was for his father george and his father george was a opponent of barry goldwater who in one thousand six hundred you supported you know who and what i remember george i grew up in michigan he was my governor in one thousand sixty four that george and he said i accept the goldwater nomination but i do not endorse and he refused to campaign for him and that by the way is an important reason why he was in the nominee in one nine hundred sixty eight and young mitt who was his father's one of his father's closest political allies a brilliant young man their very youngest son their very very close father was too blunt too confrontational and his father alternately lost the big prize too to what extent has has money corrupted the republican party and the conservative movement it seems that the values this whole the traditional value systems even have been set aside in the pursuit but it was not is this is a place where you cannot distinguish the parties that the wash of money through washington has transformed everybody and everything over to the book that one of the villains of the book is

i have always been fascinated. >> host: when you think of barry goldwater and libertarians is there a difference? where do you see yourself? >> and has been watered down because george to be bush ran as a conservative but he double the debt and was a profit -- profligate spender. we were upset with obama making it worse. many people call them sells libertarian to designate as a constitutional conservative. >> host: you wrote this before you had time in the u.s. senate what would you change? has your thinking changed? >> i feel landers stand more how much we're at an impasse getting stuff done. i tried to take ideas that many democrats have put forward but i cannot get democrats to talk to me. i had appointments with several different democratic senators to work on as a security reform. it can be saved 75 years are in perpetuity if we gradually raise the age and mean test the benefits but i cannot get democrats to discuss the possibility. >> host: what about your own party? >> half and half. i meekly critical of my party that all 47 u.s. senators are for a balanced budget amendment. bu

they didn't think he was a kook and goldwater did not think he was a kook when he was getting him to switch parties and endorse them. richard nixon did not think he was a kook one kerman -- thurmond helped him carry key states in the south when wallace was running in 1968. that controversy raise those broader issues really about thurmond's role in modern conservative history and it's one of the things that sparked the idea for me to write the book in the first place. >> do you make much mention of -- the 40th president? >> rubin wright and strom thurmond, before they were on the same ticket they were something arrivals. in fact, the fascinating story that early on, the whole dixiecrat thing, was a reaction to the address for truman gave in early 48. all the southern governors meet in north florida outside of tallahassee at the governor's conference and that is where the whole thing starts. reuven wright was the one who said we have to leave the democratic party and we have to leave it now and thurmond, and said no. they said what we need is a 40 day cooling off period map where we fi

goldwater back in the early '60s. and so e hitches up with these guys -- he hitches up with these guys, and one of the people he meets is richard kleindenst. and he's a key guy for goldwater and it has also gotten the attention of the nixon administration. and john mitchell who's nixon's best friend, campaign manager and is going to be his attorney general. so kleindenst is invited to become the number two man at justice, and he says i need rehnquist with me. he's really smart. this guy is smart. and mitchell opposes it at first because he says we don't need more than one cowboy. one cowboy is enough -- just from arizona, right. >> guest: one cowboy from arizona's enough. but kleindenst persuades him to bring rehnquist to the pierre hotel where their transition headquarters is. and rehnquist comes in, and he leaves a private meeting with mitchell, and he's got the job. >> host: second big break. robert jackson, richard kleinden srx st, and we'll pick up after this. >> guest: okay, thank you. >> host: thank you. >> on

he did so alongside people like terry goldwater come to start in the late 1950s, even though early in his career he was a staunch advocate of unions in south carolina in the 30s and 40s when the union vote was an important vote. but he switches in the 50s and 60s and 1970s becomes a diehard supporter of business against labor. andy also has an important role in conservative evangelical politics. you know, he joins the board of bob jones university in 1950. he does it to win us. bob jones had just moved to the country, just moved his university in thurmond needed votes. he had lost the 1950 vote to decide that. i'm not begin a long process, a long relation ship of thurmond was conservative, fundamentalist and evangelical folks looking to get involved in the political process. so we need to understand theremins racial politics in the midst of these other conservative causes, these conservative issues that he was involved with and see how they intersect with one another. and i think doing so gives us a history with strom thurmond's america looks like and helps us rethink not only what wa

goldwater carried 7 states in 9 1964. but changing the direction of the republican party.ving the way for reagan. carrying only one state was a yale law student bill clinton. the legacy of goldwater and mcgovern changed the direction of american politics. >> what congresswoman talked about what he did for women and democrats. let's not forget he did for the world. he flew 73 bombing flights in world war ii. he did so much by flying -- >> not only that, his in his time after the senate in 1980, did run for president one more time but continued his work against world hunger. >> and alcoholism in later years of his life. >> i think, you know, he's been vindicated. that's the one thing that he said. >> i don't think he needed to be vindicate zbld vindicates in terms of that humiliating defeat. you go on and you serve 30 more years, you do as much good for the world when you're not in office as when you're in office, he means a lot not just to democrats. >> somebody can lose, basically in the end win because of what their message and the moral clarity that he spoke with. >> we

nixon supported the equal rights amend, goldwater was pro-choice -- >> what would be the purpose to putyour platform 14th amendment rights, life, liberty, and property to a fertilized egg. i understand all the views about the philosophy of when life begins. i understand the debate. it's on. but the idea of giving rights of property, this is almost ridiculous. it does tend to justify criminalalization. >> of course. of course it's criminalizing if the fertilized egg is a person, then you have nationalized women's bodies throughout our child bearing years. but the point is we don't quite understand the importance of controlling reproduction. they're controlling reproduction. >> there's a lot more consensus in this country about birth control, contraception. a young woman who works in her 20s or 30s and is not ready to have a child, that's her decision, i think we all agree on that, she wants birth control. isn't it in society's interest for her to get that as part of her health care? >> absolutely. >> is it in society's interesting to have her boss be the birth control na i did to decide

he hitches up with these guys and one of the people is a key guy for goldwater and has also gotten theattention of the nixon administration, john mitchell, who is this friends and campaign manager and is going to be his attorney general. so he says, this guy is smarter mitchell's us, we'll need more than one cowboy. one cowboy is enough. but you persuade him to bring him to the hotel where the campaign headquarters are. and rehnquist comes in and he leads a private meeting. and he has the job. >> host: we will pick up after this. >> guest: thank you. >> "after words" is available via podcast great booktv.org and click on podcast on the upper left-hand side of the page. select which podcast you'd like to download and listen to a good enough while you travel. >> host: welcome back, john jenkins. we will pick up on are talking about william rehnquist. the first welcome i value and how you wrote this book in 2012. >> guest: it did not take me that long. >> host: tell us about why you decided to do it at this point. >> guest: in 1985, i was assigned to do the story for the times. in the reh

like a young bo derek stuffed with a barry goldwater. - you sound weird. do you have a beard? not for long. it's back to reality. no more making love on the beach surrounded by a privacy circle of english-trained butlers. but i've got to get out of island mode and back into work mode. how was your summer?

. >> we have hannah doerksen-goldwater and kayle watson. >> these seventh graders tackled a different drinking-water problem -- contamination caused by drilling for gas. here, they're showing toshiba's ceo their idea for removing dangerous radium. their teacher couldn't be prouder. >> the neat thing about kids with innovation is they don't know they can't do it, so they can. [ cheers and applause ] >> in celebration of the 20th anniversary of exploravision, winners from the very first competition were invited. >> and now they're back here to say, "look what's happened! look what's happened! we were right! we were on the right track!" >> so, i would encourage everybody to just get out there and think about what you can do that's gonna improve your world and improve the life of the people around you. [ kids cheering ] >> toshiba exploravision is open to students kindergarten to 12th grade. there's a link to the competition on our website. >> the call for entries is coming soon, so sign up. you could be the next winner. >> as the program says, today's young minds drive tomorrow's innovat

senator barry goldwater >> you agree that just as a matter of political course to be labeledded a liberal, a mcgovern liberal even... >> that's the worst kind of liberal there is >> the interesting thing about liberalism to me -- and i would say this to some of my fellow democrats who seem to be running away from it as it's a kind of a swear word -- is that virtually every program that we now have on the statute books that most americans support i would say that barry goldwater and george mcgovern could probably ghettoing on most of those programs. those began as liberal initiatives over conservative opposition. >> woodruff: it was that sometimes advocacy of the liberal ideal that animated his career. george stanley mcgovern was born july 19, 1922 in the tiny farming town of avon south dakota. son of a methodist minister. he flew 35 harrowing missions over europe during world war ii, winning the distinguished flying cross as a young army aviator. in 2001 he spoke withe th newshour about those missions >> we had no choice in the second world war. i never thought there was any choice. we ha

. >> but pretty unfair, a smear on goldwater. >> oh, jeez. >> medicare mckinnon worked on the bush campaign which ran this ad showing the candidates consoling 9/11 victims. >> our president took ashley in his arms and just embraced her, and it was at that moment that we saw ashley's eyes fill up with tears. >> come on, this is the presidency. you're playing this music and we're supposed to vote for this guy because she tears up. >> that's exactly what they did. this ad aired in ohio in late 2004. it was absolutely pivotal. >> it's morning again in america. today more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country's history. >> beckel worked for reagan's opponent at the time. >> i see this ad come on on the television. it's a farmer and son in a beautiful pasture. they put their hands over their hearts. i stood up and put my hand over my heart. the tagline is, re-elect ronald reagan. i said, are you kidding me that? that is blatant, blatant and good. you may think it's corny, but let's face it, you think everything's corny, okay, but if you can get an image like that it really

he did so alongside bike barry goldwater starting in the 1950s. early in the career he would be a staunch advocate for unions in south carolina back in the '0s and '40s when the union vote was an important vote. he switches in the 50s and '60s he becomes a die hard support are of business and aalready. he is important role in conservative politics. he joins the board of bob jones university in 1950. he does it to win votes in the country of south carolina. bob joandz had moved to the country of south carolina. moved the university and thurmond needed votes in the upcountry of south carolina. he lost the 1950 race in the

(crowd cheers) >> narrator: and when goldwater received the nomination, mitt saw his father angrily storm out. >> i think that my father was always willing to live according to his principles. he didn't shy away from any challenge. he was a very strong person in doing that. and we learned that you have to live up to what you believe in. >> narrator: one thing george romney believed in was the vietnam war. and one year later, when mitt showed up at stanford university, he would adopt his father's position. >> so, he is very much on his father's side for the vietnam war at that time. he is really out of his element where the whole campus is being roiled by this anti-war and anti-establishment protest. >> narrator: mitt took on the protestors. >> mitt romney is a fairly rule-bound person. he actually protested the protestors. he held up a big sign that said, "go back to your studies." >> and we see the mitt romney who cares about rules and institutions and following orders. and that causes him to take a very dim view, i think, of the protest movement. (hawaiian music plays) >> welcome to par

addition to being called a tea partyer or a constitutional conservative, i've also been called a goldwater conservative by supporters and critics. it is both accurate and an honor to be described as such. >> when i got started i re-read the conscience of the conservative, and interestingly it was actually first published in kentucky, right outside of louisville, and i went and met the publisher and he gave me an original coach and i re-read it. >> and when you think of barry goldwater and think of conservatives and libertarians, is there a difference between a conservative and will be libertarian. >> people don't know what conservative is. george w. bush ran as a conservative but doubled the debt and many of us consider him a prove flag great spender himself, and we were upset with obama for making it worse. so many people call themselves libertarian to destination themselves with a true belief. >> now after a couple of years of being in the u.s. senate, what you change in here, if anything, and has your mind -- your thinking changed at all? >> i would say that going up there, i feel that

somebody hit me and said barry goldwater said you ought to talk on issues more. how can barry goldwater sitting in arizona know whether i'm talking on the issues or not when we put out position paper after position paper? he puts out position paper after position paper, and we see this much about it, because everyone else is fascinated with polls and who's up or down today and who's going to be up or down tomorrow. so i think we can all share, with respect, in the fact that maybe the message is not getting out. but it's not getting out because there are too few debates. there will be no more debates. [applause] >> governor dukakis, you have one minute to respond, sir. >> i can understand, after the vice presidential debate, why mr. bush would want no more debates. [laughter, boos] that's my five seconds. andrea, i think we both have a responsibility to try to address the issues. yes, we have fundamental differences. i think a great many of them have come out today. and i think if we get rid of the labels -- and i'm not keeping count, but i think mr. bush has used

he talked about he and goldwater. he said one of the nice things about losing bad enough is that you don't have an idea of what might have changed and he had a very good sense of humor. >> remembering the life of george mcgovern who passed away today at the age of 90. >> you can believe we are at a pivotal point in the race for the white house. tomorrow the candidates face off for their final debate. mitt romney and president barack obama will meet on the stage, lynne university, the debate is to focus on foreign policy. >> paul, how close is this race? >> it's about as close as you can get, a brand-new poll out today from nbc "wall street journal" indicates 47% of likely voters nationwide are supporting the president, 47% are supporting mitt romney the republican nominee. you can't get any closer than that. a lot of these key battleground states including here in florida. we had to pull out here in florida but also it's basically all knotted up. the new nbc/"wall street journal" poll is interesting, there's a new gen

he quoted goldwater speaking with thurmond and talk about the importance of equal rights in columbus after lunch a few days before the presidential campaign in 1964. what he didn't say is that he began by everybody singing dixie. there were many confederate flags and american flags, and as the new york times reported in that meeting that a considerable section in his speech was devoted to denouncing the 1964 civil rights act. and any review that said that the only key issues in thurmond's career or constitutionalism and national security, i don't think you will be taken, i don't think that passes the laugh test of a we all know about strom thurmond and his career. so i was disappointed that "the wall street journal" felt that this man, who had a close relationship with thurmond, and had been employed by from. he admits that in the review, that they felt he was the best person to a fight with the book for the readers. i thought that was disappointing. >> he had no knowledge that -- [inaudible] bradley edwards was going to be -- they didn't tell you ahead of time that he was going to b

before there was mccain-feingold, there was goldwater-boar ran representing fairly conservative republicans as well as, as well as liberal, as well as more moderate ones. that's not the case right now. even b the disclose act a lot of conservatives used to say they were for disclosure but nothing else, even the disclose act now has zero republican cosponsors. it had two in the previous, in the previous congress. but it's possible, i think, after a significant shake-up in this election, maybe after people realize super pacs respect that valuable -- aren't that valuable, there could be some rethinking. and finally, the last piece, does the public actually care about this now? i mean, i've been around this issue for 15 years, other people have been for longer. we've been waiting for people to care, and all of a sudden the recent polling suggests the public really does care quite passionately. mr. greenberg had a line that said the public doesn't see money in politics as a distraction from the economy, it is the economy. that connection to economic inequality is strong, on the other hand, that

. >> but pretty unfair, a smear on goldwater. >> oh, jeez. >> medicare mckinnon worked on the bush campaignhich ran this ad showing the candidates consoling 9/11 victims. >> our president took ashley in his arms and just embraced her, and it was at that moment that we saw ashley's eyes fill up with tears. >> come on, this is the presidency. you're playing this music and we're supposed to vote for this guy because she tears up. >> that's exactly what they did. this ad aired in ohio in late 2004. it was absolutely pivotal. >> it's morning again in america. today more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country's history. >> beckel worked for reagan's opponent at the time. >> i see this ad come on on the television. it's a farmer and son in a beautiful pasture. they put their hands over their hearts. i stood up and put my hand over my heart. the tagline is, re-elect ronald reagan. i said, are you kidding me that? that is blatant, blatant and good. you may think it's corny, but let's face it, you think everything's corny, okay, but if you can get an image like that it really m

. >> but pretty unfair, a smear on goldwater. >> oh, jeez. >> medicare mckinnon worked on the bush campaignhich ran this ad showing the candidates consoling 9/11 victims. >> our president took ashley in his arms and just embraced her, and it was at that moment that we saw ashley's eyes fill up with tears. >> come on, this is the presidency. you're playing this music and we're supposed to vote for this guy because she tears up. >> that's exactly what they did. this ad aired in ohio in late 2004. it was absolutely pivotal. >> it's morning again in america. today more men and women will go to work than ever before in our country's history. >> beckel worked for reagan's opponent at the time. >> i see this ad come on on the television. it's a farmer and son in a beautiful pasture. they put their hands over their hearts. i stood up and put my hand over my heart. the tagline is, re-elect ronald reagan. i said, are you kidding me that? that is blatant, blatant and good. you may think it's corny, but let's face it, you think everything's corny, okay, but if you can get an image like that it really m

. >> but pretty unfair, a smear on goldwater. >> oh, jeez. >> medicare mckinnon worked on the bush campaignhich ran this ad showing the candidates consoling 9/11 victims. >> our president took ashley in his ms and just embraced her, and it was at tha moment that we saw ashley's eyes fill up wi tears. >> come on, this is the presidency. you're playing ts music and we're supposed to vote for this guy because sheears up. >> that's exactly what they did. this ad aired in ohio inate 2004. it was absolutely pital. >> it's morning again in america. today more men and women will go to work than ever bore in our country's history >> beckel worked for reagan's opponent at the time. >> i see this ad com on on the television. it's a farmer and sonn a beautiful pasture. they put their hands over their hearts. i stood up and put my hand over my heart. the tagline is, re-elect ronald reagan. i said, are you kidding me that? that is blatant, blatant and good. you may think it's corny, but let's face it, youhink everything's corny, okay, but if you can get an image like that it reay matte. >> ed rollins was