Analyst we think you should, even if your steadidoctor has a different opinion. Rote cent about this what is your thought. I dont like it. Full disclosure ive been trying to convince Charles Krauthammer to sit for an interview for sometime. Carry on the hill. Not one where he simply shares his thoughts, on the news of the day. I suspect, there is going to be another twist here. One where he pulled back the curtain reveals beyond the extraordina thicker the life of an intensely pruitt man. When i say i dont like it i am not averse not going to pretend doesnt i go it but life it is not something that is very interesting to me. More disclosure, choorls Krauthammer A Cleland friend agreed to cooperate on a fox news reporting profile of reluctantly as part of the Publicity Campaign for yes, a new book. Things that matter. Is not a confessional memoir or kissandtell, it is a collection of newspaper and magazine pieces from the Pulitzer Prize winning columnist or maybe more than that. Are you decodeing my book. Right now. Like entirely about me but all written high grific not quite as hieroglyphics, titled personal and in there the first column, is really an moving piece about your bro. Morsel krauthammer died of cancer 59 charles writes this he taught me most everything i ever learned about every sport i ever played. He taught me how to throw a football, hit a backhand, grip a 9 iron field a grounder, dock a sailboat in the wind and how we play. Paradise, tell me about that. It was a childhood my brother and i inseparable he was four years older a Priceless Gift insists i be included i got used to being around big pois take slings regard oz how you touvyou tough my parents from utopia he was born in briz a long story American Made me american. Who so long story short his mother from belgian his father was a Real Estate Developer from what is a province of ukraine left wl stworld europe met in half ana moved to rio, new york city where charles was born in, 1950. When he was 5, the caught hammers moved to montreal, spent summers at the Family Cottage in long beach new york charles recalls spending every day, with his bro on the field, on the court, or in the water. I dont think i owned a shirt till i was 21 all the pictures the family moving, my fath father, outside in the sun i read on the beech that is where i got knowledge was reading. Of course, there was reading, and studying, krauthammer spoke nine languages carried his sons stellar second grade report card around in his coat pocket. His motto for us was i want you to know everything i want you to learn everything, you dont have to do everything but you got to know everything, he thought that was part of life. That life did not include a tv, says the cable news pundit. My father wouldnt allow it once a week, sunday night we would go to the neighbors to watch Ed Sullivan Show one concession. Inspired by uncles, doctors, Marcel Krauthammer went to medical school, assumed charles would follow. But as a 19yearold senior, at mcgill the renowned canadian university, he was bitten by a different bug, political journalism. The editorship on paper was embroiled a student council, i had been elected to student counsel, the paper was becoming unreadable run by marxists maoists, looked like it came out of the soviet union you couldnt read it we engineered a coup she looked around decided, going to be me. So i said wait, i never worked in a paper detail. An economics major he levied thinking writing about all things political. He applied to medical school to please his family, and got accepted to harvard but he got into oxford as well to study political theory a life of science or letters . The brilliant graduate had envenal options had not figured out what mattered most to him so he split the difference. He put off harvard enrolled at oh, ford while studying history great political philosophers met a student brilliant a clerk to the chief justice of her home state supreme court. But so much would change in the three years, between when they met and married. Beginning with his sudden decision to leave england. I had he pepifany i began to feel that i was sort of spinning out into a universe that had nothing to do with real world i called the register at Harvard Medical School said i would like to come in the class, and i remember her saying one guy dropped out we have a you are here monday it is yours so i grand a toothbrush, and a i didnt pack, i got on plane i left and that is where i decided to become a doctor when i woke up in boston, next day, i thought to myself, oh, my god, what have i done. But there was no going back. Why did you choose psychiatristry. I find looking for something halfway between the reality of medicine, and the elegance if you like of philosophy so psychiatrist the obvious thing intention from first dayis luck because it was probably easily branch once i was hurt. Hurt that doesnt begin to describe it. When did you realize the accident was life altering . The second it happened. After the break. Snapshot in shows a strapping 61 Charles Krauthammer standing on the beach. The confident smile of a young man on his way to making it, smart, athletic handsome driven the future all his. Spring break if is year of Million School i went with a bunch of friends, to bermud avenue, that actually is the last picture of me taken standing, of course, i didnt know at the time. I was coming out of the water carrying my sand alz, i saw one of my friends with a camera i got to the top i stood for a picture thought nothing of it until i discovered years later lying in at a box remembering it, of course it will was a fateful picture. What would happen back at harvard that summer. You were 22 years old. Tell me about that atat a day. We went out it was the end of first year medical school, we are doing the neurology, studying spinal cord of all things, my classmate and i decide to skip the morning session, beautiful july day, we are going we played tennis instead. After the game, they headed back to class for the afternoon session. But along the way, they stop at a pool on campus. Set down books pull off sneakers. Very sweaty very hot we go for a swim a few divers i hit a my head on the bm of the poo will. A freak accident. Says krauthammer. Not even a cut it hit at the angle where all the force was to one spot, that vertebra, severed the spinal cord. When did you realize that the accident was life altering . The second it happened. You knew. I knew exactly what happened, i knew why i wasnt able to move i knew what that meant. The bottom of the pool. I wasnt getting out. I knew. Yes. He was paralyzed unable to move his arms or legs high friend thought he was clowning around hesitate taited before diving to save them i. Was there a moment that you thought this is the end . Well, when i knew what happened and i knew i was at the bottom of the pool i knew i wouldnt be able to swim i was sure. Do you think back to that day often . Not really, it doesnt kind of has a distance from it. I see it like as if it happened in a film. And interestingly enough a near death experience there was no panic there was no great emotion i did not feel light my life did not flash before me, you sort of get to a place where you are ready, and then you suddenly brought back to the world. No cosmic revelation rushed hot hospital krauthammer notes what he left behind. Two books on the side of the pool when they picked up, my effects, one was anatomy of the anatomy of the spinal cord. I didnt know what was coming but fit very well. Coming up, krauthammers feat lay in the balance. What he did next astowned his professors and classmates. I knew that would be fatal it was not a question. They skipped class as fateful dive a terrible injury. And there Charles Krauthammer lay in a hospital bed paralyzed nothing to do but think. I made one promise to myself on day one, i was not going to allow it to alter my life. Except in ways which are sort of to having do with gravity i am not going to defy gravity and i am not going to walk i am not going to water ski again that is fine so that you know. But on the big things in life, direction of my life, what i was going to do, that wouldnt change at all. Krauthammer says he never entertained the notion one day whether through his efforts or even medical miracle he would regain full use of his arms and legs. He resigned himself to the cold reality that wherever went in life would he go in wheelchair. Was that hard . I think the physical part was hard, getting not to do again i have a great capacity for erasing memory seems very short it was long but seemed very short. His teachers classmates thought he was rushing his decision to resume his studies immediately. You never thought about taking a year off or taking a couple years off. No. I knew that would be fatal. It was not a question. You just couldnt survive . Yeah, i mean life would be over, early for life to be over. While nobody heard of someone with krauthammers injury, standing up to rigors of aed me School Curriculum krauthamm krauthammk convinceed harvard to let him try resumed classes in hot benefited. I was laying on back couldnt move professors would come in, repeat their lectures, project on ceiling i asked hyto let me stay you read lying on back. A cardiac resident hooked up a plexiglas appellate he hung from posters of the bed thank you nurses would put a book face down. Now you dont want to call them every three minute 1 2 to turn the page so i put two books up at one, so they would only come half the time. You got to remember where you were, a bit of a challenge keeps you busy there wasnt a lot he also to do. Such for his of wilk graduated on time, in 1975, and near the top of his class. Along the way he got the empirical, ttoo and married. He began three yeesh refreshes at Massachusetts General Hospital there were indications from the beginning charles psychiatry might not be perfect fit. You are supposed to do to weekly theory session. You did not want to go. 12 of us. And there was a Group Therapy once a week. And i didnt go, i was called into the Chiefs Office after about seven weeks nonpatterns he said why arent you going to therapy i said sir i came here to give therapy not receive it he said you are in denial. I said, of course i am in denial. Ment denial is greatest of all mechanisms. I could be a professor of denial im an expert at i was going on he wasnt very amused. Gave an ultimatum go to Group Therapy or leave. I went to next 21 weeks of sessions whatever it was i didnt say a word whatever people would notice that they say why easternmost yr arent y i said i am in denial not a big therapy guy you didnt want somebody looking in your head. Yes i dont like to talk about myself except with you i guess. I am not a feeley guy, that is probably why, i quit psychiatry if you are not in to feelings emotions and, all the story you ought to be zmog else. In 1978 krauthammer took a government job in washington. At what would become the nat to answer you of Mental Health it wasnt was he really wanted but it put him in the right neighborhood. I thought once i am in washington is that not where they do politics one thing will lead to another. His folks worried about their son tossing away a doctors livelihood but didnt discourage him his wife robin would leave her career in law, to become a painter and sculptor urged i am to follow his dream show a she was the one 35 years ago, encouraged me to follow my heart, and with wit humor generosity of spirit, has coauthored my life. Charles coauthor helps him answer a higher killing a, later he finds himself moving left to right. After the break. You dont think much about it. You never dwell on how it was made. Its just a blanket after all. But when Everything Else has been lost, the comfort it provides is immeasurable. The American Red Cross brings hope and help to people in need every 8 minutes, every day. So this season give something that means something. Support us at redcross. Org projecting 617 billion dollars, will be spent on items this holiday season, major retailers are trying to get a jumpstart on black friday, though target macy, best buy among others open today may take to the air according to the wall street journal to develop their own line, gopro is helping to sell in late 20 is a, keep hitter on fobs Business Network for the very latest in Business Financial news, fox business giving you the power to prospe prosper. Charles krauthammer once wrote a chum about the most important person of the 20th century Time Magazine had chosen einstein challenger greed picked churchill the statesman who led the fight against hitler sounded the alarm over communism. Politics trumping science that, my explain why krauthammer traded a big time medical career, for a oneway ticket to washington. And why once here his eyes locked on to a help wanted ad in the political opinion magazine the new republic. I to my wife she said why dont you apply i safed never written anything dont know anything she said you write it, i will hand deliver it. I was triggered. Michael kinsley looking for a managing editor for the leff leaning magazine. Something in phone call that made you want to bring him down. It was mainly the fact that he was a psychiatrist he had no writing samples. When did you see i enjoyed talking to him so much, i had this feeling he must be able to write. Krauthammer gave it a shot as saying goes, he wrote about what he knew. First article the expanding shrink protested how psychiatrico analysis was creeping into political discourse, for example, president cateres famous mallize speech blamed the horrible economy on americans crisis of confidence. They liked it published it, i got lucky again it was republished oped page Washington Post first time any article in the new republic had been picked up by post. Krauthammer wrote more for the magazine might have joined staff, except he got an even more intriguing offer as a speech writer for Vice President walter mondale. Six months, and whether we got totally crushed in january election, i got call from the new republic they said we think you are unemployed now would you like to come and work for us i said yes right away started, on the day reagan was sworn in that is first day i started the new republic as a writer. So help me god. New president was promising big changes, even starting a world anew. Reagans inaugural signaled a great clash of ideas. In this present crisis government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem. And the new republic was right in the midst of it. It was overwhelmingly liberal writers the both of the of that era i am still a democratic traditional liberal Democrat Great society liberal pretty hard line on soviets. People to believe now democratically party had a powerful name that was very antisovette. Those were a dying agreed krauthammer found himself agreeing more with president reagan than wiliberal leaders. I supported every element of the policy did we get reaction i weather one editorial excorrespond iated caused largest injunctive he kaengs in the history i was crowd of. Writing like always extremely stepbystep logical if you can read a column by charles about something still agree after you are through with it you know you must have a pretty good argument. Those should aed conservative columnists windsering why krauthammer and new republic were not supporting real estatinggan in. Buckley was writing why dont you give up on democrats i was one of those wanted to save soul of Democratic Party meant conservative element which the magazine really was. Krauthammer fired off a letter to buckley write reagan had quote a lot to answer for on Foreign Policy, and his domestic policy was far worst quote the catalog of sins we believe the president committed is too long to rekapit late here krauthammer tells me he private wanted real estatingon to beat his old boss mondale. I worked for mondale in 1980. I liked him and had respect for him and as a personal matter, there is kind of of a matter of honor, i didnt want to vote against a man for whom i had respect and affection. So you have a vote reagan or mondale. The only president ial election, where i left that line blank. Left it blank. But if i had been you know the swing vote, i would have obviously had voted for reagan. A turning point in krauthammers the recognition to the political right. After the election iwrote something the Reagan Defense attorney. A Time Magazine column, and it was provocative, krauthammer praised reagan on a a number of Foreign Policy issues he was now crediting him with a breakthrough inside the that changed the calculus of the cold war. I realized that what reagan had done without a grand master plan was to challenge what at the time was called. It is ours, all of a sudden reagan had challenged that said no, you dont get to keep what you got were going to challenge your possession. Wherever they are and i felt this is a really good idea. And i am going to give it a in a i am. He invented the Reagan Defense attorn doctrine claerlz made it mandatory to come up with a doctrine. For every president. After the 49 state landslide, krauthammer was still not sure what to make of reagan the man. He met at the white house in 1986. He invited me to lunch. I tried to engage him like on contras what are you going to do all of a sudden what i am hearing is a story about how when he and nancy with in the guesthouse of president mark s of the phillipines there was a giant aspired spider how him off without scaring i am thinking i dont get it most successful president in my lifetime seems out to lunch. What is going on. He says it was only later that he realized what alluded him about reagan. No need to show how smart he was he knew exactly what i was asking he did not want to talk about it, if you thought he was a dunce he didnt care he knew he wasnt. Sometime before krauthammer embraced a conservative domestic profile taxes warfare small government i was skeptical of tax cuts of Smaller Government the beginning then by the end of the 08 boz i had begin a change. What happened. Empirical evidence i had been trained in empirical evidence if treatment is killing the patients you stop the treatment. And i began to look into think about whether the view i had of the socially Democratic Society like in europe was right way i sort of i moved gradually to the idea of a more limited society, Smaller Government. By that time, krauthammers world was really falling into place. In 1985, his son daniel was born two years later, krauthammer won the biggest honor in print journalism not bad for someone starting less than adecade early without a writing sample straight from ceremony to see assist father once worried about his sons jump from medicine to journalism, krauthammer was 84, ill. I went to the hospital where he was, i said dad i have something i want to give you. And i gave him the medal. And he beamed showed it to nurses. Turned out to be krauthammers final visit with his dad. So the last time i saw him was a time when this whole circle was closed and he could feel that the choice had been redeemed in some way, it was a very comforting thing to remember. Krauthammer called the 1990s a holiday from history. The cold war was won. The era of Big Government declared over, and 9 11 brought a new urgency to his commentary. People understand, there is a nexus between, these weapons, these stakes the terrorists we have to attack where they are. Krauthammer began appearing on special reports allstar panel, was soon an audience favorite. You have been a fixture on special report for a long time, even still, a lot of people dont know that you are in a wheelchair they dont know the extent of your paralysis. I am sitting behind a table it is i would say half the people i meet are absolutely surprised to me plea in a wheelchair one more amusing happened 8, 9 years ago i remember i was is it going to in Madison Square garden in the fox box a convention from Shawn Hannity stands up walks up looks at me goes, are what happened. I just i told him i was hurt as medical student no big deal but he told me even somebody i had been on air with wouldnt know. What is apparent, is that krauthammer has the attention of people in high places. Just one example. Krauthammers opposition to White House CouncilHarriet Myers not only helped block her nomination to the supreme court, a comment on the panel apparently gave president bush a way out. I remember thinking how do i get out of this, and it came to me while on special report. I think what the administration ought to do is say look. His face saving solution, basically went like this. Because myers legal writings with covered by scuff privilege, the senate couldnt vet her so she had to withdraw. And that is what they did. Are you surprised by the amount of influence that you have with your special report, that you hear or see things that happen as a result of a column or a statement . Do you ever think about it. I think about it, and i find it worrisome, the reason is that when i was unknown i could say anything i damn well pleased. Coming up, payer players power hitters from allstar penal to the ballpark 8 minutes flat. How could switchgrass in argentina, change engineering in dubai, aluminum production in south africa, and the Aerospace Industry in the u. S. . At t. Rowe price, we understand the connections of a complex, global economy. Its just one reason over 70 of our mutual funds beat their 10year lipper average. T. Rowe price. Invest with confidence. Request a prospectus or summary prospectus with investment information, risks, fees and expenses to read and consider carefully before investing. Welcome back to fox news reporting, Charles Krauthammer set out to write about things that matter most. He didnt mean politics. The pond on 19th street one of washingtons power scenes. And you know you are launching with one of d. C. players if his caricature is on the wall. I got the scenario. Today, Charles Krauthammer is Holding Court on nuances of power. I knew it. Note political power of the white house 10 blocks away, he is talking about the Washington Nationals whether they can power a late season playoff run. Nats finished 14 and 2. One game ahead of cincinnati. Right. And i was wondering where he was going the works. I think charles and irboth people write about politics to support our baseball habits. Noted columnist newly minted Fox News Contributor george will has written two books on will bebaseball. Remember when you first met charles. I think 1982 he was at new republic wrote a cover story on me. Interesting named lunch, and that is how we met. How long did it take before you were friends . I think it was instantaneous five years later i built a new house the first thing i did was build a wheelchair ramp so charles could get in. You first talked baseball and then when you dealt with all the important issues, you went into politics. Yes. Tim a Senior Writer for espn magazine has lunch with will and krauthammer a couple times a year. To talk baseball. The fans is an understatement, to say they love the game is an understatement. I grew up playing the game i loved to play the game as a kid. My bro and would i go down on swings on streets of long island, with radios from the handlebars listening to mel allen, phil rizzuto doing the games. Since nationals came to washington they have had no bigger than than Charles Krauthammer. I starting to do the show every night ends at 7 00 game starts 7 so garage at fox is seven minutes it is if the wind is fair in the item from the garage at the stadium, so i get there in the bottom of the first i mean i how can i resist. He ma is being that trip in a special vehicle, designed just for him. That lets krauthammer accelerate and brake with his left hand and stare with his right. Everybody who comes in here the first time, is terrified. And i dont blame them. In fact when i went to driving test, the tester did not want to get in i told him he had to the law i think he passed him case he survived was happy to be alive when it was over. First time i saw you going into a parking lot i waved next day you said you really shouldnt wave it is dangerous. Yes the way the wave is hard somebody lets me in in traffic i am tempted to take one hand and say thank you wave then, of course i wouldnt have a hand on the steering wheel. It actually took 8 minutes to get to the stadium. When we took our seats the natk beating braves 10, krauthammer went into analysts mode right away. As though he was breaking down a procedural move harry reid might use to thwart a ted cruz filibuster. You want to steel on a breaking ball it is slower if you look breaking ball, no unlikely to try to steal right now. So might go for a breaking ball. Turns out nine innings with krauthammer is not just a day at the park, it essentially grad school for baseball. Okay. This is unfortunate the only reason backup catcher doesnt hit very well. Come on, no, no, no, no, no, no, aww. From time to time charles writes about be able typically in a way that transcends the sport take his column about rick. A 21yearold pitching phenom back in 2000 fell apart when he was picked to start a playoff game. With a Huge National tv audience watching he suddenly couldnt throw a strike. He never pitched the same again. But instead quitting he went back down to the minors learned a new position, and returned to the mainlz jorors i the personal section a few pages after the piece about his bro marcel. I was thinking about this column this is not really about you, but then, your last line, the catastrophe that awaits everyone, from a single falls move wrong turn, fatal encounter, every life has such a moment, what distinguishes us is whether and how we ever come back. That is why the story resonated so much with me i had fatal encounter as did rick there is element to everybodys story low point do you want it enough are you lucky enough that is part of it too. Krauthammers injury has kept him off the playing fields and courts he pursued another competitive outlet. Chess. Which lights you up more baseball or chess when you are in the game . There is no comparison. It is chess. You still play chess. No, i gave it up. It is an addiction. Completely. It is a poison you reach a point on the internet playing speeches or you realize in a motel room drinking al kwa velvet. Your book a selection of essays on things other than politics, but didnt turn out that way why in. In the end everything all the beautiful elegant your life depend ultimately on getting politics right. You say . Science art poetry be able, most ultimately bow to politics. I have a column in the book where i write about the phonthe. The physicist posed a similar question, we know that there are millions of habitable words out there there have to be thousands millions of civilizations. Why have we never heard from any of them . There is a plausible explanation every time a civilization achieves consciousness in kind of science that would allow you to transit a is in a will they destroy themselves the question is can we regulate our points in a way to allow human species to produce already beautiful can only be answered battering the president and i tooking off the tea party. Have you seen the mail. My assistant reads most of my nail, he is now in therapy. Fox news reporting continues after the break. . It was january 2009, 30 years after Charles Krauthammer began his journalism career in washington, a new president was about to be sworn in. The krauthammer wasnt sure what are to make of barack obama, he got the chance to size him up at a small dinner party hosted by his friend george will. It was a week before inauguration day. I remember, the president elect arrived saying, you know i was not been able to figure this guy out is he a centrist will throw to the left or lefty will occasional throw a ball to the right nobody had any ideas. What was part of mr. Obamas strengthen is national war schaubing west the same question a centrist a lefty nobody new. You think figured him out. After first state of the union speech. He will swef 15 Million Dollars a year to develop wind power solar power we can no longer afford to put Health Care Reform on hold it will be the goal of this administration to ensure. I was so as to know i should iwrote five columns in a row what unusual Political Animal he was an agenda as radical as any since fdr basically said i am not here to tinker i have come here to transform america. Youve been pretty tough on this president. I think he has done just about everything wrong. Justice as willing to offended liberals in the 80s equalizing win to take on conservatives. Have you seen mail about ted cruise i get emails. I know i have seen the tweet, my assistant reads most of my mail, and he is now in therapy. Just kidding. Krauthammer on fox did not appreciate what cruise did. If he listened to talk radio, it might really send his assistant over the edge. Dr. Charles krauthammer 1980s was working for walter mondale. My job to call a folly a folly. If you leave the proefrgs because you think you have something to say you betray your life if you dont say what you think honestlyly bluntly. Do you think you will stop writing. No, i intend to die at my desk. Really. I would like to. Im not sure i can arrange it. We got your personal references. Highschool diploma or equivalent . [dramatic music] announcer skip the drama. Get your ged. Its right there. Announcer sign up for free classes now at yourged. Org. The following is a paid advertisement from the new face of time life starvista entertainment. Heeeeeeeres johnny from the moment he stepped on stage. Heyoooo . Until the day he said goodbye. I am taking the applause sign home, putting itn the bedroom. The king of late n. Was johnny carson. So this is old john, eh . Gng right into all homes, across america. Mom, im on tv ive been doing the show behind that desk so long you dont know how, you know, you dont know whether to sit like this, or like this. Introducing the best of the tonight show starring johnny carson, from starvista entertainment and time life. Do you like my dress . What there is of it is uh