what happened to harry truman? >> guest: harry truman did not care about polls, as his own... >> guest: and went out of his way to show it. >> guest: ...diaries--yes. he simply did not wish to bend to public pressures. he--again, he stressed leadership is the thing. and this sets up a problem for the presidency, because everyone's trying to bend, to compare themselves to harry truman now. all the presidential candidates did. he's believed to be a great leader. but he wasn't in his own administration. and so to be successful, in the long run, we're asking presidents to be very unsuccessful in the short run. to ignore polls in the short run can cost you your office. harry truman did not seek re-election. harry truman's approval ratings were way too low to have a reasonable chance at re-election in 1952. he ignored polls. so he was... >> guest: we talked about an uneasy balance. >> guest: that's right. >> guest: that presidents have to sort of walk a tightrope between ignoring popularity too far and following it too c

may i come back to harry truman? i didn't ask your question how hoover felt about truman. he obviously had criticisms of truman but i do not think the personal dimension was there. with roosevelt, there was a feeling of dislike of roosevelt's personality and modus operandi. >> and questioning of his character. >> yes. whereas with truman he might disagree with truman's judgment but it wasn't that kind of critique. in 1963, as the book was nearly completed and its umpteenth edition, hoover actually sent word to hard harry truman that he hoped that truman would not take umbrage at the publication of a book called "freedom betrayed" and hoover was thinking about the betrayal of the communist and truman said nothing that herbert hoover could do would lower my estimation of him. so hoover had sensitive that the people he criticized might be upset and that tended to make him hold off and revise even more. he wanted the manuscript to be perfect in every way, factually perfect, but he also was concerned about what he called mud volcanos that might erupt on the left from some of th

1963, as this book was nearly completed in its own team edition, hoover actually sent word to harry trumanat he hopes truman would not take umbrage at the publication of a book called "freedom betrayed" and hoover was thinking about the to trail of freedom by the communists in truman without having seen the manuscript said nothing that herbert hoover could do would lower my estimation of him so hoover had a sensitivity that some of the people being criticized might have said and that tended to make them hold off and realize even more. he wanted the manuscript to be perfect in every way, factually perfect but he also was concerned about what he called mud volcanoes that might erupt on the left from some of the object of desire. >> host: this is a man who is almost 90 years old who has been fully you know, regained a certain measure of the luster that he had enjoyed before his name had become has become synonymous with the great depression and i assume not only he but his family harbored some real reservations about putting him at that age into the controversy that such a book would be sure

germany's seemingly recession proof economy unfortunately during that time of rebuilding in germany harry truman couldn't help workers in the united states he was up against a republican controlled congress the eightieth congress was elected in one thousand nine hundred six truman called it the do nothing congress even though it did do a lot namely kill progress. it sabotage truman's hopes for a single payer you know universal health care system for example and they passed half heartedly overriding term truman's veto which created the were right to work states were corporations could move in to do business with out unions i call them right to work for less states and because of that congress the idea of congress united states fell behind when it comes to creating an economy that benefits the ninety nine percent and not just the one percent while germany surged ahead and that's where we are today it took a crisis to put germany back on track and at this rate it may take a crisis to get america back on track. and that's the big picture for tonight for more information on the stories recovered visi

and this was particularly true, for example, in working on harry truman. many of those people who were close to truman, as members of the white house staff, or members of his hometown friends and so forth was infinitely valuable. >> host: the young lady right over here. >> mr. mccullough, when you're tackling these presidents like adams and jefferson that previous historians have written so much about, how important is it you find primary sources that nobody's used before? and can you still do that -- >> guest: i'm sorry. because of the airplane we couldn't hear you. >> oh, i'm sorry when you're tackling presidents like adams and jefferson is it important to find primary sources that no one's used before and can that still be done for presidents that we've all studied so much? thank you. >> guest: it depends with the president. thomas jefferson was an extremely private man. and he destroyed virtually every letter that would let us in the door to his private life. he wrote to his -- after the death of his wife, he destroyed everybody letter she ever wrote, e

more generally he should speak the way franken roosevelt spoke and act the way harry truman acted.you look at the speeches by roosevelt, he never wrote a speech and he had a voice that was magic that you can't imulate. the words were very simple, punchy and communicated very clearly. he didn't need seven foot sentences. and obama has done that recently, i think a couple of times. if he keeps making that kind of speech and acts more strongly which he started, as well. >> what should he take from harry truman? >> act. do it. don't talk about it. don't talk about it. do it. he has the republicans in a very interesting position. he didn't do it to them. they did it to themselves. they are in a position that they started by saying we can't cooperate with him. if we cooperate with him it will make him look good and we will not be able to beat him in the race. it was selfish and stupid. what happened now is the people are beginning to figure out, you guys, the jobs cut, the tax involved there, you made a good point for the president. and what they are going to start figuring out now that

this looks like harry truman, chris: welcome back from new hampshire. john, "tell me something i don't know." >> a lot of people have forecast that rick santorum could have a high ceiling here in new hampshire because of the pat buchanan analogy. chris: and he won here in 19 the -- 19 6, did pat. >> there are not as many blue-collar voters as there were back when pats was winning and i think that holds rick santorum back. >> but the rise since iowa has hurt john huntsman as the roll any alternative. it will be all over if he does not do substantially better. >> the big takeaway for democrats outs of iowa is they feel like that romney, in going so far to the right in immigration, could mean that in a general if it's romney, they could get 75% of the latino vote. obama got about 6% last time and that could be the difference in the election. chris: does this push the case on mark rubio? >> it does but it is difficult to sell his stance on immigration. >> romney went to the rights on immigration to destroy newt and that may hurts him in the general. african

when we got to the end of the war, roosevelt died, harry truman comes in -- harry truman essentially agrees with roosevelt on many of these issues. they're different kinds of people, two very different presidents but on these issues, truman is ready to go on with a lot of this. truman comes in. the economic planners are wanting to institute this but they think the war is going to go on till 1946. germany, of course, surrenders in '45. it appears that it will go on for a long time. truman did not know about the atomic bomb when he became president. that's one of the shocks. roosevelt had never informed him that it was being developed. in fact, one of the odd things was the day that truman became president he did not know we had an atomic bomb but stalin did. one of the ironies of history, the russians knew we had it, the president of the united states did not. happily, secretary of war stimson told that to truman early in his presidency so now he knew and when he decided to use it on japan in august, congress is out of session. it takes most of america by surprise, august 6th an atomic

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the answer, harry truman who lost in 1952.ided not to seek the nomination again. >>> we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily rundown" live from new hampshire only on msnbc. hampshire, msnbc. this is an rc robotic claw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. whee wheeeeeeeeeeeee! wheeeeeeeeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! pure adrenaline. whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! everything you love about geico, now mobile. download the new geico app today. whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee! >>> bring back our panel. casey hunt, michael steele. i want to show this because it's a reminder of how o

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. >> rose: and people who read it were influential people, not harry truman but a lot of people around harry truman. >> i like to think it started with a clerk, saying why is this 5,000 words -- and it was passed up to language and then the content of it was extraordinary. >> rose: what did he say? >> he said, in effect, that soviet union is not going to be the grand and glorious all in the postwar period that it had been in the wartime riod, and we h to get used to that. he said that the soviet union, the soviet system, stalin required a hostile outside world, and so there wasothing we could do to overcome that hostility, it was inherent in the system. but he also said if we were patient then the internal contradictions within the system, sooner or later would frustrate its ambitions, we had time, stalin was not hitler, he didn't have a timetable, and so with patience and some building of forfications on our side, in time, the system would umble from within. so it is an extraordinary anticipation ofhat would actually happen. >> rose: but we had to resist every extension of their effor

my favorite is harry truman's quote that you have here. where harry truman says, "well, all the president is is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they're supposed to do anyway." that, i think, is one of the important items here in your piece, is that let's start off with an understanding of just how difficult it is to persuade other adults in washington to do things they don't want to do. >> that's it. and you know, the more i liked a to the memos and the more i talked to people and the more i sort of reported out what the president was actually confronted with, the decisions that he was confronted with it, i never saw a memo where it said, mr. president, do you want to change 40 years of polarization and sweep away the fundamentals of the country? you don't get that option. you get, you know, bad option "a" or bad option "b." and you know, the more i read through this stuff, i said, that's the story here, is the constraints on this office. and i think there'

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we've seen that before from harry truman. will it work for this president? we're right back. >>> and in "psycho talk" tonight, we're kicking off the new year of 2012 with good old donald trump. never fails us, does he? the donald is still trying to convince us he's going to run for president. apparently there's a crack pipe group of folks down there in texas trying to get trump to get in the race as an independent. this morning trump responded with his trademark arrogance. >> certainly there are millions of people that would like to see me do something, not because of me, but because i want to protect this nation. i've been saying from the beginning that if the republicans pick the wrong candidate, somebody that's going to lose, which is certainly possible, i would certainly consider it. i switched from an independent. because if i didn't do it by the first of january, i wouldn't be able to do it. i do have my ducks in line. if i wanted to do it. i'd love to see the republicans pick somebody that was going to win and take over this country. >> did you hear w

harry truman... >> rose: nato troops. >> no, they're american... yes, they are nato troops. you know what nato troops are called? >> rose: no. >> americans. it will overwhelming majority of nato militaryorce is american. >> rose: and is the overwhelming marity of equipment american as well? >> yes. in fact, in libya where the president did the right thing by saying "for once, will you people do something?" they had to buy equipment from america. this is ita, france, country that can spit and hit libya when the wind is right but they didn't have their own material. i would say this. first of all, i never... we never should have gone into iraq. i am ready to pull out of afghanistan. i think that's a... here's the point i think... >> tell me where you would have gone in with respect to afghanistan. >> oh, i voted to go in. >> rose: i know you did. >> so i would have pulled out... even before we killed bin laden. >> rose: you would have pulled out if, in fact, iraq had never happened? because some say ere might have been a different result in afghanistan if iraq never took place

i think he was looking at the past and trying to sound like harry truman, rather than looking like a 21st century president. >>ose: all right. andy? >> mean, i think the important thing here but that he did all the right things about his accomplishments and about sort of policies for the future, i think the ctext mannered mattered and i think the context is, there is an basic american belief in work and taking responsibility and i think he played very strongly to that. the issue offairness i think is a basic core gut value of americans, and i think drawing the line a saying i am tired of obstructionism and not going back to where things are and laid out a series of things like a financial unit to investigate fraud and public lands being able to drill -- or alternative energy, from 3 million on, so i think he was strong and i think, you know, we should understand there is something very basic that americans understand that en you work hard, you should be rewarded and i think that is a key theme that is incredibly suessful. >> rose: kurt? >> i think given half or two-thirds of that spe