[applause]. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the newseums night tv studio and another edition of inside media. I am the director of programs here at the museum. As the 2020 residential election rapidly starts to invade our daily newsfeed, and with joe bidens announcement fueling the fire this week, what better time to look back at the history of the presidency and to examine the character and dignity of the men who have held the office . We dive in deep to that topic today, as we discuss the new cspan book, the president s, noted historians rank americas best and worst chief executives. The title tells it all and just a moment, you will be hearing from susan swain, the coceo of , who will discuss how the book came together based on its historians survey of leadership. Following susans presentation, i have the distinct privilege of speaking with brian lamb, founding ceo and chairman of cspan, who over the course of many years conducted the , interviews with president
We are doing the policy releases. People here want to get to know you, what you are about. As his Vice President , it is my great honor toadd his name to the primary ballot today because we need america to give us four more years. [cheers and applause] dr. Lara brown, that is a glimpse of the 2020 primary process. A process that attracted more than 20 democrats. Last time around, 17 gop candidates vying for the nomination. You have spent your academic career trying to understand and explain the electoral process. When you try to explain where we are today to people and how this process works, how do you explain it . Dr. Brown the thing you have to start with first is that competitiveness drives a lot of candidates. One of the things that is so interesting, when we really understand why there are so many candidates in the democratic primary field, why there are so many republicans in the 2016 field, it was because the presidency was seen as being up for grabs in both instances. In 2016