the republican front-runner was a man named senator robert taft and taft was from an old republican family in ohio. his father had been president and he was known in party circles as mr. republican. isenhour came in and the taft people were immediately concerned about the emergence of a celebrity candidate. they called him a glamour candidate. it's hard for us to imagine isenhour being labeled as the glamour candidate but to the die-hard taft people that's exactly what he representative. isenhour came in and there was a big struggle between traditional republicans and many of these people were not internationalist people like him who were media savvy and very good on television and very good on the radio and also had a much more global vision for the united states. eisenhower was a hero to monumental proportions. he was the person who had led the allied forces to victory in world war ii so many republicans in hollywood and many democrats would previously supported roosevelt found themselves being attracted to eisenhower. there was something about the man that inspired a lot of confidence i

. >> the party is split and it has been split since the 50s. 52, eisenhower or robert taft.represented the conservative outsiders, nixon, goldwater and rockefeller, nixon, rockefeller but there is a split in the republican party between conservative outsiders and more moderate insiders. this happens in 1980 representing the conservative outsiders than bush representing the moderate insiders and this is the fight over the nomination boiling down to these individuals. >> tell us about it. >> it was a the saw battle because reagan is at his worst when he is not challenged. he was competitive. mike beaver told me his most competitive is so be here for new, reagan needs to be challenged, or he doesn't rise to the occasion. he doesn't take the george bush challenge seriously and he loses the iowa caucuses in january 1980 which was a stunning stunning upset to the political world. reagan was a radio broadcaster in nearby illinois, local hero in george bush is from texas, less ties to new england than he does to any prep school, ties to iowa more than any prep school then new englan

interesting thing, i think written by the reporter for the cleveland plain dealer, he took a quote from robert taft sr.. finish now, many of you would not know who that is, okay? he was around like when eisenhower was there. he was president too for a while. and -- i'm just kidding, all the young people here don't know all these things. [laughter] the beatles were there, it was an amazing time. [laughter] taft was the -- >> ah, to be young again. >> taft was the senator from 1939-1953. he was known as mr. conservative. and he said that if americans do not have health care because they cannot afford it, it ought to be given to them for free. >> so to go back to my be original question, i'm sorry, david, i won't take too long here, it sounds like it is hess the tactic or the approach house republicans have taken, and you think it's the actual bill that they've been trying to move that have stopped them from repealing obamacare. >> well, you know, when you go home and everybody's yelling at you on both sides, you know, that's one thing. politicians don't like anybody yelling at 'em, okay? and you don'

you know, in '52, see, it was eisenhower or robert taft. eisenhower represented the establishment, mr. taft represented the republican outsiders. then nixon and lodge, goldwater and rockefeller. >> right. >> and then, again, nixon and then rockefeller. but there's always a split inside the republican party between the conservative outsiders and the more moderate insiders, and this, of course,ar hasn't again in 1980 -- happens again in 1980. reagan represents the conservative outsiders, and bush represents the more moderate insiders, and this is the fight over, you know, the nomination. the future of the party boils down to these two individuals. >> well, tell us about it. >> well, it was a see i saw battle for -- seesaw battle for a while because reagan kind of coasts. reagan is at his worst when he's not challenged. reagan is at his best when somebody's challenging him. he was competitive.. mike dever once told me he was the most competitive s.o.b. he ever knew. he needs to be challenged, otherwise he doesn't rise to the occasion. so he do

well, probably the ideal of a conservative was robert taft, who was the senator from ohio. he was famous for isolationism between the wars. but he wasn't -- didn't quite fit the view of conservative asa we dough tined. he had some peculiarities. we consider conservatives small government, but he was one of the first senators to say there should be a federal housing because it's throughrst se neighborhoods and housing we transfer value to the nextxt generation and wanted a federal rural housing and a department of education on the grounds that if these segregationists aren't going to educate children, we'll do it. we have a role to do it. if they won't integrate we'llin educate them. that was very early, 1948. but he was called a conservative. he tried to be president for a time in various republican primaries. what the problem with taft -- buckley said this loudly -- once stalin got the bomb, our idea about limited government, we lad to have a couple of exceptions because as long as this cold war, which john kennedy would call this hard and bitter peace -- we have to -- nat

for the conservative they chose robert taft to have passed away, a stalwart republican senator from ohio. when it came to the progress of there were decisions. kennedy very much wanted to select george norris, a very kind of aggressive, popular senator from nebraska. but the current senator from nebraska had had some run-in's and said, you're not going to select him. in fact he wrote a letter was looks an awful lot like a threat of a filibuster if kennedy actually went forward and suggest to him. and also styles bridges was on the committee. so they ended up choosing robert from wisconsin. so this was a project that -- and it was interesting for me to just read the paper work, try to piece together the deliberations of the committee and just see the kind of inquisitive, thoughtful aspect of kennedy. he was writing letters, some of his friends who are historians trying to get there sense of things. it was something that he just really, really loved. i think his work on a solidified his reputation as kind of this sentence, you know, and house historian. i think it was also very politically