we are going to hear from ruy teixeira and michael barone of the american enterprise institute. it should get under way in a couple minutes. we'll have it live for you once it starts here on c-span. else where in washington today, the administration announcing calling for syrian president assad to step aside. the u.s. joining britain, france, germany, and the european union in a series of demands for the president, president assad to resign. president obama saying assad has lost all credibility as a leader. this ahead of the president heading on vacation to martha's vineyard. we asked our callers this morning, testimonyic callers on "washington journal" about the impact of the president's bus trip over the last couple of days. we'll show you some of those comments while we wait for this live event to get under way. picture of president obama in atkinson "the washington times." picture of president obama in atkinson yesterday. that is from "the washington times." here is "the new york times" this morning. far from the capital, obama finds his woes has followed him. that is in "th

ruy teixeira and michael barone are here. their interpretations differ but they share a debate that debate can be civil and that think tanks such as ours can play a role. in 1969 arlington house published a book that made a very big impression. the emerging republican majority was written by kevin phillips. after graduating harvard law school, phillips came to washington to work on capitol hill for a republican congressman. we went to -- he went to work for the nixon candidate in 1968 and dedicated this book to nixon and john mitchell. who was then nixon's campaign manager. i'm quoting from the book, american history, politics, and soleology that converge at the ballot box. phillips believed in the cyclical theory of american politics, arguing that there were clear cycles of ideology, populism and region little. in 1828, 1860, 1836 and 1932 before it had been. he did not believe the republicans had create add new majority? 1968, simply that the ingredients were there. phillips' emerging republican majority was centered in the