and i don't know if i can do it in dialog the way peggy does, so peggy says she called ms. henley and if i don't do it right, you tell me. so she called ms. henley. she said ms. henley, you know, she introduced this book and she said we have your photo on the book. no, child you don't. oh, really? and so peggy said we have you talking to michelle obama, you know, how did that conversation go? and this apparently occurred on september 18th, 2008, when michelle was in richmond for an economic summit. and ms. henley was talking. well, child, i don't know what -- i don't know what she said to me because my knees were knocking so. i just don't remember. so peggy said, well, what did she say to you? she said well, i told her about myself and my husband, ms. henley is almost 80. and the fact that we had to get another job to support ourselves. we had jobs cleaning offices. and she and her husband were riding to work one day and he said to her, mary, mary, i can't feel my legs. my legs are numb. and he said, mary, my arms are numb. and he pulled the car over to the side of the road

both peggy and i have letters in this book. and my letter is about my father and about my father's struggle throughout his life to care for a large family, all of the jobs he had come a talented man who only had a sixth great formal education but was a minister who worked very hard at a plant, everyday got up at 4 a.m. in the morning, who was a photographer, self-taught and a musician. and this was the man who took care of our family, was in merger. we're again black families are not seen, black males are not seen as taking care of their children and family but we have the obama family has a representation of batt. but that's been true in our community for ages. so we wanted to tell that story to let michelle know and others know in reading this book that there is this historical continuity within our families that goes back generations and now we see the evidence of that very, very differently portrayed in the obama family. and i want to see something that we have been trying to make sure people understood what kind of book th

peggy noonan ronald reagan's chief speechwriter. then a terrific book about those years. "what i saw at the revolution." mel painter, a priceton university historian and author of "creating black americans: history of african-americans over the last 400 years." that was white a mouthful. peggy, when you were in the white house with ronald reagan, at the end of the first year i think people would have talked about optimism, confidence, things like that. what do you think people will say with this first year? >> i think this first year of obama, i think history will probably look back on it as an attempt to change the face of america in the world, which so far appears to be a good beginning, coupled with, i think, a serious domestic misstep with regard to focusing on certain issues that were not the great issues the american people were focused on when the great recession really sunk in. >> internationally, if i read your comment right, you've been quite supportive of his change of tone. >> yeah. i think it was needed. i think bringing a new face, literally and figuratively

not too long ago with peggy in an an. we were worried he was trying do too many different things. >> trying to do too many -- no, it was all genius. >> no. i felt -- >> yes, you were. >> i thought health care was the thing you had to push. i did not think cap and trade and climate were things you should do in the first year of what could have been a great recession. i felt that it was a time you needed to do health care and i do think he honed his focus in on that. i think it is a good thing. >> i don't think that the people are afraid they will lose their job and lose their health care. they are afraid they are going to lose their job. that's the emphasis. it is unemployment that's, high taxes and high spending and money. it is not the secondary issues. >> i was saying it is not either/or. it is not either i'm going to lose my job or health care. people are worried about both at the same time. and over and over, i keep reading about people who have lost their jobs and, thfr, lost that your health care. >> bob, you know,

>> my name is peggy jones and i have a definite opinion.i think it is not government's job to take care of us. government has taught us for years to depend on the government. look at the people in new orleans after katrina. those people had been taught by the government to wait on the government look what happens when you wait on the government. it is not government's job to take care of us. i which government would teach self reliance and independence. our country wasn't founded with the government that was here to take care of us. it is to protect us from foreign invasion so we can pursue our own happiness. it is not here to give us our happiness in any way, shape or form. certainly not with health care. i look at social security, medicare is about to go bankrupt. [ inaudible ] >> reporter: miss jones was not one of our first five folks we ran into here in arkansas. so as prompted, unedited as we found 'em, took 'em as they came, we take you the viewer to main street in little rock, for their first five. we are on main street in little ro

host: this is peggy on the republican line. caller: after all, obama ran as a centrist. then he moved to a progressive agenda. a lot of the mandates and regulations of the big programs he still insists on continuing such as health care, cap and trade -- and even speaking about emigration -- a lot of mandates and taxes on business. at the same time he says he will give us tax rebates for business. do not forget the state government will also raise taxes because only 80% a population supports the 20% that are unemployed or under-employed. how can business flourish while the federal government imposes taxes and mandates? on the other side are the states which will be forced to raise taxes because of this environment. by the way, will they get more money this year to balance the budget? there will still be a need to balance budgets each year. guest: i think the caller is completely correct. i agree with the president that some type of tax on small businesses is necessary. you will not have any real job growth in america until these looming storm clouds of obamanomics are rem

ilec margaret jones aka peggy seltzer, j2 wrigh and then the one about the anti-muslim flares that wereton and a conservative group. >> guest: that is in a long string of hate crimes. i only listed a small small for-- portion of them in my book. after 20 years they think all these hate crimes usually on college campuses have turned out to be hoaxes. the only surprise about a news showing up on a college campus these days would be a racist. it is always somebody trying to bring attention to racism and anti-semitism sexes them whenever and what is thought to be you know a burgeoning clan movement at columbia university. then the entire nation, i don't know if you remember that there was a professor at columbia i guess about two years ago who was in the middle of the plagiarism investigation. and suddenly lo and behold finds a news on her door and for weeks the entire nation was fixated on this case, and if you had been following the hate crimes for the last 20 years your suspicions within the bin raised, your antenna would have gone up. i think they finally abandoned the investigation fro

host: peggy on the republican line. california. caller: he is going to cause another attack. bush's foreign policy and gave it steroids. both sides of congress are strangled by aipac. i was looking at the 9/11 commission yesterday and nobody talked about the page where it talked about the motivation, why we were attacked. we were attacked because of our support of israel and the suppression of palestinians. host: why you believe that? caller: i have heard from congressman and i have read a book about it. it is a fact. host: where are your facts? caller: c-span, "book tv." host: her comments on president obama? clearly, the president will be talking about his foreign policy and all the efforts he is undertaking to fight the war on terrorism, and especially in the aftermath of the christmas bombing in the review that took place as a result of that. if you look at with the president said, he said he would do everything he could overseas and domestically to improve our security. the president has done what he said he would do in the campaign, which is to continue to responsibly d

this morning says -- here is a comment from twitter.com -- long beach, california, good morning to peggy on our independent line. caller: i was listening to it nbc nightly news and he was talking about the bonuses -- tens of millions of dollars. also a segment on the deepening foreclosure crisis. also in that report there were talking about maybe the banks to do not want to write down principal, whether they would be allowed to write that down if they are reimbursed by the taxpayer, which means i am paying for my house and my neighbor's house that could not afford it. i got back from the u.k. and i was listening to a financial show, and they had a young trader in the city and he had his back to the camera and was saying he expected and anticipated riots either in new york city, paris, one london from irate people and is never came but they anticipated that and also he said it a tax us 50 percent, as in london, we don't mind it for a year but if my colleagues have to do it for five years we will dig in our heels and fight that. to be honest, i think they do realize there is a lot of fury

understand you have to get back on the air but we thank you for spending time with the spread980 am peggyvery much for being with us. we want to turn our attention to the senate race in massachusetts. this is about the president's trip that will take place to campaign. illogic of it obama's visit is mathematical -- the logic of president obama's visit is a mathematical. a huge block of voters who have a favorable opinion of obama are not with the democratic candidate. he has to get them for her or she loses. "the financial times"looks at the polling. ms.coakley has 53% of the boat. mr. brown is ahead by 4%. i expect coakley to win but mr. brown has created a lot of excitement. democrats are clearly nervous. the national democratic committees have added at least $1 million to atcoakley's campaign coffers. we'll talk about this for the next 45 minutes or so. our twitter address it is twitter.com/cspan first up is new york on our democrats line. caller: thank you for cspan and my heart goes out to the tragic situation in haiti. this is no time for partisan politics for republicans looking to

this morning says -- here is a comment from twitter.com -- long beach, california, good morning to peggy our independent line. caller: i was listening to it nbc nightly news and he was talking about the bonuses -- tens of millions of dollars. also a segment on the deepening foreclosure crisis. also in that report there were talking about maybe the banks to do not want to write down principal, whether they would be allowed to write that down if they are reimbursed by the taxpayer, which means i am paying for my house and my neighbor's house that could not afford it. i got back from the u.k. and i was listening to a financial show, and they had a young trader in the city and he had his back to the camera and was saying he expected and anticipated riots either in new york city, paris, one london from irate people and is never came but they anticipated that and also he said it a tax us 50 percent, as in london, we don't mind it for a year but if my colleagues have to do it for five years we will dig in our heels and fight that. to be honest, i think they do realize there is a lot of fury at

peggy on our republicrepublican line and new hampshire. what are your thoughts this board? >> caller: my thought is that we are regulated to death. now i am would've. i am 79 years old. and i have almost always voted republican. we have to many controls, and look what happened with the muslim there that get on the airplane. who did the work? not somebody from the government. where the government does nothing, it doesn't make any money, and believe me, i was born in 1930. i don't what it is to pitch, and that's why i can live today. my husband died eight years ago. i am still in the house that i was when we got married. i learned a lot from my in-laws. and the less regulation, the better. my mother was born in 1898, and she thought roosevelt was god. then when i got older and got some sense, i voted for goldwater goldwater came to pittsfield. that was the kind of republican. >> host: he came there during the campaign? 19 cd4 or something like that? >> caller: yes, yes, he did. reagan came to pick the. went to the fire station. he's another man that told like it was. people a