bill clinton had an amazing, amazing memory. he was just a lawyer in little rock who had won and lost the race for congress. i didn't remember he was on the panel. but he really in certain ways has dogged me or his ghost has dogged me throughout my career. i go tot oxford, and i had one of the most amazing professors i ever had, my adviseer there guy named dr. pelchinsky, and he taught philosophy and politics, and early on he assigned know write a paper on how democratic tendency are reflected in authoritarian regimes. he said, this is not that good of a paper. i said, sorry, sir. he said, i'm going to give you a copy of a paper that somebody wrote a few years before you, and you may know who he is, and i had never heard of him. he said you're from louisiana, aren't you? i said, yes, sir. he said this person is from arkansas so you must know him. i musted a mid i -- admit i was annoyed enough at the time to say not only did it not know him but didn't know anyone from arkansas ever. i read the paper and it was called democracy in

go in there and see if you can find a paper from bill clinton, by bill clinton. and dad says, sure i'll do it and call you back. i says no, no i'll hold on. he comes back quite upset because even before katrina we used to flood all the time and he said the basement has flooded a few times and it sort of destroyed those things and your mother flew out all those papers. i was secretly relieved because i didn't know what i would do if i do paper in my hand that would do real the candidacy of bill clinton. kathy, my wife and i., wait years later to see dr. kochanski and retirement and he pulls out a scrapbook. there's the paper. does anybody know who betsey wright was? she was in charge of damage control. and then the telegram that he got for betsey wright saying do not release paper, letter to follow. i told him he should send the paper, which he did to the clinton library because i believe those of us who are historians should at least have the right to that paper, even if the journalist doesn't have it time thought it was a good idea not to. i eventually made my w

and so whether it's henry kissinger or hillary clinton or bill clinton or benjamin franklin ronald reagan, i have auld -- always tried to look at what made somebody stand out, what special characteristic that made them different from the people around them. i got inspired by the first real writer i ever knew, walter percy, and i hope his books are still here because i will tell you, i marvel at his philosophical agrees and his understated wit. everytime i pull down the well-thumbed copies of the movie goer or the last gentleman from my shelf. he was the uncle of my best friend, guy named tom cowen, so when we we are young we used to go over lake ponchatrain and party skiing, and nobody quite

so we on the british side had enormous concern -- and this was also inherited from bill clinton, the notion of a nuclear missile defense. it does not spring from lloyd's of george w. bush. we were very worried that if the americans went gung-ho with the treaty and started dismantling some of the kyoto peace accord, this could unravel the relationship with russia and have all kinds of repercussions. then there was the anxiety that in developing the european defense initiative with the french that we had been seduced in some way by an incredibly fronting -- incredibly cunning friend that would run into a trap of undermining nato. we came up with a joint draft declaration to put these anxieties to bed, and that was finalized at camp david by the foreign policy adviser and by a rice herself. this was the top of the treaty. one of the things i would say, if i remember correctly from one of the briefings, this is something we need it to do to diffuse -- to defuse this well in advance. otherwise, the kinds of things that we need to talk about are the middle east, the middle east much more t

i hope the president does not go for that bait. >> i'm not suggesting that bill clinton's poll sis wereositive towards black people. welfare reform, those were all against black people. however, barack obama has instituted a set of policies negative to the black people. this year, $85 million were cut from the education budget which had a vicious impact on historical black colleges and universities. just as an example. >> larry: before we take a call, jeff johnson, you want to get in on this? >> sure. i think whether president obama is better than jimmy carter or clinton is inconsequential. what we are dealing with now is as we move out of 2009 and into 2010, is the fact that there are a lot of african-americans that are looking for president obama to be the political form of jesus that makes the streets flow with milk and honey. while i think that mark has a point where we need to begin pushing for not just the president but the congress and the senate to be sensitive to the needs of the african-americans, there's a lot of work that the african-american community is not doing. leadersh

we had a big sit-down interview with some of them, bill clinton, and we went to new york to see him. host: was it hard to get some of the people to get interviewed? guest: we had a good mix of people. some are harder than others. host: first phone call. caller: i have a question and a comment. i am a republican and i am getting sick hearing people call our president a marxist, a communist. is really getting out of hand. i am only 53 years old but i remember in our civics class, we have respect for the president, whether you like him or not. this is terrible what we are doing. do you think he was alarmed the past few years? they have more insight than us, seeing these financial woes coming. i do not know what he was thinking about, but he was not thinking about his up. this did not happen overnight. it took a few years. guest: i would say if we were making the list of top bankers in 2006 when bernanke came in, i do not think he would have made it. once he realized and saw the magnitude of the crisis, he acted boldly, and with courage, to stem the tide. the truth is, a lot of the probl

i hope the president does not go for that bait. >> i'm not suggesting that bill clinton's policies for positive. however, barack obama has instituted a set of policies negative to the black people. this year, $85 million were cut from the education budge as an example. >> larry: we will be right back. tightness in my chest came back- i knew i had to see my doctor. he told me i had choices in controller medicines. we chose symbicort. symbicort starts to improve my lung function within 15 minutes. that's important to me because i know the two medicines in symbicort are beginning to treat my symptoms and helping me take control of my asthma. and that makes symbicort a good choice for me. symbicort will not replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. and should not be taken more than twice a day. symbicort contains formoterol. medicines like formoterol may increase the chance of asthma-related death. so, it is not for people whose asthma is well controlled on other asthma medicines. see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. i know symbicort won't replace a rescue inh

so we on the british side had enormous concern -- and this was also inherited from bill clinton, the it does not spring from lloyd's of george w. bush. we were very worried that if the americans went gung-ho with the treaty and started dismantling some of the kyoto peace accord, this could unravel the relationship with russia and have all kinds of repercussions. then there was the anxiety that in developing the european defense initiative with the french that we had been seduced in some way by an incredibly fronting -- incredibly cunning friend that would run into a trap of undermining nato. we came up with a joint draft declaration to put these anxieties to bed, and that was finalized at camp david by the foreign policy adviser and by a rice herself. this was the top of the treaty. one of the things i would say, if i remember correctly from one of the briefings, this is something we need it to do to diffuse -- to defuse this well in advance. otherwise, the kinds of things that we need to talk about are the middle east, the middle east much more than an iraq at the time. >> sanctions

it was signed in by bill clinton without congressional review, put into the omnibus act of 2000 as hislast sign offq as president, engineered by the republicans, and it made possible all of the expansion of financial leveraging, credit enhancements, and that led to the massive explosion of procedures in real-estate, and now we end up on the courthouse steps with the same people who say bankers are clearing up their books of the balance sheet, and the foreclosures are recorded on balance sheets by the corporate gangsters. and the only people who lose are the people on the courthouse steps, and they are decrease in home of the the sales by 20% below what would be reasonable market value. host: we will leave it there. carl cannon? guest: i will defer to him on that. he clearly knows what he is talking about. everybody has their favorite moment that helped cause this crisis. conservatives say it was when fannie mae and freddie mac was forced to lead people who could not possibly pay it back. other people think it is when the sec fell asleep at the switch and allowed banks, mortgage banks t

when bill clinton and hillary clinton set up task force.i forget the exact details but i predicted something like 27 specific details of what will come out. i got 100% wrong. every single issue wrong. and i learned a lot from that. at least in my model, what went wrong was that the model indicated that the then chairman of the house ways and means committee, dan rostenkowski, was the key person, the tipping point person who could put together the right compromise to get it through. and he was indicted on i think 17 felony counts. and his focus on health care what does your. of course, he eventually went to prison. more recently, i did a book with some colleagues in 1996 called red flag over hong kong, which is about the transfer of hong kong to china. and had a lot of prediction, most of which were right. one of the predictions which was wrong, if you are running a hedge fund would have cost you a lot of money. was that china by i think by 2000, would decouple the hong kong dollar, would deepen the hong kong dollar for the u.s. dollar. and

. >> does bill clinton have relationship with any news person? >> i do not know that he does.believe he does. what did you take what you found all the letters -- what did you think when you found all the letters? >> it should not go on. i think that most journalists and most other people who read this book will say there are a lot of transgressions. this guy is purporting to be a detached analytical newsman and his release snuggling up to a lot of his sources. he was a columnist. he was not an objective reporter giving facts. he was a columnist, so that would be part of his defense no doubt. almost from the very beginning, she got very close to his sources, and probably most people would say to close. >> here we are many years later, donald graham runs the washington post. is there any way to relate him back to the dais at jameys of j? >> those were the days of the partisan press. they had to have a newspaper that was the spokesperson, his mouthpiece. he had a real problem when he became president because the daily globe, which had been the main democratic newspaper since jack

during the bill clinton administration, we had that whole discussion on race. we probably carry more about race on this network than anyone else. what is not being said? >> there is something missing in what is being said and what is being done. in what is being said, i do not think the country has a real sense of what the problems are. we think we know. one book that i am reading is by william julius wilson. it speaks to some of the conservative arguments. wilson is arguing more about structure. we do not talk about structure. we do not talk about the fact that roughly 46% of people incarcerated are african- american. there has to be some sort of structural explanation for this. otherwise, the explanation is that black people are pathological and they will end up in jail so we should not do much in terms of public policy. i think that we need to do a better job of explaining the context in which this exists. i do not think we do it enough. >> i tried to figure out a way to do this to get you to put it into context. you may not like this, but i went back and fo

before it is by bill clinton. florida, joseph, nextel. -- next up.aller: it is a book i saw on c- span not too long ago. it was "operation solo." it is the story of a jewish immigrant who became our spike in the kremlin for about 27, 28 years. -- who became our spy in the kremlin. the offer was the number two man and he interviewed morris sober who came to america in the 1900's. there was a second one that has not been critiqued yeah. assault on another show called "witness to nurembough." he was small in stature but served oscar very well. he became our number one intercurrent from the north berguremburg trials. host: the risk can find that online as well. caller: wonderful, a factual books. host: thank you for sharing. here is norcal, delawaewark, de. caller: my favorite book happened to come out this year. it is called "longer, cops and, and bloody." i love to see this on "book tv." this book is about one of the critical battles of the american revolution. it is a wonderful read. host: what was a critical bottle? caller: the war for independence -

>> when bill clinton was president, my wife is a liberal democrat. i would always tell her, nixon was my problem, clinton is yours. nixon destroyed himself. he destroyed himself. his hatred destroyed himself. and took a lot of conservative energy down with him to say nothing of southeast asia and millions of people. never forget that. millions of people. the first editorial i firstfo wrote for "national review", th ere was a jesuit that said the khmer rouge killed thousands. that was a lowball. it was also nixon bringing himself down. it was the final piece of that. >> reagan. >> reagan, the two things he did, you cannot do many things. you can do two things as president. the two things he did was he stopped the economic slump and he did say, i forget now who he said this to. here is my strategy for the cold war. we win, they lose. and he set in place for the conditions in which that happen. >> jack kemp. >> it was so thrilling to be in his presence. he was so ebullient and energetic. i think he kind of went off some of the rails with some of his ide

we had a big sit-down interview with some of them, bill clinton, and we went to new york to see him. host: was it hard to get some of the people to get interviewed? guest: we had a good mix of people. some are harder than others. host: first phone call. caller: i have a question and a comment. i am a republican and i am getting sick hearing people call our president a marxist, a communist. is really getting out of hand. i am only 53 years old but i remember in our civics class, we have respect for the president, whether you like him or not. this is terrible what we are doing. do you think he was alarmed the past few years? they have more insight than us, seeing these financial woes coming. i do not know what he was thinking about, but he was not thinking about his up. this did not happen overnight. it took a few years. guest: i would say if we were making the list of top bankers in 2006 when bernanke came in, i do not think he would have made it. once he realized and saw the magnitude of the crisis, he acted boldly, and with courage, to stem the tide. the truth is, a lot of the probl

>> when bill clinton was president, my wife is a liberal democrat. i would always tell her, nixon was my problem, clinton is yours. nixon destroyed himself. he destroyed himself. his hatred destroyed himself. and took a lot of conservative energy down with him to say nothing of southeast asia and millions of people. never forget that. millions of people. the first editorial i firstfo wrote for "national review", th ere was a jesuit that said the khmer rouge killed thousands. that was a lowball. it was also nixon bringing himself down. it was the final piece of that. >> reagan. >> reagan, the two things he did, you cannot do many things. you can do two things as president. the two things he did was he stopped the economic slump and he did say, i forget now who he said this to. here is my strategy for the cold war. we win, they lose. and he set in place for the conditions in which that happen. >> jack kemp. >> it was so thrilling to be in his presence. he was so ebullient and energetic. i think he kind of went off some of the rails with some of his ide

and an enormously important and i noticed achievement bill clinton's secretary of defense spent five years lobbying the ukraine and having dealt -- nuclear-weapons is a bad idea they're hard to take care avandia genoa to be a target on the american list in virazole list that will persuade you not to have nukes. he worked the complicated transactions were the deal was the ukrainians would return the nukes to russia and would provide fuel for the reactors in the ukraine and similar types of transactions the attitude was different. they wanted the nuclear stuff out. but after five years bill perry and day dedicated diplomats convince them to turn is 6,000 nuclear weapons. there are no nuclear weapons in my opinion in those countries. want enormous achievement. lastly there are ways they quit when israel comes and explains it. this happens with iraq saddam hussein once he had oil revenues embarked on a nuclear weapons program and by 1981 he had a reactor and the israeli air force came and blue with a way. mr. sadam had plenty of money with a nuclear determination he started down a differ

this lawsuit and the supreme court case into a political campaign issue, to try primarily to help bill clinton. in fact there is some evidence from the political world that this case and the of, this case did help. but there is another aspect of catherine coleman's argument which i think really enticed me to writing about it. the hardest thing is that a lawyer appearing before the supreme court has to do is to keep control of the argument that they want to make, because there are nine justices, eight usually because justice thomas does not often participate in oral argument. but there are at least nine very smart people who have already done some thinking about the case and are coming to the argument completely prepared to befuddle you and to drive the argument in the direction that they would very much like to do. it is important to remember that the supreme court justices do not talk much about the case before they go into oral argument. so oral argument is really an agenda setting moment. ñrit really does shake at least the opening of the conversation that the justices will have when they g

remember her saying to me, we don't want president bush to become the middle east desk officer, like bill clintonn the final throes of trying to fix the problem, which eventually failed. nor were they intent on doing that into northern ireland either. so we got a heavily missile centric account of foreign policy. two days later -- i think it was two days later, i saw karl rove, and he more or less gave me the same account, but emphasizing that as with most presidents of the united states in the first few months, you focus on other things other than foreign policy. there was going to be tax cuts, health care for senior citizens. >> it's interesting that in your book, "d.c. confidential," you write in the first few months about colin powell, that he was always skeptical about belligerent notions of dealing with salaam hughes. -- saddam hussein. >> well, it focused on financing iraqi dissident groups. if you went up on the hill, as we did quite frequently, what you would hear from republican senators and their staff was there's some really good dissident groups out there. we need to finance them and

. >> does bill clinton have a relationship with any newsperson like joe alsop did with the presidents lyndon johnson and jack kennedy? >> i do not know that he does. i do not believe that he does. >> what you think about all the letters of him writing to president kennedy saying that he was the greatest. >> it should not the one and i think that most people -- most journalists and most other people who read this book will say, there is a lot of transgressions year. this guy's purporting to be attached analytical news man and his release snuggling up to a lot of resources. but he was a columnist. he was not an objective reporter. that would be part of his defense, no doubt. but from almost the very beginning, joe got very close to his sources. and probably most people would say to close. >> here we are many years later. is there any way to relate dollar ran back to the days of james polk? >> that is fascinating. those were the days of the partisan press. james polk or any president had to have a newspaper that was his spokesperson, his mouthpiece. polk had a real problem with the presi

look at bill gates, very in lewicke but now sort of tops the skill and emotional intelligence or bill clinton who goes a little bit over the scale and emotional bonding we are all very different and when we talk about our education system we should remember people are different and we don't necessarily need to label everything and categorize it to see different people are going to learn in different ways and there will be some disabilities but also some abilities that come from each of those things, so whether or not he had a.d.d. or as burgers or -- he wasn't, you know, it wasn't notably autistic. he had a great relationships with family members and, you know, but to whether or not they are that way, that is part of what makes us all different and maybe someday the will of chemicals in the hills and as dr. walker percy would save the gentleman with a magnetometer to take away all of your quirks and disability and being borderline asperger's or whatever. i'm not sure we would want those devices because then we wouldn't have great leaders and great heroes. thank you. [applause] >> okey another

numbers.Ñiñr during bill clinton's presidency, the choice of two budget estimates was essential to inhat led to the government shutdown of 1995 and 1996 with republicans demanding the use of c.v.o. numbers. and given how important budget issues are for any campaign to )mujjuááju to regain control of the national government, the out party has powerful incentive not to come to the table to negotiate. it may be that the only way the issue cans be addressed effectively is during issues of divided government. reflecting back overñr recent decades, most of the significant budget agreements that lowers federal deficits were adopted when one party controlled congress and the other the presidency, this includes the 1990 budget accord as well as the budget agreements during the clinton years that contributed to the surpluses of the second reforms that raised trust fund revenues and lowered the long-term cost of the program also occurred under conditions of divided government. bipartisan comprise is about the only way that the american government functions. given the large number of veto points,

it buried bill clinton and monica lewinsky on the inside. [laughter] de monroe's aboard each other. they were inseparable throughout their lives together. everywhere he went she was by his side, elegant in dress and bearing in manners. when you see her portraits in my book you will see that she was the most beautiful, most elegant first lady in american history. also the most courageous. monroe was still the center when president washington sent him to france to negotiate with revolutionary government and elizabeth and their daughter went with him. once in paris the learned that the jack fincen and present lafayette's wife and sentenced her to death on the guillotine. monroe couldn't do anything about it without risking his diplomatic status, so e. elizabeth took matters into her own hands. she got into their carriage and in an adventure out of the movies drove through the mob by herself to the prison gates. she had a driver of course but she was alone in the carriage and when she got to the prison she demanded to see lafayette and eventually she won her release. elizabeth monroe wa

this -- this is an em, an sue, that has never come to thfloor for a vote under chard nixon, under bill clinton, under harry truman. w, it's passed bog -- now it passed both houses that's important but the important thinto member is this. we passed medica in the middle the 1960's which was probab the apex of american confidee. were doubling the nation's gross tional product in that cade and there was just a sense unlimited possilities. to pass this -- this major, major difference in a me of uncertainty ich itself produces uncertainty to --mong people, 80% of whom ve health ca -- 83% of whom have health care is a signal -- gnal achievement to do th, because ameran confidence and optimism are ong their lowest -- >> wh 35 or 45% support dending on how they ask the question with e majority opposing, which a risky thing too and the other thing i wod say is in the short-term if you oppose e bill or support the bill, there is think -- even the supporters acknowdge a short-term problem whicis a lot of the benefits don't kick in immeately, the tas do, second you're going to have this crease in demand fo

and one of the reasons why bill clinton was elected, and the same with jimmy carter. so it's a bipartisan feeling that we do this. i think, you know, it is a tough year for the incumbents. i think, just to pick up on, i think, what david and adam were saying, one positive sign for the democrats -- one positive sign is the election is not today. that's number one. [laughter] it's a while from now. because i don't think the president is responsible for these problems, but he owns them because he's the president. and there's no getting around that. but the second thing that goes to democrats and republicans and where they are as far as figuring out what they want to do, what their leadership is. democrats have an advantage, that they do have the presidency as far as message orientation. you know, there's a lot of negatives there. but i think what's really interesting, looking at democrats, is the reaction to the afghanistan speech. fully 50% of the party in congress did not support that speech. but you know what? they're swallowing it and they're going to move forward. t

the reason you go for it n, think president bill clinton remied democrats thatt would be a colossal blundernot. he turned down a good de in 1993. d kennedy in his autobiography said thaone of the great regretsf his life was turning dowthe chanceo pass the health insurance. >> lehrer:hat -- >> i will say th because of the pressure that david hatalked about, the fiscal pressure, you've got to ss it nowecause the cuts are gointo come in the future. the fiscal presse is going to be onutting health-care costs. and cuing public heal-care costs, not in expanding it. so anybody who sayi'm to the going to ve for it because i'm going to get something better dowthe roads. therisn't going to be the blic money to pay for it down the roads i say you get what you c right now d pass it. >> lrer: a political qution. , i will ask you the same question slightlrephrased. if you we, had the opportity to vote whether or not to alw it to be voted on on the flr of the united states senate, would you go -- with the filister. >> i am a pundit, not a senator so i jt care about the substance but i guess would low it.

the reason you go for it now, i think president bill clinton reminded democrats that it would be a colossalblunder not. he turned down a good deal in 1993. ted kennedy in his autobiography said that one of the great regrets of his life was turning down the chance to pass the health insurance. >> lehrer: that -- >> i will say this because of the pressure that david has talked about, the fiscal pressure, you've got to pass it now because the cuts are going to come in the future. the fiscal pressure is going to be on cutting health-care costs. and cutting public health-care costs, not in expanding it. so anybody who says i'm to the going to vote for it because i'm going to get something better down the roads. there isn't going to be the public money to pay for it down the roads. i say you get what you can right now and pass it. >> lehrer: a political question. if, i will ask you the same question slightly rephrased. if you were, had the opportunity to vote whether or not to allow it to be voted on on the floor of the united states senate, would you go -- with the filibuster. >> i am a pundit,

here to miami on a book tour when i wrote earth in the balance back in 1991, and before joining bill clinton, six, eight months after that. it seems like a long time that i have been speaking and writing about this issue, climate crisis. i was reminded recently of how long it's been when i was with a friend, we worked through lunch and went back to the airport, and stopped at a little place called souping damages are and i went to the line and got a bowl of soup and sat down on a plastic chair, plastic table. and i was eating my soup, and a woman walk by in front of this table just staring at me as she walked past. and i didn't think anything about that until a few moments later out of the corner my eye i saw the same woman coming in the opposite direction. staring at me, and so i looked up and said how do you do? she took a step forward and she said, you know, if you lied undedyed yourhair black you wout like al gore. [laughter] >> so all these years later, here we are, just one month away from the historic meeting in copenhagen, denmark, where all of the nations of the world are about to g

a page year by bill clinton. out too long springs florida, joseph your favorite book. >> caller: its not a current one but it's one that i saw on c-span on the q&a not too long ago, and it was operation so low -- solo and it is about a jewish immigrant who became a spy and the kremlin's i think for 27, 28 years. >> host: really? >> caller: yes. it's a fact. the author was the number two man i think that the "reader's digest" morris, a small in stature jewish man who came to america in the early 1900's and there was a second one that has not been critiqued yet but i saw on another show called witness to nor numbered. again other small stature jewish man who came to america and served us very well. he became our number one interpreter for the nor numbered trials and he was in the army. >> host: and i believe the viewers can find that online at booktv.org as well. >> caller: and also operation solo treated a are wonderful factual books. >> host: thanks for sharing that. ten more minutes or so on your thoughts on the

look at bill clinton who gets $300,000 for each speech but was taking money from the american people for his legal defenses while he was president. he could have por rowed -- borrowed the money, and the bush people and other republicans, they've done the same thing. tom delay did that kind of stuff, i had to file complaints against him. so these are the kinds of things that really corrupt washington. and then when these congressmen and senators and presidents leave, then they represent private interests with their buddies who are still on capitol hill and elsewhere and rake in even more money. and that's what it's about. you know, washington is undergoing no recession today. it continues to expand. the rest of us don't have enough money to eat. can't buy a car, can't buy a house, can't get health insurance adequately, but the people in washington, they're living high on the hog. and the economy's expanding. there's something wrong when that's the case, seriously wrong, so that's what i'm talking about in "whores." >> host: one more caller standing by, homer in louisiana. >> caller: g

. >> does bill clinton have a relationship with any newsperson like joe alsop or stewart did with the presidents lyndon johnson and jack kennedy? >> i don't know that he does. i don't believe that he does. >> what did you think when you found all the letters of -- joe alsop would write to president kennedy and say you're just the greatest thing that ever happened, or lyndon johnson, you're on the right track, keep it up. does any of that kind of thing go on today? >> well, i don't think it does. i mean it shouldn't go on, and i think that most people who -- most journalists certainly and i think probably most other people who read this book will say there are a lot of transgressions here. i mean this guy is purporting to be a detached analytical newsman, and he's really snuggling up to a lot of his sources. but he was a columnist, of course, he wasn't an objective reporter who is simply giving facts, he was a columnist, so that would be part of his defense, no doubt. but from almost the very beginning joe got very close to his sources, and probably most people would say too close. >>

>> when bill clinton was president, my wife is a liberal democrat. i would always tell her, nixon was my problem, clinton is yours. nixon destroyed himself. he destroyed himself. his hatred destroyed himself. and took a lot of conservative energy down with him to say nothing of southeast asia and millions of people. never forget that. millions of people. the first editorial i firstfo wrote for "national review", th ere was a jesuit that said the khmer rouge killed thousands. that was a lowball. it was also nixon bringing himself down. it was the final piece of that. >> reagan. >> reagan, the two things he did, you cannot do many things. you can do two things as president. the two things he did was he stopped the economic slump and he did say, i forget now who he said this to. here is my strategy for the cold war. we win, they lose. and he set in place for the conditions in which that happen. >> jack kemp. >> it was so thrilling to be in his presence. he was so ebullient and energetic. i think he kind of went off some of the rails with some of his ide

act, obama said that he would support when he was campaigning last year in contrast to president bill clintonly on in his first term who met -- who went to the mat for the corporate family nafta legislation. obama basically has not lifted a finger for the employee free choice act. unfortunately, it shows why many republicans have reason to be somewhat content with what the white house is doing and not doing. what is not being done. host: this question about americans pay half their income to provide health care for third world? guest: the deeper question is what is our priorities and what to we want to do as a society. host: joe is joining us this morning. caller: thank you, god bless c-span. the health debate is affecting a large part of the economy, and prior they looked at the senators and 85 to 90 voting. the way politics is so bitter, if they ran through on party lines, that would make the politics worse. i think they need 85 people or it's worse. democrats and republicans both have good ideas. guest: i fundamentally agree with that assessment in this respect, when you have a situation w

they have had their own place to go to except bill clinton.her does barack obama accept the house in chicago. the cost is higher. the cost for air force one to fly to hawaii is higher. people have to understand that this is president barack obama's longtime home. whether the costs are too high, early people to judge for themselves. it is very expensive to fly air force one and to provide security out there. at the same time, it is genuinely his home for many years. there is another reason why he should go there in his own mind. host: lyndon johnson had a ranch. ronald reagan had a ranch. george bush i and ii had them and kennedy had no england. how much of the cost of going to this $4,000 per night condominium is picked up by them and how much is picked up by the government? guest: they have not clarified how this funding question will work. certainly, i think we all expect in the press corps that obama will pay for his own brand. either he will least the house of his own pocket and pay for the family at whatever rate they have. the communicat

during bill clinton's presidency the choice of these was the essential issue in the budget impasse that led to the government shutdowns of 1995, and 1996 with republicans demanding the use of cbo numbers. given how important budget issues are for any campaign to take control of the national government or reaching control of the national government the all party has powerful incentives not to come to the table to negotiate. it may be that the only way the issues can be addressed effectively is issues of divided government. reflecting over recent decades it appears most of the significant budget agreement that lowered federal deficits were adopted when one party controlled office and the other control the presidency. this includes the 1990 budget and the budget agreements during the clinton years that contributed to the surplus in the second term. the 93 social security reform that simultaneously raised trust fund revenues and lower long-term cost of the program and also occurred under conditions of -- divided government. only way the american government functions. given the large number

george herbert walker bush and bill clinton should be involved in this. they broke campaign promises, which this president will have to do, too. they broke campaign promises of taxes. they supported top statutory budget controls. they did not expand entitlements. i can go on. they were fiscally responsible. they need to be recognized and they could be part of this process. >> in your question, you gave it much more articulate description -- a much more reticulate description that i was able to. the notion of the large, unintended consequences of a comprehensive approach to reform. the skepticism that this brings to the public and the difficulty of taking action. as i said in my testimony that we need to do pieces that add up to a solution. >> senator alexander, you have said awful lot that i agree with and some things that i need to comment on. first of all, i think you're absolutely right to say that this needs to involve the president and the white house. this is not just a congressional issue. given the design of our constitution, there are some things

most respected, 20%, barack obama, 20% colin powell, bill clinton, third, george w.n for the top five. the least respected -- george w. bush at the top here, dick cheney at 27%, al gore following dick cheney, barack obama at number four, and number 5 is sarah palin. shreveport, louisiana, until on the independent line. caller: how you doing? i am concerned about how it is going amadeus. back in the day, they had an election and -- how is going nowadays. back at it today, they have an election and they were serious about it. now with the media, it is likea game. how could you have a game with my lifeç and the economy right xdnow? it is like they're nothing serious about it. my life ain't a game with taxes and everything. it is to the point where it is not serious. just like the government, i feel like they should fix the stuff they have already got in place, all the housing programs that they filled up with stuff. what a they doing about the stuff they've been doing and now? they are going to let it fall down, too? host: you are going to happen as the name of your t

it was used against lyndon johnson, that same charge was used against bill clinton. it's virtually being used today. when we hear the republicans who are opposing this bill come to the floor, i have a basic question to ask them -- we have been at this debate for a year. where's your bill? what do you want to do? oh, they tell us we have some bills and you're going to see them any day now. well, i'd like to. i'd like to see the comprehensive health care reform bill from the republican side of the aisle. this is ours and it has been on the internet for two weeks for everybody in this nation to read word by word, line by line. sadly, there is no republican bill. i know there are two possible reasons for that. this was hard work. this wasn't easy, politically or otherwise, and they have not engaged in that hard work. what we've seen are press releases and speeches, graphs and pictures, but no bill. no comprehensive health care reform bill from the republican side. secondly, there are many on that side of the aisle who like this system of health care. they agree with the h

bush, president bill clinton. so i think that we should recognize that there's been a lot of bipartisanship in creating what we all admit have been excesses. unfortunately, mr. speaker, we found that the are regulators were asleep at the switch. the name bernie may dauf was thrown out earlier. the fact of the mat -- may doff was thrown out earlier. the fact of the matter is we know the regulators were asleep at the switch when it came to dealing with that. we con look at a wide range of other areas where inadequate oversight took place. the question right now is, do we want to create what many of us are concerned about, that is unintended consequences. one of the things we found over the past year, plus, is a tremendous contraction in credit. individuals who want to utilize their credit cards or start a business, buy a home, have been having real difficulty gaining access to credit. we've seen this contraction take place. my concern as we look at this legislation is that we're going to take this contraction of cre

probably familiar with don't ask don't tell where this is a policy instituted under president bill clinton that basically says if you are gay you can join the military and you can be in the military. no one is allowed to ask you about whether you are gay or not. as long as you don't tell anyone then we can kick you out. so, of course, the understanding is if you tell someone in the military have to kick you out. so by have a chapter really detailing what it is like to be a gay person in that kind of a military today. i speak -- i spent a lot of time specifically on a guy named jeff key, a lance corporal from the marine corps reserve who was in a rock during the invasion during which time based on what he saw and what he was asked to do he turned vehemently against the occupation. and he served his tour and came back home and was based at camp pendleton, the budget to marine base in the united states over just north of san diego. he was there on march 301, 2004, a day that for blackwater mercenaries were killed and felicia, the terrible things done to their bodies. you have all probably see

the question is, who is more to the president of the united states and the answer is bill clinton. fo-- hillary clinton this is wht this paper is about is that i would have been right. they would have known that i was want to be embarrassed this morning. the point of the paper, what i hope that i can demonstrate in a few short minutes, is that the unintended consequence could -- the consequences of the 1970's and 80's are likely to produce many more primary season like 2008, where the super delegates for the convention will have to choose the winner. that is the argument that i would like to put forward. the party select their presidential nominees. frequently, there was lots of patronage that was distributed. with the advent of television, all of that came into people's homes and it did not look so good on television and so a number of reforms were put in place. they adopted similar reforms and had those reforms imposed upon them. we will not talk much about the republicans today. i will talk more about them in the paper. most of the reforms occurred in the democratic party and we

>> when bill clinton was president, my wife is a liberal democrat. destroyed himself. his hatred destroyed himself. and took a lot of conservative energy down with him to say nothing of southeast asia and millions of people. never forget that. millions of people. the first editorial i firstfo wrote for "national review", th ere was a jesuit that said the khmer rouge killed thousands. that was a lowball. it was also nixon bringing himself down. it was the final piece of that. >> reagan. >> reagan, the two things he did, you cannot do many things. you can do two things as president. the two things he did was he stopped the economic slump and he did say, i forget now who he said this to. here is my strategy for the cold war. we win, they lose. and he set in place for the conditions in which that happen. >> jack kemp. >> it was so thrilling to be in his presence. he was so ebullient and energetic. i think he kind of went off some of the rails with some of his ideas. he could also like the sound of his own voice. he could also think, i am the only person

in attendance were former president jimmy carter, bill clinton, and george w. two sons, edward and patrick. musical performances were provided by a tenor and soprano. this runs one hour 40 minutes. the family, your mother, a sister everyone in the world would love to have in eugene with your devotion. dr. larry in the great team of doctors and nurses and is so many helpers' at hyannis port these last weeks and months and most especially the youngest of ted's gang, gracie an dma, lkylie and teddy. the christian burial weave together memory and hope. the worship of the church locates us precisely between a past we really remember in the future in which we firmly believe. we gather today as a community drawn from across the nation to entrust the life of senator edward kennedy into the hands of god and to provide you consolation and support. we bring with those treasured memories of ted kennedy, a member is not only of a national leader and a master legislator, but of a beloved husband, a great father, a terrific grandfather, a sweet uncle, a dear friend, a trusted

>> when bill clinton was president, my wife is a liberal democrat.i would always tell her, nixon was my problem, clinton is yours. nixon destroyed himself. he destroyed himself. his hatred destroyed himself. and took a lot of conservative energy down with him to say nothing of southeast asia and millions of people. never forget that. millions of people. the first editorial i firstfo wrote for "national review", th ere was a jesuit that said the khmer rouge killed thousands. that was a lowball. it was also nixon bringing himself down. it was the final piece of that. >> reagan. >> reagan, the two things he did, you cannot do many things. you can do two things as president. the two things he did was he stopped the economic slump and he did say, i forget now who he said this to. here is my strategy for the cold war. we win, they lose. and he set in place for the conditions in which that happen. >> jack kemp. >> it was so thrilling to be in his presence. he was so ebullient and energetic. i think he kind of went off some of the rails with some of his idea

but -- boy is he different than that bum we want to throw out and one of the the reasons why, bill clinton was elected and the same with jimmy carter. it is a bipartisan feeling that we do this. and i think you know, it is -- it is a tough year for the incumbents. to pick up on what i think david and adam were saying, one positive sign for the democrats, one positive sign is the election is a while from now. i don't think the president is responsible for the problems but he owns them because he's the president. there's no getting around that. the second thing and it geese to democrats and republicans and where they are as far as figuring out what they want to do and what their o-their leadership is. democrats have an advantage, that they do have the presidency as far as message orientation. and they had, there's a lot of negatives there. and i think if you -- as to what is really interesting looking at democrats is the reaction to the afghanistan speech. fully 50% of the party in congress did not support that speech. but do you know what? they're swallowing it and moving forward they're go

ronald reagan killed the great inflation of the 1970's, and bill clinton had a strong dollar policy.hat was a huge mistake of the bush administration and the federal reserve, which i did speak out against. in terms of healthcare alternatives, there are positive alternatives out there than just simply having more and more government role and having it do to healthcare what it's done to the housing market, and that is simple things like nationwide shopping for health insurance. right now, each state restricts the companies that can compete. why not have nationwide? i live in the state of new jersey. because of our crazy regulations in healthcare, family policy, if you buy it as an individual, will cost youed sad,000 to $20,000. in pennsylvania, i can get the equivalent policy, virtually the equivalent for $7,000 or $8,000 a year, yet it's illegal for me to buy it in pennsylvania. i can buy a car in pen pernings open a bank account in pennsylvania, but i can't buy health insurance offered to the citizens of pennsylvania. so let's have nationwide shopping. tax treatment, if a business bu