People who sometimes feel that no one is listening. You see, i know that i can go to washington and pull this together. I know that i can go to washington. [applause] gov. Kasich look, i know how to balance budgets. I know how to build a team of people that are willing to give us on a strong fiscal track. Why do we want that . Because if our job creators dont feel like they can trust the future, they will sit on their wallets and we wont get the jobs we want. I know how to deal with regulation. I know this. Problem with people who work in the government. If they want to make all the laws, they should run for public office. They should not make them sitting behind a desk when they are not in touch with the reality of how we create jobs in this country. [applause] gov. Kasich we know how to cut taxes. We cut taxes more than any governor in america by 5 billion. Think about this. Remember that first year i was win . I was in . You all had to get a seat belt you fell out of your chair with everything that was happening. We have reduced taxes, and we killed the death tax. A Small Business person could pass their business on to their kids. Now if we are working on killing debt. We have not done that well on that one yet, but we are working on it. In our state, what is happening . Over 400,000 jobs, a balanced budget, the same thing that happened in washington. I take orders from you. I will take orders from the people who are the connected, vested interest. And my wife, god bless her, she knows it and she has become a wonderful partner. The only one i take orders from is her. That clear. She understands what is the stakes are. Let me say a couple more things. I want to shift a lot of power back to where we live. I want us to have the programs to run our schools, our school boards, not some faraway place in washington. [applause] gov. Kasich i want to send welfare back here, so it is not a way of life, but a way of getting out of the ditch. We are doing that in ohio. I want to send the programs of health care for the poor. We know we can do a better job if we were set free. And send back job training and send back transportation. To send these programs back all within the first 100 days. But i want to tell you something that i really believe, coming from that little town in pittsburgh. You got it, man. Let me tell you something. That little town, our hero was Roberto Clemente. He was the great athlete. He performed like we all dreamt that we could. I did not see my mother cry a the morningemember she walked in my room in tears because she said Roberto Clemente had lost his life, flying to help people in nicaragua who had been hit by an earthquake. You see in that little town, we did not wait for any president to come galloping into our town. We do not wait for some politician to come in and solve our problems. You see, the spirit of america, in my opinion, does not rest and politicians. In politicians. We need to do our job to get things fixed where we are expected to do our job, what we are paid for. But the spirit of our country rests in a you. It does not rest in a faraway city or place. [applause] gov. Kasich i was in gulfport, mississippi. Hurricane katrina came in and a leveled the entire town came in and leveled that entire town. To get the cash they needed to survive. And they wrote them an ioa and passed out tens of millions of dollars in cash. When all was said and done and s were paid back, they lost a total of 300,000. When the regulator showed up to look at the winnebago bank, the advice was get back in your cars and get out of here because we know what we are doing. These the stories are all over the country, of people standing up and fixing things. The last thing i want to tell you is this. Understand that you are made special . Do you know that the lord has never made anybody like you, and will ever make anybody like you again . Man, you have a purpose. Part of your purpose you did here today. You stood up here did you ever think you would be doing Something Like that in front of governor schwarzenegger and all of these people . No, but you are reaching out. And well have to discover our godgiven purpose. I believe that when we Work Together we are a great, beautiful mosaic. When we dont discover our purpose, the mosaic is incomplete. When we Work Together, we need to live a life bigger than ourselves to help heal this world. Let me give you a couple of examples. You are a nurse, you are done at 10 00 p. M. You are dead attired. You are dead tired. But you walk into the room where that family is sitting on the edge of their chairs, worried about their loved ones. But you take a few more minutes to tell them it is going to be ok. Or if you are a teacher and you gave up big salaries because you believe that you are changing the lives of young people, even under purpose. And you are a physician, and you call the patient at 11 30 p. M. At night because you cannot sleep, you are living your purpose. Sometimes it is not even that complicated. How about the widow who was married for 52 years, and no one calls her anymore . And you call her on monday and i are goingse and to take you out to dinner saturday. On thursday, she goes and gets her hair done. And on saturday when you pick her up, she puts on the dress she had not worn in six months. Did you change the world . I think you did. You see, i will take care of these things in washington. If i need help, i will call you. I will call you. But back here, we need to pull our communities together. We need to destroy the curse of drugs. We need to rebuild our schools, we need to fight poverty, and we need to connect with one another, because that is the spirit of america. That is where america lives in our neighborhoods, in our families, and our communities. [applause] gov. Kasich were coming up to an election. We have an election in michigan on tuesday. Meyer to lay down in that Michigan State game. Let them win yesterday and basketball. We are covering everything, ok . Going to do well. And then we are coming here. We are coming here. [applause] gov. Kasich i think it is important that in ohio, we not only send a message to the country, but we send a message to the world that positive efforts in politics and not namecalling or big suggestions about how you are going to fix things, set a positive message in raising the bar for our kids. We will move america forward. Thank you all very much and god bless you all thank you [applause] [crowd chatter] [cheering] there is more president ial coverage tomorrow in michigan. 30 have that live at 2 eastern on cspan. Hillary clinton talks to supporters in detroit. That will begin at 7 45 eastern. Again, live coverage here on cspan. I am a teacher. The most important thing to me is education. I am looking at the candidates very closely for their programs in education. I am not happy in the last 15 years or so, with all the common courre that has been happening. I will vote for either Bernie Sanders or hillary clinton. I am happy with both of those choices and i am interested in their programs. I am voting for ted cruz. He is eloquent and he is principal. He is the most consistent out of the candidates so far. This year cspans student cam competition was one of the biggest yet. Students produced documentaries using our road to the white house theme. The students told us they would like to hear the candidates talk about economy, a quality, education, and immigration. Be sure to tune in wednesday morning at 8 00 eastern. We will announce the grand prize winner, the first place winner, and the fan favorite, chosen by the public. Former first lady Lady Nancy Reagan died sunday at her home in the bel air section of los angeles. She and her husband, ronald reagan, entered the white house in 1981. As first lady, she was well known for taking on the issue of drug use amongst teens with her just say no campaign. She was 94 years old. Richard norton smith nancy reagan was part of the discussion. That included other first ladies and their role as Political Partners. From mount vernon, virginia. This is an hour and a half. Richard okay, good evening everyone. To mount vernon. Weve got a Great Program for you. We are delighted to have cspan here with us. This is a way to celebrate womens history month. Mount vernon is of course a place that is making womens history every day that we remain open. We are the longest operating petition run by women operating institution run by women in American History. [applause] ladies camernon together in the 1850s to save George Washingtons great estate and preserve it and make it available for all people to come and learn about the life, leadership, and legacy of George Washington. We are continuing that today. It is a great connection to womens history. We have this wonderful lecture series tonight called the Martha Washington lecture. Martha washington was a great woman in American History as well. I would like to thank, particularly the Richard S Reynolds foundation. We are delighted to have major pam reynolds with us, the founders and supporters of this program. We have a very special evening tonight. We have a feature with cspans susan swain and Richard Norton smith, discussing the book first ladies and the first ladys project that has been crucial. First ladies, president ial historians, the lives among 45 iconic women. A book that was produced out of it was in conjunction with the yearlong series produced by cspan entitled first ladies influence an image. I will very shortly handed over to the experts to run the program. When he briefly say let me briefly say who are these people sitting in the room . Cspan. Ain, coceo of a long history with a network. She was an on camera host for more than 30 years and interviewed murmurs Public Officials and historians. She has edited other cspan historical publications, including abraham lincoln, great American Historys on her 16th president. And the sum in court the supreme court, a cspan book featuring justices in their own words. Joining us is Richard Norton smith, an authority on the american presidency. He has held numerous directors of president ial libraries, which i am envious of. All the different titles he has brought together. Im only a measly founding director. You committee with director of two president ial libraries at once. At the time, wrote his great biography of George Washington while doing that. Hes extraordinary. Deweytioned thomas e. And his times. The life of Nelson Rockefeller and of course our favorite at mount vernon patriach George Washington and the new american nation. Lets give a big round of applause. [applause] susan good evening. It is so much fun to be in a room of first ladies enthusiasts. Thank you for inviting me tonight. I have been a neighbor of general and lady washington for 25 years. It is a delight to be here in this capacity tonight. Especially to talk about first ladies as they impact our countrys history. When mount vernon extended its invitation, we decided the best thing to do would be replicate our first ladies television program. While we have the cameras here, we will shortly conversation with richard, who is one of the nations preeminent president ial historians. After about 45 minutes, we will open it up for questions. So get engaged, enjoy it. This is a lot more fun when its interactive. You are not live, so dont worry about being transmitted to the nation. We are recording it for later airing on cspan. The first ladies project was so rich. We did all 45 women who served in the role. We did not want to keep you here for 2 days, so we decided we needed to focus our efforts. Since were in the middle of this rather momentous president ial election, and we are only two days past virginias day at super tuesday, i am thinking many of you tonight are thinking about the next occupants of the white house. We chose as our theme tonight first ladies as Political Partners. Were going to talk about 89 women who have been particular Political Partners to their potential spouses. To some degree, all first ladies have been Political Partners. After all, politics is the family business. They live above the store when they get to the white house. Who has a greater stake in a family success than first lady . Once they are in the white house, no matter how many close aids for advisors the president has, who has greater access to the president than the person who can employ persuasive power of pillow talk . [laughter] we dont know a lot in many cases about the influence they have had in the nature. Many first ladies we do know about their political. We will explore that tonight. To whet your appetite for our description, we will show a few clips from the first ladys project. I want to show you one of my favorite video clips from the series. It is an audio clip with pictures. It illustrates one of the presidencies most relationships, linden and lady bird johnson. When i say lyndon johnson, it conjures up an image of a tough guy, inyourface politics. You have seen the pictures of him leaning in to get his way. There was one person that he listens to quite regularly. You will hear from this tape how much influence lady bird would have on him. Let us listen. Would you want to listen to my critique . Yes maam, i will listen to it now. I thought you sounded strong, firm, and look like a reliable guy. You looked resplendent. Say there were more closeups than there were distant. During the statement, you were a bit breathless. I think it was a little too fast. Not enough change in pace. A drop invoice at the end of the sentence. Yes maam. [laughter] that great . The other thing about that dynamic that is interesting is secretlyon johnson recorded telephone conversations in the oval office. Lady bird had no idea she was being recorded. So youre getting the unvarnished ladybird in that capacity. We have many more of those in our archives that are wonderful. Weve got a lot of stories like this to tell. I want to get going on this. But i want to make two introductions. First of all, the gentleman standing against the wall is mark farkas. Mark has a 30 year history at cspan. He has been the executive producer of all or special history projects, including first ladies. He was a wonderful partner to me as we hosted this. He was very much involved in the editorial content. He directed our deep dive into the first lady sites around the country. Tonight he has been the person selecting all these tapes and working with richard and i put the program together. He is always behindthescenes. I just wanted to take the opportunity for him to get recognition. [applause] now mark, get back to the producers booth so we can show our video. [laughter] and Richard Norton smith. Its a professional relationship, but started 25 years ago. He has been a longtime history consultant to cspan, but the friendship has evolved from that. Im delighted to work with him again tonight. He is really one of the bestknown president ial biographers. What he does is make history, alive history come alive. He was also the godfather do you mind if i call you that . Of the first ladies. Richard i have been called worse. [laughter] susan when we were thinking about the next project, he kept whispering in my ear those ladies are really interesting. You really have to do the first ladies. Once we got into the project, we thought he was so right, what took us so long . Thank you for getting us started on this project, which is five years in the making. A year of research, a full year of television programs. Each lady got hurt due. Got her due. It is been a labor of love. Lets get started. Susan okay, can you hear me . Do i need you . How about now . Go. Great. Here we go richard. Seatbelt buckled . [laughter] richard is it going to be a bumpy road . [laughter] richard we must start into difference to the Martha Washington lecture with the very first first lady. We make the point that she was entirely conscious of everything she did. That in itslk about political ramifications. Talk about the washingtons and the years before they got to the white house. You dont think of it as conventional politics, because we do not have a system in place. Were they in fact Political Partners . Richard they were partners in every sense of the word. Ithere are all sorts of ways by measuring the impact of first ladies. But the ultimate, it seems to if they hadagine not existed. Married georgeot washington in 1759 at a house called the white house, i dont think we would be here this evening. She was that essential. Her role, her encouragement, her support. Her plantation management skills are very practical. And not least of all i want to counter the notion that some cynics hold that washington married her for her money. Unaware thatobably she was the wealthiest whittle in virginia wealthiest widow in virginia. There was no doubt overtime whenever it was in the beginning, it grew into a genuine match. That, Political Partners. Before we had a union, presidency, George Washington was in many ways fulfilling the role during the war. And likewise, martha. Much of the time she was here running mount vernon. It was a job in itself. Much of the time she was with him, not just as a career as a courier tending to the needs of soldiers. She was his surrogate, his sounding board, she was the one person of all the men whom this give hisdid not often trust to people. But he trusted her implicitly. When we talk about influence, is pauses. O look at public we associate her activism. But literally at the end of the day, when you talk about, talk, the ultimate influences about pillow talk, the ultimate influence a first lady has is the marital relationship,. The special bond that resist between that exists between husband and wife. She set a pattern. When they got to new york, the first capital, anything he did set a precedent for the office. To some degree, it defined the nation. Everything she did was likewise. She was aware of the fact she did not particularly enjoy it but she enjoyed she rea