Rick perlstein, in your third book,in that period from 1962 to 1976, you talk about being a dark time in our history. I am talking about global warming, look at the ebola crisis. Of course, the middle east is blowing up again. In america, the crisis of inequality, we kind of have a new normal of which 7 or 8 of unemployed it is ok, the skyrocketing of inequality, the bankers that seem to be able to get away with everything, but, the 1970s were really awful too. Here you are, 13 years ago when you were talking on this program. I want to see if your beliefs are the same today. I am a europeanstyle social democrat. I probably identify with the tradition which has given America Progressive income tax, education, some kind of old age insurance, and we have nothing to be ashamed of. I believe that we can take back the standard of american politics from conservatives. I would not change a word. In this book, you write about what era . The invisible bridge. It covers from 1962 through the Republican Convention in august of 1976. Your first book on goldwater went through what . 1959 through 1964. Your second book nixonland, starts with the watts riots and goes through nixons landside in 1972. What is a person with your personal views of politics doing spending all this time with conservatives in this country . That takes us back a ways. I started this project in 1997, and, i might have told you last time, let me know if i am repeating myself, i was fascinated with the 1960s when i was growing up. I went to the renaissance bookstore in wisconsin. It was full of used books and used magazines. That was my playground. I would pick up books about the black panthers, i would pick up books by the reverend john noble, a fundamentalist preacher who argued that the beatles were a communist plot. When i came to new york, i realized i wanted to become a journalist. I wanted to write a book. It was right around the time that Newt Gingrichs Republican Congress was taking the world by storm, Timothy Mcveigh blew up the Federal Building in oklahoma city, and i had also been fascinated with my fellow tribes of america tribes of america is a great book that studied the right wing populist movements. When i was a kid, i used to watch the fundamentalist preachers on sunday morning tv. When i was a young adult, i listened to rush limbaugh. These interests all came together, a story that had not been told, a lifelong interest, and my course was set. When you started off with this book, you had something that people only dream about. You had the cover of the New York Times book review. This time around, you got all positive reviews. You got a review from a man who is known as a conservative, max booth. This is his quote, this is the shit from richard nixon, he created the epa, he went to china, and it covers these areas. I think conservatives should reconsider conservative president s. President nixon was voted as a conservative, but max booth speaks to gerald ford governing. He was in the middle of negotiations with the soviet union. We can get into this later, that what Ronald Reagan was able to exploit was the rhetoric of campaigning versus the rhetoric of governing. Why the conservative movement did not buy what was what ford was up to is the real question. You can tell me more favorable reviews. The Washington Post wrote this, upon which my work is all parasitic. He does not claim any particular revelations. I think that is unfair. I think a lot of people who are supportive of my work make that claim. In my first chapter i talk about the return of the p. O. W. s, and is completely original. I watched every news report on the return of the p. O. W. s. I crafted a chapter that took six months, and it was boswell well researched as any scholarly monograph. I listened to every Ronald Reagan radio broadcast from 1975. I did a ton of research at the national archives. I did a ton of original research in the newspapers. Im talking about a shifting consciousness. The idea that i am recycling journalism of the time, i do not think it really stands the test of scrutiny. But i should not be ungrateful for the review. Part of me that read that thinks that from a lot of other peoples writings, by the New York Times and others, have you been sued . I have been threatened by a lawsuit by a fellow named greg shirley. He wants all of the copies of the books, i do not know where they are now, destroyed. How long did you know the times was going to do the story . I received a letter from this fellows lawyer, maybe a week before my book came out. My reaction was dismay, because this man is a pretty good historian. My original thought was once i get the book destroyed, i want his book read. It is a good book that relies on original interviews with lots of the participants, and all of the other historians are a pretty collegial bunch. When you work on a book and you come up with an argument or an idea, as craig did with the 1976 of the president ial campaign, universally, every other historian that i have come across is flattered. I cite him 125 times in the book. The thought that he had thought that i had done wrong by him was sad. I felt bad. I did not mean to show disrespect. Let me show this on the screen. This is from your source notes. They are not only on the internet, but they are linkable. As you can see on the blue, you can click on the blue, it is a hyperlink. I try to make it as transparent as possible. So you go to rickperlstein. Net. Why did you do it this way instead of putting it in the book . When i did the first two books, i was frustrated that people did not seem to read the notes. I thought we would have a Lively Exchange about the methods being used. I had complaints, people felt they were left out, but there was one exception, people were very fascinated that i had found a journalistic reference in 1964 to Barry Goldwater that he should stand against the civil rights act. That is the only thing i heard. I thought, what if i could make these notes so much more accessible, make my work accessible, and turn them in to a project where history teachers can show how historians work, every man his own historian, right . Show people what the resources are available to them, on google newspapers, on google books, some of the most important memos are online. The university of Santa Barbara has put every single president ial speech online. Youtube videos where you can watch Ronald Reagan give his speech to the 1976 convention. Videos of john dean testifying to the committee, what if i could do that and make it a very participatory process . Show people how history gets made, show them the guts. I was incredibly exciting for that was incredibly exciting for me. Because the book was so long, that meant that i could avoid a book thate weighed 150 lbs. By the end of the notes. Everyone has a computer in their pocket these days. Everyone has an iphone. Most people. If you dont, you can always print out the notes. Everyone has ipad. I thought about people do audio books now. Audio books you dont have any footnotes. But with this, you can kind of follow along. Thats what notes are for. You explain where your work comes from, and you give the reader a chance to verify your work. You get other scholars a chance to test your theories and build their own. So i am incredibly proud of the innovation, and we will see what people think. Innovators take risk. I am willing to take the lumps. Before the 1973 to 1976, you talk about a speech. You are talking about Ronald Reagans speech. There was a video hookup by Ronald Reagan on behalf of Barry Goldwaters president ial campaign. How important was the speech . It was full of ironies. People do not think it would be effective, but also people thought that Barry Goldwater was critical of social security. It went on, and it was a sensation. He raised so much money that the campaign had a surplus. He did not have enough both but they had enough money. Afterwards, the man at the post, said it was the most effective political speech since William Jennings bryant eva cross of gold speech. Lets watch just a little bit of this. [video clip] and this idea that the government has no other power is still the newest and most unique idea with all of mans ideas relations to man. Whether we believe in our capacity to selfgovernment or whether we believe in revolution, in a far distant capital can plan our lives better than we can plan ourselves, frequently you are told that you must choose between left or right, what but there is only up or down. The ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order. Regardless of their sincerity, and their humanitarian motive, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course. What did you think here . I thought that those who would trade our freedom for security, i thought of how many people are willing to trade freedom for security it comes to 9 11. I hear lots of ironies. I love that line. There is no left or right, only up or down. But the dominant impression is what and if active communicator he is. There is nothing original about the insight. One of our other clips, if we have time, does not show a teleprompter. And he was looking down on the page, and he had given that speech dozens, if not hundreds, of times before. Reagan had a very upanddown checkered career in the entertainment history. This was one of the down periods. He had an amazing job hosting at General Electric theater. Or politicalob reasons, because he was aggressively attacking the at a timeministration when General Electric was facing off for pricefixing. He lost his job, and he got a much less distinguished job as a host for a television show. When Ronald Reagan was down and out when they came to his entertainment career, he tended to reach for politics. That is when he became most active in politics. Now he is conservative, he used to be a liberal. He spent almost all of his time in 1962, 1963, and 1964 about the evils of federal government control. He polished that speech to a high sheen. I am sure he could have done it in his sleep. How much which chapter did you spend the most time on . Definitely the first one. About the prisoners of war. Each subsequent chapter takes less time. It you are building a foundation the first chapter is a foundation of the house. I had to struggle to express the foundational idea of the book, which was this kind of debate over the meaning of patriotism, over the right or wrong patriotism and the kind of patriotism that people began to develop after the vietnam war. You were saying a true patriot, is he or she one who criticizes their country at war . It took a good six months. Chapter 17 is called star. Yes a very long chapter. How did you do it . A very important part of that chapter, well of course, there are lots of people who have written about Reagans Hollywood career, there are also people who have written about the Hollywood Star system and how it works, but i think the richest source was an archive at the university of california, los angeles, the papers of ann edwards. She wrote a very fantastic book called early reagan. She did a great civic act of leaving her papers at ucla. I was able to read every single fan Magazine Article about reagan. I was able to read reviews of all of his movies. I was able to read a nancy reagan studio questionnaire which she would answer questions about what she would do if she was not an actress, all kinds of amazing stuff. There was the copy of a hotel registry where jack reagan had signed his name. He was a very dashing figure in the world, even with his signature. Finally watching things like Ronald Reagan movies. I saw dozens of episodes of General Electric theater. Of course, a lot of what you are writing about when you are writing about an actor is his performances. It is a very long chapter, there is also a chapter about during there is also his involvement with the studio strike of the 1940s. There was a long house hearing on that strike. All kinds of stuff. How much of a democrat was he then . Dyed in the wool. He called himself a bleeding heart hopeless liberal. You can go on youtube and watch an astonishing speech he gave on the radio in 1948 for the democratic ticket, specifically praising hubert humphrey, also praising truman, and what is fascinating about that speech is that it is so recognizably Ronald Reagan. His ability to tell an exemplary story, in this case it is the story of a guy who had to go back to work because inflation was eating up all of his savings, and just like Ronald Reagan, he gives the perfect punchline the guy is 90 years old. The only difference is that the good guys and the bad guys are exactly reversed. He is not blaming the stuff on the government, but on big operations. We have outtakes, and we found this on youtube, it is from old movies. And it is a Ronald Reagan you dont see very often. It is a minute or so. Lets run this. [video clip] all right, now, take a deep breath i will try not to hurt. Now try to get the goddamned dress off. Did you find out that you are free tonight . That is the wrong goddamned line, isnt it . It has been two years since i have been in new york. How does it look to you . You are looking blooming. Oh i am fine. Have you been getting any lately . Have you been getting any lately . Do you mean a overtime . [laughter] i had another one of those goddamned fits. It must be difficult for a man goddamn knowledge. Mary oh no. You turn right around and leave. Oh, but mary. You get out and counted 20. God damn. You know, that makes me think of the nixon tapes, and the scandal that came out. The president swore. The other thing is, it reminds me of a story that the late robert novak told in his memoirs where he realized in the summer of 1975 when reagan was running for president , he took a long plane trip with them. It was delayed because of weather. Maybe because reagan was so reagan hated flying, and he got over his fear of and novak said he would tell all of these dialect stories. He said that reagan told him that he had tried to bed every starlet in hollywood in between his marriages. It is humanizing. Right . And what kind of an actor was he . How many of his movies did you watch . May be six or seven or eight. They are hard to get a hold of. Because, a lot of them were garbage in teen knew it. He would apologize for them. A couple of good ones, and he was starting to build up a head of steam as an actor. He came to hollywood in 1937, and he debuted with a bang. His first picture was love is on the air, he played a radio broadcaster, and then he went downhill almost immediately. And then he had a breakthrough role with knut rotney, all american, that is the one where he says win one for the gipper. He had another breakthrough role in the one where he said where is the rest of me . His father pulled some strings to make sure that he stayed stateside. Pulled someer strings, to make sure he stayed stateside. He made some films at a place that actors called fort wacky, but then the taste for actors changed, there was a taste for van johnson, who was much more of a midcentury existentialist who was a wiry character. Here is some video from one of those training film that he made, this is at the reagan library. All right, one at a time. Danny is ok, hell go over. Stay steady. Thats my shot. Hang tight. [bomb sound] yeah, he comes back, and his career is deadsville. He was in some real turkeys. He could not get the kind of jobs he wanted. He begged jeff warner to put western, and he would not do it, and he was memorialized in a book about the 100 worst movies of all time, he starred alongside Shirley Temple in her first adult role. He had to kiss Shirley Temple, and they cut the kiss because people booed during the screening. Reagan slumped in his seat and walked out. Every time when his career would go down, he would turn to politics. He started starting from behind the podium in stead. This is from your book on page 357, the fact that he is a leader of all of these groups and a narrator of operation terror,explain why two fbi agents showed up to reagans doorstep one day. Did you listen to those, that 13 part series . I wonder if it is available. I do not know. But there is a wonderful book , about by a former sever franciscosan newspaper writer called subversive, and it is about j edgar hoover, Ronald Reagan, and the fbi files. It is kind of like a triple biography of these three people. He reviewed the fbi files and he worked very closely with the fbi during that. So, in his book, i dont know how many pages, you probably remember how many pages, 800 pages, what were you trying to accomplish, and is there a next one . Yes. I think what i was trying to accomplish as i researched this. , the overarching story that has not been told, the big story, is the shift of american policy politics from 1973 through 1976. It turned out to be this dark, dark, dark time. That we were First Talking abou talking about was when there first was an energy shortage, that is something that made people think about america and how we could solve big problems. How we could call our leaders to account. How we could create a foreignpolicy that wasnt being involved as foreign policeman, and there was a struggle at the same time in American Life where people did not want to do that hard, civic work of solving the problems are and Ronald Reagan rode on that wave, and began telling people that they did not need to worry about these problems, that watergate wasnt a problem, that the burglars were not criminals at heart, and that the Energy Crisis was trumped up, and thats by the time of the bicentennial, there is a more grownup version of patriotism. We are going to jump just so we can get to when Ronald Reagan ran in 1976. Before that, here is something you never see in this country, and that is a president testifying before congress, and this is gerald ford after the pardon in 1974. Yes. [video clip] i wonder if anybody had brought to your attention that the constitution specifically states that even though somebody is impeached, that person shall nonetheless be liable for punishment according to law. I was fully cognizant of the fact that the president upon resignation was accountable for any criminal charges. But i would like to say that the reason i gave the pardon was not as to mr. Nixon himself, i repeat, and i repeat with emphasis, that the point of the pardon was to try and get the united states, the congress, the president , and the American People focused on the Serious Problems that we have both at home and abroad. That is riveting stuff. That is so symbolic of the. That i am writing about. It is symbolic of this poor guy, gerald ford, and he has terrible luck. This is the guy who is the best president of any athlete we have ever had, and somehow he is depicted on television by chevy chase as a continual bumbler because of a couple of trips that he did. He accepts a subpoena to talk about the pardon. Yet he looks so squirrelly, and instead of being celebrated for his openness, nobody trusts him during the public has no faith in their institution trust him. The public has no faith in their institution. You said some strong things about gerald ford in there. What did you think of him . I think he was an honorable man doing the best he could in almost an impossible situation. He promised something that he could not deliver. What he promised was an end to division. When he gave that famous speech about how our Long National nightmare was over, it was trumpeted by the pundits as almost utopian. Watergate is over, we can turn a corner. But faced with the burdens of governance, he looked just as squirrelly and snakey as the last guy. In the bicentennial, in 1976, he is ending his first term and entering the general election against jimmy carter, he wrote in his diary after this wonderful patriotic celebration about people being skeptical, and he says well jerry, i think we have healed america. It was a glib thought that you could just heal america. There is that promised that there is no red america and there is no blue america that barack obama made. It is a big theme in my book. How old were you in 1974 . I tell a joke in my book where i mention that something was debated in kindergarten classrooms all across the country and it was debunked after the nixon administration, that i am not referring to the pardon, i am referring to people trying to jump over the snake river canyon. In my kindergarten class, we were debating whether evil knievel was a skunk who chickened out or whether he was a hero. It was a very 1970s debate. There are a lot of historians who are sitting where you are i dont think there a lot of guys writing about the revolution radio and television provided you with an opportunity. How much of that did you do . It is such an amazing opportunity as a historian. I went to the archives in nashville and it is such an amazing thing, and they basically have every network news broadcast of all three networks fully searchable am a and it is basically like youtube in heaven for historians. You went there for a week. I went there for a week, and for my next book i hope to go there for a month. But you cant watch from your home. There are copyright domains. I think it is a shame, it is our patrimony. But when you watch tv broadcast from 1974, you are doing the same thing historically that people were doing in 1974. It allows you this unmediated access to the past that just does not come from reading an Old Newspaper or reading an old document. To try and translate that into historical narrative is a great thing. That is basically how people inexperienced life in 1974. You can look at lots of documents and lots of papers from 1974, but youre not getting an idea of what life was like. So when you send people to your website, you cant see all of these things. You have to go to vanderbilt. Yes. Wherever i could, i would use youtube clips. Where did you write this book . Where do you live . Cafes in chicago. I like to be around people. I have never worked in a newsroom, but i like that clutter and action did people know you are writing a book . Yeah. There was a cafe that i wrote at where he became my office. Three or four of us would show up there every day and talk about our work. One guy was doing a community newsletter. Another guy was doing journalism, another guy was computer programming. It was our own little office. Where would you travel to . Santa barbara, the Ronald Reagan ranch center, it holds letters between him and his Fan Club President , and i read the papers is from reagans campaign managers, and his Radio Broadcasts through and i went to the vanderbilt, ucla, but a lot of it, like i said, was online. You can go on through rickperlstein. Net, and you can read through every newspaper as a kid. I am not sure of the link but you can find it there. But you can find anything. I have access to those libraries as well, and i can look at microfilm, and i consult books. All that sort of thing. When did you start the writing part of this . I got the contract for the book in october of 2008, maybe it was november, and i was doing a solid two or three years of research before i started putting words on paper. Chapters 32, the end question mark. What happens at the end . The New York Times says that reagan is too old to run for president. They imply that you will not have Ronald Reagan to kick around anymore. Elizabeth drew said the same thing. She pointed out to me quite generously that she actually said that a couple weeks before that speech, but then changed her mind. I want you to describe it, but we are going to show several pieces of video here. The first one is when gerald ford is calling Ronald Reagan to the podium. This is kansas city in 1976. At this stage, what has happened . Ronald reagan has made this underdog challenge to gerald ford. The outcome was not predetermined. No one knew who was going to win this convention. It was quite possible the Ronald Reagan would have run away with an upset, and that he would have lost to jimmy carter and history wouldve turned out differently. But basically he his people have done a good enough job coming close that they when certain concessions. They have a very conservative platform, bob dole is chosen as a running mate, and after gerald ford gives his acceptance speech, he beckons to the rafters, poor Ronald Reagan is up in the nosebleed seats, and the people who controlled the convention did not want him too close to the cameras, and he tells him, why dont you come give a speech . It wasnt accidental . The myth says that thats this speech was completely spontaneous and that he did not want to give it. There was a wonderful book that told the behind the scene story of the 1976 campaign by a guy who is still active in washington, victor gold, a real character as i understand. He used to work for spiro agnew. He used to work first zero for spiro agnew and Barry Goldwater. He had detailed reportings of all of the conversations that would make it look like Ronald Reagan would give a spontaneous speech, it was actually giving a speech that was choreographed right now and to the idea that he pretended that he did not want to give a speech. Lets take a look at the first part where he calls them to the stage. He asked Ronald Reagan to come down and join him. He gestured to them. He waved to him. He is shouting into the microphone. Would you come down and bring nancy, he said. Come on down. That is John Chancellor and david brickley, but what is david brinkley. What is going on right here . This is the part where Ronald Reagan seems reluctant. And he finally wins the crowds accolades, and the crowd was so loud when he came up, and then he says ok im going to do it. Supposedly he said to one of his aides, i dont even know what im going to say. And then he steps into the batters box. And then he hits one of the great grand slams in american politics. Bob dole had a terrible time during the convention because the two sides were so angry at each other, at one point, Nelson Rockefeller ripped one of the Campaign Signs at half, and then one of the Campaign People ripped out a phone. One of the Ronald Reagan people ripped out the phone from the delegation. It was unbelievably chaotic. Next up, will we will go to gerald ford introducing. And we will go to Ronald Reagan speaking at that convention. [video clip] we are all a part of this great republican family that will give the leadership to the American People to win on november 2. I would be honored on your behalf to ask my good friend, governor reagan, to say a few words. [applause] he obviously did not have a teleprompter again. Ronald reagan was an amazing speaker. He had an amazing gift. During the goldwater campaign, people were amazed that he could give a halfhour speech and stop with an internal clock inside his head. He could deliver what would deliver the most emotional energy. My distinguished guests here and you ladies and gentlemen. All of those millions of democrats and independents who i know are looking for a cause around which to rally and which i believe we can give them. [applause] the confidence in the face of a party that really seems on the ropes, this is a time when 80 of americans are identifying themselves as root 18 are identifying as republicans. If you continue to watch this, basically the people in the audience look like they are at a religious revival. People are crying, they are holding hands, their swaying, gerald ford gave a good speech, but Ronald Reagan gave a great speech. One of the people at my speaking agency said he read an account of the speech in my book, he said that he cried. This ability of Ronald Reagan to elicit emotion from people who do not see it coming is one of his most astonishing political guests. There are cynics who say that a Party Platform is something that people dont bother to read and does not amount to much. But it is different this time than it has ever been before. I believe the Republican Party has a platform that is a bold platform with bold colors and no pastel shades. [applause] we have just heard a call to arms based on a platform. A call to us to really be successful in communicating and revealed to the American People the difference between this platform and the platform of the opposing party which is nothing but a revamped and reissued at a running of a latelate show that we have been hearing from them for the last years. [applause] what are you hearing . He is a clarion victory. When he talks about a platform he is declaring victory. When he talks about a platform, he talks about a platform that his people can control. And he said that this is a platform of no pale pastels, it is gendered language that would not be acceptable today, hes referring to a speech from 1975 conservative action conference that mentions striking colors. It is him saying to his supporters that you think ford one, but we have really won the future. We are going to win the war, even if ford has won the battle. The other thing here is him reaching out to democrats, and we are familiar with the phrase reagan democrats, and the idea that the white workingclass voters who were alienated by the Civil Rights Movement and the feminist movement could be pulled into the republican tent was another one of his geniuses. The fact that he seized this moment in which he could strike and new vision for the Republican Party of the future, really shows the American Political Movement becoming Ronald Reagan. As you know, you ended that chapter, and im going to go back and read it again, not the Elizabeth Drew part you cut that out. Before that speech, it was the end of his political career. At 65 years of age, the New York Times noted that he was too old to consider seriously another run for president. I love getting up on those pundits further bad predictions. Do you still not like the pundits further bad predictions that they make . This was when the pundits at the tea party was dead right before eric cantor lost his seat. Conservative thinking and conservative ideas are deeply rooted. We fought a war in the 1860s over this. Americans were slaughtering each other. We always want to believe in this consensus in america, the idea that the lion can lay down with the lamb, and that we can get together and make policy together, but we have to accept that within the bounds of civility, and feet people following the rules of political debate and political engagement, that we should be perfectly comfortable with the conflicts that underlie our political culture. What years are you going to write about in the next volume . It is going to go from 1977 through inauguration. The drama that went on through the operation with the various can through the inauguration with the various conservative factions was fascinating. Why is this going to be your last volume . That is what i intended. I want to move on to other adventures. You got a stop somewhere. I research these two volumes together, and i have been reading a lot of wonderful books from a number of historians. I am reading about the Carter Administration and jimmy carters diaries. And i am planning my trip back to vanderbilt to listen to more of those recordings. In your preface, you devote some time to a subject that we have talked about often here on this network, and is and that is, is this the greatest country in the world . Ha ha, yeah yeah. You quoted cheney, how he mentioned that. You go on with this. What is more interesting is that the democrats say it to. Samantha power, she is obamas u. S. Ambassador, she had to tell marco rubio that we are the greatest country in the world and that we have nothing to apologize for. So is it . I willing to say that we are the greatest country in the world. But we could do better. We do not have the lowest in for mortality in the world. We have enormous inequality. Our hubris gets into trouble again and again and again. I am more interested in not the question of whether we are the greatest country in the world, but if we are adult enough to not have to say are we the greatest country in the world . Why does everybody in politics say it all the time . Because of Ronald Reagan. He was so successful in ruling out any critical examination about the american prospect. When barack obama, after winning his election, said, whether he was going to call the Bush Administration into account for what was probably criminal, he said we do not look back in america, we look forward. I think that is a real danger to our civic life. You talk about whether Ronald Reagan was the real deal or whether he was a phony. Even as early as his high school and college careers, it was equally divided between people who believed he was a hero and people who believed he was a phony. What you think . It is an interesting question. You get a give credit to the guy that was the first to eliminate an entire class of nuclear weapons. A guy who was completely able to transform a political culture in ways i just described. The fascinating things are the most conservative things that he did, like supplyside economics, creating enormous deficits and miring using in a terrible recession, were his most conservative views. So we could really reexamine the reagan administration. Again, this book is called the invisible bridge. Where did you get the picture . Was it your idea . I was very fortunate to get this picture. I found this picture in a life magazine Time Magazine life magazine, i think, with the 100th anniversary of reagans birth. I was astonished that i had never seen it before, it we knew compare that to gerald ford, was always supposedly been into things and falling down stairs, you can see why we are speaking about the age of reagan is dead instead of the age of ford. Rick perlstein, with his third volume, the invisible bridge. It is such an honor. For free transcripts, or to give measure comments about this www. Cspan. Org. Us at we are excited to announce it is launched week for the student cam contest. Rises will be rewarded to middle and High School Contest winners. The theme is the three branches and you. We would like you to tell a story that demos trade how a he, a law, or an action by the branches of the federal you orent have affected your community. Students may work alone or in groups of up to three. Contestants are asked