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. If you remember, Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, i believe, maybe 43, about the censure of the common man. And wallace from a leftofcenter 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 in the political spectrum. He was in effect making the case for what we might call meritocracy. But some think 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. You get the pictu
These cases are very close and you go in on the edge. You dont sit here to make the law, to decide who ought to win, we decide who wins under the law that the people have adopted. By thewill be surprised high level of collegiality. If there are four of the nine of us who want to hear any of these cases, we will hear it. We are here to decide things, the job is to decide and we decide. We cannot have a decision that this court. This Court Decides important questions and that means you have to do your best to get it right, and you have to work as hard as you can to get it right. Why why is it that we have astonishingly beautiful, imposing, impressive structure . It is to remind us that we have an important function and to remind the public that sees the building of the importance and the centrality of the law. It all ways thrills me, amazes me, and gives me faith in our country to know how much people trust the court. I think the danger is that sometimes you come into a building like thi
This week on q a, president ial historian Richard Norton smith discusses his book, an uncommon man the triumph of Herbert Hoover. 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. If you remember, Vice President henry wallace, who was the second of fdrs Vice President s, gave a famous speech in 1942, maybe 43, 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 in the political spectrum. He was, in effect, making the case for what we might call a meritocracy. I shouldnt paraphrase it, but when you get sick, you want a
[inaudible conversations] hello, hello. Can i have everyones attention, please. Thank you. Good afternoon. Let me begin by saying thank you to you all for being here. For those of you that dont know me, i am a fellow and Deputy Director [applause] today is going to be a particularly nice treat for me today because in addition to listening to a wonderful author discussed a new book i have the distinct honor of introducing the man whos going to bring him up to the stage. Michael knew casey is one of the most brilliant lawyers of our time. [applause] he is an authority on a host of legal topics ranging from National Security to constitutional and criminal law. Hes developed his expertise over the course of a long distinguished career in Public Service first as a federal prosecutor and most notably as the chief judge of the District Court for the Southern District of new york and at the 81st attorney general of the united states. [applause]e] returned toet private practice n Dallas Council
Field. Thank you for being here tonight. We are thrilled to have you. We will hear a brief hesitation from susan swain, copresident and chief executive officer of cspan, and coauthor of the president s. She will be joined by brian lam, the founder and executive chairman of cspan and moderating an esteemed group of historians discussing the american presidency. The american presidency is, as you know, a fascinating subject of inquiry in every possible way. [laughter] in the constitution, there is not as much said about it as you would imagine. Article one is quite long. Article two is quite shorter. As you can imagine, the executive power shall be vested in a president of the United States of america, full stop. That is the first sentence in and the key phrase in the second article of the constitution which describes the presidency. Much of what we know today as the american presidency has come from experience, from precedent, from action. We are thrilled to have an opportunity to learn