Thats just on their thats taxation without representation and thats what this but puncher built on. Isnt that the license plate. It becomes just a slogan though because nobody pays attention to it just like every other slogan that gets forgotten. And and the democrats are to blame,. I agree, i think both parties have been complicit in this issue. Because by the way is there a website for statehood for d. C. . Yeah d. C. Vote does a lot of work on this issue, d. C. Vote. Org is an important website but the green party has been talking about it a lot and thats an important element that we need to continue to push on. In the final few minutes iona talk about the current election, we have three democrats running, Hillary Clinton, sanders, and omalley, are any of them interesting new or exciting you in any way shape or form question. Where you get a run. Hillary is really a very confirmed militarists, she jumped aside the secretary of defense robert gates who did not want to attack libya and she got the white house support and libya was toppled and the dictator who is beginning to dictate negotiate with the west and theres total chaos. Isis is going in and al qaeda is there, weapons are spreading all over and its spilling over into central africa, a huge geographic area. She ought to be held accountable for that. Never seen a Weapon System she hasnt liked even though its a huge waste, never seen a war she hasnt liked, as part of highly placed women trying to overcompensate by being more aggressive so that the macho men dont say, you cant lead us, youre too saw. Even though the great tradition of a muscular peace advocacy in this country is more associated with women than with men. What about bernie. Bernie when it comes to domestic, sometimes i have to accuse him of plagiarism. Hes very good, good on the pharmaceutical cynical good on wall street, on worker rights, on tax reform, a little vague on form policy. Is not big on israel, hes very hawkish on that issue and very supportive of it matter what. And he voted for the appropriations of iraq year after year and afghanistan. He hasnt he hasnt taken on the militaryindustrial complex, bernie is very sensitive to the industries in vermont, like the dairy industry lets say. And the machine tool industry which beads a lot of its products into military equipment, but hes going to take strong stance on that and hes going to have to take her on, you can have a parallel campaign because she can sweettalk him during the six debate thats coming up in the primaries. Ii agree with bernie i served with him in the senate, shall be very general. Omalley on the other hand, he was a fairly progressive senator, and a mayor and governor, but he can really develop, but has to be more exciting. He was able to abolish the Death Penalty in maryland and raise the minimum wage and worked on healthcare issues on the sickly back to. So he has to develop strategy, now on the republican side youre probably going to have 18 candidates and the Worst Nightmare of 17 of these candidates is donald trump. Because assuming he hangs in there with his flamboyant, he is going to burlesque the whole republican nomination process. He just goes wild, his ego, the problem donald trump, hes going to be a nightmare, im sure rubio, and walker and bush and others are going to say oh no, this guy can go all the way through the primary because he has the money and hes going to break his way through the entire country, and he is a militarists but he thinks hes going to give a lot of people jobs, he, he presents a serious problem to saturday night live. Now, they figured out how are we going to do with his flamboyant announcement, i, i was on believable,. Yeah he sent from god and all the stuff. The only technique that saturday night light has is to exaggerate someones bizarre traits that make people laugh. To provide satire, how do you satire satire . Second you cant exaggerate trump. They pulled the trump card on them. Are your commute occasion with bernie. He doesnt answer any of my calls, ive lost hope, 15 years ive ive called him in the senate, he doesnt answer. I think he doesnt like to be pushed in areas of Progressive Movement that he doesnt want to be pushed on so he is a lone ranger. He is not a network or the way others were in citizen groups representing millions of people around the country in washington. Hes not that type, he doesnt have that type of personality. Its unfortunate because if all we have our ten or 12 progressive senators and they are all lone rangers and they dont even have a caucus, as i urge them to do in a letter, which was never answered by the senators. Were not getting anywhere. Maybe you can send them copies of that platform. You that would be good, jerry brown by the way doesnt like to talk about it now that hes governor hes got two thirds of the legislator in sacramento, its amazing, when he can make things happen he doesnt. Hes playing it very safe, ive said to him i think youre running for president , i dont think youre going to iowa or New Hampshire but i think if hillary falls or collapses, or something happens where her popularity is damned, hes ready. Hes ready. Will thank you so much ralph, its been an honor to have this conversation with you. Weve had conversations but never this in depth. Thank you for your time. Thank you and if you think this is an easy interview folks, he opposed me when iran for president in 2004 and 2008. Thank you ralph nader. Youre welcome. Congress is in recess for the summer district work. And all month were bringing a book tv in prime time. Tonight afterwards interviews on books about the white house. Next meet the press Host Chuck Todd on his book of the stranger. Brock obama in the white house. Then white house correspondents april ryan discusses her memoir, the, the white house in black and white. Later ralph nader on return to sender, his book about on answer letters he sent to pres. Joan joan w bush and brock obama regarding domestic and Foreign Policy. Secretary of state john kerry is in havana cuba friday for the raising of the u. S. Flag at the newly reopened the u. S. Embassy. Diplomatic relations between the u. S. And cuba were restored on july 20 after 50 years. You can see the ceremony live starting at 9 30 a. M. Eastern here on cspan2. Book to be in prime time continues friday with books by 2016 president ial candidates. Apm former arkansas governor, huckabee his book and american culture. At 9 00 p. M. Dr. Ben carson on one nation, what what we can do to save americas future. At 10 00 p. M. , senator durbin arco rubio on american change, Economic Opportunity for everyone. At 1025, Hillary Clinton on her memoir, hard choices. Books by books by president ial candidates, a p. M. Eastern here on cspan2. Cspan is intimately for the our state fair and wrote to the white house coverage of president ial coverage our live coverage is on cspan, cspan cspan, cspan radio and cspan. Org as candidates walk the fairgrounds and heres the schedule. Friday friday morning at 10 30 a. M. Eastern jeb bush, noon on saturday Rick Santorum at noon, followed by chafee at 1230 and sanders at three area sunday afternoon ben carson at 5 00 p. M. , georgia tech at 5 30 p. M. Taking you on the road to the white house. This sunday night on q a, institute for policy and antiwar activists Phyllis Bennett on u. S. Policy since 9 11, recent negotiations on i ran and the warren terrace. Who is isis, what are their origins, why they so violent. The obvious question, why the title . Guest i was trying to get at something about the fact that he was an outsider and there was a political loner of some form and i think he would wear that as a badge of honor at some point in his political career but also in i think it answers the question why is he struggling running washington . Ultimately he wasnt a creature washington which is why people gravitated toward him. But i think here we are, your sixth getting into your seventh and this is sorted trying to figure out i hope im trying to help people understand why is he struggling in washington ultimately and hes a strange creature in washington and vice versa. Host we will talk about this throughout the hour but you think he is as much of a stranger today as when he first came here . Guest in some ways with some people, yes i think that came through when you saw him struggle just to get a small slice of a minority of his own party to sign up on a budget deal that he negotiated and the Immediate Reaction from members of congress and his own party, oh i didnt know he had my phone number so i think that reputation is certainly there are. Obviously he thinks he knows how this town is run and i think in some ways he doesnt care that he has been told that he is not running it well and many place he feels as if washington was broken before he got here, yes i think he was upset he wasnt able to quote unquote fix washington but in his mind hes trying to operate around it. Host the practical question you are currently the host and moderator of meet the press and for a number of years you have a Daily Program on msnbc. You are the political director of msnbc and for good part of it you were at the white house correspondent. How did you manage to find time to write a substantial serious analysis of this president . Guest part of it is im two years late inning at published. Host at one point i think they thought was going to be the december before. So there is the bad aspect. I had a very good writing Research Partner and Washington Post person. Part of it is the luxury of television. I think i could not have done this in your job. I could not have done this as a print reporter in some ways or even mild job because the little stuff that ive picked up along the way, one of the reviews i got in some ways almost called me out in a positive way by charlie cook traded some point he was like stuff he couldnt get on their overtime and he wanted to complete the story. There is part of that with television. You dont feel iq can put everything you learn on the air so its fit. I cant explain it. It wasnt a burden. It just sort of sticks. I might not have felt as if i needed this as an outlet if i worry print journalists. Host to what extent of this project change and in what ways . Guest changed a lot. I think i thought at the beginning his relationship with Hillary Clinton would be a bigger part of this book. That wasnt the case. Certainly dont expect health care but it kept coming back. I didnt expect a lot of it to be on foreignpolicy so sometimes its some of the issues but i thought that there would be, i think the biggest thing is the Hillary Clinton relationship. If i could say one thing that i thought would a more dramatic that really isnt there and i dont have a point of view as to why but i think that was a big aspect to. Host i want to get to Hillary Clinton later when we talk about the president and various other people but i wonder what was the biggest challenge in trying to assess the presidency in real time . I had an editor some years ago he said he cant write the beginning of the story until you know the end of the story and you are obviously not ever going to know the end of the story unless you were 10 years pastor deadline. Guest i will be honest that was prt of the challenge. My publisher was pushing me and i would push back. I did not want this book out before the midterms. I thought at the minimum it had to be after, basically after your sixth ears over because i think then you start at the beginning. I remember feeling the same way on this question when robert raper was the first one out of the box. As you recall he wrote dead certain about george w. Bush in year six which is about the same time and i remember thinking the same thing, but if you look historically presidencies dont change much after year six. Its sort of like okay how is it going to end may be an event or two will change something but for the most part with their presidency was in those six years is what the presidency is going to be remembered for and i also dont pretend its exhaustive. I do think in 10 years another might be more on the economy in here. 10 years or not might be more of a policy book. In 10 years it may be more per race but. We dont fully know. I look at it this way, if what you and i do everyday is the first draft of history i was only attempting to write a second draft. Im not pretending its a final draft so its a work in progress and it could be and i think i write this at the beginning, there is every chance that his struggles to run washington and to work with congress are a footnote in 50 years or theres the thing that defined his presidency you know im right now it defines it clear in real time. I think thats the danger of writing it in real time is that and certainly some of the criticism ive gotten thats where they have gone and if i were critic i would bring that question up to. But i feel comfortable enough that at least we know politically in real time with his presidency has been about. Host one of the things that intrigue me as i was writing reading through this book in the sense you step out of the narrative and provide a check type tutorial about how washington works. How did that come about, what were you trying to do with that . Was that deliberate or is it the way it happened . Guest honestly it just happened. I found i missed writing and im not this prolific a writer as you but i wrote a lot of my previous job at the National Journal in on line and sometimes it did in myself but i also believed its a book thats important to include because of the reader wants to understand the prism with which i am judging him or looking at him or profiling him than they need to understand how i view a system working here or a system that doesnt work there so i do think it provides the context to help the reader understand the prism with which i am examining or analyzing. Host before we get to a lot of the specifics in the book let me ask a bottomline question and that is how do you sum up the president s legacy at the end of year six knowing its not as this is fairly definitive judgment . Guest i go back and i say the big idea of barack obama was the guy that was going to get rid of polarization a guy that was going to change her politics and take us out of this we are as red and lou as we have ever been before. He wasnt able to do that read theres an argument to say circumstances didnt allow it. This is not the presidency he thought he was going to have on september 15, 2008. What he thought he was going to do in the presidency he became in the First Six Months and is from and manual will argue saying hey this was thrust upon him, this was no time to change washington. We had to save the american economy. Thats all well and good that the great promise of barack obama that is something some people say i harp on it too much but that to me that was the hope and change. That was the whole idea so on that score i think he failed and when i say he has not lived up to his great promise. As a president and as a commanderinchief is somebody who implemented the economic recovery overtime is going to look at her and better for him. Health care is a total, does it ever get fully implemented . That something that is still an open question. Ultimately his legacy will be judged on health care more than anything else because they consume the presidency. Host its an unanswerable question but i suspect is when you thought about which is if we did not have the economic collapse in september 2008 would that have allowed him to make our progress on bringing washington together because as you know the theory was things are so bad the republicans and democrats would be forced to work together. Guest youve are right its unanswerable but i fully believe, i fully believed the mandate would have been that he would have read his mandate as that, of which is about bringing washington together and without the economic collapse you go through these various what has. What would his life had them, this is my thing the wargame that i want to do is what would his relationship right now be with republicans if he only needed six to 10 to vote within the very beginning . He didnt need them ever in the republicans didnt have to work with him either. People forget that. They have the luxury of saying those guys run everything we dont need their boats and had the luxury of saying i dont need to fully deal with you either. How would that change have changed things so without the economic collapse 64 or 65 u. S. Senators rather than 69. There are all sorts of ways that would have changed. Host in this book you develop in essence a series of case studies to measure his presidency and health care in afghanistan the repeal of dont ask dont tell the air of spring and so on and so forth. Which of all of these do you think represents the best of obamas leadership style and which one do you think highlights the limitation . Guest i think the arabs bring does both. I think dont ask dont tell is the best. This was the case study when you look at dont ask dont tell and really what i think is his best two months ever working with congress turned out to be after the first shellacking. It is ironic when you look at 2010 from november to january that was as focused to the white white house, data Game Plan Game plan on how to do everything. They didnt allow Congressional Democrats to bully them. Its the first time they put them in their place. They just had a plan to go about it where there was biden on the tax cut, lets get out of that jam, the bush tax cuts when they decided to pump them for two years then there was don asked him tell and dont ask dont tell say what you want, dont ask dont tell has been part of that and the fact that they never quit and they were relentless about it. At other points. Host why did that one work out the way it did . Why was it that they have a plan that certainly predated the losses of the midterm . Guest they did and i think they were helped by the fact that there was an inevitability i think in the pentagon which help to. I think that there were certainly Public Opinion was in their favor on this one a little bit. And the Republican Party didnt win on it. If it. It was one of those things they felt could go under the radar and in many ways it did go under the radar when you think about how we ended up with dont ask dont tell. I was new at covering washi