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

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