i'm with doug brinkley who's back with me.ou can't help but get caught up in this, it's very exciting and very historic. tomorrow, talk me through what is actually going to happen tomorrow? >> i have to tell you, in 1840, william henry harrison got elected and at the inaugural in '41 he didn't wear a coat and he died of pneumonia. tomorrow it's not just barack obama's day, but it's martin luther king day. you're going to have the president invoking the dream of king. all the schoolkids are out, they're being taught about the inauguration. right now and martin luncher king day. >> i went to the see lincoln recently, and his story and battle to end slavery is an inspiring story. you couldn't help but think if you're barack obama standing there, two bibles, one was dr. king's, one was abraham lincoln's, have you the history on your shoulder to share real courage -- >> i couldn't agree with that more. this president loves president lincoln. if you're from the land of lincoln, you really like him. he likes talking about lincoln and

. >> doug brinkley whose most recent book is this, "cronkite." one word. ug brinkly, if you had to describe walter cronkite's influence in america, how would you do it in 20 words or less? >> 20 words or press, mostt trusted man in america became his moniker, and he wore it pretty well. there was great pressure, but hs carried our country throughd things like the mercury and gemini and apollo missions at their heyday, he was our voice through the civil rightshe movement, the vietnam war, watergate, nixon's resignation, the birth of earth day, even he was the person who brought begin and sadat together which led to the camp david peace accord. so seminal broadcast journalism. the big three are edward r. murrow, walter caron cite and lowell thomas -- cronkite ande lowell thomas. >> how did he get to be that guy? >> you have to condense your stories, you're given about a thousand words, and you can'tf put a lot of adverbs and adjectives in it. so he learned how to write.y unknowingly, that wire service e was perfect for television when you only have 15-minute

joining me now, doug brinkley and doris kearns goodwin. e to you both. >> thank you. >> thank you, glad to be here. >> doris, i'm excited to finally talk to you. because i've talked to doug a few times. i went to see "lincoln" the other day. i thought it was absolutely a magnificent movie and really just showed me firsthand what an extraordinary man lincoln was. >> there's no question. i mean, i'm so proud of what they did. you almost feel like you're watching abraham lincoln walking and talking and the political genius that he had. in our time now to see the possibility of getting those characters in congress to come together to do something is a great sobering lesson. >> do you wish perhaps that today's politicians from the president down showed some of the moral courage that lincoln showed over the issue of slavery, for example? >> i think that's the real point. you know, everybody talks about we wish the politicians today showed the compromise which the movie shows and lincoln showed. but it's the moral courage and the convictions of fi

fortunately for all of us we have doug brinkley here with us today, a noted u.s. ural while the civil war was still going on. we talk about f.d.r.'s "we have nothing to fear." the great depression was on and unemployment with such staggeringly high numbers so this is a time where people have felt improvement since president obama came? we have to remember the crash of the economy stock market in such terrible shape. it's been a progressive incrementalism. but i have to say this speech is part of a progressive tradition of a theodore roosevelt speech in kansas where barack obama in 1911 when -- in 2011 he went and if you read the t.r. speech "the new nationalism" you'll find hit in the speech he gave today. you'll find it at f.d.r.'s second inaugural and in many of martin luther king's speeches. people talk about kennedy's inaugural about swords and switchbacks. it's a technique that worked brilliantly for john f. kennedy but i think the president had caught the aura of dr. king today quite well. >> pelley: and this day being inauguration day and martin luther king

>> doug brinkley, thank you very much. and perspective on this remarkable day in history. we'll look forward to talking to you in a little bit. >>> chip reid is down there on the national mall. what are you seeing down there? >> well, scott, you can see behind me the crowd stretches from 9th street to the u.s. capitol. this is a third of the size of the crowd of four years ago. that crowd 1.8 million people was by far the biggest crowd in the history of presidential inaugurations. in fact, it was the biggest crowd for anything on the mall in american history. this crowd is actually probably going to be the fourth largest in history for inaugurations. but compared to that one, it's quite small. one thing we have seen among this crowd quite a bit is families with young children. we talked to one family from georgia. four years ago they brought their 2-year-old son here to see president obama's first inauguration. this time, they brought that son who is now 6 and their two twins who are 6 months old to book end the obama inau

i'm with presidential historian doug brinkley who is back with me.lp but get caught up in this. it's very exciting. talk me through what will happen tomorrow. >>. >> in 1840 william henry harrison didn't wear a coat and he died 18 months later. you're going to have the president invoking the dream of king that the dream is still alive. all the school kids are out in america. they're being taught in elementary school able the inauguration. >> he's also got a bible which was used by abraham lincoln. i went to see the movie lincoln and the story of his battle to end slavery is an inspiring story. you have two bibles, one was dr. king's and the other was abr abraham lincoln's that's got to be a weight on his shoulders. >> this president really is a scholar of abraham lincoln. he likes talking about him. one is looking for him to rip off of lincoln's second inaugural tomorrow. >> how will he get through the impasse of washington and the antipathy of the republicans? how can he force through his agenda in a smart way? >> like dr. king he's won a noble peac

. >> doug brinkley, tell a layman brit like me why you have to have the oath said twice this year. because apparently it's not always the case. so explain to me what happens if it falls on a sunday? >> well, sunday we're going to do it at a white house ceremony. he will be officially inaugurated in and then monday is going to be the grand inauguration parade and the speech. it happens to be on a federal holiday, martin luther king day and now we're getting a lot of sbim mags that the president is going to have his hand on martin luther king's bible. he's doing the whole weekend before the inaugural, it's all about martin luther king in service. and medgar evers' widow is doing the convocation before the inaugural speech. so it's a big martin luther king day. he'll be our second president as of sunday. second term. >> i understand you met with president obama recently? >> a group of historians including doris, we meet periodically, a few times now at the white house and have what we call a historians dinner and talk to president obama. they're off the record, but i think it's fair t

we're also joined by doug brinkley who is a professor of presidential history. earing-in today is required by law. under the 20th amendment it has to be by noon on the 20th of january. but the parties and the public celebration are going to be tomorrow. how many times has that happened? >> well, it doesn't happen too often. bup it's become part of our tradition now that you do a swearing-in. ronald reagan in 1985, for example, had to do just this, was sworn in but sundays are football days. and the reagan ended up actually tossing the coin for the super bowl later that afternoon. so today you have football going on. i'm sure the president has the opportunity now to go home watch the game and relax. it doesn't have to move in. he's already in washington. his work begins. but i found this simplicity very moving because often in american history we have swearings-in that are tragedies. i mean you have john f. kennedy being killed in dallas and lyndon johnson quickly being sworn in. or when warren harding tied and coolidge sworn in. there are many examples of that. t

. >> host: you think about walter cronkite, doug brinkley just recently wrote a biography on cronkite, and he talked about his reports from vietnam during his evening broadcast. cronkite and rooney and the rest, did their, did world warl #-r shape their later journalistic career? >> guest: yeah, it sure did. and i think the reason cronkite was able to go to vietnam with some depth and some credibility is that he had experienced world war ii and then later korea fro

let's bringing in personal historian doug brinkley to talk more about this.r has been on your mind a lot as we countdown to the second inauguration. tell us why. >> in 1933 in march when fdr famously said we have nothing to fear but fear itself, that's because we were in the great depression. people were really worried what was going to happen. due to the new deal, due to the first 100 days, the fdr created the ccc and tva and the alphabet the soup of the new deal. we started getting out of the great depression. but by the time he gave his second inaugural in 1937, we were still in it. similar to president obama, he inherited the great recession, was able to do t.a.r.p. and all of this. won re-election, yet, there are still millions of americans living in the poverty and the middle class is still struggling. you've got watch that you're not triumphant that we're out of the mess yet but you want to convince people that government is continuing to work and be on your side. >> fdr said we'll still ill housed, ill clad, ill nourished. what dozen barack obama feed

and then doug brinkley who is in the film basically says yep, and that's true and reagan was a big believer. >> cap wine burger. >> yeah, the military spending, i mean, there were so many things at play in the kind of end of the cold war, but certainly american spending was a significant factor. >> chip, can i ask you a domestic question about that. if ronald reagan was right now in congress, where in the republican party would he be? >> well, you know, if you believe jeb bush and others who have made a tour out of that talking point, i would say he certainly would appear to be moderate by tea party standards. his presidency -- and i should mention this, we divide the film between domestic and foreign policy. on the doe pes tick side when you look at tax reduction, tax increase, tax reform, immigration, he comes off looking like a moderate. >> chip, let me ask you in closing, i just want to clarify one thing here. >> sure. >> you have said a couple of times that hezbollah was created out of the void left when reagan took our troops out of lebanon. is there a suggestion by any of the scholar

brinkley, presidential historian, is joining us, as well. i'm going to cut you off quickly. but in terms of historic moments, dougd term, we often see a.ing to surround himself with people he feels very comfortable with. >> reporter: absolutely. jack lew is very close to the president. a long-time veteran of all the budget wars in washington. if obama really ran on bill clinton's budget on jack, part of that credit has to go his way. you're seeing the president getting people he's comfortable with. there is no time for a learning curve here. we have on march 1 a debt ceiling debate looming. getting somebody that's already in the game i think was something the president thought about in picking him. >> yeah, the president wanted jack lew. he's going to get jack lew. presumably there will be a fight, a few republicans who will ask him very tough questions and probably in the end vote against his confirmation. but i suspect barring some major expose or something that we don't know he's been confirmed several times in the past. here he comes, the president will be introduced. >> geithner and mr. jacob lew. >> good af