Transcripts For CSPAN3 Time For Choosing Conference Communication 20141213

Actor, and is a spokesman for General Electric, and how these experiences influenced his life in public office. This 90 minute event is part of a Congress Posted by the Young Americans foundation. Start this panel, we have a special video clip we will be showing. In celebration of our time for choosing, event this weekend. Youngans Foundation Americas foundation released clips contrasting reagans vision of america with that of president obama. This one is featuring the subject of entitlements. It is a fitting piece for what we are experiencing in america, and for all of our videos, you. Org. O to yaf we have not massively extended the welfare state. Foodstamp use has surged. Towe asked so many people pass the effect. Thatcher once said the problem with socialism is you eventually run out of other peoples money. They are going to solve all the problems of human misery through government and government planning. Is hardly anybody who will defend this program. The government has made living off welfare a lifestyle choice. With government planning and welfare, they have had almost 30 years of it. Shouldnt we expect government to reuse store this once a while. I said change we could believe in tomorrow. Didnt they tell us in the decline in each year in the number of people leaving help . But the reverse is true. Each year, the need grows greater. Spending is 10 times greater than it was in the depths of the different a of the depression. What are we doing to those we seek to help . We sought to end the problems of government funding. You and i have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we sentence them to take the last step into a thousand years of darkness. [applause] hopefully, that got you guys excited for this panel that is coming up. Spokesman pratt, the for the young Americas Foundation. As a printable Outreach Foundation is the conservative movement, we introduce america to these principles. 96 of you are here today. Givers of a round of applause. Give yourself a round of applause. We provide essential conferences, seminars, educational materials, internships, and people across the country. One of the many projects of young Americas Foundation is the National Journalism center, which since 1977 has trained aspiring Young Journalist in the values of responsible, balanced, and accurate reporting. The balance of real world experience, inequality and quality academic training provides an edge. Panel. Ate this some of the conservative movements best and brightest media stars. [laughter] featured panelist today, and i will briefly introduce each of them, their list of a college mens is too long. They have been reduced a little bit, but their full bios are in your binders. Take a look at those. There are compliments are great. The fox newss channels chief washington correspondent, and the author of the strong man, John Mitchell and the secrets of watergate. A good book if you havent read it. I would recommend it. In may 2013, as many of you may know, james rosen was targeted by the Obama Administration specifically, attorney general eric holder, and he was actually named as a criminal token spirit or, and they found and gave him a search warrant. That was signed off by attorney general eric holder. Keene, who isavid the opinion editor of the washington times. He was formerly the president of the National Rifle association, from 2011 to 2013. He was also the chairman of the american conservative union. During his time at the university of wisconsin in the 1960s, he was actually a leader for his Young Americans for freedom chapter. , cheers to we adhere today. One day you could be david keene. During his time there, he took a strong stance against communism and built a name for himself. Is the cohostdt of fox and friends, one of their latest shows. While at fox news, she has reported on many highprofile news stories. She provided the network with awesome oversight. She does some breakins for breaking news overnight. She is up very early. The threehour time difference is not that great for today. Prior to joining fox news, she served as anchor for wl x tv in columbia, south carolina, where she comes from. She was named the best personality of the year. And lars larson, who is an awardwinning talk radio host and host of the lars larson show, which is being broadcast live from the Reagan Center today after this panel. He is a weekly guest on a variety of fox news shows. He has picked up more than 70 awards during his career. These wonderful panelists have dedicated their time today and have achieved significant compliments in their careers. They will provide valuable insight into reagans unique and effective cure indication styles, as well as an analysis of some of his iconic speeches. It is my pleasure to introduce to you these conservative rock stars. [applause] i will talk as little as possible, because these are all phenomenal panelists. We have nominated david keene to start today. Late to because i was the planning meeting. Unfortunately, that is true. David will begin come and we will continue. The will be time for questions and answers at the end of the panel. Thank you. Its a pleasure be here. One of the reasons we talk to young people is because we were young people ourselves. We knew what we had to do to try and change the world. Its hard for people to a mountain to imagine today what the world was like for conservatives in the 1960s. It was referred to earlier. In our politics and world politics, most political movements that have later impacts began as movements taste on ideas. Based on ideas. They morph into political movements. But the modern conservative movement began, of course, would like to talk about bill buckley. Who after all started when he was at yale and then founded a magazine. I was at the university of wisconsin, not exactly a bastion of rightwing activism. We had the First Student conservative journal of opinion at a College Campus published in the United States. All of this began with an election rules, and begin with students, began with ideas. The importance of Ronald Reagan and earlier, Barry Goldwater, was that they accelerated the morphing of that movement of ideas into a political movement. They began to take the various strains of american conservatism, and conservatives have always been a fractious bunch. We talked earlier about there were libertarians and traditionalists, those days there were all kinds of different people. Eventually, you had the libertarians talking about selling the roads and the post offices. Talkingtraditionalists about things we dont even talk about anymore. Time, and the genius of bill buckley at national review, and the rolled it very goldwater and later, Ronald Reagan played was to take these diverse views, but all based on the same values, and turn them in to a politically viable movement. About the Goldwater Campaign in 1934 earlier. But it was in 1961 Barry Goldwater was nominated for the vice presidency, and in withdrawing his name from nomination at the convention said ro up, conservatives. , conservatives. We can take this party, and we can take this country. Four years later, we did. We took the party, we didnt take the country, but it was indeed the most consequential losing campaign on the conservative side in modern history. The two most consequential residential losers in modern American History you transform their party, one was very goldwater and the republican party, and the other was George Mcgovern and the democratic party. And why did they transform their parties . The people who drove those campaigns were young people. 20 years later, those young people were running their parties for good or ill, depending on the party were looking at, and were the candidates that were running for public office. 1970s, thelate late david broder of the Washington Post wrote a book in which she said probably the most important political Youth Organization of the mid20th century was young americas for freedom. While everyone was focused on campus riots and demonstrations in the antiwar movement, Young Americans for freedom was training a generation of leaders who all of a sudden in 1976 and 1980, popped up out of nowhere in terms of the major medias view, and took over the country. With a candidate named Ronald Reagan. That is true. Shirley,ber when craig who was on the earlier panel he was writing his book, he asked to look at video he got of newscasts from the 1976 campaign. I went over there and looked at it and said oh my god, we were kids. What made us think we could take over the United States of america. Was 34. Ger i was in my 20s when i ran this through Ronald Reagan. The whole campaign, with the exception of a few senior advisors was like that. Thats what it takes to change the world, and thats why the works of the young Americas Foundation does is so important. Unless this generation does what we tried to do, with limited success, we are not going to have that rendezvous with destiny that Ronald Reagan talked about. What is politics about . Politics, rightly viewed, is a noble undertaking designed to advance certain ideas and views of society. Ronald reagan came to symbolize for all of us the kind of society, the kind of america that we wanted. And why did he do that . Not just because you shared our values. Not just because he was wellversed in the political philosophers. Evansob novak and rowland went to see Ronald Reagan for the first time, there had been all this stuff about what a dummy he was. He was an actor. They asked him about some philosophers. It was a little bit likely asking is recounting of him about witness, because he started rattling off all these people that he read and quoting from and all that. And bob said i went back to the office, i had not heard of half these guys. [laughter] and we realized he knew more about it than the people who were criticizing him. Later, after Ronald Reagans death, there was a program that Robbie George did at princeton on the past, present, and future of american conservatism. They had a panel at the conference on Ronald Reagan. One of the panelists was lou cannon. At it a habit of you have read blue cans work. He was a journalist in california whose first Ronald Reagan was about Ronald Reagan and jesse and ray here in california. There was reference this morning to the fact that Ronald Reagan really hated to fly. When he ran for governor of california, he had to. Lou was with him as a californiabased reporter when they had a storm, they barely made it to the ground. Opening,hat was my because reagan was so shaken up answered every question that i had. They didnt have to focus on the plane ride. They were on the panel and lou spoke, and he covered reagan as president , he covered him as governor. Speech at the end of his he said i wake up every morning realizing that Ronald Reagan was a greater president than i thought it was the night before when i went to sleep. Stan evans, one of the early journalistic leaders and activists leaders in the conservative movement immediately was on his feet. He said when the speech ended lou, i listen to the speech, and i think i understood what you said. But i also read your book. Lou had written a book at the end of the Reagan Administration called role of a lifetime, which was dismissive of Ronald Reagan. , is howmy question lou can the man who wrote that book of the speech . Lou said the answer to that is very simple, im still alive, i still think, and i still learn. And every day i learned that reagan was a greater president than i thought he was before. That is the correct answer, because we in this country do constantly revisit our history, and our history is important because without that history, we dont know where we are going to we will get there. Understood the history, he understood activism. Likeis great ability, they to call him the great comedic it are. He was. His acting background helped in that regard. Fact, and this goes to one of the edwards comments earlier. He had a photographic memory. You could remember everything. He can quote paragraphs from books because it was all there in his memory banks. At one point during the primaries, his speeches kept getting longer. Reagan would make notes on three by five cards and keep them. He would refer to them. He never had a prepared text, but he had these notes, and one would remind him of a story, this and that. Going into the florida primary, we sent a guy and his real one third of the notes. It never phased in. The speech was one third shorter, but just as good as it has been when it was longer. He had all of this in his head. He was able to do it. I was reminded of that talent, because when you think about it, if you are dealing in ideas, what is the greatest asset, the greatest tool you can have . Thats the ability not just understand the ideas, but to articulate them. Ronald reagan did that better than anybody. I talked to reporters about this in 1976. The typical reagan scene would be three economists would come to brief him privately, and they would talk to him and explain all these things. Then they would go away saying hes not up to it. Hes not that smart. They would go to the bar to have a drink, and then reagan would be on television and tell some little parable that would exactly encompass everything he had learned so that anybody, including all the other people at the bar could understand it. And the economists would say its more cop located in that. Hes not that smart. Complicated than that. Hes not that smart. Is the essence is taking ideas and communicating them with people who would understand what you are saying. That was the genius of Ronald Reagan. Years laterout that at the conservative Political Action process. It was the year when trent lott was the senate leader. It once and attlee, we were passing out an award. I asked Charlton Heston to come do it. It was a throwaway. He was in town, this was going to be 10 minutes he was going to talk. That afternoon, heston came to the hotel, he went down to the podium, and then he went up and practiced his speech. His remarks he was going to use for 10 minutes that no one was paying him for, it had no purpose other than he was doing us a favor. That evening, he came out and knocked the audience dead. , somebody,showed up and this is typical of american politicians, the champion of it was gerald ford, who never looked at his speech until after he delivered it. But trent lott showed up, they handed him the speech, and he read it, mispronouncing most of the names in the speech, and making a terrible impression. Afterwards i said to him i thought about todays experience on the you have to rely same tools that child heston has to rely on. Thats your ability to communicate, and you can do it. You can do it because you are not doing your job. You are not taking it seriously. You consider the communication part of your job to be a throwaway. Listen to politicians. Half of them dont bother to learn how to communicate with the people they need to communicate with to hold their jobs, let alone to change the direction of the country. Was indeed the great communicator because he understood that. And because he was able to look at things and draw the essence of the ideas out of those things, and then communicate them to the public that understood. That is a rare talent. It is much rarer than i would ever have thought it was when i was your age and went to washington to listen to these guys. G,ee, thesend think guys have gotten elected. Jim covers washington. You wonder after about a week how any of these people, or how most of them there are some who are pretty good. But whatever possessed them to think they could be elected in the first place . They neither grasp ideas or have any idea to communicate them. If you are looking at what we want to accomplish, thats what its about. Its about communication. Its about being able to convince others of the rightness of your cause. But there is Something Else too. If we go back to the speeches, to Ronald Reagans speech. Is of the interesting things the world never really changes, which is one of the reasons you want a look back at historys you can avoid screwups that others have under undertaken. There was some reference in an earlier panel about the fact that there was an argument about whether the reagan speech would actually be allowed to be aired in the 19th 24 campaign. Others whochell and were in the goldwater high command went to the senator and said its a crazy speech. We dont really need it, we want to rerun this other thing. It turned out as bill middendorf thatvered, it turned out the ad buying firm, the consultants would miss out on a 2300 commission if they used the reagan speech because it was independently funded. Its what we would call an independent expenditure. They wanted a kill it and use that mightve put something on the air for which they would get a commission. Which just tells you the consultants have never changed overall of those years. They are not to be trusted. Ultimately it aired of course, because they went to goldwater and goldwater said what is wrong with the speech . Kitchell couldnt tell him. So then bury listen to it and said it sounds fine to me, we might as well go with it. And they did go with it. And that made model reagan. Lee edwards in the earlier panel says at the end of the speech ,here was a request for funds which resulted in raising some 8 million. I was involved in the 1976 Reagan Campaign. History has a strange way of repeating itself. Managersreagans didnt buy into this idea of these long speeches. Got roger and others ailes and some others, and they made little 32nd commercials. Reagan was going down the chute fast. He lost in new hampshire, he lost through the midwest, he walked he lost florida. Spring, there were negotiations going on between his chairman and his manager with gerald fords people to get reagan out. Willing people were not to compromise in a friendly way because they wanted this guy beaten down and gone so they would never have to worry about him again. Meanwhile, although this is not the whole reason this happened, meanwhile, reagan kept saying you know, the ads were worse than that. They were sort of film noir ads. The managers has decided that reagans greatest weakness was that he was too smooth and of the American People wanted someone who was more of a klutz. They made these amateurish advertisings so they would look like it was a hollywood production. Reagan would just that theyre looking this stuff and go you know, iowas thought the way to get votes was you just talk to people. Just go on television and talk to them. Meanwhile, the campaign was completely broke. They had no money. Reagan went to wisconsin, later to be the primary that helps launch him in his successful effort in 1980. United airlines had his charter, they took his airplane while he was in wisconsin. That is a campaign that is in trouble, when you were in a primary state in which you are losing a new cant get out. Florida, a local tv station had offered a half hour time. Money, reagano won in a given speech for a half an hour. We got a tape of it. And then some people so lets run in North Carolina. Lets run a nationally. You could still do it in those days. The next day, we were weighing mailbags filled with money and the banks were lending us money based on the weight of the mailbags because you couldnt process the money that fast. Barry goldwater hadnt have existed, Ronald Reagan wouldnt have given that speech in 1964. If he had given that speech in 1964, he wouldnt have been governor or president ial nominee. If he hadnt had that experience, he wouldnt have told his managers by golly, i have always done a shift talk to the people. If he hadnt done that based on his own experience, he wouldnt have won the nomination in 1980. He wouldnt have been president of the United States. That all goes to his ability to see to the essence of problems and communicate with the people. He said constantly, the essence of politics is to talk to the people and tell them what you think, and what you believe in. And tell them that you share their values. He was a master that. Thank you david. [applause] we are going to move on to ainslie our heart. Ainslie ehrhardt. Thank you, ashley. Ashley is on hannity show a lot. Thank you for your hard work. She is not much older than most of you, and she has a fantastic job. You are such a leader and we all love you. Thank you for the donors for carrying on reagans legacy. Because of you guys, we are able to tell his story, to learn, to grow, and to become better communicators. Im so glad to be able to talk to you guys. College is a fun experience. It says a lot about you and who you are as individuals to be here and not at a Fraternity Party or Sorority Party this weekend. Im excited. They could be because its still the morning time. Dont rule it out. [laughter] just invite us. When ashleyt asked me to talk today, i thought i knew a lot about Ronald Reagan from learning about him in school and just admiring him as a great communicator. To dive into his personality and who he was as a person. As a journalist, i interviewed a lot of people who know a lot about him, including his sun, and kt mcfarland, the pentagon speech. She heard me up with a senior director of the National Security council. Deputythat job, she was press secretary for Ronald Reagan. Basically the press secretaries assistant or second in line i guess i should say. They all gave me some wonderful stories, so as a journalist, i want to share the stories with you. I also read some books, james and i were talking about that. We read some books and watch the movies about Ronald Reagan. His life which is so fascinating. School,as in elementary i loved him because he loved jellybeans and that was my favorite food. And i love them for different reasons. I will expend some of that area when i did learn he was raised as a christian. His mother was disciples of christ, his father was a catholic. His brother went to mass with his dad and followed his dads footsteps. He followed his mother as a protestant to disciples of christ church. At 11 years old, he gave his life to christ. His father was a shoe salesman with a breaking problem. Even though what ive read about his father, he seen like use a decent man, he had this disease they got images in trouble. He lost his jobs continuously. The family moved around the midwest, and i think that probably helped reagan because with this positive attitude, he saw it as a way to enhance his social skills and to meet new people and have new friends. That was the way he looked at life. It was always glass half full, not half empty. In high school, he was a football player, a very good athlete, he was also the star of many other productions as an actor. He started his theater career in high school. He went on to college and followed his high school girlfriend. Her father was the pastor of his church. Andwent to eureka college, he followed her. He was a jack of all trades. He was a cheerleader, he was in a fraternity, he played football, he was captain of the swim team. He was the student body president and he starred in 20 different plays in college. Thats a lot. And he kept his grades up and was obviously, very wise and very smart, he had a photographic memory. But he was a simple man. We will take it to her of the reagan ranch, which im excited about. I understand when they bought the house it was 800 square feet. His sons said any additions, dad did with his own hands. It was a very modest house. He said my father did not have pictures of all the celebrities he met on the walls. Unlike many of the offices of people i know it fox news. [laughter] not you. We have a few friends, not that thats wrong. But i love that about him. Everyone was equal, no one was a celebrity in his eyes. Some people just have really cool jobs. My father, andf of your fathers, just a good old boy who worked hard to put food on the table for his family. That was his background. He thought his mom was a terrible cook him a verrilli they were so broke they can only afford to buy liver as their meat. His mom cooked with liver every night, and tried to change the recipe. But the liver was just bad. He graduates from school, hes this great leader on campus. You would think he would be able to find a job. It was a very stressful time in your life when youre looking for a job, but not to worry. You can become president. After college, he could not get a job. He wanted to work in radio. His father did not support that. Depression,ime when his father bought into the fact that you couldnt get a job. He said youd need to get a job. Be a hardworking man and stay home and work in our local community. Soma, reward was moving into their town. Was that a Department Store . Like sears . Why my looking at you, david . [laughter] in,gomery board was moving and there was a Sports Department and they needed some one to run the sports to permit. Department. He was applying for that job. He did not get the job. He thought him a shooin because i was a star athlete. Everyone knows who i am. But another kid who was a star athlete on the Vascular Team got the job. He was bummed about this. A plan mom says god has for you, and every thing happens for a reason. You dont understand why god is not answering your prayer now, but you will down the road. She always said of something goes wrong, dont let it get you down. Step away from it, step over, and move on. And it turns out that random turn of the road ended up being a blessing in disguise. He came home and father said borrow my car, go to all the radio stations in the state of illinois, go to iowa stations as well, and try to find a job. So his father supported them in that regard. He borrowed his dads car, he gets a job as a radio announcer. If you ever had time, you should find out how he got the job. He learned to think on his feet pretty quickly with this radio job because he was announcing the chicago cubs games. They were playing their arch rival, the st. Louis cardinals. The game was tied 00 in the ninth inning. The telegraph went down, so Ronald Reagan is announcing the game. I read about them. [laughter] the guy operating the telegraph machine is at the stadium. He is watching the playbyplay. He sends it to Ronald Reagan. The telegraph goes down. Ronald reagan knows he has competitive radio stations. So the telegraph goes down and it is in the what to do. Instead of saying to his weience and being truthful, just lost the game, he knew they would go to the radio station. So to keep his listeners, he just arent making things up. He said the batter is at home plate, he swings, foul ball. And then another foul ball. Another foul ball. Nine foul ball. People stopped him on the streets and said that as a world record. Finally, the telegraph starts working, thankfully. He gets the playbyplay, he catches up to the ends the game. He was getting his training very early on. Then he moved to hollywood, he is an actor, president of the screen actors guild. He marries his first wife. They have two biological daughters. One daughter dies the day after she was born. The first letter was maureen. They adopted their sons michael, and parents were divorced. Then he meets nancy davis, shortly after. And they were married. Two children, patti and ron. If you ever read their love story, they are so sweet. They never stop courting. He was quoted as saying whatever i treasure and enjoy, all would be without meaning if i didnt have you. Then he worked for General Electric. Kt mcfarland told me this was when america really paid attention to him. General electric was the largest American Company at the time. Were going on, people were stopping, they didnt want to work for these major corporations anymore because they felt like they were getting paid enough, the corporations were getting a lot of money, it was a like communism was introduced at this point. Ronald reagan was hired not only to work on the ge television show, it was called General Electric theater, and he was the host of that show, but he had to travel around a spokesperson for ge. He would go to these small towns, he hated the flies would always take the train. He would go to three or four different towns every day, giving three or four speeches every day. Helping him to be a better communicator. He would go into this big room of people out of the factory, wherever it was, and everyone would show up to hear him speak because he was the biggest thing since sliced bread that come in to their hometown. He was the big hollywood actor. Everyone showed up to hear him speak. He is standing on a box in front of the entire group, speaking to americans about how ge is so thank for your are working for the corporation and ge is making just a modest profit this point, they are not making as much as you think. His job was to encourage them not to strike and to stay with the company. Everyone loved him, and everyone did what he said. So ge was Just Brilliant to come up with this plan. For he gives his time choosing speech, which was 50 years ago on monday. Is what america recognized them. They are the loved him for the ge thing, because he was learning their stories, he was listening to them and meeting people, and shaking hands, unlike politicians today. Most politicians go to the big donor parties, either about these that they go to where 23 20,000 a plate. Ronald reagan is standing on boxes and talking to people. He gives the speech in california for Barry Goldwater, and everyone recognizes them and no seminole of some after that beach. He becomes governor of california where he served two terms. In 1980, he ran for president. If you get a chance, you should watch the youtube clip. Its hilarious. He believes that everyone was equal. We are all important, we are all gods children. Theres a plan for all of our lives. He didnt go to an ivy league school, he didnt come from a wealthy background, he came from illinois. He wanted every thing to be fair. The primary in new hampshire, he was running against george h. W. Bush. These were the two front runners. They have a primary in new hampshire, and they had a podium like this. He has been asked to debate george bush. He says what about the other candidates . Therefore five other people that need their fair share. The newspaper sponsoring it said absolutely not. We want to hear from you guys. We dont have time to hear from them. Ronald reagan says i will pay for this debate. The newspaper will not sponsor this. I will just pay for it. I can make the rules. So they show up, and Ronald Reagan had a divided the other candidates. They are on stage, trying to talk and trying to answer questions. The moderator is furious. He says these guys were not invited. And Ronald Reagan the moderator says mr. Sound guy, turn off Ronald Reagans microphone. Saypresident is trying to they need to speak. On . Ays is this microphone up,ushes back, stands realize that is, and he says mr. Moderator, i am paying for this microphone, and the crowd goes wild. He was standing up for the little guy. He was a shooin, he won. He won the presidency in 1981. Hes inaugurated. That his first thing on his agenda was National Security. He invited the cia, secret service, fbi, and a Permanent Defense into the oval office and they talked about National Security. When he believed in some thing and wanted to happen, it would happen. Like the berlin wall. He standing in front of the brandenburg state dates, and he says mitchell gorbachev, tear down this wall. They said that wall is not coming down, thats just a pipe dream. 10 years later, the wall came down. Aen he gives a speech on Missile Defense system and kt mcfarland said she was there. Critics call of the star wars speech. Hes giving the speech. The soviet union has nuclear weapons. We have nukes. Who will attack first . Bloodstone attacked because we dont have a missile attack well, lets not attacked because we dont have a Missile Defense system. We dont want another country to have those. We need to be the superpower. So hes in the white house, and he gives this speech to america about basically you strike us, you will regret it. As part of his speech. Deterrence means simply this. Compare this to what we are dealing with now. Turns means making sure that any adversary that things about attacking us or our interests conclude that the risk to him outweigh any potential gains. Once he understands that, he wanted to. We maintain these through strength, weakness only invites aggression. Think about isis, think about what were dealing with in other countries, hes saying dont ever try it. The risk to you will outweigh any potential gain. A bunch of scientists were invited to her that speech. They all gathered in this office, all the scientists that have different specialties. She says the president walks into the oval office and looks at all of them and says all right, i challenge you now. Come up with a missiledefense system because we dont have one. She read that as being a defining moment for our country. Scientist look at each other and start brainstorming, coming up with a plan. For his was known humor. Even in the midst of a crisis. She said she was supposed to be there when he was shot. She said she was supposed to be there, her boss said stay back at the white house. You deal with the work we have to do there, i will go with the president. It will be a small thing. They are walking out, shots rang out, and her boss is shot and paralyzed as a result of it. Ronald reagan doesnt realize you shot. He things a secret service guy when really, he was shot. He goes to the hospital, realizes he is shot. Nancy reagan comes to the hospital, and she is just distressed. She is talking to the doctors in fines and find sentry two season, he looks up and says nancy, i forgot to duck. He looks at the doctors as they are wheeling him into the operating room and says i hope you are all republicans. They said sir, today we are. He stayed in touch with all of those doctors who saved his life throughout his life. He maintained correspondence with them. She was at a dinner party and the guy she was sitting next to says my father was one of the doctors, and he sent letters all the time. Was a nurse there that was apparently beautiful, and she was holding his hand. He never found out who she was. He woke up after surgery, he cant eat, but he is awake. He cant talk. He asks for paper and pen, and someone does handed to him, and writes white room, white ceiling, beautiful nurse, im alive, arent i . He asked the nurse, does nancy know about us . [laughter] after the recovery, he has to give his first speech. The whole staff was trying to find out how we going to do this . A regard to do this in the oval if this happened now. We hear that the president is doing ok, but we want to see for ourselves to make sure this is reality. The whole world was watching. They decide to do it in front of congress. He walks in, the standing ovation. They got so many letters while he was in the hospital from concerned citizens making sure he was ok. In Ronald Reagan fashion, he wants to start his speech was something funny. So he read the letter the little boy sent him while he was in the hospital. It said dear mr. President , i hope you get well quick, or you might have to make a speech in your pajamas. [laughter] in all the pictures, he was waving to the crowd in his pajamas from the hospital. There was the state of Union Address when the challenger blew up. It was the First Teacher that was going into space. In the middle of the state of the Union Address that night, because the press was invited to learn about what he was going to say. In the middle of that he received a note, similar to president bush receiving that note on 9 11 when he was reading to the classroom. He went into the oval office, theres not a tv in the oval office. He says we went into the side room to watch the tv, and coverage was the challenger has blown up. All of the astronauts are dead. All of the school kids are watching. We are nothe says doing the state of the Union Address, im going to talk to the children who are watching. In closing, i just want to share a few more things. Talking toned from individuals he could not have won without nancy. Behind every great man is a great woman. Guys, remember this. Everyone loved her as much is they loved him. He never met a stranger. When he walked into a room, he genuinely loved to be there. A lot of politicians are looking for the back door. I was at the airport the other day and i thought what would Ronald Reagan do . And said i watch fox news, and i invited him to sit down and talk. I was inspired by Ronald Reagan to do that. Sometimes you think i want to be one myself. It was just a neat experience. I learned a lot about this man. Finally, where is our next Ronald Reagan . Im hearing this from everyone i talked to. He was very positive. This is the story he would always share. There was a father with two boys, a pessimist and an optimist. The father placed the pessimist in a room with new toys. He placed the optimist in a room with the newer. When he returned, the pessimist was crying. The optimist was digging through a pilot maneuvered. When the father asked the optimist what he is doing, the boy replied i know theres a pony in here somewhere. Many what people many people want to know where pony is. Maybe it is one of you guys. His last day in office his sons that it was a sad day because he had been the oval office for eight years. He sat at the desk in the oval office, and he said to america i thought this was cool. He says if you walk out of the oval office and down the hallway, and new gold the stairs, that is where nancy i have lived for the last eight years. It is home to us. Im picturing this. To leturnalist, i need you all visualize my words. That goes back to his acting and radio days. This is what he said when he boarded air force one for the last time to come back to california. He was flying over this beautiful great country that we all live in that we are so fortunate to live in. He says the Emerald Hills of appalachia, the farms of small towns of the midwest, the Granite Peaks of the rockies, the rugged deserts of the southwest, and finally, the panorama of southern california. It truly is america the beautiful. And god has indeed shed his grace on the. [applause] thank you. You guys and switched up on me. At wanton i dont know who wants to go next. We saved the best for last. Ainslie just spoke. [laughter] i didnt mean to slight you. Thats why i have to do so many hours in the air. Have to make up for what i dont have an talent with volume. [laughter] but i will tell you this. I feel incredibly blessed by god. I am lucky enough to make my living in the communications business, broadly stated. Basically, i talk for a living. Its the best job you can have. Its usually in an airconditioned room. But there is ugly emotion called envy. I am deeply envious of the Communications Abilities of president Ronald Reagan. I have been in journalism for almost 40 years, and one of my deeper gretz is that i never deep regrets is that i never met the man. I have met president s and Vice President s, but i never got a chance to meet president reagan because i was a local News Reporter at the time he was president. And i was a kid when he was governor of the state. I want to tell you a few things about his ability as a communicator. Verych as i feel i am fortunate to be able to make my living doing what i do, i was just a straightahead reporter for a long time and cover stories. I kept my opinions out. Talki switched to doing said we thought you were a liberal. You were in television, so we assumed you were liberal. [laughter] present company excepted, thats not a bad conclusion. About 90 of Television Newsrooms are really democrats and vote for the left. Back to reagan. Heres what i admire about him. You can take these lessons that he could show us as a communicator and make use of them. I will start with the skill you can only get by just doing it over and over again. Ainslie talked about all the speeches he gave. I have to believe that some of what he did was innate ability, which its just dna or the way you were raised. And some of it was just plain practice and hard work. Let me start with this. He had the ranch. I dont know how many you have seen the ranch. This was a man who made a decision after he was governor of this state, and before he ran successfully for president. He made the decision he was going to do commentaries. The history says that all three networks offered him the opportunity to do television commentaries. ,elevision was a huge deal especially in the 70s because the internet theres no internet. No email, no twitter, none of that that you have as a regular part of your life. There was television, and then there was radio. There were a lot of people who businesshat i have my and radio, so im biased. What they thought television was where its at. Thats the big business. If you are a Television News anchor, its the best place to be a communicate. Reagan turned them down. He said im going to do radio commentaries. I know a lot of people, even the political consultant thought that is crazy. You want to be on television. He said i want people to Pay Attention to what i am saying. I respectt or not, these two and all of their colleagues. I work with the folks at fox a lot. Television has that cosmetic piece to it that, if youre it is out of alignment if your tie is out of limit, the audience will see it. I do like the color of the dress she is wearing. Reagan knew that, and that is one of the keys as a communicator to know where to take your message. And how to get your message across, even if it isnt the coolest, neatest, greatest place to do it. The second thing he did, and their stories around Ronald Reagan that really to this. My great regret is that i never met the man. Somebody walked up to one of his Staff Members and, it might have been nice that told me the story, they said who does governor reagan have writing those commentaries for him . The answer was he writes them. The expression from the questioner was disbelief. No politician writes there are. Ords their own words they have people to do that for them. When Ronald Reagan was fly the Santa Barbara would fly to Santa Barbara, there was a car ride. You can imagine, you are in a station wagon, on your way up to the top of the hill. And it is quite a ride. If you are not into heights. He would sit in that car, well someone else was driving, and on a yellow legal pad, he would handwrite these commentaries. Areow that most of you students or young professionals, you write. I have to write a lot. Writing first draft so that it the first time, on a piece of paper, is really hard. Reagan wrote first draft, where a word or two would be changed. And if you want the proof of that, one of my favorite books about reagan its actually a bunch of different documents that i would encourage you all to buy and read and absorb, is called in his own hand, in his own words, and in his own voice. Was, a young researcher, and will than you are, was going through some of the archives and found those yellow legal pads would be had to a secretary. She was supposed to type them up, and then throw away the yellow. She didnt throw away the yellow, went in a folder. Most or all of them was kept. Theres a book that has these printed. You can see the real yellow legal pad. This was a man who could first draft a two and a half for two point five minute radio commentary. The secretary would type it up. You might see an occasional strikethrough on the final type copy, where he would change the word, take one out, put another one in. Cds, or buyn to the them online and download them to ride public i do, you can listen to the way he delivered these commentaries. All created from his hand, and he got a right. So for everybody who wanted to paint him as a dummy, or a man who was not capable, i would double their any of you, sit in the back of a friends car, have them take a drive of a mountain road, take a yellow legal pad, and first draft something that you would hand in one of your instructors or to your boss. Idea you to do it. It is hard. And reagan could do it. The other thing i observed about him as a communicator and that i admire so much is, like i said, im the volume guy. I do six hours brady is a day. Six hours of radio today. Thats easy. Whats hard is the time for choosing speech. To take 30 minutes and encapsulate if you were to count all the ideas in there, it numbers more than 100. To pack that into 30 minutes is very tough. To do it in a way that takes not only what we call the 30,000 view, but the macro also gets it down to specific example so you can understand why his Social Security broke . Its billions of dollars in the hole 50 years ago. Its also broke for the individual worker who will get to retirement and be cheated. Reagan could work both of those ideas and make them seem very personal to the people he was speaking to. He was a master. Im envious, and i feel blessed just a beater with young Americas Foundation to honor the 50 Year Anniversary every time for choosing. A time for choosing. We have james rosen. I was inherent makeup at fox new studio in d. C. , and he comes walking in. I said do i say hi, do i not say hi . I said james. Im ashley with young Americas Foundation. He said the reagan ranch . I said would there be an interesting coming out here . Hes finally here. He talked to meet for 20 minutes and hair and makeup, which is the thing you dont get three often. Thank you for that. And thank you for being here today. Thank you. Can everyone hear me . I want to make sure that the people in the back can hear me. And also the over caffeinated fbi type sitting in the unmarked van outside. [laughter] maybe some coffee and danish out there . I went to think the end Americas Foundation for having us all here. I want to thank ron robinson, the leader of the Americas Foundation, and ashley pratt for bringing me here. Before i do anything else, i wanted knowledge to friends of back, very compost people. If they would stand up so we can all see connie and chris . Lets give a hand. [applause] now, to expand your they are. You will no be were just clapping for. As thespent 30 years manager of elton johns touring company. At a time when not very many women were serving in executive positions in the rock music industry. And chris was the founding bassist of the birds. The California Group which makes him a rock n roll hall of fame member. Aen when often cofounded group with the late graham parsons, which fused rock and country together for the first time. He is a hugely influential figure, im grateful to have them here. One more time for connie and chris here in. [applause] be with you to here, not as a member of any particular movement, but as a reporter. Up were arowing pretty diverse set ranging from the beatles and Hunter Thompson on one hand to William F Buckley and tom wolf on the other hand. William f buckley gave you my start in journalism, arranged for me to publish my first article in national review, arranged for me to get a grant that began work on this biography of the attorney general John Mitchell in the nixon presidency, and is still to this day the highestranking u. S. Official to ever serve time. I never imagined it would take me 17 years to finish that book. But mr. Buckley was aware that his 5k to not go completely unused or wasted. About tom wolf, who was a reporter and the became a novelist and has written such acclaimed books as the right stuff, and bonfire of the vanities emco and a lot of others. The highest, you can pay to a reporter was i we paid to tumble. You may know him as the guy in the white suit. On the back cover of one of his books, it states no one has gotten more of his times down on the paper then tom wolf. I can imagine a more profound compliment through the business of a reporter, after all, what we are actually engaged in, is the inducing of facts to the record of our times. I came of age in the reagan presidency. I was a teenager in his first term. In the moment that crystallized for me that Ronald Reagan was no was in the Reelection Campaign in 1984 during the debate with walter mondale, who was the second debate. The first debate had not gone well for president reagan. He seemed kind of halting, disengaged, and to a lot of eyes, just plain old. He knew that he needed to address this in the second debate. He used humor to do it. Ill never forget watching it. He said, im not going to make age an issue in this campaign. I will not exploit for political value the relative youth and inexperience of my opponent. The whole place went down. Much better than i just delivered it. [laughter] i thought to myself, that must be the key to his success. That must be why he connects with people, or how he connects with people humor. It is undeniably true. For those of you who are interested in joining, building, expanding a movement, i cannot emphasize to you strongly enough value of humor in doing it. It is undeniable that the two conservatives in recent history who really connected with americans, who expanded the movement, or Ronald Reagan and william f ugly and both of them had f buckley and both of them had great senses of humor. The problem in the media is that they are often and justly perceived as humorless. It is the liberals who have a sort of lock on humor. Ronald reagan has proved that. One of my favorite moments of reagan showed that even the great communicator could be bested on occasion. In 1978, before he ran for president , he took part in a televised debate against William F Buckley junior. This is a rare moment when the two were not on the same side over what should be done in the panel mocon now. Tosident carter wanted return the panama canal to panama. Reagan oppose that. William f buckley was in favor. It is not like one person gets 20 minutes. Anyone could speak at any time. It was moderated, weirdly enough, by the former chairman of the Senate Watergate committee. It was televised and an amazing show. At one point reagan says to buckley, well, bill, im am just surprised you havent rushed over here yet to tell me youve seen the light. Buckley stood and he said, i see that, were i to approach you, the force of my illumination might blind you. [laughter] others have suggested that reagans key to success as a communicator is that he is so at ease. Unlike richard nixon, he did not have a problem with television or the camera in general. Roger rosenblatt of time wrote at the time in a lifetime, one does not in cover discover half a dozen people as ease with the camera as Ronald Reagan. What gave him that sense . Very all, he came from a modest background. Setting,renzo l the who was the spiritual adviser to the archbishop of washington during the reagan presidency has been quoted as saying, what you have in Ronald Reagan is a man who is made contact of the most direct and intimate kind with Divine Providence it self. That is why reagan is so serene. I submit to you that that is the real key to reagans success as a communicator. On this before, but it is the fact that reagan was a man of faith and the United States is a country of faith. There is no better way to establish a connection with the American People than to share that faith. If you look back at reagans most memorable speeches, but not just his most memorable speeches really, what we might call the canon of his rhetoric in general, you see time and time again references of his faith. I will give you a couple of examples. In 1982, he gave a speech before British Parliament and he spoke , the free moral agency fact that we have within our own servants to a must. What we mos in the berlin wall speech in 1987, when he said tear down this wall, he said this wall cannot withstand faith. When he spoke in moscow, beneath n, the badleni one, not john lennon. He said when the accumulated spiritual energies of a long silence urine to break free. In the famous evil empire speech, which was given before a group of evangelicals in orlando in 1983, everyone remembered that he called it the evil empire, that he called the soviet union the focus of evil in the modern world. No one remembers that he said, ay for those who live in the totalitarian darkness. Pray that they will discover god. It goes on like that. He once told his mother at a young age, i want to be like that man. Who was he referring to . He was referring to the protagonist of a novel. The protagonist was a poor son of a now call it a father who uses the power of oratory to become a spiritual leader in his small midwestern community. He once wrote, i have always believed in a divine plan and god has such plan for each one of us. When he moved from being a liberal gave speeches on behalf of harry truman in the 1948 campaign and described himself as a liberal democrat, to conservatism, he himself called it a process of selfconversion. Of the influences in that process of conversion was the epic book witness, why Whittaker Chambers, who was a seminal figure in the cold war, for the soviet union and testified against outer hiss alger hiss. His document was a key item in reagans right. To recite from memory was a passage in which Whittaker Chambers was watching his daughter eat her food and he focused on the interests he of her ear. Whittaker said that that is when he realized only god, only a divine presence could create such an intricate element of the human body. That was the passage that reagan used to site from memory. Speechht say he had writers and they wrote tear down this wall and the evil empire speech and so forth. He had six speechwriters at any given time, a total of 14 people. Many women served as speechwriters in the white house. If you read their memoirs about writing for Ronald Reagan, one of them was dana rohrabacher, later a congressman. Who wrote she had about 13 rules of thumbs. Not to use polysyllabic words. Make sure it can be easily translated. Dont go on forever. Dont have a speech for more than half an hour. Start out with a funny story. Make sure there is an interest inspirational story in the end. Maybe one funny thing in the middle. Peter robinson, who wrote the tear down this wall speech, said we speechwriters were never attempting to fabricate an image. We were only attempting to produce words that reagan had standards long ago set. Speeches, radio commentary, syndicated columns. Estimate,st effort reagan must have composed 500,000 words, more writing that any chief executive than Woodrow Wilson. Until he became president , reagan most of his own speeches. The diction of ordinary american speech, a sense of urgency, energy, all contribute to the reagan sound, but the dominant element, the speeches that gave the trumpetlike quality, was his insistence on telling the truth. There was a lot of pressure for ay tear down that wall. As secretary of state did not want him to do it. The National Security advisor at the time, calling powell, did not want him to do it. They fought fiercely with robinson and told him take it out seven times. Even on the limousine ride over to the brandenburg gate, his deputy of staff pleaded with him to take the lineup. Reagan said, i think it is the right thing to do. As a matter of fact, in a televised debate with Robert F Kennedy reagan had in 1967, he called her the berlin wall to come down. How could he be so humorous . How could he be so serene . How could he understand the truth so intuitively and communicate it so well . I submit to you it was because he was a man of faith. A last point. During Barack Obamas first term, a team of political scientists and communications professors employed advanced to perform a content analysis of every president of the United States from George Washington up until barack obama. What did they find . They had to separate out somewhat for inaugural addresses, which tend to be grand and sweeping and invoked speech than your average to the group of columbia, south carolina. [laughter] even while making statistical allowances and training the software appropriately, they found that 59 of reagans major speeches and his speeches to dwelledtive groups on what they called civil religion, which is in rhetorical terms, an effort to communicate to your audience and share with a sense that america is a transcendent place. Speechesl of his dwelled on civil religion. Profounda marked and upsurge from this rhetoric in language from all president s before him. He was the first resident to end his state of the Union Address with may god bless you and may god bless the United States of america. Every president has followed him sense. Not uniformly, and it may surprise you to learn that of the president s that have followed reagan, the one who has ly invoke that phrase was barack obama. They found in their analysis of president ial rhetoric from George Washington to barack obama, Ronald Reagan served as a pivotal shift, a marked moment where you could tell the difference when president s of the United States, by and large, ceased talking to the american or in about institutions institutional terms that is to say, references to the branches of congress, references to alliances and started speaking to the American People about individuals, families, and children. And theird study showed, and i would be happy to supply anyone with the citation for this journal and pivotudy it marked a point. Ever since Ronald Reagan, president s of the United States speak more to families and human. If you combine all that, humor, faith, the truth, simplicity, speaking about americans as individuals and not as broad groups. You will win two terms as president. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much for coming today and share your insights with us and for your friendship and willingness to come before us at young Americas Foundation. Im sure everyone has learned a lot. You all provide a very different insights of that worked out perfectly. We are going to open up to some question and answers. If you guys want to start forming lines around the microphones and please state your name and where you are from before you ask your question and who you are directing it to or if it is for everyone. Stefan pitts, im from mississippi college. I really enjoyed everything you talk about. It is a great progression, as you guys moved through your ideas. Ive a question for whoever wants to talk about it. That a lot ofd reagans speeches contained civic religion. He was a man of faith and that is one of the things that made his speeches so powerful. Environment of trying to separate church and state dom everything, what can we as far as conservatives to get people on the same page as they were back when reagan was president as far as not being so up in arms about someone mentioning god . You force me to pray, or something . I think you are correct to bring attention to that recent decades have seen a concerted effort to separate god from the Public Square in some sense. Recognizel observers that those determined to do that , and those who make a career out of doing that, are destined to have only limited impact because america remains as it was founded, a place of faith. Those politicians who pursue policy agendas rather different from Ronald Reagans, such as barack obama, have nonetheless taken up his rhetorical style, if you will, and make appeals to faith and god pretty frequent. Members ofnk that any particular Ideological Movement on the left or right have anything to fear by including those kinds of appeals in their messaging. Again, it has to be done with a lightness of touch. One of george w. Bushs more interesting moments in his presidency that i remember covering as a reporter was when he was asked a direct question, i believe in the rose garden, about the conservative and evangelical campaign against samesex marriage, homosexuality in general, as a moral sin and so forth, and i cant quoted to you exactly, but president bush said something to the effect of i think he was quoting scripture. He said something to affect that we ought to be where the person who, in an effort to remove the speck from someone elses i, ignores the log in their own. And it was tolerance a homespun way of saying it. I think george w. Bush was a better communicator than he was given credit for, especially in the time after 9 11 where the United States was in a very psychological period. Speeches series of set and impromptu ones, including the bullhorn moment, where he helped to keep the country together. I think you would not have a problem appealing to faith, that it is in the way you approach it. Can i add something to that . You also have to be genuine and true to yourself. If you believe that, our boss has never called us into our office and said we can or cannot say on her. He wants us to be ourselves and real. Look at bill oreilly and sean hannity. Their ratings are good because they are not afraid to show their opinions and be who they are their core. Ronald reagan, at times it using speeches, said, what if cut andnd run lead people out of egypt . What if jesus went to the cross . I think you just be true to yourself and god will lead you down the right path. My name is matthew anderson. I study economics and accounting at the university of Santa Barbara university of california, Santa Barbara. How is your perception of the freedom of press changed throughout your career . Who wants to start that one . [laughter] ill take it. You realize i have feet in both cans, radio and tv. Both radio and television for a long time were constrained by something called the fairness doctrine. It was deeply disturbing to me always that the federal government had anything to say about opinions because the First Amendment of the constitution seems to save the government has no business regulating opinions. They did until the 1980s. All they did at that point as an object lesson is they said we will have the fairness doctrine, we will just not enforce it. They only took it out of the rules i think three years ago. The government still thought they had a right to regulate our opinion. As far as freedom of the press goes, things have changed dramatically. With plain interesting role in society today. Sometimes a very disturbing role. Look at today. I we doing too much on the ebola or too little . Are we calling attention to a problem that is not being handled well or paid attention enough to our government, or are we fear mongers . You have to have the courage of your convictions to say i report this. I think i should report it and let the chips fall where they may. Ebola reminds me of one quick story. I covered Mount Saint Helens when interrupted. We went to threetimes daily press conferences. There were scientists there. We look for the ranges of what happened. What is the best, what is the worst. They give us a range. Six months later, after 60 people had died in their was huge devastation, we had a society of professional journalist meetings with a bunch of scientists. I said, we asked you what was the worst that could happen and you told us it was worse than this. We said, well, we didnt tell you the truth. We lie to you because we didnt trust that you would do the right thing with the information and we didnt trust the public would do the right thank. So we lied to you. Ever since then, i have been deeply suspicious of government officials who tell me, ebola . We will stop it in its tracks. Or, the mountain will not blow up. ,s a journalist, or a political someone who is active in pollock is politics, be suspicious of all authorities, all experts, including lars. Including me. [laughter] trust, but verify. Ive been involved on both sides of the thing, mostly as a political strategist and manager , and the manner in which reporters cover politics and people have written about this has really changed since the 1970s, watergate and all of that. I dealt mostly with the generation of older media and reporters that is now gone. The novaks and johnny apples and all those people. 40 years, i never had any National Reporter ever violate a confidence or do anything other than what they said they would do. But local reporters on the make [laughter] and todays reporters are very different. If you have been in it as long as i have, you can see that difference. There are now come in many cases, you have to approach them not as fellow professionals, but as enemies. That was really never too. One of the great things about the 1976 Reagan Campaign is that it humanized conservatives to the media. Some of my closest friends are those who would be consider leftist reporters. Who, in that campaign if you read about it, it came down and went to convention to picking to try to find a few dozen delegates. Reporters got to know mod from mississippi. They all talked to her. They all had breakfast with someone from iowa and found that these people arent crazy, theyre human. We had a generation one of my best friends in journalism was a raving lunatic, mary. She was like that disney figure who was perfectly normal before he got behind the wheel of a car. Whenever mary got in front of a typewriter, lord knows what might happen. She was a wonderful person and really enjoyed all these people. That started a change. Now we have the distance of people and armed camps, which i dont think we had been. We had reporters and politicians and all the rest had their personal feelings, but there werent very many Chris Matthews around in the 1970s and those who work were mostly in institutions. [laughter] is Catherine Wellen and i am a freshman at the university of North Carolina at chapel hill and i will have a quick question for all of you. You were talking a lot about how reagan is remembered as the great communicator and david keene, you talked about unifying diverse conservative view space on the same values. I think one of the biggest problem across College Campuses is liberal indoctrination. I think one of the biggest problems is that conservatives on College Campuses fear they are alone and they dont stand up for their values because they think it is either pointless because of the overwhelming liberal agenda or they just fear they will be looked down upon for their conservative values. How can we as leaders on College Campuses reach out to fellow conservatives like reagan, be good communicators, to spur a conservative movement . This is why this is so important. This is why cpac is so important. 10,000 students come every year to get to together with people to know they are not alone. I went to the university of wisconsin and i found a chapter there in the 1960s. The student body was 40,000 people and we could not find a faculty advisory at the time because there was no one, including in the damned engineering school, who is willing to declare themselves eight conservative. Cap speak up and have the courage to do it. It is not always easy. Maybe not easy, but it was challenging. Theonsin in 1964 was largest when i graduated from law school in the 1970s, the largest Political Organization ever on the university of wisconsin campus, probably more liberal than berkeley, the largest Student Organization ever on that campus was the collegiates for goldwater in 1964 because they all got and there were 40,000 of them, i can tell you that, but they all got together and they stood up and from that point on they fought. It is really important to get together and not to feel isolated and lonely. It can be done. It is also more fun when you are fighting against all of those guys that just dont yet it. Get it. The keyword that david just articulated is fun. When William F Buckley made the the cover of Time Magazine in 1967, it said William F Buckley junior conservatism can be fun. Buckley came from a rich family. He used his family fortune, his good looks, his wit, his sense of anarchy to make conservatism palatable in the media age. Hat was his true contribution among his converts was Ronald Reagan, who religiously subscribed to national review. In the time for choosing speech, reagan says it is not that our liberal friends are ignorant. It is just that they know so much that isnt so. [laughter] you told the story of the panama canal. The end of the story is that the next year, bill and pat buckley were invited to have dinner with the reagans at their wilshire home at night. There is a long circular driveway and as bill pulls in, there are a series of signs. We built it, we bought it, its ours. [laughter] put up just further edification as they came to dinner. You know, you will never win friends and influence hearts and minds on a College Campus if you are perceived as afun. That is your real task to project an image that is not humorless, a bunch of people in Brooks Brothers jackets and counting their inheritance money or whatever. That is the caricature. Conservatism can be fun. Buckley brought in a reference, a kind of subversive wit. Asked why Robert F Kennedy never appeared on his program, he said, why does baloney rejected grinder . We cannot all come up with those kind of arresting formulations that he did, but that is the task for the recruiter. Make it look fun. We have time for two more questions. We will go with william and and up with victor. Thank you for being here. I heard a quote the other day that said a corrupt or evil government will hide behind the guise of incompetence. As members of the news media, what are your thoughts on this . Ainslie . [laughter] msnbc. Explains gosh, that is a tough one. Why dont you handle that . If that is how they hide, this one is not doing a good job of it because they have not projected much in the field of competence. People are cynical about government. This is a country that was founded on cynicism. It was founded by people who did not trust people with power. That is what the constitution is about. It is not about empowering governments, it is about restraining governments. They did not trust human beings. Asked newtreporter gingrich whether he really believed the democrats were just totally corrupt. Been inno, but they had power unchallenged for 40 years and in 40 years, human beings become corrupt. If we republicans were in 40 years, we would come corrupt. It only took 10. There is always Something Like that. People expected that they won thanks to work want things to work. They dont expect their leaders to be perfect, but if they are not perfect, they want it to work. If you can get both, that is great, but you dont always get both. If you have a government, there on byays finagling going government because governments are people, not saints. If it isnt working on top of that, then the governors have a real problem with people. I want to add one thing from your closing comments. Howreally had the rules of reagan communicated and how rest to communicate best to communicate. Humor is one of it, truth, and humanity. The rest of the story, as Ronald Reagan was leaving the right House White House that day, as he got to the door, he said there is one thing i have to do before i leave. Lynn not singers daughter was in the hospital dying of cancer. The last thing he did was make that call. That tells you something. I think his effectiveness was because he was real. People who met him once or people who hurt him on television or the radio, they knew he was real. That is what people crave in their leaders and really build off it. Thank you. My name is victor slice. My question is for the coconspirator. [laughter] proceed. [laughter] against youattacks to the ap, we have seen crackdowns on the it ministration. Is this inherent to the president or is it a disease of the Progressive Movement . As a binarynted it choice and i am not sure that it is properly presented that way. Just so that people have the basic facts here and without going on too long avid, in may of 2013, the Washington Post , the fbi that in 2009 had signed a search warrant application for my personal emails and telephone records and telephone records of the booths at the white house and state department and pentagon where i had been apt to work and even my parents home records at staten island. A judge signed that search warrant and gave the government the right to rifle through those things without my knowledge. In making the case of the judge the ward called me a criminal conspirator of the espionage act along with a conspirator who was being prosecuted, now in prison, for allegedly leaking National Defense information to me about north Koreas Nuclear weapons programs. This is after a series i had done for fox news on north Koreas Nuclear program. This is search warrant approved by a judge we later learn had been proof of virtually up through personally approved by a attorney general eric holder. Once he read the story, he felt a creeping sense of personal remorse about having done that. [laughter] i have not heard from him. President obama, at a speech ledhout using my name, cal himself troubled by the prospect that a reporter doing his job should be troubled by it. It is to photograph my computer screen at the precise moment when i was the number one twitter,subject on outpacing Justin Bieber and taylor swift. [laughter] as well as david keene. On the off chance of when they are nh appreciate this, twitter will be something they have heard of or still used. The department of justice formally revises guidelines for the treatment of reporters in National Security week investigations. This was a first in American History. This was the first time that a working reporter has ever been branded a criminal by the federal government for doing his job. Can i that is true in modern times, but Woodrow Wilson had over 100 people, reporters, newspaper editors, jailed under the espionage act in world war i. Who famously, eugene debs, got 10 years who ran as president for a socialist. ,hen Warren Harding was elected he made a thenfamous speech in which he said this is not a country in which we imprison people for what they say or what they think. They had an entire dinner for them at the white house. It has happened before because the people in the white house are people. If they have power, they will, in fact, ms. Use it. You just evaporated my next 10 lecture gigs. Thank you. [laughter] happy to help. This administration has presently eight or nine prosecutions against individuals for alleged leaks in news media. That is more than obamas predecessors combined. Never cremated people who publish the pentagon papers as a criminal. To victors question about whether this is about the administration or progressivism in general, i am more apt to see this as a bureaucratic biological imperative. [laughter] think that this president will have to live forever with the judgments of individuals who are not known to be great fans of fox news, such as len downie, the former executive editor of the Washington Post, mandrakes of the journalistic establishment who have said this is the most oppressive administration visavis the press in modern times. Thank you. [applause] thank you so much for coming out today. You are wonderful. I would like to bring out andrew coffin who will give directions about lunch. One more round of applause for this fantastic panel today. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] sunday, former White House Press secretaries from the ford, reagan, george h. W. Bush, clinton, and Obama Administrations discuss the position and the many challenges they faced while trying to work for the white house and serve the press. They include mike mccurry and ron gibbs. At 4 25 p. M. Y eastern time on cspan 3s American History tv. Each week, American History tvs reel america bring to archival films that helps tell the story of the 20th century. Shipbuilders of essex is a 1947 film documenting the design and construction of the saint rosalie, a 65foot wooden fishing trolley. Following progress from plans on paper to the launching ceremony, the handmade methods depicted in the films have changed little since the 19th century when essex, massachusetts, was the leading supplier of wooden sailing vessels for Atlantic Fishing communities. Exactly the right angle has to be drawn for every rib. Seen more than a score of ships launched at the yards. Handpicked the lumber for a ship. The grain and quality of every piece of wood is keenly estimated for its particular use before one pieces cut. Before one piece is cut. The keel is the backbone. From here on, your building up. A ship comes to life. The ribs, the whole is in place hull is in place. When you see the ribs lineup, you can see how important it is to have accurate designs. Then you can see weeks and weeks of worth. The vessel takes a shape. Ow you can tell how she looks maybe just because every man in the shipyard takes part in so much that the men of essex have never wondered down the road apiece to Big Industrial cities. In the factories, they are building too, i guess, but i expect no factory worker came to experience a sense of satisfaction and a six shipbuilder can feel. They are worlds apart. The work of the factories has to be done and folks in essex and all over the United States for that matter enjoy the things made in these nearby plants. The men in essex choose to live differently. Somehow in a six, it seems that folks dont figure modern speed is so important. They are satisfied serving the need to us fishermen who want wooden ships, and that means work by hand