bill buckley rescued me from myself. i'd been over in paris at the -- occasionally going to class but spending time doing research at various cafes and testing the alcoholic content of various drinks. but i also was writing, and i thought i was going to be the next scott fitzgerald or ernest hemingway. i kept getting back rejection slips. i wrote a novel, wrote short stores, wrote poems, and i got very depressed and saying, what am i doing? i came back home, sitting in my parents' home, thinking, what am i going to do? write another novel? more short stores? what. i took time out to write an essay, short, about france, where i'd been living, saying that unless they elected a strong leader like a degaulle, they were headed for the bottom, long ways from napoleon. and i said to -- i senting this off to "national review pie and i'd never met bill buckley but he accept it and published it. i said, oh, the market is telling me something. the market is telling me something. >> your first publication? >> ballistic first profess

bill buckley rescued me from myself. occasionally going to class and spending a lot of time doing research at the cafÉ and testing the alcoholic content of various drinks. but i was also writing thinking i would be the next scott fitzgerald or ernest hemingway. but i kept getting back rejection slips. a novel, short story, poem and i got very depressed. i came back home sitting in my parents home thinking what will i do? right another novel? more short stories? so to say unless they elected a strong leader they were headed for the bottom. i sent this to national review i never met buckley but he accepted and published it. i said the market is telling me something. that was my first publication. first professional publication to national review. so i put aside the novels and short stories and poems and began writing nonfiction. and i will say one more thing about bill buckley. one important lesson to be taken is this. we need to practice fusion is him. he deliberately included masthead conservatives libertarians and anti-

. >> alex is a little bill buckley. the "wall street journal" is his bible.ajamas. he is very conservative and very 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 i went 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's a whole notion of demographic seg menation. >> 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, alan. 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 about people. >> why did we start this business? >> to do our thing. but right now we have two wives, three ki

that bill buckley kicked out of the conservative movement back in the early 1960s. like you know, the illuminati. harry potter and ron weasley, all because of a fbi agent who sent text messages to a friend. and we have "the wall street journal" this morning, the same fbi agent was hesitant to join robert mueller's team because quote my gut sense is there's nothing there. and yet, there is a declared, lou dobbs said it, a declared war from the right on the fbi and the justice department. >> yeah, it's absolutely baffling why would you want to destroy a u.s. institution. and it's indicative of what we've seen that donald trump has learned nothing after the firing of comey. we saw the triggering of the special counsel based on the firing of comey. and then he walks right back to the acting deputy, the acting fbi director, mccabe and is trying to figure out, are you on my team, can i coerce you or push you in a way that's not in line with justice and doesn't represent the american people well. every time we see somebody from the trump team or the campaign go in to get i

interesting thing, bill buckley once called ronald reagan the smartest president in history because ronald reagan knew how to go over the head of the media and communicate directly with the public. donald trump has done that nobody can argue that. donald trump has done that as well. third one, he has to be senile. both have been attacked this way. so yeah, similarities really are there. and -- >> who is the better communicator. >> donald trump is right to bring it up. >> i don't think you can compare the great communicator to the great tweeter in donald trump. that is the difference here. donald trump is reviled by, let's give him the benefit of the doubt -- >> 65. >> 60% of the american public don't approve of him. >> that is not true. >> that is not true. >> that is not true. that is not true. >> no, yes it is. he is not the great communicator. the reason why ronald reagan was able to rise above it all is because he was at bottom, a well-read guy -- neil: and he didn't care. he didn't care about that. >> he was a decent guy. >> he was brilliants thoughtful, never given credit. >> donald