coming up, jeb bush, neil bush, and the self-described black sheep of the bush family, former president bill clinton tell us what they thought about president george h.w. bush, and why. >>> my dad is the most complete man i know. >> governor john ellis, jeb bush. >> it is hard to describe him as a son. but he is courageous, he is honest, he has unimpeachable integrity. all the traits he has, for someone who is nearing perfection. he is not, no one is, but amazingly as close as he can get. >> but the trait that jeb, the second son admired most in his father was courage. >> my dad exhibited that his entire life, starting as the youngest navy pilot in world war ii. moving, that took courage, to run for office for the minority party in the easterly days of the -- early days of tonight republican party. remember, when he got involved in politics he was 40. he was a business guy, he traveled a lot. he was working hard. but when he was with us, it was always fun. we always did things. we were always going to a baseball game, going to play tennis or just outdoors. he was not strict. but when we

bush. mr. card is currently the executive director in the office of the provost at texas a&m university. and thank goodness that johnny manziel was finally picked in the draft because i was worried that we were going to lose a commentator, to be honest. ira said, you should get a leading scholar from history and a leading scholar from another discipline. and we have those scholars with us today as well. david farber is a professor of modern american history at temple university. he is author of a lot of books, and even more very influential articles. two of his most recent books are "everybody ought to be rich." and "rise and fall of modern american conservatism." so thank you for joining us today, david. and commenting last, but certainly not least, is melani mcalister, who is an associate professor of american studies, international affairs, and media and public affairs and she is also the chair of her department, american studies, at george washington university. melani is the author of

bush. you know, it is a place for family and friends to be together. and that is the attraction of it. that is what you feel when you're there. >> you can see by his body actions and his words how important kennebunkport, maine, is to him. how important it is to him, the joys he gets of watching his grandchildren blossom into adults. and to see the success of his family, i think far exceeds any success that he has had in his life, which in my mind far exceeds anything that anybody else in our family has done. >> my husband is great. we have been married 65 years. and there is no dark side. truthfully. sometimes he makes me sort of mad but i have never been ashamed or embarrassed about him. and i have always been proud of him. >> george herbert walker bush met barbara pierce after the december 7th attack on pearl harbor. >> and george asked someone there do you know the girl in the red and green dress. >> beautiful girl -- >> no, he didn't say that. he said yeah, george said go cut in on her

said, "how is president bush?i wish i could talk to him," and so forth. i said, "do you want to talk with him?" he was very enthusiastic. "can i really talk to him?" so i had picked up my cell phone and called the president's office, president bush's office in dallas and within a few minutes they were talking with each other. and i could tell that he missed the ability to reach out to the president. >> narrator: without regular guidance from the americans, maliki was on his own. >> middle east politics is a full contact sport. it's a survival game. and as maliki figures out that the white house is just really not that vested in iraq, he'll take matters into his own hands. >> narrator: within months, the old iraq hands were getting word that maliki was beginning to consolidate power and increasing sectarian tension. >> in 2009, there are complaints coming out of iraq that maliki, who was initially criticized as too weak, is now being criticized as too strong and too authoritarian and increasingly sectarian. >> narr

bush. he was deeply critical of him. >> hillary and barack never did that. >> i think it was interesting he was much harsher against president bush than president obama. >> let me ask you about where we are right this minute. taking, for example, the ukraine and crimea, acan you really clam this is a successful foreign policy? >> my point is that there is challenges across the world. it is a very difficult world. it is not like it's an easy 1, 2, 3. i think the thing fascinating about senator paul's piece is he says he agrees with president obama about these issues, about the exact posture we've taken in iraq. they have the same position. in fact, he says governor perry has the same position as president obama. >> you may be hurting rand paul more than rick perry. >> i know. you're devious. >> let's look at this one more time. this is the sixth year of a presidency. we've had the four-year hillary clinton secretary of state followed by her 800 page book in which i think the only thing she x

bush's chief is daft. i had been with benedict chipmunks for four years and i thought i'd do some reading about authority figures and then i went to work for a four-star navy at earl and boy are they straight. [laughter] so mr. bush, intel egad to something happening he says the greek historian up sub 10, he was looking for a consonant. [laughter] any scholar john with admiral murphy is now giving me the eyeball of death. i didn't make up this word. it was like the lamaze class. push. you can do it. [laughter] finally its foot out. admiral murphy cannot do jack me in the chest with his finger and he says next time say plato. so that was the dawn of the plate tonic era bush rhetoric. random house said they don't like going. so there's a piece. i said let's call it wishart said that. this was a piece i done for all things considered the pr show. i had been called for jury duty in washington d.c. and this is his civic duty of every of erika. but it's not an experience i particularly recommend in washington d.

i wish george bush and dick cheney were back. he should ask them to advise president bush.he guy who called in before was talking about militias. president obama's chief of staff , one section of chicago you can't control. you look at other major cities around the country, private citizens have guns. host: thank you for your call. some comments on twitter. this is bill. caller: good morning. several colors that have said that obama is complacent. it was george bush who was complacent. he stated that he did not care where bin laden was. he was not interested in bin laden. -- obama who got bin laden. there was no complacency. these republicans are nuts. they want darth vader cheney back. that is what is destroying america. host: since the killing of osama bin laden, do you think we are safer since he is out of the picture? got security on the american people. we have drones looking at people. we have information taken from facebook. face recognition. we know where every american is his living. we know everything like that. all of that security is going to destroy us one day.

bush for president over his own party's candidate, al gore. he was basically a bush surrogate. bush campaign proceeded to use quayar in bush for president ad campaign, quoting him from the "associated press." saying "as a democratic member of the house appropriations committee, cuellar said by criticizing the state's fiscal health, gore is attacking us, the legislature." following year in 2001, republican governor rick perry appointed henry cuellar sk tear of state in texas. in 2004 though he did back john kerry over bush that year, cuellar decided to run for congress not against any democrat but the chairman of the -- krurks ellar ran in that primary and turns out it was a very contentious race over the initial tally gave rodriguez a 145-vote lead. after a recount, cuellar moved ahead by 58 votes to the race ended up going to court and in the end henry cuellar declared the winner of the seat. he upset a sitting democratic member of congress in a primary. in 2006, rodriguez came back to try to get his revenge. cuellar, of course, by then infuriated national liberal groups. the

that was jeb bush back in april.people who come here illegally do so as an act of love. the florida governor is now changing his tune with the crisis on the border. in a recent "wall street journal op-ed," jeb bush wrote, we should close loop hols for individuals to be released except deserves few who may demonstrate true cause for asylum or protection from sex trafficking. these children must be returned to their homes if central america. jeb went on to say we must aggressively remove the incentives that encourage people to break immigration laws. it is vital this we clearly communicate that there will be zero rewards for those who imperil the lives of children by sending them to the united states illegally. jeb bush also said house republicans need to take action to fix the current immigration crisis. of course, he wasted no time slamming president obama for wasting executive action on this issue. jeb wrote, we have too often seen what happens when the president oversteps his constitutional authority, avoiding simi

as far as bush is concerned. i have to take bush is concerned. something rather common for democrats to say. if you ask a democrat to say something good about george w. bush, they will kind of gag for a while and then they will say he did a really good thing with aids in africa. it's quite common for them to it praise this program. >> i should also add, wes that she defended president obama's golfing, you know, because she was also asked about that the president golfs a lot and she was good loyal democrat on the golf. >> definitely. i have to agree that it wasn't very surprising praise for president bush. i will note, actually i think moving forward as we get closer to 2016 we will see much more praise for george w. bush than we did in the last cycle. more of it will be coming from the right as people like paul ryan and rand paul try to the conservatism bush was elected on in 2000. it certainly didn't surprise me to see her throwing that bone to president bush, but certainly i can't imagine her praising him much more than she pays praises preside

all the bush folks. bush, cheney. no one has done a candid interview with them where they actually pin their ears to the wall and ask them the tough -- i have not seen anyone do that. that's not coincidental. they've never been called before congress. now what is that about? we used to have this idea of checks and balances. we don't have any checks and balances. the bush administration also destroys tens of millions of emails that no one could see. so, i mean, and no one said anything about it. they had 69 e-mail accounts that were done through the republican party while they were conducting business, knowing that's a private corporation, not part of the united states government. so, all of this deceit and elaborate efforts to deflect the public from, oh, yeah, the truth, it's pretty outrageous. and we don't -- and so we'll never see some of those emails, ever, i think. and that, to me, is tragic. but, i have enough, i've seen enough now to make a conclusion. yes, we were absolutely misled. and yes, they did lie. and

bush ran as a compassionate conservative, and concentrated open domestic issues. but the events of september 11th changed everything. >> good evening. >> bush responded that day. >> we will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them. >> it was the first declaration of one of the pillars of what would come to be known as the bush doctrine? >> the people will hear all of us soon. >> in 2001, bush's military response was to attack afghanistan, with a ruling taliban harbored the al qaeda leaders responsible for 9/11. >> the president made the decision that we had to go on the offensive. >> william lewdy served as special assistant to the president for defense policy and strategy. this meant a complete rethinking of our strategic doctrine when it came to fighting terrorism. >> president bush continued to develop his doctrine for fighting america's new threat. >> the war on terror will not be won on the defensive. we must take the battle to the enemy, disrupt his plans and confront the worst threats before they emerge.

are the same bush is sure. your party physical. issues that no one is asking with again that you deserve answers from it's all on politics only on our t.v. . it's almost july fourth independence day thousands of americans celebrating our country's independence by taking devices invented by the chinese made in bangladesh purchased.

bush ran as a conservative and concentrated on domestic issues.he events of september 1st # 1th changed everything. >> we will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbored them. >> it was the first declaration of one of the pillars that could be known as the bush doctrine. >> they people who tobrought hte buildings down will hear from us soon. >> harbors the al qaeda leaders responsible for 9-1 # 1. >> the president made the decision we have to go on the defensive. >> he served as special assistant for defense policy and strategy. >> this meant a complete rethinking of our strategic doctrine when it came to fighting terrorists. >> he continued to will new threat. >> the war on terror will not be won on the defensive. we must bring the battle to the enemy disrupt the plans and confront the first threats before they emerge. >> it is nol complicated how could we prevent the next attack. we had the wait to attack he understood this dynamic had to change. >> march 20th, 2003, the united states invades iraq.

bush, more than ronald reagan, more than george h.w. bush. but as -- those high deportations that took place under bill clinton have diminished substantially under this president. they diminished under george wrnlt of w. bush and again nder this president. this president has put the welcome mat out. he advertised to people in foreign countries, if you can get into america, you get to stay in america. that's been his policy. while they will announce he has more deportations than anybody else. it wasn't true the moment they uttered that. it's not true today. the president has confessed that they count differently than any other administration. we have a circumstance on the southern border that -- voluntary return. if someone neeks at america and -- sneaks into america and they're caught at the border they're offered a couple of options. one is, we'll take your print and picture but if you'll voluntarily return to your home country, then we -- you will not be barred from coming back into the united states on either a three or a 10-year bar. that

sr on the war against iraq and he also advised president bush sr. ok as for this democracy promotion by the neo cons look i went through the same program there at the university of chicago there guru for the neo cons was professor karl schmidt in a nazi war professor who justified every hideous atrocity hitler and the nazis inflicted on everyone including the jews he was spot struck professor strauss is a teacher mentor and sponsor in germany so we have to understand the neo cons are the godfathers and the god sons of god sons and god daughters of karl schmidt affectively they are deal nazi it's ok robert how in the world can destroying a state. force regime change make the world a better place and how does it further american interest because the middle east now is almost unrecognizable over the because of what's in the recent events going on in syria and in iraq right now how can destroying states in the long term create security for the region because i can't see it well i can't see it either i mean the problem is that there is a difference betwe

sometimes even if they agree with it, they fail. >> democratic support for bush on major bush initiatives wasn't that low. i've looked up these numbers on the five or six really major things that bush did and countered percentages on the tax cut, on the war vote, on the no child left behind. there was pretty good democratic support. the only big bush thing that didn't get a lot of democratic support was medicare reform of 2003. but other than that, democratic support for bush was about a third. something like that on capitol hill. republican support for obama on his major things, 5%. 2%. it is nothing. this is not new. this goes back to 2009. very first week of the administration, the stimulus bill. so it is something that has been a constant for six years. believe you me, remaining a constant for the next two and a half years. >> i remember, and i think you were with us on this in the country, at ground zero after 9/11, everyone wasn't running around saying, i hate bush, he let this happen. everyone's first response was, let's see what we can do to deal with it situation. totally differe

bush on the u.s.s. abraham lincoln declaring mission accomplished. my dad and i always argued politics and when i was thirteen in one thousand nine hundred sixty four i went door to door with my dad for barry goldwater and three years later i was i was sixteen i was out in east lansing to miss you getting tear gassed in the streets and in an anti vietnam war protest i had gone from the republicans to the to be asked yes it. was similar with hillary clinton shared goal of the republicans in the what what change do i think probably the vietnam war more than anything else that was the moment i mean when you when you realize that your government has lied to you and that they're even trying to kill you arguably i mean a number of my friends died in vietnam that's a pretty big wake up for a sixteen seventeen year old. you have a segment on the show gold the lone liberal rumble you do insidious over alone many of the limo is what it is is that i get to conservatives on and i argue with them for a half hour on a variety of topics with metaphorically one hand

but it's they always say what bush tax of the bush tax look at the bush tax lovely with respect to that with the bush family well here's what he had let me put this in a different branding it's a question for you and i'm asking the questions go what those tax cuts look look tax levy put us in a different frame what if if we're talking about infrastructure which we're not but we are because we're talking about student loans our intellectual infrastructure i would say is the most important infrastructure about it yes we use tools vast in washington infrastructure why do a trillion dollars is not that great a lot of money these days george bush spent three trillion on two stupid wars why don't we just say we're going to take a trillion dollars to wipe our you all students and we're going to go back to we're going to go back to what abraham lincoln proposed what thomas jefferson proposed when it occurred the free university of virginia but abraham lincoln proposed when he started land grant colleges and fifty six places in the united states free college education for everybody why don't we

bush set out to do just that, kagan cheered him on. then in 2006 called for a surge in american troop levels to prevent iraq's collapse. now robert kagan is stirring controversy again with this lengthy article in the new republic. superpowers don't get to retire. wh he calls for america to return to muscular global activism. his article brought a sharper post from another scholared historian who seized the role differently. they have seen the horrors too closely to advocate more of the same policies that failed in vietnam and iraq. a graduate from west point with 23 years in the military including time in vietnam. he teaches history at boston university and writes best selling books and articles and essays and journals both liberal and conservative. like this critique of kagan titled "the duplicity of the idea logs." welcome back. what do you mean by that? >> kagan's essay, which does deserve to be read because of his stature in washington, gives us a falsified sanitized and in some respects account of recent american history. >> how s

he rl problem was not the obama adoption but the bush doctrine as adopted by president bush and by your dad, iraq had nothing to with with 9-11 there was no al qaeda presence in iraq before the u.s. invaded. the critics would say the problem isn't how obama pulled out it was how bush and cheney went in. >> i am sure we will debate what happened in 2003 for a long time to come. i believe we did the right thing. but i think the critical point is and the point on which there was no debate is what position was iraq in in 2009. because of the surge because frankly president bush, the vice president knew it was going in the wrong direction. they made a decision to change forces -- sends forces in ment al qaeda had been defeated in iraq and they had a clear thinking which was a negotiated stay behind agreement. he is trying now and secretary clinton n clinton now are trying to say we didn't have a stay behind agreement. the president can't have it both ways. he said i am going to pull the troops out now he is saying i pulled the troops out and it wasn't my fault. >> how is it possible 13 years

it was revealed yesterday, president bush has written a biography of his father, george h.w. bush.ok will make its debut on veterans' day, november 11th. the younger bush thought about the idea in 2010 and began writing it two years later after consulting with friends and family. that will be interesting. looking forward to reading that. >> should be a great book. i didn't know this, george h.w. bush, the older, turned 90 by the way. is one of the few president who is has not written his own autobiography, very interesting. >> it will focus also on george w. bush, his decision to go into politics, how his dad influenced his life. what's really fast night, i'm curious, it talks about -- the lead-up to the iraq war. one senior official, told me, elder bush was worried about the decisions his son was making going into the war. there was a lot of buzz in the media about whether they were kind of at -- were at total opposite spectrums going into the war. >> that's right. he speculated the younger bush was quite competitive with his father, trying to gain his approval. interesting to see

bush, frankly, wasn't a good president. >> when bush got in there and realized there were no weaponss destruction, got in there and took a couple months, then were blaming the white house. the cia was blaming cheney. the special service of defense with wolfowitz and everybody. what were we doing in iraq after we realized the goal was not going to be there, there was no goal line there, there was no weapons there? why did we stay? >> well, the country was committed. our troops were being shot at. >> yeah. >> the troops are in danger. once you go into -- once you invade a country, you know, you own it. >> you know teddy kennedy, the best vote he ever cast was nay. >> well, it was my worst vote. >> thank you. read the book. thank you. "the iraq lie" by joe hoeffel. a great congressman. thank you for coming on. and we'll be right back. since robert taira openedsion king's hhis first bakeryd, in a small hawaiian town. making bread so good, that people bought two loaves one to take home, and one to eat on the way. so good, they grew from here. to here. to here. but to grow again, to the ea

bush administration. one of the earliest in what would turn out to be a very bumpy second term for that presidency. but do yourself a favor the next time you're stranded somewhere and got some battery life left on your personal electronic device, just for fun when you have a minute, google "prostitute washington scandal." some combination of those three words. it's important to include the word "scandal" or you'll get a different set of results. that's an amazing history. i mean, randomly pick a jurisdiction out of the air, pick a time period. we've had a lot of these. pick a city in the news right now. murrieta, california, where the vurulent anti-immigration protests have been going. screaming at buses full of unaccompanied immigrant kids in government buses screaming at the kids about how they're diseased and they're not welcome here in this country and nobody wants them. usa! usa! murrieta, california, has been showing a rather rough face to the world as these protests have gone on over the last coupl

bush. so no holds over starved on standards and i will probably work better than the week when they go back to work. leaving diligence up a little. know why it was put in there not. just one. pennies it. just wasn't. any they have done a whole passport or was it a good deal for the old country boy in some ways i was away from. the natural window and i seized it either way it's a lot of the medical bills there. are as good as on. what they were what they got a business that i will. look at in a store and you can you mean. that there's a need if there is layers that will stick out. same series of schools lisa tried to play players play polo going to be going to want to be a lot more to the story taking every minute. cut me no law no weapons and why a lot of why the claim. was saying this citing the old saying. these kids is the most elite clubs. sometimes from nothing which lead to sleet and it's just. it's not just any of us still we can still be just if you see a stage eight looked to be th

bush did that. with the obama administration, all the headlines are, the i.r.s. did this. they allow --. >> because there hasn't been proven links. >> it doesn't matter. >> during the bush administration anything the epa decided if it had to do with coal-fired power plants that was a bush decision, so the subtle things that are biased i have come to expect. >> if journalists used a velvet glove against or for the obama white house what was used for the bush white house? >> spikes and nails but not in the briefing room itself. my opinion, the reporters if the briefing room were very professional, they worked very hard, and they had to try to be as fair as possible. i thought the briefing room reporters were very fair. i tell you when there was a huge difference, in 26 televison when the democrats took over the house and the not and congress changes and almost all of the energy and interest in the media when to capitol hill. that was new and different and they were fighting against the administration.