[laughter] >> i think keegan can testify to. that so it's always better to be in a collaborative mode. and to listen. but the part of the reason it's not just the politics of it, it's also because these are genuinely complicated issues. and nobody has all the right answer so what we have to do is to find the 80% of stuff that everybody agrees on. things like electronic medical record that can eliminate errors in hospitals because right now nurses can't read the doctor's handwriting. but if it comes out on a p.d.a. that reading, then they're more likely to be accurate. and reducing paperwork. everybody agrees there's no reason why you should have to fill out five, six, eight forms every time you go to see a doctor. everybody knows that. [cheers and applause] >> huge amounts of wasted money. >> electronic billing. and billing that you can understand. everybody knows that's something that needs to be done. so there are things that can be done that republican, democrat, liberal, conservative, we all know need to happen. the challeng

c-span: i talked recently with john keegan, the historian. he was about the same age. >> guest: we're exactly the same age. c-span: do you know him? >> guest: oh, yes, sure. c-span: you quote him in the book. >> guest: oh, yes. we're in the same racket. we've been doing this for a long time. c-span: he said he got interested because there are lots of american soldiers in his village of taunton. how did you get interested in this subject? >> guest: i was a civil war historian, and in 1964 i got a telephone call from general eisenhower, who asked if i would be interested in writing his biography. he had read a couple of my civil war books. "yes, sir," said i, and it got started there. i mean, you can't do eisenhower's biography and not be interested in d-day. c-span: do you remember the first time you met him? >> guest: certainly. it was in his office in gettysburg. we talked for a whole afternoon about what access i would have, what papers would be available to me, what would be involved in doing this work. at the end of that conversation, he