gwen: here to cover another historic week dan balz of "the washington post." john dickerson of cbs news. beth reinhard of "national journal" and jeff zeleny of "new york times." >> live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week" with gwen ifill. produced in association with national journal. corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> this rock has never stood still. since 1975 we've been there for our clients through good times and bad. through the years from insurance to investment management from real estate to retirement solutions. we've developed new ideas for the financial challenges ahead. this rock has never stood still. and that's one thing that will never change, prudential. >> wherever our trains go, the economy goes to life. norfolk southern, one line, infinite possibilities. >> additional corporate funding is provided by boeing. additional funding is provided by the an nenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> once again, live

dan balz of "the washington post" is author of a narrative of the 2008 campaign. and michael duffy of "time magazine" is author of a book about the world's most exclusive fraternity. the name of that book is "the presidents club." michael duffy as these presidents go from being campaigners to being presidents, how are they transformed? >> you know we asked a couple of the presidents who are still alive what they remember the big surprise or the big shock being when they finally stepped from being candidate into the oval office. and they say three things. one is the speed of the decisions come much faster. and unpredictably. they can't control the agenda. the second is, they're all hard. there are no easy ones and they all are fairly outspoken about just how difficult the choices are. basically there are downsides everywhere. and the third thing is that's a little more interesting. just because you make the decision doesn't mean anything happens. when ike took over from truman, truman said "poor ike, he'll think it's just like the army. do this and do that. only th

and the ever-reliable dan balz, who is back with more tealz of army special agent john fuller for his 25th novel "the forgotten." gillian, i want to start with you. just a masterpiece of writing, your book. i don't want to give away too much of it. so i'll let you tell us. but it is the story-- it is a thriller but it's told in a very unusual way, and basically, it's about trust in a marge that sort of went wrong. >> it's about nick and amy dunn. they're a married couple, and amy goes missing on her five-year anniversary, and it starts with that very basic premise, but the story is told as kind of a he said/she said sort of story. so it's told from nick's point of view, on the day she goes missing and as he quickly starts to become a person of interest, we don't know where amy is and what happened to her. and through amy, through diary entries from the first days of their courtship to the days she's missing, and we come to quickly understand these two not entirely reliable narrator, and you're going to have to sift through and decide who to believe. >> schieffer: that was the part of