bill buckley, a radiant, shooting star, who lit up the usher, a bill r never-wavering northstar, by which conservatives learned to chart their political course. many have written about william f. buckley, jr., that irresistible renaissance man, fiskon't want until david has given us an in-depth portrait of the other bill, william a. rusher, who among other salutary and contributions, played a pivotal role in the life of a national draft goldwater committee. and that was critical because if there had been no draft goldwater committee there would , have been no presidential candidate barry goldwater in 1964. and, if there had been no candidate goldwater in 1964, there would have been no president-elect, ronald reagan, in a 1980. it was goldwater, you see, what -- who approved reagan's famous time for choosing, the tv address that made him a political star overnight, and led to his running of governor for california, and eventually president of these united , states. david recounts how bill rusher shored up the goldwater committee when money ran short and the spirit sacked. sagged.its skillf

other conservatives, for example, bill buckley, one of the leading conservatives, came to see them as a liability to conservatism as a whole, splitting up the conservative movement. particularly after the goldwater defeat, the republican establishment determined they needed to get rid of the birchers. the republican leader at the time said that the john birch society is not a part of the republican party anymore. they kind of declined afterward. >> did ronald reagan have any particular views? prof. mulloy: reagan is interesting, because he liked goldwater and knew many birchers personally. he learned a lesson from barry goldwater, and also richard nixon, who suffered in 1962. ronald reagan handled the accusations against him, so he distanced himself from the society. he basically said, i stand by my views, they stand by theirs. he was very skillful in distancing himself from the society. >> did the john birch society change the republican party in any way? prof. mulloy: i think it helped them shift it to the right. it took a while for goldwater and the burgers to have that influence,

other conservatives, for example, bill buckley, one of the leading conservatives, came to see them as a liability to conservatism as a whole, splitting up the conservative movement. the goldwaterfter defeat, the republican establishment determined they need to get rid of the purchase -- needed to get rid of the n birchers. the republican leader at the time said that the john's burts society -- the john birch society is not a part of the republican party anymore. they kind of declined afterward. >> did ronald reagan have any particular views? prof. mulloy: reagan is interesting, because he liked goldwater and new mini birchers personally. -- many birchers personally. he learned a lesson from barry goldwater, and also richard who suffered in 1962. theld reagan handled accusations against him, so he distanced himself from the society. he basically said, i stand by my views, they stand by theirs. he was very skillful in distancing himself from the society. did the john birch society change the republican party in any way? prof. mulloy: i think it helped them shift it to the right. it took

after the auction, mailer sent buckley a clean copy of the speech. dear bill, yours to frame or flip away. buckley responded immediately, dear norman, thanks a million for the text of the introduction, which i shall attempt to decipher as soon as i find myself next to a substantial dictionary. i have not yet met the highest bidder, but i shall attempt to sound as you would have me sound. let's meet soon, as ever, bill. thank you ray much. -- thank you very much. [applause] we have a few minutes. we have about 10 minutes i guess for questions. i am happy, happy, happy to answer anything. >> good morning. would you share your thoughts on how these two individuals exchanged their understanding on integration of public education? prof schultz: how did the exchange their information on integration of public education? you want to throw buckley under the bus, i see. they both actually had very troubling views on black people. they did. in really horrifying ways to our eyes today. for his part, mailer fetishized, i'm using that word in all of its meaning, fetishized

but you were very close to bill buckley. michael: well -- charlie: he liked you a lot.respected your mind. you were one of the interrogators on his show. michael: i liked him a lot. charlie: he famously said to me here, on this program, "i'm ready to die." i said, how can you say that? he said, i'm not ready to commit suicide, but i can't do all the things that brought me joy. i can travel and make speeches. i can't run the magazine. all the things that brought me so much joy in my life, i can't do, so i'm ready. michael: well, i have a longer list and him. i'm not ready. charlie: a longer list of things you can't do? michael: the things that i want to do. charlie: what are they? michael: i would like to, i would like to have another journalistic adventure, or something. create something again, like slate." charlie: give me what that might be? michael: i don't know. charlie: but you are open to the idea, a new storytelling form. michael: people are struggling to find it today, longform journalism and so on. i don't think anyone has nailed it yet. isrlie: you think jeff

i'm a russell kirk, bill buckley guy, and you and i discussed this before, lou, and i don't see that guys have done anything conservative over the last decade or two, and so they've hijacked the term, and they expect everybody to think that what they do is true conservatism. it's not close. lou: i don't know about you, sam, nothing makes me laugh much harder than people explaining to me and to america how paul ryan and mitt romney are the appropriate arbiters of who is and who is not a conservative. i mean, it's hilarious. >> it's hilarious and it's nonsense, what i think has happened is a lot of times and i'll put the media into this as well. three things you do in a campaign. one is you raise money and starting to do that process, the second you get votes and we've been very successful in doing that. and the third is you have to educate the voting public. one of the things we're doing now is exposing a lot of the people out here inside washington, inside the media establishment, inside the donor class, inside a lot of other areas for what they really are. this is what they are. the

. >> alex is a little bill buckley. the "wall street journal" is his bible.rvative and intense 17-year-old. >> the first thing the teacher will ask is what you did over the summer. a lot of kids will say i went to the zoo or to the beach or to a baseball game. what are you going to say? >> i watched the iran contra hearings. >> if mom and dad thought this generation was going to the dogs, think again. this is the generation that has discovered hard-work and success. >> american culture is changing in the '80s. and in terms of television, there is a whole notion of demographic segmentation. >> networks were beginning to not be afraid to appeal to a very specific demographic. >> hey, handsome. look at that shirt. is that a power shirt or what? >> nice suit, ellen, good shoulder pads. you looking to get drafted by the eagles. >> 30-something said we're not going to have cops, lawyers or doctors. we're just going to be people. >> why did we start this business? >> to do our thing. but right now we have two wives, three kids, four cars, two mortgages, a payroll. t

. >> alex is a little bill buckley. the "wall street journal" is his bible.ervative and intense 17-year-old. >> the first thing the teacher will ask is what you did over the summer. a lot of kids will say i went to the zoo or to the beach or to a baseball game. what are you going to say? >> i watched the iran contra hearings. >> if mom and dad thought this generation was going to the dogs, think again. this is the generation that has discovered hard-work and success. >> american culture is changing in the '80s. and in terms of television, there is demographic segmentation. >> networks were beginning to not be afraid to appeal to a very specific demographic. >> hey, handsome. look at that shirt. >> nice suit, allen. good shoulder pads. you looking to get drafted by the eagles. >> 30-something said we're not going to have cops, lawyers or doctors. we're just going to be people. >> why did we start this business? >> to do our thing. but right now we have two wives, three kids, four cars, two mortgages and a pay roll. that is the life now. you're the bread winner

bill buckley's not mentioned who had profound effect on the american conservative movement and phyllis schlafly. so i'm just wondering why -- did you consider those three or building out those more? >> no. there are lots of people, i mean, that you could say -- the most frequent mention on front that i get why didn't you include are people like steve jobs, right? >> yeah, sure. >> people like zuckerberg with facebook. >> right. >> the technological people. >> right. >> but, again, i think -- technology is a huge change in the way we live. you can imagine the founding fathers being stunned at things like facebook or twitter coming from politicians in the middle of the night. they'd be like, wow, we don't know anything about this. but i don't think that they would have said, oh, we don't expect that 240, a 250 years later that there won't be tech lodging call development. and -- tech technological development. >> well, they were all groomed in the age of enlightenment, so there were developments -- >> printing. >> exactly. in terms of writing. they at least had an understanding there was

nationale two bills at review, and in the conservative movement. buckley, a radiant, shooting star, who lit up the sky, and ill rusher, a never-wavering northst,