Years of the 20th century, by the way. Thats whats interesting. The jim crow rules, thats when they came in, when i talked about that transit, the boycotting the Transit System being segregated in mobile. I mean, up until then it was a very different world. Up until then black people could go to the restrooms. Not that they often had the money to go there, but they could go to white restaurants. So that changed. And the south is at a crucial juncture now, and well see which way things go. [inaudible] okay, thank you very much. [applause] [inaudible conversations] next up, former white house president ial events director josh king talks about his book, off script an advanced mans guide to white house stage craft, Campaign Spectacle and political suicide. Mitchell schwartz, andrew frank and steve barr, swaggering advance men who learned the craft on walter mondales campaign against reagan in 1984, served as my role models. They were the democratics answer to Michael Dever during that summer of 1988, and they taught me well. Schwartz was a lead advance man brimming with selfconfidence and quick humor. [laughter] all right, was that selfserving enough, by the way . [laughter] i had to read that. Mort, whos out here, claimed that he was his mentor, but in the book mort got more pages, four pages, and was known as a great teacher. So just to be clear on that. Josh is a good buddy and a good friend, and a lot of people here worked with him, worked with me. We all worked on Democratic Politics together. So its nice seeing everybody. But josh has written a really interesting book that, obviously, most of you here have bought, and he said he would sign everybodys. The tv, tv has really changed politics dramatically, and there are just a quick couple of examples of that. In 1960 the famous debate of nixon versus kennedy. A lot of people said when they heard it on radio, they thought that nixon had won. But when they watched the tv version, everybody thought kennedy had won. He looked younger, he was shaven whereas nixon looked like he had this 5 00 shadow and stuff. So that was a little bit the dawn of the tv era. Throughout now the campaigns in the last 50 years, i guess, the portrayal of the candidates through their Campaign Stops and through tv has made a tremendous difference. And there are constant examples, and ill just give yo a quick three. You a quick three. Our former governor, arnold schwarzenegger, when he wanted to abolish something called the car tax, what did he do . He did this huge event where he had a car literally destroyed. Do you guys remember at all during the campaign . It was such an extreme example, but it got a ton of attention. He was saying were going to abolish the car tax, so he destroyed a car. Im not exactly sure what that had to do with destroying the car tax, but thats an example. Bill clinton, who mort and others probably did more work for than anyone, had something where he was dedicating a monument in utah or designating land to be under the monument terms which means that you can, it was limited to how much building and other things you could do. He didnt put up banners, he didnt put up anything. What he did was set up a nice wooden table, and there was a gorgeous view of the whole area. Mort, were you at that event . You did that . That was an example of just letting the picture speak for itself. You didnt have to put up banners or signs, you had the beauty of this wonderful wilderness area behind him, and that was a gorgeous shot. Cut to this election. What do you remember about some of the visuals . Not a ton, but donald trump boo, boo. [laughter] what he would do is coming in in his big, huge plane that i guess was supposed to evoke well, thats how he flies around, but its supposed to evoke air force one. Or when he announced and he came down the escalator, just this picture of grandeur. So the theatrics of campaigns are more and more important. And josh stayed with it and became one of the experts and one of the best people at it and learned a lot from some of the folks here but just on his own became one of the best at it and stayed with it and worked for the clinton administration, has continued to do work. And this book is just wonderful to read because, first of all, we all know all the people in it. But its a somewhat overlooked part of campaigns, and its so important. Picture says how many words . A thousand words . Probably more these days. In a day and in an age when the average sound bite on tv is now five or six seconds, the pictures are critical. So people like josh and others who do this maybe have an outsized influence in the political system. Whether thats a good thing or bad, im not sure. But when its for the cause of good, like josh has always worked were good folks and its a wonderful thing. Hes going to be interviewed by todd purdham, a recent citizen of l. A. , right . You guys moved here [inaudible] two years. Okay, not so recent. Todd came from washington, d. C. With his wife whos not here, but he was the head of the New York Times bureau for a long time in washington. He now works for variety. Todds a fascinating guy because hes one of the best political writers if you follow him. Its wonderful to read his stories, because he writes really well and is so astute. But his next book is not on politics, its on rogers and hammer steven, how he made that transition im not sure. People like that. Of course they like that. So were really in for a treat, and its my pleasure to introduce to you josh king and todd. Im sorry, right before that, though, a quick plug for those of you who dont its your first time being at che vallieres, its been ab institution here on largemont boulevard, and its kind of the epicenter of all of this whole area. Its a wonderful street. You see people all the time in the community x its just a wonderful thing. So, but bookstores are hurting. More and more people are buying books at amazon, and burt dykesler whos in the back there, can you raise your hand . Whos a very accomplished attorney, bought this bookstore in order to save it from becoming who knows what, another, i guess, coffeeshop or something, and has pumped money in here, has built it up, and he does these salons all the time. Please get on his list and come back. We say if everybody who does books writes books, sorry. Comes here and speaks. Its really wonderful. He has salons a couple of times several times a month, and hes added to the intellectualer if very and fervor and stuff in this community, so we thank you for that. Its a wonderful thing. [applause] without further ado, i give you the great twosome of josh and todd. Thank you very much. Josh, very good to be with you. I actually want to say i actually work for vanity fair, not variety, although i admire variety, and i was the l. A. Bureau chief and never the Washington Bureau chief. From your lips to gods ears, mitchell. [inaudible] anyway, exactly. [laughter] because this is on television and the internet forever. So welcome to you all, and welcome, josh, its really good to see you in particular. And this is a timely topic, a day after really the end of this years primary season. And because were old friends and have known each other for a long time, im going to start by asking you a somewhat provocative question i how you dont i hope you dont think is unfair. The best advance work is somewhat invisible. And advance people are supposed to have what Franklin Roosevelt called a passion for anonymity. So i wonder why youve chosen to lift the curtain, reveal only reveal some of the trade secrets. Its a little bit like youre a magician, and youre telling how the tricks are done. Right. Could you react to and what explain what you thought the public could learn by this exercise . Well, thanks, todd. I think that every time you finish a political trip, and mort and david and rica and so many other people who have been doing trips as well, you would get around a table and have some beers. It was called the wheels up party. And at some point during those wheels up parties, someone would say someday im going to write a book about advance work. And i would be part of those conversations. And i always thought that the people that do this work have never been the people who have written books. But chiefs of staff have written books, domestic policy advisers have written books. There is a code of you dont talk about what happens on the road. I felt like i was always obsessed with this one event, september 13th, 1988, Sterling Heights, michigan, mike dukakis rides in a tank. And i knew that my friend, matt bennett, had had some involvement in it, had been on that team. And one day were having a beer in new york be in a pub, and not unlike those other times during wheels up parties, matt said, you know, josh . I have this journal from 88, and i havent looked at it in 25 years. But it tells the story of my impressions of doing that trip that turned out to be such a calamitous failure for the governor of massachusetts. And i said could i take a look at it . And i have a copy of it here. Its six typewritten pages in the old dot a matrix style. But it brought back history, and it brought back that time in 88 when it was george h. W. Bush against mike dukakis. And it was just such a wonderful, evocative story. And by honing in on this trip for the first third of the book, i could tell the story of how the press works, how tv how political advertising works, how an advance team works, how convention works. And i just thought that we do see, we have we see plenty of other books about other aspects of the political process that for all of those hundreds, perhaps thousands of advance people out there who would be loathe to tell their story, if i could start with matts story in 88 and follow an equal number of republicans and democrats moving up to the very present day, that i would violate that code and get this story out. Well, in fact, you dont telltales out of school in the way that policy advisers often have told. This is not a David Stockman book where somebodys going to take you to the wood shed. But it ban as a part in a began as a part many a political magazine where you just focused on the dukakis event. Because matt gave me the journal in the summer of late 2012, and i was thinking, oh, i know Politico Magazine is thinking about trying to launch a long form vehicle for politico which i always thought was a great idea. And if i could just get in touch with her, because the 25th anniversary of dukakis and the tank is coming up in september 2013, they might like it. But i went to the aspen ideas festival in july of 2013 and had matts journal, and i said ive got to start writing this up. Maybe it could be an ebook or something. And i started hammering away, and i started saying, well, it would lead me down all these rabbit holes of other aspects of political stagecraft. So by the end of the summer of 2016, i had about 60,000 words wow, so thats a book. And susan said, well, i can only take six. Just do the due dukakis story. But they also sent matt soak yes, sir key to do a Mini Documentary on that, interviewed matt benefit and me bennett and me, talked to sig roguish who made the famous dukakis ad. So once that ran in politico, and i think it was one of the most widelyread stories of 2013, their first year of publication. An agent came up to me and said could you come up with any of these stories . I said, frankly, yeah. One of the distressingly Common Threads is so many of these events that turn out to be disasters were thought at the time, i mean, even at the end of that day, the dukakis staff felt theyd kind of nailed it. So could you without taking the whole session walk us through the anatomy of dukakis and the tank and how it happened and what we dont know about it that we think we know. Ill just give you the quick story. Its the summer of 1988, and dukakis has really wind at his back. If you looked at polling, some of those critical measures of cares about people like me, he had a decisive advantage over Vice President bush but a real deficit when it came to would be a credible commander in chief. He was against the guy in Vice President bush who was a congressman from texas, the youngest, one of the youngest aviators in world war ii, envoy to china, chairman of the rnc head of the cia. And head of the cia. So dukakis really had to build up his props to stand toe to toe as really could be entrusted with the keys to u. S. Arsenal. So beginning back in the primaries for some speeches looking at what would be a good policy on a conventional deterrence instead of reagans star wars, dukakis is talking about the conventional deterrence initiative. And the m1a1 tank, the abrams, is the perfect example of that. Lets buy more tanks to put them in the european theater to counter the soviet threat and forget about this star wars program. Possess september 11th through 14th 1988. Monday brought them to philadelphia, and to cincinnati, and tuesday would bring them to chicago and Sterling Heights, and matt bennett is dispatched to Sterling Heights where General Dynamics land systems has a facility where they sell to the pentagon and foreign purchasers, and so is told by boston headquarters, you wont governor dukakis to take a ride in the tank, and they to through a dress rehearsal and test that. Matt gets in the tank and says well do a standard run at 45milesanhour. Turns, got to wear a helmet to hear what is going on and to protect your torso because you could really be hurt in a tank like this. And that is told back to boston and he says, it was damn fun but dukakis is going to look terrible the primary rule of president ial behavior is never put anything on your head. Never put something on your head. Politics 11 politics 101. This is where the book starts, and says give you a lesson in politics 101. Never put something on your head if youre president , and this stems from dukakis with this it fit him but oversized it was helmet with this large label on it, black writing on a white background, said, mike dukakis and looked like pete mav risk mitchell from top gun. But he didnt look like tom cruise in the helmet. So finish up, because we can talk about dukakis all night and spend a third of the book doing it, but when the event was actually over, the correspondents, producers, writers, but mostly the tv guys who were traveling around with dukakis came up to joe lockhart, the deputy press secretary, and says you guys really figured out out. We have been covering reagan for eight years, and you gave us a reagan moment today. Do more or this. So sam donaldson, Chris Wallace and bruce morton, correspondents sponsor abc, nbc, and cbs, that night did two minute packages that you look at them in isolation and you break down the way Chris Wallace, for instance, reported that day. He gave dukakis all the visuals he needed. His speech in chicago, to the World Affairs council, the council on foreign relations, a quick ride in at the tank, but his policy focus against Vice President bush and the way that story was put together sort of showed Vice President bush and dan quayle on the defensive that day, to try to defend their policies. So if you were just saying, hough did we do that day . We got great visuals from Sterling Heights, great substance from chicago, the testify networks had video to put together a package, and the way tom brokaw and Peter Jennings and dan rather reported looked good for dukakis, mean while in washington, dc, the runner for media for bush quayle days i have an idea. So five weeks later the tank ad. One fatal flaw of the day that they tank took a sweep close to the photographers. They wore supposed to have that closeup shot of him, and also i didnt real iowa, 45 miles an hour he was a little car sick after that. Very. So arthur here . Arthur grace was a photographer assigned to shoot for news week behind the scenes and the tried to warn the campaign this was headed for disaster. He is it seeing pictures back in the hangary dukakis there was a huge debate whether the helmet should be worn or not. General dynamics wouldnt let the ride go forward without it. Would he just do a slow roll in front of the press . That would look wimpy. But if the broker a compromise, todd, where the governor would emerge from this behind closed doors in the hangar and is riding with corden of General Dynamics, who would become secretary of the navy, and they did a slow role slow roll for the cameras and these are 60foot long constructions on flatbed trucks with a back row and front row, and you could do a a model going down the catwalk very slowly. Get all the pictures you went. Governor dukakis wont be wearing the helmet and he will look like george c. Patton. Then the tang will cruise out, have a stop, she governor will put his helmet on and get to see how this conventional piece of military equipment can operate. And General Dynamics wanted to show everything they could about their tanks this guy could be president and they want to sell more of these models. And so there is this story between matt bennett, who gave me his journal, and jack weeks, who was on the dukakis plane as the trip director, where matt is trying to tell boston, im not comfortable with this, i dont think its going to work, and so a tour that had gone from philadelphia to cincinnati is running into snags. Theyre booing him at the General Electric plant in cincinnati. They say, jack, you better get to General Dynamics because we cant have another day screwed up on our Foreign Policy week. And jack flies to Sterling Heights, gets on site that morning, and im trying to decipher the stories that matt and jack told, but as best as i could determine, they tried to have it both ways. This slow pass in front of the reporters, and then have the helmet on. The way jack tells it he had no idea the helmet would go on, and that the tank stopses at the far end of the proving ground and he says, holy st, the story is going to be tank runs out of gas. Why else would the tank stop. Then it goes on passes back and forth. Then, strangely and oddly, it comes bac