election 2016 on pbs - one. - what's wrong with my running for president of this country? - i almost resent, vice president bush, your patronizing attitude that ye to teach me about foreign policy. - ahh! - i'm doing this because i love you. - tomorrow night my name will go on nomination for presidency. - i will beat al gore like a drum. [cheers and applause] - i want my country back. [cheers and applause] - mr. president, you were elected to lead you chose to follow. and now it's time for you to get out of the way. female announcer "the conten" is made possible in part by the ford foundation,

working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide; the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build measurably better lives; the corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. - bloid media and the political media converge for the first time, and you suddenly have the camera scrums of people shoving each other aside, elbowing. the tabloid reporters are jumping over bushes. - could we not push the crowd? - this is not just big political news, it was gossip. - i officially announce my candidacy for the office of president of the united states of america. bold leadership. - all four television networks covered jackson. it was called "the body watch." they were assuming that he was going to get shot. [dramatic hip-hop music] ♪ - the 1980s was a time of big ideas and even bigger personalities. gary hart-- originally gary hartpence--

was a handsome senator from colorado who vaulted onto the national stage in 1984 only to tumble badly from it four years later. jesse louis jackson, a son of south carolina and well known civil rights leader, decided that he too was somebody and indeed could become president. now, while neither jackson nor hart th ultimately won white house, both reshaped national politics in significant ways and for at least one brief moment seemed to be on the verge of winning the whole deal. [rock music] ♪ - i came from a working class family in a small town in eastern kansas. neither of my parents graduated from high school. my mother was from a family of 13, my father was from a family of eight. i was the first one to graduate from high school

en go on to college-- small church college in oklahoma. - gary h a young boy was given a star fo and eventually his class chart, said his teacher, looked like the milky way. he was a very serious, earnest, smart boy, and grew up to be a candidates who loved books and id and ran on a "new ideas for new generation" platform. ♪ - i got interested in public service because of johedy, like many of my generation did. himous challenge to us wasn't to run for office. it was open-ended, but it was some period of your life giving back something to society. - ask what yry can do for your cou - that resonated with me.

to a degree it eclipsed my religious upbringing and gave me a kind of secular way of providing service. - tellgne how you became campanager in '72. - like many things in life, total accide. george mcgovern had made up his mind i think in '70 to seek the presidency on an anti-vietnam war platrm. pro-civil rights, pro-women's rights, all the movement activity of the '60s and '70s, and he was just beginn to put a campaign together. he was at 2, 3% in the polls, so all of the smart guys were not-- [laughs] were not racing to support him, and he hadm o money, and he was futh dakota, so i think you couldn't find anyone else. - you could see the mcgovern campaign as the beginning of a shift by the democratic party. it becomes a more socially libel party. it becomes less and less the old party of hard hats,

the party of the new deal, and gary hart tries to acceleratthat shift. - so how in the world did you go from campaign manager of a losing campaign to 24 months later, you're the young senator from colorado, previously a republican seat. it wasn't easy. i had to survive a six-person democprimary to even become the candidate. - what are your intentions regarding dominick's seat? what might the issues be? - the overriding concern in the country of returnmng honesty to govt and somehow sending representatives to washington and to our state capitols who will clean up politics. - i defeated a wealthy two-term incumbent republican senator almost 60-40. watergate was breaking, that helped, and we certainly focused a lot on that. - people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. well, i'm not a crook. - gary hart in the senate was a leader of the p when i say progressive, i mean progressive,

on intnational issues, mestic issues, you name it. - gary hart presented himself as a voice of a new generati to borrow from a psi slogan of that era. - the choice of a new generation. - and he was positioning himself as a candidate of new ideas, somebody who was trying to bring the democratic party up-to-date. - looking back, the economy had flattened out around the time of the opec oil embargo and foreign competition in autos and steel. so, the democratic party was continuing to advocate new social programs, but without an economic program to generate the revenues to pay for them. i sensed that my party was running out of intellectual eam. [upbeat music] - he talks about having a lunch very early on with guys named steve jobs and ste wozniak in some little restaurant somewhere in silicon valley. he lea d this group ocrats that come to be known by the media as the atari democrats, because they are the ones

who are talking about the transformation to this computerized informatn economy. - instead of talking about protection from foreign competition, i talked about howfeat foreign competition with better products and new products. - hart was a break from orthodoxy. a really different candidate, stylistically and with a series of issue positions. - i was excited to work for ry, who to me at that time-- i was a young lawyer-- wakennedy of the '80s, in brains, in looks, in prospect. - walter mondale was driving down the establishment lane, believing that he had all the politicians, he had all the money, all of the basic democratic constituencs. he had the support of organized labor, an the national orgation for women. - how you doing? - vice president mondale was very popular in the party. the polls regularly showed him at 50%, and the e pundits said, he's got it wrapped up.

[laughs] i saw the glass as half empty. i said, "if he is so wel "why are 50% of the democrats looking for someone se?" and so i set out to be someone else. [dramatic hip-hop music] ♪ - i am a candidate for the presidency of the united states in 1984. [cheers and applause] - i remember december-- at that point that waswo months before the iowa caucuses. we go to a small town, and there's 20 people in a cafe. well, he's running for president of the united states, but what we knew is that out of those 20 people, we would get ten precinct captains. you spend an hour in a room with gary hart at at stage, you're gonna walk away saying, "this guy's really impressive. we want him to be president." - this country cannot stand four more years of reagano for the rich. [applause] there are six of us running for president. is a former vice president of the united states,

and the other one is the most popular man in america, and here's me. - gary was the quintessential outside candidate, a new, young senator who was running more on ideas than party apparatus - equal justice, social justice, equal opportunity. [applause] - hart said, "here's what's gonna happen. "if i come in second place in iowa, i'm gonna win hi "the new hamps primary ten days later, "and if i win in new hampshire, "i'm gonna win in the caucuses vain south dakota and , "i'm gonna win south carolina, "i'm gonna win all across the country "on sur tuesday," and it's because "this is what happens in american politics. this is what happens with momentum in american politics. if you become the one choice, if you become the e person nt who can beat the frounner, if you become the alternative, millions of americans and they invest whatever hopes they have in you. - hart's rise was meteoric. you know, he went fromat or 2% in thenal polls

to being equal with ronald reagan in the polls in a period of i think . five, six, seven weeks he stubbed his toe a little bit in the debate right before super tuesday. - he had this speech about w he's new and i''s an idea man anold. "well, could you answer this question?" - when i hear-- - some specific ys to do that. - when i hear your new ideas, i'm reminded of that ad, "where's the beef?" - yeah? [laughter] - we know it's a big fluffy bun. - talk to the manager. - it is the manager. - where's the beef? - it was a form of political jiu-jitsu, if you think about it. here was this new person, full of ideas, so mondale sort of takes that and flips it. even people that were outside of politics and new to politics, they cld kind of laugh. - where's thalbeef? - mr. monde! - where's the beef? it worked, he didn't know how to handle it. the debate was mine i think before it was over.

it was a good day for old democrats. - that provided a little bit of an opening for walter mondale, and so mondale was able to win i think two or three states on super tuesday. had hart swept across the board on super tuesday, i think it would've been impossible for mondale to stay in the rac - gary hart soldiers on and keeps winning enough primaries so that by the time the democratic convention rolls around in san francisco, mondale does not have a lock on the nomination. - i won 25 primaries and caucuses and went all the way to the convention in san francisco. - i'd like to introduce a candidate of great courage, senator ga hart. - i had over 1,200 delegates, and there hasn't been a 5ntest like that years or more. and i am proud to be a member of a rty that encourages shirley chisholm and jesse jackson to run for president. [cheers and applause] the sunday before the convention had secret service walking the streets of san francisco,

and i turned a corner, and there was reverend jackson, so i said, "secret service, let's go visit reverend jackson," and i had not made a phone call or anything. i said, "jesse, let's combine our forces." he said, "fine th me. "you get your delegates to vote for me and i'm happy with that." of course i had 1,200, and he had 3. - if hart had jesse jackson as a full partner, they absolutely could have taken it to the floor. i don't think it would've been quite like 1968, but it would've been a lot different. - jesse wanted to be nominated, and rightly so, and he wanted abs delegates to b to vote for him, and he did that, but i lost that chance. he'd come from 3% in the polls with no money and no name recognition to coming comith this close to takinnomination from mondale in san francisco. had it not been for the surdelegates, he probably would have. all: four more years, four more years! - i'm gonna do it just one more time. you ain't seen nothing yet.

[all cering] [funky music] ♪ - from basically the moment walter mondale loses in 1984 to 1987, the democratic party is pretty much assuming he's going to be their nominee. he spends these next couple of years after that campaign goinhe soviet union, coming out with a massive plan, both domestic and foreign policy. - i had into send a secret emissary to mikhae gorbachev after ection with a comprehensive plan to end the cold war-- serious arms reductions, opening up trade, citizen exchanges, a whole range of things. i had gotten to know gorbachev. i think i was amonthe first to say, "this isn't mmunist leader."y if he had agreed to that, i was going to invite him to the inaugural, january of '89, and then that day, sign all these agreements that ended the cd war.

- i mean, this guy had really thought hard about policy and - the first goal of our competitive trade policy mo to give americans opportunity and control over their economic future. in short, economic empowernt. - the assumption about him in the le 1980s is that he's the leader of the boomer generation, right, the boomers are making inroads in every part of the culture, but in politics, they're still shut out. hart's the first guy to reach that pinnacle, the first guy who's gonna be the boomer who's assumed to be able to win the presidency. - because we are going to select not only a leader, going to select a future. - hart is in a stronger position by early 1987 as any presidential contender of the modern era. - i intend to seek the presidency of the united states in 1988. [cheers and applause] [dramatic music] ♪ - so hart has juca announced hiaign, and he says, "we need more moral leadership

'sin this country," and talking about iran-contra, he's talking about the reagan administratn, and he's talking about policy. - the day before his announcement, "newsweek" magazine came out, publisheena profile of theor. deep down in that profile, there was a quote suggesting that the senator had been a womanizer. - immediately, the rumors that have been in circulation about his extracurre begin swirling among reporters. - those s only hurt if they stick, and they only stick if there's some credibility to them, and in my case there isn't, so, life goeon. - it's important to understand, right, hart was separated from his wife twice in the years before that, publicly, said, "i'm separated," dated a lot of women in washington, brouem to social events, right? this is not something that was hidden. - i heard that the "washington post" wafollowing hart. i heard a rumor that nbc news was following hart, and i recall, the first time i raised it with h, he got really angry and he was saying,

"this is-- this is ridiculous. "i'm running fni president of thed states, what right do they have?" "and i just said,president of thed states, "look, it doesn't matter what you think. "the rules are changing. this is gonna be covered, "and there's no sense arguing about it. things are different." - the social climate had changed in terms of how women were viewed and gender norms in society. certainly there had been a rise in feminism and i think what would previously have been seen as out of bounds for reporters to question was not viewed through that same prism ofaireserving cetraditions or values. there was more of a license to bring up uncomfortable questions and to scrutinize certain aspects of a candidate that they wouldn't have previously done. - all these things are churning in the culture, and hart's a guy who can see around all the corners, in but the one thg he can't see coming is this cultural shift. hart can kind of be made to believe that someone's gonna care about his personal life. he does not for a minute think anybody's gonna go

looking for it, because that's never happened. - i thouhet, "we're treading into territory "that's awfully close to gossip. "unless we can prove this, i don't know that we should be pushing further." i decided i would wrestle with that issue in a column. that night my phone rang, and it turnsn'ut to be a wovoice-- said, "did you write that column about senator hart in the paper this morning?" and i said, "yes, i did," and her next words were something like, "wel're an idiot, because senator hart is having an affair with " - donna rice was 29-year-oss aspiring actnd model who was selling pharmaceuticals at a tremendously successful clip in florida. she was phi beta kappa from the university of south um carolina, she's no. they end up spending this time together on a boat with a couple of other people-- friend of hart's and a friend of hers-- . they go over to bimini - bimini in those days was and this is the era of "miami vice."

[jan hammer's "miami vice theme"] there's fast boats, fast drugs, fast women, fast men. nk so right away, i'm ting, "if this is at all true, "why wouany presidentiae "put himself in a situation that wld be so politically dangerous?" - they end up staying the night, depending on who you talk to, either becauit was ind or because the customs shutdown, and then they reunite in washington a couple weeks later. - our job, check it out. if it checks out, we tell voters. voters can decide whether it matters or not. - the "miami herald" decides very quick and without a whole lot of internal debate, that they're going to put the presumed front-runner of the democratic party under covert surveillance. - i came up with the other editor and a photographer on the first flight satuorning, and we spent all saturday just basically trying to watch and see. take up positions around the street incognito in sort of jogging outfits.

one guy's wearing a parka in may. - it wastil saturday night that senator hart emerged fromhe townhouse-- again, with the woman who had gone up there-- and that really led to the confrontation. - hart goes through this week that's really unprecedented in american politics. no one's ever had to deal with this before. but what really happens in that moment is di the tabloid mea and the political media converge for the first time, and you suddenly have the camera scrums of people shovinlbeach other aside,owing, and the tabld reporters are jumping over bushes. - could weh ot-- could we not puse crowd? - this was befe youtube and twitter and facebook, and for some reason this wasal not just big politews. it was gossip. - i was accused of things that were common knowledge about previous presidents and other candidates. - there used to be this sort of agreement between the press anthose they covered that they wouldn't say certain things as long as they did not pertain to what they did officially,

but wargate sort of blew that all out of the water, and you had this new skeptical press looking to c the next story, to be first. - it's pretty hard to get past that kind of distraction, and i remember talking to my staff, and then others in the campaign, saying, "here's a set of guidelines that i want us to use. "one, we need to protect our own dignity and honor. the second thing was, i want us to be hart's defense lawyer. the third thing is, we need to protect the hart family personally.e we gotta save mpaign. - at one point hareysays, "why do th have to chase me?" like, 'c he can't really understand what's happening. hart can't get anywhere near voters, he's being knocked off his feet. - the statement is pretty clear here, the statement says that the campaign will continue. - i remember saying that this is not a legitimate issue. thers no smooth line the graph that plots fidelity with competence. we've hads some great preside who've been really lousy husbands. we've had some great husbands who ha been really lousy presidents. there's no real connection between the two. - that was the first campaign to really experience

prdern 100 members of the ess with their mics out and cameras and chasing you around. - eally hard to talk on tv about a foreign policy lecture series, or about a book on military reform, or about a new tax structure. those things are challenging for reporters. 's a lot easier d more interesting perhaps to write about rumors and personal behaviors. - did i make a mistake in putting myself in circumstances ?that could be misconstru of course i did. that goes without saying. did i do anything immoral? i absolutely did not. - the week of gary's scandal in 1987, i was on cnn debating a very conservative cal thomas, and thomas yelled at me, "what could be worse than adultery?" and i yelled back, "nuclear war!" - we flew from new york to new england for that press conference at dartmouth, and i went through a bunc one of them was-- i asked him very directly, "have you ever committed adultery?"

and he shot back at me ansaid, "i don't have to answer that question, what are you talking about?" and he went on, and he was verangry, and i said, "that's perfect, that's fine, just hold onto that energy." so wwere prepared, and we got to new hampshire, the press conference unfolds, and it was surreal. - so you b adultery is immoral? - yes, i do. - ha ever committed adultery? - uh, i do not know, i'm not going into a theological definition of what constitutes adultery. - there were lights everywhere, cameras evywhere, they were pressing in on hart, the room was hot. it was jusly awful and intense. - you can ask me about adultery, qu you can ask me any tion you want, and believe me, my wife and i have answered more personal questions than i think anybody public life and will probably have to continue to, to my regret, but i am gonna demand the system be fa i have a right to demand it. - something in that moment, that's the end of his campaign essentially. he leaves that news conference sort of reeling. hart says to his aides, he thinks

every woman he's known over the years when he was wparated fromife is now gonna be dragged through this parade of news sties. - it was a very, very bad mistake, i've already said that, i will continue to say it. i have trelive with that for th of my life. - and he also feels he can no longer get his message across. he's still doing pretty well the polls at that point and continues to do well in the polls actually for months, but just doesn't feel ig he can conduct a cam ultimately, and he goes back to colorado. - the iami herald" story oke on sunday morning, and the campaign was over friday at noon. is is how quick it was. there was a person on our campaign who went camping ah in the southern wilderness area for a week, and when she l-rt, hart was a froner that was on the cover of the "new york times azine." sunday m there was an iowa poll that had hart 50 points ahead of anybody else, on t of the world, and when she came back, she was in the airport at salt lake city and saw hart withdrawing. that's how fast it was. - i'm a proud man, and i'm proud of what i've accomplished. - he ends up withdrawing from the race with a very fier defiant spee

and says to the assembled media on national tv, "take it from me, politics in this country is to become a spectator sport." - we're all gonna have to seriously question the system for selecting our national leaders that reduces the press of this nation to hunters and presidential candidates to being hunted. we all better do something to make this system work or we're all gonna be soon rephrasing jefferson to say, "i tremble for my country when i think we may in fact get the kind of leaders we deserve." - and he's roundly ridiculed in the mia, that speech was co letely dismissed, - and he's roundly ridiculed in the mia, self pitying and delusional and very quickly forgotten. i met a lot of voters in america in the last decade or so. i think the idea that we're getting the leaders we deserve is funny to anybody anymore. - gary hart's campaign fundamentally changed the way in which the media covered a candidate. it injected someone's character and personal life io into the elect in a way that had not

previously been witnessed. i've spent 30 years not revising that, so i don't think this is the time to do so. [suspenseful music] ♪ - what the "miami " undertook to do in 1987 was shocking then and would be shocking now. n't think the covert surveillance of a presidential candidate would be any more commonplace today. - what happened was inevitable, and if it hadn't been us, it would've been some other news organizati. if it hadn't been hart, it would've been another candidate in another way. - i think what we did in 1987 was to change the definition, in a very real sense, of political leadership. you drive out a lot of people who maybe could make a contribution like a gary hart, but what you also do is, you create a situation edere the people who succe the people who endure, are those who will do or say anything to evade the scandal. - i did not have sexual relations

with that woman. these allegations are false, and i need to go back to work for the american people. thank you. [applause] - bill clinton will do anything to get around his persononal scandal. he will evade, he will lie outright under oath, he will lie outright to americans on cara. he will run the traps, and we call that political genius. he's considered the best politician of his generation. and then you look at a guy like gary hart. hart refuses to speak about any of it, thinks it's gonna hurt too many people for him to revisit ia and he's gold on to his dignity. 25 years later, he won't tell me or anybody else what he did or didn't do because he doesn't think anybody deserves to know. - it was a tragedy for him, peaps the country, that his monumtally stupid mistake, led him to being kicked out of public life, 'cause he was as smart and as visionary a politician as i've ever known. - eve i would have been a successful candidate,

and i know i could have been a very good president, particularly for these times, but apparently, now we'll never know. - we can get in a time machine and we can go back and we can throw out franklin roosevelt, we can throw out lyndon johnson, and we can throw out john kennedy, but i think moricans consider those successful presidencies. - a lot of people of quality just will not have their personal life explored. peooking in their windows and following them-- that happens in police states, not in democracies. - we've, in a very conseq ntial way, changed that happens in police states, not in democracies. our own meent of what character is in politics and i'm not sure it's reflective of the kind leadership you need when you have a vastly changing society in a vastly changing world. - whenpped aside from the race, and that was my choice i wasn't driven out. i said to the assembled journalists, "if you start down this road, you're gonna fundamentally icange american pol"

and i think that's what's happened. - jackson was this terrifying force within the democratic party because he could register voters. ds - jackson's michigan lde throws the party into disarray. - there was a possibility that he pruld be ident of the united states, and it was when we won michigan, and people went, "whoa, that's not supposed to happen. ♪ - i am... all: i am... - somebody. all: somebody. - i am... all: i am... - somebody. all: somebody. - i ma poor... all: i may be poor... - but i am... all: but i am... - somebody! all: somebody! - i may be on welfare... all: i may be on welfare... - but i am... all: but i am... - ebmebody! all: somody!

- jesse jackson grew up in segregated greenville, south carolina. separate water fountains, separate schools, separate housing projects, and been fighting against that all his life. - this was the scene in little rock, arkansas, when nine black teenagers attempted to integrate the ci's high school. the nine would be turned away on the school's front steps after thgovernor ordered s national guard to block the door. - i will not force my people to integrate against their will. - i went to jail july of 1960, trying to use a public library. in greensboro in '63, we were marching. we were jailed in greensboro for inciting a riot-- just a trumped-up charge. - i mean, so many people in life are born with a lot of potential. oi mean, so many in life hear about god, and he's one of the few people i know who's always felt that god believed in them, and he's wanted everyone else to understand that god believes in them too. my father had a career choice. he cetween the duke university school of law

and the chicago theological seminary at the university of chicago. reverend doctor samuel dewitt proctor, who was the president of north carolina a&t state university when my father and mother matriculated, and re"jrend proctor said, sie, "you know you can talk. you know you can think, ou know you care for people, "and the ministry is the best place for you. we still need to make this world right." - a lot of people haven't heard reverend jackson preach at church. this man is brilliant. he's a brilliant theologia - all i know, for the record, is that i once was lost, and now i'm found. i once was blind, but noi see. thank god! thank god! thank go - my father joined dr. king when he was about to become his most unpopular, but he did not turn away from that. he wased to do it. - dr. king had sent him to chicago to set up operation breadbasket--

the economic arm of the civil rights movement-- and he used that for a . [sad music] - of course dr. king was killed. that began to redefine everything. - people were some in pandemonium, some in shock, some we crying, hollering, "oh, god," and i immediately started running upstairs to where he was, and i caught his head, and i tried to feel his head, and asked him, i sd, "dr. king, do you hear me? dr. king, do you hear me?" [dramatic music] r[indistinct poliio chatter] ♪ we are gonna be shot in the back anyhow. why not be shoot in the chest? let's mo on. - jesse jackson is a very bold person. his daddy was married and his mother was a teenager who lived next door when he got her pregnant, and so jesse jackson, all his life,

you hear him s he's saying that to himself as much as he's saying it to anybody else. - i am... all: i am... - black. all: bla. - beautiful. all: beautiful. - proud. all: proud. - my father has learned to take the broken pieces of life-- the shredded pieces, the discarded pieces, and come up with something beautiful. he is a minister first. many people see him as a politician. following in jesus' tradition, that's what my father has done-- cast light into dark places to set the captive free. [mellow music] - jesse was talking about buildi the infrastructure and creating jobs, but more than that, he waseaching out to those who had been left out of government, of public policy. it was announced last night that a $150 million deal is about to be finished between the government of china. that same $150 million deal could have been made with black and brown folks in inner city. and it ss to me that the president's trips to china was for boeing, coca-cola, china hilton, moscow hilton,

and that is a greater priority than developing inner city america. - he formulated what he called the rainbow coalition of the dispossessed. that was african-americans, latinos, poor people. what was surprising was the number of whites who really came up to him and saying, "you're the only person out there who represent - it's what we refer to as "diversity" today, and what we f lk about in termsclusive, but jesse was in the forefront of talking about bringing everybody in. - the conccot of the rainbow pusition is people united to serve humanity, - we need our jobs! we need our money! we need our potential under the law! party-ism is racism! wake up, blow your trumpets, let the world know we are displeased. we do not like it. i - in 1980, actually, tried to get reverend jackson

to run against president jimmy carter. he wouldn't do it because he liked jimmy carter a lot. [upbeat music] - i don't anybody actually knows this, but ior to jackson actuallyanno, megeorge mcgovern own and joined us and said, "i want to propose something to reverend jackson. "i would like for us to run as a team. "jesse would be my vice president, llnd if we win, i iterally turn it over to jackson in four years." for some reason, reverend jackson didn't think that was a good deal. - what made you decide to run in '84? - it was never part of my ambition to run for political office. i had gone to conventions before in '72, '76, and '80. so i decided to try to mobilize the locked out, to expand the tent, and to try to see america for the firs through a door and not through a keyhole.

- our father wanted maynard jackson, the former mayor of atlanta, to run, or ambassador andrew young would be more acceptable. they were more mainstream, but the peophi kept pushing foto run. - 300 ministers from around the country said, "if you run, we will raise money," and they raised maybe a million dollar so as i raised the discussion came the idea of "n, jesse, run." - running for president was a way of increasing voter registration, that the other candidates wouldn't necessarily raise, and make sure that the african-american community was taken more seriously. - no one can be denied the pr. she will cunry on in the '80raid, unashamed, and unsurpassed. - stop reaganomics. change the course. st in people. reinvest in america. i offer that leadership, i offer those priorities. - jimmy carterost to ronald reagan by less than the number of african-americans

who either hadn't voted or weren't registered. - the sense thatlack americans had th there was a moving forward was blowreaway by ronalan. jesse jackson wanted to run on the economic disaster that had been wreaked in the cities d states, in the uni and he instantly had a constituency. - when the decision was finally made that my father was going to run for the presidency, he gatmy brothers and my sister and i. and we were excited, t all of the electricity in the air. - we just hit all these little towns that basically nobody ever goes to, and they see somebody like reverend jesse jackson coming to town, i mean, that's the biggest thing that had ever happed. - at this hour, in not just black america but the uncaed states of ame you didn't have that many women and minorities seeking public office. - within about two months, we had registered about 40,000 new voters. - the white reaction to that was many of them

moved over to the republican party, and that's why the southern republican party is now the base of the party. the old southern democrats quickly flipped over to become southern republicans, cks became the base of the democratic party in the south. - well, you rtow, at the time, we s late. we didn't have the resources, we didn't have the organizational skills, but you know we had? we had what money could never y in a campaign. we have passion. - when i win, peace wins. when i win, ean environment wins. when i win, college youth win. when i wins, justice wins. surely you know we can win! [applause] [upbeat music] - he brought in not only african-americans, but latinos and arabs and jews, and he reached out to the farmers, who were being treated very badly. their properties and their farms were being taken away from them, and jesse went out there and he stood up for them. - we went to columbia, missouri,

and it's maybe a two hour ride in the car, and looked out and saw about 2,000 whites, and they're with mask on. te. [laughs] "white farmers with sacks over their heads? ? "is this the k i'm a little hesitant to go in," you know. - they were afraid if the farm agricultural extension services saw them there, they could lose their subsidy. so they were there looking like klansmen, but under their sacks they were our allies. - i was facing foreclosu j and got ahold ofse. he offered to come, sit down at a mediation table... [cheers] and try to work this thing out between myself and my bankers. [cheer we wound up going through some reorganization, but we still got every acre and we're gonna farm. [all cheering] and we're gonna continue to farm! [upbeat music] ♪ a lot of the democratic black leaders didn't fee

that comfortable with him, and he ran a good race, but there were strict limits on what he was gonna be able to accomplish. - they wt ready. they did not believe that a black man could be president. - some blacks wouldn't support because they couldn't imagine whites accepting a black. some whites couldn't imagine it bause they couldn't imagi a black being that audacious. alcandidate like walter mo for example-- very established liberal credentials, friend of the civil rights movement, and people would say, "how can you runns agwalter mondale?" and jesse jackson would say, "it's not against the person, it's about the position, about the policy of t democratic party." he would go out there, present his atform, keep the issues he felt important on a front burner, and force the party to be true to itself and really distinguish itself from the republican party. hythmic music] - my father's ministryl in scope and dimension. he's met with religious lethers from all oveworld and brought up human rights concerns

in all of these discussions. he's met wesident castro, with president assad to bring hostages back. - two american soldiers were down over syria. the white soldier died and the black soldier-- goodman-- was alive, and agan's position was, on't go. "you don't don't know what you are doing, but if you do m t him, bring ck." so we decide to go, and in the end we got him out. - he proved that a black mhe could go out and stand on his own, master the issues, ster foreign policy. - welcome to the league's second presidential debate of 1984. - we had to have a debate in new hampshire, so i called dr. sam proctor, my mentor. he suggested, "when they start debatin start using language you're not familiar with, whatever they say, take the moral high ground-- the moral, ethical high ground, and they can't touch it. - we're worshiping chnology. i want to use our technological superiority ito produce convel weapons that work in combat in sufficient numbers to defend this country's interests.

- gary's argument now is still preparing to kill and be killed by the russians. - no. no, it's not. - i think the point is, if we begin to use more of our energy on talking and negotiating and engaging in trade uland technology and agricre and less on pr caring to fight, prepare to live. we need to begin to use our minds rather than ouiles, and reduce this tension and go another way. [applause] - jesse jackso this terrifying force within the democratic party because he could register voters, he could move voters in ways that the other candidates couldn't. jackson used the weapon of registration as a way of demonstrating his constituency and bring huge new numbers into the party. - reverend, based on the number of delegates committed to each of the candidates, you're way at the bottom of the heap, and your campaign, it is generally agreed, is detrimental to the campaign ofalter mondale. walter mondale appears, according to the polls, to be the more populda of the two white cans

among black voters. i think you would have to concede that you would really be a dark horse if you won. - i'm a darkyoorse no matter hoput it. [laughter] that's not the point. my campaign is expanding the party. 20% of the people whtuvoted for me lasday had never voted before. - iae fear, even humon, of older blacks were a factor in that campaign. my grandmother, she couldn't read and write. she would haveano go downtown reveal she couldn't read and write and have to make an x-- used to make an x mark-- for her signature. but that was the beauty of it, to watch people come through that process and overcome their fears and choose hope over fear. - were you eair at risk on that ca trail to your knowledge? - up until that time received the most threa of anybody ever. my grandmother was not gonna vote for me. and it was the fear, if i win, something would happen to me. she said, "boy, if you ms around and win, you gonna get killed." - it was if, after the age of 39,

we were on the clock with him. medgar evers had been killed at 43. reverend dr. martin luther king and malcolm x had been killed at 39, and many people talked about that, you know, "this could be it." - all four television networks-- abc, nbc, cbs, and n-- had two crews that covered jackson everywhere that he went. it was called "body watch," cause they were assuming that . - even with that, with that possibility, our fathrt felt that it was imt for him to run. he said, "you know, things have gone so far, "i can't turn around, and no matter what happens, "kis, know that daddy loves you "and he's d oud of all of you anl that you've done, "but i must do this because i cannot let you "live in a country in a world in which there is a ceiling on your ambitions." [upbeat music] ♪ - it was extremely exciting.

this would have been the first time that you had a blacmajor candidate who was abto address the world at a convention that was going to be covered by everything and erybody. - america's future, the reverend jesse lewis jackson! [cheers and applause] - the manager of walter mondale's campaign called him out, and he said, "you know, "tomorrow nigheech is very important "to the democratic party. "can you kinda give me an idea of the direction that you're going to go?" and he said, "tomorrow night, you will either be "a chimp, chump, or a champ but you won't know until tomorrow night." - there was an anchor who said, "mothers, go get your children. "bring them before the television. "sit down, hold onto your seats. "you're about to hear one of the greatest speeches that you've ever heard in your life."

- but just bec you're born in the slum, does not mean the slum is born in you, and you can rise above it. we must leave racial battle ground and come to economic common ground and moral higher ground. america, our time has come. and come november, there will be a change, because our time h come. thank you and gobless you! [cheers and applause] [upbt music] - cameras panned the audience and people were crying. e white people werying. black people were crying. - although he didn't win, jackson touched on isss that were important to a lot of americans ofaces and all backgrounds who didn't feel that they were represented. - today jackson talked about his role in this campaign and future campaigns. - we know ace is not a 30-yard dash, it's a decathlon. we continue to move up, and with each election, we have more reason to be excited, really.

we were speaking to '84, but we were looking to '88. [upbeat music] ♪ - i officially announce my candidacy to seek the nomination of the democratic party for the office of the president of the united states of america. [cheers and p.plause] bold leaders - there was nobody really that was out there on the democratic side who wathe obvious frontrunner. mike dukakis was a governor. gephardt was a congressman. al gore was a senator, but there was nobody that was the odds-on favorite, so you know, you've got one black guy and four or five white guys, do the math, you know, and that's what we did. instead of targeting states, we tar congressional districts. - they had a joke, we would always say that the most dangerous ace in the world is between jesse jackson and a tv camera. a lot of people thought it was grandstanding, but they also knew that he could force the issues by the sheer force of his personality. - hope. [applause]

jackson fights for comparable work for women--hope. jackson fights to save our farms--hope. he fights to end the flow of drugs--hope! he fights to end the nuclear race--hope! he fights to revive the people--hope. we the people will win. thank you very much. - michigan is just about the halfway point in the race for the 2,082 delegates it wiltake to win the democratic presidential nomination, but more t dn half of allelegates are still to be chosen, most of them in these key contests. michigan tomorrow... - there was a possibility that he could be president of the united states, and it was when we won michigan, and people went, "whoa, that's not supposed to happen." - yeahjackson won michigan i think about two to one over dukakis. ch - jackson's an landslide throws the party into disarray. - he deserves my congratulations. - midukakis was flattened last night, and the word that almost attached itself to hhis candidacy-- inevitable--was stripped away.

there is nothing inevitable about anything in american politics. d - michigan basically doo in wisconsin, because people in wisconsin who would be voting for jesse soth of as a protest, thought, "wait a second, this guy could be president." the same amount we won michigan, we lost wisconsin. we went into new york, and we had gore and we had dukakis and we had us, so you know, we tt our 37 or 38% vote, you know, we could potentially win. mayor koch, who had endo,ed senator go was going nd trying to get jewish votes for gore. - but on the other hand, he's praising arafat, and he thinks maybe jews and other supporters of israel should vote for him. they gotta be crazy. both: down with jackson! down with jackson! with jackson! - what happened was that we won the city, but we didn't win thppstate, and and gore d out, so after new york, it was a two-person race. i met with reverend jackson, i said, "you know, you can't win this nomination now, and he said--he said, "you don't get this.

"the campaign may be over, but the crusade continues. - the democratic party wanted us to cave , but we wouldn't cave in. - most campaigns end because they run out of money. he had the money tn and to have a formidable presence at the convention. - he brought the audience to their feet, bringing rosa parks out as his speci guest. - the mother of the civil rights movement. ladies and gentlemen, mrs. rosa parks. - and it's basically saying his candidies were continuing the work of rosa parks and the foundation that she had laid. - hands that pick cotton will pick the next president of the united states of america. those kinds of sayings helped people to believe and understand thae we had a right topart of the rlitics of this country. [cheers and applause] - wherever you are tonight, you can make it. hold you head high, stick you're chest out. you can make it.

i was tryingrve out... a lane of healing, a lane of hope, a lane of reconstructi . i wanted to try to pick up the broken pieces and connect them. that was my ambition in that speech. america will get better and better. keep hope al keep hope alive. i love you very much! ov - we got 7 million votes. won 13 races and finished second in 33, which at that point was that a second placn.finisher had ever got [cheers and applause] - i think if you look at both of those campaigns, '84 and '88, rei think the victories we in that platform... - human rights, a consistent policy in africa. - that the democratic party did to its roots, and stop drifting to the right. that was his victory. - in theonvention, we got rid of winner-take-all primaries, which was if you get 50-plus % of the vote,

you win all the delegates. winner-takwas one of those fights that had to be made. - jackson got rid of those, and that has led to peaceful, more inclusive conventions ever since, and it ultimately opened the door to baracprobama winning thidency in 2008. - he changed the political landscape of america. jesse registered 7 or 8 million new voters. i mean, had it not beefor n and reverend jackson's candidacy, many of us wouldn't be in elected office. - barack obama is not the first "african-american candidate" to come close and then of course win it. jesse jackson. reverend jackson laid the foundation. [ches and applause] - on that night in 2008, i know he thought of his grandmother, i know he thought of his father and his stepfather, bulli know he thought off these children. they were just excited about the possibility ofrican-american president, but not just the possibility now that it was real,

what it meant. - use hope and imagination as weapons of survival and progress. use love to motivate you and obligate you to serve the human family. young america, dream! nothing we cannot do or bor become. - as reverend said, on november 3, 1983, when i runthwhen i do this, g will ever be the same, and nothing has ever been the same. [crowd cheering] weeping music] ♪

"w- the host asked him, ell, how would you break the stalemate in vietnam?" - defoliation of the forest by low yield atomic weapons. - nuclear weapons cut down trees. [hip-hop music] - we didn't have fuel for the planes. if we don't win north carolina, he goes home - we call on ronald reagan to withdraw from the presidential race. - you couldn't push ronald reagan becahe'd push right back. - i'm going to abide by the wishes of the people, not the politicians. female announcer: "the contenders: 16 for '16" is made possible in part by the ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide; the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build measurably better lives; e corporation for public broadcasting, and by contributions n to your pbs stat from viewers like you. thank you. election 2016 on pbs

jerram swartz: e.readywe're rolling.l ple action. norbert leo butz: this season we're going to getn righ the nitty gritty, right away. annasophia robb: it's action packed. lisa q. wolfinger: in season 2, we definitely up the romance factor. ti we heighten old relaships. we spark some new loves. hannah james: there arlove triangles. there are romances that fade. there are ones that spark and grow. mary elizabeth winstead: mary and jed are feeling very warm towards other. they've been through a lot, so they're really bonded at this point. josh radnor: everything that a viewer might have loved in season 1 is present in season 2 and more. jack falahee: the second season is wild. annasophia robb: there is a lot of deception. i love playing a spy. ick falahee: it'sn this gigantic overwhelming backdrop of violence and all these interesting characters coming in and ou david zabel: the nucleus of the show in season 1 was very much the ospital. season 2, it's taking us that much closer to the battle. norbert leo butz: this season they're going to push that envelope a little bit, in terms f really depicting the atrocit.

david zabel: the contraband story, it's an element thatase touched on last se, but we really dive in more deeply this season. and the way that we've been able to do that is by introducing thisjeharacter charlottins. a former slave who comes down here to help take dsre of the contrab and help teach them how to be free. patina miller: my en character, charlottens, is a northern abolitionist. she's heard about what's going o and she takes it upon herself to see to these people because no one is really caring about them right now. mckinley belcher iii: everyday sael's revealing more of his medical ability and he gets a sense that this may not just be a dream anymore. it may be able to become a reality. david zabel: they're all engaged deeply moin this cataclysmic ment in american history and in the mide of a war. people are dying or surviving based on d the choices thattors and nurses are making. so there's a lot to lose and a lot to be gained.

the faces you know the news you rely on, anytime you want anywhere you are. man: i really value pbs's news coverage because i think it's very rigorous journalism woman: clear and concise reporting man: both thoughtful and thought provoking woman: mind blowingly honest and open woman: information that will help me make a good decision with so much at stake, ts election year one place has the news you need to decide pbs your favorite pbs shows ready to watch, when you are anytime, any place find more ways to explore than ever before at pbs slash anywhere

election 2016 on pbs - one. g - what's wronwith my running for president of this country? - i almost resenus vice president b your patronizing attitude that you have toigeach me about fopolicy. - ahh! - i'm doing this because i love you. - tomorrow night my name will go on nomation for presidency. - i will beat al gore like a drum. [cheers and applause] - i want my country back. [cheers and applause] - mr. ctesident, you wereed to lead. you chosto follow. and now it's time for you to get out of the way. female announcer: "the contenders: 16 for '16" is made possible in part by the ford foundaon,