that gift is still appreciated, welcomed by the american people or is it becoming increasingly underappreciated and for that matter infringed upon? >> well, i think, you know, a lot of the literature, there's a whole rich slough of immigrant literature that is increased, that's sort of enriched american literature. so this is supposed to be the land of immigrants. tavis: it's supposed to be. >> well, i mean, recently, you know, so there's richness in subject. the conflict him that grants are facing, because as soon as we're in difficult economic times you have the blaming of immigrants and it's hard and uncomfortable but it's also rich subject matter for artists and writers. tavis: you describe art as both a luxury and a necessity. what do you mean by that? >> well, it's a necessity. the way i grew up in haiti, it was a necessity. it's all around. people breathe. the lottery stand is covered in art. the transportation trucks we take in haiti is covered in art. and in a way i sort of grew up feeling like art was another way besides breathing that we let the world, that we let people know that we

, and so when i came to write about grants, my original interest in grant was he wrote great underappreciated american literature in his wars that which mark twain got published. it's really some brilliant writing. for joint grant didn't talk much about himself. he talked mostly about descriptions. but i brought to that a somewhat different perspective. and certainly very much the idea of grant as the first free commander, but also that grant was, as sherman, one of the great, the truly great american generals. someone asked as sherman dd think credit should be included with wellington, napoleon as one of the great soldiers, generals of the 19th century, and sherman said, oh, yes, but i think history will rank in much higher than that, or higher than that. which may have been just sherman popping off. but i think that was too. when i wrote this book, one of the things i really tried to bring out was to the extent to which you could really compare grant with those three, and particular with wellington, who was like a grant, never fought a battle that he didn't win. and also, managed to do some

universities and that, frankly, have been founts of innovation in ways that i think most americans underappreciate. have been the source of if fuel for the innovation economy that has built this nation's great economic strength. you and i have talked about this before but bob solo, one of our nobel prize winning economists, demonstrated that over half of the economic growth in america post-world war ii can be attributed to innovation. and the heart of what we do on our campuses is to turn great ideas into innovations and they're not just about new technologies and new businesses, they're about new ideas, new ways of billing communities, new ways of relating to one another, new ways of interacting around the world. so what happens in our campuses, we bring people together, they have great ideas that then take form and lead the campuses and i think that american higher education remains the gold standard for the world for the moment. i, of course, have some fear about the position of the united states relative to the rest of the world. but i think that the work that grows on in our campuses is absol

[applause] probably the most underappreciated profession in our country. got to get that change. [applause] and then we provide the skilled labor. we provide the material but the community has to match what they call 50/50. the committees guest to give three -- freeland, free wood and free manual labor, so we match that together that is how we can get a school built. i think that is one of the reasons when the community has invested and they have committed, they will protect it because it is one of the reasons also none of our schools have been shut down by militant groups. also care, also local groups. when they involve the community and participation. this is on a micro-scale but also applied on a macroscale and one of my criticisms after 9/11, when 2000 countries got together in bonn germany in september 2001, is called the bonn conference and they decided had to rebuild afghanistan a committed pledges. only 32% of the pledge money actually was ever given. but they set it up as a very centralized provincial type of system. some of you here, actually a f

i think somewhat underappreciated treasure of our national capacity. and as we work together now with secretary clinton, on what we call our quadrennial diplomacy and development review, the appreciation that we have gained for the role that our career foreign service play i think has only grown as we begin to think about the capacity of the united states needs to meet the challenges for the 21st century. so i want to salute mark and his many colleagues in the foreign service. and i'm especially pleased to be here with you from the world affairs councils of america. i was telling laurie i think over the course of mike weir, which has include a few purple campaigns, i've spoken to about half of the world affairs council in the world. i remember when my girl is outings to a, i would during the 1980 presidential campaign. it is a reflection that while we have report national organizations, the discussion around our country on key areas of foreign policy national security is the grassroots organizations like yourselves and all citizenry. it is amazing that

and i tried -- my argument was he was a greatly underappreciated president whose reputation had been mangled a lot of presidential historians. and moral courage, doing what he thought was right was very much a part of that. so, you know, but i would not go so far as to say -- that to single him out as though -- i think of the situation been reversed, i think robert e. lee might very well have done some of the same things. i really would go back to the fact that these men all knew each other at some level. i think that their behavior -- i mean, if you lead long straight combinations of grant, for example, whatever the problems were for this group of people were talking about, the court, they were gentleman. and the real best sense of the word. and they all had their -- they all have their faults. no you didn't bring it up, but i didn't get into grants drinking either. mainly because in my view, sobriety is a greatly overrated virtue. [laughter] it just didn't come out. but the other problems. when you're talking about lee's resignation, lee was shafted so badly that he told them he ha

. >>> up next, we're going to get up close and personal with some very underappreciated animals.day" on nbc. >>>? this morning on "today's" call of the wild, our animal ambassador is here with animals who may not be pretty to look at. >> you've got a vulture with you right now. >> i'm glad you didn't actually call them ugly. unappreciated and it all comes with education, and that's why zoos are so important to teach people about animals people think are disgusting. >> why isn't it disgusting. >> not only are they nature's recyclers, dead animals they feed on, cholera, bacteria and anthrax are all found in that. these animals can eat those animals and digest it. ije going to take out the try an chula. i conditionan't stand it, you'rg a spider. >> they're the largest spiders in the world. but they're pretty much all harmless to humans. and you think about it. >> what do you mean pretty much? >> they are venomous. her name is morticia. >> these guys do everything that they possibly can to not attack. they run away, they hold up their arms and go -- they try to scare you. the little

this year, i thought it was underappreciated success after accepting and welcoming the tea party.hey got defeated. but basically what the american system is, you can run against and do get the republican nomination. they avoided, what people forget 18 months ago looked like the possibility of many third party tea party candidates. they avoided until the sense of profile. you could have nine states where tea party was running as independents and hurting republicans. part of it is because they knocked off some republicans and the tea party activist felt they had a place in it even when they didn't win. i think you raise a good point. that's one thing to handle it in a bunch of senate and congressional races when you are in a power. it's another thing to have a governor for a year and a half and then be, you know, hold that coalition together. >> well, but the factor would be who's at the head of the ticket? who would be the presidential candidate in all of this? whether the people who voted tea party in this most recent election whether they could sign on to this new person. so, you

>> the underappreciated success of some republicans, was after some initial resistance, they did not have much choice because they were defeated. what people forget, 18 months ago looked like a real possibility of many third-party tea party candidates. they could have had -- you know, he could have had nine states running as independent candidates. and they knocked off some republicans. but i think you raise a good point. it is one thing to handle a bunch of senate and congressional races when you do not have any power. you have to govern for a year- and-a-half and hold that coalition together. >> the fact would be, who would be at the head of the ticket? who would be the presidential candidates in all of this? and the people who voted tea party in this election, they could sign on to this person. you are right, district by district basis, if someone were to elect a deep -- a tea party candidate, they could be in trouble. but the republican party, as a whole, -- the tea party as a whole, they have not elected a presidential candidates before. i do not see the tea party abandoning the

one comment, though that i think is underappreciated has been commented on a little bit during this comps is that -- conference is that the initial design was not completely flawed. there was a lot of focus with securitization on selection problems, getting the incentives right between the originator and the security of the ultimate investors. investors in these securities were right from the get-go, very in tune with adverse selections concern and securitization was set up, tried to set it up to deal with cherry-picking kinds of things with buyback provisions. there was retention. ..

a real reflection of the best in our foreign service, which i think somewhat underappreciated treasure of our national capacity. as we work together now, with secretary clinton on what we call our quadrennial diplomacy and development review. the appreciation that we have gained for the role better career services supply i think has only grown as we begin to think about the capacity of the united states needs to meet the challenges of the 21st century. i want to salute and his colleagues in the fourth or fifth. i'm especially pleased to be here with you. i was telling lauren over the course of my career which is included campaigns i spoke to do half of the council of in the world. i remember one of my earliest outings to ottumwa, iowa during the 1980 presidential campaign. but it really is a reflection of the faculty have important national organizations, but the discussion around our country on key areas of foreign policy is a grassroots organizations of citizenry in these debates and it allows the people to be well-informed and focus on the issues that may be a little bit not obvious

[cheers and applause] >> some of the most underrecognized, underappreciated profession in a country.t to get that changed. [applause] >> and then we provided the skilled labor, basically we provide the materials like cement. the community has, the committee has to give free land, free would come and free manual labor. so we match that. together, that's how we can get a school bill. i think that's one of the reasons when the communities is invested and they are committed to it they will protect the school. that's one of the reasons also none of our schools have been shut down by militant groups. also, care, the same thing that also local groups. when they involve the community, participation. this on a micro scale, you can also apply on a macro scale. one of my criticisms after 9/11 when two dozen countries got together in bonn germany december 2001, called the bonn conference. they decided how to rebuild afghanistan and the committed pledges. only 32% of the pledge money actually was ever given. but they set up as a very centralized the provincial type. some of you here, actually a f

>> the underappreciated success of some republicans, was after some initial resistance, they did not have much choice because they were defeated. what people forget, 18 months ago looked like a real possibility of many third-party tea party candidates. they could have had -- you know, he could have had nine states running as independent candidates. and they knocked off some republicans. but i think you raise a good point. it is one thing to handle a bunch of senate and congressional races when you do not have any power. you have to govern for a year- and-a-half and hold that coalition together. >> the fact would be, who would be at the head of the ticket? who would be the presidential candidates in all of this? and the people who voted tea party in this election, they could sign on to this person. you are right, district by district basis, if someone were to elect a deep -- a tea party candidate, they could be in trouble. but the republican party, as a whole, -- the tea party as a whole, they have not elected a presidential candidates before. i do not see the tea party abandoning the

>> the underappreciated success of some republicans, was after some initial resistance, they did not have much choice because they were defeated. what people forget, 18 months ago looked like a real possibility of many third-party tea party candidates. they could have had -- you know, he could have had nine states running as independent candidates. and they knocked off some republicans. but i think you raise a good point. it is one thing to handle a bunch of senate and congressional races when you do not have any power. you have to govern for a year- and-a-half and hold that coalition together. >> the fact would be, who would be at the head of the ticket? who would be the presidential candidates in all of this? and the people who voted tea party in this election, they could sign on to this person. you are right, district by district basis, if someone were to elect a deep -- a tea party candidate, they could be in trouble. but the republican party, as a whole, -- the tea party as a whole, they have not elected a presidential candidates before. i do not see the tea party abandoning the

my argument is he was a greatly underappreciated president whose reputation had been mangled by a lot of presidential historians and moral courage, doing what he thought was right was very much the part of that, but i would not go so far as to say that to single him out, had the situation been reversed by robert e. lee, i would go back to the fact that these men all new each other, i think their behavior, if you look at this, whatever problems were with this group of people, they were gentlemen in the real sense of the world. they all had their faults. that didn't get into grant's drinking either mainly because in my view sobriety is a greatly overrated virtue. it just didn't come up. they all had their problems. grant at one point was shafted so badly that he felt he had to resign and if washburn had 19 terrine and made him aware was political suicide in his quest to be the general on the union's side, he tried to do everything he could. >> these were men of the enormous character. we are out of time and i know we have a lot of other issues to cover. thank you for the great job you d