>> tonight on c-span, a discussion on hillary clinton and what the political future might hold for her. and for presidents' day, a look at presidential campaigns over the past decades. ronald reagan's announcement in 1979 and bill clinton in 1991. the new historical society hosted a discussion last month on hillary clinton and the possibility of her running for president. a group of authors and journalists look at all former secretary of state's career and her former bid and the potential

candidates who would run against her and some of the hurdles she might face in her second presidential run. this is one hour. >> good evening, ladies and gentlemen as such a pleasure to be back and to have three such a distinguished panelists to discuss a subject that i think is more than a mild interest in this room. so, our topic this evening is hillary rodham clinton and the white house. and i think sean, jon and carl, we are working even though no formal announcement has been made that this is a done deal and -- indeed it is a deal that hillary rodham clinton

has prepared for four a very long time. i think rarely have we ever had a candidate more prepared for the role in so many areas. for the sake of full disclosure, i will disclose that i have a personal relationship with hillary but i will maintain absolute lukewarm as moderator -- d courtroom as moderator -- decorum as a moderator. and my husband was in her candidate as ambassador to the united dates. gentlemen, does she have that first-class temperament that the presidency requires? sean? >> sure. [laughter] >> no hesitation. she has a first-class mind which is the second part of the question.

>> the reference to the temperament which is a reference to fdr. >> look, it has come across during her second stint as secretary of state where her temperament was one of come in crisis. -- calm in crisis and that is one of the things required, calm in crisis. it is understanding a situation and taking the situation and calculating and acting appropriately. she has the temperament for it. >>jon? >> i think it's still an open question and i am an admirer of hillary in many ways and she has a first-class sentiment alike mdr, a description of him -- unlike fdr, a description of him , and the 92nd birthday a few days after roosevelt was sworn in in 1933 and roosevelt went

over to the justice's home to joint bootleg champagne -- drinkable collection of pain. that would be like obama going to a justice's home to smoke a little weed. >> medical marijuana. >> when he left, justice holmes said second-class intellect first-class temperament. some stores believed he was talking about theodore roosevelt. [laughter] but, you know, the question of temperament as the great political scientists, the late richard said is the great separator. you can have all of the experience. you can be smart. but what separates the great presidents from the merely good or mediocre presidents is temperament. a very complex quality, a very

lucid quality, in little bit the way the supreme court defined per not a know it when you see it. -- pornography, you know it when you see it. i think obama has first-class temperament when he was elected and now says the class temperament. it is not enough. -- and now second-class temperament. and with hillary, it's too soon to know even though we are familiar with her. the pressures are such it is too soon to know what her public temperament would be in office. >> carl, she is often compared more to president obama and contrasted with her husband. the point being that she is more

like obama in that she is very much an analytical, an analytical mind and has been pointed out -- first-class intellect. but jon eludes to in terms of having that magic something which is so hard to quantify which her husband had, does she have that? >> i think she has had at times and displayed it at times. not too far back and really finding a figure, a president, w ho's sort of handed this, lack of fireworks, not always a need

or perhaps unwisely not a desire to blow her own form -- horn. someone she admires and i remember her talking a lot about and talking a lot about, for example, an example she mentioned was -- i have no problem with the kennedy administration, the justice department getting a lot of credit with civil rights. circuit court judges and so that -- but i also see her eight years as first lady as being more instructive to us now about what she would be like as a president and not just secretary

of state were not. when i looked at how she handled health care and dealt with it this is of course a huge crush but i will learn from this. as then went on to give the 4 speeches on human rights. how during the president's impeachment crisis, during the worst time still kept her eyes on the most sweeping adoption of foreign legislation that she was working with tom delay on in getting past and not letting that distract her. i see some of those -- and first-class temperament, that ability to keep one's eye on the big picture and putting what is going on personally to the side and i think she has that.

>> what i was going to say, the word is perseverance and calm mean taking data blows and moving on -- bad blows and moving on as she has done it again and again. like the 2008 campaign. she campaigned and she did much better, she picked herself up. that is really the hallmark of her career. >> i can only think of 2 instances when she lost it and one was in new hampshire when the famous scene, where somebody expressed sympathy and her eyes filled and she she allowed us how, yes -- >> it helps her imminently. >> and the second time was when she was being hammered by during

the senate hearings on benghazi and she just kind of threw her hands up and basically, i think won the audience that time. it was such a human reaction and i think everybody else was feeling by then that this was -- and this was a witch hunt. and get on with it. >> the first time she did it was in 1992, the new york primary. i decided to pursue my professional career. >> that was -- that was one of her -- i think these two shows of emotion and humanity have really helped and i for one would like to see more of that. jon?

>> i think her resilience is one of her great qualities and important qualities for president. the temperament thing gets very complicated for two reasons. it is couple candid enough when it is a male but we do not really have any real template for what a first-class female temperament is in high office. she is inventing it as she goes along. it takes more than race, it is different. the temperament of a woman and how that connects in the chemistry of that with the american public. and so with roosevelt, compared meeting him to opening a bottle of champagne, it made you feel better. it may you feel better, that optimism, that quality that reagan had that made people or

certain people feel better. we do not really know whether hillary has that quality. she is never held an executive position. >> but she has -- >> as governor, we would've had a better idea. >> she has broken so many barriers and rewritten so many templates and as she has been, our longest running public performer. i cannot think of anyone else who has sustained this level of public scrutiny. is it there -- >> the one thing she has that is partly a temperament question, she has the habit of command. and where when she comes in whether she was just out of law school and she went to arkansas

to take control of bill clinton's unsuccessful congressional campaign in 1970 four. she came in and took charge. for one of the reasons she is greatly respected in the military and a monkey love her colleagues is that she -- and is loved among her colleagues is that she knows how to take charge. i saw it in 1992 when bill clinton was under pressure from having the draft and trying to get into the national guard and the gennifer flowers. i remember being backstage at an event that clinton was taking part in, a television hearing.

i cannot remember the specifics but just remember hillary clinton was totally in charge. she was going to take control. even worse with lewinsky later on, both cases she put of the personal stuff aside and took charge of her husband's career rescued him, pulled him up, and figured out what needed to be done. she was barking orders in a commanding way. barking orders to staff here, -- step people, here is what needs to happen. >> you raised several important points. time is short. first of all, let's spend a few minutes with the bubba, bill clinton. an enormous factor in all of this. yet again, the clintons are on the brink of making history. if she is elected, we have our first gentleman which would be

an interesting topic for us to write about. but in the 2008 campaign, bill clinton's role was as a best a mixed bag. what can we expect and the 2016 campaign? >> i am glad you brought it up. i think this is really fascinating, the idea of not just potentially the first woman president but the first former president's wife as a president. that actually would help the visual familiarity of them. you know, you cannot underestimate that familiarity of seeing them together. and there been many a times when she was at the podium and he was standing behind her. i think -- and i think it can

also be said -- and a lot of people were said during the 1992 campaign even though a lot of people voted for him because of her, the general population, she was -- during the campaign. there were a couple of things -- >> again, the clintons are about to make history. sean do we expect to see a different bill clinton by her side? >> of the world is different and it is a different campaign. 2008, the obama campaign came out of nowhere. and there was a lot of scurrying and trying to figure out what to do. and president clinton was a part of all of that. eight years later by all measures, the most admired man in the world.

he comes with that. he spent a lot of time in the foundation role, which is different from politix. it requires a different temperament, a different way of approaching things. i think bill's eight years -- he brings to the campaign that aura which wasn't quite in there in 2008. it will be different. we will see. we do not know. we will have to see. has political skills betrayed him and he said stupid things that hurt at the campaign. he is disciplined enough to avoid that this time and it will be more like what they ran in 1992, two for the price of one. it will be comforting to certain voters to know that, you know, if the country runs into tough times, he is in the picture.

and by the way, he was president during the biggest boom time since right after world war ii. >> and what about president obama's low poll numbers? is that a plus for hillary or is that a negative? >> it depends on what happens. if the economy gets better if he keeps getting better, it is going to be a good thing having obama around. i think the voters, they can distinguish the 22 of them. >> i think we can agree. >> she is going to be distinct and a the other vice presidents were not or other former cabinet members were not. that is pretty clear. i do not think the president can hurt her particularly. i think the coming could help -- economy could help. >> it is so interested how their fates are bound with each other.

these candidates who wrestled so intensely -- obama needs hillary to win to complete his legacy. >> i think that is why he did that "60 minutes" interview with her when she left the secretary of state. that was unprecedented. >> and she needs him to be successful and the last few years. if there was to be a huge for mistake, it will be -- a huge foreign-policy mistake, it would be hung around her neck. and this quote to get her in 60 years, the only president since eisenhower, the only democrat since fdr who won an absolute majority both times. and so part of that is the third-party candidates, there is

an obama coalition which she assembled twice. >> will they come out for hillary? the obama people? >> i think hillary and the clintons have been popular they will come out. there will be a battle to try to up spend. a lot of turn out questions. they need and a lot will depend on the way the immigration debate plays out. as far as young people goes, that is the big question mark. obama did well with the young people. not to during the midterms especially the last time. hillary might seem 20th century to some of the young people. >> except for young women.

for young women, such a historic opportunity and they have none of the historical baggage that you guys have been alluding to, the white house in years. listening to my daughter and her friends, they are ready to go to work today for hillary. will she make more of the fact she is -- just possibly the first woman and the white house -- that she is the first white -- the first woman in the white house that she did not do in 2008? >> it is obvious, the only thing is as we are talking in january as we know how rapidly and certainly the world changes, when you think about the fact that a less than a year, the presidential election was decided by the supreme court. and then the world trade center and pentagon were attacked in the world changes rapidly.

you have to be sure if she is going to run. second of all, there is discussion about some challenges , martin o'malley and even though no one at the moment looks like they can amount a credible campaign against her. the way the media may focus will raise issues and provide a voice that might suggest -- >> maybe it is not a bad thing. oer -- peril in being the front runner with no one near her. right now, she is 60% to biden's 10 and elizabeth warren's 12%. >> we are not used to seeing parties coalesce around a candidate. and we might be seeing something that is different which is not

in our experience. we are uses a lots of primary battles. i am not saying it will happen but it is possible the party -- when i say the party, not just the voters was the machinery the people out there. if there is a coalesce around her, i do not think it is a bad thing. >> i think she will win to the nomination but she will be challenged just like in modern american politics. bernie sanders might run. jim webb might run who is a war hero and very interesting and a little awkward candidate. martin o'malley might run. but somebody will emerge and if they do not, a lot of mischief making the by the press. you have these 10,000 reporters and they all want -- the possibility. but very quickly, i agreed with

everything you said except on the issue of women, in order to make herself seem new and in part because she failed to do enough of it in 2008. i think she will talk explicitly about being a woman and what that means and she will not just leave it to people's knowledge. >> you think she will speak about her own perhaps experiences or -- >> a historic quality of it. >> that come she missed the last time. her historic opportunity was trumped by barack obama's opportunity. an extraordinary collision of 2 moments of history. we elected the first african-american. >> into makes you seem in new and that is her big challenge. -- it makes you seem a new and that is her big challenge.

she is a little old, she is any risk of seeing to 20th century. but being a woman makes her seem new. >> what is the worst thing that could be thrown at her? we a great political figure has been so scrutinize as hillary rodham clinton. what could possibly make her lose? >> where the money is coming from. with talked about the obscene amounts of money that needs to be raised more and more and last time, there was some trouble. the chinese and american in california -- it was not a big story, but she did not with the nomination. i think that is always a potential problem, where is the money coming from? >> that is not an issue republicans will raise.

[laughter] >> i really agree with that. she's been a little tone deaf on some of those things. she gave speeches to goldman sachs and i think that will be an issue. she is still giving speeches and there is a populist element and the democratic party that is growing. she will need to respond to it and the way she response to it i think will be the big question and her first outing on that was not encouraging for her supporters. she said at one point she was trying to show that she was not close to wall street. and she said businesses do not create jobs. a little similar to obama's gaffe in 2012 when he said -- the difference was -- this was something that might indicate some challenges ahead. obama, he was talking fast and

he made a gaffe. gwen hillary said it, she was speaking very slowly and when you watch it ou to, it -- youtube, it was really disturbing. her mind should have that, what are you saying? it was like she was overcompensating for the fact she knows she needs to move left. >> i would disagree a letter -- a little with jon on the populist issue. she tried to recover. i am going to show you right now. she made a speech at the end of the year, she got an award from the kennedys. that was after ferguson and all of that stuff where she was really out. she gave a speech that had the crowd pretty up. i was watching that rather than her. she addressed the ferguson stuff.

she said, we should not have a government where a banker can get away scott free in a middle-class person has to struggle. she was talking about those kinds of issues. the 1% stuff, the press can come down on her for that. she is in the 1%. if we say she cannot represent anyone else, frankly, the opposite. she does have to find her voice on those issues. i can hear her doing it in a's region that was persuasive. >> and she is conscious of it. >> who would be her dream candidate to run against on the other side? >> ted cruz. [laughter] i like rand paul. >> michele bachmann has left. >> but no, the republican party they talk about the clown

college, the primaries, they all come out. >> rick perry isn't it back. >> a lot of people strong, powerful, ideological convictions. i think she was much stronger against someone like that. if they were to nominate somebody like that, she would have the opportunity to do something that hasn't been done in america politics in a long time which is the 1964 campaign. if the republicans are crazy enough to nominate an ideologue like that -- >> a very goldwater. >> and things look different. i do not think they will do that. >> i cannot imagine. hillary today, she would have them for breakfast. with her range of experience, we have not touched, she was our senator after all. and she was a very good one. and having --

>> do not be so sure about the debates, they are hard to predict. >> mitt romney in the first debate. >> yes but she did beatted cruz for instance i do not think he will be elected. this is from professors at harvard law school. one of the brightest students who ever went through harvard law school. >> what happened? >> there is a tendency because he is so nuts to say he is not smart, that is not true. and in the debate, you could be effective and rand paul also halves -- has some political chops and is not to be underestimated. the history of the presidential campaigns i have covered over the last 35 years is because

what you wish for. >> i think also it would be weird but kind of interesting. if there was another bush-clinton challenge because they are sort of at this point what the two of them have been through in terms of seeing and understanding things. the fact also that the families are somewhat close. >> the elders. >> and it might actually create this vacuum where there is a little bit more stability in the debate and may be as ridiculous as this may sound maybe there would be an opportunity to focus on more substance, unless the distraction harry -- >> what an astonishing thing to have these dynasties pitted

against each other. >> i wish i agreed with that. part of me agrees. maybe they can have a high tone debate. i remember the campaign that bush ran in 1988 against michael to caucus. someone called them the wasp corleones. >> little known facts, because he always writes a thank you known afterwards. >> i would happen to be in mccain's hotel room when they got the returns in south carolina. his wife said how can people do this kind of thing? it was really low. the problem i have is it feels too much like a banana republic.

there is a lot more families that people can be picky. people think -- talk about clinton fatigue. it is early but she has 62% of the democratic party. bush does not have anywhere near that much. there is more bush fatigue because george w. bush left office with a lot of people in the right wing disliking -- >> jeb is running he was quote d as saying don't you have a brother or a dad and he is try to carve out that he is his own man but good luck with that. >> we're here to talk about hillary clinton. >> no one is saying don't you

have a husband? she is proud of her husband's record in the white house. and proud of her own record. one thing i want to add is it is interesting in 2008, a really big mistake over the clinton campaign was they did not come forward and nobody really knew how to handle this. the first lady is not elected and unaccountable and hillary clinton was so much part of the behind-the-scenes with the executive staff, domestic legislation. there was so much across the board that the campaign did not come out much and make a record of her years as first lady. a lot of the media did say what did you do, after health care you did not do anything. if she were going from being

first lady to the presidency then i think it would be more valid here. it is more secondary. she was secretary of state for four years and a u.s. senator. and so she has logged an awful lot of miles. it is worth examining. her record of first lady but not with as minute attention. she has these extremely powerful roles. >> karl rove's mean insight as you go after your opponents strengths, not their weaknesses. he went after john kerry's war record. hillary's strength is her great experience. she is probably the best repaired of any modern candidate. you can already tell and john mccain just said this the other week, what did she do as

secretary of state, what did she accomplished so they will go after that resume and say she did not put the points on the board, did not really do anything. >> i have to believe she is ready. >> it is tricky. you could see in the appearances what she was accomplishing which was an amazing connection with women all over the world and raising the status, stature of the u.s. in the eyes of the world after a disastrous administration. >> she was the best public diplomat we have had since george marshall. >> there was a missed opportunity and that was her book. she had written a book which was much more pointed. here is osama bin laden, here is

syria and told with more drama. they would not have been bogged down so much. the book is fine. it is not a page turner. the best book like this was written by richard nixon. and you got a sense of a man in battle. -- embattled. hillary could have written something like that which would have been more effective. >> less -- let's fast-forward to the white house. hillary clinton is in the white house now. let's start with her relationship with the hill which has been one of the most

disappointing aspects of the obama years, not through his own fault that through the deadlock between congress and the white house. can we expect hillary to do better than obama? >> i vote for -- perhaps her greatest strength both because of the experience she had in that second administration working with opponents and passing a lot of domestic legislation and her full term in the senate which from the get-go she reached out across the aisle. click she is one of them and had a pretty successful turn. >> there are too many moving parts. it is hard to know what the composition of congress will be in 2017. will the democrats get control of the senate, that is an open question. the house is locked in for 10 years to republican control

because of gerrymandering and those guys are pretty immune to hillary clinton's charms. she was popular in private with republicans but then they would go home and bash her to their conservative constituents. so it is hard. she wants people to think that she is an lbj type figure. even lbj, there is a new book. he needed that big 1964 victory. >> doesn't she enjoy sipping bourbon after hours with the guys on the hill? she is more of a politician. >> it depends on numbers. a lot of it depends if you have a 64 type election. if you get that type of switch

over it will be different. we do not know. >> when i am driving at is not her favorite drink but she is more of a politician. obama has almost contempt for his chosen field. >> she is a political leader and she knows how to do politics. >> they resident ran as an anti-politician. >> he makes no bones about that. >> this goes back to temperament as well. she has a political temperament. she enjoys that type. >> she spent 40 years with our generation's most alien politicians. -- brilliant politicians. >> she has a sense of how politics works. she has learned a lot more about how politics works. so in that respect we have a different approach to government

than we have seen in the last eight years. it would be different. >> the big question for me about hillary in the white house is it goes to her judgment. i think it is an open question. i was for the iraq war as was hillary clinton. you were with me as well. terribly wrong. it was the worst call i made in my career in punditry. not sure she has quite come to terms with the fact that it was her worst call, too. obama was nominated because he made the right call and was against it. >> his position was clear. he had been in the senate he

would not be in the war. his position was crystal-clear. so again in 2009 when they had the big debate over escalation in afghanistan and the military wanted a 10 year open ended counterinsurgency commitment which would have us now only halfway through a commitment of 100,000 plus troops, hillary was on the side of the 10 year open and the commitment and biden was on the other side and the relationship suffered. you could make the argument that she made the wrong call on that. on bin laden, she did not really take a strong position and it is not at all clear if she had been president whether she would have gone for it because it was a high risk operation. >> according to leon panetta's account it was leah -- leon panetta it was. that was the

driver. >> she is a supremely cautious person. no question about that. the military really like her. she is there -- their girl. i have had the opportunity to observe this and she gets along extremely well with the brass. whether she is also a person who is constantly learning from her mistakes and in constant development. she is not going to replay, i do not think, the iraq war decision if god forbid, we have another such vote. >> remember you and a lot of people who supported her were doing it -- supported it were doing it based on false

information. >> there were a lot of people who got the call right. the same thing applies to her choosing people which is one of the most important jobs of president has. it is an open question. i am not saying she would do a bad job but in the past, she sometimes has chosen people for their loyalty rather than for their talent. not always but sometimes. >> this has been a real problem with the obama administration is that there has not been a real reaching out to the best and the brightest. he pretty much has the same people who he had on the hill who got him elected. i think through four people basically run that white house. i think hillary who has been a victim of that closed shop as secretary of state, i cannot

imagine that she would repeat that formula for governing keeping that small group and power. >> the white house these days is pretty insular. >> there are people who have been tried in true, they feel they can trust. >> not every president needs people around them the contrast trust. you make a lot of appointments and the batting average in those appointments we do not know. she chose some really incompetent people to run her 2008 campaign. >> her record is much better at the state department. she had some bad air -- better quality people who she did not choose on the basis of loyalty

although there was still an inner circle. >> still going back to the white house. >> there is much more for us to cover but we did promise our patient audience that we would take some questions. if you have a question, please ask a question. i sure you have great speeches to deliver but let's not deliver them tonight. and please identify yourself. we have two mikes. sir. >> could you be specific as possible and identify the differences between hillary and bill with regard to first political elites and second -- beliefs and second administrative capability. >> who would like a shot at that? >> i would say in general, at least during the white house

years i thought of hillary clinton as extremely focused in terms of domestic at least, domestic initiatives. certainly with health care and that priority shifted because her husband and his staff made that decision that [indiscernible] administratively i would give her an a and him a b. >> more analytical than her husband. not as intuitive. >> in terms of their positions on issues and went to compromise which is always a big thing in politics, the reason i would definitely not give her an a is there were moments in the clinton white house when they could have compromised on health care and gotten a bill through and hillary insisted that her husband not compromise and so

they got no bill. so there were moments she did not handle that process right. it was too secretive and she did not compromise. >> that was her single failure, the health care. >> the analytical quality is important. i think she shares bill clinton's pragmatic streak. i think they are very close in terms of how they see public policy issues and they have had this mind meld, part of the secret as why they are still married is they connect on policy. >> not only on policy. >> that is a potent thing. they described -- they have been having this conversation for 40 years. at home you and i might talk about what we see on "mad men" and they talk about public policy issues in their connected on those and they develop great insights that are not really

very different ideologically from one another. i think the answer to your question is they are very close on issues, even though they drill down into problems in a different way. >> different temperament. we have so many people. >> i am hoping 70 is the new 50 and it is not. no one has talked about health stamina, age, and whether one should be seeking the most demanding office in the world at a certain time in their lives. i would be interested in your views. >> and johnson knows this, looking at franklin roosevelt. to a certain degree, you get up there and you know that your health can deteriorate. it is hard to predict. eisenhower had his greatest health problems in his first term and went on to service

second. there is no evidence that his age and health problems were detriment. ronald reagan in his first term, evidenced problems. it was more parent to many in the second term -- a parent to many in the second term. and>> it will be a big issue. americans are very unsentimental when it comes to presidential health. if she has any kind of mishap, bill bradley's campaign against al gore was seriously hurt by him having a little hard issue in iowa. were she to have another health scare like she had, that could be very detrimental. >> i cannot imagine that she would run -- >> if something came up, of course. she would be reagan's age if she

is elected. >> i was wondering if hillary clinton ever caused a scandal, not that she would, with that -- with that, would that affect your differently because she is a woman? >> a personal scandal? >> that is so beyond the realm of -- >> it is a great question. depends on what the scandal is. >> it depends on what the meaning of "is" is. .> she has lived for 67 years without a personal peccadillo

that i am aware of. i certainly do not think that at this stage when she is basking in being a grandmother -- >> that financial scandal that carl raised earlier, that could happen and the clintons did have a fairly scandal-prone administration compared to the obama presidency. there were things coming up all the time, fundraising issues and lincoln bedroom issues and so forth that did not relate to sex, that were just financially related scandals, if you could call them that. it is a really intriguing question whether the face that she would present to the public if she was in a defensive mode, if there was a scandal. the white house press corps is always looking for scandal. it is hard to imagine that she would go through eight years

with no scandals. again, it is one of the fascinating things about this is that nobody can know the answer to your question because we never had a woman president. >> it is a gender question generally but we do not know yet. >> i read hillary's book and she considered you and your husband good friends. miss martin. i would like to know could you share with us some anecdotes of personal qualities that we in the mainstream would not know and what surprises. >> she is a very warm person. you forced me to reveal my biases here. but she is -- i would like her to exhibit more of that personal warmth that she exhibited toward

me when my husband was very sick.i i think she knows how to be a friend. there is absolutely relation -- calculation in her continued warmth towards me. it is all about her human qualities. she sat beside me in the hospital when we were not sure that richard was going to make it and just sat there and held my hand and did not -- we did not exchange any words because it was not necessary. that to me was a very strong indicator of the person. >> you mentioned how hillary took over bill's campaign and was in charge.

if she runs, would we say bill clinton having that same ability to take over and why was it missing in 2008? >> he tried to take over a little bit and they had to bar him from the campaign headquarters. his instincts were rusty and he was saying things like comparing obama to jesse jackson and things that were not helpful to the campaign. he is way beyond that kind of nuts and bolts of managing a campaign but he would still, he is so involved and so smart about politics that he would still be involved at some level and the way she manages his involvement will be very interesting to watch. because obviously, he has a lot to contribute, but within certain parameters. and figuring out what this parameters are will be one of the great games of 2016. >> one of the great roles and --

first ladies have played, spouses, trying out the big speech the state of the union the acceptance speech, the farewell speech. sometimes the spouse who is not leading the country has more of an air for what they hear on the street and the way people will react. i think that that is now interestingly more of a role that bill clinton will play for her and she would probably run by a lot of her major speeches i him first -- by him first and he would say, don't say it that way, say it this way. >> a lot of the good first ladies and now the first gentleman. -- gentlemen. [applause]

>> thank you so much. >> the national press club tuesday, we will hear from outgoing attorney general eric holder discussing changes to the criminal justice system including his support for abolishing mandatory minimum sentences for certain nonviolent crimes. attorney general holder has been with the obama administration since 2009. a vote on his potential successor is pending in the senate. that live event tuesday at 1 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> this week while congress is in recess, but tv and american history tv are in prime time. tuesday night at 8 p.m. eastern programs and topics like the war on terror, conversations on the report on torture, the green

berets and the guantanamo diary. on wednesday, talking about china's secret plan to replace america as a superpower. the egyptian revolution and the emerging crisis in europe. thursday, politics and the white house from our afterwords program. on friday, biographies of robert a lien josef stalin and a look at pakistan through the eyes of a woman raised in karachi. on c-span3 tuesday night at 8 p.m., interviews with korean pows. i wednesday, the 100th anniversary of the release of the film "the birth of the nation," and a re-air of q&a. and t american historical association meetinghe.

both tv and american history tv this week in primetime. >> this presidents' day, we are taking a look at presidential campaign announcements. the moments of history when candidates officially declared their intention to seek the highest office in the land. we begin with ronald reagan in 1979 and bill clinton in 1991. they are followed by three other 1992 presidential candidates, ross perot, iowa senator tom harkin, and pat buchanan. >> ronald reagan officially announced his second run for the presidency during a paid nationally televised speech on november 13, 1979. speaking from a set in new york city, mr. wright -- reagan outlined his foreign and domestic agenda criticizing the country's political leaders without directly mentioning city

-- sitting president jimmy carter. this is about 25 minutes. >> ladies and gentlemen, ronald reagan. >> good evening. i'm here tonight to announce my attention to seek the republican nomination for president of the united states. i am sure that each of us has seen our country from a number of viewpoints depending on where we lived in what we have done. for me, it is -- as a boy growing up, and a young man in iowa trying to get a start and the years of the great depression, and later in california for most of my adult life. i have seen america from the stadium press box as sportscaster actor officer and democrat and republican. i lived in an america where those who have had too little to eat outnumbered those