mccullough? >> i had trouble hearing the question but i gather he wants to know what i think about the present situation in relation to other times and other presidents. my specialty is deceased presidents. [laughter] but i think we can all take samples from the best that have held the office. i think one of the lessons of history is exceptional presidents are the exception, and we should not expect every president to be exceptional. and not every president is going to be a george washington or abraham lincoln or franklin roosevelt or harry truman or dwight eisenhower. it doesn't happen that often. with the case of roosevelt, truman and eisenhower, you have three right in a row. that is unusual. and of course some presidents have time in office cut off by tragedy or assassination, and we never will know what extent they might have seen in them at six excel. what to look for in a president among other things is how have they handled failure in their lives before they became president? because ever

mccullough? >> i had trouble hearing the question but i gather he wants to know what i think about the present situation in relation to other times and other presidents. my specialty is deceased presidents. [laughter] but i think we can all take samples from the best that have held the office. i think one of the lessons of history is exceptional presidents are the exception, and we should not expect every president to be exceptional. and not every president is going to be a george washington or abraham lincoln or franklin roosevelt or harry truman or dwight eisenhower. it doesn't happen that often. with the case of roosevelt, truman and eisenhower, you have three right in a row. that is unusual. and of course some presidents have time in office cut off by tragedy or assassination, and we never will know what extent they might have seen in them at six excel. what to look for in a president among other things is how have they handled failure in their lives before they became president? because ever

david mccullough is our season chronicler. his latest book is the greater journey, americans in paris. the 19th century story of americans turning back across the atlantic to discover the science, the art and learning of the old world, even at a time when other americans were churning physically to this specifics to discover national resources, national beauty of challenges of the american frontier. america was opening up a new world physically in the west while in reaching itself culturally and intellectually in the great city of lights and the journey eastward across the sea. ladies and gentlemen, david mccullough came into my office two days after the first national book festival to say how important it was to continue to do this kind of event nationally and he offered to help in any way he could. one day after that came, the unspeakable tragedy of 9/11, one of the darkest days and all the narrative of our national life. but he came back next year to get the final talk at the book festival a year later and he ended it and a

this is just a total waste of someone's life. >> despite his pessimism, mccullough had found a productive express his pain. ♪ they say it's raining in denver ♪ ♪ that it's really kind of cold but i'm just pulling time in nashville ♪ ♪ how am i supposed to know >> in a prison in nashville the home of country music, we decided it would be great if we could find a country singer, and so we kind of made a callout to the other inmates and officers and they came up with mcculloch and he turned out to be pretty good. ♪ said she never talked about me ♪ ♪ how it never did seem right ♪ i've been pulling time in nashville ♪ ♪ wasting days and wasting nights ♪ >> writing music in prison is just my life. i don't sit down to write a song. something hits me and my best songs come with about two minutes and about two or three minutes i have an excellent song. and i wrote "pulling time in nashville at the walls" which is tennessee state prison, which is shut down now. ♪ here the families come and see me ♪ ♪ they can spare some of the time ♪ >> i let my feelings out in my songs and i wrote old-time country

live in milford mill mill with more on what police sayy he suspecttused in the stabbing. 3 lt. mcculloughtimore co. pooice spokessan: 26:38 tte victim simply went up to the suspect and asked him to noo impede the traffic at that location, the suspect in turn actually picked up a beer bottle, brokeethe bottle in the parking lot and stabbed the victim in he stomach area 4 54police searched the area... pnd tracked mendez at hisshome in the apartments just around the corner off langrehr road. he's bbing held with no bail on chaages of áatttmptedá first degree murder and first degree assault. as for thh iitim... he was rushed to shock traama after the stabbing..but his mother &ptold us off camera tonight that his injuries were not as he's actually abbe to speak. police say he and mendezzdii milford mill,,ms, fox45 news att en. some residents in baltimore are outraged... after an apparent supporter oo the veterans memorial. memorial.the union soldiers and sailors mmnument is meant &pto immortalize the heroes of the civil wwr.buu now... vandalism... including a hash tag... and the words "occupy

live in milford mill mill with more on what police sayy he suspecttused in the stabbing. 3 lt. mccullough/baltimore co. pooice spokessan: 26:38 tte victim simply went up to the suspect and asked him to noo impede the traffic at that location, the suspect in turn actually picked up a beer bottle, brokeethe bottle in the parking lot and stabbed the victim in he stomach area 4 54police searched the area... pnd tracked mendez at hisshome in the apartments just around the corner off langrehr road. he's bbing held with no bail on chaages of áatttmptedá first degree murder and first degree assault. as for thh iitim... he was rushed to shock traama after the stabbing..but his mother &ptold us off camera tonight that his injuries were not as he's actually abbe to speak. police say he and mendezzdii milford mill,,ms, fox45 news att en. some residents in baltimore are outraged... after an apparent supporter oo the veterans memorial. memorial.the union soldiers and sailors mmnument is meant &pto immortalize the heroes of the civil wwr.buu now... vandalism... including a hash tag... and the words "occ

who should we hire, michael beshlash, david mccullough, what about our house historian on housing?early he's the lobbyist in chief. let me ask you this. >> yeah. >> here's a guy, and here's where it's really evil. i don't want to overstate that until we get to the bottom of this. i think it's like that. here's a guy who made a lot of points the last couple of months blasting the democrats, dodd and frank, saying they both ought to be in prison, basically. in fact, he said that. >> yeah. >> for basically coddling freddie mac. now it turns out he's their chief lobbyist. how can you be that dishonest? >> chris, you've been around the block a few times. this is 100% newt gingrich. this is his pattern. you come up with a slippery denial about your own behavior while you throw bombs at the other side. even for doing what you yourself have done. just go back to the clinton impeachment crusade. i mean, it's one of the biggest dodges in town to say i'm not a lobbyist. >> you mean carrying on an affair with somebody who works in the house staff below you at the same time you're going after a

david mccullough in his book, is 93 book, truman, told a great story about my grandparents.for almost the entirety of his -- at the warehouse because the white house was absolutely falling apart. grandpa would be in a state dining room downstairs hosting a stag dinner and he knew it was my grandmother of stairs and the chandelier was quivering as she walks back and forth. finally a piano leg punch through the floor of my mother sitting room. and they eventually cleared everybody out, gutted the white house and rebuild it from the inside out with i-beams. early on by the way, early on they ran to hold the floor up and they stabilized of the steel rods that they ran from the ceiling down to the floor so my grandparents and mother could stay there for a few days and get the furniture out and get things set. grandpa, who loves the history of the white house love to share it took a group of reporters on the tour of the upstairs and showed them, there's a hole in the floor and this is what is happening and how bad this is. he stops outside of his bathroom and one of the steel rods

. ♪ muck >> hi, my name is yolanda mccullough, i'm stationed in afghanistan, i would like to say happyy mom, my dad, my two brothers, my nephew jaden. love you, happy thanksgiving. bye! it's all the same. nothing changes. then try this. freestyle lite® blood glucose test strip. sure, but it's not gonna-- [beep] wow. yep, that's the patented freestyle zipwik™ design. did it just-- [both] target the blood? yeah, drew it right in. the test starts fast. you need just a third the blood of one touch.® that is different. so freestyle lite test strips make testing... easy? easy. great. call or click-- we'll send you strips and a meter, free. free is good. freestyle lite test strips. call or click today. that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future.

friday at 5:15, caroline kennedy on her mother, and david mccullough on american expatriate's.o, the grandson of harry and bess truman looks at his grandparents' letters to each other and the role the former first lady played in shaping her husband's career. he is interviewed by the great granddaughter of herbert hoover. >> our newly designed web said makes it easy for you to watch our events. it is easier to get our schedule, like a lay out this quickly scroll through all the programs. even received an e-mail alert when your program is scheduled to air. there is a segment for popular series. and the channel finder said that you can quickly find where to watch our three c-span that works on cable or satellite systems across the country. >> "washington journal" continues. host: general wesley clark is with us for the next 45 minutes. we will talk about foreign- policy and last night's gop presidential debate. it is a complicated world when you look at the stores in the newspapers. everything from the protests in egypt to precious to do something about iran, to pakistan and the r

and david mccullough on american expatriate in 19th century paris. and the grandson of harry truman and bess truman, looking at his grandparents' letters to each other and the role of former first lady played in shaping her husband's career. he is interviewed by the great granddaughter of president herbert hoover. four days of "book tv" program starting thursday at 8:00 on c- span 2. >> no discussion on the arab spring uprising and the effect on arab monarchies. we will hear from the former jordanian foreign minister and a few middle east scholars. from the carnegie endowment in washington, this is about 20 minutes. >> i am very pleased to be moderating this session today. my name is paul salem. this is on how monarchies have dealt with the arab spring. we have a very distinguished panel. this is part of a research project that is emerging as a part of a paper in the next few weeks on the topic of arab monarchies and the arab spring. the authors of this paper are muasher marwan and marina ottaway. and our commentator for today is jon alterman. curren

so i wrote in there, just like general mccullough, there are some in congress who think i will advocate and agreed to an increasing taxes. well, they are nuts. insertion congressman thinks that i will agree to the cut in defense spending. well, they are nuts, too. i thought that must be kind of funny. i'm standing there behind the president as he is reading his speech or he had a special way and his cards, and i looked down and i cannot believe it. he kept those words in their. and howard baker said to me what did you think about that? i said i thought there was a great speech. [applause] [laughter] spinet he said i felt there were members of congress who were going to vote when you said that. >> that brings up one final thing to asking of questions from the audience so please be thinking about what you want to ask. you talked about tax increase did come during his presidency when he did agree to some tax increase is this part of a larger package? ed meese, talk about that and how that came about today. they are so much more in the year and a lot of people look back to president ronald