Man hadnt democrats. I cant shake the feeling that some people here are pulling for me. [applause] im delighted to see her tonight hillary. I feel right at home here because it is often said i share the politics of alfred e. Smith and the ears of alfred newman. It is an honor to be here with al smith. I never knew your greatgrandfather. Everything senator mccain told me, the two of them had a great time before prohibition. [laughter] of course im delighted to testify on the 18th amendment. I felt all along that this matter was the rank and file about people they would readily see that it had no place in our constitution. It would be very difficult if not impossible to come to this country for the coming generations to make it their business to see that no such matter is this is ever again made the subject to federal constitutional law. And youve been listening to the 2008 president ial nominees talking at that years ill smith dinner. Followed by al smith himself talking about prohibiti
You today by your television provider. And i come here tonight to the alsmith dinner knowing im the underdog in these final weeks. If you know where to look, there are signs of hope, theres signs of hope, even in the most unexpected places, even in this room, full of proud manhattan democrats, i cant i cant shake that feeling that some people here are pulling for me. Im delighted to see you here tonight, hillary. I was thrilled to get this invitation. And i feel right at home here because its often been said that i share the politics of alfred e. Smith and the ears of alfred e. Newman. It is an honor to be here with al smith. I obviously never knew your great grandfather but from everything that senator mccain has told me the two of them had a great time together before prohibition. So of course i am delighted. But not surprised by the final repeal of the 18th amendment. I felt all along that when this matter was properly submitted to the rank and file of our people they would readily
The university of notre dame about how al smith and john kennedy dealt with the issue in their president ial campaigns. John mcgreevy from the university of notre dame, your book which came out a few years ago, whats the premise behind it . What did you learn . I wanted to look at how american ideas of freedom intersected with the catholic global tradition and what i learned is there were moments of conflict and moments of overlap. In the 19th century there was conflict over slavery. But lots of overlap in efforts to reform the economy. There was overlap in the 50s on ideas about americanization and mention over issues around sexuality, divorce, a lot of the kind of cultural issues of the last 30 years. More than 90 years ago, al smith ran for president. First catholic on the ticket. Why was that significant and who was al smith . Al smith was an immigrant kid from new york city. Irish and german. Never got beyond the eighth grade. By the 1920s, catholics are a significant percentage o
Captioning performed by vitac its a spy story, its a humanitarian story, its a political and diplomatic story. Hoover was not very diplomatic by nature. The interesting thing is lou said later on that he was never the same after belgium. What he saw particularly the children. Remember, he was an orphan. All his life, there was something about hoover, he was not naturally gifted in social interaction. But with children, there was a different person. And belgium stamped him, for better or worse. The other remarkable thing again, building on what we said earlier, it was all voluntary. He appealed to the American People. He said, again, the American People, if you tell them what you need, they will give you their shirt off their backs. And there is a you go to west branch, the records are there. It is its a remarkable story there was one group, i think there was a kansas club of new york, who were going to build a clubhouse. And instead of building the clubhouse, they gave hoover the 500,0
Now, on American History tv, look at challenges faced by catholic politicians. We will hear from a professor of notre dame about how our smith and john kennedy dealt with the issue in their president ial campaigns. Your book came out what is the premise behind . What did you learn . I wanted to look at how american ideas of freedom intersected with the catholic global tradition what i learned is there were moments of conflict and overlap. In the 19th century there was conflict over slavery. There is lots of overlap in the economy. There was overlap in the 50s on ideas about americanization. There were issues around sexuality, divorce, a lot of the cultural issues of the last 30 years. More than 90 years ago, al smith ran for president. First catholic on the ticket. Why was that significant . Al smith was an immigrant kid from new york city. He was irish. He never got beyond eighth grade. By the 1920s, he runs in 1928, catholics are pretty significant percent of the population. They fac