i'm fareed zakaria. this week, an encore of the interview from may with the secretary of defense robert gates. the job that gates holds is unique, unlike that of any other cabinet secretary. he sits on the national security council, of course, presiding over the largest armed forces in the world by far. almost larger in dollar terms than the rest of the world's militaries put together. the reach of the american armed forces is really unprecedented. 5,000 locations around the world. in addition, he also presides over the largest organization on the planet, a huge quasi socialist system that offers its 5 million participants activity duty and reserve retired services from a single payer and administrator, the federal government. as you can imagine, any system like this is riddled with politi politics. the four services have their liaisons with washington. you need to be a strategist, an administrator, ceo and politician. it's a tough job to succeed at. in fact, few have. the most famous secretaries of defe

francis fukayama was one, fareed zakaria was another. they're both well outside that movement.here were people in the bush administration who tried to argue this. they were marginalized or stripped of power. what america saw was an ideological revanchism with all the knobs turned to the highest volume. the imperial presidency of a dick cheney and all the rest. and we saw where we got. >> moyers: here's another puzzle. back to what we were talking about earlier. you say in "the death of conservatism" that, "even as the financial collapse drove us to the brink, conservatives remained strangely apart, trapped in the irrelevant causes of another day, deaf to the actual conversation unfolding across the land." and the paradox is, it seems to me, they are driving the conversation that you say they don't hear. >> well, you know, they have many mouths, bill, but they don't have many ears. the great political philosopher, hannah arendt once said, in one of her great essays on socrates-- whom she wrote about a lot-- that the sign of a true statesmen, maybe particularly in a democracy, is

what this is, is institutional recognition of what our mutual friend fareed zakaria called the post elections world. it not nato, it's not a small group of big countries. you need to bring a larger group of play to the table, in order to have any kind of real buy-in among the essential players for global economic policy. unlike, let's say, political issues of the security council, economic issues are too important not to deal with, so the institutional reform has happened. everyone's been talking about it, and the security council, it hasn't happened there. here it did happen. and it's going to make things unwieldy because there's much more difficult to come to a consensus among 20, especially with widely diverted interests, than it is among a smaller group, which was always hard there, too. but it's necessary. it's appropriate. united states will have less leverage, not because they've moved the sphere to a larger group but rather because its role in the world is not as large as it once was. >> we're out of time for now. thank you very much to both of you joining us for the roundtable discus

s trn on sunday, fareed zakaria.ting on the streets of buffalo, new york. now some are calling it a hate crime. >> people would call him cracker or honky when we walked down the street once in a while. >> but the victim's father says police aren't treating it like a hate crime because his son is white. we're going to give you the details. >>> a california lawmaker caught on tape bragging about his sexual exploits. now he says he has an explanation. stay with us. i have copd which makes it hard to breathe. but now that i'm breathing better with advair... i can enjoy the zoo with my grandkids. (announcer) for people with copd including chronic bronchitis, emphysema, or both, great news. advair helps significantly improve lung function. while nothing can reverse copd, advair is different from most other medications because it contains both an anti-inflammatory and a long-acting bronchodilator working together to help you breathe better. advair won't replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms and should not be use

i'm fareed zakaria. this week, the interview from may with the secretary of defense robert gates. the job that gates holds is unique, unlike that of any other cabinet secretary. he sits on the national security council presiding over the largest armed forces in the world by far, almost larger in dollar terms than the rest of the militaries put together. the 5,000 locations around the world. in addition, he also provides over the largest organization on the planet, a huge ques sigh socialist system that offers its 5 million participants grade elle to grave services from single payoror and administra r administrator, the federal government. this is riddled with politics. the four services have their liaisons with washington. you need to be a strategist, an administrator, ceo and politician. it's a tough job to succeed at. in fact, few have. the most famous secretaries of defense are famous because they failed. robert mcnamara and donald rumsfeld the most obvious examples. by most judgment, gates has been extraordinarily successful, perhaps the most successful ever. i will throw in a

eastern here on cnn, fareed zakaria, gps.. >>> president obama's big health care media blitz, a new secret weapon has emerged, the first lady stepping in. >>> also president obama saying illegal immigrants will not be covered by his health care plan, that is until he gives them an necessity. was this the backdoor plan all along? >>> and it turns out some kids were left behind after all. a new survey showing disturbing facts about our schools and what our kids are missing and what they're being educated in. join us for all of that, all of the day's news and a lot more. an entertaining, informative however. wolf, back to you. >>> we're about to go one-on-one with one of president obama's top economic advisors. jessica yellin getting ready to do that. he's worried something in washington is slipping away. >>> >>> a watch dog that could have prevented the worst abuses. so how is the job so far? >> i didn't come for the fun. and i haven't been disappointed. >> goolsby says he will keep the heat on congress to get that reform -- wh

cnn's fareed zakaria is there speaking with the russian president, dmitry medvedev.at 1:00 p.m. eastern here on cnn. the worldwide leader in news. >>> a military build-up by venezuela has washington worried about the potential for an arms race in this region. as to that hugo chavez's deepening relationship with iran. jill dougherty has been looking into this for us. what are officials saying about ties between these two countries? >> reporter: to put it poetically, wolf, iran and venezuela, their relationship began blossomling four years ago. and now u.s. officials say it's a full-blown romance. iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad. venezuelaen president hugo chavez. >> they had a common ingredient which was they were outsiders in the world diplomatic system. >> reporter: this burgeoning relationship is making washington nervous. senior administration and intelligence officials tell cnn it goes beyond rhetoric. they point to a web of relations across the board between iran and venezuela. military, diplomatic, financial. and they warn this friendship between two avow