we'll ask his biographer, doug brinkley. i'm howard kurtz, and this is "reliable sources." >>> remember when the republican primaries were going strong and we all bounced from bachmann to trump to perry to cain and the hottest story around was who would win iowa. >> and what an extraordinary night here in des moines. welcome to abc news's special coverage of the iowa caucuses which basically ended in a dead heat. >> iowa gop chairman matt strong making the announcement that governor mitt romney, former governor romney, won the iowa caucuses by eight votes. >> but the tone was a bit more subdued by the time mitt romney officially clinched the gop nomination. >> he goes over the top with 1,144 plus delegates he needs to get the nomination in tampa. texas did it for him. >> this is not a surprise. once everybody else was effectively out of the race, and frankly before everybody else was out of the race, you could do the math pretty easily. >> now we're in the dog days of the campaign and coincidentally or not, cable news rating

author doug brinkley in a moment. stronger, younger looking skin. [ female announcer ] new aveeno skin strengthening body cream helps transform dry, thinning skin, by strengthening its moisture barrier, for improved texture and elasticity in 2 weeks. reveal healthy, supple skin. aveeno skin strengthening. [ thunk ] sweet! thanks, mister! [ meow ] [ male announcer ] the solid thunk of the door on the jetta. another example of volkswagen quality. that's the power of german engineering. that bringing you better technology helps make you a better investor. with our revolutionary new e-trade 360 dashboard you see exactly where your money is and what it's doing live. our e-trade pro platform offers powerful functionality that's still so usable you'll actually use it. and our mobile apps are the ultimate in wherever whenever investing. no matter what kind of investor you are, you'll find the technology to help you become a better one at e-trade. >>> walter cronkite was one of the great journalists of the 20th century. of tha

doug brinkley and a presidential historian back with us today. is topic -- how does health care, obama care, how does it play into the election and specifically the debates between president obama and mitt romney? >> well, today president obama got a lot of momentum. and in politics the big moe is everything. june looked like a romney month. and now the president is ending this month with the wind in his sail. sort of buried the holder contempt story today. nobody in the media's really talking about it. so for barack obama this was big. in fact, he was calling it the affordable care act for so long he may actually want to embrace obama care and get out there and say, yes, like violet you just had on your show. that's who i'm helping right now. mitt romney is staked out that he's dissenting with the supreme court decision. and i think it's going to be one of the more brutal debates this year is re-arguing this health care debate. there's so many tentacles and loose parts that it will drag on with us all the way to next year. >> the debates will be

i want to bring in doug brinkley on the phone.le began when hillary clinton was first lady. it so totally goes back further than that. right after world war ii, you had teddy roosevelt try it. i want to go back to harry truman because he proposed something. tell me what he proposed. >> literally 100 years ago in 1912, roosevelt ran and promoted universal health care. he wanted everybody to have health care provisions. he didn't win. he came in second. fdr had so many great new deal successes and social security. harry truman was trying to do something similar in ways. he fell short as have all democratic presidents. lyndon johnson was able to get medicare and medicaid through. bill clinton tried hard to accomplish what president obama did. >> let me jump in. you're fast forwarding too quickly. let me take you back. let me go back to richard nixon. this is what we found. take a listen. >> richard nixon, which i happen to work for put forth a very comprehensive plan which looks a lot in structure like the obama plan. >> a comprehens

talking about the supreme court ruling of the health care affordable care act, and joining us are doug brinkleyand kenji yoshino, and so we are talking about what health care is, and whatever decision the court makes if we have to go back to the fight in the fall and the spring, any chance of americans thinking of health care as a fundamental right and something that we have to do? >> well, you know, it is a funny thing, because if you look at the polls and the affordable health care act, it will get mix ed opinions and a lot of people don't know what is in it and a lot of people don't like it and when you break it down to say, if you like the parts of health care reform and the idea that everybody should have health care and you should get insurance even if you have a pre-existing condition and if you cannot afford it the government will give you help in getting it, they like it. to the extent that people think about it, they like the idea of universal health care and we have had medicare and had universal health care for over 65 for a long team and people love it. >> the funniest part of the

go out and get doug brinkley's book, talk about cronkite, that legendary newsman.you'll meet a true champion. tell us more. >> can you spell winner? you're about to meet the brand new spelling bee champ. she's here next. and then 70 million in taxpayer dollars for this, a train. and where does it go? apparently nowhere. whoops! [ female announcer ] fresh flavor gets a bold new twist with new chef's picks from lean cuisine. new dishes on the culinary cutting edge like mushroom mezzaluna ravioli and chile lime chicken. ♪ new chef's picks from lean cuisine. >> 22 minute after the top of the hour. time for news by the numbers on this friday. first $434,000, that's how much waitress regina hopkins accidentally got in her tax refund. she's an honest woman and returned the refund and said she never considered keeping it. would you? next, $70 million. that's how much new york spent on a failed high speed rail project. the state has been paying $155,000 a year to store the trains and parts and will now sell them for virtually pennies on the dollar. lastly, $129,000. a new s

. >> doug brinkley, we appreciate you. thanks for coming on. >> thank you. >> what a day it's been. i'm brooke baldwin. thanks for being with me. i'm going to turn things over to wolf blitzer. he's in washington. "the situation room" begins now. >>> thank you, brooke. upheld landmark u.s. supreme court ruling with some surprise twists. cnn's jeffrey toobin was inside the court when it all came down. is the ruling a political game changer? we're going to hear what president obama and mitt romney had to say. plus, what all of this means for you. cnn's dr. sanjay gupta has the real world impact of the health care reform ruling. >>> and a historic house vote on whether to hold attorney general of the united states, eric holder, in contempt of congress. that vote expected this hour. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >>> it's the most anticipated supreme court decision in more than a decade. and one that impacts the lives of almost every american as well as the presidential campaign. in a 5 to 4 split, the supreme court upheld the affordable care act, a law so tightly boun