william jennings bryan, had three times been a democratic nominee for president and who would throw had in salted publicly several years before. so ellen arranged for woodrow to have dinner with william jennings bryan and sure enough woodrow found he liked him. they spoke from the same platform after that. she did as she had before continued to see mary peck as a family friend. wardrobe began to travel around the country making >>es. ellen followed his progress very closely sending him telegrams of commentary. at one point she said in a telegram, stop saying you're not running for president. just makes you look foolish. he stopped. sure enough he became the democratic nominee in june of 1912 partly with the help of william jennings bryan. that summer when the republicans held their convention william howard taft, the incumbent, opposed by former president theodore roosevelt. taft won and roosevelt was so bitter over that loss that he form a third party, the progressive or bull moose party and he was seen as the bigger competitor to wilson. he was so popular. so one of roosevelt's advise

. >> please compare eugene debs to william jennings bryan. >> it seems like they are appealing or tryingappeal to somewhat the same constituency. >> thank you very much. william jennings bryan wasn't earlier profile. -- was a earlier profile. in the election of 1912, how did they compare? >> eugene debs was initially an admirer of him. i think they shared some concerns about reform. i think the crucial difference is eugene debs was really a revolutionary. he not only was interested in reform, reform was necessary but they felt something much greater was needed. there needed to be an anti- capitalism and public ownership of the means of production. that was a position that clearly distinguished him from bryan's campaign. >> the election was his first try in 1900. william mckinley, william th.ings bryan the da he got 0.6% of the popular vote that year. do you know what his early appeals were as a candidate and how they changed over his many bids? >> the real challenge for eugene debs was to try to knit together socialists coming from very different positions. one of the strongest hotbeds o

would roll over in his grave to be compared to william jennings bryan. in a fundamental way they were aiming for the same thing. william jennings bryant became the spokesman of the populist movement in the 1890'ss and at the heart of the populist movement was a belief that the financial system of the united states was tilted against farmers specifically. ordinary people generally but farmers specifically. they had a very specific complaint, namely falling prices for farm products. the price of corn went down by half between the 1870s at 1890s. cotton was a little more. this was a very serious problem for farmers because farmers typically operate under conditions of that and debtors are seriously disadvantaged when prices fault. if you are a $100 when week is $1 a bushel you have to grow 100 bushels to pay it back. but if it is $0.50 you need 200 bushels to pay it back. the fundamental goal for the trick behind managing a money-supply is to get the money supply to grow at the same rate as the economy as oil hole. if you do then prices overall will remain s

populism of that sort, you know, often produces great candidates from williams jennings bryan or oncel like george wallace. but i think with the exception of andrew jackson there's never been something that carried forth where it really elected a president. >> let me get another break in here. before we do that, a quick note. be sure to check out our website this afternoon for our "meet the press" take two web extra where i will talk to walter isaacson about his biography, steve jobs, as well as tom brokaw about his new book "the time of our lives." and you can also read excerpts from both the books on our website, mtp.msnbc.com. a quick break here. we'll be back with our trends and takeaways. a look at what was said here today and what to look for in the week ahead. >>> we're back. final moments with our roundtable. if you missed it, david plouffe was here at the top of the program and broke new ground on how the white house is going to target the opponent in this race, going after mitt romney in a pretty aggressive way. watch. >> he has no core. you get the sense with mitt romney th

populism of that sort, you know, often produces great candidates from williams jennings bryan or once george wallace. but i think with the exception of andrew jackson there's never been something that carried forth where it really elected a president. >> let me get another break in here. before we do that, a quick note. be sure to check out our website this afternoon for our "meet the press" take two web extra where i will talk with walter isaacson about his biography, steve jobs, as well as tom brokaw about his new book "the time of our lives." and you can also read excerpts from both the books on our website, mtp.msnbc.com. a quick break here. we'll be back with our trends and takeaways. a look at what was said here today and what to look for in the week ahead. >>> plus, what are the hot political stories trending this very morning. right after this. we're centurylink... a new kind of broadband company committed to providing honest, personal service from real people... 5-year price-lock guarantees... consistently fast speeds... and more ways to customize your technology. ♪ whose non

people like william jennings bryan would rant and rave about tammany hall. he wanted their votes, but he did not want a tammany man there. eventually, smith is a tammany man and a candidate. it shocked many people within the democratic party. >> al smith lost new york in the 1928 election. >> he did. he had the sad fate of losing the race for president of the united states and seeing his hand-picked successor when the. it slips the dynamic of their relationship for ever and ultimately, roosevelt once up where smith wanted to be. smith went up in retirement. >> will get into that. when we ask the prior to the show some issues he thought were important to the 1928 election, when you mentioned was the role of the media in 1928. >> i think particularly for all smith, he has come to age as a media battles. they were after him and after him, one of the most powerful newspaper tycoon's in the country. smith had a certain amount of confidence by 1928 that he knew how to fend off these kinds of attacks. ultimately in the election, one of the interesting things about

he was certainly not a william jennings bryan populist. if anything, he really did not like bryan around cultural issues. he was an urban populist. i think it is true that he is an advocate of the middle class. he is a figure that embodies and advertises that he embodies the kind of "working your way up to the american system from a childhood of poverty" success. would a candidate today who had that kind of populist message, or least pseudo-populist, would they be successful? i think it is hard to say. smith was not particularly successful in his day on the national stage. i think populism has had a kind of a mixed history in the united states. >> is there a politician today you would compare to al smith? >> i don't know. today he might be more of the technocrat. i will explain that. populism itself that smith embodied was almost like a compassionate technocrat, he wanted to do the new deal prior to the new deal. roosevelt once said, i don't know why al smith is complaining. i am just doing in washington, d.c. what he did in new york. with

. >> another election in 1908 which involve william jennings bryan. he began to understand some early marketing. he had some campaign tactics of the red train special and the red special band. can you tell us a little more about that? >> 1908 was a critical year because of the descendants of the popularity of the labor party and the federation of labour and other labor unions. his message appealed to increasingly more people from a divorce amount of backgrounds. the red special would have been a good enough find symbol to use to unite what were very different groups of people who were working on farms or an urban areas. it meant to his supporters a challenge to big business. they would have called it a big business or monopolies in that period. it was a good way to unify people with just the use of the red special. >> this is a caller named randy. welcome. >> thank you. i just wanted to give you background. my grandfather voted for eugene debs in his election. as i went through school, we never heard of eugene debs. it seems like one thing that is rea

people like william jennings bryan would rant and rave about tammany hall.f losing the race for president of the united states and seeing his hand-picked successor win for governor. fdr wins. it slips the dynamic of their relationship forever and ultimately, roosevelt winds up where smith wanted to be. smith winds up in retirement. >> we will get into that. beverly gage, when we asked you prior to the show some issues you thought were important to the 1928 election, one you mentioned was the role of the media in 1928. >> i think particularly for al smith, he has come to age as a media battler. particularly, william randolph hearst, they were after him and after him, one of the most powerful newspaper tycoons in the country. smith had a certain amount of confidence by 1928 that he knew how to fend off these kinds of press attacks. ultimately in the election, one of the interesting things about the catholic issue is that we now understand it to have been absolutely crucial to this election. smith openly acknowledged it. a lot of it was done and talked about th

he was certainly not a william jennings bryan populace. -- populist. if anything, he really did not like bryan around cultural issues. he was an urban populist. i think it is true that he is and advocate of the middle class. he is a figure that embodies and advertises he embodies the kind of, working your way up to the american system from childhood of poverty ought to success. would a candidate today who had that kind of populist message, or least pseudo-populist, would it be successful? i think it is hard to say. smith was not particularly successful in his day on the national stage. i think populism has kind -- has had a kind of a mixed history in the united states. >> is there a politician today you would compare to al smith? mighton't know. today he be more of the technocrat. i will explain that. populism itself that smith embodied was almost like a compassion best, he wanted to do -- a compassionate technocrat, he wanted to do the need delaware prior to the -- the new deal prior to the new deal. roosevelt once said, i don't know why al smith is c