fdr made a lot of makes. >> you have to make mistakes.ely have to make mistakes and risk making mistakes. >> joy: john, i can't tell you how much i enjoyed you being here. what is your next project? i hear you're doing an one-man show. >> i do that all the time. it's a show that i developed at lincoln center about four years ago. >> joy: what it's about? >> it's about me. >> joy: about you. >> it's called "stories by heart." the essence of it, it's a two-act evening in the theater. each of the two acts features a great short story. one by p pg woodhouse and one by lardner. what the two stories have in common, they were both in a big fat book of short stories that my father read to me and my sibs when we were kids. one in particular i read to him when he was near death and it sort of kept him alive. >> joy: oh. >> it has meant what stories mean to me. >> joy: and you write children's books. you were aright up there with milne. >> well. >> joy: i can't think. >> throw in maurice. >> joy: and madonna. >> well, yes. >> joy: she has a couple.

the last one i will throw out there is fdr, fdr was very much in favorite of a vigorous executive. but he accepted those limits when it came to domestic policy. to play sandy's game, how do presidents do wln they're in office. i think if had not happened, that fdr would be considered a mediocre president, i don't think that -- foreign affairs and the coming of world war ii and did violate congressional statutes to try to get us involved in the conflict earlier than congress wanted, that's when we began to consider him a great president. >> this is great stuff. i'm going to be brief because i want to get to the questions. but this gives me a lot of great material to talk to my kids about. i'm still a little crazy here. so the main point i want to make is i'm intrigued by the interest in rethinking what a constitution looks like, should look like. but i would urge us to approach that task with much caution. there is a lot we don't know about how bureaucracies, how governments and how people respond to changes in structure. and even when we do know something, i think it's important to

unfortunately, i don't think fdr read it and if he did read it he certainly disregarded it very quickly and with the direction that you deal with, davis began to take a very principled stand and he wound up in 1936, breaking with the democrats, he endorsed land on and there was a front page "new york times" article that he reprinted his whole speech and it was a classic, defensive conservatism and they didn't have time to read you some of the quotes. he also was involved in forming the liberty league which was a major counterbalance to the new deal during the 1930s and '40s and probably most importantly, he argued a lot of cases before the supreme court, many of which were successful in striking down the legislation. by the time davis ended his career in shortly before he died and he died in 1955, but i think his last case was 1954, and he'd argued 142 cases before the supreme court more than any other lawyer except daniel webster and was universally hailed as the term was lawyer's lawyer. and without question, the premiere advocate before the supreme court and won some amazing victory,

>> fdr. >> a speech written for him. which was fun any because smith was no kind of happy warrior, but fdr was and hubert singcerty was. >> 1948, he leads the walk out -- he prompts the walk out of the dixie accurates. he says it's time to emerge from the shadow. >> lost in '68. >> one of the great moments that everybody should be proud of. that's what i think of hubert humphrey. >> and he also transforms the vice presidency in a surprising way because he had such a

fdr saved the world and mixed a swell martini. and now it is time to solemnize the occasion. "the death of liberalism." shortly before conservatism conservatism -- conservatism of book by a sam tanenhaus said sent parts of letter titled the death of conservatism you remember it. some of you read it. not unlike my book. except one thing. completely and totally and if thunderously wrong. sam is the editor of "the new york times" book review. and also of the now-defunct week in review. one would have thought he would have hedged his bet to and might have ended the title and then question mark "the death of liberalism"? the death of conservatism? once there is a judgment like that it is written in stone. the writer stakes his reputation on a book. nobody wants to be laughed or dismissed as the idiot. but yet sam wrote the death of conservative is them and was congratulated by a liberals. he probably still is for his heroism. what were they thinking about when they had him take over the legislative chambers all over the country? for sam's part he can mount with the paperback the d

fdr has lasted 36 years. the republican party of reagan, the first president bush, and the second president bush was an alliance of religious conservatives, fiscal conservatives, and foreign-policy hawks. the two planes to the amendment, have never come remotely close to passing. fiscal conservatives. [laughter] in the conduct, and i'm going to be clear about this, but the fact of the iraq war, but the conduct of it, had given policy hawks a bad name. i think that people of goodwill can disagree about the intelligence and the road war. there is very little debate once you got through the first summer of 2003, it was not working. i think that kicking him in the shins of late 2002 or early 2003 is worthless. john mccain, also, after september, -- jesus running into data could not have one. [laughter] it was the most challenging political environment for a republican ever. the fact that he got 46% is amazing to me. and i like senator mccain. look at it from a clinical way. remember the index where you add intere

fdr, governor of new york. what is it about new york in those days that you don't see any of that now? >> i'm writing a piece about this now. i'm from california. when i was a kid, california eclipsed new york. this happened over a gradual period of time. in population, so that's a fact. but in other ways too that new yorkers were reluctant to admit. and what's happening now is maybe texas is doing that to california and these it things change. but hughes, because he was a new yorker, he brought with him his attitudes about gender and race. he's the racial moderate and if he defeats wilson, washington is not resegregated. wilson went along. hughes would never have gone along with that. and the civil rights movement might have moved along faster and in a different stream. of all the 14 on our list, he's the one you start to wonder if he'd had been elected how american history would have gone for suffrage, civil rights, would hughes have avoided that? he's the one you could write novels about. >> did he have a be

talk about how magnificent fdr was? until the cows come home but if you had and rounded up, you are being treated as if you were living in a crypto fascist state. the same was true of jim crow and jane crow. democracy might be fleur singh on the vanilla side of town but it still has class problems and still has economic adjustments. you can talk about democracy all you want but i'm still not in. fearful of the lynch mob. i am dealing with segregated conditions and circumstances you see so as you can imagine talking about fellow sisters, i am anti-american. no, no, no. is anti-injustice in america. it's not anti-american at all. charles kikuchi had a profound commitment to democracy in america. he just had a high sensitivity to the injustices in america too. and the challenge is always, how to keep both of those ideas in your heart and mind and soul at the same time, and we know dubois had that wonderful vision he wrote that column from here to yonder. also fascinating artistic satirical stories about blacks and asians a

the realignment of the political party -- i mean, when fdr became the party of -- coalition democratic standard bear and combined labor, women sufferage, as well as african-americans moving from south to north, it split through the democratic party and you get strum thurman in 1948 and a long steady road to the erosion of white southern democratic support for the national party because they continue to make gains in civil rights. eisenhower is fairly moderate, even though he's a republican, it suggests that the race question is gaining a national foothold that can't be put in the bottle. by the time you get to the early 1960s that sustained civil rights activism, there's a move towards repudiation of the democratic party and ultimately a strategy emerges and republicans take over the south. >> i wanted to ask you about the political support for you abou political support for progressive causes. an excerpt from your book, american dreamers, you write about the working class support of progressive ideas and causes and early part of the 20th century. >> i think the period, culminates in 1

you wouldn't even know that fdr had a taping system. why is that? that's because our system of government allowed presidents to claim ownership over their documents and materials including tapes. so they belonged to the presidents. the presidents would then deed them over to the u.s. government. of course, in kennedy's case, he sadly couldn't, but his family could. and those documents and materials would be the basis for a presidential library. but they actually had to be deeded to the u.s. government. so president nixon had every right to expect that he could control his tapes forever. and that if he didn't want to deed them to the united states government, if he wanted to destroy them, he could. so when suddenly the existence of the tapes becomes national news and is clearly of interest to the watergate special prosecutor archibald cox who's been nominated for this position and confirmed in may of 1973, the issue is will the president hand them over? and the last part of the story is a story really about a fight over the tapes. the president argue

not only fdr, but subsequent advisory councils over the years have repeatedly said that one of the bay cease basis of the programs is the idea that workers have earned these benefits and they came out against all these advisory councils came out against funding the program from the general fund. so just speaking for myself as a trustee, one of the thing its we wanted to do was address attention to the fact that if the program does continue to get transfers from the general fund, it does potentially create a situation where we'd have a departure from fdr's intentions. >> it's not your personal money anymore. about 45 cents of every dollar of public debt is held by foreign governments, mostly china. dr. blai house, if we continue the payroll tax holiday and the general revenue transfers to replace lost payroll tax revenue, do we risk turning social security from a program paid by americans to one depending on foreigners who invest in our bonds? >> well, i think it's certainly the case that the general r revenues that were transferred to social security along with the ray pais roll tax cu

fdr raised tax to $94% on income over 200,000. >> that's right. listen, both of those presidents who are great presidents historically had a certain kind of compassion for the american people. and a certain capacity to connect with the american people. you're talking about president ken. he comes from a family it has been being compassionate and compassionately engaged in connectioning with people on a day-to-day basis. unfortunately romney is the opposite of that. if problem with the blind trust is obviously it is politically coordinated so this is precisely the thing that people were so skeptical about with respect to the 1%. that there is a different set of rule. you play by these unfair rules and people cannot really stomach that any longer. especially when it comes to economics. >> it is a blind trust. mitt romney believes he knows absolutely nothing about where the invest manies are made. who has purchased. who has dropped. >> we know that's not true. fannie mae is also something he invested in. he made money in the thing that were part of u

you know, fdr was saying the top rate is 88, but now in this situation, in war, we should really haveove, what was about, i believe, as i recall from the book, somewhere around the equivalent of $350,000 today. >> i think that's right. and that 90 -- you know, the rates stayed, the top marginal rates stayed above 90%, not just through world war ii, but through the 1950s and until the tax cut in 1964. and during those years, with a 90% top marginal tax rate, we had a level of prosperity that we would kill for today. >> and henry ford knew that the workers in his factory had to make enough money to be able to buy the product that was rolling out of his factory, in order for his business to grow and be as successful as he dreamed of it being. what has happened to that understanding of consumer demand being the real driver of our economy, being the real job creator of our economy, and you can't have consumer demand without significantly better distributed middle class incomes. >> that's right. well, that idea has gone out the window. and there's very little concern for the welfare of midd

fdr, fdr got it.reat things and he knew like i said, fdr -- >> joe biden gets it. >> joe biden gets it. joe biden gets it. >> talking about optimism or talking about the notion of the american exceptionalism. >> there's nothing wrong with careful optimism, which optimism with -- >> talking about -- talking about optimism. >> serious challenges. >> we're talking about -- >> nothing wrong with that. being self-aware. if we're exceptional we can be that. >> we're talking about the optimism to be ike, and to know that you got 18 and 19-year-old kids that are going to be able to scale the cliffs of omaha beach and run into the heart of france and kick the hell out of hitler. >> except we can't do that right now. >> yes, we can. >> we're too fat. i'm serious. we're -- >> you know what, mika, nobody has ever -- nobody has ever been more wrong, nobody has ever been more wrong than you are right now. >> storming beaches, we're too fat. you know what, you know what we're going to do? we're going to take tours n

in one of the great studies of fdr's tax policy is called "the limits of symbolic reform." >> i think the rates are very easy to understand. i think people with, you know -- can easily underequate progressivity with the rates. and i think it's something that an important public service we could all provide that i hope is being provided with this forum and others that that's really just a piece of the bupuzzle. >> we haven't really talked about this, but this is a more meaningful issue is a question of brackets and where they start and where they end and how many we have. because, you know, 90% of rates on very small numbers of people are really truly meaningless. there was a rate in 1935 that applied to one person because the bracket was so small. the question, i think it is a relevant question. i'm not endorsing the idea, but the idea that we don't have enough brackets, and the difference between somebody making $350,000 a year and somebody making $350 million a year is meaningful. i think that is a reasonable argument to have. and the fact that we have relatively few brackets in his

there is no fdr and reagan. even in a weird way it is more of a process election.say we are going to throw our arms around simpson bowles. everything. joking aside, every election has to be framed as if it's destroyed. it's armageddon. >> as you told me earlier this week, this is going to have all the excitement of the jimmy carter and gerald r ford matchup. this is. this is more like 1976 than say 1980 or 1932. both of these guys are reading from the scripts and have the poll tested focus group messages and they are running with it. >> i think these are two wings of an establishment party. until one or the other says we are really going to get serious about the debt and serious about the tax code, we have a way of actually doing something, you are talking about right now no one likes to admit this in politics, it makes what you do a little iffy, but right now it's a difference in degree, not kind. >> a lot of people are going to be putting their hair on fire over the next five months saying this election will be the most important. >> do not think they continue to

ticierfronteivisioons lato que no ha ocurun eion@@no noticiero univision fds lateunid teunivision@@noticiero union fdr más lanotio univision fds lateuniviv afion fdstán, te.ision@@ciero ii univis>>>fds launivnnotio univn@ noticiero univision fds lateuni@ >>> stefano, bienvenido con los deportes, adelante. >>> @@ísimasciero cias,ision lo noticiero univision fds lateunis esacar un triunfonoero union fd dlas 2:30 este, 11:30 pacífico. >>> mientras tanto estados unidos irá ante canadá, el encuentro por univisión deportes. >>> vamos con las eliminatorias de sudamérica, argentina goleó a ecuador 4 a 0, con goles de aguero, pipita higuaín, ángel di maría y lionel messi, mientras que chile derrotó 2 a 0 a bolivia con goles de aranguiz yi vidal, mientras queision@@notic. >>> la srie de te nba está 2 a 2 entre san anivisionios late yun mañana tenemos la pláticaero unv exclusiva con dunga. >>> dónde está pelé.ión >>t>estÁ en brasil y no está contento con lo que pasa con klos estadios. >>> muchas gracias, stefano. >>> gracias. >>> no todos los días puede ver un felino como este en los patios de sus casas,, pero p

and democrats in 1936, we purported fdr and rejected our brother alfred landon. democratic senators and democratic governors as well as well represented republican party as well. this is significant because you really get a sense of the equanimity of the project. they are capturing people and the people they are talking to are willing themselves to hope. they have not only been inspired by roosevelt but it was clear in going through these collections that there is a real sense of resilience among people in kansas that many of their grandparents or grandparents or older pioneers say to themselves come out and allow themselves taming this land reading civilization and fiercely devoted to their communities and didn't want to leave. they were bad enough in oklahoma. the state did lose populations, they did their best to stay. neighbors helped each other. they're finding people willing to reach out and give food and meals at be self-reliant and take care, you see a sense in this collection. he is his own man and person and talk about his past and present and has a sen

to prison for 7 years in the theft of rare historic documents written by abraham lincoln, carl marx, fdr, and others. >> he was a con artist. he would gain people's trust and steal their property. >> reporter: landau and his accomplice were arrest in the july of 2011 after worker at the maryland historical society spotted them trying to steal documents. landau would distract his toians, while landau would steal the documents. the documents recovered from landau's home were valued at well over $1 million. >> what they did is terrible. it's our national patrimony they took. >> reporter: dozens turned out for the snning of a man they call -- >> a -- senator sentencing of a -- for the sentencing of a man they call -- >> a thief and a liar. >>> landau's accomplice has already pleat guilty but has not been sentence. >>> a home is consumed by flames, and pay parentally the family inside d no idea their house was on fire. you can see parts of the home are destroyed. neighbors and firefighters alerted the people inside. everyone was able to get out safely. >>> muff more serious fires are forcing

here's a guy himself, that's actually a light bounce off of fdr roosevelt. this was his chakra. this was march 4th, 1933. he made the statement and he made it, i didn't understand a long time. the point i was making, people were terrified. because it seemed like the economy had no bottom and the banks were going down and there was no federal deposit dollars. so imagine a time when we actually had a president who told us we should be courageous rather than trafficked in fear. to his own advantage. there's been a long war on the new deal. it was when roosevelt got started. almost immediately, the more than great realized the lengths he was willing to go. at the beginning, roosevelt didn't understand how far he was going to go. the dupont family and the ones that set up the american liberty league. that was successful because they have unlimited amounts of money. there were so popular, they were not able to stop it. they began to finance right-wing think tanks. they have been successful to the university of chicago economics department and notable fraud such as milton freed man. th

fdr and harry truman both pushed for it during their presidencies.cial security act of 1965. creating medicare and medicaid. but the debate for universal care was reignited in the '90s by then-first lady hillary clinton. and the most recent push would come in part from the late massachusetts senator ted kennedy. who spent a career fighting for universal care. in a surprise move, he endorsed then-senator obama in 2008 partly because of his trust in the future president to get it done. >> with barack obama we'll break the old gridlock and finally make health care what it should be in america, a fundamental right for all not just an expensive privilege for the few. >> that dream became a reality in march 2010 when the house >> on this vote, the yeas are 220, the nays are 211. the bill is passed. >> president obama signed the bill into law two days later accomplishing something no president could do for a century. and so today is a day we will never forget. it's a day that will never be forgotten in american history. joining me now is melissa harris-perr

secondly, i think he wants to be the only president since fdr, only democratic president since fdr toet reelected after serving a full term in office. and the first since truman to get reelected, period. i think that that is an important thing to him. >> bill: what do you mean, reelected, what do you mean reelected? >> he is no other democrat. >> bill: you are talking about barack obama or are you talking about bill clinton? >> yeah. bill clinton is the only democrat president to be reelected since harry truman. >> bill: so he doesn't want barack obama to be reelected so that would take away some of thinks thunder? >> that's right. >> bill: oh, come on, morris. that's kind of petty. >> rodriguez to break his record. i know, but you asked me. i know how furious he was that he got 49.7% of the vote not 50% in 1996. very important factor with him. third thing is that he think he fundamentally disagrees with obama that he is basically a free market, free ernesto prize balance the budget guy. and he fundamentally dislikes obama's agenda. but on the other hand. he has got a wife to protect

ç >>> still ahead, from fdr to lbj to barack obama, we'll look at the right's long sordid history ofre wrong then. and they're wrong now. [ male announcer ] let's say you need to take care of legal matters. wouldn't it be nice if there was an easier, less-expensive option than using a traditional lawyer? well, legalzoom came up with a better way. we took the best of the old and combined it with modern technology. together you get quality services on your terms, with total customer support. legalzoom documents have been accepted in all 50 states, and they're backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee. so go to legalzoom.com today and see for yourself. it's law that just makes sense. >>> we just talked about the right wing reaction to the health care ruling. but, folks, they've been attacking our great social program for decades. began in 1935 when fdr signed the social security act giving millions of americans retirement benefits. at the time, a republican congressman said it would quote, threaten the integrity of our institutions. another gop congressman said quote, the lash of the dict

how he was the first democrat re-elected sis fdr.f romney can drive a wedge, return to the democratic party brr it recognized businesses created job, it can have a real thought and may win the election. >> still "outfront," the man who left the romney campaign suddenly. but he says that being openly gay and being incredibly criticized for being openly gay from the far right of the republican party didn't influence him. does it add up? we'll ask him. >>> and we go "outfront" to israel. >>> up next what might be the world's second most valuable secret formula. i'm an expert on softball. and tea parties. i'll have more awkward conversations than i'm equipped for because i'm raising two girls on my own. i'll worry about the economy more than a few times before they're grown. but it's for them, so i've found a way. who matters most to you says the most about you. massmutual is owned by our policyholders so they matter most to us. massmutual. we'll help you get there. ♪ home of the brave. ♪ it's where fear goes unwelcomed... ♪ and certain

general washington, good old abe, fdr, but everything now all this stuff is too big for us. and i don't think it is too big for us. i think probably much of the responsibility of changing things should go after digging into people like me, like ernie, god knows like you. how did folks make this country a better country? and what is it that we now need to continue? we can't just sit around in our fancy cars and fancy houses and say god, we are a swell country. when there's so much more to do. and doing it is the best stuff. i mean, i will say to you that to have done the journalism, my dear pal here, to have done a little bit of tv and the shows that he is on, to be motivated by a picture of ernie and his co-activists, they all -- they all give great energy, but there's something, something that we need to do, and that is that we need more people building and fewer people reaching in to what can i get today, bigger car than yesterday and so forth. we teach each other that america is worth taking care of. our schools, our hospitals, our police departments, all of these things

as we dug deeper and deeper into reagan's relationship with the club he had seen fdr and had gone to a truman 100 in kansas city when he was still a democrat and would then be taken under the wing of ike when he was beginning his political career as a republican. i was struck by how is -- when we were coming up the driveway he saw over and over again all the presidents which is a reminder every person who served the commander in chief sees himself as part of a bigger club. let me enhance the picture. this was on the cover of time two or three weeks ago. it had never been published before and we were thrilled to put it on the cover. it really began a long time before george w. bush, barack obama and bill clinton with their to pick up the torch. it begins -- what year would you say? >> it begins when the president is in need of some serious help. that is what it would take to bring together such an unlikely partnership as harry truman and herbert hoover. two men with nothing in common politically or personally, no relationship of any kind except for the fact the world was a very diffic

in fdr's case this was an unforced error since he had a solidly democratic congress.president obama's case, much but not all of the policy wrong turn lies with the obstructionist republican majority in the house. he wrote about the first depression but what he says we are in right now is another depression. he says it is not a recession, it's a desession. he says it is beatable. he says politically and economically and he says understanding why republicans are blaming everything on policeman and firefighters now is the key that unlocks the door to making things better. nobel prize winner paul krugman is here for the interview. stay tuned. those surprising little things she does still make you take notice. there are a million reasons why. but your erectile dysfunction that could be a question of blood flow. cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your

that's how he was the first democrat re-elected since fdr.f romney said this is a return to the democratic party before it recognized that businesses create job, he could have an argument with the centrist and independents who ultimately decide who win the election. >> thank you very much. >>> still outfront, the man who left the romney campaign suddenly but he says being openly gay and being incredibly criticized for being openly gay from the far right of the republican party didn't influence him. does it add up? we'll ask him. >>> and we go outfront to israel. up next, what might be the world's second most valuable secret formula. ♪ [ woman ] it's like a magnet. pulling us together for different reasons. music. games. photos. shows. we share stories, laugh... and truly engage. it brings us closer and that is my happy place. ♪ [ male announcer ] the best family moments happen in an instant. capture them with internet explorer and a powerful dell pc. so i wasn't playing much of a role in my own life, but with advair, i'm breathing better so n