. >> rick perlstein, in this book, what did you learn about barry goldwater as a person? >> he was a guy that shot from the hip and he didn't care what people thought of him, much to his detriment often. but people talk about how he was an honorable man, and i think he was an honorable man. by the same token, i think idealogically he could be very naive. i mentioned the civil rights terrorism that was going on in mississippi, the fact that people were being shot in cold blood for doing things like helping people register to vote. he never denounced that. he said that his appeal to the people of the south was, i'm not going to, as an arizonan, tell people in mississippi what they should do. when civil rights are being that egregiously violated, i think there's a kind of which side are you on question. i think his heart was in the right place and he believed he was doing the right thing. but i think he had a certain myopia when it came to a real moral ordeal that he kind of avoided at that time. >> we have put together -- go ahead. >> i want to talk about the libertarian ca

first, rick perlstein, could barry goldwater get the nomination today?> no, because he would have been vetoed by the christian right. i'm looking over some of these quotes, they're stunning. here's what he said in 1981. can anyone look at the carnage in iran, bloodshed in northern ireland, or bloodshed in lebanon? he believed very firmly by the end of his political career that people who enter politics from a religious motivation are so impassioned and so impervious to compromise that it made the give and take necessary for politics impossible, which is kind of ironic, because in 1964, you know, extremism and defensive liberty is no vice, no virtue, that was what he was accused of at the time, but he really did seem to come to an extremely firm and impassioned notion. he didn't want pat robertson to run for president in 1988. he thought that that was a violation of the separation of church and state. >> darcy olsen, let me begin with the first sentence and first chapter of "conscience of a conservative." barry goldwater said, "i had been much concerned t

joining richard in conversation is rick perlstein, author of "reaganland".before that he published the invisible bridge, the fall of nixon and the rise of reagan. "new york times" bestseller, one of the best nonfiction books of the year by over a dozen locations. winner of the 2001 los angeles times book award for history. former chief national correspondent for the village boy-- voice. his journalism and essays have appeared in newsweek, the "new york times" and many other publications. without further ado, please join me in welcoming richard and rick to the stage. >> hello. >> hello. you have a job to do right now. >> yes. we have decided since we are equal in all things, richard and ricky, ricky and richard, eric and richard that we are going to put the coin to decide who asked the first question on the other. we ask you to do the honors. i think ricky, you should call it. >> okay. >> you choose who goes first. >> all righty. tales. >> its heads. rick? >> i will go second. >> in asking a question? >> yes, you will ask him the question first. >> audit. i w

book is called "before the storm: barry goldwater and the unmaking of the american consensus" by rick perlstein. thank you very much for joining us. to darcy olsen, first of all, for hosting us here at the goldwater institute, the president and ceo. we appreciate your time. and bill mccune, the author and producer of a documentary. >> it's called "barry goldwater and american life". >> thank you for being with us. we want to leave you with some of the words of barry goldwater in an interview that we did with him as he was winding down his political career from the c-span archives in 1985. >> another thing i would tell young politicians coming into washington, your re-election is not going to make or break the united states. do the best job you can do. that's what you're here for, to defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. and be honest. that's all i would tell them. >> how about the republican party leaders today? >> well, i think we have good leadership today. lord knows we spent a long enough time out of office that we should have learned some things. politics go in