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Campaign trail. >> no. he's a better campaigner. but some day when you have the collected speeches of barack obama you're going to look at the power of his nobel speech or cairo speech and may look better in this regard. i still think he's a better speech giver than most presidents. better than nixon or linden johnson or jimmy carter. >> that's not a high standard. >> michael, i was going to say -- a low bar. >> stop. >> [ inaudible ]. >> i think he's in a middle range of using oratory and at times can deliver a lhell of a speech. >> he can. for a guy so inspiring, seems to be other times wher...

Protected. he sold that with the help of all people, herbert hoover on the recovery and dwight eisenhower on nato, that if he's the guy in charge people trusted, that would work. an idea of collective security that was not something that americans were very keen on after five years of war. >> and michael, you talk about a guy that got it from both sides. harry truman was loathed by progressives from being so tough on stalin and the soviets that he was provoking a cold war. republicans loathed him as well. he had nowhere to go and yet he was making the right calls. >> no, that's exactly right. ...

Calling you mr. president and hanging on every word you say and telling you what you want to hear and all of the weird bubble stuff that goes on when you become president if there is one person that can tell you you need to pull your socks up and eat your broccoli that person becomes enormously important keeping you grounded and not having the job make you crazy because it is a job that will make you crazy. >> michael duffy, astonishing women. we spend all the time talking about the men but the women when you line them up each one is amazing and accomplished and all into something different an...

And i think that's a feature of how they approach it. the -- i think most of us would really expect they go very big when they decide to mess with the levers on the dashboard. >> michael, bill clinton actually bet big, but his was more of a negative bet. he didn't want to do it. >> yep. >> in 1992, he had survived the scandals of new hampshire, the struggles of new hampshire, promising a middle-class tax cut and then gets into office and, of course the famous moment where greenspan is telling him, yes, mr. president, the bonds traders are going to determine your presidency. he had to turn on t...

The best traits of certain presidents in our history to manufacture the ideal one. still with us, rice university professor and best-selling author douglas brinkley, deputy editor of "time" magazine, nancy gibbs and "time's" executive editor michael duffy and in new york nbc news presidential historian michael beshloff. what's it take to pass a presidential agenda and deal with congress effectively? we need to talk about our present situation. >> we could talk about our present situation but a president we haven't spoken much about lbj. he was just the best at this, was he not? here's a guy, n...