i'm bob deans, i'm the associate directer of communications for the natural resources defense council, and it's my high honor tonight to welcome you to the national press club and to introduce to you the author of "in deep water," peter lehner, the executive directer of the national resources defense council. want to thank everybody here for coming out on a monday night, and especially those who have traveled from afar. i understand we have the mayor of racine, wisconsin, with us here tonight, and i want to assure you, sir, we will get you out of here on time to watch the green bay packers kick you off tonight against the chicago bears. we also want to say thank you to the reporters who are here after spending a long day at the hearings of the national commission of the bp oil spill. we certainly appreciate you being here. on the night of april 20th after weeks of misjudgments, operational mistakes and be equipment failures, the macondo well blew out beneath a mile of water in the gulf of mexico. it gushed up a volcano of natural gas and oil onto the deepwater horizon derrick which ex

bob deans, former correspondent for the atlanta journal-constitution is the author of the river where america began, a journey along the james. for more information visit nrdc.org. >> next, sandra mackey was a guest on booknotes in 2002. to discuss her book "the reckoning," iraq and the legacy of saddam hussein. in the book she chronicles the history of iraq and the career of saddam hussein. c-span: sandra mackey, author of "the reckoning: iraq and the legacy of saddam hussein," on your last page of the book, page 396, you write this: "an invasion of iraq has become almost a given in the unfolding war on terrorism." why? >> guest: iraq and the legacy of saddam hussein": i think there are a variety of reasons, depending on where different people in the administration are coming from. i think, certainly, donald rumsfeld sees an invasion of iraq to rid of saddam hussein as a way of reducing our defense costs in the persian gulf. his deputy, paul wolfowitz, i think comes at it more ideologically, that saddam hussein really is a threat to the region, and particularly to israel, and therefo

bob woodward? >> i don't think so. who? chris: howard dean or this guy, russ feingold?u know, obama should be so lucky. chris: ok. katty kay. >> if obama has to compromise with republicans, obviously the more he does so, the more he will anger the base. the more liberals in the democratic party will say our values have been sold out and the more they will want somebody to challenge barack obama, whoever does so is probably on a losing wicket. chris: well said. >> yes, he will face a challenge. and when incumbent face challenges -- chris: they lose. >> as george w. bush learned, ross perot. chris: give me a name. >> feingold could or someone else from the left but i think he will face a challenge from the left. >> democrats hate an empty stage. they really do. and so i mean, it might be something like al sharpton will run for publicity but i don't think it will be a serious challenge. chris: thanks for the round table. the president loved what he heard. that's the show. thank you for watching. see you here next week. [captioning made possible by nbc universal] [ male ann

bob lerman. he is an excellent on family structure and how it works together to affect economic well-being. ed montgomery is the dean of the georgetown policy institute. he has served on president obama's task force and was executive director -- he was also deputy secretary at the u.s. department of labor during the clinton administration. the last presenter will be richard ravitch. he is a partner in the law firm -- in a new york law firm. richard helped resolve new york negotiating an arrangement with the ford administration and serving as an intermediary between the city and the municipal audience and their pension funds. moderating this terrific panel will be margaret simms, director of our low-income family project. i'll turn this over to marker. thank you again for being here today. >> i expect this will be a lively conversation. the voters go to the polls in 37 stowe's today to elect governors. in 10 of the states, the unemployment rate wasn't double digits at the start of the fall campaign season housing markets have been in decline in 15 or more states. state budgets have yet to go back to their 2008 levels