so she was very angry, but such an optimist that she would never have said disband nasa. she said fix it and let's move on. that was her hope. thank you all. one more as we do one more. do i have time or not? >> sally w >> knee and sally were best friends with a great relationship. it was a real marriage. sally i think was probably trying to decide what she was doing with her life. i talk about her relationships with clinton and women at that she wound up with them is the way she wanted to go. it makes me sad that she could talk about it publicly. this was her choice. it gave her a little bit of the kind of privacy that she needed. one more time, thank you very much. [applause] >> okay. >> booktv is on twitter. follow us to get publishing news, scheduling updates, author information and to talk directly with authors during our live programs. twitter.com/booktv. >> next from politics and prose bookstore in washington d.c. reggie love recalls his experiences as special assistant and personal aide to senator, then president obama from 2007 through 2011. >> hi, everyone. thank you all for being here. before we get started just a few housekeeping points. if you could turn off your cellphone that would be great. secondly there is going to be time for audience questions. please take time come to our microphone, so we can hear the question and get it recorded and all that good stuff. at the end please do as a huge favor, women against something solid, more room for the book signing which i am sure everyone is excited about a nice gesture to staff so on behalf of our entire staff i welcome you, and i am abby fennewald and i run in store events. if you are not at the store often i invite you to take a minute to pick up a copy of the february event calendar. a bunch of stuff is happening this month that should be green. we do events almost every night and classes and other programs so take a minute, check it out and you can find this on facebook, twitter and instagram. on to the main event we are pleased to have with us reggie love to discuss his new book "power forward: my presidential education" which traces his unique trajectory to where he is today and all the lessons he learned along the way. in college most of you know he is a walk on at duke and went on to being its captain and the book talks about a great man for and talks about washington, went from being a staff assistant to senator barack obama to being his personal aide and body man at the white house. it is amazing to influence these great mentors on him and how he got to where he is today. we are excited to hear about it. please join me in welcoming reggie love to politics and prose. [applause] >> this is really nice. thank you for the introduction. i am surprised to see these friendly faces in such a rainy cold might in d.c. but thank you for braving the weather and coming out. thanks for the warm introduction and thanks, politics and prose, for having me here today. a couple people in the audience members, you should join and be members as well, they would probably appreciate that. not so great, i won't speak too long. people said you should speak for 30 minutes, i don't want people to start falling asleep at the plate but i know a lot of people had a question in terms of why did i decide to write this book? i was torn by the decision to do it because i think the job of having worked for the president there's a certain level of respect and trust and privacy like he would want to have and a lot of great lessons learned from him that i wanted to make sure came across properly in the book but when i was growing up i grew up in north carolina, when i was 18, 19, 20 years old there were no books out there like this that said this is what it is like to be a college basketball player or part of the political process and people kind of see it far off in the distance and it is something that often sometimes seems unattainable or not for them and sometimes in seems sexier and more enjoyable but it isn't. part of its is i hope people sort of take away from it through persistence, passion and toughness that even when you are in these really dark places that don't seem like the right place if you stay through its long enough, you find yourself on the right to us. i have been lucky to have had some good man force, coach k and president my journey is a continuation of the impressive thing is those guys have done. it is almost what we have seen in the last 80 years, coach k is the all-time win and division 1 basketball, and it is my way to show appreciation to them, what they taught me along the way that will add value to you guys to your nephews and cousins and friends. i was going to read a couple paragraphs. my favorite story is you can't teach kite. can i do this one? you are so tall. i wish i was a couple inches taller. so it is a great little -- i have never done this before i apologize in advance when i screw this up. it was really funny. when i was in seventh grade in public school basketball and popularity were synonymous. i was cut from my junior high team. two seventh graders made the squad and was one of them. my only option was to play in the recreationally in the winter season. all my friends got to represent their school teams. i complained and said it wasn't fair. and set up with self pity, you are not that good. and only wrote the question the want to play basketball or not. or the best in the team you are going to play on. i didn't know without recommendation would carry me through decades of decision making. having something to prove made me work harder. my eighth grade year, kept being the leading scorer. by the end high school i was a male athlete of the year by the charlotte observer. it was such a a gratifying feeling to start at the bottom and pull myself up be wrong by round. my father used to tell me all the time reggie, you got to do the work. sports or school doesn't matter. the work won't to itself and if you choose not to do the work you should never be surprised about the outcome because he lead up to chance. all of that was true of course but there was something else he told me that struck a deeper chord. after being cut in seventh grade i practiced more than any other kid in my neighborhood. my friends made fun of me for having to play on the wreck league team which will be made me want to play and practice all the more. i improved i grew getting taller and stronger, but not enough. when my squad didn't qualify for the national tournament the teams that did qualified picked up players from teams that hadn't to allow the roster. the leading rebounder and score i was confident my name would be called but it wasn't. i was passed over for a 13-year-old kid who was 6 ft. 5. i was stunned. i said but i was the best player, i said my father. he listened and nodded slowly, reggie, you know, it is tough. you think you are better than the other kid, but you can't teach height. i didn't get it at the time but eventually i saw that my dad was in putting to me that life isn't fair. even when you perform at your peak it may not be enough to withstand on any given day. even substituting height for race gender income, geography, legacy, class. just because you work harder doesn't mean anything will happen according to plan. [applause] >> with that this is pretty casual. i may take my jacket off. i will take as many questions, maybe cnn is reporting this. i don't know what it is but you guys may take it easy. >> please come out to our site here. >> not that nervous, reggie. >> one of our proud graduates, can you tell us, in college, on the white house, and a couple stories, how much time did you got? >> people stay. i can give you a couple mistakes. i was good at finding them. i will say my mom always used to joke with me. she said you manage to get into trouble lot but i admire the fact that you never seem to get in trouble for the same thing. in college i made tons of mistakes in college on the accord, on the court, my freshman and sophomore year, we didn't win a game. you can go back and look at all the steps, i remember the first touchdown i scored as a freshman was like having a really crappy year, little brother jeremy, can't find his mouthpiece so my coach looks at me and says reggie on the game. i had two catches, one or two receiving touchdowns for the season we lose by 40 points but i score a touchdown and it is a big deal so i get interviewed by duke tv actors the game and he asked me a question, what happened on the play? and i say i lined up and looked over the quarterback and he called blue slide steamer is and i do the signal. the next day at practice my coach comes down and goes to is that idiot that gave up our symbol for our audibles on the pre-game show? i think i had this really redeeming moment for the season like i scored and ultimately i get chewed out about giving up our signals. i was 18. in basketball i made tons of mistakes and i always think back to one of the funnier story is as i sit here, i and 20, almost 22 years old. i am a captain of the team, college basketball kind of a big man's position even though i am kind of undersized but this is a supply and demand malfunction where more guys went to the nba and got recruited but there was a shortage of guys and i happen to be fair. i am playing power forward and i am wide open, 18 feet from the basket. i shoot it, the ball hits the backboard and goes in. i am not trying to shoot but it goes in. we score a point. we score a point. coach k stops practice and walks to the middle of the courts and goes reggie, i know what you are thinking, you are wide open you are a man, as they will shoot the shot but i promise you if you shoot this shot in the game you will be on the bench next to me. i don't care if it goes in. off the court, i'd definitely wrote about some of them, and for me, 19 or 20 years old, i assess since i was invincible war there was nothing i couldn't do. i am at duke played football and basketball and burning on both ends and i probably had some excessive moments of hanging out. no one will say i didn't enjoy college, in terms of the campaign in the white house the one thing i don't write about in the book that was really a bad day was before, before the bag gets left but there was a day in which basically almost got left i did get left once but it wasn't my fault. we were in chicago and i had never been to chicago and we were flying out of these freebase operators so is kind of off one of these terminals in the main terminal at chicago midway. the worst traffic there has ever been in chicago and it is pre motorcade. we are still like stopping at red lights. so when i think, i think the candidate is going to stop at home and go to the airport after he did this event, with reverend jesse jackson and do was ask o'hare at midway. i am headed to the airport i have almost an hour. you can get to another city in an hour. somehow i had the oldest in at cabdriver i could have found and this was pre ipad. he doesn't really know where he is going and i don't know where i am going either and finally robert gibbs and marvin are on the plane, if you are not there in a couple minutes we are going to leave you and i said you may not -- i don't think i am getting much closer. i see many runways but have no idea where you guys are at. ultimately i get there eventually and they are still there. why don't you leave me? e.u. are the only one with a copy of the speech. [laughter] >> i think from that day forward there was a printer in the terminal so that was my last excuse. that was during the campaign. that was a pretty big mistake and he said to me you should never be 30 minutes behind me. the white house, i definitely -- mistakes that i made that i talk about, i think i write about it in any event in vegas, sometimes there are teleprompter then sometimes there are not. it depends on the event. in this event there were no teleprompter is. what is important when there's no teleprompter is actual remarks on the podium. i go out do my typical check, i see the page is there and a an ounce on the stage and there are remarks sounds like a great event, he comes offstage and looks at me, where is the rest of my speech? i said there is no speech. the first six pages word there but the last 12 weren't. i couldn't tell the difference. you get really great job. the funny part about it is i will say he would always say early 2007 they were building the plane when the plane was taking off down the runway so there were a lot of errors and a comedy of errors that were made a. the team did good job of what my mom said was not making the same mistake twice which means you are learning. that was a good question. i appreciated that. what else? anybody else? >> did you ever say barack obama was making a mistake? >> that is a good question. i think there are definitely days where his tie wasn't straight or he had something hanging off his suit. he is pretty good. there were not a lot of mistakes. i am pretty good at reminding him what city he is in. there are also times in which i know there were things that were not my fault which he clearly blamed on me. maybe some of those. he is pretty good about it. i wouldn't call him mistake free but he is pretty close. >> they are terrific. pretty great too. the things they said to you. >> i go into detail about my parents. i would always say my brother is over here too, richard love jr.. i would always say i kind of won apparent lottery because growing up among the group of folks i grew up with, both my parents stayed to get there they are still together today, people would take the shirt off their back there was never, we were never really wealthy liked very middle-class but never went without even when there were times in which it was definitely a struggle. the hardest thing about my parents is it really put a lot of pressure on me to be as good of a parent to my children in terms of the things they taught me, my mom which is really big on a just -- you need to understand where you come from and from an early age she would say to me the moment you turn 18, make sure you go vote because all the things her parents and her relatives had to do in order for them to have that right and i can hear her say it. she probably continues to say it, it is one of those things that even though i didn't have to experience the hardship, it is something that should never go unappreciated because it did not come easy. that is one of the more powerful famous she would consistently say to meet that really sort of gave me some perspective in terms of when you start dealing with and looking at race relations as a whole, it signifies the importance of the struggle but also signifies how far we have come in such a short amount of time and gives me a lot of hope where we end up as a country another 40 years from now. >> you had some remarkable mentors your parents certainly sounds like a wonderful role models. i am wondering what your plans are, your ambitions, really high ambitions. i am wondering what your goals are for yourself in the next five years or move forward beyond that. >> i think these great opportunities and experiences, if you had said at any point that i could have predicted the first 32 years of my life, you would have been off by 85% so i don't know that i have specific five year, tenure, 15 year plan what i want to do. like i said before, i want to be as good to my family and my kids and nieces, i don't have any but it is not hard to get married. it is -- it happens all the time. i see it on tv. my friend is getting married on valentine's day which is the all-star weekend switch is weird. so i don't think i would be able to predict the next 32 years. i do think whatever i do i want to have an impact enjoy what i am doing and who i am doing it with. i want to be able to put the same amount of effort and passion in to add that i was able to do with all the things i have done today. >> i am paul friedman with the national child advocacy group. every child matters, we are thrilled what the president said that the state of the union for kids. i am wondering why did you choose to do exactly q word there issues you wanted to address that you care deeply about? having seen politics from a vantage point, two people would you encourage other kids to get involved in politics to the and participate in politics and run for office and would you ever want to run for office? >> those are all good questions. on the first note my big issue when i grew up was definitely education. in the book i write about veterans day. when i was an isolated and get it. i don't want to be here, got to look like everyone else, our car is not like everyone else's. but on education in the sense that because there is such a big discrepancy in the quality of education out there for people based off of what you can afford to pay where you live, what the property taxes are in the neighborhood that supports your surrounding school. ultimately i realize that sort of gave people -- i benefited from this. i don't know that i did anything special to have that benefit more than the guy who lived next door to me. that was always a big issue for me. the big policy issue for me is what brought me to d.c.. the other big issue for me that brought me to d.c. in 2006 was just the general diversity of it. at that point african-american's represented 17% of the united states and 1% of the u.s. senate. i thought why not come and be part of that process. there was an important to serving. like if they are not people that understand your struggles and where you have been a will be hard for them to serve your interests. .. >> i don't think that's something we should ever take for granted or feel like, you know or feel too jaded or, you know distant from the process. in terms of would i ever run for something, yeah, i think that it's not something that is on my bucket list of things to do. it's not like, you know, visit the great wall. there are definitely a lot of things on my list that i want to do in terms of fun, vacation-y type things -- [laughter] but i don't know that that's on the list. but that being said, i think i mean there's such good democrats out there, and there are a lot of really good people out there who are doing good stuff, and i think there's tons of talent. you know if you told me there was no one else out there and there was like the last man on the island would i do it? of course. but i don't have, like a burning desire. i've seen the process and it's a lot of work, and it's a big commitment. and, you know, i definitely want to be a part of it. i don't know that i have the risk portfolio to bear the entire load of it. but i appreciate the question paul. >> thanks. >> yeah no problem. >> hi, my name is fred doty. >> hey, freddie. i like that had, man. [laughter] >> thank you. i really was into the campaign during candidate obama when he was running at first. and a lot of us who are former athletes were really fascinated by the ritual of always playing before you got into the next city or the next state for i forget what they call them -- >> primaries. >> exactly. >> right. >> exactly. [laughter] so i'd like to, if you could elaborate, number one, on if it actually was a ritual or just to let off a lot of steam and pressure on the campaign trail, your feelings about going up against hillary clinton and the things they were saying about you guys and how he was telling you to respond nicely not to disrespect senator clinton. and i can't recall my last question. [laughter] >> i can start on those two. [laughter] basketball is a whole, you know, it had sort of different meanings like throughout, you know, the campaign and the white house, and it definitely is, it's -- but it's been, like, really really important. and i try to sort of elaborate, you know on two elements of it. there's, like, the physical playing of it, but then there's also the bond or the chatter and the talk that you have about the game itself. and sometimes it's not about nba games, sometimes it's about the games that we actually played and, like who played well and who didn't play well. [laughter] so i remember, so we played basketball on the day of the iowa caucus. and i was really nervous that day because i never had experienced the caucus before. there's, like, no early exit numbers. it just comes out you either won or you didn't. [laughter] and so we played that day because there was just really -- there was really nothing else to do, you know? you couldn't, like, show up and go to a precinct where they were caucusing. so he had invited a bunch of his friends who were in town who were there for the event that they were going to have after the announcement of who won the caucus so a lot of them decided -- we got some din key little gym -- dinky little gym in downtown iowa, rounded up some guys, and it wasn't even, like, that great of a game pause it was like, cold, it was kind of an undersized court, it was like a little sport court and we played. it was kind of just an average game. we won. we go to new hampshire, there's this, we've got this huge lead it's like ten points. ten-point lead we think we're going to win, we say do you want to play basketball, it's like, no, i don't really want to play. and we lost. [laughter] and literally from, like, that day on we played basketball every primary day. [laughter] and i remember -- and even after i'd left the white house and for the re-election he even, he mailed me and said, you know, he said we're definitely going to get a game in for 2012. and i was, like sure. come to chicago we'll play. [laughter] now, and then -- there were other times i kind of wrote about a little bit in there where the first time we played we had sort of one of the guys from the new hampshire staff had this great idea that one of the ways we could sort of build relationships and sort of earn some support from some of the folks during the new hampshire primary was by playing a game of pickup basketball. so i think there are a lot of people who like, who we played with that really like to play, who like to play but really couldn't play -- [laughter] i mean, there were guys like marvin in the back who, like, could play but never wanted to play. [laughter] and so one day we're playing with some firefighters and we're kind of having a you know we're having like a pretty good morning. we're beating them pretty good. and, you know and i'm, like, 23 and i'm like in my defensive stance playing the passing lane and, you know ball kind of comes my way, i kind of run down the court, i dunk the ball, i feel really good about myself. coach k. would be proud. [laughter] and then, you know, kind of towards the end of the game he looks over at me and he's like, you know, we want to win, but we also want to win their support. [laughter] and, you know, a lot of people were like, you guys are point shaving, it's like no it's cupid of more a matter of respect -- kind of more a matter of respect when you're up 30 and there's two minutes on the clock, you don't shoot the three-pointer. you kind of throw the ball out and sort of end the game respectfully. [laughter] and then to your other question you've got to remain me what your other question was. >> about hillary -- >> about hillary. >> -- and her campaign. >> no i think it was a tough primary. and i was, and iron chi, i spoke earlier -- ironically, i spoke earlier this week or last week to hugh ma ab dean, and she said she'd gotten a copy of the book and she'd read it. she said it's funny because i read the part where you were saying how hard it was to raise money in new york, we were on the other side, man, it's so hard to raise money in new york everyone loves this obama guy we don't know who he is. [laughter] but, look, you know, i think in any fair tough competition, you know things are said, and you do things that, you know, are part of the, are part of the battle. and then when, you know when the whistle blows and you walk off the court you kind of shake hands and, you know, you take your shoes off, and you go have a meal and, you know, laugh about the game. so i don't know, there's no -- i mean it's all really good stuff. a lot of the folks from there are close personal friends now, and i think they're going to, you know, a lot of them will probably be participating in this 2016 election, and i think they'll, you know, i'm sure that they'll do really interesting good things. >> hey my name's -- [inaudible] you know it's interesting because how does it feel to kind of be on the outside now? you were in it, you're out of it and then you're, you know -- but watching the news and everything it's just like you see it, but it's like, well, i was really there, but now i'm not really there. [laughter] you know what i mean? how does that work? >> yeah. that's actually a good question because i'm torn between it because, you know i'm like i no longer get like, a briefing book. [laughter] my information is not that good. i have to, like, read the newspaper. everything myself. there's no, there are no, like, no synopsis no bullet points which that i do kind of, it is kind of a drag. and i do miss the people. and i moved here, i was 22. i, like grow up -- i grew up with guys like robert gibbs and marvin nicholson and the president and dan pfeiffer. i really was, you know when i got here, i didn't know much about anything. not that i know anything now, but i know significantly more than i knew when i got here. i do miss like, the camaraderie of it. it's not like -- it's not the proximity in the sense that man, i really want to like be on air force one. i mean, i like air force one over like, delta and us airways, obviously -- [laughter] but more importantly, you know, i miss sort of that group. and i remember -- and i didn't get it at the time, but i remember when coach k. used to say it every season, you know, this group will never be back again. and for that and for him that was like really kind of a sand thing. and i didn't -- sad thing. and i didn't really understand it until i was a senior because i was actually leaving. and it was really, you know, a very similar feeling when i ended up leaving the white house at the end of 2011. you know, it was kind of the end of a team for me, and, you know, i do miss it. but i think, you know people are still nice to me. i'm not -- i don't get the cold shoulder. you know? i have vacations. [laughter] it's, like not all bad. >> follow up to that would be would you just be allowed to go back in? i mean, are you still -- now that you're out like, is the door closed, you know what i mean? is that the end of the era? >> i don't know. the guy that took my job is really good. [laughter] i don't know that, i don't know that i would ever be able to take his job. but who knows? you never know. [laughter] you never know how these things turn out. i have no idea. good question. >> hi my name's -- [inaudible] and i'm just wondering, so you came up here, and you started as a staff assistant and then-senator obama's office did you know that he planned to run for president? and then sort of -- when did you sort of figure out that he was planning, and did you think that it was a good idea? did you think he'd win during the primary and or the of talk about that journey -- sort of talk about that journey. >> that's actually a really good question. so one, when i moved here, it was january of '06. i would have told you there was like a 0% chance that he would run for president in 2008. like very -- no chance. so that was a midterm election year. so by september of 2006, you know, he was like, i think he raised more money for the dscc and the dccc than any other person. i mean, it was like -- and you really, it was kind of like, it was almost like something out of a movie. and at that point in time, you know we still thought that, you know, he was young, he's not even done a whole term. you think it's a possibility but you don't really know. and then by the time he decides that he's going to run, you still think, man, this is a very crowded field. secretary clinton or senator clinton at the time is very formidable. but for me i kind of thought, look if a guy named barack husain obama runs for president and comes close and, you know maybe he's thought of for vp, for me, that was a win. i thought, i mean, that would show so many people out there that like, anything is really possible in this country. and that was really enough in my mind, to even make it seem like it made any sense at all going through that entire process. and so no i don't, i don't think it was ever like really really apparent that he was going to win and be the president until mitt romney -- i mean until john mccain said the fundamentals of the economy is strong, and then the stock market dropped -- [laughter] 10,000 points in, like a day. so, you know, you were just kind of on the journey to seeing what happens. >> my name is don, i'm from a place called the chi tack what institution in western new york state. my question is you said you were 22 and didn't know anything about anything, i think is your term. let me tell you, it doesn't get any better. i'm 78 -- [laughter] and i know less about anything than i used to know. [laughter] my question is you worked and played for two very extraordinary men, coach k. and the president of the united states. do you have any comparison about these two men? were they similar, where their differences were, and what was it like really to be associated with these two people? >> there's a lot of stuff i can talk about that on. i think, one well the first thing that i definitely learned from coach k. was sort of the value of representing your brand. you know like, when i was growing up, i always thought reggie reggie, reggie, reggie, reggie reggie, reggie and then like, more reggie. [laughter] so when i got to duke, that was really the first place that i wouldn't take it back, i was part of smack that was actually -- part of something that was actually more than me. that team by being there, it represented every guy that had came before us that had put the jersey on, all the hard work and all the preparation and all the people that had put into to build the program. and that's very similar in terms of what it felt like when i got here to when the president was sworn in 2009. you know, i was, like, lucky to be there and like, really excited to be will but felt -- to be there but felt this overwhelming sense of this is so much bigger than i could ever be and i'm just lucky to be a part of it. and because of that, because of being lucky to be a part of it, i needed to really value the experience and having being there. and then in terms of comparativeness, look, they are like, the hardest working guys, you know stay up until two in the morning reading briefings, watching tape, preparing going through notes. they're both the hardest working people in their organizations. there's nothing that those guys like won't do in order to be prepared to have a chance for success. i think the differences is that, you know, like coach k., you know it's like kind of a dictatorship right? [laughter] he can do what have he wants whenever he wants to do it -- whatever he wants whenever he wants to do it. i think the president has a little bit his, you know his triangle of people is a much more complicated group of individuals to work with. but i think, you know, nonetheless, i think he handles it well given, you know that's his deal. and i think the things that they're a little bit different on is that -- and i always laugh about this. i didn't write about this. it was, you know, coach k., like coach k. knows basketball. like, he really really knows basketball. like the president he's got to know like, everything. [laughter] he's got to know world leaders he even knows some basketball -- [laughter] but i i still laugh to this day. i got like i must have gotten 100 e-mails in which, you know, it happens every year. march madness here goes, can't wait. the president's not going to pick duke begun. and, then -- again. and then the first year he comes in, he picks us to lose to villanova, which we actually did that year. [laughter] and, you know, i guess someone asked coach k., they said so the president didn't puck you guys to beat villanova, and reggie works for him, what do you think that means, and i think coach k. said let me worry about basketball, and let the president worry about the economy. [laughter] >> reggie how you doing? my name is chris. congratulations onering man. >> thank you. -- on everything man. >> thank you. >> do you think president obama's going to have his library in chicago? [laughter] or hi? or hawaii? >> i'll let the next person who's going to ask a question answer that question. [laughter] i think it'll be in chicago but i have no idea. >> hi there, reggie. my name's marvin. i'm a big fan. [laughter] i really enjoyed your book, and i apologize i got here a little late. but i was wondering if you could discuss briefly, i hear this bodyguard thing is really hard to do, and i was witness standerring if you could talk about what it was like on the campaign compared to in the white house and maybe the good parts of both or the pad part t of both if -- bad parts of both, if you could, and my other question would be was there a point during the primary where you thought that maybe we're going to win? and then again in the general? [laughter] >> those are good questions. >> thank you. >> so i think, i think during the primary, during the campaign days being a bodyguard was like a lot. it was hard. it was really hard. i was like, carrying a lot of stuff. nobody was helping me. [laughter] you didn't have a lot of, you didn't have -- there wasn't as much infrastructure. you really kind of had to, you know, rely on, you know, a select few people that you kind of knew who were going to be in different cities to really help sort of with the process of finding, like, fried walleye to eat or, you know, some chicken sandwich with extra mayonnaise. [laughter] yeah. [laughter] i think, but i also think it was fun. i think there was, like, an excitement about, you know, being out and being with people less insular. and i think i got to spend a lot of time with this guy who was the trip director who was really good. >> i heard about him. [laughter] >> legendary guy. >> yeah legendary. [laughter] you know, during the white house, the white house was great too. you got to -- i mean, look i've probably seen more places in the world now because of having worked at the white house, places that i probably never would have seen, and i i think i made relationships that i never probably would have had had i not had that experience, but it's a little more rigid, you know? a lot of papers to sign, a lot more phone calls, trip calls you know? can't, like, hang anything on the wall without getting, you know, five people to sign off on it. [laughter] but still, nonetheless, you have real impact. you could really see the impact that you were having on sort of the american people. i remember the first day, the first visit that he went to walter reed and he's in visiting a patient, and in this guy, like, lost one of his limbs and he had all this pittsburgh paraphernalia on the wall. and he goes, he says to him, he says, you know hey, reggie come over here. he's like, this guy -- he's a huge steelers fan. you know, why don't you have jim rooney send him, you know, a jr. city. and -- a jersey. you know, and it's like you send it over, the guy gets it, his family like, sends a picture of him wearing it, you know writes this like, really powerful note about how this is such an inspiring thing. stuff like that you don't, you don't see that stuff like any other place. and really sort of makes you know that what you're doing is actually having an impact right then and there. so i don't know. i definitely -- i miss both, to be totally honest. i want to do another presidential campaign. [laughter] i hear there's one in 2016. >> i think that's right. >> i think they're looking for a trip director. [laughter] >> then the primary, you like woke up one miles an morning and you're, like hey, i think we might win the nomination, and then again in the general hey, we might just win this thing? >> in the primary, i know man. i thought we could win the primary the day we were in indianola, the harkin steak fry, and there were literally i mean he, like goes in to the steak fry like in a sea of obama os and like probably, you know a thousand people or so. and i was like if a guy named barack obama can do this in iowa, he can do it anywhere. [laughter] yeah. during the general election no. definitely when i knew for a fact that after mccain made that comment that we were like, gonna one. i think i started talking to the trip director about it. i was like, man, if we win, i definitely should not go. >> go where? >> to the white house. >> glad you did. thank you sir. appreciate it. >> that's a great question. what was your name again? >> marvin. marvin. [laughter] [applause] [inaudible conversations] >> my question has to do with taking you back when you were younger. you mentioned earlier when you went to school and you looked around and you said these people don't look like me, and they don't sound like me, and, you know, i don't know about being here. at our own school my kids' school, we're looking at issues of equity and just sort of how do we go about as a community, like, really making everybody feel comfortable and welcome. and i would be interested in sort of what -- like if you have any advice of sort of things that people did that made it harder for you or things that people did that made it more of a community and made you feel sort of pulled in and part of it. >> i would -- that's a really good question. so i think in terms of feeling a part of it, you know i still i get e-mails today from like the parents of my friends who went to the school that i went to providence day. clifford and althea callday, i lived on the other side of town and so i couldn't go home between sort of practice and then school, and they would invite me over to say hey, if you need a place to study or a place to grab a meal or, you know, take a nap or do whatever, you know and they didn't, like, have to do it. they barely knew me. they just knew that i went to school with their kids. but, you know definitely like, opened up their homes and their hearts to me, and, you know something that i don't -- i have not forgotten and am still appreciative to to this day. thicks that -- things that like, made it tougher, i don't think there was anything that made it tougher that someone specifically did to me, but i think -- look, i'm on the board of providence day now and it's something that's really important to me. but i do think that, you know, the cost of especially for some of these schools where they do, like, a lot of extracurricular activities and so the baked-in price for school -- not actually the sticker price it's really like the sticker price with a 10 or 15% increase because you've got, like, you know, lunches and uniforms and class trips and, you know all sorts of things, all sorts of things out there that require, like additional resources that aren't always calculated into sort of that budget for when people are saying, all right, i'm going to send my can kid to this school. and so -- my kid to this school. so what we've done at providence day is we actually have a, we have a pool of money that is given all from private, it's all private money that's given, and it's given to one of the teachers and they have like sort of a discretionary fund for people who basically -- and so they're not in a scenario which they want to participate and be a part of whatever class activity's out there, yet they don't have the resources to do it. so it's not necessarily -- obviously, that's not like, the solution in the world but i think it's something that helps. but i think that's really, you know it's hard to be 15 or 16 and you, like want to do what everyone else is doing, doing, and then you're looking around like, you know? it's hard. >> [inaudible] >> brian. >> hey brian. >> congratulations -- [inaudible] >> teacher and ecker, and she's a student -- educator, and she's a student in the d.c. area. one of the questions which you have placed in your book is based on sports exposes character. and with that being the case if you were talking to the youth in the room, what would you tell them would be one piece, what one word they would would be able to use to carry them to the heights where they don't know what life's going to bring towards them but that sport has allowed you to do in your work life? >> man, there's so many words. only one? [laughter] you know i will say i think commitment is probably the biggest piece of it because, you know, so much about your ability to have success is really about what you're willing to put into it, i think, and i -- i don't know if i write this in the book or not. i should have written it if i didn't. but, you know, like are everybody wants to, everyone wants to win and have a championship and be the best, right? .. you know, i think, friendships. i think and if you go back to the book, probably four or five of the guys who are my best friend are the guys i played with. nothing builds a bond stronger than being part of a group and all of the people committing to something bigger than the individuals. that is -- and for me, i told my friends this all of the time, people say what is the thing you love the most and i was like the thing i love the most is i have some of the best people. i love all of my people and i am lucky to have had really great friends and teammates along the way. so i think the relationships and friendships that you build from ports are invaluable. >> okay. thank you. >> no thank you. good luck in your upcoming season. >> hi i have a question. my name is richard. how did you come up with the title of

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