jimmy carter. juan zelizer reports on the 39th's president's difficulties maintaining support from congress due to what the author contends or legislative decisions that were unwelcome by many of the democrats who president carter needed for support. juan zelizer presents his book at the miller center at the university of virginia in charlottesville. the talk is just over one of our. >> it is a pleasure to be here as always. when republican john mccain wanted to insult his opponent in the 2008 election he warned that barack obama's presidency would be like a jimmy carter second term. the joke didn't need any explanation. democrats responded to the differences between obama and president carter, not by defending the former president. even if carter became known for having one of the most active post presidential careers in american history, his time in the white house has remained a symbol of failed presidential leadership. over the past few months there have been many commentators who have compared

a carter center separate. and my first thought was that i would just have a place like camp david where people that had a conflict on their hands, say, from a foreign country could come to the carter center, and i could negotiate between them. i would be glad to go to their country. so that was the whole idea. but later we adopted a policy of filling vacuums in the world. we decided not to ever duplicate what the united states was doing or the united nations or the world bank or harvard university or anywhere else but just do things that nobody else wanted to do. and that got us more and more deeply involved in health care in africa. so now 75% of our total budget and personnel and our total cash budget each year is now about $100 million, is devoted to health care in africa and, to some degree, in the latin america. so we address diseases that are not any longer known anywhere in the rich world, diseases like lymphatic -- [inaudible] and to some degree lately, malaria. .. so that is how we got started in the

who is jimmy carter? we have carter on the cover of the book kissing brezhnev. carter was anything but hard on the soviets. he was very accommodating toward the soviets. june, 1979, carter kisses brezhnev at the vienna summit and then six months later talk about betrayed with a kiss. carter is in the white house celebrating christmas and get news in that the red army has just invaded afghanistan. and then here just three months after the soviets invade afghanistan and kennedy is concerned about the rising cold war intentions which according to the archives are the fault of carter? wow! wow! put it in context, what was going on march 5th of 1980? democratic presidential primaries. are jimmy carter the incumbent democratic president was being challenged by senator ted kennedy for this. so what happened in 1980 with carter seems to have also happened to some extent in 1983 with ronald reagan as well. in both cases. well, i could give other examples of this but i'm watching the clock and i should probably stop and i want to take your questions but that was a look at

then jimmy carter on his presidency. later, robin policy and internet regulation. >> to save medicare and social saturday, to make the systems work better, to keep our promise to americans, we have to change. >> donald rumsfeld was the youngest and oldest person to serve as u.s. defense secretary. >> you automatically have an obligation to tell the president the truth and what you really believe. people who do not have proximity and do not see him often simply do not want to do it. >> the process of writing his memoirs, known and unknown, and address some of the books critical and positive reviews on c-span's "q&a." >> this monday, visit the public and private spaces of america's most recognizable home, the white house. suzanne's original document and the -- documentary provides a look and takes you to the mansion, the west wing, the oval office, the lincoln bedroom, and focuses on the president and first families who it was how it looks today. there are interviews with president obama and the first lady, comments with g

i wanted to former carter center separately.y first thought was that i would just have a place like camp david where people that had a conflict on their hands, say from a foreign country, could come to the carter center and i could negotiate between them. i would be glad to go to their country. that was the whole idea. later we adopted a policy -- we decided not to ever duplicate what the united states was doing or the united nations or the world bank or harvard university, but just to do things that nobody else wanted to do. that got us more and more involved in health care in africa. senate by% of our total budget and personnel -- 75% are budget is devoted to health care in africa and to some degree in latin america. we have addressed diseases that are not any longer known anywhere in the rich world. to some degree, malaria. that is what we do in countries all over africa. we also had a major agriculture program for about 15 years where we would go into small farmers operations with an average of only 2 acres of land, and we w

i think carter's is okay. treatment is okay. you learn a little. i mean, what carter did in this original memoir was he put some of the diary in it. and i find that a little bit -- a little bit hopeful. clinton was okay, but with a little bit overwhelming. there was so much he couldn't tease out, you know, what with him. so i don't have an answer in terms of a favorite, but again if i had to pick one, it would be the card or diaries. again, that's what they think the benefit most from a real-life on the spot assessment of how presidents are thinking about what they were doing. >> host: tevi troy >> guest: i agree strongly with julian on this one. it's not the best from the historical or literal active. and when i'm much more interested in at the age memoirs and other staff members. i'll give you two of my favorite, on the republican and democratic side. george stephanopoulos, all too human really puts it all out there. there's reasons why the clinton white house was not happy after that. second favorite of mine is marty andersen, who wrote a book c

that's exactly what happened in the carter administration with iran. it was a surprise. then the worry was about are the soviets going to invade iran? chris: so what do we do is put that filter over the world that says, look for terrorists. if they're not there, move on to some other country and look for . rrorists we didn't know what was going on in terms of all of the secular groups, how they might overwhelm the islamic brotherhood, who would win and in the next turn situation? >> to some extent washington was blinded by fear and phobia of islamic extremism. and it botched the line that egypt has sold very willingly the last 30 years that your choice when it comes to egypt is have an awe torrian government, government of hosni mubarak or extremism. and washington must have known better. they knew in '82 and they knew here was a lot of discontent in the country not at least because of the economic situation because people were unemployed and food prices were going up. that alone they must have known. and had you it in the senate as well. chris: i want to make a comment

so we sell--the majority of our olives go to bell-carter. um, they've been great for the industry, and they produce a great, great product. >> california's weather is perfect for olives, and some of these trees can grow for several hundred years. but you may be surprised to know that harvesting in california is largely done by hand. flash back more than 100 years to 1912. back then, olives were harvested the very same way, by hand. that's when two brothers, arthur and henry bell, decided to buy a small olive grove near fresno. they even carried on harvesting and selling olives through the great depression. no one realized it back then, but the brothers were planting the seeds for a multi-million-dollar business lasting at least 4 generations. >> just to give you an example, bell-carter's first canning operation was in berkeley, california in 1930. the company had 12 employees, and i think their annual--annually they canned about 7,000 cases of olives. come up to today's standards. we have over 500 employees canning well over 9 million cases

carter: would the gentlelady yield? mrs. emerson: i yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from texas. mr. carter: and i thank you for yielding. i just want to point out what my friend mr. waxman was pointing out. under the plan that's before us from the e.p.a., we're pretty well sure that 18 of our 90 plants are going to move offshore. so we get to add 18 plants to the people who are polluting this area of the united states at almost a 100% pollutant and good scientific evident already tells us that 75% of the mercury pollution which is the argument the gentleman made is coming from outside the united states. now, we're adding 18 new plants to the 75 polluters and we're taking 18 plants away from the 25% side and to me i wonder how that balances out to make good sense for those poor sick kids that he was talking about. i mean, we're adding more pollution to the unregulated full scale polluters and we're harming and taking american jobs , the fathers and mothers of those very children he was talking, they're no longer

you keep bringing up carter and the prices. it was jimmy carter who put solar panels on top of the white house and the first thing ronald reagan did when he got in there was take them off. can you imagine how much it would have helped if since jimmy carter days every new home that was built had solar panels installed on their roof as part of their construction? but wait a minute. champion mobile can't control the sun. so we better not do that, because exxonmobile might lose some money. thank you very much. host: john? guest: well, president carter did have solar panelings and my suspicion reagan why reagan took them off was because of the maintenance cost. solar panels are more expensive. solar panel, the key is you have to have an electricity pricing scheme that actually reflects the cost of electricity so if you can use them you have a higher price but the limitations have nothing to do with champion mobile. these policies are going to grow, but we've got to be understanding of what the real role is and it's about 1%, and it

how are you, carter? >> i'm great. i'm really looking forward to playing.h: looking forward to having you play. your words were heard by 4 billion people? what did you write? >> i wrote the opening speech for the beijing olympics in 2008. meredith: wow. that's very impressive. >> yeah. meredith: that was a lot of pressure because that was china sort of introducing itself to the world, really. >> yeah, but it was much more pressure for my client, who was the head of the olympics. so, much more pressure for him. meredith: i had the real pleasure to be there for nbc, yeah, at the time, and it was fantastic. so thank you for all that you did, and i'd love to return the favor by giving you a million dollars. >> please do. meredith: 14 questions, that's all you have to do. let's take a look at the money and, computer, please randomize it. ok. all your money is now hidden. here are the categories for your questions. computer, please randomize the questions. and now

the carter administration said, you'll never get it. but ed had come from the house of representatives, had made alliances with both parties and showed a certain amount of just sheer genius in the selection of order of witnesses. i thought, well, who's going to go first. when i was writing the book, i thought, okay, who are they going to go first? are they going to have governor kerry, is mayor koch going to go first? well, the first two people ed got to go testify, and i'm sure it was because he had personal relationships with these people, were two republican congressmen. very, very canny move. and they're testifying before the senate committee. senator approximate meyer, senator brook had both indicated at the outset of the hearing that there was no way they were going to let these loan guarantees go through the senate. and he, and i think, perhaps, ed koch's greatest triumph as mayor and the thing that enabled many of his subsequent accomplishments is that he convinced them, and he got it through the house, and he got it through the

i think there's a lot of factors that led carter to lose. from him to the problems of the democratic party to reagan and a very strong campaign. but certainly the resolution of that would not have worked against carter if it had happened a couple months earlier, and it was really a painful resolution for him. literally, to watch and hear, to hear that they were on the tarmac in the final hours, and he has a conversation with reagan, and reagan, i mean, in his account doesn't really, you know, he's not very engaged at all in what was happening. t really frustrating -- it's really a us frustrating end to s presidency although maybe kind of a poignant one given what had happened. >> once again julian zelizer has given us a great talk and a great book. there's a lot more in the book. read about jimmy carter. thanks very much, dr. zelizer. [applause] >> thank you. >> julian zelizer's "jimmy carter" is part of times books american presidents series. for more information visit american presidents series.com. >> elaine showalter, professor at prince

in an interview with jim in 1989, the former president talked about debating president jimmy carter. here's an excerpt. >> president cart err said that his strategy going into that debate was to show you-- show the people that you were not that well informed on national security and for answer fairs policy. did you know that goinging in, that that was his target? >> no, i didn't really know that. but i think he was a little off base in that. because as governor, first of all i was governor of a state that if it were a nation, would be the 7th ranking economic power in the world, california. but also president nixon had asked me on a number of occasions to represent him on trips abroad. and i had been in 18 countries and actually meeting with the heads of state of 18 countries while i was still a governor. and i think that i had a pretty good insight in to our foreign policy and those foreign affairs. >> that debate is remembered for several things. one them is your line there you go again. was, there you go again, a line that just came to you spontaneously or was it something that yo

administration from roosevelt to carter had done with the exception of nixon. it is precisely during the nixon period where the changes in the iranian society, oh blowing iranian society into a new social fabric. a new modern middle class was coming. the agriculture revolution had completely changed the fabric of iranian countryside and iranian cities. the best example if you want to know what that revolution did to iran is follow the life of ahmadinejad. i've written a mini biography of ahmadinejad. he captures what i was talk abouting. his family was living in the small village. by 1960, they decided they can't survive in the village. feudalism had ended, no infrastructure for support, they come to tehran, they become dwellers in these marginal new neighborhoods, people by the poor, and who's there to sing the song of revolution in their ears? the clergy? and why is it only the clergy who are there to sing the songs of revolution? because every other force in iran from the left to the right was decimated by the shah's authoritarianism. the shah believed his a

administration from roosevelt to carter had done with the exception of nixon. it is precisely during the nixon era where these economic changes of the shah was bringing about, where iranian society turned into a new social fabric, new modern middle-class was coming. the agricultural revolution had completely changed the fabric of the iranian countryside and the iranian cities. the best example, if you want to know what that revolution did to iran is follow the life of ahmadinejad. i have written an article in the boston review called in many biography of ahmadinejad. ahmadinejad captures what i'm talking about. his family was living in a small village. by early 60 they decided they can't survive in the village because there was a change. feudalism had ended. there was no infrastructure of support. they came to tehran. they became dwellers in these marginal new neighborhoods. and who is there to sing the song of revolution in their ears? the clergy. why is it only the clergy who are there to sing the songs of the revolution? because every other force in iran, fr

and president carter, without quite knowing what he was committing himself to -- [laughter] said, that's what i want. [laughter] and to his credit, aside from the mistake of putting on credit controls, he did not criticize the fed during the remainder of his term. and at the, under pressure from his advisers to do something to expand the economy in 1980 when he was told if you don't do that with the current high interest rates you're going to lose the election, he didn't do it. >> so, chairman volcker, that leads to a couple questions. first, the first part -- >> [inaudible] on some of this, but go ahead. [laughter] >> why did inflation rise over the '70s? why did the federal reserve lose the anchor? and then, second, did the political class, did the fed, did the public understand how costly disinflation would be in 979? is. >> no. but let me go back to the late '60s when i was not in the government and wasn't in the federal reserve, wasn't in the treasury. there's, clearly, a deal made midway lu -- through the vietnam war. if federal reserve eased money, it would help the congress pass

carter and mr.r, from the pulpit, asked the conservation to open their pupils to the passage that would be his subject for the day. i grew up in baptist churches. i was really familiar with that passage. i decided to take advantage of that time to look at the him look for the words of the emi was thinking of -- at the jye hm book. mrs. carter handed me her bible and opened it to the proper passage. [laughter] i realize at that moment that mrs. carter had decided that, since i was a hollywood filmmaker, i did not know the difference between a prayer book and a bible. [laughter] it also occurred to me that i had the perfect chance to steal mrs. carter's bible. [laughter] i mean, if i walked out with it and someone stopped me, i would say, "she gave it to me." and she would say -- she would have to sit, "i guess i did." it was -- and she would have to say, "well, i guess i did." and it was a beautiful bible. it had the tears of the former first lady. imagine what it would get on ebay. [laughter] to pre

president carter more than once. >> here's hubert humphrey and strom thurmond in debate. >> ok. >> thecaught the public's attention but no cameras were allowed in the senate. is humphrey and thurmond agreed to take a piece of the debate to a television audience. >> and we know that fellow americans who happen to be negro have been denied equal access to places of public accommodation, denied in their travels the chance for a place to rest and to eat. it's not public accommodations, it's invasion of private property. this will lead to integration of private life. in the city of birmingham, alabama, up to 1963 there was an ordinance that said if you were going to have a restaurant and you were going to commit a negro to come in, you had to have a seven-football down the middle of the restaurant dividing the white from the colored. now, how foolish this is and isn't that an invasion of private property? >> senator, we live in a country of freedom. and under our constitution, a man has a right to use his own private property as he sees fit. we must remember that this bill creates no jobs.

carter called from north korea. the call came into the white house, secretary came into the room and said it's north korea, president carter. so president clinton, of course, stood up to take the call, and then she said, no, he's calling bob gelucci. [laughter] gelucci said i didn't exactly crawl out of the room on all fours, but -- [laughter] and, of course, the resolution was, was good. the outcome was that gelucci went back to negotiating with the north koreans. what they wanted was a couple of power reactors. they were happy to have them under international control and all of that. but during the korean war we had general lemay and the strategic air command had systematically fire bombed north korea almost literally, as he said, back to the stone age. we had killed more than two million north korean civilians, we had blown up all their power dens, 57% of their lick ri call supply -- electrical supply was hydroelectric. and they were still after all these years having tried first with the soviet union and now try

carter g. woodson had participated in the founding of black history month. he was involved in the group known as the oh, -- association for the study of african-american life and history. the local chapter of that group is what is now known as the african-american cultural and historical society. so it's an honor. we've been doing this for many, many years and it's great to see so many faces out here today. right now what i'd like to do is thank our partners and acknowledge them for their participateation. the san francisco public library much the california cultural arts program and we couldn't do it without the good folks in the mayor's office of neighborhood services. what i'd like to do now is strue -- shall truce -- intro duce tanish hollins from the mayor's office of neighborhood services. >> good amp, family. happy black history month. could we hear it one more time? [applause] >> we are so honored to be here. we look forward to this every year. it's a hall mark event for the city and county of san francisco. an opportunity to reflect on the many, man

carter claimed he was attacked by a giant swimming rat. [laughter] that doesn't have anything to do with foreign policy, but i thought you should know. [laughter] but in honor of the new civility, i wanted to point out under the advice of george bush, a nuclear sub is named after jimmy carter. it's a good sub, but there's some problems. the periscope works only in hindsight. [laughter] they are subject to hyperinflation. [laughter] whenever it's in a u.s. port, it immediately attacks the united states. [laughter] in carter's defense since he left office, there's not been a single attack on u.s. citizens by a giant swimming rat. [laughter] with young people in the audience, now you know when people compare obama to jimmy carter, it's not a complement. it's hard to believe when obama ran for president, he presented himself as a moderate democrat, just a young attractive 14-year-old without a record to be mailed on, and then he got into office, and immediately he turned over our entire health care system to the department of motor vehicles. [

is the one exception, carter and reagan is the one exception. after eight years you generally get ejected and the one exception to that is after eight years of ronald reagan, when george herbert walker bush waser but th republicans a third state term that is the only time,at ag least giving back to the roosevelt truman but a party was parts able to e party of the white house a third straight time.that so that is the general pattern.n but we have a long way to go. >> host: our viewers, somebody to meeting, talk to michael mic more, mr. president. >> guest: the would be onepeon. person. just m >> host: stevan on theng republican line.ou know >> host: just make sure you know you're talking to and not a david coke.host >> host: do it face-to-face call: my quphone. stevan from baltimore, good morning. >> caller: my question is theoing on incidence going on over in the t, as far as obviously greece you've got libya, greece, to you see any of the type of over protesting that's going on overu there, do you see that trickling into the united states? d.c.

that at some point, president carter had to get the heads to butt together. - well, what happened atdavid--and we studied camp david, and i talked to carter before we went to dayton--was that they threatened to walk out, both sadat and begin. we got a prior agreement from milosevic, izetbegovic, and tudjman that they wouldn't walk out, and they kept to their word on that. but there was tremendous drama. very different from camp david, but a lot of yelling, a lot of screaming. tremendous internal fights in two of the three delegations. the serb delegation had a huge fight between the belgrade serbs--milosevic and company-- and the pali serbs. the bosnian delegation had an internal conflict between the prime minister and the president-- silajdzic and izetbegovic-- who are now running against each other. and the bosnian delegation also was kind of like a mini yugoslavia, with croats, serbs, bosnian muslims, and quote "other", which is mixed- marriage or jewish members of the delegation, so all of the tensions of the balkans were reflected in that delegation. only the croatian delegation

and after you left office, all the deregulation took place under the carter administration. talking about airlines, trucks the railroads. and when carter left office, there were people in the reagan administration who fought deregulation tooth and nail. and my question to you is what happened to the republican party in that era so that most of the deregulation was done by the democrats? [laughter] and why was the role of the parties reversed? [laughter] >> the corruption of power. [laughter] no, i don't have the answer to that, and, of course, that's just the problem we're facing with the new congress now. we have -- gingrich brought in a bunch of great people. the contract with america was observed in the early years and then over time we found ec pendtures accelerating and so on -- expenditures accelerating and so on. so i think that the pressure, what is required is that the pressures brought to bear in the last election cycle be sustained year in and year out with constant vigilance over how the newly-elected members are, in fact, operating. >> yes, please, in the back.