later, we'll get conventional wisdom from historian douglas brinkley.s "the war room," and it's just getting started. we'll be right back. the highest amount of jobs. those are facts. >>"if you ever raise taxes on the rich, you're going to destroy our economy." not true! [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> jennifer: there is a new poll out today from the wall street journal. the first one since mitt romney announced paul ryan would be joining the ticket. it has president obama with 48% and mitt romney with 44%. among registered voters nationwide. that's only slightly different from last month when the president led romney 49% to 43%. that suggests that paul ryan did not give mitt romney much of a bounce. to drill down on that point the poll also asked whether ryan's selection impacted their vote or would impact their vote. 22% said it made them more likely to vote for romney. but 23% said it made them less likely. and the majority, 54% said it did not effect their vote either way. over all the president leads them among minorities and young people and romney is ahea

i think the douglas brinkley is a wonderful historian. he is a history professor at rice university, he has always taught at the naval academy in princeton, and he also does detailed comprehensive research in his writing. the biography of cronkite that he wrote up will be the definitive biography of walter cronkite. and i think both the fact that douglas brinkley wrote it and my high regard for him, and the fact that walter cronkite, of course, is so well known and loved in our country, having this kind of a biography is an excellent thing for us to have towards documentation in the future. the last book, i have a chapter in this book, it is vital voices. it is an organization that was formed with then senator hillary clinton and myself as the honorary cochairs. i relate to this and put a chapter in, as did secretary of state quinten, because i have been so impressed by the role that women have taken throughout the world, particularly in countries that are in trouble. the women leaders have emerged to create peace or create honesty and in

we will be interviewing katrina's historian, douglas brinkley.is the best selling author of "the great deluge." it will be interesting to hear his thoughts on lessons learned as isaac bears down on new orleans. stick around for that. >>> finally, as hurricane isaac makes its way toward land, oil and gas prices have been all over the map this week. sharon epperson is with us from the nymex. we have the storm and venezuela probably under-reported given the storm but traders still can't seem to make up their mind about oil. why not? >> a lot of traders said we're waiting on the sidelines until we see this make landfall. todd just talked about the storm surge. that this is key when you talk about what happens to gas and oil prices as well. what happens to flooding at the refineries and power outages and how long we will see refineries shut down or at reduced rates. we could potentially see all 2.4 million barrels of capacity in the new orleans baton rouge area shut down before this storm is over and it will take several days to ramp it back up. while

douglas brinkley is a wonderful historian. also teaching at the naval academy he is a historian the bagger fee of cronkite is the definitive one. and the fact that douglas brinkley wrote it to and the fact walter cronkite is so well known and loved to have this by our coffee this or documentation in the future. fu. last book is final voices in organization formed to list senator hillary clinton as the honoraria co-chair. i have ben so impressed by a their role women have taken particularly in countries that are in trouble. to create honesty and integrity to fight for human rights where it is so lacking. follow the us word taken with the treatment of women in afghanistan. how some of them demerged in the face of torture and death to say we can create a society. since we have been in afghanistan to help them be free we have insisted all the aid america puts forward for women as well as the ways and the men. with these experiences each year they made a difference. secretary of state clinton and i have come to the award events and

douglas brinkley reporting live this more than.ational parks like yellowstone and yosemite. would you want to take your kids to see where the first nuclear bombs were created? i don't know. we'll show you why those locations may become our next national park on "cbs this morning." living with the pain of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis could mean living with joint damage. help stop the damage before it stops you with humira, adalimumab. for many adults with moderate to severe ra, humira's proven to help relieve pain and stop joint damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb,

. >> digging deeper now with wolf blitzer and presidential historian douglas brinkley.ou've covered presidential campaigns for decades. how significant do you think it is that mitt romney who's not really wanted his faith to be a main issue let the press accompany him to church yesterday? what does it tell you about his campaign strategy right now? >> i think it tell us he's beginning to feel a lot more comfortable in this general election season. showing folks that he is a religion man. that he does go to church. certainly i always felt it was a bigger issue, the fact he's a mormon in a republican contest for the republican primaries and the caucuses than it would be in a general election. on the same day that the press saw the president of the united states go to church with his family, i think it was good for the romneys that the press accompanied him, went inside. a pool reporter went inside. the stories coming out of the church, the service and all of that, were pretty positive. i think the presidential candidate should be doing more of this. >> doug, the romney/ry

and katrina authority douglas brinkley will be joining us, the best selling author of "the great delugestorians on the katrina documentary. you have to join us, 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. eastern. back to you on "power lunch." >> we will see you then. >>> the spotlight on governor chris christie tonight. christie has a reputation for fiscal toughness. what is his economic record in new jersey really like? we put that question to two people joining us from tampa, two new jersey statehouse reporters, melissa hayes with the record and mike simons with the asbury park press, also the co-author of "chris christie," the inside story of his rise to power. good morning to both of you. we broke this into business development jobs and taxes. melissa, how does he rate in terms of business development for the state? >> he has done a lot to bring businesses in. cut corporate business tax. is new budget has another tax cut in it. brought amazon to the state of new jersey but also losing busine business. a pharmaceutical company announced plans to close their office and move out-of-state. >> are his taxes crea

douglas brinkley got to interviews his childhood hero 11 years ago. >> good morning. >> good morning,sense of why he meant so much to you. >> well, i was eight years old living in per isburg, ohio. he was down the road and he was my generation's audi murphy or charles lindbergh. the fact that we were breaking the shackles of earth and neil armstrong, the local ohio boy was actually going to the moon was an incredible sensation. my friends and myself, we would collect anything we could about apollo 11. it was a defining moment for our generation. ohio was first in aviation, the home of the wright brothers and the home of john glenn and neil armstrong seemed to reinforce that whole ohio value that aviation mattered. >> why do you think he was so reserved about his own achievements as well as his own sense of wanting to take all of this and, in a sense, move away from it? >> you know, he was an incredible modest person and he was -- out of all the astronauts, he had the best technical superiority in space. he graduated from purdue in engineering. he was completely no nonsense. with the e

[applause] >> i am douglas brinkley and i am going to be reading from one of the three biographies thater hitchens did. they are all very searing. this one is, no one left to lie to you about bill clinton and the other one was on mother motr mother theresa and henry kissinger. carol blue working with 12 has been able to reissue all three of the biographical trilogies now available and this is from triangulation chapter in the clinton book. it is told of viewing law contemplating a run for high office that the summoned the pig donors of the great state of louisiana and enlighten them thus. those of you who come in with me now oversees a big piece of the pie. those of you who delay and commit yourselves later will receive a smaller piece of the pie. and those of you who don't come in at all will receive only good government. a touch of modern taste perhaps that but there is no start that the kingfish had a primal understanding of the essence of american politics. this essence when distilled consists of the manipulation of populism by gilead is some. that can lead his most successful which

. >>> presidential historian and tv news consultant douglas brinkley is joining us.ose that ethel kennedy wants to keep the documents so secret right now? what do you think that we can learn from them? >> well, we have to get back to 1968 when her husband was slain in los angeles and how horrific that was for a mother with all those kids. and a deal was made with the national archives that she would get control over what's called the rfk personal papers. she has had control over these all these years. one can complain about the bargain between ethel kennedy and the national archives, but mrs. kennedy is not doing anything wrong. they're really her papers at this point. what the problem is that we're finding out they're not really just personal papers and correspondence, that there's material, as you mentioned, about the cuban missile crisis and other events when rfk was attorney general. i don't see this as a big kind of issue. i think eventually they'll be all opened or saved at the kennedy library in boston so it's simply a matter of when. with the 50th anniversary

we'll ask presidential historian douglas brinkley. >> fallout from the scandal in vegas.rince harry could hurt his military career and upstage his role at the paralympics next week. >>> nobody could ad lib better. not even edward r. murrow, though he tried when he talked with groucho marx. >>> first our top story this half hour. tropical storm isaac is pounding haiti and the dominican republic this morning with torrential rains. meanwhile in florida, hurricane and tropical storm warnings are in effect. david bernard is at the chief meteorologist in miami. david, good morning. what's the latest on the path and strength of isaac this morning? >> right now we're preparing for a hurricane here in south florida. as you mentioned, we have hurricane warnings for the keys and we have a hurricane watch for the miami area, which could go to a warning later today. i just got the new information in from the national hurricane center. the storm now 95 miles southeast of guantanamo and cuba and again, there's that forecast trek. by tomorrow afternoon, a category 1 hurricane somewhere i

author douglas brinkley, thank you very much. >> guest: thank you, brian. >> for a dvd copy of the program call 1-877-662-7726. for free transcripts or to give comments about the program, visit us at q&a.org. programs also available as podcasts. >> well, the library of congress has a new program. .. >> we also thought it was good to look at nonfiction and book

on friday, also tomorrow, author douglas brinkley on walter cronkite, covering world war ii to anchoring the "cbs evening news". >> you're watching c-span2 at politics and public affairs weekdays featuring live coverage of the u.s. senate. on weeknights watch key public policy events and every weekend believes nonfiction authors and books on booktv. >> in a few moments, the issues affecting the latino community. in three hours, gop media strategist ted davis in 2008. after that we will re-air the discussion on how democratic candidates use new media in the last two presidential campaigns. >> tomorrow morning on "washington journal", stephen moore of "the wall street journal" on the pre-election election agenda and what they need to complete before november. and gerald connolly explains why he was one of 19 democrats went across the aisle and voted to extend the bush era tax cuts. plus your e-mails, phone calls and tweets. watch live on c-span. >> the center for american progress on labor secretary phyllis leaves and council director cecilia munoz. panelists will examine a variety of issu

today douglas brinkley on his book about the late cbs anchor walter cronkite. mr.inkley discusses mr. cronkite's grip on the front line into world war ii and his rise through the ranks of cbs. live at the same time on booktv.org, author of the party is over,is authorrecnt hiscareer goes a staff member of the budget committee. he is speaking at politics and ose bookstor at :30 p.m eastern and apple tv.org. booktv.org. >> the library of congress has a new exhibit. books that shaped america. eighty were selected by e library for their influence on america and american culture. here is a brief interview about the exhibitnd how you can join in on online chat about the library's list and what books >>actulychosoks tte included. shaped america, as whon that cnged ameri. we think that bookslowlye so mansasuch an society. prnd influence on america culture and society, and indeed, the very essence of what america is. the nly eception was thomas edison's book on electricity and thomas paine's book that saved the american revolution. it is critical part of american culture. ma

tell us when and why conventions became a little more predictable is presidential historian douglas brinkley professor of rice university. douglas, welcome back inside "the war room." >> thanks for having me on. >> jennifer: you bet. we watched that tape from 1968. did 1968 signal the end of the inscripted convention? >> no, it was part of the end. 1972 in miami george mcgovern, ended up giving his acceptance speech at about 3:00 in the morning. that's not very good for ratings ratings. but after '72 you started getting this becoming heavily choreographed affair now right down to the exact second things are timed. and it's simply to get as many people to watch as possible. it's the last moment that barack obama and mitt romney are going to able to have 80 million people watching them. the debates will be big but you can't get your message out. conventions, you can. >> jennifer: conventions used to be a place as you alluded the place where real decisions were made. tell us about the 1960 democratic convention, how senator john f. kennedy ended up speaking lyndon b. johnson. tell us that story