happy thanksgiving. thanks for joining us. fox news reporting charles krauthammer, begins right now. >> happy thanksgiving. this hour, when he talks, washington listens. charles krauthammer, his uniquely american story. his journey from m.d. to the pulitzer prize. how he overcame a devastating accident with a determination to lead a life that matters. >> hello. i'm bret baier. i hope you'll enjoy watching this special as we enjoyed making it. fox viewers know where charles krauthammer sits on the panel and they probably know his position on most issues. but we bet there's a lot you don't know about the all-star panelist, syndicated columnist, harvard trained psychiatrist, and even occasional baseball analyst.

we think you should. even if the doctor has a different opinion. you were a little reticent when we started this project. what's your thought about all this? >> i don't like it. >> full disclosure. i've been trying to convince charleshammer to sit for an interview. not one where he simply shares his thoughts on the news of the day. >> i suspect there's going to are another twist here. >> but one where he pulls back the curtain and reveals beyond the extraordinary writer and influential thinker, the life of an intensely private man. >> look, when i say i don't like it, inl not averse to the spotlight. i'm not going to pretend like somebody on television every night doesn't enjoy it, but when it comes to interior life, it's not something that's very interesting to me. >> more disclosure. charles krauthammer is a colleague and friend.

but he only agreed to a profile reluctantly as part of the publicity campaign for, yes, a new book. things that matter is not a confession al memoir or scandalous kiss-and-tell, it's from newspapers and magazine pieces from the pulitzer prize prize-winning columnist. or maybe it's more than that. >> are you decoding my book? >> i am. >> it's all written in hieroglyphic. >> it's not quite as impenetrable as hieroglyphic. . let's start with part one of your book. it's titled personal. the first column is an incredibly moving piece about your brother. marcell died of cancer seven years ago. he was 59. charles writes this about his older brother. quote, he taught me most everything i ever learned about every sport i ever played. he taught me how to throw a football, hit a backhand, grip a

9 iron, field a grounder, dock a sailboat in a tailing wind. and how we played. it was paradise. tell me about that. >> it was a paradise childhood. my brother and i were inseparable. he was four years older, which is why this is a priceless gift. he insisted i always be included, so i got used to being around the big boys. that's how you get toughened up. my parents were from europe. he was born in brazil, but that's a long story. but american. and he made me an american. >> that long story short. krauthammer's mother is from belgium. his father was a real estate developer, from what is now a province of the ukraine. both jews who left world war ii europe. they left havana, moved to rio and eventually new york city where charles was born in 1950.

when he was 5, the krauthammers moved to montreal. but they spent summers at the cottage in new york. charles remembers spending every day with his brother on the field, on the court, or in the water. >> i don't think i owned a shirt until i was 21. all the pictures, the family movies, my father is shirtless, my brother shirtless, i am. we're outside in the sun. i read on the beach. that's where i got my knowledge of reading. >> of course, there was reading and studying. schulam krauthammer, even carried his son's stellar second grade report card around in his coat pocket. >> his motto for us is, i want you to know everything. i want you to learn everything. you don't have to do everything, but you've got to know everything. he thought that was part of life. >> that life did not include a tv, says the cable news pundit. >> my father wouldn't allow it. once a week, sunday night, we'd go to the neighbor's to watch the ed sullivan show.

that was the one concession for television. >> inspired by uncles who were doctors, marcell krauthammer went to medical school. it was assumed charles would follow. but as a 19-year-old senior at mcgill, the internationally renowned canadian university, he was bitten by a different bug. political journalism. >> i was intrigued. the editorship was controlled by the student council. i had been elected to the student council. and the paper was becoming unreadable. it was run by marxists, maoists. it looked like it came out of the soviet union. you just couldn't read it. so we went to the editor and realized, well, what do we do now. we have to find an editor. so they looked around and decided it's going to be me. i said, wait, i've never worked on a paper. a detail. >> a poly sci economics major he loved thinking and writing about

all things political. he applied to medical school to please his family and got accepted to harvard. but he got into oxford as well. to study political theory. would krauthammer choose a life of science or a life of letters. the brilliant graduate had enviable options, but he hadn't figured out what mattered most to him. so he split the difference. he put off har vand and enrolled in oxford. when studying history's great people, attractive, and brilliant, too. a clerk to the chief justice of her home state supreme court. but so much would change in the three years between when they met and married. beginning with his sudden decision to leave england. >> i had this little epiphany of sorts. i started in political theory. it was getting more and more abstract. i learned a lot. but i began to feel that i was sort of spinning out into a

universe that didn't have anything to do with the real world. i called the registrar of harvard medical school and said, i'd like to come in the upcoming class. i remember her saying, well, one guy dropped out, we've got a slot open on monday, it's yours. i grabbed a toothbrush. i didn't pack. i got on a plane and i left. and that's when i decided to become a doctor. now, when i woke up in boston the next day, i thought to myself, oh, my god, what have i done. but there was no going back. >> why did you choose psychiatry? >> i was looking for something halfway between the reality of medicine and the elegance, if you like, of philosophy. so psychiatry was the obvious thing. that was my intention from the first day. and i was lucky, because it was probably the easiest branch of medicine for me to do, once i was hurt. >> hurt. that doesn't even begin to describe it.

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welcome back. as fox news reporting. so far, you've met the young charles krauthammer, harvard medicine, class of '75. his life seemed to be going according to plan. but then no life ever really does. the snapshot was taken in may, 1972. it shows a strapping 6'1" charles krauthammer standing on the beach. it's the confident smile of a young man well on his way to making it. smart, athletic, handsome, driven. the future, all his. >> that was spring break of miss first year of medical school. i west with a bunch of friends. that is the last picture taken

of me standing. of course, i didn't know at the time. i was coming out of the water carrying my sandals. i saw one of my friends with a camera. then when i got to the top of the dune, i just stood there for a picture, thought nothing of it until i discovered it years later lying around in a box. and remembering it, of course, it was a fateful picture. >> fateful, because of what would happen back at harvard that summer. you were 22 years old. tell me about that day. >> i went out. it was the end of my first year of medical school. we're doing neurology. we studied the spinal cord, of all things. my classmate and i decided to skip the morning session. beautiful july day. we played tennis instead. >> after their game, they head back to class for the afternoon session. but along the way, they stop at a pool on campus, set down their

books and pull off their sneakers. >> we're very sweaty. it's very hot. we go for a swim, take a few dives and i hit my head on the bottom of the pool. >> a freak accident. >> the amazing thing is, there was not even a cut on my head. it hit at the precise angle where the force was transmitted to one spot, and that is the cervical vertebrae. >> when did you realize the accident was life altering. >> the second it happened. >> you knew. >> i knew exactly what happened, i knew why i wasn't able to move. and i knew what that meant. >> at the bottom of the pool. >> i wasn't getting out. i knew, yes. >> he was paralyzed. unable to move his arms or legs. his friend thought he was clowning around, and hesitated before diving down to save him. >> was there ever a moment that you thought this is the end?

>> well, when i knew what happened and i knew i was at the bottom of the pool, and i knew i wouldn't be able to swim, i was sure that was the end. >> do you think back to that day often? >> not really. it doesn't -- i kind of have a distance from it. i see it like as if it happened in a film. and interestingly enough, people talk about near-death experiences. there was no panic. there was no great emotion. i didn't feel light. i didn't -- my life did not flash before me. you sort of get to a place where you're ready, and then you're suddenly brought back to the world. >> so no cosmic revelation as he was rushed to the hospital. though krauthammer notes the irony of what he left behind. >> there were two books on the side of the pool when they

picked up my effects. one was the anatomy of the spinal cord, and the other one was man's fate. quite a choice. i didn't know what was coming, but it fit very well. >> coming up, krauthammer's fate lay in the balance. what he did next astounded his professors, and classmates. >> i knew that would be fatal. professors and [ ship horn blows ] no, no, no! stop! humans. one day we're coming up with the theory of relativity, the next... not so much. but that's okay. you're covered with great ideas like optional better car replacement from liberty mutual insurance. total your car, and we give you the money to buy one a model year newer. learn about it at libertymutual.com. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy?

a skipped class, a fateful dive, a terrible injury. and there charles krauthammer lay, in a hospital bed, paralyzed. nothing to do but think.

>> i made one promise to myself on day one. i was not going to allow it to alter my life. except in ways which are sort of -- having to do with gravity. i'm not going to defy gravity, and i'm not going to walk, i'm not going to water ski again, that's fine. that you know. but on the big things in life, the direction of my life, what i was going to do, that would not change at all. >> krauthammer said he never entertained the notion that one day, whether through his own effort, or even some medical miracle, he would gain full use of his arms and legs. he resigned himself to the cold reality that wherever he went in life, he'd go in a wheelchair. was that hard? >> i think the physical part was hard. learning to do everything again. i have a great capacity for erasing memories. so it seems very short. it was long, but it seemed very short. >> his teachers and classmates

certainly thought he was rushing his decision to resume his studies immediately. you never thought about taking a year off, or taking a couple years off? >> no. i knew that would be fatal. it was not a question. >> you just couldn't survive? >> i mean, life would be over. it's a little early for life to be over. >> while nobody had heard of someone with krauthammer's injury standing up to the rigors of the med school curriculum, krauthammer made harvard let him try. weeks after his accident he resumed classes still in a hospital bed. >> the professors would come in, repeat their lectures and project slides on the ceiling. i had asked the medical school to let me stay with my class. >> and you read by laying on your back. >> one of the cardiac residents hooked up a plexiglas plate above my head that he hung from

the posters of my bed. the nurses would put a book on it face down. now, you don't want to call them every minute and a half to turn the page, so i put two books up at once. so they'd only have to come half the time. but you've got to remember where you were. it's a bit of a challenge. it keeps you busy. there wasn't a lot else to do. >> with such force of will, krauthammer graduated on time in 1975, and near the top of his class. along the way, he got the girl, too. and married robyn. but as he began his three-year residency at massachusetts general hospital, there were indications from the beginning that charles and psychiatry might not be the perfect fit. part of the residency is you're supposed to go to this weekly group therapy session, and you didn't want to go. >> there were 12 of us at mass general. and there was a group therapy once a week.

and i didn't go. i thought it's a pointless exercise. so i was called into the chief's office after about seven weeks of non-appearance. and he said to me, why aren't you going to therapy? and i said, sir, i came here to give therapy, not to receive it. and he said to me, you're in denial. and i said, of course i'm in denial. denial is the greatest of all the defense mechanisms. i could be a professor of denial. i'm an expert at it. but he wasn't very amused. >> he gave krauthammer an ultimatum, go to group therapy or leave the program. >> so i went to the next 21 weeks of sessions or whatever it was. but i didn't really say a word. so whatever people would notice that, they would say, why aren't you talking. i said, because i'm in denial. i'm not a big therapy guy. >> did you not want somebody looking around your head? >> yes. i don't like to talk about

myself. except with you, i guess. i'm not a touchy, i'm not a feely guy. that's probably why i quit psychiatry. if you're not into feelings and emotions, and all the back story, then you ought to be doing something else. >> so in 1978, krauthammer took a government job in washington at what would become the national institute of mental health. it wasn't what he really wanted, but it put him in the right neighborhood. >> i thought, once i'm in washington, isn't that where they do politics? one thing will lead to another. >> his folks worried about their son tossing away a doctor's livelihood. but didn't discourage him. his wife, robyn, who would leave her career in law to become a painter and sculptor, urged him to leave his career. >> she encouraged me to follow my heart, and with her wit and humor, and generosity of spirit,

has co-authored my life. >> in a moment, charles' co-author helps him answer a higher calling. and later, he finds himself moving left to right, after the break. ♪ wow...look at you. i've always tried to give it my best shot. these days i'm living with a higher risk of stroke due to afib, a type of irregular heartbeat, not caused by a heart valve problem. at first, i took warfarin, but i wondered, "could i up my game?" my doctor told me about eliquis. and three important reasons to take eliquis instead. one, in a clinical trial, eliquis was proven to reduce the risk of stroke better than warfarin.

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charles krauthammer once wrote a column about the most important person of the 20th

century. "time" magazine had chosen einstein, the great scientist. charles disagreed. he picked churchill, the indispensable statesman who sounded the alarm over communism. politics trumping science. that might explain why krauthammer traded a big-time medical career for a one-way ticket to washington. and why once here, his eyes locked onto a help wanted ad in a political magazine "the new republic." >> i showed it to my wife, and she said, why don't you apply? i said, how can i apply? i haven't written anything, don't know anybody. she said, you write it, i'll hand-deliver it. that day at my office i get a call, i just got your letter. why do you want to do this? you're a doctor. >> i was intrigued. so i called him. >> michael kinsley was looking for a managing editor for the left-leaning magazine. >> was there something in that

conversation, something during that phone call that made you want to bring him down? >> it was basically because he was a psychiatrist. so we arranged for him to come to lunch. and there he was in his wheelchair, and we hit it off right away. >> what did you see in him, though? >> you know, i just enjoyed talking to him so much. i had this feeling he must be able to write this down. >> krauthammer gave it a shot. as the saying goes, he wrote about what he knew. his first article, the expanding shrink. protesting how psycho analysis was creeping into political discourse. for example, president carter's famous malaise speech on americans' crisis of confidence. >> they liked it. they published it. and i got lucky again. it was republished on the op-ed page of the "washington post." it was the only time an article

from them was printed by the "washington post." >> he got an even more intriguing offer, as a speechwriter for vice president walter mondale. >> that lasted six months. when we got totally crushed in the general election, i got a call from the new republic, i think you're unemployed right now, would you like to come to work for us. the day reagan was sworn in, that's the first day i started. >> so help me god. >> the new president was promising big changes. even starting the world anew. reagan's inaugural truly signaled a great clash of ideas. >> in this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem. >> and the new republic ras right in the midst of it. >> it was overwhelmingly liberal. the writers were the best of that era. i was still a democrat at the time. traditional liberal democrat,

great society liberal. i was pretty hard line on the soviets. it's hard for people to believe now, but the democratic party had a very powerful wing that was very anti-soviet. >> but those democrats were a dying breed. and krauthammer found himself agreeing more with president reagan than with his liberal readers. >> i wound up supporting just about every part of the reagan policy. and boy, did we get reaction from our liberal readership. i wrote one excoriating the decree. which i was very proud of. >> what was his writing like? >> it's always been extremely step by step logical. if you can read a column by charles about something, and you can still disagree with him after you're through with it, then you think you must have a pretty good argument. >> those arguments had served

columnists wondering why krauthammer and the new republic were not supporting reagan's reelection in 1984. >> what buckley was writing was, why don't you give up on the democrats. i was still one of those who wanted to sort of save the soul of the democratic party, and maintain this conservative element of which the magazine really was. >> krauthammer fired off a letter to buckley writing, reagan still has a lot to answer for on foreign policy. and his domestic policy was far worse. quote, the catalog of sins we believe the president has committed is too long to recapitulate here. but krauthammer said he privately wanted reagan to beat his old boss, walter mondale. >> but i had worked for mondale in 1980. i liked him and had respect for him. and as a personal matter, as a kind of a matter of honor, i didn't want to vote against a man for whom i had respect and affection. >> so you had to vote, reagan or mondale. >> that's the only presidential

election where i left that line blank. >> left it blank? >> but if i had been, you know, the swing vote, i would have obviously had voted for reagan. >> it was a turning point in krauthammer's transition from the political left to the political right. and just a few months after the election i wrote something called the reagan doctrine. >> it was a "time" magazine column. and it was provocative. for a while, krauthammer had praised reagan on a number of foreign policy issues. he was now crediting him with a break-through insight that changed the calculus of the cold war. >> i realized that what reagan had done, without a grand master plan, was to challenge what at the time was called the brezhnev doctrine. and that was whenever we take over a country, it's ours. and all of a sudden what reagan had done is to challenge that and say, no. you don't get to keep what you got. we're going to challenge your possessions.

wherever they are. and i thought, this is a really good idea. and i'm going to give it a name. >> he invested the reagan doctrine, not reagan. and now everyone's got to have a doctrine. charles has made it mandatory to come up with a doctrine. for every president. >> but even after reagan's 49-state landslide, krauthammer was still not sure what to make of reagan the man. who he met at the white house in 1986. >> he invited me to lunch. i tried to engage him, like on, what are you going to do. all of a sudden what i'm hearing from him is a story about how when he and nancy were in the guest house of president marcos of the philippines, there was a giant spider on the ceiling, and the question was how to get him off without scaring nancy. and i'm thinking, i don't get it. this is the most successful president in my lifetime. he seems to be out to lunch. what's going on. >> he says it was only later that he realized what eluded him

about reagan. >> he had no need to show how smart he was. he knew exactly what i was asking. he didn't want to talk about it. and if you thought he was done, he wasn't. >> it would also be some time before krauthammer embraced a conservative domestic policy, taxes, welfare, small government and other reagan-esque things. >> i was skeptical of tax cuts, of smaller government at the beginning. and by the end of the '80s, i had begun to change. >> what happened? >> empirical evidence. as a doctor, i had been trained in empirical evidence. if the treatment is killing your patient, you stop the treatment. i began to look and read and think about whether the view i had of the social democratic society they had in europe was the right way. i moved gradually to the idea of a more limited society, smaller government. >> by that time, krauthammer's world was really falling into place.

in 1985, his son, daniel, was born. two years later, krauthammer won the biggest honor in print journalism, the pulitzer prize. not bad for someone who started in the business less than a decade earlier, without even a writing sample. he went straight from the ceremony to see his father, who had once worried about his son's jump from medicine to journalism. his father was 84 and gravely ill. >> i went to the hospital where he was. and i said, dad, i have something i want to give you. and i gave him the medal. and he beamed. and he showed it to all the nurses. >> it turned out to be krauthammer's final visit with his dad. >> so the last time i saw him was a time when this whole circle was closed, and he could feel that the choice had been redeemed in some way. it was a very comforting thing to remember about the last time you see your parent. >> krauthammer called the 1990s

a holiday from history. the cold war was won. the era of big government declared over. and 9/11 brought a new urgency to his commentary. >> people understand, there was a nexus between these weapons, these states and the terrorists. and we have to attack them where they are. >> krauthammer began appearing on special reports' all-star panel and was soon an audience favorite. >> you've been a fixture on special report for a long time. and even still, a lot of people don't know that you're in a wheelchair. they don't know the extent of your paralysis. >> i am sitting behind a table. and it is true, i say half the people i meet are surprised to see me in a wheelchair. and one of the more amusing incidents happened about eight, nine years ago. i was sitting in madison square garden in the fox box.

i think it was a convention. sean hannity walks up the stairs and looks at me and goes, what happened? i told him i was hurt as a medical student, it was no big deal. it told me even somebody i had been on the air with wouldn't know. >> what is apparent is that krauthammer has the attention of people in high places. just one example, krauthammer's opposition to white house counsel harriet maier not only helped to block her nomination to the supreme court, it gave president bush a way out. >> i remember thinking, how do we get out of this. it came to me while on the set of "special report." i think what the administration ought to do -- >> his face-saving solution basically went like this. because maer's legal writers were protected by executive privilege, the senate couldn't vet her so she had to withdraw. >> three days later that's what they did. >> are you surprised by the

amount of influence that you have with your column, with "special report," that you hear or see things that happen as a result of a column or a statement? do you ever think about it? >> i think about it, and i find it worrisome. the reason is that when i was totally unknown, i could say anything i damn well pleased. >> coming up, power players and power hitters, from the all-star panel to the ballpark.

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[ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ [ male announcer ] that's handy. [ female announcer ] some people like to pretend a flood could never happen to them. and that their homeowners insurance protects them. [ thunder crashes ] it doesn't. stop pretending. only flood insurance covers floods. ♪ visit floodsmart.gov/pretend to learn your risk. welcome back to fox news reporting. charles krauthammer set out to write a book about the things that matter most. and he didn't mean politics. on 19th street, one of washington's legendary power

scenes. you know you're lunching with one of d.c.'s power players if his caricature is on the wall. and today, charles krat hammer is holding forth on the nuances of power. >> i know where this is going. >> not the political power of the white house ten blocks away, he's talking about the washington nationals and whether they can power a late season play-off run. >> the nats are 14-2. one game ahead of cincinnati. >> right. >> i was wondering where it was going. >> i think charles and i are both people who write about politics to support our baseball habits. >> noted conservative columnist and newly minted fox news contributor, george will, has written two books on baseball. do you remember when you first met charles? >> i think it was 1982, because he was then with the "new republic" and wrote a cover story on me. i thought, interesting guy,

bring him to lunch. that's how we met. >> how long did it take before you were friends? >> i think it was instantaneous. five years later i bought a new house and the first thing i did was build a wheelchair ramp in the garage so charles could get in. >> he told us when you get together you first talk baseball. and when you've dealt with the important issues, then you go to politics. >> if there's time left over, yes. >> tim kurkjan for espn magazine has lunch with will and krauthammer a couple of times a year, to talk baseball. >> to say they're fans is an understatement. to say they love the game is an understatement. >> i grew up playing the game. i love to play the game. as a kid, my brother and i would go around on our schwins on the streets of long island with transistor raid owes hanging from the handlebars listening to mel allen and phil doing the

yankees announcing. it was live. >> since the nats came to washington in 2005, they've had no bigger fan than karls kracha krauthammer. >> i get off the air, and the game starts m seven minutes. from the garage at nats stadium, i get there in the bottom of th. >> he makes that trip in a special vehicle, designed just for him. that lets krauthammer accelerate and brake with his left hand and steer with his right. >> everybody comes in here the first time is terrified. and i don't blame them. in fact, when i with ent for my driving test, the ketester didn want to get in. i told him he had to, because that's the law. i think he passed me because he was so glad to be alive when it was over. >> i waved to you, and the next

day you said to me, you really shouldn't wave. it's a little dangerous. >> yeah, the wave is a little bit hard. if somebody lets me in traffic, i'm tempted to take one hand and say the thank you wave. but then, of course, i wouldn't have a hand on the steering wheel. >> it actually took us eight minutes to get to the stadium. when we took our seats, the nats were beating the braves 1-0. krauthammer went into analyst mode right away, as though he was breaking down a procedural move harry reid might use in a filibuster. >> in a 1-0 count, you want to stay on a breaking ball, because it's slower. and is he likely to throw a breaking ball? no. so he's unlikely to steal right now. strike one. now, he might go for a breaking ball. >> turns out nine innings with charles krauthammer is not just a day at the park. it's essentially grad school for baseball.

>> okay. this is unfortunate. the only reason solano is in there, he's the backup catcher who doesn't hit very well. >> no, no, no, no! ah! >> from time to time, charles writes about baseball. typically in a way that transcends the sport. take his column about a 21-year-old pitching phenom who back in 2000 fell apart when he was picked to start a play-off game. with a huge national tv audience watching, he certainly couldn't throw a strike. he never pitched the same again. but instead of quitting, ankiel went back to the minors, learned a new position, and returned to the majors as a hitter. the column is reprinted in krauthammer's book "things that matter." it's in the personal section. just a few pages after the piece about his brother, marcel.

>> i was thinking about this column. this is not really about you. but then your last line, the catastrophe that awaits everyone from a single false move, wrong turn, fatal encounter, every life has such a moment. what distinguishes us is whether and how we ever come back. >> that's why the rick ankiel story resonated so much with me. i had my fatal encounter, as did rick ankiel. there's an element of that in everybody's story. there's a low point and do you want it enough and are you lucky enough. >> while krauthammer's injury has kept him off the playing fields and courts, he's pursued another competitive outlet. chess. which lights you up more, baseball or chess when you're in the game? >> there's no comparison, it's chess. >> do you still play chess? >> no, i gave it up. it's an addiction. >> completely? >> it's a poison.

you reach a point when you're on the internet, middle of the night and you realize you're in a motel room and you're drinking aqua velva. >> your book was supposed to be a collection of essays on things other than politics. but it didn't turn out that way. why? >> in the end, all the beautiful, elegant things in life depend ultimately on getting politics right. >> you say, science, art, poetry, baseball, must ultimately bow to politics. >> i have a comment in the book where i write about the furby paradox. furby was the great physicist who posed a great question. we know that there are millions of habitable worlds out there. so there have to be thousands, millions of civilizations. why have we never heard from any of them. the most plausible explanation is, that every time a

civilization achieves consciousness and the kind of science that would allow you to transmit a signal, they destroy themselves. the question is, can we regulate our politics in a way that will allow the human species to flourish and produce all the beautiful stuff. and that's a question that only can be answered by us. >> coming up, battling the president and ticking off the tea party. have you seen this mail? >> my assistant reads most of my mail. and he's now in therapy. >> "fox news reporting" continues after the break.me r er progressive direct and other car insurance companies? yes. but you're progressive, and they're them. yes. but they're here. yes. are you...? there? yes. no. are you them? i'm me. but those rates are for... them. so them are here. yes! you want to run through it again? no, i'm good. you got it? yes.

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it was january 2009. 30 years after charles

krauthammer began his journalism career here in washington. a new president was about to be sworn in, but krauthammer wasn't sure what to make of barack obama. he got the chance to size him up at a small dinner party hosted by his friend, george will. it was a week before inauguration day. >> i remember before the president-elect arrived saying, you know, i haven't been able to figure this guy out. is he a centrist who occasionally will throw a bone to the left or a lefty who will occasionally throw a bone to the right. nobody had any ideas. >> that was part of mr. obama's great strength. >> so we spent three hours with this new man. he leaves, we're staying behind a little bit, and i'm saying the same question, is he a centrist, is he a lefty? >> five years later, you think you've figured him out? >> i figured him out after that first state of the union speech. five weeks later. >> we will invest $15 billion a year to develop technologies

like wind power and solar powers. we can no longer afford to put health care reform on hold. it will be the goal of this administration to ensure -- >> i was so astonished that i wrog five columns in a row on what kind of unusual political animal he was in giving an agenda as radical as any since fdr. he basically said, i'm not here to tinker. i've come here to transform america. >> you've been pretty tough on this administration, this president. >> well, i think he's done just about everything wrong. >> but just as he was willing to offend his fellow liberals back in the '80s, he is equally willing to take on conservatives he belongs are wrong. >> have you seen this mail from some of the things you've seen about ted cruz? i get the e-mails. >> i know you get the e-mails. i've seen the tweets. my assistant reads most of my mail and he's now in therapy. just kidding. >> the krauthammer on fox did

not appreciate what cruz did. >> if he listened to talk radio, it might really send his assistant over the edge. >> dr. charles krauthammer, in the 1980s, he was working for walter mondale. >> there's a deep division among republicans and a sense that they've been betrayed by leaders who are cowardly. i happen to think that that is a complete misreading of what's happened. it is 100% impossible to repeal something like obama care when you only control the house. i just think it's completely detached from reality. and when in the past i would encounter people detached from reality, lack, first, i'd give them a shot of haldol, but that's not available to me right now. i know it's impossible, but it's my job to call a folly a folly. if you're going to leave the medical profession because you think you have something to say, you're betraying your whole life if you don't say what you think, and you don't say it honestly and bluntly. >> do you think you'll ever stop writing? >> no. i intend to die at my desk.

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