who criticized her husband and supported democrat adelaide stephenson. ran for president and lost. >> the challenge. >> yeah, not that there would be a challenge with jack but it was a different kind of man. so -- you know, all these sort of twisted, poor little women whose lives hadn't worked out could find a bomb in adelaide. and jack made them nervous. someone said, where do you get your opinions? and i said, i get all my opinions from my husband, which is true. how could i have any political opinions? his were going to be the best. it was really kind of victorian relationship which we had which i think is the best. >> reporter: but the woman who started out so shy would ultimately find her voice. >> we should cherish the language and emotions that unite us all. >> reporter: dazzling other countries in the world on behalf of america. becoming one of the political stars. >> i am the man who accompanied jacqueline kennedy to paris. and i've enjoyed it. >> i think that as she became a greater and greater asset in the world, as well as that they became cl

. >> let me ask you though, you wrote a book on adelaide stevenson. would you put adelaide stevenson at the table? >> yes. >> did you ever meet him? >> know. i did spend some time with his son, who as you know was a senator and then resigned in 1980. he made a big tactical mistake, went back and ran for governor in illinois and was beaten. he retired from politics. but that is interesting thing about most of these people. they are really committed to anything in public service and they are all effective politicians. adlai stevenson had that side to him of -- i am not sure i really want to be doing this, and yet he has given us some of the best epithet's we have in america. i remember he said to eisenhower in 1952, i will stop telling the truth about republicans if they will stop telling lies about the democrats. nixon was accused of cutting every tree down and then standing on it to give the stump speech. >> there are still a dwindling number of americans proudly known as stevens zonians. -- stevensonians. now, the one book on his desk at the time of

from. >> this is the contribution of adelaide stevenson. we all know -- i do not know what the statistics are, what the statistics are, however many people are independent. they are not assigned. they do not choose any party. they do not choose any party. it was adelaide stevenson who begins, in this primitive campaign in illinois, to try to encourage independence to support someone who is an intelligent candidate. >> that is a perfect transition for me. his legacy -- he is obviously intellectual. ike knows it. he beats him. what is the moral? the voters do not want an intellectual. so eisenhower begins, as president, dumbing down his speeches. >> did he have to? >> that is my point. but also, how he thought -- his lesson was, people do not want the intellectual. he did not want to sound like one. he would go in and cross our words they had written and make smaller words, literally in his own hands. the combination is the great "saturday night live" skit. republicans to this day do not want to sound intellectual. there is as saturday night

so he went to various constituencies and adelaide of various racial anxieties and he did that very successfully. successfully enough to capture the white house. tavis: you said a lot there and there are two things i want to go back and get. one, when you suggested earlier it was not until and i am paraphrasing, you suggested earlier it was not until he had shown that he could run the race. there was a chance he could get the nomination. it was not until then that black folks started to use your term. blacks did not start to break for barack obama, you said this. the truth is with specificity they did not break for him until after the white folk voted for him in iowa. hillary is -- was ahead of him. the overwhelming number of white voters gave him the victory and said it is ok. i raise that with specificity to ask. this is my word, nine years. give them permission. >> i put it differently. billick to be on the side of the winner. they had been a republican -- there had been an -- a republican occupying the white house. there was a real hunger. there had been blacks who had run for the white hous

wednesday's fire gutted a condo in northwest and the owe 40-year-old pipe is known as adelaide. and experts point out rocks in the ground can make it vulnerable to cracking. >> i feel very, very concerned and there should be some type of inspection done in our neighborhood giving assurance this kind of a thing will not happen again. >> the national transportation safety board recommended that utilities set up inspecks in 1998. that advisory followed a series of explosions in other parts of the country. and pg&e happens to have about 12,000 miles of this pipe. >> and a lot more to bring you theer labor day. coming up never before seen individual grow september 11th. has local loved ones victims reliving horror. and there is a new flu shot aiming to take away pain and fear of needle buzz there is a big problem. >> in the accu-weather forecast center getting ready for a late summer warm up. details in the accu-weather forecast coming up. >> closed captioning brought to you by mancini sleepworld. >>> airplane crash over on lambertsville road. and probably have a terrorist bomb on bo

. >> reporter: she's talking about those that supported adelaide stephenson for president. >> it wased poor little women whose lives hadn't worked out could find adelaide and jack made them nervous. but i mean in my marriage, i could never conceive, and, remember, i said it in an interview at once, all these women, we get the letters, they said, where do you get your opinions? i said, i get them all from my husband. i mean, how could i have any political opinions? his were going to be the best. it was really victorian, the relationship we had. which i think is the best. i get tired of being emotional about it. whether it was a politician or newspaper person that would, you know, be unfair, but he always treated it so objectively. as if they were people on a chess board, which is right. you may need to work with them again later. it's the only way to be effective. which is one reason, i think, women should never be in poli c politics. they're just not suited to it. >> reporter: japanese wives. did you wince at some of them? >> oh, yeah, sure. and she would have. >> reporter: women are