who would resemble a william jennings bryan? >> i'm not sure. there are people who want to be william jennings bryan. sarah palin might try to be. angry populist. they believe that a small greedy elite is after the majority of americans. bryan was representative of an anti-monopoly movement. a movement where people believed that corporate america was taking the country in a revolutionary direction. we have come to grips and come to peace with big business. we cannot imagine a society where that is not there. that was not true for bryan. >> we just looked at the desk that he worked with mary side by side. most businesses were like that in the 1870's and 1860's and 1850's. they were small partnerships and firms. that time before 1896 was a time of enormous industrial growth. colossal corporations. the pennsylvania railroad employing more people than the united states post office. these were corporations with enormous resources, enormous wealth, and enormous power. most people had experienced a very different america, one with small partnerships. th

america's grip on the gold standard lasted in the 1930s until 1971 when richard nixon did what william jennings bryan advocated by cutting the united states off for the international gold standard. nixon would be greatly chagrined to be compared with william jennings bryant but there it is. >> i have questioned about that. is it really true that the wizard of oz is about that? one interpretation of the book is all about but yellow brick road, going to the emerald city of oz, emerald city being green but the story that dorothy and farmer blown away from her farm, sometimes feel roosevelt in the back room, the scarecrow is the farmer with no brain and gets foreclosed on, feet in woodsman is the industrial proletariat with no hard and the cowardly lion is the political class to won't do anything about it. [applause] >> does that mean the wizard is mark hanna running the campaign of william mckinley and sat on his front porch the entire time? >> a lot of interpretations. >> this is the interpretation. it arose the same time the wizard of oz came out. the arthur, frank baum, never acknowledged that this w

. >> before we go to william jennings bryan, what role, jean baker, does peace-making itself make in politics? >> it has a big role, whether you are barack obama, who gets high marks for this, or whether you are william jennings bryan and you have this centurion voice. i never quite understood it -- and never quite understood this -- 20,000 people can hear you and, beyond that, another 40,000 or 50,000 would be there. >> [unintelligible] we will restore bilateral as some. england will have bilateral as an because the united states have. defending the gold standard is the good thing. we will fight them. supported by the commercial interests and the toilers and everywhere, we will answer their demands for the gold standard by saying to them, you shall not pressed down on the balls of labor and the crown of thorns. you shall not crucify mankind. quite the gives a speech -- he had a wonderful voice. the tape that you played was 1893, not 1896. the technology did not exist yet to record a speech in 1896. he was robust, he was vigorous, the had an amazing voice that could be heard by 10,000

we were talking about william jennings bryan. occupy wall street criticizes, saying they don't have a message or order. if they had william jennings bryan they'd be in business and they don't have to do that thing with the mega phone and talk because bryan could be heard through the whole crowd no matter what was going on. debs is the same way, if you allow me a metaphor -- the megaphone. i wrote this down and want to get it just right. but at his trial, gene debs said - this is 1918, while there is a lower class, i am in it. while there's a criminal element, i'm of it. while there's a soul in prison, i am not free. and he said this in 1918, 21 years before john steinbeck writes in "grapes of wrath" whenever this is a fight for the hungry to eat, i'll be there and whenever there is a cop beating a worker, i'll be there. and 50 years before bruce springsteen brings back the ghost of tom joad and repeats the words of steinbeck and this comes from debs and is our conscience in a way. bernie sanders was right. the words he said litera

wednesday, william jennings bryan. thursday, eugene debs. friday, charles evans hughes, chief justice of the united states. on saturday, al smith followed by a businessman and member of the liberal wing of the dod, wendell willkie. the contenders, every night at 10:00 a.m. -- 10:00 p.m. on c- span. >> coming up, the news phone calls and e-mails on "washington journal. the house announced it would not have an up and down vote on the senate bill extending the tax cut. cut. there

tonight, william jennings bryan, thursday, eugene debs, friday, charles evans hughes, chief justice of the united states. on saturday, house smith followed by a businessman and mineral rigid member of the liberal wing of the gop, window we -- wendell willkie. >> republican presidential candidate mitt romney last night delivered what his campaign called a major policy speech on economic policy in entitlement reform. he spoke in the southern new hampshire at the town hall in bedford. ♪ i was born free ♪ [applause] >> thank you. hi there. thank you guys. >> wow. it is great. i see so many people and the audience i know. is there anybody here voting for mitt? i would guess almost everybody. that is what happens when you have done this twice. we are happy to be in new hampshire during a bus tour. we will go up and down the state and get everybody excited about what is to happen in the next couple of weeks. we have been working hard and we are here to earn it now. [applause] i know this guy pretty well. i have been married to him for 42 years. we are the proud parents of five wonderful sons

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

. >> please compare eugene debs to william jennings bryan. it seems like they are appealing or trying to appeal to somewhat the same constituency. >> thank you very much. william jennings bryan 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 jennings bryan. 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 stron

look at things william jennings bryan said that happened in the new deal or something that charles evan hughes that reflects on the eisenhower era. perot raised some issues we are still grappling with and always a reminder that we have a third party option. that maybe sometime that if these other parties get too arrogant, there will be some voice from the heartland or of america that comes up and strikes a different chord. and i worry that the debates make it very hard for a third party candidate to get into the mix. so perot in that regard may be one of the last to have been able to pull that -- something like that off. >> carolyn barta mentioned ross perot in the summer of 1992 had hired ed rollins and hamilton jordan to be involved in his campaign. after the 1992 election, ed rollins who continued to -- in his political work, and is still active today, talks a bit about his view of the perot candidacy. we have a clip of that right now. >> the bottom line, it wasn't that perot was difficult to deal with. it was that perot never wanted to run that kind of a campaign. he always wanted t

tonight, williams jennings bryan . thursday, eugene debs. then on saturday three-time governor of new york cal smith followed by businessman and member of the liberal wing of the gop, the contenders every night at ten eastern on c-span. have you tried the free radio rap? curious what users are saying. >> fast, easy-to-use, and visually appealing. the audio quality is insanely great considering it is free. it took me about ten seconds to learn how sit by and had to use it. >> anytime anywhere. live coverage of congress. you can also look to our interviews in including q&a, newsmakers, the communicators, and after words, available wherever you are. find out more. >> cnn host and former news of the world and they're testifying today before a british committee investigating phone hacking and the culture of the british press. the former editor said he had no reason to believe there was phone hacking at the tablet paper where he was in search. piers morgan is one of many witnesses to testify to the levinson inquiry. this is an hour and 40 minutes.

blaine lost to grover cleveland and william jennings bryan. lifetime socialist party candidate. charles evans hughes, chief justice of the supreme court, and on saturday, then time governor of new york followed by a businessman and member of the liberal wing of the gop. every night at 10:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> i decided to take it. whether it is illusion are not i don't think it helps my concentration. it would keep me awake. a good conversation. get away with the whole thing. i do want to get to you. the truth this there would say, no, i would never touch the stuff because i did know. i decided, i would go away. i can make it come out in the other way. .. >> host: ivan kander, why did you do a documentary on your wounded buddy from high school? >> guest: it felt like it came from a natural place. when he first returned, he qept on telling me he wanted to remember everything that was happening. everything was going so fast and having surgery every day, and the natural inclination, and we made movies together when we were young, and it felt like the right thing to do, and

blaine, who lost 2 over cleveland, wednesday, william jennings bryan, thursday, 5-time socialist party candidate, eugene debs, friday, charles evans hughes, chief justice, and three-time governor of new york, out smith, followed by businessman and member of the liberal wing of the gop, wendell willkie. "the contenders," every night at 10:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. have you tried of the free c- span radio app? here is what users are saying. >> fast, easy-to-use, an appealing and the audio quality is convincing with clear. and it is also free. also application. it took me about 10 seconds to use it. >> anytime, anywhere in its streaming audio of c-span radio as well as all three c-span television networks including live coverage of congress. you can also listen to our interview programs, including " q&a," "the communicators," and "after ward's." find out more on c- span.org/radioapp. >> "washington journal" continues. host: back with james lankford. how are you voting? guest: as is typical washington, there is not a single vote to wrap up. i will not vote to approve the senate changes to

look at things william jennings bryan said that happened in the new deal or something that charles evan hughes that reflects on the eisenhower era. perot raised some issues we are still grappling with and always a reminder that we have a third party option. that maybe sometime that if these other parties get too arrogant, there will be some voice from the heartland or of america that comes up and strikes a different chord. and i worry that the debates make it very hard for a third party candidate to get into the mix. so perot in that regard may be one of the last to have been able to pull that -- something like that off. >> carolyn barta mentioned ross perot in the summer of 1992 had hired ed rollins and hamilton jordan to be involved in his campaign. after the 1992 election, ed rollins who continued to -- in his political work, and is still active today, talks a bit about his view of the perot candidacy. we have a clip of that right now. >> the bottom line, it wasn't that perot was difficult to deal with. it was that perot never wanted to run that kind of a campaign. he always wanted t

blaine, wednesday, william jennings bryan, five times socialist candidate eugene-on thursday and friday, charles evans hughes and on saturday, a three-time governor of new york al smith followed by businessman and member of the liberal wing of the gop wendell willkie. "the contenders" every night at 10:00 on c-span. >> we will bring you live coverage from hudson, new hampshire with anita perry, the wife of rick perry. she is at the ladies auxiliary of vfw in hudson, new hampshire. they are getting set up and it should begin shortly. until then, your phone calls from today's guest:." is the story in "the financial times" this morning. host: let's look at more coverage on the story. in "usa today." to get some perspective, we go now to the phones. staff writer art "wrote col. good morning. thank you for joining us. -- staff writer for "roll call." was this evolution is a prize to reporters who have been covering what was going on? guest: after the deal was struck, they saw mcconnell come out and he was happy. there is a picture of him giving one of his colleagues a high five. he said he w

it was not about william jennings bryan. it was about the a roosevelt was a progressive. go after don't presidents. we have had many progress of presidents but no populist presidents. language is really important even though he did the right thing in putting himself in that teddy roosevelt tradition, there were not able to quite find the right language to make this extremely important speech and put a stamp on his presidency so that more stuck to him. to comment ont the communications as much as the fact that they are dealing with serious problems in the country and when they are succeeding, they are not succeeding in being able to overturn the entire problem. it is difficult to communicate that we passed financial regulations while the banks are booming. it is hard to say we are turning the economy around when unemployment is at 8.6% grade it is hard to say we passed health reform when you see americans still continuing to struggle for basic health care. the fact that you have a basic level injustices continuing in the midst of progressive change occurring is the challen

look at things william jennings bryan said that happened in the new deal or something that charles evan hughes that reflects on the eisenhower era. perot raised some issues we are still grappling with and always a reminder that we have a third party option. that maybe sometime that if these other parties get too arrogant, there will be some voice from the heartland or of america that comes up and strikes a different chord. and i worry that the debates make it very hard for a third party candidate to get into the mix. so perot in that regard may be one of the last to have been able to pull that -- something like that off. >> carolyn barta mentioned ross perot in the summer of 1992 had hired ed rollins and hamilton jordan to be involved in his campaign. after the 1992 election, ed rollins who continued to -- in his political work, and is still active today, talks a bit about his view of the perot candidacy. we have a clip of that right now. >> the bottom line, it wasn't that perot was difficult to deal with. it was that perot never wanted to run that kind of a campaign. he always wanted t