hiram johnson, of whom i'm speaking, was a young lawyer in san francisco who was could upon to take over a corruption case against the city's mayor and some co-conspirators in a bribery scandal. he took over the case, he was second chair of the case at the outset but took over the first chair when the lead prosecutor was shot in the head in court by a dismissed juror. law students, take note. [laughter] it -- johnson made his name in that case and went on to serve as governor of california and to spearhead a singular political movement in the state's history which was the rise of the california progressives. the progressives were, by today's definitions, a bit of a hybrid, and they are sometimes also misunderstood. they were importantly not populist. it was not a pop list movement per se. they were largely middle class men, many were -- many ran small businesses. their principal target of their reform efforts was the southern pacific whose political influence they deplored and which kept them -- which shut them out of business. they loathed corruption and vice, they were quite bourgeois

hiram johnson was the progressive republican governor of california, earl warren, as i said earlier,onservative republican governor of california also, but he later became a progressive supreme court justice. the criteria for getting in my book was people who fought for a more humane, just, and equal america and worked as organizers, as activists, as politicians, and as writers and artists, people like bruce springsteen, woody guthrie. >> and michael moore made your list. >> michael moore to me is the modern day e quif lint of upton sin lair. upton sinclair wrote "the jungle" in 1906 and exposed americans to the awful conditions in the meat packing plants that made our food so unsafe. >> it's a horrifying book. >> our food is much safer in america today because of upton sinclair and michael moore's movie "sicko" is kind of the equivalent of "the jungle." a muck raking journalist who works with activists to try to enlighten us and expose corruption and injustice. >> professor, thank you for joining us. up next, toure's take on the america he wants to see, not the one that necessarily

jason johnson is a political science professor at hiram college in ohio.independent and cnn contributor and he does many, many more things, too. welcome to you both. >> good morning. >> okay. >> good to see you, carol. >> so president obama is arming himself with big bird and actually nickelodeon, too, because apparently mitt romney refused to answer a question from the kids on nickelodeon's kids pick the president, and mr. obama did answer questions, and that started a war of words. obama's deputy national press secretary saying, quote, it's no surprise mr. romney chose to play hooky. kids demand details, end quote. jason, isn't this just silly? >> you know, it isn't silly when you're mitt romney because you need to make sure that after you get this post debate boost, that you work it as good as you can, and the idea of him looking cold again, the idea of him looking distant again and not connecting to people is not good. going after big bird, going after elmo and ignoring a bunch of kids is not the way to continue on the crest of your bump. it's not good