you heard the doug wilder interview. and one thing about doug wilder. he speaks his mind."on message." let me go to you, as a democratic strategist, are you as concerned as doug wilder is about the president's -- what he said was an inability -- he's not really connecting yet with folks? >> i'm not concerned about that. but i am concerned a lot about the enthusiasm in the base. and i think governor wilder was right. and i think we're not going to be able to do this with rallies on october 28th. we have to start now. and i think that getting the president out more with the base as well as swing voters in more spontaneous settings, which he's excellent at. so i think the governor made a very, very good point. >> there's been no spontaneous settin settings. >> no, there hasn't. >> i assumed it was going to be like the iowa swing in august. wait, where's the town hall part of that? >> there's obviously a level of unpredictability there. you don't know what the questions are going to be. and that town hall i believe was last fall when that woman got up and said, hey, i supporte

i recall many of the phrases of doug wilder's inauguration address as the first african- american governororite moment in 2008, just moments before obama was elected -- virginian turned blue. [applause] i share this personal history i cannot because it is exceptional, but precisely because it is not exceptional. we are, african americans, southerners. data shows we are increasingly, once again, southerners in the kind of reverse migration that has been happening in the last decade. va at history is my history, but when the confederate nostalgia emerges from governor mcdonnell, it propagates and profits to from a history that is recognizably alien to me. a narrative of virginia that laments the end of slavery, that romanticizes traitorist actions against the state and sedition. my problem with the confederate flag is not about racism. it just is not. i have seen the confederate flag flown in indiana. i s in the confederate flag flown in michigan. i guess in the confederate flag flown in upstate new york. i have seen the confederate flag flown in california and the kind of places that have n

i can recall many of the phrases of doug wilder's inauguration address as the first african-american and my favorite moments, november of 2008, was just seconds before president obama was elected virginia turned blue. [laughter] now, i share this history precisely because it's not exceptional because we are, as african-americans by and large, southerners, and, in fact, current u.s. census data shows we are increasingly, once again, southerners in the kind of reverse migration that is happening in the past decade. virginia history is my history, but when the confederate nostalgia emerges from governor mcdonald, it seeks to profit from a history that is unrecognizably alien to me. a narrative of virginia that laments the end of slavery, that romances action against the state, and that memorializes sedition. my problem with the confederate flag is not about racism. it just isn't. i've seen the confederate flag flown in indiana. i've seen it flown in michigan. i've seen the flag flown in upstate new york, in california, in a ton of places that have nothing to do with the civil war in the

after that we will do an interview with well-known historian doug brinkley about his latest book, on the alaska wilderness. in about an hour or so a panel on mexican drug cartels with ioan grillo whose book is "el narco: inside mexico's criminal insurgency," and sylvia longmire, "cartel: the coming invasion of mexico's drug wars." and we want to get your reaction to the panel during an open phone segment. then there's a panel on the arts of nonfiction. three authors will be on that panel. then we will talk with david sobel. in about four hours and off a panel on the air of spring. three well-known authors will be on that panel. again, you have a chance to weigh in. we want to get your reaction to that panel as well. in the last panel of the day, at about five hours from now, adam winkler has written a book called gunfight, the battle over the right over the right to bear arms in america. so that's our line up today from the texas book festival in austin. as you can see, they c-span bus is here as well. we are handing out bookbags with our partner

to be joined by one of america's best known historians, doug brinkley, whose most recent book is called "the quiet world: saving alaska's wilderness kingdom." doug brinkley, you've written about t.r., you've written about james forestall, you've written about katrina, jimmy carter, why alaska? >> i'm, right now i'm writing the whole history of the u.s. conservation movement, and my first volume was called the wilderness warrior. this is the second installment, and can it's the whole campaign. it begins in 1879 with john mover, co-founder of the sierra club, going up and seeing those incredible glaciers up the inside passage of alaska and writing about it and how a whole group of what i call, really, wilderness lawyers have worked to safe wild alaska including theodore roosevelt and people like walt disney, william o. douglas, on and on. so i'm now working on "silent spring revolution." in the 1960s. this is not just a history book. i end it in 1960 when eisenhower saved the arctic refuge, anwr that you hear about in the news all the time. >> well, this really is a story about personalities, and let's talk about some of them. let's