and then in the south pacific, he met stassen. and from that meeting, stassen was going through, and i think he actually brought mail with him. but he was going through on a goodwill tour to the troops. and that made a great impression on nixon. and nixon at the '48 convention was a stassen man. one of his other great memories of the war, even talking to me in the '70s, that he remembered fondly was seeing eleanor roosevelt. he didn't know who it was. he knew that there was a jeep convoy. and he sort of craned his neck to see who it was. and riding in the back of the jeep with no particular protection was eleanor roosevelt. and he had never seen a first lady. and that made a great impression on him. the -- i think the early life -- i'm very partial to it. both in the terms of the formation of nixon's character and his ideas but also because it could correct a lot of the misunderstandings. gary wills memorably writes about driving down to yorba linda to see the birthplace. and he says that driving through this wasteland of oil derr

he loses a tooth harold stassen which elevates stassen. stassen as an outsider. he is a boy wonder. in 1938 he had been elected governor of minnesota and he was the youngest governor of any state ever and he quit. he is reelected saying it now if you reelect me i'm going to quit in four months and go into the navy and he is popular and elected. imagine being elected with a platform like that. he comes out, he's an internationalist. you have got the debate still going on of internationalism versus isolationism. stassen is on the extreme end of the republican internationalist brigade at that point. he is feisty. he is a real outsider. he wins in wisconsin, he went to nebraska and he is poised to take the front-runner status away from thomas e. dewey as the campaign heads into oregon. now again, notice i have only named for states. these are about the only for important primaries there are. most of these things are still being done at party conventions which means in the backroom. these are places like albany or columbus or wherever or when you get to the convention. now, or again is w

he loses it to harold stassen, which elevates stassen. cessna is an outsider. he is a boy wonder. in 1938 he had been elected governor of minnesota, the youngest governor of any state ever. then he quits. he is reelected saying, you know, if you re-elect me adequate informants in go into the navy. so popular he is still elected. imagine being elected with a platform like that. he comes out, he is an internationalist. you have got the debate still going on. internationalism versus isolationism. he is on the extreme end of the republican internationalist brigade at that point. he is feisty. he is a real outsider. he wins in wisconsin, nebraska, and he is poised to take the front runner status away from thomas e. dewey as the campaign heads into oregon. now, again, i have only named for states. this is about the only four important primaries. most of these days are still being done in party conventions, which means in the back room, either in places like albany or columbus forever or when you get to the convention. now, ore. is where we see something happening, which is being repeate

stassen is, essentially, left bleeding on the floor after that primary. dewey wins it, but he could still be stopped at the convention because, because he doesn't have the votes, he doesn't have the love, but he knows how to make deals. and he makes a deal with the governor of pennsylvania to push him over the top, and he wins the nomination. at that point he's face with the a choice. who do i make my vice presidential candidate? it's a guy he wanted to put on the ticket four years before, and one of these guys you've heard of, earl warren. governor of california. and this is another one of these cases where we look at there's this big liberal wing of the republican party then. dewey, sta, ssen, warren. warren may be the most liberal of all of them. warren doesn't want to do it. didn't want to do anytime 1944, doesn't want to do it in '48, but he's finally thinking, you know, if i keep turning these people down, they're going to stop asking me to dance. if i want anything ever again, this could be it, so i better take it. is so with great reluctance, he h

and newt gingrich who beat him in south carolina handedly was like the harold stassen of 2012. and yet mitt can't put them away. imagine if he was up against a real opponent. >> let me go to michael steele. this whole question, do you hear it among your colleagues of talk of some kind of -- i was thinking back in history 50 years ago. 1952. the last time a convention really picked somebody who hospital -- hadn't run was adelaide stevenson. he refused to run. the party people said he had to run. he wouldn't run. when it came time for the convention in chicago, he gave a barn burner of a host speech. he gave this great speech and he got the nomination. is that still possible in your party that a guy or woman could go up and give a speech welcoming the convention so well they nominate him or her? >> it can't. i was one of the first out there to raise about a 50/50 proposition of a brokered convention. and my point was not so much about the convention being brokered where some third party is going to come in and be the knight on a shining horse coming in the door at the end, but mo