rethink possible. >>> tonight on a second look we're examining ronald reagan years. n part three of the series, he examined reagan's talk with the soviet union and what he had to say in his farewell address to the nation. >> reporter: ronald reagan passes in public to private life. he did so through artifice, charm, his own belief of what this country should be and the need to feel good about ourselves that seemed to permeate. he did it for all eight years an establishment in and of itself. but what besides longevity would be the center piece of the ronald reagan presidency. will it be the warming between the united states and soviet union. he pumped $2 trillion into the military. it would have been a persuasive negotiating. the treaty calls for the dismantling of all russian missiles. the man who once called the soviet union the evil empire had done a turn around. early in his administration it was telling the country it could survive a nuclear war. hardly good news. >> what can we think about a yet so callusly and quickly commit a terrorist act. >>> when the russian

she was critical of ronald reagan, governor reagan's staff.she was criticized by the press for her glamorous friends and expensive lifestyle. and she had a number of issues, including veterans. those were many of the same things. >> interesting, isn't it? thick skined a during those years. she didn't like the criticism. she is specially didn't like the criticism of her husband, and she talked about that. she knew it was not going to be easy, but she underestimated how much the press -- and it does everywhere -- be critical of politicians everywhere. she had to develop an even thicker skin. they looked at her choice of causes. and she and the press had a testy relationship. >> she shopped in beverly hills, and sacramento did not have stores like that. she was used to cool breezes. sacramento gets hot. and mostly, she hated the "sacramento bee." it was a very democratic newspaper. they were relentless in their criticism of reagan. she canceled the subscription. people asked reagan about this. he said, it is ok, i get it in my office. she took ca

ronald reagan was a member of the bohemian grove. deascy reagan express about that -- did nancy reagan express ideas about that? >> all i can tell you about that is that -- >> it is meant only. we should say that. -- men only. we should say that. >> they walked in the woods naked, and did all kinds of things. between nancyll and him, and the papers are being released. i am inferring that she didn't mind. this is a much too long and political story to be told about , mountinggan's career his presidential talents one year later. what was nancy's role in encouraging ronald reagan to seek to challenge against gerald ford? >> there was a group of men, andal republican nancy was very close friends with their wives. i am simplifying it, to some extent. there was a larger circle of people. it wasn't just this group of men who had their i am ronald reagan. there were people around the country who thought he would be an effective spokesperson of the conservative cause, as the ge spokesman. ronald reagan gave a much, nonspeech -- commented on sp

ronald reagan abraham lincoln washington we heard jefferson as well i mean it's a leadership quality. a lot's going to pen on what prism he will be viewed through and i think that's very important to understand it he styles and self after abraham lincoln the you now it's his campaign a very audacious campaign in four years from the unknown state senator to a united states presence a pretty bold move and you know i think one of the things we might want to look for . bob mentioned social justice is the equality of opportunity the american creed and else in the declaration of penance as equality of opportunity he is the first african-american president in some ways completes the constitution but he's taken some pretty bold stances on gays in the military and also same sex marriage and a generation from now that actually could be a very significant moment in his presidency ok doug how would you reflect about that because again you know it is a lot of people will look at obamacare for example do you think that will be the centerpiece of his presidency and if it is that still the jury is ou

nobody said anything until ronald reagan and tip o'neill spoke a few weeks later. reagan thanked him and then they commence the debate. and reagan could do that and o'neal could do that because they put their country before their party. even though they were fierce, fierce partisans and that's what we have lost herriot we have lost the ability to think as conservatives but to act as moderates. when we do that we will at least reconnect i think more with mainstream america instead of seeming to be so overly driven in ideology. >> the book is a touchstone for someone he conversations. the media also has a role. we want to hear some of your questions. there are a lot of books to his side so we have to move this along. there's a microphone here but i can come to you. is this microphone working? >> the microphones are going off all over. yes, sir. [inaudible] >> better luck next year. [laughter] >> i'm looking forward to reading your book but the thing that bothers me and i wondered if you would drop address it is the country is becoming more and more polarized than it's

when she first met ronald reagan and demand 1970's, ronald reagan originally expected the meeting to be just a few minutes. they spoke about two hours and he was usually impressed with margaret thatcher and was usually impressed with ronald reagan but as the relationship was built upon trust and 100% loyalty to exemplify the special relationship that is why you really worked so successfully. margaret thatcher was a tremendously hard worker and all of her achievements were underscored by a tremendous work ethic which gained. she was asleep just five hours a night. she used to reach through the policy papers and tremendous detail among the personal staff and was meticulously prepared and i saw that one as myself, she would prepare the speech in order to ensure that the yet fantastic speeches that would stand the test of time. and so she demonstrated that to be a truly successful leader, you have to be. you have to work very, very hard. and that is not the case for a lot of politicians today actually. her speeches leading were i think the greatest ever given by the british politician. s

"the shooting of ronald reagan," next. >>> on january 20, 1981, ronald wilson reagan was sworn in at the 40th president of the united states. >> i, ronald reagan, do solemnly swear -- >> as with most new administrations, reagan's first couple of months are rocky. >> this is the 70th day of reagan's presidency. things were not going particularly well. he had a very low approval rating, the lowest of any president that early in his first term. it's a monday. reagan has one deal, deliver a speech to the afl-cio. it's 2:00, reagan's the motorcade's just arrived at the washington hilton hotel, which is behind us. this is the special entrance, the v.i.p. entrance reagan walked into when he first arrived. >> governmental duty is to protect the people, not run their lives. >> the event is covered by all the major networks. for abc news photographer, hank brown, it's a routine job. >> we were with the crew that travels with the president wherever he goes. he wanted to get the picture of the president walking out of the hotel and getting in the limo. >> 15 feet from that door was a rope line.

ronald reagan had huge ego.e obviously did. >> he cared more about changing the world than he did his own ego. >> that is healthy ego. that's my point. if you don't have ego you will sit back and say, what do you want me to do, boss? you want to grab the moment hey, follow me. we'll change the world. that is big ego. >> confidence is good. it i was ego that is bad. do you want to be right or want to be happy? >> medical lists is a, i will take issue with you. you see ceos ruin organization by their ego. remember "chainsaw" al dunlap. there are countless examples. melissa: you have to be so confident that you will -- >> not ceo for nothing. absolutely. but at the same time the question is whether you allow your own opinions to be so dominant that you rule out better alternatives. >> i think where is the ego driving is important. what drives your ego. they have big ego people but driven to make people around them better. ronald reagan. he was driven to make other people better. that is the i want to be mentor. i w

hartley over harry truman's tud unsuccessful veto attempts in one hundred forty seven through ronald reagan declaring open war on unions in one nine hundred eighty one today. servitor groups like alec are throwing billions of dollars at anti-union movements across the u.s. and it helped to influence passenger right to work for less laws that are popping up across the country while all this is going on we're also seeing new organizing drives across the nation is here thousands of fast food workers went on strike across america asking for better wages and benefits and workers a wal-mart america's largest retailer joined in on the fight for a living wage as well so there's been a lot of ups and downs in the labor movement in two thousand and thirteen and here to help us break down last year's news of this year's news from the labor front as well as looking ahead to next year to two thousand and fourteen is james hoffa president of the international brotherhood of teamsters president awful welcome back. nice to be here thanks for joining us what how would you define the state

ronald reagan, visionary leader. george h.w. bush, another greatly underestimated president. bill clinton, the only president mr. gates did not serve. quote, probably the best politician as president since franklin roosevelt, unquote. george w. bush, committed. barack obama, courageous. >>> question, is secretary gates right about nixon? was he truly america's strangest president? or do you think that belongs to warren harding, who-- >> nothing strange about warren harding. he was right up front. but look, richard nixon, john, came back from the dead, created a new majority, won 49 states, extraordinarily talented, knowledgeable individual, had flaws and made mistakes. i wouldn't consider him strange. but he had some character flaws. >> i think it would have been -- it belongs to warren harding, the distinction. he used confiscated booze during prohibition to keep his white house poker parties fueled. only ran for president -- [ laughter ] >> only ran for president because his wife florence pushed him into it. and he got caught in a world class scandal, like the tea pot dome

. >> honestly ronald reagan. >> ronald reagan? >> ronald reagan gave a honey of a speech. i wasn't the only speech writing to study what he did. the structure was very good. i mean he was a hollywood actor and actually quite a fine writer. and he could evoke emotion -- >> and he had fantastic writers. >> did he have fantastic writers. you could take great writers with a president who doesn't care or understand the power of his words and you don't get great stuff. you need a president for whom that's very important. >> and so what was it that president reagan did that really inspired you guys? i mean he sort of set the new standard for how to deal with the audience in the first lady's box. >> that's right. we kind of now see those heroes. >> and we saw the heroism of one of our young government employees. lenie skutnick who when he saw a woman lose her grip on the helicopter line dived into the water and dragged her to safety. [applause] >> and folks who represent change, represent heroism. that started with ronald reagan and somebody on president reagan's staff had the ide

on the other side, ronald reagan.onald reagan was the former governor of california and he gets a lot of criticism for being isolated and being too much in the pockets of the wealthy and corporations and so on. but there was another side to reagan to be fair and i covered the last two and half years of reagan. reagan had a tremendous, first of all he had tremendous pollster of sprewell from california and utah but he had a tremendous correspondence with people. thousands and thousands of letters. as i say president obama talks about the letters today but president reagan conducted this incredible letter writing that was kept private. there was one case i will share with you just to summarize this to show he was trying to keep in touch in his own way, he went to a grammar school in washington d.c. and asked the principals to give them the name of the student he could be a penpal with so they came up with the name of rudy hines a young african-american students at hines. we didn't know any of this in the press corps at

hard sleazy arrest by conservatives ronald reagan again back to back to the state of the union rise you know yeah but. we're still we're still hooked on reagan overexerting is are ok is it time to change that and i think we should start by rolling back the reagan tax cuts larry beinart points out over time he opposed he says the truth is that tax cuts cause crashes or we cut taxes but that what follows is a cycle of boom and bubble boom bubble and bust economy goes into freefall unemployment soars the american people suffer when the fact the matter is that if you look at the history the united states whenever the income tax top income tax rate after about three million dollars a year of income whenever the top tax rate goes above fifty percent then you don't have hot money flowing around in the system and so people don't gamble with that money and you don't get these bubbles and you don't get these crashes you know we had the period from night from the one nine hundred thirty s. until the one nine hundred eighty s. no bubbles no crashes top tax rate was ninety percent and then reagan co

column in the "new york times" by my colleague john harwood points out that under the leadership of ronald reaganboth immigration and tax reform and in the very same year with a divided country both do we miss reagan's good old days? wow. our free market friday panel returns to discuss all that and much more. >>> does partisanship and gridlock mean all hope is lost in washington? well, it may seem that way, but a quick glance at history suggests otherwise. in 1986, when my former boss ronald reagan was in the white house, republicans controlled the senate but not the house. sound familiar? well, despite divided government that year, bipartisan majorities in both houses passed major tax reforms and changed the country's immigration code. so the question this evening is can they do it again? this time with president obama at the helm instead of reagan. we're back with richard socarides, hugh hewitt, and mark simone. hugh, i want to go to you on this because i don't know if you read horwitz's column or not. it was a good column. he argues there was more consensus on issues, more problem solvers, and

and i can tell you, she would never -- ronald reagan would never have been president without her. i spent a lot of time interviewing lynn. i spent a lot of time interviewing people who worked for mrs. reagan and ronald reagan. that was really a symbiotic relationship. jack kennedy would have been president with or without his wife. that was a different situation. that was driven by the father. the bushes, i really felt conflicted, because i found myself almost taken in by the grandmotherly image of barbara bush, and the statesmanlike position of george herbert walker bush, who i will still say on foreign policy he was pretty good, terrible on domestic policy. and so i, too, had to fight that public image. and i came out of it quite conflicted. >> host: nicole is in michigan city indiana and nicole, your are on booktv with kitty kelley. >> caller: thank you, ms. kelly. i'm really enjoying the program and i just admire you and i love your approach to writing unauthorized biographies. i'm an aspiring writer myself and i would like to know, how do you start your day, the whole process

not dissimilar to ronald reagan and richard nixon and henry kissinger. eagan was a strong critic of detente. reagan had a debate involving the panama canal. those debates are not bad. it tends to be somewhat undisciplined. you have these kind of back-and- forth. some of these issues will be resolved once the republican party dominates -- nominates a candidate in 2016 and the party and the movement will unify behind them. host: dave in florida. independent line. caller: good morning. good morning, sir. [indiscernible] and theg the tea party people who are not that educated , but are totally fed up. going back to george bush. you keep knocking president obama. the main reason obama got elected in the first place is because that people were so fed up with the moderate conservatism -- i would almost say liberalism of george bush -- and the madness that went on then. around --ed right they totally went directly opposite of what he campaigned on. people went ballistic. it is not an antigovernment -- it is an antiestablishment. host: thank you. guest: thank you

>> ronald reagan didn't think that and bill clinton didn't think that. frequently times of divided government are quite good times in term of achieving things for the american people. this president, it seems to me, after the 2010 election when the american public issued a restraining order, the president has sort of hung out on the left and tried to get what he wants through the bureaucracy as opposed it moving to the political center. the kinds of things i just outlined, chris, were things we could do with it. we're anxious to help him create jobs. we're not going to go over and endorse more spending, more debt, more taxes and more regulation. >> let's talk about two issues directly related to the president's theme of income inequality. one of them is unemployment benefits. more than a million americans have lost their unemployment benefits since they ran out in december. senate republicans are saying, one, not unreasonably, you have to pay for it if you're going to spend the money. you ought to find a way to pay for it. you also want to offer a bunch

a brilliant poster for ronald reagan. ronald reagan would have come into the white house to brief them on the month. he didn't want to be understaffed because he felt to be stuck in the factions at the white house in the state as an outsider and insisted on referring the president personally, often just to offend. you would have other staffers interposing themselves. other people did that later, but they want direct access to the president, which is smarter. reagan wanted to pay attention to the polls. wilson came up with some of the pioneering techniques that are still here. he's the one that came up with the question, is the country headed in the right direction? or are we off on the wrong track? the famous right track, wrong track question, which to this day is the best indicator of how the president is doing, similar to what people think about right track, wrong track. right now, 70% of americans think of the wrong track. that includes conservatives. everyday people, whatever. but there is a tremendous dissatisfaction

after president ronald reagan. >> i think states rights is operating on a couple of different levels. we should be clear when reagan talks about states rights, he's picking up very goldwater. very goldwater campaign in the south in 1960 forcing states rights. and everybody understood that states rights meant the right of southern states to resist integration. now when reagan campaigns using the same term in 1980, that is just 16 years after the civil rights workers had been slain there. there isn't a voter alive in that town who had been alive in the civil workers were killed. read a states rights, it is a clear dog whistle saying, i understand this term is about the ability of whites to resist integration. on one level, we have states rights which is a clear sort of signal of opposition to integration. the dynamic i think that is really being picked up by marco rubio, states rights is also way of saying, we will devolve power over social justice programs, over safety net programs to the states because we know the states will use that to restrict these programs to whites. that was the

another was a guest in the gallery that ronald reagan had that started this whole guest in the galleryusiness. i don't expect this one to be particularly memorable. his agenda has basically been frozen since the republicans took control of congress in 2010. there's not he can do. that's why you hear him talking about pens and telephones because he can't get anything through congress. i expect it to be a minimal consequence and perhaps similar to what he's gone for in the past because he hasn't gotten any of that. >> by the way, fox news will be covering the president's speech. that's not a very good preview of the speech. it is going to be exciting. we're going to want to see it and the republican response. julie, how much of an agenda does the president really think that he can get from either congress or through dan pfeiffer's now talk about doing it through executive actions? >> i think the without is realistic when it comes to their agenda with congress it is going to be very limited. they may have a chance on immigration reform. you start to see some pieces move on the republican

ronald reagan who was a staunch conservative says if i can get 80% of what i want i can pocket that.r nothing or they insist on i'd logical impurity down the line. that's something that will have to be thought out. these changes they are making all good. as long as there is a handful of deep pocketed individuals it may be difficult. my bottom line is if you look at history and if you look at the economy it is a 51/49 election with advantage to the democrats assuming the republicans nominate a centrist governor. if they go tea party, hillary has a good chance. >> thank you, panel. now, this program note. we will see you next week live from super bowl xlviii at met life stadium in new jersey. we will sit down with nfl commissioner roger goodell and archie manning before the faceoff of the broncos and the seahawks that will be on fox. that's it for today. have a great week, and we will see you next fox news sunday. >> fox news sunday is a presentation of fox news of the. >>> this week on "the journal," editorial report" president obama's comments, do they fly in the face of the facts? a

statement that has no basis in fact. >> it is not terribly inclusive to say, candidates who agree with ronald reagan and billy graham and pope john paul ii, have no place in new york state. if i recall correctly, reagan carried new york state. >> i think a pro-choice candidate, a pro-gun control candidate who supports gay rights, would not fare very well in a number of states in this country. >> that is the -- what he was saying. he was saying, they have no political future in new york. >> he was talking about politics. it was misinterpreted. when you look at the actual copy of what he said, it is clear that it was the context of the question. you can say, shouldn't have said that. but it is probably a political fact -- >> let's get it straight what cuomo said. >> the governor drew criticism nationwide from conservatives and republicans for his remarks during a public radio interview last week about how he defined -- extremist conservatism. as those who are against abortion rights, gun control and gay marriage. and said, people with such views have no place in new york. >> that is happy country he i

i think george bush and ronald reagan were closer than nancy reagan and barbara bush.arbara bush did not recommend that her children go into politics. when george w. bush came to his parents and told them he was going to run for the governorship of texas, barbara tried to talk him out of it. the same thing happened when he decided to make a run for the presidency. i think we will discuss barbara has been not a particular fan of jeb running in 2016. >> barbara bush became the public face of the administration. she spent a lot of time on the road. was that time spent talking about literacy? how did she use her time on the road? >> she becomes more popular in terms of public perception. her political role increases as her popularity does as well. >> what was the source of her popularity? >> i think people could relate to her. that looks like somebody i know. there is a wonderful advertisement for a furniture sale where someone says, get nancy reagan furniture at barbara bush prices. barbara bush was a rich woman. she had this image of being the average woman. >> people fe

the president, republican, democrat, and been here since ronald reagan. so ronald reagan, george bush the first, but the oakland fifth, george bush the second domino barack obama. at the most of the speeches i never did give are good. it's interesting. the party's line of. that's a good speech. if you're a republican, that stops a lot. democrats ought to do the same. that is not the key. the key is, how does the public respond. we are, after all, representatives of the public. he is really speaking to them. speaking to their aspirations and hopes and concerns there will reflect that. if we're listening, as representatives have a responsibility to do. their response to the president's vision to get out to be reflected in the congress cannot perfectly are absolutely, but that is what presidents are trying to do, not so much appeal to the members. but once the with the american public in the eye and say this is where we've come. this is what we need to do. this is what i want to do. >> democratic whip in the house of representatives. >> you're watching c-spa

ronald reagan went out and campaigned. we're not going to see barack obama campaigning in north carolina, alaska, arkansas. but it is going to be that larger economic message. one thing that helps democrats is that actually the economy is finally growing. it's a more benign environment for them in general, certainly more than it was in 2010. >> except for health care which is still an issue. >> funny that only now we mention the economy, huge factor in the election. guys, that's going to wrap it up. but jump online at 8:30 p.m. eastern for our webcast extra, streamed live all weekend long on our website. tonight, a look at some of the sleeper stories to watch for in the coming year. i'm john harwood. again will be back at this table next week on "washington week." good night. >> corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> we went out and asked people a simple question -- how old is the oldest person you've known? we gave people a sticker and had them show us. a lot of us have known someone who's lived well

remember the old ronald reagan adage, trust but verify.t's what the obama administration is doing and the rest of the world is doing. despite all the bluster, iran has backed down. so senator santorum, i want to come back to you for a second. over a decade ago, president bush declared this in defining his foreign policy. let's watch. >> states like these and their terrorist allies constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. >> now, we all remember who he was talking about. he was talking about iran, iraq and north korea. now, 11 years later, knowing what we know now, wouldn't you agree that he focused on the wrong country there that started with the letter "i"? we let them get stronger and build the capability they have now? >> i actually argued at the time that iran was the greater threat, that they are the ones and in fact for a long time argued we should have been focused on iran. back when i was running for re-election in 2006 in the middle of the iraq war i was asked a question by tim russ certificate. what'

today, the federal minimum wage is worth about 0% less than it was when ronald reagan first stood here. tom harkin and george miller have a bill to fix that by ifting the minimum wage to $10 .10. this will help families and give businesses customers with more money to spend. it does not involve any new bureaucratic program. join the rest of the country. say yes. give america a raise. give them a raise. there are steps we can take to help families make ends meet. fewer are more effected than the earned income tax credit. right now, it helps about half of all parents at some point. think about that. it helps about half of all parents in america at some point in their lives. but i agree with republicans like senator rubio that it doesn't do enough for single workers who don't have kids. let's do more to help americans get ahead. let's help americans save for retirement. today, most americans don't have a pension. social security check often isn't enough on its own. and while the stock market has doubled over the last five years, that doesn't help folks who have 401k's. tomorrow i will dir

is twenty fourteen barack obama is president ronald reagan is dead but for thirty three years we have continued to live in an era of reaganomics in every meaningful way reaganomics is alive and well and still controlling our economy. and what has thirty three years of failed reaganomics brought us it's brought us record levels of financial instability it's brought us trade policies that have destroyed the working class union policies that have destroyed labor america but most importantly has brought us tax policies that have made any quality worse that have wrecked our economy and put us at the mercy of cycles of boom and bust when ronald reagan stepped foot inside the white house the top marginal tax rate was seventy four percent and a third of the federal government's income came from corporations today the top tax rate is sitting at thirty nine percent most rich people pay a maximum of twenty percent the capital gains rate and corporations are only paying around eleven percent of the total cost of running the federal government thanks to thirty three years of failed reaganomics man

my hero, ronald reagan, promised us that the border would be secured and he gave amnesty back in 1986, and he didn't do that. how many time does we have to go through this? no. we have fought too hard. the border needs to be secured and they need to understand that. and if everybody is so concerned about resolves this, don't they hear the american people calling out? secure our border do your job. >> obviously i'm an immigrant, and i pay very close attention to what i call sentiment in the united states. i've got a feeling that a lot of people would like this settled, just get this done. the whole question of immigration reform has been dragging on for years and years and years, and certain buildup of feeling that, come on, come on, do something. get it behind us. move on. you don't feel that? >> absolutely i do. it's total failure. that's why canned understand the administration not doing something and listening to the people, security our borders and then deal with the other issues. it's outrageous. we know we need immigrants. we are a country of immigrants, but we also are a nation

not dissimilar to ronald reagan and richard nixon and henry kissinger. reagan was a strong critic of detente. reagan had a debate involving the panama canal. those debates are not bad. it tends to be somewhat undisciplined. you have these kind of back-and- forth. some of these issues will be resolved once the republican party dominates -- nominates a candidate in 2016 and the party and the movement will unify behind them. host: dave in florida. independent line. caller: good morning. good morning, sir. [indiscernible] attacking the tea party and the people who are not that educated , but are totally fed up. going back to george bush. you keep knocking president obama. the main reason obama got elected in the first place is because that people were so fed up with the moderate conservatism -- i would almost say liberalism of george bush -- and the madness that went on then. obama turned right around -- they totally went directly opposite of what he campaigned on. people went ballistic. it is not an antigovernment -- it is an antiestablishment. host: thank y

because of kennedy's death that we went back in time i think we had a backlash of conservatism ronald reagan and all the presidents i mentioned in those clips and they they brought us to a place for far more to the right than we were when kennedy was alive this is a shame and but this is a bit american military intelligence policy security policy that has built up since world war two look the soviets disappeared in one thousand nine hundred one we kept right on going we got bigger and bigger now we have eavesdropping across the world we have a we have seven hundred thousand foreign bases six thousand domestic places we have . full spectrum dominance air sea land cyber warfare space war we are way ahead of everybody else we have first strike superiority once again so it's a very troubling time but you ask me of important question i didn't answer it before. or about if kennedy had lived well we wouldn't be alive if kennedy had not done what he did at the cuban missile crisis with khrushchev we were really at the edge of war the sit com they wanted which the joint chiefs of staff wanted to go t

of ronald reagan the same. me sending a sporting death squads in central america supporting the mujahideen and afghanistan he's talking about american benevolence and altruism and how we're so different but you see it in everybody you see madeleine albright the secretary of state and clinton says if we have to use force it's because we're the united states where the indispensable nation has a reclaimed says the same thing obama says the same thing it's not a set for obama it's different obama recently again but over and over again the beginning was the ministration he said well i believe in american exceptionalism just as the brits believe in british exceptionalism and the greeks and greek exceptionalism he got it but now he got attacked they got pilloried by the right wingers led by mike huckabee for saying that now he's out there waving the flag talking about american exceptionalism due to our standing as an ocean. do you think there's an arrogance implied in your purse you know it's the problem is that we've

a tradition started by ronald reagan in 1982.ne something remarkable in the past year who will have the honor of sitting with the first lady to watch the state of the union address. we'll be telling you about some of these heroes throughout the night. candy crowley got to spend time with two of them. candy? >> jake, you know, i think i remember a time when those guests that are seated in the first lady's viewing box were surprises. the white house didn't want you to know. so that the president could refer to them and have them stand up. nowadays though, when so many of the guests that come are designed to bolster the president's agenda, they let these names out sort of over time to keep the media interested and to had hint where the president is going to go. >> what does a seven-foot tall veteran of the fab and stanford graduate have in common with a 5 foot something takener who doesn't much like school and is okay at archery? >> who called you and said why don't you come to the state of the union? >> the who us. >> of course, i

by comparison, both ronald reagan and bill clinton's approval stood at nearly 60% at this point in their presidencies. can the president make a comeback? this next month is going to be telling. as nbc's first read put it, quote, january presents him with an opportunity to hit the reset button on his second term. either january is the start of his political comeback or it's a missed opportunity and perhaps one of his last. howard fineman is editorial director for the "the huffington post." eugene robinson is a columnist for "the washington post," and both are msnbc political analysts. gene, where does the opportunity lie for the president? >> well, i think there is always opportunity for a president. you're president of the united states, right? so aside from some awful national disaster, why would you ever really have a bad day? you know, you're the guy, and presidents can change the subject. presidents can issue sweeping executive orders. presidents can invade countries, not that that's a great thing that i would advise him to do. i think a president has to approach every new year and e

it's hard to say anybody was better on television than ronald reagan. he was very, very good. but i still think that kennedy was the one -- i may comment he could do the interview, he could do the press conference, he could make the speech. and he was just all around better at it. i think he set a style and he set a tone for the presidency. he brought glamour to the presidency. he made a lot of young people want to take part in public service and serve their country. >> doing the interviews for this book, "november 22 "november 22 reflections on the life, assassination, and legacy of john f. kennedy" for me was a labor of love. in addition to contacting people whose names you know walter mondale, billy graham, tom brokaw, i also wanted to find people who had interesting, funny or poignant encounters with john kennedy but who aren't very well known. people like priscilla johnson macmillan, not a household name but probably the only person who ever lived who knew both the john kennedy and lee harvey oswald. there's only one. people like doctor i read cider and you saw there, i s