A little too much looking down and i think it was a little too fast. You were dropping her voice at the end of the sentences. There was a considerable pickup in drama and interest when the questioning began. Your voice would build up and her facial expressions i thought your answer on vietnam was good. I really didnt like the answer on jobs. [inaudible] and therein lies the reason why we should talk about first ladies. Because what other advisor could be that candid to a president . Stu spencer maybe. Wasnt there a family they owned television stations or something so she of the background and so as an advisor because first ladies in some ways are to their husbands whether its in their official capacity or not. They bring that because she wants him to be as successful as he does. I think that clip show shoot, we talk about this rule of first ladies, the various attributes that as simply as human beings that they bring to the table. Mrs. Johnson, i think like mrs. Obama, things in a very organized way. They are very well structured in their mind. Jackie kennedy was famous for i dont have a schedule i like to do things spontaneously. And different ones bring different things. I think mrs. Johnson with her love of words, she had a degree in journalism her love of writing, her love of cadence, her love of wisdom but also like you said the media experience brought that, you know and thats not necessary political. Its a policy budget but it ends up having a political result. Edna medford, this is not a new phenomenon. We have an image from the polk administration. We will go back in time and escrow anthony said this was a time when women were supposed to stay in their sphere. But mrs. Pope didnt stay in her spare so well. Could you tell us about it . No, she did not. This was when women were really appendages to their husbands. They were not supposed to have political ideas of their own. They certainly were not supposed to voice those ideas if they did have them. Mrs. Polk had those ideas into force them at least to her husband. And she reviewed his speeches. She actually tried to influence people to do things his way. You try to influence them as well, and she did influence him as far as we know. So shes definitely stepping outside of that role of the average or typical woman during that period, or what was expected of the woman during that period. She and other first ladies of that era did not always follow that pattern of you are to be you would to be the hostess at a party, and its okay to give these parties because they are political. They are not just entertainment. Its not just the emptiness. Theres a reason why they are doing this, but she goes much further than that. Shes not here interested in the parties but she is interested in the politics and she does help her husband to get where he wants to be. So she is supporting the whole idea of manifest destiny. In terms of support for him at home but also beyond that. We have one quote i remember in the book of members of congress at the time same to the president , i would rather talk politics with your white van with you. She was pretty good at what she did. I have another image in the mentioned mary lincoln. You were taught but how you are still discussing the mental capacity but we have her as a political partner because she was indeed a political partner to abraham lincoln. Karl, lets start with you. I suspect if we had tape recorders back then you would have heard at least midnight can century president s a lot of conversations like that. When lincoln finds out he is one of the presidency and deterrence jordan says mary, mary, we won. Week, he said. When grant is an odd committed patrons to julia grant and says well, my dear, i hope you are satisfied. [laughter] we think maybe she pushed him a little bit to run, be involved in politics. I think those conversations look, you dont take your spouse without telling them tape your spouse without telling them. True. I bet if you had a tape recorder you hear all kinds of conversations like that. In campaigns and these people to run. Once they got to the white house, she was shut out. She was totally shut out. First of all she was a southerner. The union states were still there, slaveholding union states, the border states. But she had relatives who are fighting on the side of the confederacy so she could never be trusted. It was alleged that she was a spy. She spent too much money. She acted less than sane sometimes, and she embarrassed her husband in public which is something first ladies were not supposed to do. But you have to sort of understand whats going on with mary lincoln. This is a woman who had lost a son before she got to the white house, lost another son while in the white house had a husband who was not always easy to get along with. I think we sometimes forget that lincoln had his problems as well. This is a woman whos very bright, who understands politics, and loves politics, but she was born a woman. And so she does not have the ability to do what her husband can do by virtue of the fact that she was born the wrong gender, and so she is living vicariously through him i think. She wants him to be president but she certainly did not anticipate i think the kind of vilification she would get once you got to the white house. We will have to fastforward through a lots of history. Governor roosevelt ends up in a lot of these categories tonight. How would you assess her carl anthony, in terms of her partnership with fdr . They were driven by the same principle, that people get so patty in looking at the, theyve been married for so many years. And yes, he had a physical and an emotional relationship with somebody whos very close to her, her personal secretary to were one and she offered him a divorce and it was dramatic, no question. But when she sort of pulled away and looked at it she realized theres nobody else i share values with like i do with him. That they believed they were both progressives even though they were democrats, very much like the roosevelt. Thats what led them to Work Together and gives also love because of his physical disability. She did not, she believed he was talented, and she believed more in his talents than her own at first and she really thought you cannot lay fallow. You must lead. And is the first as governor of new york and thats really a tryout in essence for her role as first lady, and then with the depression hitting and everything almost smashed as far as what we know in terms of american life. She takes advantage of that vacuum where everything is up in the air and thats where she starts saying, this is what im going to do. Its always under the guise, but im simply a devoted wife helping my husband. But she didnt really start developing her own agenda into the second and a third term particularly on civil rights. When he was always more lyrical incenting this is what we can do what we cant do she always brought him back to principle. So while they continued as Political Partners to share the same values, he often abandoned them for the practicality, and she always was sort of sticking with him anymore sort of lofty way. Let me move on. I do have one more clip. Im going to ask you, krista thompson, to watch list even though you didnt recognize these first ladies. Both full Political Partners but the approach it differently in the way they describe it. These are from cspan interviews interviews. First is nancy reagan and the second Hillary Clinton. Lets watch. [inaudible] the little antennae went up when someone had their own agenda and not ronnies. He would always agree with me but i would tell him. [inaudible] when i worked on health care a lot of people thought i should be they give recommendations about legislation or shouldnt be involved in working on behalf of my husband, asking not to work on it. Because they thought that was somehow inappropriate, that if you exercise influence, do it behind the scenes where no one can see. I find that curious. To me, id like to know what goes on in front of the scenes because im very much the kind of person who believes that you should say what you mean and mean what you say and face the consequences, like anybody else who was involved in public life. Its faster to because there are so many ways to be political, right . And especially for a spouse to be political. We know that Hillary Clinton as first lady set up an office in the west wing which was like oh my goodness, you know clear indication that she wanted to be political not behind the scenes but in public. When she was working on health care she spoke to the business roundtable, and she was a public figure in pushing this policy and sought to engage people and work on it in front of the scenes. You know, nancy reagan, we can imagine, she was very frank about the wishes political behind the scenes but we can imagine the way that every first lady over dinner conversation or if you want to call it the the old dock or without is is able to express those views. Michelle obama has talked about what husband has talked about the ways in which shes influenced him a special on issues like samesex marriage and immigration, social policy, and they kind of the described her in some ways pricking his conscience on those things. You have to see first ladies as political figures in that way no matter if they choose to operate in the way that nancy reagan did or in the way that Hillary Clinton has. Nancy is kind of modest. She says i know when people have their own agenda. It usually works out. Yeah, donald regan got fired. So worked out not always for them. Shes kind of understating there. She was a very powerful force in this town. Ive never asked a president about it. Ive always meant to but the first lady is one of the few people in the world who calls that person by his given name. That has a power that maybe his brothers parents his Commanding Officer if he is in war but there are five or six people in the world who to call him mr. President , who call him by his name. The first leg always calls him by their name. It conveys the kind of intimacy there. This is a person as nancy said emphasis drove Hillary Clinton that person the president knows the first lady has their best interest. He has confidence their heart is in the right place. Thats their power. Were going to look at some first ladies other than bess truman who found themselves in the job either by marrying someone whose aspirations they were not quite sure of when they get married, or knew it but really never loved politics all that much. Then theres another kind of reluctant first lady those who got there and were shut out by the staff around them. We will start with one woman, pat nixon who had an interesting relationship with the presidency and her husbands quest for the presidency. This was her very my speaking engagement at the republican convention. Lets watch. This is the most wonderful welcome i have ever had. [cheers and applause] i listened to Jimmy Stewart introduction and i was so appreciative grateful. He certainly is right. Soundsummit [inaudible] i will remember it always. And thanks to the young people for this great welcome. [cheers and applause] so Patricia Nixon why did she end up in our reluctant or unhappy role . I think the reality of what was becoming modern politics, the media the money, the partisanship come the attacks, the questions of ballots you know stealing votes, everything she got disgusted with it. And i think she always felt she had been actually active and interested in politics before she married a nixon. She was a supporter of al smith who was a democrat, as a young woman. She met the roosevelts. And they did the first Congressional Campaign together. And her inheritance. And there was a breakin by the way in their headquarters where all the literature was taken. But i think over time she just really got disgusted with the way things were and this 1960 election really broker. They came so close and then he had, she said dont run, dont run, run. He asked her permission in 1962 to run for governor and she said yes. A loss that ended the famous story where she made them write down, she put in her wallet, a promise i will not run for politics again. And, of course, he broke it. That ambition with all of these men, we were talking about theres a certain insanity to wanting to be president. [laughter] so she wasnt there and she saw she knew the opportunity for eight years as a president s wife the opportunity she had come but when she did make recommendations like a very important one, while those tapes, like mrs. Johnson shes record on a lot of the tapes with nixon, was to equity held by him as private property. Legally they should be destroyed. And, of course, he didnt listen. Carl cannon then nixons staff shut her out as well, didnt they speak with yes. But she didnt mind. She was tired of politics before the white house even before she came to the white house. She had been a Vice President why. She thought they were done with it. Theres all kinds of personal reasons some women dont want this role. Bess truman, we showed that the letters clip of her breaking that bottle. That mustve been a hard bottle to break because she was a better athlete than harry truman was. When she was in grade school she was a very good third baseman she used to tell people. She could swing a bat but she had a secret she was keeping. Her father had committed suicide at a time when it was a statement. She took apart. Her mother, her mothers Mental Health never really recovered from that. She didnt even want to be when harry truman was president. She would bring her mother to the white house and to go back to independence, and she decided she had a more Important Role in life than being with the president , which is keeping her family together. I think we forget sometimes these are people and they have these burdens on them. And yet a very, very important after truman dropped the bomb, the first atomic bomb she came back from missouri. She advised him the night before he dropped the second on nagasaki, according to the memoirs to alonso field, with the white house, i mean, she was in on the big decision. Edna medford, id like you to ask you to look back in your period of history and would be the women that were in this unhappy or reluctant class that folks should know about . I think foremost would be jane pierce. She didnt want to be watcher has been involved in politics. She certainly didnt want to the role of first lady. She even its not even about being in the white house. She didnt want to be in politics at all. Her husband had promised her that he would get out of politics, and for a time there he had. She fainted when she learned that he had won his private partys nomination for the presidency. And shes coming to the white house with loss of a child again. So theres this woman in the white house who is suffering from depression because shes mourning the loss of a child. Shes having to deal with all of the duties of being a political wife, of being the first lady. And a husband who doesnt quite understand why she is so reluctant. She was a very unhappy first lady. I think more than any of the others she certainly we showed her the picture because this was the son she lost. They had lost their other two sons. This is the third. Just before they came to washington for the inauguration and he died in front of their eyes in a train accident. The president actually, the child was ejected from the train and the president would down and carried the child backing. Such a tragic story. How does a. Recover from that . And being in a place where she didnt want to be. You can fully sympathize with the situation. And being first lady to a president who is the country is in turmoil at this time. This is the crucial decade, and so her husband is experiencing all of these tensions between the north and south and she as a part of that. She is a witness to that and she doesnt want to be but she has no choice. We have many other first ladies come interesting first ladies in this category including Louisa Catherine adams, elizabeth monroe, ida mckinley, and others but to ask you you have to get the book because we are running out of time. Im going to move on. First ladies have taken advantage of their position. This fabulous opportunity they have to make change by adopting causes. How recent a phenomenon is that where winners in the white house, what is the cost going to be the first lady will adopt . It is expected they will announce and how much politics, or Political Considerations goes into that decision in this modernday . Quite a bit. As the president is going from a candidate to president and has a Transition Team and is building it, first ladies are also doing that. Michelle obama has talked about being back in the kitchen in chicago and thinking about planting a garden at the white house in developing this idea for how she would approach this topic of Healthy Eating and really, you know pushing back against childhood obesity, taking this on as a cause. I think its a cause she has really come to embody and personify. We know she is in d. C. Working out and taking cycling classes and she is with the children eating carrots and pulling up of vegetables. And also lets move which is what her campaign is called. Is a nonprofit attached to it. Lets move has brokered deals with walmart coming get healthier food in stores and with disney to pull some of the junk food ads off of childrens television. These are not inconsequential things. Because shes first lady at this is the role, it is wrapped up in also are doing pushups with Ellen Degeneres on daytime television and dancing at the easter egg roll. So you can really see the ways in which first ladys take on these issues. And for a first lady like Michelle Obama really wants to push the issue in a way that is sustained and that makes real difference, but that doesnt feel like the arches riding the law or it is just hard policy. She did also pass the change you know push the changes to School Lunches and that did go through Congress Early on. On. I want to show another piece of video and this demonstrates that this formal adoption of the cost is relatively recent phenomena. Sometimes it was thrust upon them by life circumstances. This is betty ford and shes talking about her breast cancer. Lets watch. In a few weeks i will complete my chemotherapy treatment, and that would be another milestone for me. Since that first year i have not talked much about the difference of my experience with cancer but at that time my mastectomy and a discu