Terms of what it is costing our Economy Today . We are not at a we talked about this earlier. The crises we are facing right now is created by political dysfunction. I think the situation is fundamentally different today. I share the optimism that if there was a real prices you would see people come together and congress act in a much more rational manner. Final, final question. I will be quick. How do we create the circumstances to reset redistricting . You look at california and arizona and iowa. , if youd be my analysis is right about what the problem is. The first question. I happen to think and then what you have to do if it were to succeed, california as an example. I. E. When you bring competition. You bringen competition to stop state nonpartisanand a analysis and that is what i would do. , you have your paper there, barney. Do you just want to go . [laughter] is this going to the floor . But ian go to the floor cannot talk. To hell with that. You are about to read a paper. I am going to submit it. Agencyation before the that discharging the statute with the risk potential and residual mortgages. The deadline is tomorrow. He want to tell everybody briefly. And the legislation, the bad mortgages which i was attacked in the wall street journal. I like to remind people. They said i was keeping poor people from buying houses. Then we said those loans you cannot have. That is paraphrased . Is what they said. You can read it. Secondly we said the great mortgages were both qualified mortgages and those mortgages you would be able to secure but we asked for Risk Retention will stop five percent would have to be retained. We advised them not to buy junk. Frankly because of a couple of senators, democrats, who were listening to people in the mortgage industry we put in a qualified residential mortgage. Confusing. The qualified mortgages were supposed to be a superduper safe category which you could securitize. To my dismay, the major proposal of the five regulators is to condense and combine the two set and2 and have one one you can not make the one you can make without risk. You have heard that before. The single biggest cause of the problem. And hoping to be dissuaded have Risk Retention. They know how to make mortgages without Risk Retention. Apparently it means no mortgages were made in america before 1980. We are going to leave it there. This is been a remarkable treat. Thank you for the conversation and to the questions. [applause] the meir. Mayor. Thank you. [applause] next, on first ladies and look back at the life of mrs. Eisenhower. Then attorney general eric holder announcement that the Johnson Johnson will pay 2. 5 billion as part of a settlement with the justice department. A conversation about the political response to the financial crisis. Today it is our pleasure to entertain for the first time our first lady at her belated birthday party. Many happy returns a birthday tribute to Mamie Eisenhower just a few weeks after her husband announced his did for reelection. Bid for reelection. Today the life and times of Mamie Eisenhower. Here to tell us about her life are two people who spent a lifetime with the first lady. We have a historian and author of a biography. We also welcome back edith. She has been one of our driving forces on first ladies. Nice to be back. What should we take away watching that video about her popularity, about the use of television . The film clip you show from the birth a celebration birthday celebration, this was shown in an election year, and immediately the democrats want equal time, because this is in their view a campaign ad. William haley, president of cbs, and a close friend of the eisenhowers says, its not equal time because this is nonpolitical entertainment with the first lady. Obviously, her birthday is november. We are just a few days away from it right now. Obviously there was some political background to this, but if you watch the show at the time, what you saw was a lot of people talking about her. Wanting to reemphasize how popular she was at the time. What should we know about television and the presidency in the 1950s . The eisenhower campaign was the first televised campaign. There are a range of techniques brought to the fore for that campaign. There were these wonderfully rehearsed man in the street interviews that were supposed to be spontaneous but were quite rehearsed. That was quite a new feature. Then you have the bouncing elephants and so forth. Ike for president and everybody likes ike. There were a range of techniques. Part of this was she so epitomized the 50s, particularly for american women. If she had an been there hadnt been there someone would have to invent her. One special thing about this program, a farm is about 90 miles away from washington, dc, and the eisenhower spot this in the 1950s and spent their bought this in the 1950s and spent their time there. You will learn about her obsession with pink. You can see she created this retreat away from public life. We will go back in time and learn about her biography, and to do that, lets go back to that special from 1956 where they talk about her biography as well. I hope that you, the members of our organization, and our extinguished guest will enjoy this salute to our first lady. How do you do . Thank you for inviting me. Birthdays almost seems synonymous with memories, like albums, so we brought this special album for you. Its filled with fond remembrances, and here is a picture of the three ors Three Sisters circa 1906. Here is the debutante visiting and your Wedding Dress and the portrait in your inaugural gown when you became our first lady. Take one fresh and tender kiss add one stolen night of bliss one girl, one boy, some greed, some joy a little bit of a view. Tell us a little more. She was the end of a generation, the last first lady born in the 19th century. She was born in 1896, our last first lady to be born in the 19th century. Her family lived there until she was about eight years old. Then they moved to colorado, and thats where she grew up. One of the photographs shows her in san antonio. They would winter there because of her health problems. She was almost an invalid, so they would winter. While they were in san antonio they went with some friends, and that is where she was first introduced to ike. Second lieutenant at the time. Second lieutenant. Very serious. She said he was not interested in any type of girl or girlfriend. He was very into duty and his job in the military, and she kind of swept him off his feet. Or vice versa. And they married a short time after they met. She was a debutante, and her father warned her off military life. He warned her off. Mamies parents really liked ike. They thought he was a wonderful young man, and her father even told her when he was coming around to visit that she should quit being so flighty and going off with other young men to parties, that she should Pay Attention to ike, but when they got married he told mamie they could not expect any money from him. They would have to live on ikes military pay. Her response was, i didnt care about that. I just wanted that man. It was probably a surprise to go from the debutante life to a tiny military apartment. From living a comfortable life with plenty of money, i think it was a shock for her, but she learned from her father about how to save money, so while i think it was difficult in the early days of their marriage, she always manage to live on ikes salary, and not only that, but in a role reversal, mamie is the one who handled the family finances. Later she said that is the secret to a good marriage, that the husband should turn the check over to his wife, that if he started purchasing things and opening accounts everything would go to hell in a handbag. Its interesting because we talk of her as the epitome of the media. There is this stereotype of the 1950s woman she seems to embody. She handled finances. He was domestic. She took a domestic science class when they became engaged. Her domestic science classes were cut short. Im not sure she was that serious anyway. He really did the cooking. I want to invite you to be participants in our program. We have three ways you can be involved. If you live out west, mountain pacific and further west, 202 585 or you can post on our Facebook Page where there are comments going on. How soon after they are married is their first child or an born . I think it is three years. He gets an unusual nickname. Icky. When i see it spelled i want to pronounce it ikey because it sounds better than icky. He was the apple of their i and eye and everyone on the coast. He was like the little mascot everyone took to. He died at the age of three of scarlet fever, and it happened so quickly. In that time, couples could almost expect to have one child die of a childhood disease, because the medical care there were not as you could do about it. They were devastated. Many of the president s and first ladies lost a child. Its a recurring theme. All the way from the beginning. Its always over her story a horror story. In an era before modern drugs you have it happened infrequently. Their son john is born, and one thing he said is his parents never made him feel he was a replacement of the child they lost, that he was his own person, and i think that was the way the eisenhowers as a couple were. They took people as they were, but that did not mean they totally forgot their first child. They just made another place for another child in their lives. Mamie was a little protective. Their early years was one of ike hearing gone a lot. Being gone a lot. How often were they together . There was one year they moved three times. She might go back to denver to be with her family, and there was a time when i was on ike was on a convoy, which was a military exercise to take transport across the country to test the roads, the bridges, and really, they found out how bad americas road system was. During that time she was with her parents because she couldnt live on the post, so they were backandforth. Thats something every military wife faces at one point or another. You might live a place a short time. You can expect multiple moves and separation. They were always entertainers. They did a lot of entertaining, and many times the eisenhower home was called club eisenhower because of their entertaining of the troops and military personnel, and going back to how many moves they made over the years, i think thats why they treasured their years in the white house, and then purchasing the farm in gettysburg. I have a photograph to show of mamie in a jeep. At what point did they become popularly known . I would say in the 1930s. Even when they were first married they became a family that invited other military families into their home. They would have potlucks, up play cards. They had a rented piano mamie played and sang. This photograph was taken in 1944 not long after dday. Mamie is behind the wheel of the jeep as if she can actually drive it. She had not driven an automobile since 1936, and the two women are also friends of hers, longtime military wives. They had the same kind of moving experiences. Where was she during the war . She wanted to be in washington, hoping there would be times ike could come back home. Their son john was at west point. Any opportunities she wanted to be close at hand. It was only later in the war she went to stay with his sister. Hi, mark, you are on the air. I am wondering if any of them could tell me what life was like in the philippines or panama. I also cannot wait until next week when you talk about Jackie Kennedy. Life in the philippines and panama, both were extremely uncomfortable for her. The heat and humidity. Particularly in panama, it was primitive. Where they lived was much more comfortable. They had a nice apartment. It was airconditioned. She had a difficult time in terms of the environment. She did not do well in the heat. There were two times, especially in the philippines, when she suffered from health problems. There were a number of generals elected to the white house. How does the world prepare the first couple for life in the white house . With ike there were all kinds of executive and administrative decisions he was used to making, but for mamie, the entertaining of heads of state while he was commander of nato, according to her own testimony was something that really prepared her for entertaining at the white house. She knew how to do it. She actually loved that part of the role. Hi jeffrey, you are on. My question was about how politically involved she was before she was in the white house. I know before he was did he didnt even know which party he was a member of, so i wonder if she is more political than her husband. She once said she and ike were probably two people who knew less about politics than anyone else. Mamie did make comments about politics in the interest of the party, but that was with her father and letters back and forth, and her father was a strong republican, so mamie would sometimes commiserate in the letter that roosevelt had done something her father didnt approve of, but mamie was not political in the least. We have questions from facebook and twitter. Did ike have an affair kay was often referred to as eisenhowers driver, but there were several people who drove him around. Her job was to keep his appointment calendar to make sure the right people got in and out to meetings. She was engaged to an american officer who was tragically killed in the fighting in north africa, and she stayed on at headquarters, and rumors began that a were having an affair. The research i did, and other people are beginning to look at the letter truman had that he was going to ask for a divorce. I think there are a number of historians that have debunked that. Its hard to imagine that eisenhower, the allied commander of the european theater, is acting like a schoolboy puppy love following k around kay around, which is what she alleges. Did mamie know . There was nothing to know except the rumors were extremely hurtful to her. It was the kind of thing that went on and on especially after the book and madefortv movie, and that was very hurtful for mamie. I havent done that kind of research in primary sources. I have heard the rumors. I know the family denies it, but it would be interested to hear from somebody who knows the primary sources. Its not just the family. Several people who were still alive and had then at the eisenhower headquarters, including one of somersbys roommate said this never happened. They couldnt explain why she would have decided to stay. Say this. A lot of military wives are watching tonight. Thank you so much for the show. My question, were mrs. Eisenhower and mrs. Nixon friendly . Did they play bridge together . Their children were different ages. How did that work out . They were friendly. There was always a friendly relationship. The story was mamie liked pat immediately. She said, you are the cutest little thing. I think it took off from there, and the friendship continued. Bernard, you are on. Good evening. How are you doing this evening . We are fine. Whats your question for us . My question is the inaugural ball she wore a pink gown, and that color was known as mamie pink. Do you know about that . Does that color still exist . You asked the right question. Our guest was responsible for creating the popular first ladies gowns. What about her down . Her gown . It is mamie pink. It was pastel. She decided she wanted it to have a little extra flair. She had a designer put 2000 pink rhinestones on the gown so it would sparkle. The color was very popular in the 1950s as part of a wardrobe but also household. Charcoal gray and pink was also a big color combination in the 50s. She had a number of formal gowns that were charcoal gray and pink. I dont know whether that particular shade still exists, but it was popular in the 50s. Here is a look at some of the important positions he held before the white house. As an allied commander during world war ii, after the war he served as the army chief of staff for the pentagon. He left the military and went to Columbia University in new york, where he served as university president. It was around this time in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when they began to consider their retreat in gettysburg, pennsylvania. We are going to take you there, but first we are going to hear from mamie many years later about the farm and how important it was to the eisenhowers. I like having you on the porch with me where ike and i spent so many hours. The capital still appear on the field. On your screen is the formal living room at the eisenhower farm in gettysburg, pennsylvania. Joining us is a park ranger. Alice evans, how is it they came to gettysburg and why this property . Gettysburg was a natural choice. They actually lived here before during the first world war. He was a civil war buff from childhood. That pulled him here. He wanted to find a farm that would keep him busy in retirement. This was a working farm . Yes, it was. Shortly after theyve are just the farm he was sent overseas to work with nato. The house begins renovations in 1953. It was not inhabitable until 1955. How many times did they stay here . We can document the 365 days. Yes. This was their primary residence. This was their only home during marriage. Until their deaths, this was their residence. After the inauguration in 1962, what happened . They drove up in a terrible snowstorm and they had a secret service car following behind them. They got to the front gate and the secret service waved them off. President eisenhower did the driving. I want to start by pointing out a very pink room. The dining room shows the pink that is typical of many. This is very typical of the sentimentality that she had. She loved having her friends and family together. How original is it . The house is 98 original. The house has their dining room table. You have the place settings and you see mamie on the end. Then, you have dick nixon. After it became apparent that the families would be united in marriage, they became very close to the nixons and they were friends and political partners. How much of the decorating did mamie do . This is really her. Elizabeth arden was there to consult and this was mamies taste. Throughout the evening, we will bring it into other rooms in other areas of the house. To put the end of the conversation, we had a conversation. Did Mamie Eisenhower meet kay somersby . She was aware of the rumors and graciously met her. We will get back to the eisenhower farm in gettysburg later. It was around the time of the purchase of the farm that the eisenhowers were drafted by both political parties. They were not partisan and both parties thought they could be recruited. Tell us why the republicans were successful. Theres this grassroots movement, citizens for eisenhower. People were forming and pushing for eisenhower to run for president and as a republican. When he is in nato and they are in europe, there are people flying, including jackie cochr