every time they worked and worked and worked, there was never a prayer for adlai stevenson to defeat dwight eisenhower. i mean, the first time in '52, stevenson lost by 3.5 million votes. the second time he only lost by 9.7 million votes. when these folks went back to their graduate programs, either consciously or subconsciously, they taught graduate seminars on what a twit eisenhower was and what a rat fink nixon was. and it

and then he ran against adlai stevenson. he was an intellectual model. and eisenhower used him to sort of be the political attack man. and then, of course, he runs against john kennedy and pat brown. so he, in terms of the coverage and the baggage from these campaigns just staying with him and lumbering through all of his career. but a lot of these books, these nixon biographies, it would be like if a kennedy -- president kennedy biography, if you turn to the index and all the quotes were from victor laskey or nigel hamilton, you'd dismiss it. you'd say it's a polemic and some original stuff that's skewed. books that do this with nixon have become part of the cannon. so i think that's something that -- that in the future, now that -- thanks to the archives, the papers are here. the nixon library is the 12th of the now 13 presidential libraries state-of-the-art archives. yorba linda will be the center of nixon research and thanks to books like mel small's, the historiography of the nixon administration can be seen in perhaps a more general, not generous,

every time they worked and worked and worked, there was never a prayer for adlai stevenson to defeat dwight eisenhower. i mean, the first time in '52, stevenson lost by 3.5 million votes. the second time he only lost by 9.7 million votes. when these folks went back to their graduate programs, either consciously or subconsciously, they taught graduate seminars on what a twit eisenhower was and what a rat fink nixon was. and it became the stuff of the writings and of their graduate students and their graduate students' graduate students. and it's virtually lasted until now. there's a brand-new biography coming out on dwight eisenhower's president of the united states. man is a journalist who did enormous amount of research. he went to dartmouth to take a look at the papers. went to the library of congress. spent considerable time in abilene. he lives in los angeles and never came to the nixon library. that's -- that's the long and the short of it. it's an ingrained nature among a certain subset of very, very influential people that looked at nixon from the beginning of his vice preside

. >> add lay steven -- adlai stevenson. >> william f buckley. >> a highly well-read man who also hadtion in england. >> we're going to pose for identification here, particularly, for the benefit of our listeners on sirius x.m. radio channel 124. you are listening to "white house chronicle" from washington, d.c. with myself, llewellyn king, linda gasparello of this program, aaron, a writer and critic and atal who is the founder of "fair observer," a new publication, a high level education on the internet. this program can be heard around the world on the english language stations of voice of america and also on about 200 local stations in the u.s. back to the subject, give me, you were a debater at oxford, right? >> yes. >> being debaters tend to do well in britain, arianna huffington was at cambridge. she has done well. are you going to do as well as her? >> maybe better, hopefully better. >> what is the role of accents, she is from greek origin. does it make a difference when you get to these great british universities with the wits? >> i think initially it does because -- >> favora

if you were among us geeks and you think brokered convention, you thought 1948, or 1952, when adlai stevenson had to be convinced to join the race at the convention to win the mom i -- nomination. party power brokers chewed on big cigars, speaking in language to pick the nominee. 1968 all the chaos, when hubert humphrey was the nominee after a series of speeches at the convention by fellow democrats. they emerged battered and bruise, he lost to richard nixon. people's votes at the primary process had to be the way their nominees were selected. they weren't going to wheel and deal behind closed doors. republican followed suit a few years later. since then, no cigar smoke, no wise guys in back rooms. the 1976 race came close with ronald reagan taking the fight against gerald ford all the way to the convention. but then ford squeaked by, clinched the nomination before losing to jimmy carter. a brokered convention is a much more elusive animal. the various candidates have to attract delegate thes because they are bound by state rules to vote for a specific candidate based on showing in a primary

the country picked dwight eisenhower but they went for adlai stevenson. wake up!rning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. we have to thank you for the advice on phillips' caplets. magnesium, right? you bet! phillips' caplets use magnesium. works more naturally than stimulant laxatives... for gentle relief of occasional constipation. can i get an autograph? [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. >>> thank you, michigan senator debbie spendit now. you borrow more and more from us. your economy gets very weak. ours get very strong. we get jobs. thank you debbie spend it now. >>> china bashing, i've said it before, 20 years ago this japan bashing in primaries can be effective because people have a fear of losing their job but that was something else. >> right. i don't know what people were thinking about this. not only is it racist but it's just a bad ad. there's nothing good to say in the republican party as well as the opposition side has been slamming this ad. it's a negative for him, i think. the oth

knows what to do, election day of '52. ♪ want to go out with everyone in the usa. ♪ to vote for adlai stevenson farm this way. ♪ with a vote vote here and a vote vote there and a vote for stevenson everywhere if you can if you can more if it's -- ♪ for if it's good for mac, it's good for you, you see. ♪ >> okay. so the jingles were very popular, and even kennedy used them in his advertising. now we're going to fast forward and look at some, at a spot by richard nixon and john kennedy. i think the kennedy spot may be the first one. >> this is the sills' family. >> mr. and mrs. sills are facing one of the great problems that all american families are now facing and that is the great increase in the cost of living. >> our rent has gone up, our food, our cleaning of our clothing, buying of the clothing, our gas and electric and our telephone bills have gone up. >> what's been your experience, mr. sills? >> well with, keeping those two daughters of yours -- >> we're very concerned with their future, we would like both of them to go to college. >> have you been able to put much aside? >> no, unfortun

he beat adlai stevenson by more than 9 million votes and one could argue dwight eisenhower is america'sical president in the 20th senn ture century, but we'll discuss that at a later date. both candidates arrive on super tuesday states with the political imprint from last night's results. alex wagner host of "now with alex wagner" on msnbc at noon, 9:00 pacific, and errol louis is host of inside city hall on new york one. welcome, one and all. mitt romney win or rick santorum win last night? >> mitt romney won it, and he revealed his just immense flaws as a candidate, that he just reeled from gaffe to gaffe, couldn't deliver anything resembling a message. it was all his fault, he could have talked about the economy and he would have won the state. >> i want to stay with you for a minute because you retweeted something, and, you know, you like when sometimes tweets get a little bit off the reservation. so, ben retweets last night, i can't fully say it here, ben, on tv, because you can't say these words on tv. fru frustrated gop operative e-mails all santorum had to do was turn his iowa s

for the democrats, adlai stevenson and both lost. right? if you look in your crystal ball, let me know what you see. >> there are loads of possibilities. this is still not a probability. >> gretchen: all right. good to see you. thanks so much. >> thanks. >> gretchen: sorry, mom, the lunch you packed, not making the grade. a school confiscating a kid's lunch again. we'll talk to that mom coming up next. first, let's check in with martha for what's on at the top of the hour. >> good morning. good to see you. we've got a big night as the candidates square off. we'll show you the very latest polls this morning. ed roll loins will be here and weigh in with his advice for the front runners as they get ready for tonight. and the uva murder trial heads to a jury. we await the dramatic outcome in that. a new study says there is something that women must know about their risk for heart attack. doctors in the house and bill and i will see you at the top of the hour [ male announcer ] got a cold? [ sniffles ] not sure what to take? click on the

. >> host: now, the last brokered convention of either party wasoe in 1952, and that was the adlai stevensoncontest in chicago, and he was the top candidate. he ended up getting the nomination, but it took three rounds of voting. nomination, but it took three rounds of voting. first call up on whether or not a brokered convention is a good idea comes from cal in cookeville, tennessee. you are opposed to it. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. no. i don't think a brokered convention is the way to go. we've only had seven or eight states. i think the media is a little bit wrong with that. i saw the debates and thought for sure mitt romney hit a home run last night. and he's a guy we really need. he is a businessman building staples and a few others. so i don't think we'll have to worry too much about that. there will be talk about other candidates but in the long run i betemit romney will end up with the nomination. host: here's "usa today's" take on the debate last night. santorum gets smacked around in arizona, and in this article they talk about when they were asked to defin

now i want to move ahead and look at an adlai stevenson spot from the same election. while john is getting that set up, i'll tell you that, in between takes of that -- spot, eisenhower muttered to an aide, to think an old general should come to this. it was very degrading experience for eisenhower. ♪ . >> old macdonald had a farm back in 31. the nation's filled him with alarm back in 31. not a moo cow there. farmland everywhere and farmer mac doesn't want to go back to the days when there wasn't a moo. to days of 1931 when he didn't have bread when the day was done. farmer mac knows what to do. election day of 52. want to go out with everyone in the usa ♪. ♪ to vote for ad lay steven send to keep his farm this way. with a vote vote here and vote vote there and voting everywhere, for if it's good for mack you see it's good for you and good for me. all america loves that farm, vote stevenson today ♪. >> okay. so, jingles were very popular, even kennedy used them in his advertising. we'll fast forward and look at some, at a spot by richard nixon and john kennedy. i think

it gave us ad lib stevenson and william jennings bryan -- badly stephenson and william jennings bryan -- adlaitephenson william jennings bryan. reagan came within 100 votes of toppling the sitting president so that could happen again, and if i were a republican presidential candidate, unlikely as that is, i certainly would not say the pundits have said we've got to get this over by super tuesday so we can move on to baseball season -- they have nothing to lose by fighting as long as they can, if only to affirm what principles they have. host: wisconsin gregory independent collar, good morning. caller: yes on that note, as far as he's saying principles, that is a good comment. as a historian, presley, i would like you to -- personally, i would like you to answer -- we have had rush limbaugh and norquist as comedians directing the republican party, and they have these candidates now on the republican party running, and i look at them as comedians, and i'm wondering, as an historian personally have you ever seen a bunch of people that have been running that act like a bunch of comedians and want