no better historian to help a president understand the past and future by the way, than for doris kearns goodwinso we're honored you're here. [ applause ] and so the other thing that impressed me about doris kearns goodwin, she raised a son who became a united states marine. volunteered to be a united states marine after september the 11th. [ applause ] i have the honor of introducing the best first lady ever. [ laughter ] mom, would you take a tie? obviously, i don't mind being surrounded by strong women. i was raised by one, i married one, and i believe we're raising two. welcome former first ladies, barbara and laura bush. >> thank you very much. >> i thought it was me. [ applause ] >> well, for me, this is such a great honor. you can imagine having spent my life trying to bring presidents and first ladies who were no longer alive to life? i've got live ones here! much more fun. >> we hope. >> i always worry -- i worry that in the -- >> careful. >> i worry that someday -- i worry that someday in the afterlife there will be a panel of presidents that i ever studied and everyone will tell me ev

as doris goodwin said in the team of rivals so nicely, a lot of people in the cap net felt that way. most of them got over it. chase never got over it. he was running for president constantly even as he was treasury secretary. it donned on him in january of 1862 after the currency law was passed that there would be millions of pieces of paper circulating across the united states into every home and every pocket and wallet and there ought to be a picture on there. so every denomination and every greenback printed during the civil war had his picture on it. until he left the treasury secretary. any other questions? >> i'm very encouraged by the accomplishments and troubled by the prescription for their success. i was curious if there is anything we could do other than asking the friends to leave the chab for the session for prospect and success. >> hopefully we will not have such an extreme solution, but i think in the second of my points where i talked about a compelling agenda, this is where i see a way forward. this is a 50-50 point in our country right now. the election after elect

in this discussion, moderated by historian and biographer doris kearns goodwin, we hear barbara bush on her husband's 1992 loss to bill clinton and her thoughts on the 2012 presidential campaign. laura bush speaks about her work on behalf of women in afghanistan and about the moment she realized that average americans really do listen to what the first lady has to say. this hourlong conversation took place at the george w. bush presidential center in dallas, texas, as part of the conference, america's first ladies, an enduring vision. ♪ >> hello, my name is mark langdell, i'm president of the george w. bush foundation, i want to welcome you to the final panel that we're having here today. in my job i get asked a lot, well, how do you get the chance to work on building something as interesting and significant as the george w. bush presidential center. and i go, well, i have experience building complex real estate projects. i served in government. i'm interested in presidential history. i even like to watch c-span3, but the big reason and the real reason that i have this really great j

and as doris kerns goodwin has said in team of rivals so nicely, a lot of people in the cabinet felt that way, but most of them got over it. chase never got over it and he was running for president constantly even as he was treasury secretary. so it donned on him in january after the currency law had been passed that there were going to be millions and millions of pieces of paper circulating across the united states into every wallet, symbols of prosperity and the future of the country and there ought to be a picture on there. so every denomination, evergreenback printed during the civil war had chase's picture on it until he left as treasury secretary. so any other questions? >> one quick question. i'm very encouraged by the 37th congress' accomplishments, but i'm also troubled by the prescription for their success and i was curious if there was anything that we could do other than asking our good friends from south of the mason dixon to kind of leave the session, which governor perry has indicated some desire to do, if there's any other success for relieving gridlock today. >> yes,

you quote him as saying to doris kearns goodwin "i had to take the dead man's program and turn it into the mart's cause." >> yes. and he uses the sympathy that people had from kennedy. that helped him get the bills moving. he also uses his great knowledge of legislative techniques and the secrets of the senate to get these bills moving. >> ifill: in the next book we will hear about what brought him down and that's the war in vietnam. >> very dark story. sad story. >> ifill: we look forward to reading it. robert caro, thank you very much. >> brown: you can find more of gwen's interview with robert caro. plus, photos from his book on our website. >> woodruff: again, the major developments of the day: suicide bombers struck the heart of syria's capital, killing 55 people and wounding more than 370. and republicans in the u.s. house pushed through a bill to prevent an automatic 10% cut in the defense budget at year's end. instead, it cuts food stamps, health care and federal pensions. online, we update on the debate over changing the name of post- traumatic stress disorder. hari sreenivasa