from the data that we decided to do it to print about three years. i thought i would start by telling you a little about how the book came to be. why they felt compelled to write it and some of the obstacles, color for obstacles we face along the way i think that background gives a lot more insight into the goal of the dhaka and any reading. brandt and i went to college together at cornell and we became better friends when we moved to new york. at this point single, releasing all, and he often asked me for dating advice. even chile who he felt like i was on to something because he suggested i write a dating back. i declined but it did get me

thinking. we were young conservatives living in manhattan, we grew up in the liberal northeast, we went to very liberal universities and "the new york times" of all places and we were used to defending her politics. extending ourselves and confronting people who were shocked, just shocked to learn that they had been living with our working next to the game with republicans. after all, republicans are supposed to look like the -- supposed to talk like cheney. they are supposed to trade orphans on the black market and to use endangered animal hide for towels madrid our friends mostly liberals naturally are petrified of us, absolutely disgusted. one friend refuses to go hunting with me for fear that i will get him bird shot, the surface there

where accounts, but deep down of course they see us as pariahs we are sasquatch, we are the bogeyman. we would write a book about the stereotypes attached to the republicans and conservatives. in the beginning we thought we would try to find other cosmopolitan young conservatives and republicans who were like us and that they were somewhat surprisingly conservative sweep placed an ad on craigslist and we got some cool results. we found on a registered nurse in maryland and a hispanic dance teacher in l.a. and we thought this is great we will collect all these people and tell their stories to me about vetting these people was a lot more difficult than we thought.

we found one guy a graphic designer in seattle but also founded a punk band, which is great, but after a little digging it turned out that he was also a nazi sympathizer and skinhead, so we realized release and that unless we want to spend a year investigating these people we would have to find a new angle. so through a releaser to this connection that we had to david horowitz, the cultural critic, we set up an interview with him what and really had no idea what we were going to say, what we hope to accomplish. nonetheless we were very excited. we gathered in the little midtown apartment. he said on vodka and i wore a suit for no reason. we felt very official. and in the and we got a really good interview and it occurred to us that if we parted with five interview into a couple other great interviews with note four of the conservatives, we

could write a book about the stereotypes the way we wanted to. hijacking the much-needed gravitas from the celebrity conservatives. we spent the next month rounding up every conservative we could think of it and weep hitched to around 400 people, and in the end we got 40 all stars. new gingrich, tuck brough carlson, george will, and some really fun outside conservatives like curt schilling and ted nugent. so the book became a reputation of a collection of stereotypes. there are of course the mainstays. republicans are homophobic. republicans are warmongers and we even tackled some of the less scientific republicans are not

funny, republicans are bad in bed, and maybe most offensively, republicans aren't one cool. and we did a ton of research and we rode all of these meeting our interviews with these famous people into the appropriate chapter is but once we were done but challenge began. you can't call up john harper collins and say here's my book i want some of that money. publishers don't select the manuscript. the literary agents are notoriously famously liberal, which is fine, but if you have your lieberman here, maybe starbucks, which is no problem but we had more than 100 agents, and you would think that it would be easy to get people to

take 15% of your potential earnings. but it wasn't. one called me to tell me that he hoped my teeth fell out and another said that it was because of people like us that americans are up to our years in the blood of our children to read it was vicious. i don't mind being passed on, but i mind being scolded. eventually we found a fantastic agent and he sold a book to simon and schuster threshold in print and a couple of weeks and now a great launch party in new york we even got on to page six without having to go to rehab, and we got to do really fun stuff like this for my personal favorite guilty pleasure, c-span's book tv. i would like to invite him to come up and speak as well if any small victories have come out of this book is that he is no longer single for the moment any way. thank you. laughter carow [applause]

>> every time we do one of these events i have to relive all of my dating mishaps. people frequently ask me in the city how can you be a republican? and i tell them the same reason i'm not a yankee fan. when you live in new york i can't think of anything more trite or boring than being a yankee fan or democrat. i actually wonder who is less confident, my team the new york mets or the team of the republican party. i've concluded the mets by a long shot. having attended the liberal universities and living in new york city, i am used to finding myself in a minority position, but it's something that i, like michael welford, have always embraced. just to give you a little background about myself. when i went to college i didn't have many of the liberal idealistic notions that a lot of people have when they first go

to college and don't yet have to pay taxes. when i went to school i was primarily concerned with getting good grades richmond spewing rustling political science positions back at my professors. as a, i didn't have time to get wrapped up and fighting for a cause. a republican meeting in the end of my freshman year i was elected a vice president. there were three people in attendance and i cast the deciding vote. during my senior year of college, 9/11 occurred. that event changed my view of the world that this for many of us ensure. it also reaffirmed much of what i had already believe in that pushed me further to the right. it wasn't just the event itself that caused the reaction of the vessel anti-americanism on the

campuses afterwards. as you would expect there was outraged for what the audience. except the outrage wasn't directed at the fanatics and he said restricted at the united states. restricted at us for supporting our country and a government that is at times forced to adopt costs and even conflicting policies in a complicated world. of all schools as much of the same. if you happen to be conservative and you ever want to increase your status as a minority conservative, you should hang out in cambridge massachusetts for a while. there is more anti-american is floating around in the red sox were the socks jersey's. it was in favor of the war in iraq and that was a pariah.

while in law school and other interesting thing happened. in one of my summers in new york while i was out one night with friends drinking and playing a pool the topic of the politics came up, and one of my friends whose politics i was not acquainted with instructed me to get the conversation explaining how she doesn't like to talk politics with friends because they always end up offended. so i thought about that statement for the second. then i realized that in new york a few or offending people, as i sometimes tend to do, you must be republican. and thus began my political friendship s.e.. now you can find us on bookshelves throughout the country, we continue to hold minority views and towns in new york that times renders us on the popular. for instance we are both still unapologetically supportive of the president. we would intend to vote for and campaign for john mccain to be

a summit brings me to the question of why should you -- what should you buy your book and read our book cracks [phone ringing] thanks mom. [laughter] particularly if you disagree with our views. if you are one of the people that does disagree with our view is i think this book will surprise you, and will show that we, like many conservatives are not these racist, homophobic and misogynist, elite is coming in tolerant that you might think. a lot of times people find out that we are conservatives and they try to exonerate their affiliation by saying well, you must not be one of those conservatives. well, the whole purpose of the book is to show you that those conservatives don't really exist you don't don't have to agree with our policies, the but in the and they set a picture of us and our policies that is often

incomplete if not inaccurate. and i hope that this book will deepen your tolerance for people the hold our point of view and after all of you are a liberal, how can you argue with tolerance? if you are one of the people that is inclined to agree with us, you probably share our frustrations that being stereotyped and mischaracterized. so hopefully this book will provide an outlet and sharing your frustrations, and hopefully will also be a source of information for you to defend yourself in the future impact persuade people before november. that's all we have to say but we want to open the floor now to questions so please, fire away. >> could you talk about the more

surprising or entertaining memphis that you chose to disprove a look? to your favorite? >> i think that the myth of the gun-toting nascar loving heck republican was near and dear to my heart to the miami nascar fans. i am not a done tutor but i do enjoy target shooting and there was a lot of science and statistics behind that myth that really proves they are completely off base. 30% of nascar fans would republicans. 30 percent almost vote democrat and the rest are either on registered voters or independent subjects for a surprising even to the fans like myself and the same for the gun statistics.

it's just not as heavily republican lead of a battle and that is a particularly fun one for me. >> i don't know if i would say that i had a favorite, believe, necessarily, but the most important one is the idea that republicans are racist. i think that that is the most insulting messages that we encountered. i think it is both historically inaccurate as we point out in our book, and i think the last six months the democratic primary shows that it is an issue that is certainly important to one side of the aisle, but i think it is less so to conservatives and republicans >> yes?

>> all right. so i just walked in and i salles your book up front by the door and started looking for it and i thought that's interesting. then i looked up and i saw that you are in the basement right now. i had to come and visit. as i was looking through your book i thought in the five pages that i read you seem to use the words republican and conservative interchangeably. how would you concerned many old-fashioned libertarians having to side with the current administration because you both said that you are in support of the current president and consider yourself ultraconservatives in that tradition, and second, what i've read like to ask what is your argument so for being a that you don't like nascar or you're not racist in case i want to buy your book would you consider it more a politics book or sociology as an explanation of conservatives in america or is there about conservatives and why it isn't so bad?

>> to address your first question, there is -- you are right that there is a distinction between republicans and conservatives. one is a party, one is more than ideology. i consider myself both. i think my co-author does as well. there are certainly a lot of conservatives who are displeased with the current state of the republican party and with this current administration. some of those views i definitely would say that i am more -- i tend to be more libertarian. i tell you government promoting freedom over virtue. this is something we talked about when we wrote the book rather to address it as conservatives or house republicans and what we try to do is both.

there are two separate boxes, but there is an awful lot of overlap. >> to address the second point you are absolutely right it is very much a sociological project that we embark on. we of course discuss politics and as the rest of the book but we also look at popular culture and the media and history, and we try to put it all together so that it paints a far more accurate picture of the flesh and blood conservative than any sound bite or talking head really can and five minutes and so i think the main plant is not to say republicans are in fact like this, or republicans are not like this, but republicans are dangerous. -- diverse. there's a lot of difference,

there's a lot of nuance to our arsenal of arguments. it gets and glossed over a lot. >> why don't know whether they were the favorite but have you but do you have any stratagems for how these can be dispelled? >> aggressively. i think part of the problem is that >> i think the republican party and conservatives have been a little bet slow to define themselves and to let others define us. one of the things we found in our book is pop culture isn't

completely dominated by the left. there are a lot of conservative undertones throughout pop culture. you know, there are media outlets like fox news that tend to be more conservatives. but i think generally because there is a little bit more, at least a little bit more domination by the left throughout hollywood, throughout the media, and throughout academia i think that it's a little bit for the left to define the right in disinformation's forces. starting that is mostly a matter of better p.r. and prodding out people and spokespeople who have broader appeal. there is no question that there are certain republicans and conservatives who have done a significant damage to the party,

but i feel that they said and policies they tried to implement certainly the last republican congress is between 2,006 hadn't done much to further the reputation in the party but it's a matter of better blending and better p.r. petraeus connect personally we have confronted these head-on in our daily lives for years and the people are surprised to learn that we are conservative or republican that's the best way that we can do it and a collection of our reputations in one place it's a conversation and an explanation that this sound and something different and fresh.

>> how would you characterize or define what it means to be a conservative? >> i think there's a lot of ingalls. less government promoting freedom. those are probably the fundamental conservative principles but i think what it means to be a conservative. estimate there is a whole list of platform items that we all tend to gravitate towards and i would agree with that assessment. we interviewed carry lucas of the independent women's fund federation -- forum. >> she made a good point. she said the only president to

do something great for women was reagan, not that george bush hasn't been great. but that ronald reagan because he lowered taxes and made it easier for the women to work and make money was a boon to women and in that sense i think that you can have all of your sort of pet interests and there's a lot of rent seeking when groups out there that are looking to be heard but really it comes down to a limited government, lowering taxes, getting work a lot easier, saving and earning money a lot easier. these are principles that i think we really clanged above others. >> if i might add i think respect for tradition also is something else. we are by now familiar and

nauseated by the word change, but i think respect for tradition isn't something that we as conservatives shy away from. it doesn't mean that change is never a good thing but i think that respect for tradition is something that is important to conservatives. i think that's why a lot of conservatives tend to be religious. i think that conservatives also tend to look at the world through a morrill who lends where there is good and there is evil. there has to be some hostile questions out there. >> to the estimate following up on the prior question on pop culture, how do you reconcile

the conservative ideology and maintaining tradition and what is hip and cool and different and changing he mentioned on the myth that republicans are not cool and there is antagonism between pop culture and republicans and i'm just wondering how with republicans are conservative ideology says let's stick to the tradition and pop culture let's see what is new and his band different and how you think that can be reconciled. estimate first is admitting and acknowledging that republicans and conservatives do not exist outside of the zeitgeist outside of pop culture. we are very much a part of a pop culture in a way that you might not immediately think coming and we go through those in the book. then second, i think it is out

redefining what cool is to it i think if you listen to some people, cool may be a bending of morality and i think it's a lot cooler to stand up and say this is what is right, this is what i think is good, and i am not going to cave to gossip oral and the osce and landsea and everywhere abound me i'm not going to lower my standards but it is sort of bucking the trend saying i'm going to do what i want and nobody can ask me any questions about it then i don't know, maybe i'm not to you. but i think if both placing a different kind of importance and redefining what it actually is is a start.

>> also i think that to elaborate on those issues part of what we try to show in the book is that there is a distinction between political life and policy, public policy and of the things like but what kind of shows you watch or how you dress or what you listen to, and i think that being a republican or conservative, respecting tradition, family or religious tradition doesn't necessarily reflect what kind of music you are going to listen to or what kind of bars you are going to go to war what kind of music or movies you are going to watch so there is a distinction between what we believe politically and ideologically and everything else and infant.

>> question back there. >> before i came to this lecture tour was talking to some colleagues but said how can he be republican or -- [inaudible] where people are cutting across the lower class and need -- knees government programs that are just suited for the middle class and the upper echelon and that republicans are opposed to more government? i was trying to explain that. it doesn't say less government, the emphasis should be on the efficient and effective government commend the message of less government misconstrues that republicans care about all people coming across class lines and i wanted your opinion about

that. being able to reach out to the lower working class americans. >> i think that is a great point to really need the government programs and you're absolutely right to emphasize we overemphasize less government, and i also think that you are right to point out that republicans in my opinion have -- other ticket policies that do help the lower and middle class. we actually site in number of statistics in the book that address this but i think one of the fundamental ideas of less government and regulation and mobility and people can actually achieve a higher place in society from the accomplishments

and the government at times is an impediment to that. they have a much broader appeal than they are often cast. certainly republicans tend to have a more laissez-faire market approach through economics to business to the elite that is in the case and our book actually as i said cites several studies and statistics which show that that is not the case.

>> i was wondering as the conservatives connected to the party and connected to conservatives and interesting in the future where do you see the direction of conservatism in america into the republican party in america? what to grow off of the legacy of george bush or do you think it can move in another direction? to democrats have a third way for instance? triet astana because of 9/11 they will always be before and after and the legacy to change things for the better and i wouldn't disagree on some counts, but i think i would like a return to the gold watertight of conservatism that a little bit more polished and etymological,

and there's a great explosion of recent conservative thinkers like jonah goldberg and shelby steele. these are genius top-notch thinkers and most of them are not old. i am hoping that with their increasing popularity the dialogue shifts a little. these are very thoughtful economics and i think that we need more of them. estimate in terms of the bush legacy for harry truman very unpopular during the administration extremely unpopular when we leave office. history will judge them a little bit differently. i think the decisions that he has made on foreign policy with respect to the war on terror will be viewed as some point in

the future as more courageous and less in that than they are currently. they're less favorable in the size of government not shrinking the government spending. the interests of cutting him, cutting spending, cutting the size of the government the congressman when we talk about this is a guy by the name of jeff who isn't very well known was a advocate of cutting the earmarks and john mccain is a good candidate with wide appeal and he wasn't conservative because he is pretty moderate on a lot of issues like on global warming legislation,

immigration, so i think that in some ways -- thye support his immigration policy, so in some ways republicans need to return to the reagan years but they also need to be proactive and advocating policies that have independent appeal. islamic in our short discussion we talk about religion. what do you say to people that think republicans are fundamental christians that are out of touch in society? >> being a graduate student in religious studies i have a lot to say about that in this book and we find the most offensive

characterization of republicans or any group of people to call christians or the christian right fanatics or extremists. i think that we go through a lot of statistics about how christian republicans are. on the christians from the left sometimes from the media come sometimes from hollywood, because it almost comes off feeling scared like they are frightened if you talk about intelligent design and which is basically evolution with god, it's almost like why are you taking my science a way? the science estes' there. it's absolutely there. it feels a little threatened and i don't understand what is so threatening were dangerous about

the churchgoer. it's a religious country in the religious world. it's a 198% of the world's population crazy as really out of touch and a lot of time so we are out of touch with mainstream america. i think that if you look at the latest book what is so great about christianity touches on mess the main argument about fundamental religious christians is that it's a violent kind of propaganda group and actually that is incorrect and if you look at the acs regime's, kim jong il, castro, it goes on and on. these regimes are more responsible for far more violent deaths than the crusades and the

inquisition, and. particularly on the christian right it's something that should be addressed with a lot more aggression than christians themselves and by atheists and it should be with a lot of aggression like i said. estimate the think it's also important to emphasize that the christian right is an important part of the republican party and the conservative movement, but by no means do you have to be a christian to be a republican conservative. neither my co-author or i were christian.

at the same time, however, we respect the right of people when we do live in a largely christian society and religion is an important part of our private life and we think that is an important part of the american tradition to practice the same religion. >> 110 people that went scarring of america, and i think mostly everybody on the left is a liberal. >> are there any conservatives then you would put on such a list? >> i would like to get on that list at some point. >> he was great.

we quote him in the book. she was a democrat of a sort of comedy the moderate al franken, michael more because they seem really mean to him, and all i agree i think there is mean convince the army and for no reason. i read like to have a career so i'm not going to name them but i think we know who they are. aggression is great but i don't like the mean-spirited test that some of these people on both sides have taken. i just don't think it is productive to it >> i don't think britney spears did for george bush in the last election so if you would call her a conservative i did say you have one conservative that is screwing up america.

>> the party was much the democratic party in 2008 or 2000. maybe you disagree but where do you attribute that shift for the more moderate democratic party to the word i would consider very far left democratic party now? you get nominated to be a democratic presidential candidate you have to be pretty far over to the left at least i feel that line. >> you have an idea why they've moved to the left so far? >> i think it might have something to do with the primary symptoms. i haven't really thought about

this carefully enough to give you a very eloquent response, but i think that institutionally that might have something to do with it to be ideologically i would say that it is the rise of multiculturalism among academics and college campuses. the democratic party has embraced a lot of candidates have really embraced the idea of supranational institutions, the united nations i think one of the reasons that john carey lost in 2004 in what should have been a layup for democrats is his quote for the united states to do anything preemptively in the international arena should get some kind of global test and

that comment along with comments like barack obama where he talks about people in pennsylvania planning on to guns and religion as a crutch. that is a level of elite is some perhaps and a perspective that is out of touch with a lot of americans and middle americans, and i think that those policies and people that have embraced them have led to a party that is further to the left and it's not a party of john f. kennedy treen >> anybody else? going once, going twice. >> thank you. [applause]

and

>> good morning.

good morning. thank you. i moved up my flight, and i'm going to dash off to the airport right after, literally right after i spend about ten minutes here reading. i'm going to read something short on the theory that less is more which is what i try to tell my students and speaking of them i'm hurtling back to philadelphia we have to hold office hours with a little brats to sleep well although my wife and i say that we haven't slept well since the jimmy carter administration. thank you so much. and as just said, holding out, you holding us up, that is the key. and i bet i won't even have time to say thank you and goodbye so

i will just say to miles cowal eloquent his little segue introductions have been and to all of the rest of you for coming. i am supposed to read something. i was forgetting about that with a would-be because i was going to make it a very short. i was going to read from the end of the prologue. one of the things i was stressing in the talk i gave yesterday and in the panel that i appear on the day before is that for all of the undeniable, appalling dark side of ernest hemingway there was also the light.

it cannot best when a child was involved especially and ill child who wouldn't respond to that but seemed to respond in a special way. so i was thinking of reading something of a key west passage and i said it would be like a piece of coal offering something in newcastle so i'm not going to read that. i am just going to read this little moment from the end of the prologue of, and indeed it is the end of ennis hemingway's life when everything is lost but there is still something of their. look backward 17 days from his death to june 15th, 1961 at rochester minnesota.

a man in the psychiatric ward of the mayo clinic is writing a letter to a 9-year-old boy. amana writes on too small sheets of newspaper in the ground level hand with his trademark. his landscape now has found within himself at the end of his life the kindness and courage and momentary lucidity not to say literary grace but right beautiful kids to a -- rights words to kids he likes. when i read his ego and his polish behavior towards other human beings i would take out a copy of this letter. 210 words with so much emotion

tucked below the surface of the pros. the sentence is heil driven by contained feeling by the acute observation of the natural world even in the masters crime to the has a congenital heart condition to the key is the son of george, hemingway's small-town doctor in ketchum who was also one of his favorite dhaka hunting companions. in the last week's hemingway has been brought once more from idaho for treatment to mayo clinic. not long after the note to fritz, hemingway will fold his foolish doctors at the world-famous connect into believing that he is well enough

to go home to idaho and almost immediately the shotgun will go off in the sunday quiet of the house that sits a couple hundred yards out the upslope from the west bank of the big river. the patient on the word at st. mary's on june 15th, 1961 has just learned that the doctor's son is in a denver hospital. in idaho, hemingway and fritz and his father liked talking about the yankees in the trout but none of that will ever be the same again. st. mary's hospital, not just in the minnesota, june 15th, 1961.

i was terribly sorry to hear this morning in a note from your father that you were laid up in denver for a few days more and speed off this note to tell you how much i hope he will be feeling better. it's been very hot and muggy in rochester but it's been cool and lovely with flights wonderful for sleeping the country was beautiful around here in mississippi used to drive the blogs in the old lumber days and the trail where the pioneers came north saw some good bass jumping in the river. i never knew anything about the upper mississippi before, and it is really a very beautiful country and setting the ducks in the fall but not as many as idaho and i hope that we will be back shortly and can joke about

our hospital experiences together. best always to you, old timer, from your good friend who misses you very much. p.s., best to all of the family. feeling fine and very cheerful about things in general and hope to see you all soon. no one knows for sure but these seem to be the last real sentences. it was still the duty. thank you very much. [applause]

of the stragglers of world war ii in the pacific. mr. smith you look at six different pows in the theater. >> i felt that it was a venture to talk about both sides of the progress. as the mexico when , along with these gentlemen held, and where were they held? >> the americans were held for the duration of the war triet so that was a little less than four years. the one gentleman was a young marine captured and the second of war for japanese prison camps working for a couple of years in the slave labor and the mills. the was a very difficult time to

come out of that alive. the interesting run on the japanese side of that and knew a japanese struggler to stay in the jungle after the war was over and the island in 1960 cannot 15 years after the end of the war i happened to find his diary share in washington and returned it to him some years later he came back to guam and i met him and give it back his long last diary. a very emotional as you can imagine. stat you'll get the prisoners on malae side and the japanese.

how were they treated differently or were they treated differently? >> yes, they were treated very differently. the americans, of course, were treated very brutally. not much food, no medicine, hard labor, a lot of physical beatings and things of that. it is due to the japanese military training which thought that it was to surrender so they were considered not honorable men and they were treated that way to it on the other hand of course they treated the japanese prison in accord with the geneva convention hoping that would lead to better treatment of americans. the difficulty early on they wanted to commit suicide for the very reason that i mentioned earlier they thought that being captured was dishonorable and in

many cases they did americans to let them commit suicide. in the most part they swayed them the other way the ones i write about the site after a couple of years to be a part of rebuilding the javanese are going to lose the war. islamic you're talking with craig smith author of counting the days published by smithsonian box. thank you very much. >> thank you. secure is a look at upcoming book fairs and festivals happening around the country.

the first ladies that i'm drawn to our on the ground floor, the more modest ladies that i can identify with like eleanor roosevelt and jackie kennedy. you know, those are the women whose stories deal close enough to connect with. many of the women in the higher floors of the state flower, they seem like characters from a wonderful story because it was such a line long time ago its history and the books to be in the presence seems a little disconnected. but the first lady's on the ground floor that i remember i remember their real story is and i can picture their lives in an incredible way that makes me think that their challenges and struggles and how they would use

the space. you are watching book tv on c-span2. here is our prime time lineup for tonight.