Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the National Constitution center. [ applause ] i am Jeffrey Rosen, the president of this wonderful institution. And its such a great day to celebrate the relationship between National Constitution center and cspan. Cspan has an inspiring nonpartisan mission to bring unfiltered information about the u. S. Government to american citizens and that coincides with the National Constitution centers mission, which i all want you to recite along with me to inspire our guests and our cspan viewers. The National Constitution center is the only institution in america chartered by congress to disseminate information about the constitution on a nonpartisan basis. Beautiful. That was so well done. [ applause ] i was so thrilled when my friend and colleague, susan swain, the head of cspan, came a few months ago or weeks ago, about three weeks ago, that said we have this great new book on the president s. Lets launch it at the National Constitution center. Were here to
Best and worst chief executives. We hear from author rosen, Michael Gearhart and from Robert Strauss. His book is worst president ever about james buchanan. [ applause ] ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the National Constitution center. I am Jeffrey Rosen, the president of this wonderful institution and this is such a happy day to celebrate the great collaboration between the National Constitution center and cspan. Cspan has an inspiring nonpartisan mission to bring unfiltered information about the u. S. Government to american citizens, and that coincides with the National Constitution centers mission which i now want all of you to recite along with me to inspire our guests and our cspan viewers. The National Constitution center is the National Constitution center is the only institution in america chartered by congress to disseminate information about the u. S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis. Beautiful. That was so well done. [ applause ] i was so thrilled when my friend and coll
Richard norton smith, why did you call your book that you wrote 35 years ago uncommon man . Well, its taken, actually, from the title of a relatively famous hoover speech about the uncommon man. Remember, Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, i believe, maybe43, about the century of the common man. And wallace, from a left of center perspective, was projecting, in effect, the goals and ambitions of the generation that was fighting world war ii. And it wasnt enough simply to defeat the nazis, but to create at home a true democracy. A place where the common man would finally come into his own. And hoover approached this from a different place on the political spectrum. He was, in effect, making the case for what we might call a meritocracy. But something to say, that i shouldnt paraphrase it, but, you know, when you get sick, you want an uncommonly skillful doctor. When we go to war, we want an uncommonly able general. Yo
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Constitution Center. I am the president of this institution and this is such a happy day to celebrate the collaboration between the National Constitution center and cspan. [applause] cspan has a mission to bring unfiltered information about the u. S. Government to american citizens and that coincides with the Constitution Centers mission which i want you to reside along with me to inspire our guests and viewers. The National Constitution center is the only institution in america chartered by congress to disseminate information about the u. S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis. Beautiful. That was so well done. [applause] i was so thrilled when my friend and colleague susan swain, the head of cspan, came just a few months ago, or rather weeks ago, and said, we have this great new book on the president s. Let us launch it at the National Constitution center. It is such an honor to welcome back to the Constitution Center the great founder of cspan, b
Only institution in america charted by congress to disseminate of the u. S. Constitution on a nonpartisan basis. Beautiful. So great to hear those wonderful words who arent spying Mission Statements here in the beautifully renovated kimble theater. And just a few months ago we opened up this gorgeous new space, renovated with a great interpreter you or hear me hearing me from the stateoftheart cool ted top microphones and beautiful new seats. What a thrill to see so many people here to celebrate the opening of the return of our great exhibit, american spirits. applause i want you to go see it after the show if youve not seen it yet. Cspan viewers, i want you to come to philadelphia to see this beautiful exhibit which tells an amazing constitutional story that we are going to talk about tonight. That is the constitutional story that poses an incredible question. How did it happen . How did it happen . That america voluntarily hookup by a vote of 46 states and only two states the same th