this was an important vehicle. >> kenneth walsh, i am so glad you did this book. you worked brilliantly at it. we would like to thank you for watching, and remind you this program has been possible by arizona public service, and its holding company, panicle west. we'll be back in a week. until then, visit us on the web at whchronicle.com. cheers. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- "white house chronicle" is produced in collaboration with howard university television. from washington, d.c., this has been "white house chronicle" a weekly analysis of the news with a sense of humor featuring llewellyn king, linda gasparello, and guests. to view the program online,

. >> host: kenneth walsh, this book, "family of freedom" has a fascinating piece of work.i'm actually nghia see how because you actually -- you're talking about african-americans in the white house, both as the cabinet, but also as servers, enslaved people. talk a little bit about what motivated you to do this. >> a couple things. as a white house correspondent i covered since 1986 full-time. there is always super race to the president come in different ways to get behind the curtain in the public relations and so want to see what they were really like. i've written for other books in one of try to do is find some prisons to look at them through to find something different. >> host: if i might say, your book about the presidential retreat is fascinating because it really is like you're looking at the presidency was something people would pick up. >> guest: well, thank you. very important and fascinating issue of race that has been with us from the beginning and the united states and now the presidents do with that, both in policies and attitudes in dealing the african-amer

. >> kenneth walsh, this book, "family of freedom" is just a fascinating piece of work. i really enjoyed it and was envious of you. you are talking about african-americans in the white house both as members of the cabinet but also as servers, enslaved people. >> right. >> talk a little bit what motivated you to do this. >> there were a couple of things as a white house correspondent i covered the white house since 1986 full-time, you are looking for ways to see the president and getting behind the curtain and public relations and so on so tee what they were really like. i've written four other books. what i tried to do is find some prism to look at them through to find something different. >> if i might say you really have. your book about the presidential retreats is fascinating because it really is, like you're looking at the presidency with something that people wouldn't pick up. >> thank you. and, in this case i thought there was a, very important and fascinating issue of race that's been with us from the very beginning in the united states and how do presidents deal

she discusses her findings with veteran white house reporter, kenneth walsh of "u.s. news & world report." >> host: sally welcome. i have really enjoyed reading your book and i want to just get right to the main question so many authors are asked which is why you decided to write this book and sort of what the genesis of the book is? >> guest: the story of barack obama senior seemed to me to be the untold story of both obama's candidacy and the presidency. i've been a reporter at the globe for many years and i've done many political profiles. i did write a profile of obama senior in october 2008. i spoke to many people in kenya but i never went to kenya. i didn't have that piece of the story. we decided that this was a very compelling story. it was very little known about him. obama junior wrote about him in his book the only go so far and tells what his experience of his father and it seemed to me this was a book that needed to be written. >> host: in the process he said you want to kenya and i know you describe it that in the book itself. tell us a little bit about