captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc >> woodruff: good evening, i'm judy woodruff.uf on the newshour tonight: what if there's a contested convention? what might happen if no republican candidate wins enouge delegates before the july gathering in cleveland. then, how a community college ie new york city is also paying student book fees and transportation costs to double graduation rates. and, we go to denmark to see if it lives up to the title, "happiest place on earth." >> i don't think we ever thought about anything evil or threatening through our childhoods, and i hope we can give the same to our daughters. >> woodruff: all that and more on tonight's pbs newshour. a

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>> woodruff: the day's major headline in the presidential race came far from the campaign's front lines. as the candidates stumped for votes, the spotlight shifted to a man who insisted he won't join the hunt, now or later. >> i do not want, nor will ill accept the nomination for our party. the declaration came from house speaker paul ryan, in washington: he's not running for president, under anywa circumstances. >> count me out. i simply believe that if you want to be the nominee forñi our party, to be the president, you should actually run for it. i chose not to do this. therefore i should not be considered. period. end of story.id.

>> woodruff: even that may not end the talk of turning to ryan, especially with a contestedes convention looking likelier all the time. in upstate new york today, frontrunning donald trump pressed to make sure it doesn't come to that, first, by winning new york state's g.o.p. primary next week, where new polls show him with a wide lead... trump is also keeping up his running criticism of delegate selection, charging the process is rigged, and that rival ted cruz is stealing delegates that are rightfully his. >> i have millions of votes more, but i also have hundreds of delegates more, but that's not the same thing to me. i think the vote is the thing that you count. >> woodruff: in turn, the texas senator says he's just betters organized than trump. and in in a radio interview today, he predicted a "grassroots" tsunami will send him to victory at them convention. >> we're seeing people who love this country coming out, and they're crawling over broken

glass. it's not for me. it's not about me. it's about the country. it's about the constitution. >> woodruff: for now, trump leads cruz by about 200 delegates, with john kasich well back in the count. but in new york city today, the ohio governor warned republicans, in a clear reference to trump... >> some feed off of the fears and anger that is felt by some of us and exploit it and feed their own insatiable desires for fame or attention. that could drive america down into a ditch and not make us great again. >> woodruff: democrat bernieat sanders took on the republican frontrunner, too, at a rally in rochester...non >> because when we stand together and we don't let thend trumps of the world divide us up-- when we stand together, there is nothing we cannot accomplish. >> woodruff: hillary clinton meanwhile campaigned in new york city, with a pitch for equal pay

for women. >> i'm very proud that new york and california have raised the minimum wage, because nearly two-thirds of minimum wage workers are women. >> woodruff: back in washington, president obama appeared to boost clinton, at a new museum on women's equality. he said he wants future generations to be "astonished" there was a time when a woman had never been president. in the day's other news, north carolina's governor moved tor ease or change parts of a new law on gay, lesbian and transgender rights. pat mccrory ordered protections for state employees, based on sexual orientation and gender. and, he asked north carolina lawmakers to restore the right to sue over discrimination. he said it shows he's listening. >> there is a great deal of misinformation, misinterpretation, confusion, passion and frankly, selective outrage and hypocrisy, especially against the great

state of north carolina. but based upon this feedback, i am taking action to affirm and improve the state's commitment to privacy and equality. >> woodruff: mccrory still supports a ban on letting transgender people select public bathrooms based on gender identity. the law has led to several major corporations canceling expansion plans in the state. in afghanistan, the taliban launched a spring offensive, and warned of large-scale suicide bombings and assassinations. hours earlier, the u.s. embassy in kabul issued an emergency warning to americans. it cited a plot to attack aac major hotel in the capital. police in belgium have charged two more men in connection with the brussels bombings. they allegedly helped rent aned apartment for one of the attackers who killed 32 peoplell last month. prosecutors also announced three new arrests linked to november'o attacks in paris. a new warning today about the world economy.

in washington, the international monetary fund downgraded its forecast for growth this year,, again. the new target: 3.2%. >> global growth continues but at an increasingly disappointing pace that leaves the world economy more exposed to negative risks. growth has been too slow for too long. >> woodruff: despite that report, wall street surgeded higher, as a jump in oil prices lifted energy stocks. a the dow jones industrial average gained nearly 165 points to close at 17,721. the nasdaq rose 38 points, and the s&p 500 added 19. a measure of help may be on thea way for the nation's bees. garden care giant ortho announced today it will stop using chemicals known as neonicotinoids by 2021. they attack insects' nervous system, but it's widely believed they've also helped cause a

dramatic decline in the beee population. other companies are consideringn ending their use as well. and, russian billionaire investor yuri milner pledged $100 million today to send tiny spaceships to the stars. the goal is to hunt for life in alpha centauri, the star system closest to our solar system. each probe will have a so-called light sail. they'll capture energy from lasers on earth, and could travel at a fifth the speed of light-- far faster than any current craft. still to come on the newshour: the possibilities around a contested republican convention. the last of the big banks settles over the financial crisis. is it still too big to fail? a trip to the happiest nation on earth, and much more.

>> woodruff: and we begin with politics tonight. as we just heard, the race for the white house is partly a battle for delegates, and neither party has a candidate with enough delegates yet to clinch the nomination. democrats hillary clinton and bernie sanders are within a few hundred pledged delegates of one another. but add in superdelegates, and she has a commanding lead. for republicans, donald trump leads the delegate count, with ted cruz a few hundred behind, and john kasich well back. the g.o.p. still has contests to come in 16 states, including new york, pennsylvania, andew california. for more on the republican delegate dance, we're joined by ben ginsberg. he's a partner in the law firm jones day, an nbc/msnbc political analyst, and served as general counsel on mitt romney's 2012 campaign. and ben ginsberg, welcome to the "newshour." >> thank you.rg t

thank you for having me. >> woodruff: let's remind everybody first that this delegate process has two different steps to it.ep >> it does. the first is the primaries that we've all been following on tuesday nights and saturday afternoons where candidates vie to get percentages of the vote. and the second part is the delegate selection process, which is now going on in state conventions and before state executive committees around the country. >> woodruff: so what's happening now is after the number of delegates is chosen based on how well these candidates do, decisions have tv be made about who the people are that fill those slots. and you were telling us earlier, it is different in virtually every state in how that's done. >> it is. republicans practice a fierce federalism, which allows each state to do it the way that state wants to, and you have a variety of mechanisms for selecting who will be the actual people on the floor in cleveland. >> woodruff: and how are those decisions made? a lot of it is personal

relationships, you were saying. some of it is who is already in the party hierarchy in a more state. >> yeah.st if it's a state convention, then it's a matter of the candidates getting enough of their supporters there to win their slate of delegates. there are other states where a state executive committee, intt other words the leaders of the state, will determine who the delegates are. that's an instance of taking care of your political supporters and maybe your friends and family. there are a few states, about 10% of the delegates are chosen directly by the candidates, but in most instances, the delegates are not chosen directly by the candidates. >> woodruff: and right now as we've reported, donald trump iss a couple hundred delegates ahead, but ted cruz seems to be picking off delegates here and there. what is he doing that mr. trump isn't? >> well, the very granular process of winning state conventions is what he seems to have concentrated a great deal

on. so the way republicans do it is there are often county conventions and then district conventions and then a state convention. so it's a process of getting your supporters in each one of those and ultimately that's how you get people. >> woodruff: the ideal solution for any candidate is to get to the magic number of 1,237 before cleveland. donald trump still has a chancee to do that.at >> yes, if he wins about 60% of the remaining delegates, perhaps 66% of the delegates who will be bound to a particular candidate, he can do that on first ballot. >> woodruff: but if he doesn't, what are the options then? >> well, the options are about 70% of the delegates will become unbound for second ballot. >> woodruff: so they're no longer committed to voting...g. >> to either mr. trump or mr. cruz or mr. kasich or mr. rubio or bush or carson or any of the candidates, correct.

>> woodruff: that means thatt it then goes on to several... to ballots after that, and what could happen?pe >> well, a number of things can happen. the convention can come to a decision on one of the candidates, mr. trump or mr. cruz. ituz is possible that additional individuals can get their names put in nomination further downn the road. there is a process for doing that. much of this will actually be determined, these rules of the road, by the convention rules committee meeting on probably the friday before the convention starts. >> woodruff: so for us to be talking about it now, can we really know right now what's going to happen? >> no, i don't think so. on june 8th, the day after the last primaries, there will be a pretty set way to know what the first ballot vote will be like. then there will be rules decisions made by delegates who have not yet even within -- been

selected that will impact the way the proceedings of thegs convention go. >> woodruff: what a lot of people are talking about, ben ginsberg, is if donald trump is close but not there, if he's say at 1,100 rather than 1,237, what happens in that situation?ua >> well, there are a number of delegates who are unbound. somewhere between 160 and 200 probably who are not bound to a candidate --. >> woodruff: at any point? >> at any point. their states follow particular rules. so there will be 40 days of wooing as those unbound delegates get entreaties from many a candidate. >> woodruff: entreaties meaning? >> well,me they'll have conversations about how the candidates are best qualified. there might be some sightseeing around the country. gerald ford took people on rides on air force one. so there are any number of ways to develop a relationship with those delegates. >> woodruff: but if you're a

delegate right now who is not bound to anybody, you're a pretty popular guy or girl. >> i think you're very popular and your popularity may only increase. you're either going to have ao lot of currency on june 8th to july 18th, or you will be, gee, it was so close. >> woodruff: prediction, ben ginsberg, on how much suspense there will be going into this convention? >> again, we'll know that on june 8th after the june 7th primaries are done. i think there will be a lot of maneuvering. this will be an historically close delegate count, one way or another, and the rules fights in the week before the convention can actually have a determining effect on the outcome the following week. >> woodruff: all eyes on cleveland. >> yes, indeed. >> woodruff: mo doubt about it. ben ginsberg, great to see you.g >> thanks, judy.

>> woodruff: now to our occasional series of conversations about whether some banks and firms are too big to fail, and whether they pose a risk to the country's financial health. john yang has our latestla installment. >> yang: eight years after the housing bubble exploded, investment bank goldman sachs this week became the last big institution to settle with the government for its role in selling bundles of bad loans to investors, which led to thech financial crisis. in this election year, there is a lot of talk about whether too many firms remain too big to fail and whether the dodd-frankw law is working. lynn stout is a cornell university law professor who now serves on the treasury department's financial researchr advisory committee. she has been very critical of dodd-frank, and she joins us now from ithaca, new york. professor stout, thanks for being with us. let's start off with that goldman sachs settlement this week. they have agreed to pay as much as $5 billion in this settlement

with the government. what does this say about accountability now among the big financial institutions after the financial crisis? >> i'm afraid the settlement confirms something that we've suspected for quite a long time, which is that it looks like fraudulent practices were hard baked into the banking sector during 2008, and unfortunately although $5 billion sounds likek a lot of money, the settlement is actually relatively small. it's certainly small compared to the damage that was done by these fraudulent practices, and it's relatively small compared to some of the settlements by some of the other banks, by citibank and by bank of america. so as large as the figure may seem, i'm afraid it creates the risk that this could be business as usual, that at the end of the day, goldman sachs may have found these sorts of fraudulent practices to beud profitable evb in light of the fines. >> yang: business as usual.

dodd-frank was supposed to address all of this, the response to this financial crisis and what brought it on. you say dodd-frank isn't working.is why not? what about it isn't working? >> the basic problem with dodd-frank is that it created the appearance of congress doing something without that appearance being backed up by reality. what the dodd-frank act did mostly was direct various regulators at the federal reserve, the fcc, the cfcc to draft regulations that were supposed to rein in the banks, but dodd-frank itself doesn't impose many hard and fast rules, and what's happened in all the years since is that the financial industry through lobbying, campaign contribution, behind-the-scene actions hasas been very effective at stymieing regulators from doing anything that really crimps their style and reins them in. >> yang: well, the banks say they are being reined in. the banks say their profits are down, that dodd-frank has changed the way they do business, they're holding more capital, they say.

they're being more closely regulated. there are things they can't do. and they say that's cutting into their profits, they say. what do you say to that? >> well, it's true that bank profits are down, but i think we need to be realistic. one of the primary reasons is that the banks basically lost the faith of their customers. they damaged their own reputations and destroyed muchd of their own customer base. now, some regulation does pray pray -- play a role. right now regulators are watching the banks pretty closely, twu rules are still pretty flexible. we have to be concerned that in years coming in the future, the regulators will take their eye off the balance and we'll be back to some of the same problems in terms of concentration of risk and highly speculative activity that led to the 2008 collapse in the first place. >> yang: what do you think should be done? >> it's actually very straightforward. up until around the year 2000, we had a bunch of banking regulations in place, including

glass-steagall and rules against speculative derivatives trading that had proven time-tested at keeping banks from taking on excessive risks and had been very effective at keeping the financial sector stable and sound. and most of those laws were eliminated in what's turned out to be a very misbegotten profit of so-called deregulation. i think that if we put those rules back in place, experiencee and history suggest there's no reason why we can't have a safe, sound banking sector. it's just very hard without some of the original regulatory firee walls we used to have. >> yang: glass-steagall came out of the depression and said you couldn't... you had to separate commercial banking and investment banking. the critics of that, of your assessment say that a lot of what happened in the financial crisis had nothing to do with that. it had to do with a pure investment bank like goldman sachs. it had to do not with the mixing of the two. what's your response?

>> oh, that's true, to some extent, but glass-steagall wasn't the only rule that was changed. we also legalized over-the-counter driftives forri the first time, and we even gave a derivatives contracts priority in bankruptcy. there were lots and lots of financial rules that were changed in favor of the financial industry through a steady process of the application of campaign contributions and lobbying power. and if we're going to have a stable system, i think we needee to find a way to get past this problem of lack of a political will to effectively regulate financial institutions. >> yang: we had barney frank on in a conversation about this, the barney frank of dodd-frank, he said that even if an institution were to get into trouble, the way the law is now, there would be no government bailout, no propping up of an institution, it would have to fail, and that whatever government funds would be spentn would be spent on letting it dissolve in an orderly fashion.

so it wouldn't cause a big financial problem for the rest of the economy, and that any money the government spent would have to be recovered. your response. >> i think that's, shall we say, an extremely optimistic view. and i think history has shown that the ties between the big financial institutions and washington are so tight that the financial institutions are very good at engineering taxpayer-financed bailouts. >> yang: lynn stout, thanks for joining us. thank you very much. >> woodruff: stay with us, coming up on the newshour: a new york city program that promises to double community college graduation rates. "the highest glass ceiling": a look at the women who aspired to be president. and, why politicians need to do less talking and more listening.

but first, free health care, free university education, generous unemployment benefits. are these the keys to happiness? they are all required by law ind denmark, a country he has said the united states ought to emulate. and, once again this year,is denmark tops a united nations poll as the happiest nation on earth. but is this really true? from copenhagen, special correspondent malcolm brabant reports. >> reporter: a happy accident of geography: being born in a country whose safety net offers protection from cradle till grave.s >> on a day like this, it's obvious we are gathered with our friends and family to celebrate this little baby, so it's a wonderful day. in the bigger picture we live in a great society with a health care system and free education,

>> reporter: christening their daugher kaya, attorney sarah egeskov and her partner claes hope their state of bliss will leap a generation. >> we try to give her some of the same values that we have today and hope for her that she will have the same freedom of speech and freedom of beliefs. >> and a safe childhood. i don't think we thought about anything evil or threatening through out childhoods and i hope we can give the same to our daughters.ho >> reporter: pastor pernille oestrem's church is in copenhagen's most racially m diverse district. she worries that some of her immigrant parishioners do not enjoy the same level of happiness as ethnic danes and regards it as her mission to try to spread the joy.he >> we don't have any wars and that crime is low. and we can let our children walk to school in the morning by themselves when they're quite w young. we don't have to drive them

because of drive by shootings or something like that. that means a lot that we think we're going to be 90 and have great-great grandchildren. >> reporter: danes pay more income tax than any other nationality, earn over $55,000 and the tax rate hits more than 60%, but according to happiness expert meik viking, danes don't mind. m >> just take free access to health care, free access tofr university education, quite generous benefits if you lose your job. just those three things mean that a lot of people around the world if they don't have access to them will experiencell unhappiness. and since the welfare state takes care of that we increase the security for people at the bottom. >> reporter: what about the high levels of taxes that people have to pay?e >> well it's true, it's really high levels. but what's more interesting is the really high level of support for the for high taxes. if you ask danes are you happy paying the taxes, nine out of ten will say yes. h >> reporter: it's just after 2:00 in the afternoon and some of copenhagen's bicycling

commuters are already heading home. the average dane only works a 35 hour week, and enjoys five weeks annual paid leave on top of public holidays, not to mention generous maternity and paternito leave. according to yet another surveya it has the best work/life balance in the developed world, which is a source of pride for union leader nana hojlund. >> work life balance means a lot to the danish people when ithe comes to happiness, because it's a way you can have a really good job, you can spend hours on your job and you can also have a family. >> reporter: not everyone swallows the concept of perfect little denmark.le british author michael booth has lived here for 15 years and his book debunking the scandinavians myths is a best seller. >> i know the institutes and the researchers like to use thatus word because it grabs headlines around the world.dl but i don't think the danes are happy.t i think they're more satisfied. they're a pretty somber, dour people, they complain quite a lot.th but when you ask them if they're happy what they really mean is

"we're content, things function here, it's safe. we have a safety net, we don't worry that much and the difference between the rich and the poor means that you don't have this society of envy." >> reporter: according to the united nations, the unhappiest country in the world is burundi, followed closely by syria. the united states is sitting 13th in the happiness league just behind austria and israel. bernie sanders believes that the u.s. would be a better place iff it was more like bicycle crazy denmark.e yet denmark's center right prime minister has scotched suggestions that this is some sort of socialist utopia, although he's happy that its's welfare system is being upheld as something to aim for. according to the danish expertsn scandinavians have a genetic predisposition towards happiness. americans with scandinavian heritage share those particular traits. t could the danish model be

transported across the atlantic if the u.s. chose to change the guard? u >> the same things that drive happiness in scandinavia are ths same things that drive happiness in the u.s. so i think there are some things we could export.hi >> reporter: so what would you have to export? >> i think what i would do woul be to focus on the bottom half of the population to increase the bottom.of by installing a welfare system inspired by the nordic countries.g >> reporter: one uniquely scandinavian social phenomenon that would be difficult toe export is what's called theca jantelov, an unwritten code of conformity that decries displays of ostentation or wealth and people who try to rise above their allotted station in life. >> how does that sit with americans and the american dream? not so well. there's no simple template that could be imposed on america. it doesn't take much to make a happy dane. light a fire, light some candles, open a bottle of red wine and you've got a happy dane. i think americans are a little more demanding when it comes to happiness.ng it's enshrined in their constitution.

they're entitled to it. but i think they have much bigger ideas about what constitutes happiness. will americans pay 56% income tax? i doubt it. >> reporter: pastor penille ostrem believes a lack of realism enables the danes to be so upbeat. but she is acutely aware that along with the rest of europe, denmark is a potential target for islamic state. so how does she manage to maintain happiness in a time of terror?in >> maybe the children that i baptize during this time are actually inheriting a society that looks a lot like the society when i was young. there was a nuclear scare. i didn't know if tomorrow was going to come but still went out to play and had our fights and got home to have dinner. >> reporter: so there's the perfect advice. keep calm and carry on. it's just easier if you're yitish. it's in their genes. for the pbs newshour, i'm malcolm brabant in copenhagen.

>> woodruff: the obama administration has long touted efforts to boost collegeo completion. but graduation rates haven't budged. that's why states across the country are watching an effort in new york city that promises to more than double graduation rates at community colleges. hari sreenivasan went to the bronx to see how the city's community colleges plan to do it.eg >> sreenivasan: karla ayala is in her last semester at bronx community college. if everything goes as planned, she'll earn her associate's degree from the city university of new york campus in five semesters, or about two years. only 20% of community college students complete a degree or certificate within three years of enrollment. ayala has done it despite having the types of responsibilities that derailra hundreds of thousands ofnd students every year.

>> college is stressful, and then on top of it having an outside life, i have kids, i'm married, i don't have a full- time job, but yet you know i have a responsibility part-time at school. >> sreenivasan: she's stayed on track with the help ofel accelerated study in associate programs, or asap. the city university of new york created the wrap-around support program for full-time students on some of its seven community college campuses in 2007. >> i did a semester without being in asap, and it was a little hard because i was- in a sense i was lost. >> sreenivasan: ayala is up at 6:00 to get the kids ready for school and out the door by 7:30 when her husband is already at work. asap pays for any tuition not covered by scholarships. which meant $2,600 a semester$2 for ayala. students also get a stipend for textbooks.ls commuting costs in a city like new york can add up and become e hurdle.

asap provides free monthly metro cards for city buses and trains, which normally cost $116. class schedules that change every semester can derail students who have to work or care for family. asap students take blocks of classes that bring them to campus at the same time everye day. that means ayala knows she can get home to pick the kids up from school. but the most important support has come from her adviser. >> we've established a relationship where she knows, okay karla, what's going on with this class, and i had a classa where i was struggling, and she definitely, you know, gave me the pep talk. you gotta do it, i'm not going to take you out of the class,oi you're going to have to work hard in your tutoring. >> sreenivasan: the data points to success stories beyond ayala. only 17% of cuny's full-time community college students get a degree in three years. for asap students the rate is 57%. in the fall, new york city leaders pledged an additional

$42 million to expand the program from 7,500 students this year to 25,000 by 2018. the goal is to raise the system wide graduation rate to 50% or higher for full-time students. >> at community colleges, and particularly at urban community colleges across the country, the three-year graduation rates about 16% right now. so you could call that a crisiss >> sreenivasan: cuny's chancellor james milliken. >> the issue's not all about access. it's a big part of it. we have to be focused on the success of our students. getting them a degree. >> sreenivasan: ayala's advisor melanie robles says turning the numbers around takes more than pointing students to the right classes. s >> i can work with a student on their academics, right, that's typical.r but then you also have that moment where you're working with a student that is having difficulty at home, so you're coaching them on maybe how to have a conversation with a

parent that maybe does not want to assist them any longer to take care of their child for them. >> sreenivasan: javier legasa oversees asap on the bronx campus. he says this intensive support is possible because asap advisers only work with 150 students each semester. compared to 500 students for each adviser outside the program. >> students need to feel that they belong, that this is their place, that we welcome them. and so having the sense of connection with staff members, with the other students as well, and the faculty who will be w teaching them in class, this is a key element. >> sreenivasan: and they're tracking students' progress closely. >> sometimes it can be, 'okay, it seems that you may have to withdraw from one of the classes so you can concentrate in others.' but in other cases, we'll be just, you know, do some tutoring work, for example. s

>> sreenivasan: somebody's going to say, "listen, this is a ton of money. why don't you justy hand these people the keys to aa four-year private institution if you're going to invest $80yo million in 25,000 students?" >> the cost that's invested in a community college student may b about $15,000. c we're talking about now a cost of an additional $3,700 for the asap program today. by the time we scale up to 25,000, it may be $3,200, it may be lower. but as i said, the cost per degree goes down.d,ee but if you look at a lot of the research that's been done on educational attainment levels, there are a whole lot of other benefits that come with this that are social benefits.at lower demand on criminal justice system, on social welfare systems. divorce rates are lower. >> sreenivasan: karla ayala is playing her own part in the asaa expansion. in her part-time job as a peer mentor she runs information sessions like the one that exposed her to asap two years ago. >> you have this group with the same mentality and you're bound to be successful. >> sreenivasan: by 2018 cuny

plans to enroll nearly all 7,000 full-time students, at the bronx campus in asap. for the pbs newshour, i'm hari sreenivasan in new york. >> woodruff: president obama commemorated a new national monument in washington today. the belmont paul women's equality national monument honors suffrage fighters alva belmont and alice paul. since 1929 the home has been the headquarters of the national woman's party. today it becomes the first national monument to women's history. >> i want young boys and girls to come here 10, 20, 100 years from now to know that womeno fought for equality. it was not just given to them. i want them to come here and be astonished that there was ever a time when women could not vote. that there was ever a time where a woman never sat in the ovalt office.

>> woodruff: and speaking of the oval office, that brings us to our latest addition to thete newshour bookshelf. first, some background. making her second run, hillary clinton is far from the first woman to set her eyes on the nation's highest office. she follows more than 200 american women in that quest. take the first: victoria woodhull. the 32-year-old launched her bid in 1870, almost half a century before women were allowed to vote.e a spiritual healer turned stock broker, she was nominated by the equal rights party-- a group she organized. woodhull faced opposition in the press:es depicted as a devil forl supporting the "free love" movement, by which she meant the freedom to marry, divorce and bear children. almost 100 years later came

maine's margaret chase smith, the first woman to be elected into the senate in her own right. at president john f. kennedy's last press conference in 1963, he was asked about a potential smith run:, >> i would think if i were a republican candidate, i wouldn not look forward to campaigning against margaret chase smith to new hampshire, or as a possibleg candidate for president, i think she is very formidable.shr >> woodruff: chase's bid for the 1964 republican nomination was unsuccessful, her candidacy turned out to be no laughing matter. she became the first woman to have her named entered into nomination at a major party's convention. >> women before me pioneered and smoothed the way for me to be the first women to be elected to both the house and the senate. and that i should give back in return that which had been given to me. >> woodruff: just four years after smith gave back camee shirley chisholm, the first

black woman elected to congress in 1968, who moved on to become the first black woman to run as a major party candidate for president in 1972. it was a short-lived but memorable bid; with the slogan "unbought and unbossed." she said her campaign was for the have-nots.er >> i am not the candidate of black america, although i am black and proud. a i am not the candidate of the women's movement of this country, although i am a woman, and i am equally proud of that. i am the candidate of the people of america. >> woodruff: these women helped set the stage for hillary clinton, who in 2008 was met >> woodruff: already, clinton has made it further than any woman before her. historian ellen fitzpatricktr

profiles the three who laid the groundwork for clinton in her new book, "the highest glass ceiling: women's quest for the american presidency." ellen fitzpatrick, welcome. >> thank you, nice to be here. >> woodruff: so there have been a lot of books written about women in politics, but you specifically wanted to focus on women going after the top job, the president similar why? >> well, there had been very little i noticed done on the subject. there had been a lot of books about the idea of a woman president, but no historian had really looked at this question, no academic historian. it had sort of fallen between the crevices. on the one hand, there's so much presidential history. on the other handti there's a lt of wonderful work in women's history.y. but women presidential candidates had largely been shungted aside. >> woodruff:, right -- right now hillary clinton is if front-runner for the democratic nomination. the three women you focus on were women who because of the

time they went for the presidency, it was a very different environment. why did you pick these three and start with victoria woodhull, 1872. >> remarkable.18 she emerged during reconstruction, which was the period after the civil war when many questions were being raised about what freedom and democracy in america really meant. we had just fought this brutal and bloody civil war, and in the aftermath of it, there were four million slaves emancipated and new constitutional amendments written to confer new rights on african-americans. in that moment, then- suffrage movement began to make its claim that women should be included in these new liberties that women's voting rights should be established, and victoria woodhull emerged in the middle of that debate and said, why not run for the office itself? i can embody the cause of women's equality.

>> woodruff: it was almost another 100 years before anothee woman you look at, that was margaret chase smith, had been the senator from the state of maine, she was a republican,li went for the presidency, but she was also facing very, very tough odds. >> what was extraordinary was to found out in 1964 the kinds of things said about margaret chase smith, who arguably was really the best prepared of any woman who had run, certainly to that point, were actually more sexist than what was being said about victoria woodhull in 1870. she was depicted as on the one hand she had been greatly admired. as soon as shemi announced her d for the presidency, she was depicted as menopausal, addled, not really up to the responsibility. >> woodruff: and then just a few years later shirley chisholm, who ran for president in the early 1970s, first african american woman elected to congress.

so she jumped that hurdle, butut the presidency was something else altogether. >> right. she was on the national stage from the moment of her election, and she was a vociferous critic of the nixon administration. she got a lot of press. she was well-known. but she too was really ridiculed when she announced her bid for the presidency in 1972, but she stuck with it and went all the way to the convention. >> woodruff: what do you draw from all of this, ellen fitzpatrick, in terms of lessons for hillary clinton this year or any other woman who wants to be president? >> well, i think the most striking thing that we're seeing in contemporary politics is that now in hillary clinton, there is a woman candidate who has overcome the biggest obstacles in the way of thecl women that preceded her, but there is no failure like success in this case, because she has been able to raise a lot of money that sunk every previous candidate.

she has strong support from her party. very few women have been able to get that. a high national profile. and she is widely seen because of her secretary of state as capable in foreign affairs. so she's overcome these prejudices, but she's now seen as establishment. >> woodruff: some would say looking at the polls that the main obstacles she faces don't have to do with gender, they have to do whether it's the controversy over the e-mails or people say they don't trust her. how do you read that? >> the way i read it is that a lot of americans will say today that they're happy to vote for a woman president, and they're even enthusiastic about that. that's a huge reversal from the early 20th century, but they often will say, i just don'tt like that woman. and i think that the way that i read it is that it's hard to imagine anyone overcoming all

these obstacles and also having this likability, universal likability factor that some seem to be looking for. >> woodruff: what about the fact, ellen fitzpatrick, that in the united states we elected an african american president before we may elect a woman president? >> well, that was an important moment in overcoming a long obviously and torturous racial history in the united states of tremendous inequality in political life, but the changes that occurred in the democraticr party and the republican partypa in the 1970s created the opening for women and african americans to move up in the party system and hence barack obamaar could emerge and hillary clinton, as well. >> woodruff: so women should take away from this book that a woman will one day be elected president. >> but not easily, and i think that it's important to know the

history to really appreciate what the stakes are. >> woodruff: ellen fitzpatrick, a great book, the highest glass ceiling: women's quest for the american presidency. thank you so much. >> thank you, judy. >> woodruff: in a rural nebraska village of less than 200 people, a local artist is attempting to get drivers passing through to stop, and spend a little money locally, while at the same time doubling the town's population. from pbs member station net in nebraska, mike tobias explains. >> reporter: there's ralph

hodson, little audrey, ralph and hank villager the friendly villagers of taylor.ph old fashioned, kind of stoic folks. a little stiff. wooden, actually. >> i want as many wooden people as there are actual people in taylor, which is only 182. >> reporter: marah sandoz is one of the actual people, and creator of the wooden ones. a couple decades ago she got involved with a local economic development group brainstorming about ways to help the fading village. >> what can we do to stop the traffic?ha what can we create for people to see.at and we went back to, okay, what do we have. we have a couple really cool historic buildings. let's go back to that era and let's recreate what was when this town was booming, when this town was bustling. >> reporter: it became sandoz's project.do a self-described self-trained artist with experience using

wood and paint, she hatched the idea of life-sized plywood cutouts depicting people who might have lived in the village between 1890 and 1920, when taylor had twice as many people as today. t the first villagers "arrived" in 2003. herbert and alice near the historic, now unused pavilionno hotel. >> people thought they were fun. they were different. people said that they had to stop and wait because they thought the people wanted top cross the street. they wave at them. it created a lot of local chatter. l >> reporter: the villager population has since grown to about 100 of the cutouts. sandoz does most of the work, with a little help from family and locals. location is often a starting point for the artist. >> so a lot of my ideas come from seeing a spot. i tend to see canvases in the

community. what would have been happening there in 1910. >> reporter: the villagers caused a pair of westbound travelers to stop.er >> first reaction we thought itt was real, you know, just kind of somebody standing there you know. (laughs)gh >> it's kind of an inviting look to it you know it makes you want to find out more about it.a actually were thrilled that we stopped here and find out thisdu is where they're being made and a little bit about the villagers as they call them. >> reporter: but right now there's only so much revenue the villagers can generate for taylor, because there are only a handful of places to spend money in the only town of nebraska's least-populated counties. and that population has been declining for decades. sandoz believes the villagersh project can change that. >> we're creating a really positive climate for antique and retro stuff and so will feel if we can get some other little

businesses around the square that can fill those tourism niches.il >> reporter: for now, sandoznd will do her part by creating more villagers. six a year, until there's enough wooden people to symbolically double the town's population. all with the hope that real people will start coming to taylor, instead of leaving. for the pbs newshour, i'm mike tobias in taylor, nebraska. >> woodruff: finally tonight, just in time for this primary season, an essay on political rhetoric. barton swaim was the speechwriter for former south carolina governor mark sanford. swaim believes that perhaps the best solution to improving political speech is for politicians to just say less. have a listen. >> it's easy to dislike politicians, especially when we

hear them speak.s they cram their speeches with wonkish hooey and hedge their statements with so many qualifiers that you're sometimem left unsure what those statements even mean. i used to work for a politician as a speechwriter, and i confess i came up with fair amount of verbal rubbish in my day. but let's give our politicians a break. we expect them to speak far too often, about far too manyy subjects. think of the president. a half-century ago, the president spoke only rarely in public, once a week maybe. now he speaks in public settings all week long, sometimes several times in a single day, to all sorts of gatherings on a vastat range of topics. it's not natural to orate that often. you run out of interesting things to say. and to make it worse, your every utterance is scrutinized by reporters and political adversaries for anything offensive or controversial. so what are politicians suppose to do? they have to speak all the time, but without saying anything that

might cause trouble. they have no choice, really, but to generate reams of semi- meaningless verbiage. you know what it sounds like. you've heard politicians droning on about "the american exceptionalism that made this nation a clarion voice for freedom in the world," about how we can "build an economy where hard work is rewarded," about" "how we're going to give our kids and grandkids the future they deserve," about how "good things happen when america is engaged with friends and allies, alert to danger, resolved to deal with threats before they become catastrophes."th you've heard these phrases, sometimes many of them strung together all at once, and concluded that you don't know what any of it meant. of course, empty verbosity will always be a part of democratic politics. but can we lower the supply of it, even by a little? maybe we can-by asking our politicians to speak less often and about fewer things.

the politician i worked for spoke at a dizzying array of events every week: groundbreakings, ribbon- cuttings, awards ceremonies, industry group gatherings, and many others.ry he was invited to speak at these events chiefly because he was the governor, not because he had some special insight to impart. in most cases, it served no useful purpose for him even to be there at all. we can't stop politicians from speaking so much. there's the first amendment-but perhaps we could stop inviting them to speak so frequently. consider, for example, a moratorium on elected officials addressing graduation ceremonies.al my guess is that most politicians would enjoy notli speaking so often. some of them like the sound of their own voice, for sure. but many of them realize that if you want to be listened to, the best thing to do is keep quiet until you've got something to say.un

>> woodruff: you can watch moree of our essays on our website. pbs.org/newshour. also online, thanks to greats g like billie jean king, tennis has been recognized as a leader in addressing the wage gap in professional sports, but gender equality goes beyond the money. read more on what tennis gets right, and what more needs to be done.. and children's book author beverly cleary turns 100 today. we've compiled seven things you may not have known about the woman who created the beloved characters romona quimby and henry huggins. all that and more is on our web site, pbs.org/newshour. and that's the newshour for tonight. t tomorrow, we'll talk to napster sean parker about his foundation's push for new cancer research. i'm judy woodruff. join us online, and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night.unnc n

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this is "nightly business report" with tyler mathisen and sue herera. >> price spike. oil surges to its highest level this year. a meeting this weekend could determine whether the climb continues. top rated. the one pickup truck that earned high marks in a tough crash test and the other one that didn't. tax survival good. still haven't filed? we have list minute tips to get your return in on time. all that and more on "nightly business report" for tuesday, april 12th. good evening, everybody. welcome. i'm sue herera. tyler mathisen is off tonight. a rumor and a rally. oil prices touch new 2016 highs on reports that saudi arabia and