another aspect of this irony is that obama, to some degree, harkens back to george herbert walker bush. in my view, he was one of the masters of working multilateral diplomacy. when iraq invaded kuwait in 1990, it was george herbert walker bush and his team that put together a major multilateral coalition through the u.n. to use force against iraq. that was a great example of multilateral diplomacy. i think george w. bush was not very good at that and i actually do not think bill clinton was very good at that. the irony is that obama may be returning us to a diplomatic style, which i think to a large degree was reflected in george herbert walker bush. host: moving on, cleveland, republican callers, go ahead please. caller: i just want to give you a quick background. i will make a comment and then as the professor a question. i came from egypt and i was born in the 1950's during the egyptian revolution. we believe that the united states was good. however, [unintelligible] i came to the united states and i have a lot of jewish friends. i have visited israel and i see the world completely

george herbert walker bush. my four years at fema were positive but organizationally challenging and i will quickly point out fema which i had were different than the fema you read about in katrina. when president bush took over in '89, his selected chief of staff john sununu who had previously made it clear he would not permit or tolerate me being the director of fema because we had several differences of opinion about a nuclear power plant being brought on line when he was the governor of new hampshire and he wanted me to cut corners and i refused to do that. because i was no longer a director of fema, president bush offered me another job the position of secretary of various affairs, the first one. and i was delighted with that opportunity. louise was not. as matter of fact she was unhappy about that. she was saying at the 11th hour president bush gave the job to a defeated member of congress from illinois who turned all to be a disaster himself. and by the way i would be remiss if i did not point out that in

and a vice-president of the united states army, -- vice-president of the united states, george herbert walker bush. my fourth years at fema were positive but organizationally challenging and the fema i had is the different fema than you read about in katrina. when president bush took over, in 1989, his selected chief of staff, john sununu, who had previously made it clear that he would not permit or tom rate me being the continued director of fema, because we had several difference of opinion about a nuclear power plant being brought online when he was the governor of new hampshire, and he wanted me to cut some corners and i refused to do that. because i was no longer the director of fema, president bush offered me another job, the position of secretary of veterans affairs, the first one, and i was delighted with that opportunity. louise was not. as a matter of fact, she was very unhappy about that. but she was saved at the 11t 11th hour. president bush gave the job to a defeated member of congress. from illinois. who turned out to be a disaster himself. and by the way, i would be remiss if i did

presidential debate between congresswoman geraldine ferraro from new york and then vice president george herbert walker bush and here is that moment. >> what we ought to with the difference, ms. ferraro, between iran and the embassy in of lebanon. iran we were held by a foreign government. in what dimond you had a terrorist action where the government opposed it. >> let me say first of i almost recent vice president bush you're patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy. [applause] i've been a member of congress for six years. i was there when the embassy was held hostage in iran, and i have been there and i have seen what is happened in the past several months, 17 months with your administration. secondly, please don't categorize my answers either. leave the interpretation of my answers to the american people watching this debate. >> host: anne kornblut? >> guest: that was an early example of what hillary clinton thought she had to convert as well when she was running for president which is a woman needing to prove that she understands foreign policy his credentials and can be toug

. >> compared to a president like harry truman or church -- george herbert walker bush, president obama seems narcissistic. is narcissism a political and vulnerability or strength? how does a president who appears narcissistic harness that to augment and increase the public good? >> yes, steve? >> there is a very interesting book that many journalists reviled because the journalist who wrote it got very close to the president called, "renegade making," but if you read that, you are reading as close to an official biography as you will get. it is fascinating to see how he sees himself and some of these issues. sidestepping the narcissism, it is interesting -- let me say this, in terms of what turns obama on, what animates him and his attention, we have seen over and over again, from afghanistan to cuba policy, israel, palestine, there are cases where he grows disinterested of things that have gone well or are delegated. is the things that are losing or he could walk in like michael jordan at the last minute and change the game and make himself to deliverer of an outcome that was otherwis

in his most recent book, "george herbert walker bush," it appeared in 2007.he holds a degree in history from yale and economics from john hopkins and a master's in history from harvard. i turn this evening over to him. [applause] >> thank you, david. he has been with us a few months and has made great change and we are pleased to have them at the national archives. it is much warmer here. this is an away game for me and i am awfully cold. first of all, please join me in welcoming eagle but grow -- egil krogh and jerry schilling. gentleman. bud krogh was deputy to the council of the president. he oversight bill -- he oversaw the war on drugs. he is perhaps the man most responsible for getting medical detect -- matt detectors into american airports. >> sorry. [laughter] >> no, it was a good start. jerry schilling was a close friend of elvis presley for 23 years and he worked for him for 10. it is also a veteran of the music industry. you are about to find out -- each man are superb rock into ours, so we're going to start. >> jerry, set this up for us. you are i

. >> compared to a president like harry truman or george herbert walker bush, president obama seems narcissisticis narcissism of political vulnerability, and how does a president who appears narcissistic harness that? >> there is an interesting book many journalists revile. if you read that book, you're really looking at as close to an essential biography of barack obama as you can get, and what is fascinating is how he looks at these issues. it is interesting as a metaphor. in terms of what animates this man and his attention, i think you have seen it over and over again. there are cases where he grows distracted and is interested in things that have been delegated. -he can walk in like michael jordan at the last moment and change the game and make himself the deliver of an outcome. the attorneys were trying to evade him, and he broke in and change the game and got this deal, and its perfectly fits the narrative of obama saving the day of what would have been complete disaster. i do not want to get into great detail, but i noticed a cuba policy were even of the two or three days of to the summi