to take over as the postmaster general did but the first president to comment extensively is james buchanan who is very poor fall it is making it impossible to tell one story in one. the country and the news is spreading and he is very troubled by that. abraham lincoln who was no great fan of the transcontinental telegraph which was understandable as it was the pet project of his rivals, when he becomes president he comes to see the railroad and the telegraph as you 19 of the country and the way that it made the union inevitable but has the technological determination and spend more time in the telegraph office during the civil war than anything else and falling those battles very closely and the news was closely monitored during the civil war because of the wire service. that is a real landmark and the use of the telegraph by the president. hayes was the first to have a telephone in the white house. not used much but teddy roosevelt was the innovator but used primarily by a secretaries and a service for a great deal of political correspondence and george perkins was an innovator to conduct

he said that james buchanan had acted as the go-between for clay and his camp.chanan publicly said that he did not do this. it did not matter. >> would you rather have andrew jackson at your table or henry clay? >> henry clay. he was a fun man at a party. >> he would stand for the drinks. >> what would you get if you had andrew jackson at your table? >> courtly, withdrawn and possibly sour person. very polite. chivalrous with women. anyone who ever met him -- actually, clay rather liked him until he became so vicious. after that speech, clay actually called on jackson to showed that it was not anything personal. it was like professional wrestling, going out and having a drink after the bout. he was somewhat surprised that jackson was so chilly and aloof. john quincy adams had the same impression. they were looking over a map and jackson exploded and went on in a raving rant about how despicable a secretary of treasury was. adams was dumbfounded. he thought, this is a man who does not understand the game. >> again, henry clay ran for president five times. you rea

and i would say the difference in the 19th century is that james buchanan faced with seven states ceding from the union and abraham lincoln, his successor. i mean he-- he was a forceful leader, took the country into war. yes, they saved the union and i think that's-- people who expect action. it isn't a question whether the president goes in himself and plugs it. nobody is talking about that. or sending some 82nd airborne in to do it. but when there are toys that come into the country with lead on them and children get sick, there is a sense of there is a responsibility for that. somebody is supposed to be protecting and defending that. the ultimate responsibility as the president himself said yesterday is with him. people will accept blunder its and temperizing and mistakes if, in fact, it is resolved successfully. but jim, this has taken all the oxygen out of the room. there is no other debate about jobs, jobs, jobs or the economy. this is it. this is a pass-fail test for the president. not for the congress. not for the corporation. >> lehrer: how do you explain that, david, that there

we're joined now by james carville, our cnn contributor, bay buchanan, republican strategist and conservativeerican cause and david gergen, our senior political analyst, professor of public service at the kennedy sexual harvard university. james, if she's confirmed and becomes the ninth newest member of the united states supreme court, there will be real diversity on the supreme court not only will there be harvard law school graduates, there will be yale law school graduates as well. all nine of them -- if you have anything to did with lar vard or yale, there are a ton of good law schools in this country and a ton of good lawyers and judge that's didn't go to one or two of those institutions. she is qualified. she's going to be confirmed. i'm sure she's going to be confirmed. i'm sure she's going to be a fine supreme court justice. we're getting overly credentialed in this thing. i just -- i think this is the wrong message for the country. the next time somebody gets picked, i hope they find someone who had something to do with a law school that didn't smell salt water. >> babe bu cannian, d

buchanan comes from patricia in bradenton, florida. >> caller: yes, i have a question concerning a ethnonationalism. you painted a very bleak picture. do you have any solutions? >> guest: no, i don't. i mean, james had a great phrase, a line he used, where there is no solution there is no problem. and i think this is a very powerful force. and it is a worldwide force. and people are trying to cope with it, the chinese are trying to cope with it. india is trying to cope with it less and less successfully. burma is trying to cope with it. and it is a real problem, quite frankly. take a look at the people may not like the folks, the white folks in rhodesia and south africa, but i think they are not coming back and i think more and more are going to leave. and i think you can cope with it in the united states still, if we get back to the idea that we are one country, one border, one culture, one language. frankly, we have a moratorium on immigration. hold all illegal immigration. try to bring this country together as one, as one people again. and people, i get calls. they say we have segregation in 1950s. yes, we did, but culturally, socially, morally and many other ways we were one nation and one p