h. w. bush and ronald reagan was not at all political. in fact, george h. w. bush said we're not going to politsize things like this. this is a time for us to come together. and not only did mitt romney try to politicize this as you point out, in a panicked kind of way but you know -- a time limit on this, he was going to have it released at 12:00 midnight then he called the press and said look, i want to make the late news and i want to make the morning papers. so this embargo is lifted. you can take the statement at 10:30. so that showed people how he was trying to take what was a terrible tragedy and turn it into his own political advantage to. me, the guy is tone-deaf. you don't know that that's not going to come back to haunt you? >> jennifer: for sure. tone-deaf. you could get more plot is being statesman like rather than launching yourself into the middle of an international incident. i'm curious from your perspective. he's challenged at the moment. electorally. and you know, what's going -- what would have to happen between now and election day to chang

h. w. bush.et's talk about the unfavorable reaction, part of the governors handling of his comments following the tragedy in benghazi. >> look, the important thing that happened that happened last week was in the comments. the important thing that happened last week is that all of a sudden people are seeing the failings of the obama foreign policy. i use the phrase that this is -- that the emperor has no clothes moment. people are beginning to understand that even though he has been telling us everything is fine and everything is not fine -- countries around the world demonstrating against america and really emphasizing the fact that they are no longer -- they're no longer is up to 3.5 years of a policy that has no red lines and no definition of what it wants or doesn't want, the rest of the world does not respect america anymore. >> to that point, i want to share with you a pool that we have just received from pew research. i don't know if you're aware of it, but it has just been released from a

h. w. bush did a lot like that. i did a story about how he would have small parties. would have a lot of fun with it. george w. bush went to bed very early. obama has not done that at all. they don't like to go to social things in the city. >> that was touched a little bit upon. they thought they would be a new version of camelot. >> not at all. michelle went back to all the old chicago friends. they would go back to chicago for a long weekend. i think they have made friends with the attorney general but with the exception of that, they pretty much stick with their old buddies. >> > [inaudible] >> the first lady has a requisite launch. instead of mixing it up and adding cabinet people, she has a linear list and goes alphabetically. she said hi to everybody and that left. it was like she was doing her duty and that's it. i don't know of wives were offended. >> i would say there is a consensus that some people say he has not been using his caucuses. >> it seems like he likes that sometimes but not too much. >> laura bush said it is so easy to entertain at the white hous

w. bush came for his presentation of his h credentials. and at that moment there was a big tour or about -- furor aboue something called the congestion tax. it was a political hot potato,mp and it was being imposed onm people to prevent them from driving into london too much. and the american embassy maintained they were not liable because they called it the congestion charge, but they saie it was a tax, and the americans were not supposed to pay it. and so robert tuttle arrived for his presentation of his credentials, and they went through all the formalities, and then they had a little informalo discussion, and she said to him i understand you think the congestion charge is a tax. he said, yes, ma'am, it is a tax. and she said, well, of coursehes it's a tax. and, of course, the head ofrs protocol for the diplomatic corps was turning, you know,or white at the prospect that she would say something so political, but those kind of slips are very unusual. and as far as her or relationships with americanio presidents, she has bonded with them

h. w. bush 10 years ago. right now i am very concerned. [inaudible] after talking to them and explaining things, we cannot change their opinion. on a mass level, what do you want us to do as you're emissaries? what do we do? >> i have good news for you -- it is not impossible. "the new york times" had a poll last week and i was leading by two points. the president's urging the president came out and said it was an outrageous poll. women are open to supporting me. they are disappointed. with jobs, they are disappointed with their own economic situation now. we can capture women's votes. if the hispanic vote becomes as committed as the african- american vote, we are in trouble. >> [inaudible] >> we have great hispanic leaders and our party who will help communicate. you just need to raise millions of dollars because the president will do the same period >> that's by far the most important thing you do. there will be 150 million americans watching. i will be in those debates. if i do well, it will help. if i don't, it will not. \[applause/] b

h. w. bush on national education goals. i am actually very grateful.ave to be grateful that president george w. bush saved the lives of millions of people in poor countries, and i have been honored to work with both presidents bush on the aftermath of the tsunami, hurricane katrina, the horrible earthquake in haiti. through my foundation, i am working all the time with democrats, republicans, and independents. sometimes i cannot tell you who i am working with because we focus on seizing opportunities and not fighting all the time. [applause] here is what i want to say to you, and here is what i want the people at home to think about. when times are tough and people are frustrated and angry and uncertain, the politics of constant conflict may be good, but what is good politics does not necessarily work in the real world. what works in the real world is cooperation. [applause] what works in the real world is cooperation. business and government, foundations and universities. asked the mayors who are here. los angeles is getting green and chicago is getti

h. w. bush and said that glass ceiling has to be smashed. where is the average today?specially for young women who are taking on debt and trying to succeed. all of the effort that has been done for so many years, you just heard a week's worth of messaging about how one party is against women. the party that is actually in control here says nothing when it's the biggest drop in labor force participation for women. cheryl: that is a great point. we could talk a lot the glass ceiling another time, but if something a little more serious out of you, and that, of course, is mr. ben bernanke, the fed. the market did not really react is that what they went to the fact that it looks of this is going to give him the trigger that he needs to pull the plug in more stimulus. what do you say that? do you think today was the final thing we needed for ben bernanke to do something? >> the likelihood of additional monetary stimulus wind up in response to the weaker than expected in plumb a report, but i wouldn't put the probability at being much above 50%. you know, despite troubling ne

h. w. bush looked at his watch?hat's why you see both of them taking time, coming off the trail to prepare for these debates because they understand how critical it is. i would say more critical for mitt romney because of the basic trend of the race right now. >> practice, practice, practice. you have nancy pelosi sunday morning on "state of the union" 9:00 a.m. eastern. we'll be watching. >>> the violent protests across the arab world triggered by a movie made here in the united states. that film may be tied to a deep religious conflict inside ekwipt. >>> plus who's behind the murder of a u.s. a.m. bass der and three others in libya. ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norfolk southern. one line, infinite possibilities. ♪ i can do anything ♪ i can do anything today ♪ i can go anywhere ♪ i can go anywhere today ♪ la la la la la la la [ male announcer ] dow solutions help millions of people by helping to make gluten free bread that doesn't taste gluten free. together, the elements of

bush, h. george h. w. ronald reagan could get through an election in the republican party. [ technical difficulties ] >> we finished by smashing his guitar on the stage walked off, and the next morning his band announced he was in rehab. the mars rover is still chugging along. it is stopping along the way when it's cameras find something to look at. it found a pyramid shaped rock over the weekend. they pulled out its robotic arm to look closely. >> bill: i ran into a neighborhood of ours yesterday, who is a nasa scientist. i said did you ever get to that mountain? and he said no it takes a long time but we found this great rock yesterday. [ laughter ] >> i love it. white house report tells us that the vice president stopped in at a cafe. ordered food, and offered to buy food for the press corps following him, but they declined. >> bill: isn't that where he said this tastes like a half smoke. he knows his sausage from chicago. 15 minutes after the hour yes, indeed it was a big news on friday. when politicia

h. w. bush not for a single day had even a single house of congress from their own political party. ronald reagan did have the senate for four years but he never had a full congress that was republican. bill clinton did have a full congress that was republican but bill clinton was democrat. and you have fragmented government, george w. bush had a republican congress for four to eight years. george bush scarcely had the best domestic legislative accomplishment that could rival lyndon johnson or to be fair richard nixon. perhaps the 2012 elections will generate a unified government that will pass its preferred programs but it would be foolhardy, most observers at this time is the more or less maintenance of the status quo in which barack obama will continue to occupy the oval office as the republicans continue to patrol by reversed number of the house of representatives with the senate at this time being up for grabs. so we should be open for the possibility that the current election will fit the shakespearean description of sound and fury signifying nothing or very little with regard

h. w. bush to reduce the deficit.he was in the clinton white house in those four years when we ran the surplus, which seems like a long time ago, and it was a long time ago. and now, of course, he went down to be the director the cia and the secretary of defense where he is busy defending the defense department against people who want to do what he wouldn't have done. but he does have a lot of perspective, and i talked to him for the book in his office at the pentagon, which is pretty cool, a little shrine there to the capture of osama bin laden. and he told me in a 12 years he was out of office when his teaching at an institute he set up a monterey, california, he said he used to tell the students that we are either governed by leadership or by crisis. and i always thought that if leadership wasn't there, that ultimately you rely on crisis to drive decisions. the last two years he said, chuckling, he likes to laugh at his own jokes, and the last two years he said my biggest concern is that crisis doesn't seem to driv

h. w. bush on national education goals. from the film, i have to be grateful. and you should be, too. president george h. w. bush support of a lot of people in poor countries. and i have been honored to work with with both president bush we be work together all the time with democrats, republicans, independents, sometimes i couldn't tell you who i am working with, because we focus on what is a good opportunity in not fighting all the time. [cheers] [applause] [cheers] [applause] so here's what i want to say to you. here is what i want the people at home to think about. when times are tough and people are frustrated and angry and hurting and uncertain, the politics of constant conflict may be good. but what is good politics does not necessarily work in the real world. what works in the real world is cooperation. [cheers] [applause] what works in the real world is cooperation. business and government, foundations and university. ask the mayor she were here. [cheers] [applause] los angeles is getting green and strip chicago is

h. w. bush. i love and respect the mall. i voted for all of them. .. he will run and do everything he can to win the office. he's not afraid of barack obama, he's not afraid of their team. and the over that encouragings me is that the romney campaign now is starting to community organizers out community organization the community organizers. >> they aring buses now to respectfully heckle obama and the surrogate. they didn't now what to do. the king of community organizing in chicago, he was the sort of master of modern someday astrotrur of. he didn't know what to do. they're not used to it when you hold up a mirror to that. they don't know how to handle it. they don't know what to do. they full apart. and team romney is getting really gooded at it and his ability to take out the other side in debate, if you have watched previous debates with romney he is master at this. he's brilliant, he's on point and doesn't take any gruff and doesn't allow the other side to get my points on him. i'm a lot more optimist about the candidate and ability to take it to

h. w. busht reagan, what do you make of the point that the president was asking for four years while admitting he can't change? >> what you're going to see him do now is he made a mistake wrapping himself and ronald reagan who said the way he would change of opinion in washington is public opinion. with the president was talking about is different. if he gets a second term, there will be more executive orders, and that epa and government by decree, not by democracy. and to mobilize public opinion and get a mandate. what is the mandate for november. liz: when the president gets reelected and we have gridlock in washington d.c. end run around congress and working through the growing bureaucracy in washington d.c.. how bad you think it could get? >> he will do everything he wants to do and say, take me to court and you have seen him despite their denials undermining of the 1996 welfare act. they will do a lot of that stuff. take me to court. courts take years. it is pretty ominous and who knows wha

h. w. bush is in charlotte. his name is john sununu. always good to see you. >> good to be here. for letting me join you. stuart: i would like to get your response to wall that we saw at the dnc last night from booing god to bill clinton to i would like to know quickly across the board what did you think? >> let me start for. that whole mess on god in the platform and the other issues shows you how incompetent this democratic party has led by president obama is. the farce on the floor having to go through three votes to put god back in -- as they can't run a lemonade stand can't run the presidency. no wonder we have not been able to deal with jobs and unemployment when that is how they can't even run their own crowd. stuart: on that subject, we haven't found out why god and jerusalem were taken out of the platform. we asked countless people. no one has told us why. there was a report that president obama knew about god and jerusalem coming out before the convention. >> there's a process putting platforms together. i suspect, don't know but i suspect someone had to raise their han

h. w. bush is a roadblock in presidential history because he didn't get a lot of credit at the time because he ran for president in 1992 and ran for reelection and there was talk bad economy and people were no longer arrested in foreign policy. they thought very little about fact that he was able to pull this off and end the cold war quietly and soundly. now with hindsight we are increasingly realizing that that was a very spectacular job. >> host: that was published in 1989. >> guest: actually early '93. >> host: from your book "presidential courage: brave leaders and how they changed america, 1789-1989" you write about ronald reagan. turning up the pressure on the soviets made them bargain seriously he would not only deal but try to abolish nuclear weapons. when they heard this many of his conservative champions winked presuming he didn't really need it but when gorbachev showed he had similar ambitions reagan proved he meant what he said. he tried to end the nuclear arms race once and for all

h. w. bush and served as senior deputy on the bush-quayle campaign. is it an october surprise? certainly has been given to president obama. that he had said people who killed our ambassador will be brought to justice. he intends to do something about it. there is almost a question if he doesn't have a retaliatory attack against those are some component of those who killed those americans in libya, he has been given a wonderful opportunity to do something for all americans and republicans that they support. if he doesn't do it, it is almost bewildering as to why. i expect something dramatic that will be formed in october surprise and it will do some political good. megyn: that is a wonderful opportunity, known for taking advantage of it. >> a license to do so. i would like to ask you. as the republicans are arguing that there is a way for president obama to use this to his advantage, but there is a question about whether these allegations that the administration covered up, what it knew to be a terrorist attack about some video, whether that is the october surprise against the p

h. w. bushr bill clinton, if i wrote a book on them, would my most important source be my conversations with them? probably not because as i sang a second ago, you lined up all the evidence, maybe if one of them said something to me about an important thing, that change but when you otherwise, it might be. but just because i had the experience of being in a room with someone, that conversation would not lose larger than look at the documents or anything people who were with them in real time when they were president. >> host: last year i believe it was david and julie nixon eisenhower came up with a book, going home, about eisenhower's post-presidency life. and/or a lot of indications that jfk spent quite a bit of time consulting with former president eisenhower. >> guest: and i commend the book. it's a wonderful book. i talk about it. one of the comment forget to what you're saying is that sometimes you learn more about presidents as human beings if you look at them in retirement after they've

h. w. bushr bill clinton, if i wrote a book on them, would my most important source be my conversations with them? probably not because as i sang a second ago, you lined up all the evidence, maybe if one of them said something to me about an important thing, that change but when you otherwise, it might be. but just because i had the experience of being in a room with someone, that conversation would not lose larger than look at the documents or anything people who were with them in real time when they were president. >> host: last year i believe it was david and julie nixon eisenhower came up with a book, going home, about eisenhower's post-presidency life. and/or a lot of indications that jfk spent quite a bit of time consulting with former president eisenhower. >> guest: and i commend the book. it's a wonderful book. i talk about it. one of the comment forget to what you're saying is that sometimes you learn more about presidents as human beings if you look at them in retirement after they've

h. w. bush not for a single day had even a single house of the congress from their own political party. i'm sorry region had the senator. he never a full congress that was republican. bill clinton did have a full congress that was republican, but of course, bill clinton was a democrat and so you had fragmented government, george w. bush had a republican congress for a total of a bit more of his four of eight years. bush scarcely has list domestic legislative accomplish thes -- perhaps the 2012 elections will generate a june fied government that will be able to pass the preferred programmings. but it would certainly be [inaudible] most likely according to most sobers that the time, is the more or less maintenance of the status quo. in which barack obama will continue to occupy the oval office, while the republicans don't control row number the house of representatives, the senate at this time. i think being up for grabs. so we should be open to the possibility the current election will fit the sh

h. w. bush. president and vice president have lunch together every week., the vice president is there with the president. when any heads of state come in, when there are any important meetings the vice president is there. he is very much a part of the team. they are a real solid team which is why i always thought that this -- i supported hillary clinton in the primary. i'm a big hillary fan. all of this talk for the last two years that obama was going to dump joe biden and put hillary clinton in. >> mostly by republicans that try to get that brought up, too. when barack obama was going to choose a running mate, he could have chosen anybody. he could have chosen somebody that was really popular with the base of the party not that joe biden is not but he could have chosen somebody different. he could have pulled -- done the romney approach and picked the most reactionary member of congress he could find. but he picked somebody who had an excellent reputation on the hill. a former judiciary chairman. and somebody that he knew from the campaign trail. a former

h. w. bush. you know him best from the daily op eds he publishes in "the wall street journal." he offered assessments of the ruling does much more dispassionate than i can muster. blaustein is next. he will tell us what the court adopted the theory that he presented in and does -- in his and it is brief. he said nfib went along way to clarify how this decision should be conceptualize. randy - >> thank you for inviting me here and thanks to the cato institute for having me. the legal challenge to the patient protection and affordable care act, known as obama care which i advocated as a law professor before representing the national federation of businesses was about two huge things -- setting the country from obama care and setting the constitution for the country. to my great disappointment, we lost the first point in the ruling to uphold health care act. to my enormous relief, we won the second. i figured it was all or nothing. if we lost a obama care it would mean that the government and law professors would have prevailed. if we won, it would be because there are theories ha

h. w. bush, george w. bush, and president obama talk about their roles in advising u.s. presidents. they discussed national security challenges in the middle east and asia and focused on the violence in that region. this is an hour and a half. >> thank you very much for that wonderful introduction of the panel and to kind introduction of me. it does remind me of -- i have written here that these are men who need no introduction, so my introduction will not be so fulsome of men who do not need that kind of introduction, but i did hear the ceo of ibm wants to introduce a colleague of yours, henry kissinger, that way. henry kissinger came up to the podium and said, "your introduction was far too modest ." so the next time he introduced again and talked about his nobel peace prize and books and best sellers and influence on history and told the whole story about how he thought he needed no introduction, but he thought this time he had to give it because of last time, to which henry kissinger came to the podium and said, cassette and it is true that no man needs an introduction less than

h. w. bush and was with the oregon department of the environment. he has an m.b.a. from stanford and a b.a. from dahmer -- from got month -- from dartmouth. caller: one day, children will want to see what wilderness looks like. he was to get his hands on public lands and drill for oil. what will a man hill in exchange for his soul? ou will give away public- -- but will a man exchange for his soul? you will give away public land. guest: i encourage you to speak up and to let your represented in congress know. you what these places protected and you want them publicly funded. the only way this plan to happen is if americans say, protect these places. we want and genentech -- an agenda, an initiative leading up to the 100th anniversary. funding has been on a precipitous decline. park funding has dropped 15%. we will evil -- either allow the funding cut to continue and have things get a lot worse, or we will reverse that trend. we are in a crossroads. people who will determine which road we go down will be americans. we need to tell this administration and governor romn

h. w. bushs in 2000 and 2004, get over t. >> peggy said it best, you got to transcend it if you are a republican. >> any time in those -- compared to all those other elections, there were not -- nothing like the conservative media counterweight there is now. >> right. >> the extent there is in the mainstream media some degree of liberal bias, no fox news in 1980, talk radio. >> drum. >> in anything you can the world much more -- you look at the full spectrum of media, there is much more diversity and conservatives have a megaphone in our media environment. >> look at the conservatives the past week, week and a half, that have said, hey there's a problem here. i said it on saturday. "the wall street journal" said it last sunday. laura ingram came out on monday, rush on tuesday was talking b all saying the same thing, they have decided to run a campaign based on nothing. you said it six months ago. rush limbaugh, willie, rush limbaugh staying on tuesday that this campaign is about nothing. you kno

h. w. bush they will support field of the reelection campaign.s hoffa says the labor union supports president obama and has criticized republicans and mitt romney for favoring ceos over workers. after the rnc convention he told the "huffington post" net romney once to annihilate labor workers. the obama administrations has been a mixed bag. even when democrats dominated the house and senate some say they took labor support for granted when they took self carolina to host last week's convention. and the free-trade agreement printer hurt american workers. the unions must juggle the demands of members wild businesses big for mercy in a weak economy. earlier this week the fedex ceo had to loosen his grip to allow the independent chairman to toe the line of escalating pay in seven of cutting jobs. at know whether time says mister hoffa has the labor unit seen so divorces to take away the rights we have fought to secure. corporations have become too rich and too powerful. he has been at the center since childhood. coughs the only son of legendary mr. j

h. w. bushation operated under the premise that the movement toward democracy is inevitable throughout the world. it is a neo liberal and neo conservative idea and it does seem to me recent events properly cause us to be skeptical. i am fine with pherae when it exposes patterns in history. i have a big problem with somebody who says those patterns are going to continue into the future. we just don't know. that is it. thank you. [applause] [applause] ♪ >> host: you have been listening to john lewis gaddis talk about his guilt to prize-winning book "george f. kennan: an american life". mr gaddis is working his way over to our search. next to the history and biography tent at the national book festival and he will be taking your calls. we will put the numbers on your screen. if you'd like to participate in the conversation with professor gaddis 202-585-3885. in east and central time zones 585-3886 in the mountain and pacific time zones. the area code is 202. coming up after we talk with professor g

h. w. bush's administration. it looks like we might have traction after that iran iraq war after 9/11 where there was a considerable amount of talks with iran to release of the potential is there. the bottom line is we can manage the crisis, but the problem will be there. so i don't see that going away anytime soon because i think we have different views of the future in the middle east. >> host: i'm with you there and i went to thank you for this conversation and best of luck with the book. >> guest: thank you very much. appreciate it. .. he talks about the air ofh prohibition, as well as the presidential elections of 1948. >> a week before the convention there was this crazy quilt offoe coalition of democrats, southery segregationists like richard russell, strom thurmond hern segy bosses like boss haze of jersey or jake harvey of chicago, liberals like hubert humphrey, members of the roosevelt family. they all said that we won't bite. i cause back again. there is another explanation of why truman pulled this of

h. w. bush when he was vice president. i i -- i write satire. and [laughter] here we are at ground zero. it's -- you know, it is a satirist's sound. washington is, you know, we never really lack for characters, scoundrels, my character fictional characters tend to take of a their author. they are surround really as. my first one was a guy named knick who was a tobacco lobbyist. they made it a movie of it, and i don't know if you have seen the movie, but i want you to know, i -- if you look at the credits, you will -- it says men on subway platform. [laughter] there's a feel-good, and man on subway platform. there's the cleveland part about the subway platform. i urge you to -- [laughter] so in the course of twenty years, i have developed a greatly as i have gone from writing about tobacco lobbyist to defense lobbyist. it's called a literal move. but i wanted to write a book about -- a subject dear to the heart of charles peter's heart. the military industrial complex. i think some of you may are be old enough to remember president eisenhower's f

h. w. bush and his wife, barbara in part because they were all close contemporaries. had also both seen action in the pacific in world war ii, which give them a common bond. the queen is rather formal, bush told me, but i never found per reserved, standoffish. it is hard to explain really, but she is a very, very easy to be with. conversation comes easily. that ease was evident after the white house welcoming ceremony for her third state visit in 1991 when presidential aides for got to provide a set for the podium that have been designed for the considerably taller president's. while making her remarks, the cluster of microphones obscured the queen's face, offering tv viewers what appears to be a talking purple and white striped had. the queen laughed after words. another moment slightly gone wrong. her humor made it all seemed fine, george bush said. he also marveled at her stamina at age 65. at the state dinner he observed that her fast pace had left even the secret service panting. one of the queen's secret service once said she has too great assets. she sleeps ver

h. w. bush. dukakis is this passionate response to a hot button question left so many voters cold and overnight his poll numbers dropped from 49% to 42%. a dramatic dip from one debate question. even dukakis admitted his answer might have sunk his chances. the question is what questions do president obama and governor mitt romney most dread before next week's debate? can they be tripped up? we have put that question to two top political operatives. joining us tonight "the war room" is mark mckinnon, a former advisor to george w. bush and senator john mccain, founder of no labels which is a nonpartisan group seeking to solve the nation's problems. and also here, returning is democratic strategist donnie fowler. donnie has been political strategist almost every democratic presidential campaign since running al gore's field operations. he now runs his own consulting firm. dog patch strategies. great to you have both back inside "the war room." we previously asked you to submit what you think would b