very multiethnic, no racial majority. what drove her is a set of circumstances.ind of visionary. i don't even know that she was particularly lefty. and she certainly wasn't anti-american. she remained an american citizen for her entire career. she spent the bulk of her... the majority of her adult life in indonesia, but never gave up her citizenship. >> stephen: did she raise barack obama or was it his grandparents? >> no, she did. she was the dominant influence. certainly in the first.... >> stephen: but she left him befind the united states and went back over to indonesia. >> that's sort of the oversimplified version. she was in indonesia with him when he was ten, she wanted him to have an english language education she couldn't get there. she sent him back to her parents so he could go to a great school. she joined him, stayed with him until he was close to high school, then she had gotten to a point whether w her graduate work in pursuit of her ph.d. where she had to go back to indonesia and he didn't want to go. and he stayed with her parents for high school

which success in our economy is not based on your birth but ability to climb and ability of a very multiethnic society to rise and be part of a middle class without pushing anyone out. that's the ultimate goal and we believe a strong deficit-reduction plan as a critical component of that strategy. but it is also important to ensure that we are investing in the future and it's also critical the we do so in a way consistent with encouraging a stronger recovery at this point. those are parts of a strategy that not only can go together, they should go together. and let me make one point on the investment part. i've heard for over 20, 25 years the discussions by so many people around this table as to why we as a country wanted to have a strategy to deal with the baby boom retirement, and truthfully, we were in a position when i left my last year of the clinton administration, we were on track to deal with of the retirement of the baby boom generation in a way that was not going to pass on significant debt to the next generation. i will go into how we lost our way but i will say the following. part

structure created for a bipolar cold war, washington's inability to adjust to a politically complex, multiethnic religiously-divided south asia has hobbled the american effort from the start. by marrying its war on terror to the political agenda of the use beck northern alliance of the 1990s, it set itself against the traditional rulers of afghanistan, the pashtuns, setting the stage for the traditional conflict it now endures. from a purely american political perspective, claims that the u.s. is repeating vietnam are valid. what america did in world war ii in korea it did in vietnam, and what it did in vietnam, it's doing in afghanistan. but from the respect of an afghan elder whose family has been humiliated bien a night tame raid, the united states is repeating russia's vietnam, and that's a distinction that needs to be understood. the sow yet defeat -- soviet defeat in afghanistan and the collapse of the soviet union filled the islamic right wither fervor. while the united states could walk away from vietnam, bruised but with its world status unaffected, the same could not be said for afghan

do people choose to call themselves black, white, multiethnic based on their own experience or is that because they're given a series of boxes that they have to choose from on a census or is that something that's decided for them at the dinner table or in the school yard, in a place like this when they're very young and they remain in that proverbial box for the rest of their lives because someone else decided who they should be and how they should identify themselves. >> it helps to understand how we came to our thinking which isn't always in lockstep but we feed on each other's thoughts and ideas because we respect and basically like each other but also we've discovered as we become friends and closer and closer over the years how similar but different our upbringings were that allowed us to think about how we define ourselves. i was -- we're both raised by strong men first of all who in interesting ways defined us. my father i called the accidental feminist. he was not really a great, you know, you go girl kind of guy. he was -- he was an ordained minister who wasn't so crazy about

economy is not based on the accident of your birth, but your ability to client and the ability of a multiethnic society chubais and be part of a growing underclass without pushing anyone out. that is the ultimate goal and we believe a strong deficit reduction is a critical component of that strategy. but it is also important to ensure that we are investing in the future and it's also critical we do so in a way consistent with encouraging a strong recovery at this point. those are parts of a strategy that not only can go together, and they should go together. let me make one point on the investment partner. i have heard for over 20, 25 years the discussion by so many people around this table as to why we as a country one is to have a strategy to deal with the baby boomer retirement. and truthfully, we were in a position when i left my last year the clinton administration where we were on track to deal with the retirement of the baby boomer generation in a way that was not going to pass on significant debt to the next generation. i won't go into how we lost her way, but i will say the following.

economy is not based on the accident of your birth, but your ability to client and the ability of a multiethnic society chubais and be part of a growing underclass without pushing anyone out. that is the ultimate goal and we believe a strong deficit reduction is a critical component of that strategy. but it is also important to ensure that we are investing in the future and it's also critical we do so in a way consistent with encouraging a strong recovery at this point. those are parts of a strategy that not only can go together, and they should go together. let me make one point on the investment partner. i have heard for over 20, 25 years the discussion by so many people around this table as to why we as a country one is to have a strategy to deal with the baby boomer retirement. and truthfully, we were in a position when i left my last year the clinton administration where we were on track to deal with the retirement of the baby boomer generation in a way that was not going to pass on significant debt to the next generation. i won't go into how we lost her way, but i will say the following.

economy is not based on the accident of your birth, but your ability to client and the ability of a multiethnic society chubais and be part of a growing underclass without pushing anyone out. that is the ultimate goal and we believe a strong deficit reduction is a critical component of that strategy. but it is also important to ensure that we are investing in the future and it's also critical we do so in a way consistent with encouraging a strong recovery at this point. those are parts of a strategy that not only can go together, and they should go together. let me make one point on the investment partner. i have heard for over 20, 25 years the discussion by so many people around this table as to why we as a country one is to have a strategy to deal with the baby boomer retirement. and truthfully, we were in a position when i left my last year the clinton administration where we were on track to deal with the retirement of the baby boomer generation in a way that was not going to pass on significant debt to the next generation. i won't go into how we lost her way, but i will say the following.