Transcripts For CSPAN2 20170211

The industrial sector, they are going to have to go through the knowledge economy, which means theyve got to be successful in school. And thats not happening in an awful lot of enclaves. Please join me in thanking kay. [applause] thank you. This booktv on cspan2. Television for serious red readers. This has a place just pretty soon after the assassination of kennedy, and bob told us about the things that need to be done, left hanging, decisions about railroad, featherbedding, about wage price guidelines, political deadlines like the state of the Union Address and the budget for the next year, never find the election of the next year and whether or not johnson would receive the Democratic Party nomination. Time was running short. And then this is bob goes on to say this is passage that i think is really sort of representative and wonderful of something, but. Tangled with and complicating the time factor and every a factor associated with the transition looming over every aspect of johnsons ascension to the presidency, was, one, that made that ascension uniquely difficult. A complication that wasnt out of the new age but seemed, rather, as if it were out of an age long past, complication that required of shakespeare. The president , the king was dead, murdered, but the king had a brother, a brother who hated the new king. The dead kings men, the kennedy men, the camelot men, made up inspires shakespearean factionon due do the faction and the brother these were not the crucial days because of the kings faction and the kings brother decided to contest Lyndon Johnsons light to the nomination this, crucial date would be the primary on march 10th, less than four months off. Unprecedented shock and grief and anxiety, unprecedented danger to american, human rights, unpress debbed tomorrow pressure on problems with staff and cabinet made uniquely difficult by the brother factor. Even trumans transition problem was easier than johnsons situation which was extreme. The whole use of shakespeare. Takes a shakespeare, not a james reston, and then the kind of following through with the whole king and the brothers king, and do you in a sense make it like a shakespearean drama. Which i think sets is not like, well, then he did this and then did that and so forth. You step back from the narrative, from the story, and almost tells another story. Or tells a way to understand the story. Guest yes. Well, thats yeah. You picked out a you said it. I said it for myself. Those who read the book know that Lyndon Johnson and Bobby Kennedy hated each other. When jack kennedy offered him the vicepresidency, the next day Bobby Kennedy came down the stairs in the hotel in los angeles three times to try to get Lyndon Johnson to drop off the ticket. It was the worst onon sonwide to say that whats worst day of my life and ill hate him forever, and Bobby Kennedy hated Lyndon Johnson. Im researching this and saying this is henry iv, these when someone comes to write the history of the United States in 500 years like when were writing concern reading shakespeare, this is shakespeare. Its the president has been murdered and the president has a brother and the brother hates the new king. What is going to happen . Of course, then you can put a lot of things like, two divers the assassination, as those who have read the book know, those who havent read it the test is tuesday two days after the assassination, Arthur Schlesinger convenes a dinner with kennedy men. The idea is to deny Lyndon Johnson the nomination in 1964 and make Bobby Kennedy the nominee. And for the rest of johnsons presidency, Bobby Kennedy is this looming figure of two men who truly hate each other. Thats you hate to use the word like hate because its so strong but that word is correct. You can watch this and other programs online at booktv. Org. Alec ross, why do you open your new book, trophies the future with a story about vomit . Guest the first sentence of the book is. It its 3 00 the morning and im mopping up whiskey smelling puke after a concert in west virginia. Not a typical beginning of a book about the future. Start the book that way because i want to be clear that the perspective i give is from somebody who grew up in west