. >> woodruff: and perspective from historians jeffrey stein, michael beschloss, and richard norton smith, and newshour regulars mark shields and david brooks. >> ifill: plus, hari sreenivasan reports on syrian americans who say they are being watched by syrian spies in the u.s. as their families are being harassed at home. >> when they were beating my wife, she was screaming, why are you killing me? why are you hitting me? they said we're doing this to teach you a lesson because your son is demonstrating against us. >> ifill: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: and the william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> woodruff: it is countdown to caucus night in iowa, and six republican presidential hopefuls worked right up to the end.

joining me now is michael beschloss, the nbc news presidential historian.. >> pleasure, reverend. >> so, how big a night is this for a president? >> well, you know, it's -- barack obama may not get this big a megaphone again until election in november, it is a big weapon of presidential power, you know, truman and eisenhower and kennedy used to give these speeches about 12:30 in the afternoon, not terribly many people saw them and lyndon johnson, who was someone who really appreciated power and knew how to acquire it felt if you give the speech in the evening, you will have a much bigger audience and is one of the rare occasions that a president has to communicate with the american people directly. these day, a president is rarely able to do that. >> now, the president is in a situation tonight where he is trying to build back the economy, show some gradual improvement so he has to speak as the president guiding the country away from a disaster he inher red. he has to deal with the fact that he has the foreign affairs situations, he is dealing with all over

remember the day after president obama's nomination michael beschloss held him as, quote, probably the smartest guy to ever become president come in dove quote. why would you say such a thing? i mean, other than an impressive talent self-promotion what has he ever done? evin as a legendary figure, what our original thought has he ever expressed in his entire life and yet, he is, quote, probably the smartest guy to become president since michael beschloss and he's the presidential historian says he should know because he is a smart guy, too and lending the hand on another smart guy the house conservative of "the new york times" hailed the incoming -- hailed the incoming administration as a collection of super smart eggheads provincial further help. if a foreign enemy attacks the united states during the harvard yale game any time over the next four years, we are siggerud, and of quote. [laughter] he was right over a quarter of obama's political appointees with ties to harvard, over 90% have advanced degrees and yet were swound anyway. how did that happen? what kind of super smart guy al

we will leave it there an come back a little later in the program, michael beschloss, richard norton smith, jeff stein, thanks all three. >> thank you. >> we are still in iowa, judy, we are finally see some actual numbers coming out of iowa and we are going to take a look. it is actually kind of interesting because it confirms some of the conventional wisdom which we have seen which is that ron paul so far with 16 percent of the caucus reporting, is at 24 percent, right on his heels, in fact, such a small difference of only a couple hundred votes is mitt romney at 23 percent, and rick santorum, who has that late surge at 23 percent, no surprises there so far, judy. >> no surprises, and, gwyn, what that tells me right off the top of the bat is that the ron paul organization was every bit of what they said it was. the paul people have been telling us for days, you know, we have a program where you can come to iowa, if you are a student or somebody who wants to help us out and spend christmas with ron paul, and we will put you up, they said, at an inexpensive motel in iowa and you will

. >> do you know michael beschloss. >> he is a good glend he is on the board. >> a member of the foundation -- >> when he visited the l.b.j.library he found a couple of jewels so to speak. literary jewel that is he use with johnson musing about how the war in vietnam was unwinnable. do you think you are going to find anything like that in the nixon papers? >> the nixon papers are being processed right new as we talk at the national archives in college park, maryland. the papers and tapes they have been for years and years. >> is that vein been mined thoroughly? >> apparently the news media has -- there was -- >> i'm not take thinking about bad stuff. i'm thinking about good stuff. he did introduce china into a relationship with us and that could read down to his credit. >> i'm not thinking bad stuff. i think once you have the nixon library in the presidential system the focus can become more balanced and people can look at the entire press. michael has done that with johnson as well. >> a couple of month ago you gave testimony saying e-commerce has inflated the risks documents or images wil

. >> do you know michael beschloss. >> he is a good glend he is on the board. >> a member of the foundation -- >> when he visited the l.b.j.library he found a couple of jewels so to speak. literary jewel that is he use with johnson musing about how the war in vietnam was unwinnable. do you think you are going to find anything like that in the nixon papers? >> the nixon papers are being processed right new as we talk at the national archives in college park, maryland. the papers and tapes they have been for years and years. >> is that vein been mined thoroughly? >> apparently the news media has -- there was -- >> i'm not take thinking about bad stuff. i'm thinking about good stuff. he did introduce china into a relationship with us and that could read down to his credit. >> i'm not thinking bad stuff. i think once you have the nixon library in the presidential system the focus can become more balanced and people can look at the entire press. michael has done that with johnson as well. >> a couple of month ago you gave testimony saying e-commerce has inflated the risks documents or images wil

. >> do you know michael beschloss. >> he is a good glend he is on the board. >> a member of the foundation -- >> when he visited the l.b.j.library he found a couple of jewels so to speak. literary jewel that is he use with johnson musing about how the war in vietnam was unwinnable. do you think you are going to find anything like that in the nixon papers? >> the nixon papers are being processed right new as we talk at the national archives in college park, maryland. the papers and tapes they have been for years and years. >> is that vein been mined thoroughly? >> apparently the news media has -- there was -- >> i'm not take thinking about bad stuff. i'm thinking about good stuff. he did introduce china into a relationship with us and that could read down to his credit. >> i'm not thinking bad stuff. i think once you have the nixon library in the presidential system the focus can become more balanced and people can look at the entire press. michael has done that with johnson as well. >> a couple of month ago you gave testimony saying e-commerce has inflated the risks documents or images wil

we'll hear from caroline kennedy and michael beschloss. the event was held at the john f. kennedy library in boston. >> good evening. you have read the news stories, but your copies of the book, watch the abc primetime special, morning television and even "the daily show" with jon stewart and now tonight, live from the kennedy library with its oral history carefully house for the past half-century, we will hear directly from jacqueline kennedy about her life with their 35th president and from their daughter, who has brought this fresh new history to light. i am tom putnam director of a kennedy presidential library and museum in him to have a loved executive director of the kennedy library foundation, members of our foundation board, many of whom are here with us tonight, and all of my library foundation colleagues, i thank you for coming and all those watching on c-span and acknowledge the generous underwriters of the kennedy library for him, sponsor bank of america, boston capital, the boston foundation and their media partners, the "boston globe" in wbur. the opening tex

conversations at the life with caroline kennedy and michael beschloss. >> good evening. you've read the news stories, but your copies of the book, red watch the abc primetime special morning television and even "the daily show" with jon stewart. e and now tonight live from the se kennedy library, with its oral history was so carefully houseth for the past half-century, we heard directly from jacqueline kennedy about her life with our 35th resident and from their daughter who was brought this fresh new history too late. and tom putnam to light. i am tom putnam director of a kennedy presidential library and museum in him to have a loved executive director of the kennedy library foundation, members of our foundation board, many of whom are here with us tonight, and all of my library foundation colleagues, i thank you for coming and all those watching on c-span and acknowledge the generous underwriters of the kennedy library for him, sponsor bank of america, boston capital, the boston foundation and their media partners, the "boston globe" in wbur. the opening text of our ne

of all what i want to do this think kennedy for her comments and for this terrific panel and michael beschlossassachusetts historical society. >> good evening. i'm president of the massachusetts historical society. on behalf of the society and the harvard university press, i welcome you. founded in 1791, massachusetts historical society is considered one of the finest resources on the history and culture of the united states anywhere. some states and the library of congress among the 12 manuscript the addams family papers hold it in a very special place and over 300,000 manuscript pages that document the country's history from the 70 60s through 1889 the record left by the adams family is extraordinary. along these papers the letters of john and abigail are very special subset. that is the most important correspondence of in the american couple. it is intriguing as we sit here tonight to complete a society was in an early hall, two of the bulls i believe for part of that and it was ran in 1905 -- 1805 and samuel hall on this site. we moved there in 1793 into the attic at the time. there, we co