if hubert humphrey had tried it, you know, nixon and the gang would've been attacking them like mad. he was more keen on this then kissinger was it turns out. so it was a smart, perceptive endeavor on his part to try to relax relationships with the chinese. and at the same time, play this off against the soviet. and they were fearing each other and the word that came into disrepute later, triangulation. and it was very smart. you cannot take away from nixon. he was a really smart man. now, some people think he oversold with the soviet union. they didn't get a good arms control, deals as they might have. nixon didn't care about the details of it and kissinger didn't know about the details of it, but was trying to dominate it. and so there was a slipping back on the soviet up front after nixon left office. there is no question that he changed the definition of things on those two issues. however, they also made gigantic mistakes in foreign policy. there's a strong argument that the vietnam war went on five years beyond where it need have. but nixon got in the end he could have gotten a

minnesota for so long the cradle of liberals like hubert humphrey, walter mondale. al franken but pawlenty styles himself a sam's club republican. fiscally conservative, middle class, emphatically anti-elite. he won praise for holding spending but left a $6 billion deficit. runs for president as a prairie populist. >> i think what you got now is people have figured out that the country has been disproportionately influenced by big government, big unions and big business and they have coalesced into an iron triangle to basically screw everybody else. and the country is mad. >> sarah palin of the great state of alaska. >> reporter: john mccain's choice of sarah palin as his running mate stunned everyone including tim pawlenty who had been on the very short list of finalists. >> never had an entitlement mentality so it wasn't that disappointing but as it became possible, of course, your hopes get lifted and you start thinking about it more so, you know, i'd be lying if i didn't say you had some hope for that. >> reporter: that campaign rocketed palin to the pinnacle of

of his family and also the senate majority leader at the time and other leading democrats like hubert humphrey to come to the senate and they urged him to do that but if nothing else as a therapy for the depth of his grief. only by that pleading did they do so. you may recall stories about joe biden commuting between wilmington and washington which began at the time of the accident when he determined he would be with the boys who were toddlers borough every night every morning he would get on the train to washington then that might come back home to wilmington. he was sworn into this segment at the side of the hospital but the -- hospital bed of beau biden who was still in a hospital at the time and did that 36 years. other members of the professional delegation melamine to accompany him and it turned out to be so close although it was a slick delegation with the three man delegation. but as a result of this behavior or schedule, he was not very well known by the other senators for quite awhile and when home every night while the others eight and drink together and would socialize during the w

also by the senate majority leader at the time, mike mansfield, and other leading democrats like hubert humphrey to come to this and. some of them urged him to do that, if anything else, as a therapy for the depth of his grief. and it was only by the pleading of the members of the family to urge him that they did so. you may recall stories about joe biden always feature his community on amtrak between wilmington and washington, which begin at the time of the accident. but he was determined that he was going to be with the boys, who were then toddlers. so he did come every night. every morning he would get on the train to washington, and then that not come back on the train to wilmington. in fact, he was sworn into the senate at the hospital -- at the hospital bed of bob biden who are still in hospital at the time it can be continue to do that, incredibly, for 36 years. other members of the three member delaware congressional delegation often fell in line accompanying him, and it was part of the reason they turned out to be so close, even though it was a split delegation, was always at least one

we have given you hubert humphrey, eugene mccarthy, walter mondale, and yes, al franken. we have given you a lot out of the state of minnesota, but we have also given you post-it notes and we have given you spam. we think it evens out a little bit there. it is a great time in our country to be thinking about some very important issues, and i know that the values that i learned in my life, i learned here in the great hall by state. i am so proud to have this as my heritage and my background. here in iowa, we laid the foundation, the seeds of great is. i put a lot of time into thinking about what i wanted to say this evening when i was extended this wonderful invitation to be able to come to you. i was thinking back about my own roots in my own family. my daughter and i pulled out of family history and started reading it to each other at night. we were lucky enough to have a relative that wrote some of our family history, and i am ashamed to say that i had not read the book get to know what it was. i had tears come to my eyes when i read about our family and what they went

this is the land of hubert humphrey. this is the land of walter mondale. this is the land of jesse ventura. now it is the land of the united states senator al franken. if we can do this in minnesota, as frank sinatra would talk about new york, we can do it anywhere. we took the spending trajectory of my state which was 21% every two years for 40 years. that was the average spending pattern increase in my state. we got that down to a low over governor. we were able to bring in government spending in a historic way. we actually reduced government spending for the first time in a 150 year history of minnesota. of course, that is not easy when you are up against a culture that leans pretty hard the other way. there is a lot of hard work that went into that. including having the first government shut down in the 150 year history of my state. but the point was, we were not going to have business as usual. we will want to draw lines in the sand and we were going to get government to live within its means and we began to see a big change in my state. the unemploym

we're also losing a happy warrior in the mold of a hubert humphrey or a franklin roosevelt. as the columnist e.j. deio nebraska has written, the happiness quotient in the senate will definitely drop when senator dodd leaves. i couldn't agree more. for 36 years in congress, chris dodd has faithfully served the people of connecticut and the people of the united states, and there is no doubt that he will pursue new avenues of public service in retirement. as i said, i will miss his friendship and counsel here in the senate, but i wish chris, his wonderful wife jackie and their wonderful two young children grace and christine the very best in the years ahead. madam president, again, for our colleague ted kaufman, who is leaving, was sworn in as a senator in january of 2009. he was a senator for between years, and he was sworn in to succeed the newly elected vice president, senator joe biden. at the time ted kaufman made it clear that he would not run for reelection in 2010. he noted that he had not raised any money to become a senator, and he wasn't going to raise any money to b

its greatest profile in the national politics about 40 years ago and in the era when democrats hubert humphrey and then walter mondale served in the white house and then supreme court justices harry blackmun and warren burger both republican appointees in formerly called the minnesota twins also heal from the north star state. our guest today may look to bring back national prominence to the land of 10,000 links although he insists he is officially undecided about whether to run for president. now, fell a minnesota republican and tea party favorite michelle bachmann is insinuating she may steal mr. pawlenty's hundred and seek the nomination. mr. pawlenty just finished serving two terms as minnesota governor, serving as the state struggled through a national recession in which the state's budget shortfalls persisted. minnesota's chief of the governor, democratic mark dayton, inherited a $6.2 billion budget deficit. now, mr. pawlenty is launching his book tour, a step that's become a common preludin to presidential quests. he said he will announce by the end of march with a key will run for the