race with katie mcginty. the persistent question by the tv station about whether he will put for trumpet one point saying he probably will reveal how he will vote on tuesday. another point to knowing -- noting there are other undecided

voters out there. that is from the ap this morning. out of north carolina, cooper, it says? this is the democratic gubernatorial nominee, expanding his money advantage over pat macquarie the republican incumbent. in the months leading to the final days of the hotly contested race. cooper's campaign raised more than 9 million in the third quarter. in other piece is about marco rubio running for reelection in florida. trump it says here in the miami herald piece after bitterly losing to him. he says he has no intention of standing alongside him on the trail and a potentially decisive battleground state of florida, not only when not -- not even when trump his blocks away like on wednesday. not doing they are

presidential events. are asked, he said we focused on our race no disrespect towards anyone. oureally have to focus on senate race. we're just not doing presidential events. on that note says the reporter, rubio's campaign aides whisked him our of the restaurant. a independent caller from florida, hello mary. caller: i have a couple of points to make about the presidential spouses influences. , as a woman that was married to a man that cheated on me i have no respect for stayingclinton with bill clinton. not only did she -- did he c multiple times. he probably still is. that is according to the thing. i read. billr two, the fact that

clinton was impeached. that is a very important point. it just shows you can't trust the clintons. i didn't even know until this year but when bill clinton was cheating with -- i looked this up on wikipedia after somebody told me. when he was cheating with monica lewinsky, he was also cheating viceeleanor mondale, the president walter mondale's daughter. passed away now from a brain tumor. at the two women were actually fighting over his infections. he was the president of the united states. what are we thinking about? why is hillary clinton even in the position that she is? host: that was mary, we got to see more in georgia on the democratic line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call.

this is historical for me. eight years ago, i stood in line, crying to vote for barack obama. voteis my chance again to in a historic moment in the united states to put a lady in the white house. i think the talent that bill birngrings to the white house wl go back to the 1980's when everybody was on the rise. i heard you made a statement about a resurgence that hillary the countryaround to make sure she gets in the white house. i want you to know, i want the viewers to know, that hillary clinton has willie seymour in savannah, georgia tried to make for the georgia becomes blue. i want you to know that i've been very, very moved about how this country views someone with

talent and someone without talent. , i look atnton president barack obama who has done so many things to bring wes country out of the ditch were in an 2008. look at another thing, look at george bush senior, colin powell , those hard republican saying look, my party might be republican but my country's first. to supporting someone to move the needle. ifsident barack obama said mitt romney won he would respect the fact that he knew something. if senator mccain won, he would have respected the fact that they knew something. but to perceive tessie president barack obama put in the energy meanshat he is doing, it every black person in this country stand up and realize that president barack obama was a champion for all people matter what race you might of been.

he was a champion for everybody. some lift move on to get called we're down to our last five minutes or so. we will achieve no about a couple of campaign events. hillary 5:15 p.m. in detroit, michigan. he is concerned about african-american turnout on tuesday. she will be in detroit at 5:50 life here followed by donald trump who will be in that key state of pennsylvania. this time in hershey, pennsylvania. both of those events live on the network. clinton and the trump in a last-minute scramble for votes as the polls narrow. bolsteres push to turnout around the country. the talk about all the family members and saric it's that are out there to get folks out as best they can. washington post says early voting by latinas may help clinton in several states they are talking here about fresh

election data same democratic nominee appears to be benefiting from upticks impetus a patient by latinos who historically vote in lower numbers than the rest of the electorate. federal background checks they're talking about guns here and the fact that background checks increased year-over-year for the 18th straight month in october. several high-profile attacks that hillary clinton wants to abolish the second amendment. one more piece the new york times lead story says voters expressed discussed in u.s. politics in overwhelmingly majority now. it's a voters are disgusted by this it of politics here in this country for the many harbor doubts that either majority or major party nominee can unite the country after a historically ugly presidential campaign. that is according to a new poll .

more details in the new york times. now, in republican politics that is it dina? go ahead. caller: hi, i think melania trump did a wonderful job. she is a smart lady. she hasn't been in the public eye. she is a little nervous. i do believe trumbo do better than clinton. i think clinton is a crook. look at her foundation. they didn't help the haitians, or really anybody. host: anything else? caller: um, yeah, vote fror trump, let's get the crooks out of politics so we can actually do something for the american people. host: all right, thank you for calling. a timeout and begin

our guest to segment on this friday edition of the journal. four days before the election, ey will join us next to talk about the affordable care act should. she is the senior health correspondent for kaiser health news. learn all about that. later on we take a deeper look at the electoral college, exactly what is it in who put it together and how or why. jeffrey rosen will be our guest. thes the president of national ceo constitution center. we are right back in a couple of minutes. ♪ >> this weekend on american history tv on c-span three, saturday night at 8:00 eastern on lectures in history, colin kallick, history professor at

dartmouth college on native american history from the colonial era through westward expansion. whohese redcoats, presented themselves to us as allies and friends for the future. but clearly, they are our enemies, and are occupying our land with troops. at the same time, by cutting off and withholding gives and refusing to give gifts and limiting trade with us. that is essentially a declaration of hostile intent. >> later, on railamerica, we look back to -- real america, we look back to the race for governor of california. my experience has turned me inevitably toward the people to the answers to problems just instinctively. i find that i even put my faith in the private sector of the economy. he believe in the people right and ability to run their own affairs. every single solitary

category of business that tells whether or not california's economy is a good is proven that we have done a good job. >> sunday morning at 10:00 on road to the white house rewind -- >> all of you will go to the polls and stand there to make a decision. thatnk, when you make decision you should ask yourself are you better off than you were four years ago? >. our proposals our sound and carefully considered. theulate jobs, improve industrial complex of this country, to create opportunity for american workers and to be anti-inflationary. 1980 debate between jimmy carter and former california governor ronald reagan. realist would not have

devoted his life to fighting slavery or said this -- which is that a dissolution of the union for the cause of slavery would be followed by the war of the two separate portions of the union seems to me it's result andt be the calamitous decimating estes course of events must be, so glorious would be its final issue that i cannot say it is not to be desired. >> at the new york historical society, author of "john quincy adams, militant spirit." they debate the question was john quincy adams a realist? they also document the foreign-policy views and the president.he sixth for our complete american history tv schedule go to c-span.org. >> washington journal continues. host: i would guess now is mary

agnes carey, senior health correspondent for kaiser health news. give us an update on the affordable care act for 2017. it has begun, what expectations does the administration have this time around? trying to gore after the younger healthier folks to get them into the insurance pool to help even out the risk pool. we have many sick of people came and initially. when you look at enrollment numbers they estimate that thatlment will go up -- will go to 13 .8 million from 4.7 million. what really matters here is the number of people that pay those premiums. they think on average that is about 11.4 million next year. jump.a reasonable host: one of the big current headlines on all of this is the premium increase. theourse the pushback from

president and others who say when you factor in the subsidies, maybe it isn't so much. can you tell us what is going to happen? big headline number with his average 25% increase in premiums. again, you have to remember that as you said once you factor in those subsidies for many of the folks that increase they don't necessarily feel the entire thing. for some people, they feel apps -- they feel absolutely nothing. are areas that to plant one insurer to look at. if you to elaborate on that. for mostge is unlike people on the marketplace have an option of three insurers. while those headlines are very important. there is more to the story. host: phone number is on at the bottom of the screen.

(202) 748-8000 is the number if your insurance comes of the affordable care act. your 748-8001 if to employer, and (202) 748-8002 if you're unemployed. carey has worked for dow jones newswire and the new haven register and long experience covering the health care issue. what is the reporting out there on the condition of the programming? guest: you do have the factors which talking about including the number of insurers participating in a come in initially who were very sick and expensive. that is one of the factors that caused some of the shakeups we're talking about. the number of sick people coming in your front about aetna and

humana withdrawing that got a lot of headlines. insurers are still wrestling was not only the risk pool but the number of sick people that have come in to try to get more younger folks to come into balance out. also managing those costs, that is my going forward you hear more about narrow networks, that is when they try to cut tighter deals to keep those costs low. that may mean fewer options. a variety ofeen factors. they have to have returns to shareholders. another factor is there were some provisions to help balance that risk will stoptwo are going away last year one didn't pay out anywhere near what they expected. host: what are the other headlines from npr says the hea lth care law enrollment efforts could be pivotal this time around for the overall law.

can you elaborate on that headline? it is trying to get more people into the exchanges in particular the young ages 18 have a 34 who tend to be healthier. this has been a group they have stopped every year and can -- sought every year and continue to push for. when you look beyond the exchanges that are studies to say there is two point 5 million people out there who aren't in the exchanges now who are uninsured who could qualify for subsidies. it in the messaging out, aggressively pursuing this trap media a -- through social and advertising. that is the personal responsibility provision, really going after those folks to see if they can get them to come to the exchange and hopefully sign up for coverage. host: lots of ideas for change is out there which we will hear about over the course of the segment.

let's get our first call from franklin, tennessee good morning. caller: good morning. host: question, comment? our insuranceght through a broker for ourselves. it is not subsidized or through work. we have to pay for our own insurance in four years it went from $1000 for three people to $3500 in 2017 for two people. this is like financial rape. buyingple that are their own insurance are the voiceless in all this. we will be forced to buy our insurance through health care.gov. will beo downsize and the $13,000 deductible and this is just ridiculous. we are being pushed into this.

forget about buying insurance across state lines you can even buy it in your own county now. this is happening across this nation and no one is paying attention to these 9 million or 60 million people. three months i spent every year now working on this, trying to figure this out how low are we going to go down on the pole? we had a nice policy, it was not some crap policy. because of this law, all these inclusions for other people, my son makes $30,000 a year. he has bills and student loans. month. $345 a iamt: can i just ask you -- assuming you don't qualify for subsidies. caller: my husband makes too much money. guest: what deborah has done is

crystallize the frustrations for people that don't qualify for subsidies who may have had a plan that wasn't quite as generous as the affordable care act plan. there was something called the central health and benefits that require a variety of coverages like pediatric care and maternity care. policy may have had a before the affordable care act that may have been more affordable for them perhaps more limited in scope but what they wanted to have. they could not continue that coverage. they have had to go into broader plans. as we talk about these factors and competition doing insurers price can-- drop out, rise because competition is reduced. someone who is out there buying insurancehealth cannot get their own subsidy at their great frustration was to my e-mail box has been in flooded with these. people are struggling to afford health insurance.

it is definitely a problem and she articulated it very well. an insured caller from kansas. caller: how are you? i was going to ask the lady, i need to understand, 2010 it was signed the affordable health care first up if i am not mistaken, the congress didn't go and they said we can't do it we need a mandate to make everybody individual to have insurance or they weren't going to go through with it. it was the insurance that pushed it and not the congress. i don't know i want to ask is that true? passed by law as congress and signed included the individual mandate. this is something that insurers

have wanted but also many democrats and frankly many republicans had endorsed the individual mandate over the years that says you have to have insurance or pay penalty. there are some exceptions to this. some people can get an exemption. the thought is if you don't have that you don't get all the healthy people into the insurance risk pool. that is the idea behind it. insurers definitely wanted that but also did others. it is a part of the affordable care act. the: here is a piece from health and human services secretary talking about changes the administration wants to make to the aca. [video clip] >> we do believe there are changes that need to occur. the president articulated that. he restated that on thursday. some of those things are number one, we need to further , the 85 they 15% could be subsidies and then the

50% that don't. how do we think about those people? i think some of the needs to be possibly subsidize. >> a provision that keeps a group of people out. in other words, you need to open it out further. thehat is for people in marketplace now, but not subsidized. if you aren't subsidized, number one on november 1 i recommend you shop was to because the premiums have gone up you may be eligible now. we estimate 20% of the people would be eligible that worked before. >> because the costs went up? >> exactly. for that of the group of people we believe that maybe policy changes that need to occur to help them in terms of that. they are in the marketplace. in terms of another change, the president articulated in places where there is not enough for adequate competition we need a public option. for those people are able to

make sure they have a place in plan. a third change we believe is important is working on high-cost drugs. they are proposals part of the budget but let me just highlight one of them to give you a sense. is thethe biggest ones ability to negotiate on high-cost and specialty drugs. that is not something we can do now. we have to accept the price instead of negotiate. we believeare things can be made better. we do it in the world more building on progress. there are issues. some of those have to do with encourage more competition. those are some policy approaches we propose. host: host: your thoughts? guest: we have heard about them, the i he a of helping people get

financial assistance. it's being talked about and the idea of the public option, uniform offering for people all over the country no matter where they live that would allow them to buy insurance and could inject more competition into the market. negotiating for high cost and specialty drugs, it's an interesting thing and we have heard a lot about that how the prices of drugs are increasing. the department of health and human services purchases -- they can negotiate on behalf of medicare fee for service this year and medicaid in a fisheries, that's pretty powerful. you need congressional action to make these happen. affordable care act has been passed, there has been division over this and republicans have voted more than 60 times to repeal the law. host: it's a egg topic area for a little bit area for congress.

great falls, montana is on the line. good morning. caller: good morning. host: i see you are an employer. what kind of business do you have? caller: i started my third business and the latter part of my life all stop -- i just get out of work and go to bed every morning. here is the deal. theve when she says president articulated a plan to make things happen. fromou do is take money people who get out of work and go to workk -- and so they have a chance of doing something. i am tired of my money getting taken out of my pocket because somebody else does not have the responsibility to find a job, go to work, crawl out of bed and make a living. it's amazing.

i don't want my money going to anybody else anymore. does that make sense or am i being selfish? thank you very much. to responduld like to that in the context of the affordable care act. proponents of the law would tell you that are important to look at is not just necessarily the price for health insurance but they would argue that you get more for your money. for example, there is no discrimination if you are sick. insurers cannot decide to not cover you once you get sick. there is no -- as far as canceling your coverage, there is no annual or lifetime limit with health insurance which has been there in the past. if you had a serious cancer case and you hit a coverage limit, you were done. -- stayto 26 can they on a parent's health insurance plan. about finances and

the taxes you are paying our broader than this discussion. host: vicksburg is on the line, good morning. caller: how is everybody doing? i don't have insurance. i have worked all my life since i was 10 years old. when i worked for a corporation, they paid for my insurance. now i am a disability and i don't have any way to get insurance and the money that i get on disability puts me above the money you need to make to get on the affordable care act. the government is paying for health insurance now and they say they will charge everything twice as much. i don't even have insurance. -- i always thought america would protect me first

worked and if i put into the system all my life and when i needed it, everyone is turning their back on me. guest: you are on disability? caller: that's right. guest: couldn't you qualify for medicare? caller: that's starting to come up now. that's exactly right. i've got all these bills. they will not be taken care of. totally disability -- disappointed in the health care act because the banks ruined it. guest: there are community health centers that base payment or your health care on your income. that may be a help for you. there are actually some local programs, there may be one in your community whether it's at the county or city or state level that can help people who cannot afford health insurance.

those are separate and distinct from the subsidies we are talking about that helps pay for the affordable care act. the employer paying for coverage is important because most of us get health insurance from an employer or we get it through a medicare program or the medicaid program. important care act is but you have to look at the overall population which is about 5% of people who get it on the exchanges. it's about 11 million people so it's an important discussion but it has to have perspective. host: how long does the open enrollment last? guest: it lasts until the end of january but if you want your insurance to start january 1, you need to be enrolled by december 15. it needs some time to process your application. host: the center for medicare and medicaid services put out their target areas.

we have a list here via a press release they put out. you can see that it's different parts of the country. what is it about these places? guest: together they represent more than 3 million uninsured people that see mms believes is a target market to go after. this is the fourth year for the open enrollment season. you have to go back in some cases to people you have already approached and to people who become newly uninsured and may not know about the affordable care act. if you use to get health insurance from your employer or another source and that change, you may not necessarily know about this. i have a close friend in the district of columbia who has her own business and we had a discussion about health insurance premiums and she had no idea about the d.c. exchange.

she is uneducated educated woman so there is a public relations hurdle to climb. host: how do they get to people? how do they inform them and make them understand question mark a big part of it is process, advertising, testimonials by satisfied customers, there are social media outlets. they are also going to people who have paid a penalty. we talked about the individual mandate. they will reach out directly to folks to understand what are the options. if you went to the exchange and in your e-mail address, they will follow-up with you. it's a full-court press. host: what's the price tag for this? guest: i don't know right now.

it's probably a more cumulative number. i would recommend that folks go to kaiser health news and take a look at what we have. host: let's hear from elizabeth in arizona who is getting insurance by the aca. hello there. are you there? here and i'm sorry. you caught me halfway to the potty. i have had multiple strokes. i contracted through the aca in 2014. i have turned out to be a rather them.ive patient for

since there is no yearly or lifetime cap on the coverage they have to comply with, what they did to me instead to get out byme or send me saying that as of 2017, health choice will no longer offer individual policies. out fromthat, they got noer the requirements of cap. many counties are down to what the insurer in some areas having doubled their cost. they made the decision to withdraw from the market because they determined it was not profitable.

we are seeing this in arizona but another states as well. host: donald in florida, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. i have had insurance on my life, i am one of the lucky ones. it's through my job. is insuranceoticed is always going up. when we did a new contract, it went up whatever. aret now, me and my wife month for our00 a premium on a $6,000 cap. i think the republicans should get together with the resident in all 50 states and pitch in and we could have a system that would work for the american people.

we need to figure out a way to make this work and put a cap on and force them to participate in the program. maybe go to a single-payer option like other countries. host: thank you. guest: he points out a trend. have slowedrates in recent years but employers are still taking a variety of steps to help ease their health insurance costs. they have hired a dock doubles, they may pay more for their out-of-pocket expenses, they are shifting more of their financial responsibility to the employees. host: let's talk about the presidential candidates and let's begin with donald trump in a speech he made where he talked about the a portable care act. [video clip] when we win on november 8,

and elect a republican congress, we will be able to immediately repeal and replace obamacare. [applause] congress to convene a special session so we can repeal and replace. and it will be such an honor for me, poor you, and for everybody in this country because obamacare has to be replaced and we will do it and we will do it very quickly. it is a catastrophe. host: repeal is one thing but replace is a different thing. has the trump campaign put forward any solid ideas on how it would replace? guest: some ideas about out there for a while like a high risk pool that takes sicker people and offers insurance for them. there are problems with that, it tends to be expensive and sometimes waiting limits are imposed.

another ideas about selling insurance across state lines but there are problems there including having one insurer over here and regulate insurance in this state and out of a get provider networks and what happens if you are a customer in a state with an insurance plan that sold in another state. are many ideas that have been out there for a while but there are difficulties in executing them. host: has hillary clinton talked about specific changes? guest: she talked about making premiums more affordable, the idea of a public option, uniform choices no matter where you live, looking at high prescription drug costs i'm working on those so there are specific ideas on both sides in the implementation. host: have you heard anything from the independent candidates on this? guest: i have not. changehould the senate hands in the democrats were to be in charge, would you see any action on their part to make

changes to the law question mark guest: i think they would try to but he at issue is how republicans want to approach this. more than 60 votes in the house of representatives to repeal all or part of it. have a republican opposition has been in the senate and the house on the affordable care act but it has not been a huge issue in this campaign with the recent premium increases. question is do republicans want to continue to fight the law or work to make corrections to it? new congress in 2017 so how do they want to pursue it? host: susan on the line from bristol, connecticut, thank you for joining us. caller: good morning. comfortable, i'm sorry but i don't feel comfortable in the so-called system. what i would like is an

individual type of policy. there is no place for me and people like me who are involved in homeopathic medicines in this so-called system. staying healthy, buying clean food and filtered water is expensive alone. where do you see my situation? guest: for the types of treatments you are talking about, they are not necessarily covered on your insurance plans available in connecticut. i think that's what you're talking about. maybe what you could do is look at a plan that has a hired adoptable at a lower premium cost so you're covered in case of a big emergency. heaven forbid you get a serious get in anr accident, whether you buy on or off the exchange, you might get a bronze plan which is the tier.

your monthly premium would be lower but your out-of-pocket would be higher and there are simple choice plans that are on the exchanges that may allow some care you can get before you have to pay that a deductible. it might still be worth taking a look even if you don't get a subsidy. even if the treatment you prefer are not covered. host: mike from randolph, wisconsin, good morning. we understand you are uninsured? insured. am i have been insured my whole life either by myself. host: go ahead and ask your question. caller: i believe the affordable care act is a step forward for americans. when i get older, i have been -- my parents have been providing for my insurance my whole life and i want

insurance to be there when i need it. that's what the affordable care act offers all of us. why we allerstand aren't working together as americans, one nation, under god to meet this for all americans. guest: you represent the viewpoint of many people that the affordable care act at least gives individuals options and choice and there is standardization in the market and there is some regulation in the market. before 2010, if you bought health insurance individually from year-to-year, you can have high prices. getmay not be able to coverage or there would be exclusions. now those plans cannot exclude this sort of coverage. this is an example of a proponent saying this is something there if i need it will stop at least there is a

standardized market to go to. host: in georgia, willy is calling. caller: good morning. comment about the affordable care act. host: yes, sir. caller: it is good insurance. it's like anything else you put out there. there will be bugs in it that have to be worked out. this is my comment about it -- insurance don't have [indiscernible] you cannot get insurance. with the affordable care act, you've got to be looked that and you can be operated on and you can go in the hospital. they want to repeal it and replace it. then they go back to nothing.

you have to pay everything out of your own pocket. they can work the bugs out of obamacare. but they refused to do it. they wanted to fail. people cannot afford the high cost of insurance. if the good, they would have it. that's what the affordable care act does, it helps people that cannot afford it and could not afford insurance and now they have insurance. host: thank you for calling. are well talked about this and the president has talked about the acknowledgment i many proponents of the affordable care act that it needs some improvement. it has been around for six years.

there are some things working well and some things not necessarily working well but the key will be where is the political consensus and will exist? will republicans and democrats want to move forward and make changes to the law question mark it doesn't look like there will be much bipartisanship going forward that you never know. host: there is a headline in the new york times about the health care premiums. it says the increase in the premiums may affect the vote in arizona tuesday. you called arizona poster child for some of the problems they are having. give us a deeper look. guest: you have had some states down south for some insurers have left the market place.

alabama and south carolina for example has one ensure statewide. insurersolina, 2 or 3 pulled out leaving 250,000 people with only one plan to go for coverage. when you look at rates, it's very interesting. and theyyear-old male probably don't use much health insurance, in arizona for next 116%,premium increases nebraska 115%, ohio only a 2% increase in massachusetts is a 3% decrease. a lot of this depends where you live, what's the competition, how many insurers are there and what does the risk pool look like and how many doctors are participating and how many low prices can the insurers drive. it's a whole lot of factors. host: how much notice does and

ensure give when he pulls out question mark guest: if you have not gotten the plan, you'll get a letter from them saying they are leaving. there may be a requirement on to direct you where you can get other options. you get some notice and some time and we talked about the and's januaryiood 31 but if you're currently involved and don't get them come you may be automatically enrolled in another plan that's comparable. you can always change that and the bottom line is you need to pay that premium for the first month. host: ocean city, maryland, and employer. you are insured by your employer. caller: i am one of the fortunate ones. have obamacare, wouldn't the overall cost of all insurance be higher? the lady that called earlier whose husband made too much, i

think they mixed up the fact that they blame that on obamacare. is capping the costs because it helps bring in the folks that are healthy to help the people that are sick. i'm worried that people crisscross these things and it's not accurate. obamacare has helped contain those costs. i think the challenge is to clarify these things with the american people. from the start, republicans have tried over and over to undermine this law when we all know that everybody needs health care and

we've got to face this issue. every developed country in the world seems to be able to do this and there is an economic advantage when we address the health care law. care andneeds health it contains those costs. they need to work together to come up with solutions instead of making up reasons why we cannot fix this problem. donald trump and his repeal and replace -- the american people have got to start to ask this to provide details for something. everything he says is he will make it greater like it's a turn of the page. that's the frustration for me. the american people should demand more details from these people running our country and like theyass it off will turn the lights on and off.

it's more complicated than that and we should demand more from donald trump and the idea that everything will be greater because i will be a dictator and make it happen. i love c-span, you are the best. guest: he raises a lot of interesting points, the idea of creating a marketplace, creating a risk pool and trying to get the healthy people to balance out the sick people is very important. -- thereof providing is no out-of-pocket or co-pays for primary care visits. will that get more people who have coverage may for the first time to come into the system? there are some changes going on in medicare were traditionally payment has been by the service versus the quantity of care. they are now taking steps to go in and we've got 10,000 baby

boomers joining medicare to try to make medicare more efficient. differences between states that engage in the law actively and those who don't. if you look at california that embraced the law and expanded medicaid which you can do under the affordable care act, those factors means there premiums and orse states tend to be less perhaps significantly less than states that did not embrace the law and did not support it and did not expand medicaid. you see quite a price differential. host: there is a column in the l.a. times with the headline to that effect. greg, bismarck, north dakota, uninsured, good morning. people arehink missing out on part of this. you hade old terms, people who were lower income

missing out on health care. people in the middle falling along the same lines. i think president obama and the lady sitting there are forgetting these numbers are actually people you're talking about. you moved from the lower class into the middle class where people will have to decide how they pay their bills or whether they will eat or pay for health care. in the past, the poor people were not find for not having the ability to do both. if he been with us from the beginning of the program, we talked about it woman named deborah talking about how they don't get a subsidy they don't qualify for a subsidy and how expensive their health insurance is. it's definitely one of those things that continues to evolve in the affordable care act and we saw secretary are well talk

about the 15% of individuals who don't get the subsidy and are not doing taken care of. host: we have time for one more call from dover, florida. market gets his insurance through the affordable care act. caller: good morning. i'm in an interesting situation. i had a well paying job and became disabled and my wife had been a homemaker. now my wife is in a position where she is going back to work. the challenge we are having is they offer health coverage she haswork but because not worked for many years, she is getting a low-paying job. where in a situation now one half of the money we are paying on health insurance -- our costs are now getting eaten

up. insurancese in health cost is eating that up. she is going back into the work place but the increase in health insurance is beating us up pretty well. guest: you said your wife is going back into the workforce? the place she is working offers health care. now we are no longer eligible for the aca. guest: we are looking at that who are people wrestling with the financial aspects of this. his wife works somewhere, there is a credible offer it but insurance so she is not allowed to go to be exchanges. we are talking about how expensive it is for them to have health insurance and what column that is or them all stop this is something that has to be examined and reckoned with in her has to be some help divider

at some point. people want insurance and they need insurance because if you don't have it and something happens, you are on the book. host: our guest has been married marry agnes-- carey. we will be back with jeffrey rosen the ceo of the national constitution center. the topic will be the electoral college and we will learn what this entity is all about and what it means and later on am a we will get a battle grain -- a battleground state up date. we will be right back. we will be right back. >> every weekend book tv brings you 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors. here's what's coming up this

weekend. book tv is live saturday at 11:00 a.m. eastern and sunday at 3:00 p.m. eastern from the 21st annual texas book festival in downtown austin. the texas book festival is one of the largest and most prestigious literary festivals in the country. saturday's authors include former attorney general alberto gonzalez with his book "true faith and allegiance, a story of sacrifice in war and peace." and pulitzer prize winning author lawrence wright. sunday's authors feature tony award winning actress jane alexander, author of "wild things, wild places, adventurous tales of wildlife and conservation on planet earth" and the stanford university professor jeff chang with his book "we're going to be all right." every sunday in depth is live from noon to 3:00 p.m. eastern. this month in depth brings you prepresidential discussion.

kate andersen brower author of the first women. william seale author of the white house and the president's house. also the author of the keys to a successful presidency and the leaders we deserve and a few we didn't. we're taking your phone calls, tweets, and e-mail questions from noon to 3:00 p.m. eastern and then at 9:00 p.m. eastern the middle xpanding class in the book "the upside of inequality. how good intentions undermine the middle class." greg interviewed by mancuse, harvard economics professor. >> that is small in comparison to all the other things which are amplifying the pay off for risk taking. >> go to book tv.org for the complete weekend schedule. >> as the nation elects a new president on tuesday, will

america have its first foreign born first first lady since louisa adams or will we have a former president as first gentleman? learn more about the influence of america's presidential spouses from c-span's first lady now available in paperback. first ladies gives readers a look into the personal lives and impact of every first lady in american history. first ladies is a companion to c-span's well regarded biography series. and features interviews with the nation's leading first ladies historians. each chapter also offers brief biographies of 45 presidential spouses and archival photos from their lives. first ladies, in paperback, published by public affairs, is now available at your favorite book seller and also as an ebook. "washington journal" continues. host: at the table is jeffrey rosen president and c.e.o. of the constitution center, long-time c-span guest over the years. good morning. guest: good morning.

host: we asked you to come op and talk about this thing called the electoral college. so much is made of the 270 electoral votes. we want to learn how folks get there. why don't you start us off by explaining what the electoral college is, who put it together, and when, and why. guest: wonderful. we have to start with the constitution. i want viewers to read the constitution. you can have a pocket constitution like the national constitution center's great pocket constitution or we have this incredible new app that i think i've told you about. go to the app store and down load interactive constitution and you find this amazing tool that's cosponsored by the federalist society and the american constitution society, the leading liberal and conservative lawyers organizations in america where the top liberal and conservative scholars write about every clause of the constitution describing what they agree and disagree about so you can click on the electoral college and read it and see what agreement and disagreement there is about what it means.

in the electoral college which is article 2 section 1 there are clauses 2 and 3, says, each state shall appoint in such manner as the legislatures thereof may direct a number of electors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the state may be entitled in the congress but no senator or representative or person holding an office of trust or profit under the united states shall be appointed an elector. that first part just says how many electors each state gets. in d.c., for example, thanks to one -- amendment, gets gets three electors basically. two senators plus the one congressperson it would have gotten were it otherwise entitled to an elector. sorry. that's the 23rd amendment is the d.c. electorate. not the 22nd. it goes on to say congress may determine the time of choosing the elections in which they shall give their votes and they shall be the same throughout the united states. where did this come from? basically some framers,

alexander hamilton, the rap star of the moment, thought the electoral college was the most perfect part of the constitution. he thought it was the part that everyone would agree was the best part. the framers rejected the possibility of direct election. ames wilson, who was the popular sovereignty said why not just have the people elect the president? the framers didn't want that because they were afraid of a dem gog being chosen. they mistrusted direct democracy. they thought by creating this wise group of elite, former office holders, you know, people who could filter popular passions, these electors would choose a president. what is so interesting is they expected that in many cases the electoral college would be unable to reach a majority decision and the election would be decided by the house of representatives. because the electoral college has no majority then the house gets to decide. that led to an incredible mess which people know, in the election of 1800 under the

original system, first choice in the electoral college becomes president and the second choice becomes vice president. in 1800 thomas jefferson and his running mate tied. they each get 73 electoral votes together. they have to go to the house with this incredible drama and thanks to the intervention by hamilton the house vote defeated burr and led to the duel which killed hamilton. that was such a mess and a final part of the great constitutional story that framers once again amend the electoral college through the 12th amendment. here i want you to go to the interactive constitution viewers. it is so interesting. ou could read an essay and the electoral, the 12th amendment is considered so uncontroversial that both the federalist society and american constitution society said just a single scholar could write about it. you click on the 12th amendment and sanford levinson says there are a bunch of really interesting parts about the

12th amendment. one is if it does go to the house, the house picks from the top three votes as president and the senate pigs from the top three -- two vote getters as vice president. that was important in the election of 1824 when henry clay might have been part of the mix but he was excluded because he wasn't in the top three. basically the 12th amendment takes out that weird system where you could have a president and vice president tying, acknowledging the difference of the party system and says you have to vote for president and vice president separately. host: let me put the phone numbers on the bottom of the screen for jeffrey rosen who runs the national constitution center. we have lines and calls we hope to come in in the next couple minutes. we'll get right to them about the electoral college. so take us further through history, then. because this electoral college process while still in place has not necessarily worked perfectly. correct? guest: despite the hope of alexander hamilton it has not

worked perfectly. there were two occasions when the election has been decided by the house rather than the electoral college. then there were four occasions when the loser of the popular votes or rather the winner of the popular vote lost the electoral college. let's talk about those. the two times when the house decided election were the famous elections of 1800 which we just talked about and also 1824, which was an incredible battle where andrew jackson who won 99 electoral votes, john quincy adams 84, william crawford 41, henry clay 37. clay is excluded because he is not in the top three and the house chose john quincy adams who got fewer electoral and popular votes than jackson, infuriating the jackson supporters although jackson went on to win the next time around. then we have these four really dramatic times when the winner of the popular vote loses the electoral college. many people remember the election of 2000 bush v. gore

where al gore won the popular vote but the supreme court stopped a recount and as a result george bush was awarded florida's electoral votes and won the election. that happened three other times. n 1876, which was an amazing prefigureation of 2000. once again there was a dispute between electoral votes out of florida. samuel tilden the democrat wins the popular vote. hays the republican claims he's won florida. so congress creates an electoral commission and the tie-breaking vote is cast by republican supreme court justice handing the election to the republican candidate. it was a dramatic story and that led to a congressional law being passed which determines how to resolve disputes today. two other occasions, one is 1824 which we talked about where adams wins even though he has lost both the electoral and the popular vote. the final one i forgot this but

the national constitution center which you have to visit in philadelphia, this beautiful museum of we the people on independence hall with gorgeous copies of the constitution and bill of rights and declaration of independence as well as this beautiful educational center which you can learn about online with the interactive constitution, we have this great exhibit. the fourth example which i forgot until i went to the exhibit was grover cleveland running against benjamin harrison. cleveland narrowly wins popular vote by 1% or 2% but harrison gets 233 electoral votes to cleveland's 168. he wins the election. i guess the electorate must have been angry because they retaliated by re-electing cleveland the next time around making him the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms. host: before we get to calls, one question. who are these electors? where do they come from? how are they chosen? what are their duties?

guest: great question. we know they may not be any senator or representative or person holding an office of trust or profit under the united states. but otherwise it is entirely up to the states to determine who the electors are, rules under which they can be chosen, and how they are allocated. so they can be state office holders, former officials, they can be local citizens. and most states, 48 of the states basically have a winner take all system where if you win the state and popular vote you get all the electors. but two states have an allocated system where you can get a portion of the entire thing. that is maine and nebraska. there's a huge bonus to winning a particular

state. now, there have been a bunch of proposals to either require allocation of proportional votes across the board, proposals to can the electoral college and have a national popular vote and even a really interesting proposal that all of the states would agree to vote for in the electoral college a winner of the national popular vote which would basically have the same effect but those reform proposals are probably contested and people disagree. host: a lot more process to talk about in hisary to talk about, jeffrey rosen, calls first. up first from sebastian, florida, question or comment about the electoral college? caller: aside from the electoral college the board of governors is not known by anybody in the country and yet they own the republicans and the democrats. the second thing is, hillary id not too long ago to

control the legal population we would have abortions. we didn't like it when hittler killed 10 million jews. we slaughtered 60 million babies in this country. we should be very proud of ourselves. host: let's here from mickey from milwaukee. we're talking about the electoral college. anything about the process, formation of the present day? yes, sir? caller: yes. good morning. thank you, mr. rosen. i always follow you on c-span and the constitutional center. it's a great accent to the country. thank you for your hard work. you partially answered my question. there are 535, and that's officials, a hundred in the senate and 435 in congress, but there are 539 delegates. so you mentioned washington, d.c. would have had two congressmen and one senator based on the 23rd amendment. where is the one extra electoral missing, 539 versus # 38 possibly? the second -- versus 538

possibly. the second thing, the founding framers instituted this electoral college because they didn't want a demagogue to be elected president and they wanted the wise men to do this. if that was the intention of the founding framers, why do people go to washington, elected officials, and say we are acting on behalf of the people but if the people don't know right from wrong why doesn't washington behave in a way that is best for the u.s. and not a small minority of the population? host: thank you, mickey. guest: that is such a great question. my math isn't good and i don't know the answer. i'll ask the great constitution center prep team to figure that out and if you e-mail me or anyone does, j. rosen@constitution center.org we will have the answer to that missing one elector by the end of the day. as for the fears of a demagogue, this broad question of what the founders would have made of our current electoral system is so interesting. they didn't trust direct democracy in any form.

they created all sorts of filters on popular will from the original election of senators by state legislatures which was changed by the 17th electoral the college. they didn't anticipate the rise of the two-party system. that is something we need to talk about. the reason the election of 1800 was such a mess. it meant that the whole idea of wise, elite people choosing based on the public interest rather than partisanship proved to be elusive from the very beginning. it might be great and the national constitution center after this election is going to host a national conversation about what the founders would have made of our current democratic system. what are the forces, technological, constitutional, and structural that may have dwerged from their vision and what we can do about it. but i'll get you the answer to that question by the end of the day if you e-mail me. thank you so much. host: calling from royal oak, michigan. hi, jim.

aller: hi. caller: i've been following the constitution and i read the minutes of james madison of the convention and he was for the popular vote. four, ce they needed nine states to ratify the constitution and there were four states that never would popular vote that's why they had the electoral college. it was to satisfy the four slave states and to get them to vote. and my question to the gentleman is why hasn't the electoral college been done away with? because it's -- it was based on one theory and has no place in today's world. guest: that is an excellent

question and you identified a very important dynamic. the biggest supporters originally were the slave states like virginia where madison was from. because they were able to get lots of electors even though they didn't grant the votes to slaves because of the infamous 3/5 clause which would count enslaved persons as 3/5 of a person. it was because of that huge electoral college advantage for southern steats that the whole slew of our first presidents were actually from the south -- washington, jefferson, madison, monroe, and so forth. so that leads to your second question, a really good question. why then wasn't it eliminated? well, the smaller states have a keep it and to also states like ohio and florida and pennsylvania and the swing states also lying to ep it, too, so basically because congress has been reluctant to end the advantage for the small states because

the senate likes it, then congress has been reluctant to propose a constitutional amendment and the only other way to propose a constitutional amendment is for 3/4 of the state legislatures to demand it. that is a high bar to reach as well. for all those reasons the most practical proposal for reform would be this compact among the states where the states agree informally to cast their electoral votes for the winner of the popular vote. some people have claimed that would violate the compact clause of the constitution, it would be a kind of treaty that required a higher bar of approval, but it's at least a possibility. and the other problem is, you know, after a contested election one side is happy and the other isn't so thinking far ahead and coming up with a bipartisan reform is a tough thing to do. host: we have stewart from mechanicsville, virginia, an independent caller for jeffrey rosen. caller: good morning, gentlemen. for starters i would suggest everybody read a book by john marshall the chief justice that saved the united states.

guest: who is the author of the book? that is a great suggestion. caller: getting to your topic, i disagree with what people have been saying, popular vote. well, if we just go by the popular vote and do away with he electoral college, then flower country is going to be forgotten. why don't we just hold the elections and let new york city and california vote and whatever the popular vote is that's going to be the president. it's very important that we have the electoral college. otherwise flower country is completely forgotten about. have a good day, gentlemen. guest: those are two excellent points. i asked for the author of the john marshall biography just because i agreed viewers should absolutely read about john marshall the great nationalist, the greatest chief justice who basically came up with an idea of strong national power and allowed congress to regulate an increasingly unified national economy. one great john marshall

biography is gene edward smith's biography. that is a great place to start. you raise a really good point. we should recognize there are good arguments for and against the electoral college. if it was a popular vote the candidates would spend all their time in california and new york and not in the rest of the country. so just trying to ensure geographically that every part of the country is attended to in an election is crucial. the fly over country is not attended to on an equal basis because ohio gets a lot of love but nebraska not so much. there are a couple swing states that get disorder nat amounts of attention but your no eggs that a popular system -- your notion that a popular system would not do geographic justice to the entire country is really good. thank you for making that. host: you said the states determine who the electors are. are people able to know who those electors are? are they matters of public record? guest: i think that they are. you said you had a clip from pennsylvania deliberation or

something like that? so we can actually see them. their names should be online i would hope. there is a whole, great history of faithless electors who pledged to vote for one candidate and voted for another and i can tell a bunch of those stories. we know who their names are. i'll give one dramatic example. 1796 samuel miles a federalist from pennsylvania the first faithless elector. he pledged to vote for john adams and voted for jefferson. his vote didn't affect the come. pennsylvaniaans were so furious and one guy wrote to the gazette of the united states. him to decide se for me? no. i choose him to act not to think. we want our electors to just carry out their instructions. miles and then a series of, i have six or seven other famous faithless electors who unexpectedly refused to vote for the candidate they were elected to vote for.

host: so at what point after the election do the electors get to work? guest: okay. so the deadlines are important and i want to make sure they're exactly correct here. they are, and this is all as amended by the 12th amendment and also by the 20th amendment which is very important. we can go to the 20th amendment also on the interactive constitution. essentially, the 20th amendment says, what is the fastest way to get it -- i need my constitutional reading glasses and the question of whether i'm going to get it online or in the interactive constitution is important. host: we're talking with jeffrey rosen of the national constitution center. we'll look in a minute at a bit of the 2008 pennsylvania electoral college meeting but we're looking to get a sense of timing first about how all that works. guest: essentially it is the wednesday after the second monday in december and the

electoral college meets and casts votes and if there is a dispute then it has to be resolved by december 12, which is a safe harbor date that the electoral college, electoral ount act of 1876 provides for. and after that time, a president is chosen. so essentially it meets in december. all the results are submitted to congress. and the congress certifies the final result. host: let's go to 2008, pennsylvania electoral colleges. just a little bit of a flavor of how the process worked in pennsylvania that year. >> it becomes our responsibility to certify the results. our chair recognizes the honorable valerie mcdonald roberts of allegany county for

the purpose of offering a resolution. >> thank you, mr. president. resolve that the certificates of vote for president and vice president of the united states be placed on the table and signed by the electors. >> thank you, valerie mcdonald roberts. those in favor of the resolution will give their assent by saying aye. >> aye. >> opposed say no. the ayes have it and the resolution is unanimously adopted. there are six certificates to be signed by the electoral certifying the votes cast by them for president and vice president of the united states. the secretary will call the roll of the electors and will come forward and sign in order in which your name is called. hverages just a little flavor there. congress picks up the ball a little bit later. right? guest: it does. and it can go to the -- generally congress certifies the result of the electoral

college and if there is a majority, then the president is inaugurated. but the 20th amendment says if the house has not been able to elect a president before january 20, then the vice president elect serves as the acting president until the deadline is resolved. congress can pass a law deciding who acts as president if neither the president-elect nor the vice president-elect is chosen before january 20th it also moves the inauguration date from march 4 to january 20 and has new rules for presidential secession. there was -- succession. there was a great episode that acknowledged a split and congress is undecided in the -- and the vice presidential candidate from the other party ends up winning. basically some people think this is a constitutional ticking time bomb and even with the fixes of the 12th and the 20th amendment we could have real disputes between the house and the senate or the house unable to act in ways that could be troubling.

host: get that call, waiting from new york. hey, jeffrey. caller: good morning, gentlemen. i believe in one man one vote. and that we should have a constitutional amendment to change the electoral college. i'm a loyal democrat and, in fact, i believe in under voting if a republican, say, county legislator runs unopposed by a democrat, i choose not to pull that lever. i have never voted for a republican in my life. i've been voting since 1978. i think the choices we have today, i believe that if there were a candidate none of the above on the ballot they may get the majority of votes. also believe we should

have a system and it might take a constitutional amendment to change the rules so we can have recall elections so we can vote no confidence like other countries do as well as none of the above. host: thanks for calling. jeffrey rosen, any thoughts? guest: an interesting series of suggestions. the idea it should be easier to elect third-party candidates again was one the framers did not expect there would be two would select ey the nominees. they thought the possibilities would rise up and ultimately be selected by the electoral college. to make that possible you'd need perhaps the constitutional amendment to really change our two-party system and the nominating process which right now is far more democratic than the founders expected. the direct primaries were adopted by both major parties not until the 1970's. i learned from the white house

exhibit at the national constitution center 1972 the democratic party because it is so upsbet the what happened in candidate is he chosen by the primaries rather than the smoke filled rooms. some people make the case the smoke filled rooms selected candidates like taft or roosevelt and led to some good decisions. and then this broader notion of whether we should have recall elections would be a really don't -- ange to independent caller on with jeffrey rosen of the constitution center, learning

electoral college. go ahead, todd. like you to consider this, since all hypothetical about the popular vote. candidate did spend a lot of time in new york or california, taking consideration that california does vote, does tend to vote much ifferently than southern california and that definitely the case in northern ohio and outhern ohio and here is something that you might want to consider, too, as far as the popular vote. the need in ease necessity for the states to amongst e competition one another, then they would be voting blocks. it is not uncommon for somebody couple of businesses in the state of ohio near the ennsylvania border and have businesses in pennsylvania near the ohio border. that would help them if it was popular vote than electoral college. i'm not against the electoral lean e, but i tend to toward the popular vote if it is

well structured, deemed more supportive of democratic society. what do you think about what i just said? guest: great point. ou have such a distinguished anticedent, the drafter who came the people idea we of the united states are the eign rather than in separate states and changed preamble to the constitution, read we the people of the united states and it says the people of the united states because of national agreed with you. we could achieve some of what you are trying to do by have portional allocation of electors f. california, as you elector pros d portionately, then maybe democrats would win in the north in the south and you would split california many electoral vote. way to create competition that you suggest is popular election, strong case

it, i'll bet this is instinct, without being absolutely sure. polled america, you would get majority support in favor of popular election of it seems ent, because counter intuitive, this electoral system we have. change it takes constitutional sxhaement those pass.ard to host: republican line, vern from new york. caller: my problem is republican never ry new york almost represented nationally because ll the electoral votes did democrat because all of the votes go from new york city down. is my comment and tell me what you think. host: any thought? guest: another great comment, which kind of supports the revious caller, who was a democrat and said it is frustrate nothing new york and california. you have serious splits between republicans and democrats and doesn't seem fair your votes are

hearing as we i'm have this discussion, if we keep electoral college, some kind of allocation of electoral votes seems to make youe because it seems fair, don't feel as new york republican. disenfranchised. i suppose another more urgent reform if you are concerned about the anti-democratic aspect of the electoral college would be states tohich lead the agree electoral college support the winner of the popular vote, that is probably the most urgent reform and proportional allocation toochlt bad both bipartisan, don't necessarily favor one party or to pass tis e hard hard to get the states to agree nd pass the constitutional amendment. host: explain the outcome decision. so you can contest the that are certified by the states, we saw this in 2000 and

in 1876. both cases eerie how dramatic the parallels were. florida submit twos separate slates, one for the republican the date and one for democratic one. bush beat gore, one proposed by legislature and the other endorsed by the florida supreme court. for ght now, the process contesting it is set by electoral account act of 1876, was this law that says if there is dispute between the to congress it goes senate vote and and if there is a tie between the house and the senate and have been in 2000 with al gore casting himself, ng vote for senate was divided 50/50. the slate that shall be the one certified by the state executive. overnor jeb bush would have in fact certified the final result brother gore for his

said the bush and some supreme court needed to step in, in the first place. because after 1876, 1876 people were so upset by the vision of the supreme court tie-breaking ng vote they set out this complicated procedure for choosing between competing slates. host: jana in washington, d.c. here on the democratic line. jeffrey rosen talking about the electoral college. hi, jana. caller: hi. hi, c-span, good morning. quick comment and quick question. as washingtonian and democrat, leaning, re probably if you are republican in washington, d.c., probably your because of not sure, we were going -- do have tateship we're voting for this year. do we convert the district of columbia into a state. that, most votes will go democrat, i think, in the college, because it

seems to be that the three that is pretty much it. don't at will change, we know. and the other thing, the question is, most of the polls now, they have very ittle electoral college or electoral data, but then i see that we're looking at hillary at a very large number and donald trump at medium, lower number. how that is being mixed in to polls is kind of confusing. it so already accessible and ready out there and how are that?edicting then what happened when you do gos a contested -- if trump to 270 and hillary clinton 332, that the seems to me republican party will contest, i mean, because i feel that once that magic number, then you have a whole new fight

that possible or is that just going to be squashed democrat has more? how would that be accepted? don't see the republicans are going to give this up very -- host: thank you. jeffrey rosen. guest: series of good questions and on the electoral question, t is conceivable that clinton and trump could each get 269 votes, one short of required 270. various scenarios that we can play out where clinton takes states or she has limited success outside of florida. in the eventrmally of tie election goes to the house. your question, what if it is could say trump supporters contest the electoral college result? could, that is done on state by state basis that, is very important to remember. court in mcph eerson nd lacquer say states have discretion for decide whatting gets to serve and how to contest

elections. in bush v gore, florida state election law determined when recount could be held, how quickly you had to consdpeft so forth. it would be very, very messy and complicated to contest, different laws in every state, laws, now withunt bush v gore on the books, the courts might get involved and looming is this deadline harbor ber 12, the safe after which electoral votes have to be submitted to congress or of they can't be assured being counted n. practice, let's had an , we've never election where contests to the results have happened, so this hasn't happened before, itsn't mean it can't happen, would be the first time. host: republican caller, hey, port, rhode island. caller: hello, how are you doing? host: fine. go ahead, please. caller: i was listening to the

before and i'm a and pretty much agree old route, he way, d of the electoral ut what i'm really worried about, in this election, you going on erent things isis and that type of stuff. worried about boehing selling iran 100 commercial jets it sounds weird. host: we're talking about the lectoral college, anything specific there? if it is not broken, don't fix it, you know, pretty

i look at it.how host: simply put. guest: good. the u.s. were to change this process, do you think that would change the nature of all?dential campaigning at guest: yes, it would. as great call whore mentioned fly-over states talked about, there would be less law pennsylvania.o and the national constitution center is on independence maul in across from independence hall and we have seen candidates. donald trump and hillary clinton time in uge amount of philly, pennsylvania is a swing state. he results are so important f. it were a national popular vote, then california and new york be getting a lot of states n and the swing less so and the fly-over states less so, too. mean more national advertising. facetime, but it would certainly reduce the attention paid to handful of

broaden the uld focus of the campaign. host: time for a few more calls. juan, puerto rico, good morning, bill. gentlemen d morning, v. a question, two-part answer, maybe. fter the electoral college has decided the president and the congress has approved that that time andween the time of inauguration, the selected for president one t take office and question is, if the person dies, what happens and the other happens if thehat erson is unable for any reason to take office, what happens? greekt great question. he 20th amendment has complicated series of rules for residential succession, there have been candidates who have died before the electoral college has met, william howard taft, died and electoral college had to choose to vote for

who wasn't on the ballot smchlt voted for charles evan hughes, but the 20th amendment sets out time table. it, go to the interactive constitution or check out org, to ion center dot read it. it is so complicated, but one congress may by law provide for the case of the death of any person whom the can of representatives choose a president when the involves choice essentially it also said in section three, if a presidential time fixedbefore the for the beginning of the term, vice president elect shall act as president until the president qualifyd and congress may provide for the case, whether president elect qualified president, and so forth. law determines the act of succession. some people thinks it has holes in it. the american enterprise at

brookings said this is have tutional crisis, we to rethink that succession law, all the scenarios you signal provided for by federal statute. host: helen in morrow, georgia, caller.ic good morning, helen. caller: good morning. thanks c-span. mr. rosen, my question is, what do you think the founding say about the extent to which congress goes gerrymandering the districts and i think it pretty circumvents the will of the people and the popular vote. how do you think they would feel about that? guest: great question. would have been appalled by the political parties, they as faction that favored partisan interest over public interest. that was proved to be ideolistic, you have incredible parties, ween the federalists and republicans. the claim that gerrymandered

create increasingly polarized parties that make the ompromise the framers thought necessary and possible is a serious constitutional claim. to have great debate at national constitution center with partners intelligence quare, i think next week, saying resolve partisan gerrymandering has led to good argumentos both sides. top scholars, it will be in new york. out on the web. essentially, many agree with ou, gerrymandering created polarized situation that made ompromise the -- increasingly impossible. host: guest has been jeffrey rosen with national constitution center. thank you for your time and insight. thank you. morning, four days before the election, we have 40 to 45 minutes left in "washington journal" and we want to take your calls after we break on this article, this column that we found in the

today, where st" the columnist talks about what of the as epipick fail american electoral, the columnist writes this. hey, america, do you like this election? no? you created. you, america. stop listening to facts you with. agree stop reading newspapers or watching broadcasts that did not or confirm what you believed, stop trying to legislation and policy. stop bothering to engage in civil iscussion or responsibilities. you, america, blame washington for everything that is wrong then you country, but tell posters the federal government isn't doing enough to help you. america, actually believe that reality t.v. is real and form of tics is a reality t.v. and so, we have an election that "american idol" than u.s. constitution. the epic fail of the american

the title for this piece. we want to ask buit. electoral failed? have you, have we all fail third degree cycle? numbers to call. 202-748-8000 if you are a democrat. republicans, 202-748-8001. and independents, 202-748-8002. we'll let that percolate a little bit, we'll come back with your calls. getting an update from pennsylvania from a professor at university of scranton later about the races going on there. weekend, c-span city tour continues at book t.v. and merican history trv, go to tucson, arizona, we explore the city's history and literary life. mayor johnathan rothchi rothchild. >> tucson is of course in the state of arizona, probably more

we are 60 miles from the mexican border, up road from arizona to tucson, arizona, right in the of the state. tucson being as close as it is o the mexican border probably defined who we are as people for our entire history. wasn't until the 1863, where hase in we are sitting today, tucson, became part of the united states. part of then, this was mexico. our community within the city 43% hispanic. heterogenous community. we have families who have lived families whoks and have lived here 400 years. place. is a very special joseph wood crutch wrote about abbey wrote about it. desert, but as a

among geographers and geologists we're a tropical desert. 12 to 13 inches of rain per year, which means when you see a to the city, you green desert and with plants and animals, you don't see very many other places in the world. seen the ou've ocatillas, arez, the he barrel cactus, javelina, coyotes, roadrunner. still, in rally, they a community of million people, our much are part of community, very natural to the creates a placet where nature is very much appreciated. >> announcer: "washington journal" continues. ost: so reminder, in a couple minutes we'll get your thoughtos this column in the "washington

post" this morning. talks about what the columnist feel system epic american electoral. we read earlier and will read ore and look forward to your phone calls as to whether the cycle.ral has failed this it should be interesting conversation. to scranton, pennsylvania, university of scranton, where jean wahl political fessor of science is joining us this morning. hi, professor. this hi, how you doing morning? host: good. yesterday we talked about the state of pennsylvania as a whole, we'll do more today. wilkes out the scranton, bury first. guest: of late, in the presidential election, it has democratic than republican. overall. lacawanna county has 3-1 registration advantage for the

so that has obviously ark cysted democratic the same time, the state level, we have more republicans elected. interesting pattern of vote nothing northeast pennsylvania. how many people live in that part of the state? how many of them vote? pretty oter turnout is high, even in very low turnout lection, so the off-year elections. part has to do with the age and population, an older population. and folks who are not as mobile, they don't have to keep reregistering to vote. voter turnout is relatively high. across the state, northeast pennsylvania, as collective, broader than scranton and wilkes barr. is important to the ultimate ecision who wins at the presidential level and also statewide elections. host: so what has been different year, than plug the name donald trump into the equation,

time. somehas tell us what is different about this year? guest: the vice president will sunday.again on this year we've had a little bit visits from n the candidates, both presidential and vice presidential. the bly more so on republican side, donald trump a bit more. several as been here times, as well, trying to make his connection to the area. again, an area where people live a long time, go away back.me hometown connections are important. the candidates have been trying to the connections scranton and northern area.ylvania host: what are candidates doing to appeal to the electorate on visits, what are they doing on television and

elsewhere with advertising? trying to make their appeal? a st: you know, it's been really difficult election, changing.ep locally, the candidates are talking about jobs, they are a big concern for the area. we have transitioned from a blue collar working area to one that trying to move into the knowledge-based economy. topic ofave been a big concern more so than anything else. there are environmental concerns in the area dealing energy, production, as well not.nd, landfills and what i think the biggest concern raised would be the jobs and infrastructure. infrastructure is important to pennsylvania as a state because really falling apart infrastructure. starting to ustry grow. host: what has polling looked

like in the presidential race in northeastern pennsylvania area in recent week? how are the trends shaping up? trends are similar to across the country, so the a bit seem to be leaning toward clinton in terms of the oting and that has gotten tighter, of course, in the last couple of days, with different and out. nothing the trends have been moving up and down, although obviously whole, thestate as a trend still is more supportive of clinton than trump. host: broaden this out to talk about the senate race, as well, wide senate race between katie mcginty and toomey. how is that race shaping up? scranton feel about the candidates? that, it is i think unfortunate, that campaign, the having become really negative, very much

pointed as personalities. two candidates, mcginty and oomey are not talking much about issues, other than jobs, they are talking about jobs, but become a very negative campaign. think le are just i ultimately tired with the general. in mcginty, hard numbers have gone up and down. is the incumbent and has the edge. many think the turnout, on the ly the turnout democratic side is going to be mcginty, ctor for whether or not she can beat toomey, the incumbent? host: is it about jobs in the economy in the scranton area and issues onor other top the minds of folks these day? guest: i think infrastructure is folks here.of roads and bridges and things like that, because of the need bringing business through the state, we are kind of as state.ay, keystone

we are asked with other different states but also to create jobs. those are two of the big ones that people want to hear more about. connected, ey are infrastructure, as well as the economy. i think those are most on i think people are beginning to worry more equality of elections and issues about campaign whatnot, but in terms of the real why am i going o vote, who am i going to vote for issues, it does come down to the economy. safety, defense, we have less concern about the immigration locatedven where we are as a state geographically and the type of population that we so i think that the economy and infrastructure robably the top issue of concern. host: what else should we know in the final days, four days the until election day, in state of pennsylvania and how things may play out?

what are you looking for? of folks are talking about the working class vote, and so collar voter many people are paying attention to pennsylvania as kind of one can make ortes that break the candidates. the -- i think the key is the turnout and the gender gap. i think last election really had focus on the voting of african americans, last two highdential elections very turnout and very much a gap between democratic and and i think give the issues talked about in this both policy issues, but also the character and integrity issue of the that people are certainly going to -- i would turnout of women. women tend to have higher turnout than men and i think be key, the to women's vote will be key to who race.ecessary this host: c-span bus is visiting university of scranton today as

battleground state tour in this final week, the final days before the election. at the bus ook there. you are the student center area. jean wahl harris, professor of political science at university of scranton. thanks for your time this morning. thank you for having me on this morning. host: you bet. here is the question. electorate failed this time around? the writer of the "washington post" says, voters need only to look in the mirror for this electoral abomination. a lot about entertainment figures and others for president over the years and writes demand for politaainment isn't anything new. ronald reagan was elected governor of california. bono, tes came sonny mayor of palm springs and republican congressman, clint

mayor of caramel, california, found formula giving political ess of debate hollywood treatment, emember arnold schwarzenegger of california as governor, the terminator will stick the state's budget crisis, right? except, no, and nobody was sorry to see him go. ait, sensible minnesota, elected professional wrestler jesse ventura, third-party one term may not have been as disastrous as the terminator's time in office, again with al t franken, former comedy writer "saturday night live," zero entertainment value as a senator. boring, says the column, but what, sometimes government is boring and it is hard work nd it is important and it is absolutely incumbent upon seriously.to take it so heath is calling first to the question this morning, has the failed?te stemming from this column in the "washington post," keith, go

ahead, you are up. morning, c-span. host: good morning. caller: thanks for c-span. this, 25ase let me say degrees in ia, two journalism, and i do media relations, including political campaigns, it is not the failed.te that's it's the media that has failed electorate. host: how so? caller: the advent of cable, 24-hour cable news. host: what did cable do? impact of 24-hour cable? started off okay cnn, which did sway slightly left as media has to do, because it has -- the media as to be liberal to be inclusive and not exclusive when

competitors entered after the had ess doctrine, you narrow agmentation and casting. let me give you an example. host: uh-huh. fox said upon the barack obama, bill shine said, we are the voice of opposition. think about that. the voice ing we are of one party. network in the history claim.rica has made that pronounced andof specific bias. the average audience is 2.5 people per night, out of 330 million of people and they frame the

nationally. million people tune in to one network to confirm biases. host: thank you for the points. move on to carol, folks call segment.n this carol from dixon, tennessee. electorate fail? ed what do you think? caller: i think a lot of things help. law nk if they passed a that immigrants could not vote years, then that would stop a lot of this because a lot of people coming in, all they is t.v. entertainment or somebody spouting off, basically lies, they don't the whole erstand story, they don't have time to learn each side, they're handed ballots, vote for us, we will keep you here. i think they should pass a law

way they g and that should vote, should know what they are doing. host: caller, couldn't you make argument that folks who already are here or who have been here for a long time may be the same situation? caller: if they have been here a long time. in thes forn't been four years, like have you to license get a drivers before you drive, when you come in his country, the day xhu or if you haven't been here four years, in the country, then you to vote. be able host: all right, thank you for calling. from clarksville, maryland. how are you? you?r: good, how are host: fine. what are your thoughts? caller: i would say, yeah, failed, but it an't rest solely on the electorate. the media has definitely, so much information out there and people can be caught up in a bubble.

in it.nd of get lost i think electorates take responsibility in doing own and learning the issues. i don't think people have a full candidate at each really wants to propose on issues. you won't know, all they will know, what they have heard on t.v. my thoughts. host: thank you, sayad for calling. christopher from buffalo, new democratic caller. hey, christopher. caller: how you doing? fine, go ahead, sir. nmy opinion, it started going bad when the one sided, totally un by the republicans because initially the congress was supposed to be 50/50 and right the republicans are just saying no to everything. already some epublicans saying that they

will not let another supreme come to office and no supreme court justice, that means we're going of ave another four years basic gridlock caused by the republicans. 50/50 ould elect a onsensus in the congress, this country would actually run would be ause it forced to work together. host: christopher, thank you for thoughts. we're asking folks if the electorate has failed this year, get thanksgiving question and this concept from a .washington post" column one of the headlines on the web ersion talks about what she sees as epic fail of the american electorate, the print

ersion has this headline, voters need to look in the mirror for this electoral abomination. when you go to the jump on this reality oters clung to t.v. an election monster was being a nd she writes patriot is not about decorating yourself or anything you own loyalty merican flag, to this country isn't measured by how you carry your body when is played, anthem being an american is about the full-throated involvement in the civic process with no expectation of entertainment. it is about understanding that immigrants risking their lives to get to america would do anything to have the honor and that each american has of local council meetings, meeting and voting booths all year long every year. election decisions based on who is going to make you laugh, who you would rather have beer with or who coming up

with zippy one liner system line treason, save that for is the night laughs and take citizens lity as seriously all year long. marie, good morning. caller: good morning. yeah, i agree with the column do think that the previous caller said people are n a bubble, they go to what they want to see, but for having 24-hour news cycle, they get on subject and stay on it, instead of using some of that other issues.into my other problem is that i think people have failed, some voting don't know that we have a congress, we have a senate, we branch, they ive don't know the basics of civics have is ther problem i that on t.v., accept for c-span, media has done a better job in this election of informing us of things than the media has. so i do think that people are

uninformed, sometimes when you them with the facts, they say so-and-so is a urderer, i will not get into the politicians or anything, and you ask them why, and they don't it why, because they heard on t.v. they heard it from this commentator and there is not a of facts backed up. i agree with previous callers people gravitating to what they want to hear instead of searching the facts. t.v. media has been a print media has done a better election than the t.v. media has. thank you and have a good day. calling and ou for for your point. hear from roy from longview, texas. roy is a republican. roy is the electorate fail third degree presidential cycle? caller: yes. i believe they have because the democratic party seems like system that says that the people don't know what need so ly want or we'll make the decisions for

them. they have in place says like all the states ic cities and that have been run by the democrats, they haven't created jobs, they have divided, they go for division and destroy. also, like pennsylvania, they talk about needing jobs, businessman, hey, you want to get somebody to reate jobs, get somebody that has done it. hillary ain't created no jobs for nobody. 40 years. host: roy, thanks for calling. virginia, eston, democratic caller. good morning, alex. caller: good morning. for c-span.ys host: your reaction to this column here. absolutely. i must say, i agree, despite the est efforts of places like c-span, we have failed a little bit and i think the kind of people are nce that mentioning mixed with ambient

theory has spiracy kind of led us to fall for the tearianism,e author the idea that it is so broken, disastrous that a really strong leader must come and fix everything. i think that impulse is natural in fact be is terrifying one. host: alex, thank you. related to this is the lead story of the "new york times" at cbs and e folks the headline says voters are xpressing disgust with u.s. politic necessary huge numbers, overwhelming majority of voters state of ted by the american politics and many beliefs -- after ugly the new according to poll. grim preview of the discontent that may cloud the outset of the president's term, hillary clinton and donald trump are

een by majority voters as unlikely to bring the country back together after this bitter election season. voters, more than eight in ten, say the campaign -- repulsed, excited.an there is a new poll with numbers here. feel moreign made you excited, 13%, disgusted 82%, neither, 3%, that is in the "new york times." friday harbor in the state of washington. gary. caller: hi. i'd say the failed party has been the major two parties, not electorate. ost: how have the two parties failed? caller: electorate is disgusted parties ability to listen to their own party base.

combined with and i ompliment c-span on helping educate in civics, the media does not do the job that way in major parties don't do the job that way. aroundventions this time emphasize platforms people ing out what really believe in as far as the all been about personalities. host: thank you for calling, gary. writes, a cactus twitter, yes, i agree with the column. we, the citizens have failed for reasons stated in this day.n and it is a sad dale from new jersey, look at "washington the post" today by devorak, in the at l section, look "washington post" dot com. go ahead, dale.

caller: yes, thank you for taking my call. you know, i started off this pretty season donating heavily and supporting bernie sanders and that is because asically i didn't think the democrats or republicans offered good candidates, you know, the hillary and ered republicans offered george w. bush. child, my mother had always raised us to have two day, one was from the left, one from the right and them.e so we would find omissions and ubtractions from the different stories. i mean, my parents took it as objective o have thinking. as i, as bernie was out, you know, i didn't like the coverage on cnn, but i kept checking back in. comes wikileaks, i find not once, brazil, twice sent hillary clinton

debate questions and she failed tell them about it. debbie wasserman schultz was working behind the scenes basically to mess up sanders. time i give $100 to bernie days, i, the next couple start getting stuff from hillary clinton's campaign. clearly, it wasn't bernie's it was the ing, other way around. you know, here i am at the end, saying if i want change, you know, if i get hillary in there, the only i'm sure of is zero chance of anyone like bernie know if i in, but i vote for trump, four years from now the democrats and epublicans will offer the best candidates possible and the media, you know, just yesterday talked, when he they uncovered him to the point he brazil, then a they went and had a discussed commentators, this is a bias that shouldn't exist.

they operate in the best the fcc, and politicians should be forcing to adopt a fairness. debate questions, getting debate necessary advance, destroys the country. am old enough to remember watergate and when they say it is worse than watergate, it is, with watergate, you had media in place that act as balance, here, you don't. host: thanks for calling, dale. say blaming media, some schools could do a better job, the congress is at fault. electorate failed? we're asking folks. let's hear from charlie, who is florida, democratic caller. good morning, charlie. caller: good morning. similar to the last caller, i supporter.e sanders yeah, i kind of thought it would refreshing, i thought we would get crazy stuff with

the ry in there from clinton years and all the stuff '90sred up from back in the and that is kind of what happened. she's under investigation, which although ood thing, there is so much misinformation out there, it is with facebook kinds of crazy stuff all the time, and then look on the other side, you have trump has all kinds of lawsuits coming forward right after the election that we will have to look at. is really ness there no choice, i mean, clinton is he most experienced, has the best -- going to do best for the country and we certainly don't in there like trump, he seems like he's just and snatch grope snatcherers. host: unemployment number rates are out. here is the month of october. unemployment went down to 4.9%, 161,000, jobs adds

"wall street journal" says wage growth accelerated to strongest since the recession. more political news out there, here is na daily star, front page this friday morning, shot of vice presidential nominee, senator tim kaine, he filled sunny side gym in arizona arizona is winnable, hillary clinton has been out here, as well, in a state the democrats are trying to pick up this time. telegram in fort worth with d cruz campaigning governor mike pence on the gop side. texas in the sub-head, senator rejects the idea that he doesn't fully back the nominee. star telegram. also have the florida times union, more visits by candidates surrogates, donald trump in west side here, we also see says withobama and it election day looming, jacksonville becomes the eye of

florida.aign storm in that is from the times union this morning. and the philadelphia enquirer, warnings, shot of hillary clinton here. looking briefly with a supporter. rivals paint each other as unfit presidency. we'll have hillary clinton at a big major rally with her the former president and the obama necessary philadelphia on monday eaching. donald ing to have trump's final rally, as well, watch it live on c-span. collin is calling from williamsburg, virginia. republican line. there. caller: hi. host: go ahead, sir, has the electorate failed? caller: i think so. concerns th the media being slanted or biassed one way i have always ut gone and being into history, try resources and i'm amazed at those who,

of their all information, they have gotten through someone else, haven't aten the opportunity to look the benghazi reports that are out there, look at the e-mails you look er that when at how it has been spun by the outlets t major news that there is inferences that are made, if you read the the primary material yourself, that is available in many different places, it seems electorate is not informing itself to make an informed decision. they are getting it through basically rose-colored glasses wearing, maybe intentionally or unintention is taking a ly, it different slant based on what ou are seeing and i think that that's something that probably with even the younger age groups eing more into the technology is even a greater concern that they are not taking what you more think they would be informed because of the technology to have access online

to different records, different reports, government outlets and different sites like yours, listened to for many years and applaud, you really do professional more stance to it, there is not really a bias there, a lot of as folks that come on guests, like your earlier one on he electoral college are presenting factual information that the voter consist take and make an informed decision as is my opinion e and people take that even in the entertainment industry, like you mentioned earlier, and they are basing their sole information on it is to take an opinion as far as vote or as ainly in local issues, well. host: okay. thank you for calling. time for several calls, this is julie in fargo, florida. independent caller, good morning, julie. good morning. host: julie, lots of different opinions on who has actually failed. what about the electorate

itself? my er: all right, here is two cent's worth. i agree with the columnist and almost every one of the callers, one exception. it didn't start the cycle. the 1970s, from there forward, which also the declining of our educational system. especially critical thinking skills. goes much further back, but by and large i agree with the everything everybody said. host: thank you for calling. the newsmaker program every 10:00 a.m. and 6 p.m. this week we interviewed voting, who oversee the chairman of the election assistance commission and the president of the national secretaries of state. one of the officials warned the ews media it should take a protective steps for tuesday's elections, too. media, e the news because a lot of americans receive their election night

reporting through the news media, is also prepared for this election, because we saw a few weeks ago denial of service attack, which slowed down the internet service on the east i want to eyond, so hope the news media is preparing for this election cycle. it, as well.t of >> is the election assistance committee giving guidance on how do that for news media? >> we haven't, but we could. it, we will more than willing to give that advice. > what would be a piece of advice you would give specifically on how to prepare? that thing to ensure denial of service does not occur. pdf's that at any are coming in or anything like that you have up o date virus scans done to electricity, you have backups, as well.

there is a number of different things that we could get to you on that topic. you can see the entire interview with thomas hicks of assistance commission this sunday at 10 6 p.m. on again c-span, newsmaker program. you can hear it at c-span radio newsmakers have available at www.c-span.org, and greg is from bay city, michigan, democratic caller. we've been asking the question, electorate failed? what do you think, greg? good morning. caller mentioned critical thinking and to expand come to try to address my commentary when it political process and political discourse tochlt wise hyperbole

-- ulation, falicy, and yeah, there are a number of discourse lures in that have validate user arguments. that the large part of the electorate does not in the least and and i run into regularly ngage in conversation, political conversation, more than occasionally, is that people want nothing to do with this. they would rather go off on those types of what you might hear with jerry springer on his show, rather than get down to facts. these are methods that directly address critical and that is miss nothing our discourse. i don't know if it has always way, i suspect there

as always been some degree of it, but the bipartisanship that increase through my adult life seems to indicate to been rampant and totally out of hand. host: great. thank you for calling. "u.s.a. today," weekend has this headline, early voters "get it with," many not swayed by late campaign events. williams jones and scott civic duty heir thursday, record-setting battle of early votes cast in this year's race for the white house. two voted for different presidential candidates, but for the same reason. they long since made up their mind and wanted to put the behind them. nee i wanted to get it over with, after lliams jones, 52, catting her ballot in the iconic to her blouse.er

racing, i n't quit don't have to listen now. "washington post" has this piece latinos, y voting by it may help clinton in several states. suggests tion data democratic nominee seems to be benefiting from uptick in latinos who n by historically vote in lower numbers than the electorate overall. say advocates seeking o expand the hispanic vote is distaste for donald trump. a chart in the post, they talk poll, clinton holds large lead among hispanic voters, election were held today for whom would you vote? trump 19% and on the question of how important is this election r compared to previous, 78% of hispanics say it is more important. that is the "washington post" poll they did for the folks at univision. washington times talks about federal gun background checks,

increasing year over year for 18th consecutive month, n october amid several high profile attack and donald trump repeated warning hillary clinton abolish the second amendment. the national criminal background million checks in october of 18% compared to october of last year. we go to kenny now, kenny is in oklahoma, republican, welcome to the program. caller: great. how are you, sir? host: fine, sir. your thought? caller: well, i mean, our electorate, they are not influenced. our media doesn't help them, they are just out after the ratings basically. mean, we need to be talking about taxes. do you know what tax rate you're be taxed at by a particular candidate? no, nobody looks at that. regulations? does anybody know the regulations that are out there hurting us? investigated it? is that being reported on?

host: kenny, where are you information these days? caller: all kinds of different, history, i mean, i do a lot of reading. eading on immigration, you 1964, immigration act of and how immigration has ncreased over the years, to a point we cannot afford to take care of the amount of people coming in to our country right now. know, i go on the candidate's websites, i look at plans, i look at the tax instance, ean, for hillary will tax me at 25% tax rate. will taxump's tax plan me at 10% tax rate. savings 2,000 per year for me. that is a house payment. the s like that are important issues, we as

electorate need to look at. that is going to affect -- i mean -- host: understood, kenny. in.ry to jump one of the other callers said it starts much earlier, starts in maybe they are not teaching enough civics and importance of this. about that?think caller: absolutely. i mean, it was something that i a very young age, i think seventh grade civics, i the seventh grade. we looked at the constitution, i emember having to learn the eclaration of independence and recite emancipation proclamation. so many different things, i teachingw they are not it in school now, my kids are growed. being left ngs are out of school, we know our through research isn't far as used to be as teaching people what they need

to know. host: kenny, thanks for your input. jame necessary north hollywood, california, democrat. hey, james. morning.ood thank you for taking my call. the lectorate failed country i guess they were saying? host: intriguing question, right? caller: yeah. i have to -- i've been listening to the recent callers. changed what i was going to say. i have to look at myself. how do i look at participate in government or in civics and i think it is a for all of us, i think '70ser.past, mentioned grows. it all have our own, you know, emands placed on us and stresses and things put our attention on, raising a family. it is kind of changed, you know. how was telling about people don't realize that sec

as changed regulation on the -- you had tations that is not in play anymore. in terms of, you know, i do not know this is a solution. i think the real problem is we as an electorate -- we do not realize that we are the government. we like to pick the government as something separate from us. we like to look at politics and governing as something separate from us. we a nor the fact that there is politics in every area of our lives. there is certainly a pressure on people today that where their employer is sort of dictates their politics