linden johnson, a southerner and a man who was closest friends in the senate were segregationists, he becomes president. would anybody have predicted that he would lead the effort to get the 1964 civil rights act passed, and why did he do that given his background and knowledge that this would probably hurt the democratic party in the south? >> on the one hand, you've got to remember that when linden johnson was a teacher in texas, he was very involved with trying to improve conditions for the latino community. so there is a part of johnson that wasn't just a calculated political move. i think he really felt that fairness was essential and that, yes, he knew that it might hurt the democratic party from the white south, but he thought it would ensure that african-americans would also rally around the party. and i think that what is so powerful about linden johnson is that he has the political sophistication, the connections, to be able to go to some of the dixie-crats and southerners and say i understand who you are, we've got to change. >> so eventually the '65 voting act is passed as

rational, too cerebral, who don't have in their dna whatever that political gene is that enables linden johnson, an extreme example, to thrive. >> what were the circumstances in 1932, did he run again and what happened? >> he ran again, was nominated. another issue that complicated particularly more the republicans because they had a lot of rural supporters, the republican party was split on the issue. hoover again who didn't mind taking a drink but i think by 1932, the supporters are probably concluding that this experiment had not worked. in many ways it had backfired. he was carrying that deadweight. he had the depression. i mean he had his own inability to inspire, you think of fdr in radio, well hoover was on radio. if he got excited, if he founded exciting speaking on the radio. he said it was as exciting is talking to a doorknob. that is the literal, that is the engineer. anyway, he ran again. the bonus army came. it's still the subject of controversy, he dispatched him. not to cross the bridge and set fire to the veterans camp, he took it upon himself to do that. hoover sent explicit or

he's not going to bring votes the way, say, linden johnson would carrie texas for john kennedy. and he's too conservative. and bush wants cheney mostly because of his experience. i mean, he's choosing his father's advisers and that goes all the way up to and including his own vice president. and once he takes office, he really does rely on them. he has kind of the bridging figure of condoleeza rice, who was a friend of his, to be national security adviser. but these guys, cheney, powell and rumsfeld, who cheney has brought in as defense secretary, who are supposed to know how all of this works and he relies on them. he relies on them before september 11th, then he has this problem in the run-up to the war in iraq that actually his advisers don't agree with each other. cheney and rumsfeld are very much in support of and cheney is pushing the idea of the war with iraq. powell, very much the contrary, disagrees in particular with cheney. but in that case, he's still relying on cheney and powell. and all the way through that first term he tends to support cheney, what cheney wants.