>> very kind jeps tour on the part of george bush. the first guests in the white house after he assumed the oval office from bill clinton happened to be a democrat and his wife, robert byrd, the senior democrat in washington, d.c., today. i mentioned before he has outlasted so many presidents, and bobby bid and his wife, i believe her name is irma was invited by president bush and first lady laura bush to sit down for their first dinner in the white house. as i said, not only was it a very kind gesture and reach across the aisle, but it was very telling, something robert byrd said after the dinner, when asked what impressed you most about this new president of the united states, and robert byrd said, the fact that he said grace after a meal, after his meal, is what impressed him the most. and i'm not sure if he was referring to the previous eight years and the lack of grace in the white house or not, but that definitely had an impact on robert byrd. >> but when i read it, i thought, it's interesting, the quote here is i like the fact

when you look at george w. bush, he is somebody who like i said from my perspective, he makes very quick judgments about people, and they are often what i would consider to be fairly a motive impression. he's very interested in whether or not sort of people well up. one of the things he talk about a lot in the book is how many different individuals he saw get tears in their eyes and that was a very important characteristic for him. >> host: author of several books of history, many about the presidency. the most recent is edited by him, the presidency of george w. bush, the subtitle is a first his historic assessment. when will we see books that say a reassessment? >> guest: that will happen. i think the caller mentioned two presidencies, eisenhower and reagan with big reassessments. both were seen as presidents at that time that were light hearted, not serious. as presidents basically driven and controlled by their advisers rather than very dominant figures, and we learned that was wrong, and i think what happened i

president george h.w. bush and his circle, his commanders, all at one table, at one time. we'll show you some of that just moments from now. but again tonight, we begin in tucson, arizona, and again tonight another positive progress report on the recovery of congresswoman gabby giffords. leaving the hospital tomorrow, actually coming to houston for rehabilitation, we begin tonight with nbc's kristen welker in tucson. kristen, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the congresswoman's husband said he chose that rehabilitation center because it is top-notch and close to where he lives and works. the astronaut, like this community, now preparing for the next phase of his wife's recovery. on a day when religious leaders gathered for a prayer service at the crime scene, mark kelly announced his wife is ready to be moved to houston for rehabilitation. >> she's a strong person, a fighter. i mean she is a fighter like, you know, nobody else that i know. >> reporter: kelly says his wife is so tenacious, she is trying to speak, and has shown other encouraging signs. >> she'

now, going to the bush administration, george w. bush, they come out of this history not looking at all good, particularly in the preamble to 9-11. they were preoccupied by iraq, by anti-ballistic missile defense which does nothing to stop terrorists and received a lot of warning about al qaeda as a threat. george w. bush took the longest parfittal vacation in three decades during the summer of 2001 despite all this information in the system that something was going to happen. condoleezza rice claimed that the administration was a battle station during this period but there's almost nothing to substantiate that. and they were enormously surprised on 9-11. they overreacted in many ways. some of the more egregious overreactions were corrected over time whether it was the coercive interrogation of detainees. the biggest overreaction of course was the invasion of iraq which would deserve a whole other discussion because it's such a large issue. and then president obama, i think, has -- there's a lot of -- there's a great deal of continui

mccain says to bush, george, does it have to be the way it's been? bush said to mccain something like, that's politics. mccain said to bush, is everything politics? and suddenly the guy says "on stage." i knew we were going to have a humdinger. >> tonight, a crucial debate for the lee remaining republican presidential candidates. >> remember who called who untrustworthy. this is a pro life party. may i finish, please? >> moderating is easy. all i have to do is ask good questions and keep it goings. can't let it get out of hand yet you want it to be strife ridden. >> you should be ashamed. you should be ashamed. >> is he responsible for what someone else said? >> this same man attacked his father. >> this is an attack piece. >> that is not by my campaign. >> it says paid for by john mccain. >> that is not by my campaign. >> then somebody is putting stuff out. >> on both sides it got really nasty. if bush had lost that, mccain would have been president i think. >>> any scenario in which you would run for president? can you give me a scenario where you'd

electors between tony blair and george bush. then take. the creative whiskey that has been buried in the south pole for more than 100 years but t. >> prosecutors have charged the former leader with misappropriation of funds from his 15-year rule which ended in 1986. he was obtained two days following his surprise return to haiti. a judge will decide if they should go ahead. we have the report. >> he is known as baby doc. he is no younger a young man. he is reminded of a darker past. he ruled haiti with an iron fist. he is accused of torturing and killing political opponents. he spent a quarter of a century and exile. he may finally face justice. he has been formally charged with corruption, theft, and other crimes. it will be reported by cuban rights groups across the world. his son returns now. >> if i look at the list of challenges that haiti faces today, there is still time to work for a political crisis it is still painfully slow. though some analysts say it has showing solidarity to the people. . markoff >> our correspondent joins us.

they are blocking the messages between tony blair and george bush. the chairman said he was disappointed that the cabinet secretary has prevented it from releasing the classified comments. >> >> the chairman wrote to the cabinet secretary. they are seeking permission to extract from the letters. he wrote the material requested provide unique insight into his thinking and a commitment that he made to president bush which are not reflected in other pages. certification john was told that they cannot publish the blair letters. he expressed frustration. >> the query is disappointed at the fact that you is not able to do the request. they may not always be able to publish as fully as it would wish. nick, i spoke out against document being withheld. -- nick clegg spoke out against the document being withheld. >> the strength will rest in the acceptance by the public. it is an understanding of why you went to war. that is why i believe the cabinet office should think again. how potentially revealing are the contents of the note? we had a clue when they reje

the talked about the private letters he sent to george bush in the year leading up to work. >> what i was saying to president bush was very simple. you could count on us but here are the difficulties. i wanted him to take a view radically different than those in his administration. i said i will be with you in handling it this way. i will not push you down this path and back out when a against too hot. -- when it gets too hot. i did this because i believe in this. >> but all the time he was making promises to george bush the legality of invasion was questioned by his own attorney. >> there was a debate still going on. >> he said he was uncomfortable with the language used about a >> i was making a political point but. but i was saying it not ash a lawyer but politically. >> you asked me if i had any regrets last time. i took that as responsibility. up was taken that i had no regrets about the loss of life. that was not my intention. i wanted to make that clear. i regret deeply and profoundly the loss of life whether from our own forces or civilians to help people or the iraqis themsel

-- to president george w. bushthey are disappointed by the decision. they said it would harm britain's international relations. during his 15-year rule, he was deposed in 1986. he was detained and charged after the supplies returned to haiti. the prime minister has retained the leadership of his party, choosing to back him in a secret confident valid. the polish investigation of a plane crash has accused russia of failing to warn pilots. the official russian inquiry has accused polish officials of putting the pilots under psychological pressure to land despite bad weather. tunisia's new government looks to be in tatters. the streets erupted again. protesters are angry at the survival of the old regime under a new guise. will that be enough to ensure their supply? >> this is not the sound or the side of the city returning to a peaceful stability. instead, the center erupted in violence against today. the protesters make it very clear they will not accept the new government announced on monday. the protest this morni

clinton t luego del ataque de oklahoma en ronald reagan en el ataque del transbordador el mismo george w. bushoos van a eschar cada presidte ha tenido que actuar de una forma quiz representando al país quizás el monto más difícil de su presidenc el presente obama lo hizo de forma brillante >>>rogelio: uno discurso magistral vamos a escuchar lo e dijo el presidente obama de ots víctimas de ta tragedia. >>> oriunda de new jersey philip jubiló de tucson pero en verano regresaba a la cost oeste donde su va giraba en torno a s 3 hijos, 7 nietos y una bis nieta de 2 años. o el albañilubilad pasab haendorreglos en la iglesia cosu perro s acto final de altruismo fue subirse arriba de su esposa pa sacrificar su vida por la ella. entoncesstá cristina la niña de 9 años, una estudiant brillante, bailarin gimnasta, le gustaba la natación. había decidido ser la imera mujer en jugar en las ligas mayos del béisbol yomo la única niña en el equipo de las menores de niños nadie la superaba >>>josé: rogelio cada una de las personas queerdió su vida el presidente las honr deorma muy boni pero creo que esa niña, qu

so tony blair has admitted there isn't a giving up private assurance to george w. bush that he can count on us over iraq but refuses to make that correspondence public how significant is it that he's not there for i guess being fully open i think it is probably the main significance that's come out of the inquiry this week that the inquiry wanted to publish extracts of the correspondence between tony blair and george bush and some of the records of the conversations but the cabinet secretary here blocked it after consulting with blair it does come time to blair blair didn't try to hide behind the officials and what it does is to give blair the right to the ability to hear him to define what he said his own terms rather not actually seeing the very words that he used some of them have been reported some of them have been leaked to some extent it was confirmed today but it is very important we see exactly the terms in which tony blair made a commitment to george bush in the run up to the war and so john chilcot inquiry chairman has made that very clear that we need to kno

bush mothers have been famously demanding. george h.r. bush describes his mother dorky walker bush has a drill sergeant. ba bra bush, of course, mother of george bush 43 is one tough cookie. >> do you ask your dad for advice? >> sure, i do. >> how about your mom? >> you don't need to ask her. she'll just tell. >> i do give advice. it's no good but i give it. >> to all of us. >> and some of us take it better than others. chris: and then there's bill clinton and virginia kelly. his biography of clinton, the great author emeritus described that mom this way -- the psychological center of her life seemed to be her son billy. she made it clear she expected him to achieve. well, accepting his presidential nomination bill clinton acknowledged his mother was no petunia. >> well, where i get my fighting spirit, it all started with my mother. chris: a sentiment echoed by his mother. here she was with katie couric on "today" that same week. >> it's been written to understand bill, you must start with virginia. how does he take after you? >> i have a

it's 90 minutes. >> host: and now a historian's roundtable discussion of george w. bush's presidential memoir, "decision points." joining us here in washington is professor laura brown of villanova and tevy troy who used to work for george w. bush and is associated with the hudson institute. let's start with just a general assessment of "decision points" as a presidential memoir. tevy troy. >> guest: well, the whole genre of presidential memoirs really started with ulysses s. grant who wrote a fascinating and novelistically written one and that's the standard by which these things are often measured. i think in the overall panoply of these things, i think bush's comes out pretty strong. i think it's more casual than your average memoir, i think that's what the reviewer in "the new york times" said. >> host: and you agree with that? >> guest: i do agree. he's got a lot of humor in there. she noted the fact that he's got a dog poop story towards the end of the book where a few hours earlier i was on air force one, and now at the end of his presidency he's chiening up his --

and a former speech writer for george w. bush.new york, the director of theking speech. >> it is right to remember -- mentioned dr. martin luther king and president obama in the same speech about oratory? >> it will probably not resonate in the chambers of history. i think king is the benchmark, but where they are different from what most political professionals do is those are set piece features in an era where most political communication is more informal. i don't think we give a sound bite enough respect. any modern person would have to listen to take someone take five hours to present a budget, they would not go through it. it was a different era. >> this is the era of sound bites we should not underestimate? >> i think that is right but i still say in american politics really big speeches account for a lot. they get remembered for the sound bites but you know when somebody is making a significant speech. president obama has made three already. i also think bill clinton -- >> can you remember a single line from any of them? >>

when george bush wanted to invade iraq he invoked god he invoked through crusade ok i mean in every step of his presidency he invoked his christianity ok so don't tell no one can tell me that people are using christianity for very evil purposes in the twenty first century go ahead. you know it is very easy to conflate politics and race tribalism and nationality into religion and come out with a mix that is really a toxic brew and i certainly do agree with wealth of the world does have problems with a certain kind of fundamental. and let's also recognize for example in the context of the twentieth century christian nations have gone to war with each other particularly in the second world war. catholics and protestants going to war with orthodox christians in what was then the soviet union and all of them were to some extent evoking you know religious passion as a reason to do to beat back their enemies i believe that the real critical question for the twenty first century is not dissolve in islam or trying to reinterpret the koran for the nth time but rather to come up with an unders

was a lot of me putin who called up to you know to express his sympathy with george w. bush any reaction and a phone call from the white house said. no it's. eight minutes past eleven o'clock. in washington and there has been no reaction we only know that i've heard it on other channels that the state department just said there were no americans. at the airport or you know americans who. were injured but there were no statements maybe maybe they just walk up you know they were trying to come up with this but there have been no no statements yet ok well i think that we can we can rest assured the statements certainly should be coming out of washington d.c. sometime today he's going to come in in the capital thank you. let me give you some background here for international airport is russia's largest airport in terms of passenger traffic connecting moscow to hundreds of cities all around the world it's located about twenty two. two kilometers southeast of the center of moscow now the number of passengers are using the airport exceeds about twenty two million per year nine hund

on two levels, we have under george w. bush and administration secretary powell and others are chronicling on pakistan to do more that was counterproductive but they have lost more soldiers than we have with us and nato combined in afghanistan. it is true. we're also offering a long-term strategic partnership and this was a fair weather friend with some justification. we need to get pass that. and our interest in their interests are more aligned to dave and in several years ago but we should not expect marital -- miracles. i would make the same decisions he will border and we will leave at some point* >> host: i am a little disappointed but not surprised if not come up with the magic solution. [laughter] i have been looking for years. >> i will tell you very concrete, a 60% to pakistani economy is the textile business. the attacks on french textiles are low but pakistani textiles are high. that would be substantial those in north carolina would be opposed but fixing some of the tariff barriers you can do that and concrete redo

most notably to me was george bush, senior george bush's choice of the hapless dan quayle in 1998. ush you can recall almost became president himself a month after the inauguration of ronald reagan when reagan narrowly escaped assassination. george bush senior should have known better. and then, of course, we have the example of john mccain choosing sarah palin, which was clearly throwing a hail mary pass to try to pull out an election that was sinking. with a biden, you're not doing trimming people complaining that if anything happened to the president, he would not be qualified to take over. as a reporter who covered joe biden often on in the late 1970s, earlier 1980s, and when he ran for the presidency the first time, i was well aware of the complaints about him in talking too much. i was in iowa in 1987 when he made remarks that should have been but were not attributed to a british politician in a speech at the iowa state fair that led to charges of plagiarism, that were then added to by charges that he had, as a student in law school, committed plagiarism in a paper he wrote. b

i think that george w. bush -- the administration comes for more criticism in my book and i think -- of administration's didn't respond to the u.s. coal. mike sheehan, the ambassador for counterterrorism at the state department famously said after the attack what's it going to take al qaeda attacking the pentagon before we respond? so, at the lame-duck clinton administration didn't respond and then the new bush administration didn't respond partly because they didn't happen in their watch and they didn't and osama bin laden took lessons from that. when they were preparing the 9/11 attacks one of the things i try to see in the book is that 9/11 was a strategic hill year for al qaeda. obviously the time it seemed like a big success, but it was a casual success but not a victory because they didn't achieve any of the rules of the organization. but one of the things that al qaeda said post facto many years leader is in fact 9/11 was cleverly conceived to get the united states to invade afghanistan, we believe them t

belair sent to george w. bush. what exactly had he committed britain to? >> what i was saying to president bush was simple. you can count on was -- count on us but here are the difficulties. i was persuading him to take a few radically different from any people in his administration. i was saying i will be with you in handling it this way. i will not push you down this path and back out with a gets too hot. because it will get hot politically. i did this because i believe in this. i thought it was the right thing to do, but all the time he was making promises to george bush the legality of an invasion was being questioned by his own attorney general. >> on -- no, but i was in the situation where he was giving this advice and there was a debate going on. >> he said he was uncomfortable with the language mr. blair used about the lawfulness of an invasion. >> i was making a political point, but i accept entirely there was an inconsistency between he what -- what he was saying and what i was saying. >> there was one section of his testimony from -- from one ye

we had our first combat experience and there was a demonstration in support of that and against george bush when. george. first there was no violence the demonstrators were shouting their slogans nothing more than see. after forty five minutes of protest. they started throwing grenades and it all became very violent. and the my unit was ordered to take defensive positions on the roof of the town hall. we were told to open fire if anyone threw grenades at us. the. one point silence of complete silence all of the demonstrators about two hundred people started moving from one place to the other. one corner we saw a young man coming towards us he was holding something in his hand. through the telescope. specifically ordered to shoot to kill if anyone threw something. that young man was holding something and he threw it at us. it was a grenade and we all fired at him. he. was the first time in my life the target wasn't made of plastic. it wasn't a picture it was a human being. a living breathing human being. that young man by the way couldn't possibly reach us because he was much too far. and. t

george bush got 29% of the vote when he was running for reelection, and i got 60, so i decided we do we have another a election in 1994. when i got back i got put on the ways and means committee, and it happens that no one else is interested in this issue called welfare, so i have are ranking member who dealt with welfare reform, so i ended up drafting an overhaul of the welfare system that turned out to be included in the contract. i got reelected and did this, and in 1994, i decided to run for the senate against the democratic incumbent who had just beaten dick thornburgh and beat him badly. nobody thought he could be beaten. i decided i am going to take on the incumbent senator. all of the mix of two were open seats. i defeated a democratic incumbent again. i defeated a democratic incumbent to win the house and the senate. i am pretty good at defeating democratic incumbents. [applause] i came to the united states senate, and we reform again. the first thing we did was put term limits on our leaders. we did all sorts of changes to make congress accountable, and i led the fight in t

george bush senior should have known better. then you have the example of john mccain choosing sarah palin which was clearly the hail mary pass to pull of the election that was sinking. with biden, you don't hear very many people complaining that if anything happened to the president, he would not be qualified to takeover. a and as a reporter who covers joe biden in the late -- late '70s and early '80s, i was well aware of the complaints about his talking too much. i was an iowa in 1987 when it was such a limited to a politician at the iowa state fair leading to charges of plagiarism by charges that as a student at syracuse law school had committed plagiarism with the paper that he wrote. biden was very hurt by the churches and worked very hard to have himself exonerated. years later in fact, a court decision in exonerated him in the case of the syracuse law school charge. i talk to people of syracuse about it and they said people did not think much of it at the time that been the focus came with the incident and iowa it was reg

garamendi: it was the george w. bush administration. mr. tonko: they focused on financial services, they ignored agriculture and manufacturing and now we're paying the price. even though we lost a 1/3 of the manufacturing jobs in this country, we're still perched as number one in the global race. however, if we are to allow that neglect to continue, we would eventually fall out of the number one position. so the 4.6 million jobs lost,

it was the town hall debate with george bush and ross perot that won him the election. mickey describes what happened when the cameras were turned off. this is what he says. 56 it -- after it ended, we wanted to buy another half hour tomorrow night. then something happened. he stood around talking to the people in the audience. now, every politic stands and says thank you to people, but he was engaged in real substantive conversation with them. he didn't want to leave. then there are reckless people in the world. well, bill clinton rips the most powerful office in the world, an office he spent his entire life seeking to occupy for the sake of 10 instances of you know what with an intern half his age. bill clinton's energy, empathy, self-indulgence, appetites for food, sex, attention, for power, for good deeds are all outside, but what's separating from the rest of us, these traits endear him to us. they render him more human, perhaps the most human human among us. we all know people who generally do what is right, but make big mistakes and smart people do stupid things.

nail in the coffin was on march twenty three two or three when american president george bush basically gave saddam hussein forty eight hours to get out and even america decided to bypass the un and not wait for resolution number eighteen when it comes to going to war with iraq and at the same time another classic example was france was objecting to invading iraq at the time just went ahead and invaded the ivory coast while it was telling the u.s. not to go into iraq and there are parallel and similar examples dating all a way back to forty five so i can't think of one conflict or know of one conflict that the u.n. can take credit for stopping ok nathan if i go to you where do you stand on this here and i'd like to inject here i would i basically agree with peter maybe for very different reasons that western countries will use the united nations to its advantage it will follow u.n. resolutions and in votes but if it doesn't like it and that's one of the big criticisms of the united nations is that the west particular united states will use it is for its own convenience and if it doesn't

in fact, chris rock kids her all the time and says, you're the one who elected george w. bush. yeah, she has immense power. >> and, in fact, george w. bush for his "decision points" just went on oprah recently to talk about it. >> it was a safe berth for him. i saw a little bit of it, and it was a very receptive audience for bush to put forward that particular book. >> generally, what's been oprah's influence on american culture? >> well, you know, oprah has been on our television for 25 years, so we've sort of grown up with oprah. she's had immense influence especially with women. that is really her target audience. she's been fabulous for books. her book club was wonderful, writers adore her, authors will kill to get on her show. i'm afraid this book is not going to make the oprah book club. [laughter] but she does have immense power in influencing people. >> what's your goal as an author? is. >> as a biographer my goal is not simply to tell the life story of a very powerful person, but to bring in the times in which they operated. now, my biographies are what they call unauth

i think george w. bush, the administration comes for more criticism in my book but the administration didn't respond to the u.s.'s coal. mike sheehan who is the investor for counterterrorism at the state department did is we said after the attack what is it going to take al qaeda attacking the pentagon before we respond. so the lame-duck clinton met fenestration didn't respond to the call and then the new bush administration didn't respond partly because it didn't happen on their watch and they didn't commit osama bin laden certainly took some lessons from that. when they were preparing the 9/11 attacks, one of the things i try to save the book is that 9/11 was a strategic fill your for al qaeda. at the time it didn't seem like a big success the was a tactical success would not a victory because it didn't achieve the goals of the organization, but one of the things that al qaeda said post facto many years later was in fact 9/11 was cleverly conceived to get the united states to invade afghanistan, bleed the

george bush was president during a large part of this extended boom. economic officials in the clinton administration basically backed the policies that helped create this boom and the same policies were basically followed in the bush administration. so this was a crisis that has deep historical roots, but to have all the history of what happened instead of engaging in this partisan screaming match that has become the standard explanation for what happened and why. it is not that everything people say on both sides is mistaken, they are factually correct. but they overlook the context of the climate in which all of these things occurred. >> what about the fannie mae/ freddie mac story? you never see what is going on inside. >> what fannie mae and freddie mac did was they assumed the mortgage lending was less risky than it turned out to be. under other circumstances, i do not think it would follow the policies that they did. these were two institutions that promoted home ownership and promoted the housing industry. they were extremely thinly capitalized.

they were both put in there. >> how did you get to know george h.w. bush? >> i write thrillers. i talk to imaginary people. i got a fan letter written by george h.w. bush. i don't care what your politics are, you are the former president, you write me a letter, i'll send you a free book. >> brad meltzer is our guest. first call. maryland, go ahead, please. >> caller: yes, brad, i wanted to thank you for creating such a wonderful book. i think it's extremely important that people really understand that, you know, the heros are not just the people that are famous. but i like that you did put in people who are not famous. and kids would have an opportunity, not only your son, but anyone who's giving this gift to their family to let them know that ordinary people not only can do extraordinary things, but also be truly extraordinary. by pursuing their goals, dreams, going after it, trying to make a difference. i want to thank you for this. that's something that i share with my family. >> thank you. >> host: who's your hero? >> caller: my hero is my mother. she was an african-american

george bush, senior, should have known better. and then of course we have the example of john mccain choosing sarah palin, which was clearly throwing a hail mary pass to try to pull out an election the was sinking. with biden, it's not hearing many people complaining that if anything happened to the president he would not be qualified to take over. s av reporter covered joe biden and the late 70's, early 1980's and when he ran for president the first time, i was well aware of the complaints about him talking too much. i was in iowa in 1987 when he made remarks that should have been that weren't attributed to a british politician in a speech at iowa state fair and led to charges of plagiarism that were added to by charges that he had as a student at syracuse law school committed plagiarism in a paper he wrote. biden was very hurt by these charges and worked very hard to have himself exonerated years later and finally in fact got a court order, a court decision that exonerated him in the case of the syracuse law school charge. i tal

next, "q & a," with former president george w. bush. and david cameron at the british house of commons. and another chance to see minnesota governor tim pawlenty in bedford, new hampshire. >> this week "q&a" comes from the campus of southern university, the former site of president george bush's library. a model of the three-story building is currently on display. it is expected to be completed in 2013. recently, the former president sat down with students to take their questions and discuss his best-selling memoir, "decision points." >> what was writing this book like? >> i am a type a personality, and the book gives me of focus and a project to keep me occupied. i was sitting around was no intelligence briefing, no crises to deal with, and the book and gave me something to focus on. i actually started writing the book the first day of my post- presidency. >> when did you decide to do the decisions the way you did it? >> probably the summer of 2008. they all suggested i write the book. they suggested i read gramps nemours, which i did,