doris kearns goodwin, thank you very much., stick around if you could. still ahead, more on the showdown over health care with house majority whip james clyburn joining us. but first, one giant anniversary, moon walkers will join us right here on "morning joe." welcome to the now network. population 49 million. right now, 1.5 million people are on a conference call. 750,000 wish they weren't. - ( phones chirping ) - construction workers are making 244,000 nextel direct connect calls. 1 million people are responding to an email. - 151 accidentally hit "reply all." - ( foghorn blows ) that's happening now. america's most dependable 3g network bringing you the first wireless 4g network. - sprint. the now network. - ( whoosh sound ) deaf, hard of hearing and people with speech disabilities access www.sprintrelay.com. - sprint. the now network. - ( whoosh sound ) you have questions. who can give you the financial advice you need? where will you find the stability and resources to keep you ahead of this rapidly evolving world? these

i see that appointment as doris kearns goodwin talks ability in her book "team of rivals" as an extraordinary vote of confidence in senator clinton's ability to lead the issue but also that he's in charge. i think that decision is one that will go down, as we look at conversations about iran and north korea and palestinian issues that her appointment was quite significant. >> i think in terms of the big change that the president committed to, the single most important thing he has done in the first six months is go after everything at once early on. i think that decision may well shape the extent to which he's able to bring about the kind of structural social change that he really promised during his campaign and during his early days. for the following reasons. the president is at his height of strength in his first year. it can continue, but it tends to dissipate. but he is at the ultimate point of his power and his public support and he has an absolutely unique situation in the congress. that 60th vote he got today is a magic vote. it's not -- it's not simply an abstract 60 votes to break

i think in this time of barack obama one must read, doris kearns goodwin's book, a team of rivals whichs the great story of how abraham lincoln not only bested his rivals but then had the intestinal fortitude to bring all of his rivals and to his cabinet, each of colm thought he was smarter than lincoln in each of whom thought he should be in the swivel chair and not abraham lincoln. it is a great story and really eliminates a lot of our american history. and other book i read this last year or so it is a book on a number of military histories. david halberstam's book, the coldest winter which is a wonderful story published posthumously by a great writer on the korean war. not of since lot of single volumes on the period of history and really well done. rick atkinson is working on a trilogy and he is published the first two books on the second world war, and specifically the first volumes on the american involvement in north africa and the second volume is on the italian campaign which was a bloody, bloody affair and does not give a lot of attention in history and obviously it deserves