kasie hunt. chief national correspondent for the new york times magazine mark leibovich. pulitzer prize winning columnis washington post, eugene robinson. and host of my favorite show, msnbc s hardball. i watch it every night. i can t wait for the first line. chris matthews is with us, his book bobby kennedy, a raging spirit is timely again. shortly after midnight 50 years ago this morning bobby kennedy was shot moments after claiming victory in the california presidentialprimary. what i think is quite clear is that we can work together in the last analysis and that what has been going on within the united states over the period of the last three years, the divisions, the violence, the disenchantment with our society, the divisions, whether it s between blacks and whites, between the poor and the more
more u.s. troops on top of the 500,000 already there. bobby kennedy s challenge to lyndon johnson on the war issue. johnson s stunning withdrawal from the race already the dead of dr. martin luther king. the assassination of kennedy. all this in a matter of weeks. to live in those times is to feel deep down inside the power of politics to come alive and change a country s direction. with all its tragedy, the confidence that the will of the people matters what people think and feel about its government and its policies is vital and can in the end bring change. it s not a case of having to put up with a lead history fails to represent us. i learned last night my book bobby kennedy, a raging spirit is on the new york times bestseller list for the tenth straight week. get a copy for yourself on amazon or local bookstore and follow those electrifying events we will mark in the coming months. we need to know especially with the leadership in washington now that america is capable of some
president roosevelt called it a day that would live in infamy. it allowed us to hold the moral high ground throughout the war in the pacific. in 1962 when america faced the most climactic moment of the cold war, when the russians put offensive nuclear weapons in cuba, robert kennedy wanted america to keep the high ground, not to become like the empire of japan in december of 1941. quote, for 175 years we had not been that kind of country, he argued. a sneak attack was not in our tradition. thousands of cubans would be killed without warning and a lot of russians too. he argued for a different action, one that would give the russians room to withdraw their missiles peaceably. i think america needs this moral compass, leaders who know the difference between right and wrong, who can lead us on a course we can be proud of long after the crisis passes. my book bobby kennedy, a raging spirit is proof that we had leaders like him.
i don t care about the old the wiig party, the old wiigs of the bushes. i m not interested in them. they gave us two wars for two presidents, father and son. we got two wars out of that, you know? yeah. one thing good that w. s father did is he pulled back and didn t go in iraq. we went in to get them out of kuwait and we did and came home. we shouldn t be permanently garrisoned in the middle east and now we re stuck over there. i m curious after writing this book, how do you think bobby kennedy would react to the political climate today? well, first of all, the reason i wrote the book is to talk about a country that could be united. a country with a leader that would be empathic with the country and care about people that are left out. i wanted to talk about the days when the white working class saw the same political goals as the black working class, the
book. that s a working looks like somewhere in new jersey. the lighting is so spectacular. father, kid. father, son. mom. saluting a patriotic hero and the mother looks completely poor. they have got nothing, they re dirt poor. and it s a spectacular picture of an affection that people once had for a democratic leader, any leader in this country. and that s gone. well, speaking of the genuine article, that s you, chris matthew. very obviously wonderful to have you, as always. i m so glad i came in here on this exciting saturday. you guys build up the saturday audience, it s something else. thank you. it s a beautiful day in new york. i just watched them rehearsing the marathon out in front of the hotel. they re all running by. isn t that tomorrow? maybe the faster you run, the skinnier you are. bobby kennedy, a raging spirit by chris matthews. i think it s a great christmas