. >> dolley. >> dolley, don't you love dolley? well, she was a beautiful. men stopped in the streets of philadelphia when she walked past because she was so beautiful. she had dark hair and pale skin, blue eyes and ruby red lips, the whole package. and madison was smitten when he saw her on the street. and he asked his good friend, and this will be a surprise, his good friend arenberg -- [laughter] -- aaron burr. he asked aaron burr, before aaron burr got in trouble. he asked him to introduce him to dolley. she received in in her parlor. she wore a mulberry red dress and yellow glass beads and he was a goner. [laughter] they married a few months later, and she was a political asset. i'm always kind of skeptical about how important wives are. deal was important but i'm not sure anymore that that's, it's as important as it might've been or as we sometimes think it is. more and more wives have their own career, you know? so they are central for getting there has been elected. but dolley was. in those days the congressional caucuses picked the presidential nomi

dolley would show up in amazing outfits.ite velvet turbin with feathers. >> you wrote several books including one for children, which is excellent. "the new york times" said this is probably the best biography of madison we now have. this is pretty thick. what is it, do you think, the fascination with madison and certainly with conservatives? >> well, if you are an advocate of limited government, madison is your man. the reason that he and hamilton became estranged is because hamilton wanted to interpret the constitution meaning they could pass anything that had to do with welfare. madison said we might as well throw the parchment, meaning the constitution into the fire. for people who are advocates of limited government, advocates of intellectual freedom, madison was absolutely committed to the idea that each of us are in charge of our own conscience. >> i want to turn to current day politics. the other interesting thing about madison, he was a secretary of state and jefferson's secretary of state, then became president. th

>>host: james and dolley were married 42 years. >>guest: not as long as us.ter] >>host: in august it will be 50 years but what was that a high point? [applause] i will repeat the question. what was the high point of those 50 years for you? [laughter] >>guest: not the 42 years with dolly? i knew it was dangerous to have you asked me questions. [laughter] what he finned i can think of, .com puts you in a light that people don't often see you. doors greater. [laughter] doris invader. he is a real romantic. for it if anniversary of our first dates it was 2008 he arranged and a surprise party to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our first date all has-been's try to top that there is very special inviting all the college friends and he even had the good sense to tell me we were going to the british ambassador's for dinner. you don't want to take somebody to a surprise party if she does not have on and i stress or if her hair is a and rover's. -- rollers. he got me to dress up and told me weeks in advance then they annual gridiron dinner happened. as vice president

[laughter] just like dolley madison.like -- one more question and we will turn over to the audience. this is the difficult question actually. what was madison's greatest disappointment with respect to the constitution in those formative years as a republican? >> well you know he was entirely pleased with the constitution when it was finished but he thought it was probably the best human beings could do so he became a fervent defender. at the end of his life and all throughout his life he hated slavery. he wrote a letter as a young man in which he said i want to do everything i can to become independent of slave labor. to get off his fathers plantation or farm as they called it, to live an independent life in which he wouldn't be dependent upon that dreadful institution. and he tried but he didn't really have a long time to try at it. he became involved in public life and creating the constitution and so forth. so he didn't succeed. jefferson also hated slavery and he didn't succeed from freeing himself from it though i d

dolley madison had a nasty rumor campaign directed against her.eople actually duelled, they killed each other over politics. so it was, i think, every bit as fierce as now. perhaps a difference is that the megaphone wasn't so large. you know, you didn't have television and blogs and it wasn't broadcast so lively. but emotionally, it was every bit as intense. >> you made some headlines this week, and we're looking ahead to politics possibly in 2016 with former secretary of state, former senator hillary clinton potential running, as all speculation to this point, we don't know, but there was a piece out this week with which monica lewinsky cooperated. what is your take, having digested that, as to whether the clintons in any way authorized or paved the way for that to happen? >> i just think we should never discount how political they are. and we're all political, but political -- politically very successful, too. what a good thing to do, to get this story out of the way now. you know, we hadn't heard from monica lewinsky, with whom -- for whom i ha