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

peggy noonan, robert carol, nell irving painter. a terrific conversation. i thought it was important to bring it to you again now as we look back at the president's first year. also on the show, a battle you may never have heard of. you will want to learn all about it. many say it encapsulated many of the problems that america faces in the war at large. the best military report, military expert in the country, tom bricks, joins me to tell you about it. while much of the focus of the nation and the show is on the hotspots around the world, what about the rest of the world? we will talk with the famous international writer and scholar of singapore to get a very different perspective on the world. let's get started. >>> all day long on cable, news talk shows, we hear about how president obama's doing. on fox, some say he's a socialist trying tune doctrine eight our children even as he mortgages their future. on msnbc, the lonely hero fighting to give help to the sick and employ the jobless and end racism in our time. and here on cnn, i'm on cnn, i wanted to se