down? $687,000. he writes a personal check and that is how we won the battle with yorktown. same thing for the continental army when it was about to be disbanded. there is no money to pay them and he said i will write a check and everybody get $50 and he writes a $500,000 check. >> how did that follow true to what happened at the convention? >> it is fairly clear if we are going to be to a viable republic we have to have a federal government capable of managing the economy and taxing the states in ways that are not voluntary but obligatory. >> who was the mastermind behind that insight? >> hamilton. the bank, the assumption of the

debt, the debt at par. everything that hamilton is what he would have done. i am jealous about turnout because someone made a play about hamilton and it is great apparently because i cannot get a ticket to the event. >> maybe if you wrote your book about john jay. >> i see it now. >> i want to touch on the major issues that nunderline the convention. >> let me say something about jay. it is augauguust 3rd. he is with prince orlando. a spanish minister to the french government. there is a map on the table and

they are beginning the nugauche asia nugaucheatinugauche -- negotiation for the treaty of paris. and there is this map, and orlando puts his finger on what is new eerie, pennsylvania and draws a line through toledo and ends up in tallahassee, florida and he said everything east of that is yours. everything west of that is ours. ...

jay versus pipe into franklin's fireplace and says the story break resolutions and adams comes down where he's been negotiating with dutch bankers and he says we are going to break these resolutions forever so they broke the treaty and sell that to the french. >> on such goodwill our nation was founded. [laughter] since we are out west but they mention the second things which comes into play. why was given a choice did george washington a man who seemed utterly wise and every other account referred to -- preferred to go to detroit rather than paris? >> it's a request from lafayette after the war lafayette said you

are the greatest hero of our time. in part because you won the war but mostly because you step down and i think you should take the grand tour, paris vienna berlin. we are not going to visit london [laughter] and washington says no, let's go to detroit, new orleans, around two savannah and up into new england. that is the future. that's what's important. europe is dead. europe is in the past. the future is out there in the woods that a sinner when i was a kid. >> isn't that a radical concept at this point? >> e in the foreign-policy is going to be not with europe but with native americans.

>> did they realize foreign-policy was something that states would have to collectively face? >> this is one of the reasons why the fab four -- that they think you need a federal government not only to provide fiscal policy but if you are going to manage an empire you can't do it in a confederation because already georgia is for example saying there are all these treaties with greece and we'll care about them. they want people to pursue their own happiness, democracy. the mocker seeing is going to -- and north carolina's breaking with the treaties with the cherokee so treaties are worthless because each state sets by the way georgia thinks its borders mississippi. virginia, guess what virginia thinks its border is?

>> doesn't know where the pacific is? >> it says is for pacific because there's a map they have that was written in the 17th century the pacific ocean which they called the celsius only 200 miles west of of the alleghenies. >> isn't that of paul steinberg cartoon? >> somebody stole that from "the new yorker." >> let's talk about it the elephant in the room the convention, if i tomasky somebody else is going to ask you. 55-dollar

to raise it is to risk ending the convention. there is a group of people like jay who is the founder of new

york mission society. frank and, wants to put an article in the constitution saying that slavery should be put on the road to extinction. geuverneur morris gives a great speech against slavery saying this is a form of feudalism where trying to get away from. but, south carolina says if you insist on putting slavery on the agenda we walk. they are against the slave. trade so they want to see the slave trade ended because they are well stocked and that decreases the value of the slaves they are going to sell to south carolina.

there is nothing in the constitution is slavery should

be put on the road to extension but there are certain things that obviously suggest slavery the three-fifths clause and the compromise which they will delay banding of slave. for 20 years. the words, lincoln thought it was really important that they never mention the word slavery. and the phrase is that species of property. i have got this theory which i can prove the way in which madison writes which is one of the reasons there's not a great biography of madison is that he is as boring as hello and his writing reads like an insurance policy. [laughter] it's the reason lawyers love them you know but there are certain locutions the sentence begins here and you think okay and then it turns around two main just the opposite. i think if you grow up in virginia in the middle to late

18th century was slavery around you you learn to think in elliptical ways. you learn to negotiate psychologically and in your vocabulary and your very syntax. >> you are compartmentalizing. >> is more fluid than that. your whole personality shaped around evading confrontation on this issue. anyway, that's what -- >> the strategic decision as to evade the issue. >> yes, let's find a way. at the dinner party please let's not talk about this, okay? said the span says i don't care what you say professor alice, actually do care because you will grade me on this course but i don't care because they were

wrong and therefore slavery is the covenant with death and therefore nothing you can say about the founders and nothing you can say about the convention is going to get past that. to where i say okay, if you want to argue that you have to show me, let's all agree this is a tragedy. slavery is a tragedy. is it a greek tragedy or a shakespearean track -- tragedy? if it's a great tragedy it's the will of the gods. it's intractable. we are going to have to have a civil war. better to have that in 1861 than in 1788. >> this is less fragility. >> yeah in the south probably wins and or is it shakespearean

meaning there was a way to end it with the proper leadership and the answer to that is i don't see how it could be. there's an economic answer if you really say we know this needs to be solved and we are going to call the bluff on south carolina. that's dangerous because we know they are going to fire the first shot in 1861. but we are going to commit herself standing slavery gradually, not right away. we need to raise the money. how are we going to get there? they don't know yet about the louisiana purchase but that's going to happen in 1903. they are going to collect several hundred million dollars that they pay $15 million for her. let's pay off the planners. there's an economic answer to this but there's no answer to the other question and this is

really embarrassing. what happens to the slaves when they are free? if you you look at the appendix of uncle tom's cabin, harriet beecher stowe at the end of the book says now here is where we are going to send them. liberia, the caribbean. if you listen to linkin up until 1864 he sent the whole team down to panama to investigate where we can send them. there is virtually no buddy of significance in the united states who believes that blacks and whites can live together in the same society. >> let's discuss another one of those intolerable speakers you are new york and i want to ask about this. as an epilogue to the ratification story and the idea that new york would secede from the union including hamiltons new york city region would

secede from new york via. >> i love that one. should we go to new jersey to new jersey or should we go to connecticut? >> do you want to talk about that? >> the new york ratification convention is dominated because george clinton them anytime elected governor as a kingdom in new york that is his. they are collecting tariff duties on imports from new jersey, rhode island just for themselves. they don't have to share this with anybody. they are also confiscating loyalist estates and that's a big source of revenue even though it violates the treaty of paris because the treaty of paris says you can't do that. most of the loyalists in new york just one away and they wanted to come back and get their houses back but they were going to get them.

anyway it's a 3-1 majority in the convention. there's no way, argument makes no difference in at jay and hamilton are both arguing against this in the new york convention. they know they cannot win. their strategy becomes delay. wait until virginia votes and if virginia goes forward that's the ninth state. they have decided nine states put in operation. another illegality by the way because it's supposed to be a unanimous vote that we know it's never going to be unanimous because of that state of rhode island. >> this is the biggest con in american history. >> it is a calm but it's a good con. >> it's like "oceans eleven". [laughter] >> i should have thought of that. >> i don't want to run out of

time before we talk about the bill of rights. the bill of rights comes later. it's like a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down. >> madison doesn't think it's some sort of map -- magna carta thing. he spends the whole ratification process including contributions saying only monarchies need them. >> what is the objection? >> because everybody in the conventions are saying why did he do a bill of rights and he realizes a lot of their objections would have been answered if they did a bill of rights. so the question is why didn't they do a bill of rights in philadelphia? the answer is because they were tired and wanted to go home and george mason said look we can do this in half a day. we stick around for half a day and then they spend half the day and they say it's going to take

longer than half a day so we are going home. madison made all these arguments and by the way she put together a bill of rights in the list all the rights suppose you miss some leave some out than that's going to be flawed but after ratification there's a movement for a second convention in new york and virginia. thisthis is a the way to upset everyone. six states have ratified with recommendations. the recommendations are allowed to be only suggestive, not mandatory. that's another thing that madison does. how does he get the authority to do this? he simply says all amendments must be your recommendation that they are mandatory you have not ratified. it's an up-or-down vote, yes or no to the constitution. yes we have it, now we go back to the articles. there is no middle position that removing the metal is a big

strategic move because that's where most people really are. that's where they would like to go and he eliminates that. but after the ratification ends now in order to woo these people back into the national government and some of these people in virginia and massachusetts are good folks, let's do a bill of rights. >> kind of a delayed peace offering. >> that's exactly what it is and when he first writes it he thinks it should be inserted in the document. he is trying to corkscrew these things where does this ongoing word is that one go and then somebody tells him he can't do that because the people signed this document without those insertions and therefore they can't be inserted that way. has to be listed as the code is still abandoned everybody thinks of it as the great epilogue and it would have been that of madison had gotten his way.

i spent some time because i have a sort of puts the word session with the ridiculous doctrine. there's a former student of mine that knows a lot about this, what do you call it? original intent. especially on the second amendment. >> that's the amendment we talk about more than any other today, right? >> we have because of the d.c. versus heller decision in 2008 i think. is that right? and the decision is written by scalia's or his clerks and it's like 32 pages long, the one that i got to singlespaced and claims to be the poster child for original intent. the original intent of the framers in the second amendment

was to guarantee a person's right to bear arms. how did he write it? he did it the way he wrote all a maintenance. he gathered all the recommended amendments. there are 132 of them. and he says okay what do people recommend? a lot of states recommend that taxes will be voluntary. he deep sixes that. we are not going to talk about that. does anybody say we are worried about our right to bear arms? four states say we are worried about a standing army. we are worried that the defense of the republic will be in the hands of a professional standing army and we wanted to be in the hands of a militia under the control of the state.

that's what the second amendment is all about. it has nothing -- so of the right to bear arms is a derivative right not a natural right and the decision by scalia's is a preposterous thing. [applause] a former business colleague of mine but about this too. the legal profession which you are a member of a talk about original intent as if it's a serious theory. they talk about it like it should be taken as a plausible possible way of understanding. it is total garbage. it is created for the sole purpose of destroying stare decisis on crucial decisions. they will never overthrow brown versus board of education that they will go after their things and citizens united is probably the worst decisions since dred

scott. [applause] and the only thing that all the framers agreed upon with regard to original intent is that they didn't want their views to be preserved as original intent. they all said that. >> yoga wonder will -- wonderful line where you said constitution was less to resolve arguments and to make arguments for solution, the sole solution. >> that's right. >> the intentional ambiguity. >> it's an inherently living document. before we get too political,. >> you can see the republicans are not inviting me. >> in order to keep them out of trouble let's turn questions over to the audience. we would love it if you would

approach the microphones on the site. would it be grateful if we could get questions rather than answers for professor ellis and if you could briefly would love to know your names as well. >> i am jim. professor ellis alexander hamilton's role particularly in breaking down the idea of 13 colonies and melting it into a country giving the federal government much more power than certainly any of the founding fathers wanted, can you talk a little bit about that and creating a bank that paid off that enormous debt that we had? >> that's what he does. one of the reasons that hamilton , hamilton serves in the continental army and he sees the problems. hamilton and the "washington post" said the continental congress have been able to give us what we needed in terms of men and money we would have ended the war two years ago. we want 80,000 troops and we

never got more than 15,000. demographically we could have yielded an army of 200,000. the population sustained that the states wouldn't do it so he comes from that experience. in addition, think about this hamilton doesn't have state allegiance because he's an immigrant. he is an american. he is not a new yorker or anything and eventually becomes a new yorker but he doesn't have the problem that madison has. so hamilton is also the most audacious. i know obama use the word audacity of hope thad hamilton is like the guy that put get the highest score on the lsat and they would challenge everybody that the lsat were worth as ways

of measuring anything. and he is the smartest guy but he is the most dangerous guy. if you leave him alone he has totalitarian instincts and we don't want that. when he retires as what happens. >> i very much enjoy your book, thank you. the question i have with respect to the bill of rights i recently read that some have posited as of institutional limitations the original constitution and bill of rights wasn't necessary and ultimately though structural protections ultimately protect freedom and better than any bill of rights good and i was wondering how the various founders came down on that issue with respect to the necessity of the bill of rights? >> medicine agrees with you. keep up the reduction of rights would occur within the structure of the constitution and not with the bill and jefferson disagrees

with them fundamentally on this score. he thought the real threat to life would come from below, from the people. rather than from above, the government. jefferson completely disagrees. they are in different planets on that right now. madison's motive for putting the bill of rights in our totally political. jefferson cares not at all about the constitution and the only thing he cares about is the bill of rights. he doesn't care about what government can do. he thinks government not to change every 19 to 20 years anyway and he cares what government cannot do and that's what the bill of rights will protect. >> good evening professor ellis. you have not mentioned perhaps by design the supreme court. >> i have mentioned some of the justices. [laughter] >> he only mentions them by

name. >> you mentioned citizens united but he didn't say the court that anyway to what degree did the so-called fab four or aside from the fab four founders have the prescience to see that eventually questions of federalism and states rights and what have you would have to be decided in the ideal sense by the high court even before marbury and the landmark decisions which define the supreme court's power? did they see that the supreme court would eventually be a key element of the country? >> you can detect glimpses of that in hamilton's federalist 46 or something like that. but if you read the constitution on the judiciary the one thing that you can say for sure it is they don't want the supreme court to be supreme.

they don't envision, if they had envisioned marbury versus madison which by the way doesn't really make a difference. the big decision is dred scott. but they would conceive of a supreme court is the ultimate arbiter of the constitution is the ultimate source of tyranny. madison later in his career in 1828 to 32 during an altercation crisis suggests that he thinks that is the proper place to ultimately resolve issues peacefully. but in 1787 and 88, the notion that the supreme court would serve that constitutional function is inadmissible with the political culture. >> thank you.

>> i professor ellis. it's good to have you here. i read somewhere a long time ago that the french pay the salaries of the americans in yorktown. is there any truth to that? >> robert morris paid the salaries of the french, the french troops won the battle of york town. we didn't have any engineers and they won the battle. washington was a commander. would we have won the war without the french? e but it would have taken a lot longer. by the way the french bankrupted themselves in supporting us in money and troops and you can say the french revolution is in part a function of the debt that they approved that forces the king to call the state general and when they call the estate general all hello breaks loose in france so the french revolution is caused

by the friendship that occurred our expense and one of the reasons franklin versus the notion that we are going to sign a separate treaty without the french even though he thinks we owe so much to them. by paying the salaries, no. >> my name is greg wilker. washington is close with jay but then it becomes part of the democratic republican. >> they don't call them that. it's in the textbook and it's wrong. republican ticket on call it democratic republic of the till 1860. >> is a reason why he joins the republicans are not the federalist? >> are people that disagree about this and the one answer is

jefferson comes back from paris become secretary of state and he lands in madison changes his mind about everything. [laughter] and goes from the most ultranationalist to federal vetoes. >> i kind of admire that. >> it takes a woman to be able to see this is a noble thing. but he actually starts his conversion before jefferson. he's has to run for office in virginia and a gerrymandered district so is going to be tough and he's running against monroe. in the campaign he is to promise things to get elected like like we are not going to have a national -- the part of it is a he comes into contact with his constituents in a way. but the degree to which madison switches in the 1790s its

180 degrees. he goes from the ultimate defender of the federal sovereignty in the virginia resolution writing what later calhoun will say is the defense of states rights that the confederacy of 1861 is going to go with. by that time he said that's not what i meant and madison is the kind of political man who thinks like a lawyer. even though he wasn't trained as a lawyer. he says who is my client? do you tell me who my client is and i can prepare the arguments to set toward him and attack his enemies. somebody has to give him the client. jefferson clinton -- gives him his client and that's what he

does. he's like a hired mind and underneath it is the realization that with the hamilton program the mercantile north is going to dominate the agrarian south and all these people contributing to the bank and everything, for gins don't think about money, they think about land. accounting his wizardry to them. that is why they are all corrupt but beneath it all is if you let the federal government say they have control of domestic policy guess why what? that's the end of slavery. we can't talk about that. >> hi, i am one of the editors of john jay.

c thank you. >> it mentioned the importance of -- could use a little bit more about jay's experience in foreign affairs during the 1780s and how that develops his feelings? >> you are absolutely right. he comes back from france or madrid i think and they immediately elect him the equivalent of secretary of finance for the confederation of congress. not only did they want to do it he said i don't really think i can do it if i have to go to wherever the capitalist at that time. is that anapolis or trenton bikes they say we will move the capital to new york. he is superintendent of foreign affairs and is frustrated enormous way by the fact that

each state seems to have its own definition of foreign policy. there is also a crisis that happens in the mississippi question. he says we want to close the mississippi and in return for that we will have trade with you and he says okay that's probably a good deal because the demographic wave is not going to hit mississippi for another 30 years. by the time we get out there they won't be old to us anyway and they will take over. we will make this deal but a lot of states especially the southern states oppose that. they see that it will affect the land buyers assessment of the value of land in the west. we don't control the mississippi completely now. maybe it's not going to be good investment. maybe other countries like spain will come and take them so it's a big fight and he basically

finesses it and he's defeated by the promises the spanish minister, well you know all of this that okay we are not going to go to war about this and let's just -- but pcs know where public can conduct foreign policy with the structure of the government as it is an and jay is remarkably serene about this. it's like we have to change it and of course it's going to happen and the same way we wonder what revolution is to happen and he's like do you realize this is going to be hard and he never loses faith. >> remember this is the man who cooled his heels in madrid for years and they would even invite him to dinner so there's a serenity there. >> you know more about that side than i do. >> well, thank you.

[applause] this was fabulous. [applause] joseph allison stacy schiff, thank you very much. it was a great night. please join them for the book signing and thank you all for being such great members and we will see you again. goodnight to the signature

feature booktv's or all-day coverage of book fairs and festivals from across the country with top nonfiction authors. here's our schedule.

next annapurna discusses her book, "and the good news is" lessons and advice from the bright side in which she recounts her time at the white house during the bush administration and her experiences as a "fox news" contributor. she spoke at the richard nixon presidential library in yorba linda california. [applause] >> we are doing a little bit and format tonight. we have done this before, those of you who come you who comfortably know we do in conversation with and tonight is in conversation with dana perino in doing that is rick who has been with her for years. he is a spokesman for years for

the united nations. president bush named him the director of communications when he was president at the united nations where he remained for seven or eight years. he then was romney's national security foreign affairs spokesperson. he is a partner in his own firm now in los angeles, capitol media and he is with us tonight to interview the number one bestseller dana perino. please welcome rick burrell, right there. [applause] it's all yours. >> thank you. what a crowd. first of all we had to say to dana welcome to california. [applause] we have so much to talk about. this book is pretty exciting i have to say and i want to get

right into it and answer as many questions as possible. i want to start off by saying this is graduation season. i don't know how you feel dana but this book to me is the perfect book to buy for her graduate. it's filled with really good positive messages about you can do anything so as we get into this i really hope that you can share with us in this intimate setting, let's get really intimate. we wanted to open up so let's start with i think one issue that really became a serious game-changer in the bush white house september 11, that terrible day. can you tell us a little bit about where you were, what your feelings were like and any interaction you had with the white house? >> i have been on book tour for three weeks and i've had that

question but it probably is the most important question because it changed all of our lives. it changed the presidency. change the world and i actually was in san diego california. i had worked on capitol hill way back when in 1995 is when i started there. i thought it was going to be a journalist and i ended up going to washington instead and worked there on capitol hill and one day meet this guy on an airplane and i heard this british accent. he was kind of handsome and women can do that quick scan, no wedding ring. so i did a little bit of bad and he turned out to be very funny. he moved to england and i married him and that was 18 years ago. we lived in england for 10 months together and frankly socialism and rain did not suit me very well. [laughter] he wanted to start a business so we decided we would come back to

america and we could live anywhere we wanted and we chose san diego. we knew there was nothing except for a 6-month-old bijou a. i worked in pr firms and my first job in san diego was city council for one of the city councilman and rick burnell was the spokesperson for the mayor. so we have quite a history going back and we worked together in the push of administration now for "fox news" so you are stuck with me. so i'm working for the pr firm and i get a call in 2000 from many tucker who plays the role in my life a couple of different times and she calls and says hey dana we are in texas at the bush campaign and we are wondering would you be willing to be a spokesperson for us in california? we can afford to pay you anything but you know it's very prestigious.

[laughter] and i wanted to do it so badly but i was the only one in a relationship that had a job with benefits at the time so i had to say no to their member hanging up the phone and i cried and i said now i will never get to work for george bush. a couple of years go by and i write about being a little bored and i felt like i was not doing what i was supposed to be doing. it just wasn't right. so in august of 2001 my husband did something called the whiteboard incident. he gets the whiteboard out and he sits me down and he says okay with everything you want to do any job. list everything you don't want to do in a job and he has a business backed brown said he made me sign and then numerical value to the 20 said obviously you need to be washington d.c.. so i called this woman many

tucker again and i said -- he was then at the justice department for attorney general ashcroft and i said i'd like to come back and if you hear of anything let me know. i've booked a ticket to do some informational interviews for the week of september 17. so 9/11 happened and my husband brings me my english breakfast tea in the morning and let the dog out to walk into the living room and i said it looks like the world trade center is on fire and then i saw the second plane hit. three days later she called me and she said i'd know you said you be willing to come back to washington but would you still consider that after all this happened and if you would would you be a spokesperson at the justice department? i remember being on the phone and i was packing my bag. [laughter] i never went back to san diego as much as i loved it and there was one time i did go back years

later and i thought why did i ever leave here it's so beautiful. one of the things about september 11 when i first got to the white house i had to wait for my clearance so one of the things i had to do was children's mail. and i'm waiting for the justice department a clear man i remember getting all of these letters and schools across the country praying for the president and the nation and the occasional could you come to my birthday party? [laughter] children's mail is the best job at the white house. the president gave a speech right after 9/11 where he said we will not tire, we will not falter, we will not fail, peace and freedom will prevail. [applause] i printed that out and i had it on my desk for seven and a half

years because it spoke to me and at that moment and i will tell you no matter what we were doing , little league baseball team or the boy scouts are off doing an interview and i could always tell in his eyes in the back of his mind he is inking of everything to do to make sure that wouldn't happen again. obviously the burden is later when you are not in the presidency anymore but if i could finish with one story of how my time in the white house ended and open chapter 1 with it. the last weekend before we turn over the white house to the obama administration george h.w. bush was being honored and the ship was being commissioned aircraft. so we go to norfolk virginia. i'm sure there are people in this room were probably there because everybody was there. it was a really cold day but

blue skies and i'm trying to soak up the moment because it was my last chance to be on air force one in marine one and it's an historic moment because we had father and son which we would how do we never see in our lifetime again. we might see mother and daughter free think of it that father and son we are not going to see again. i get a tap on my shoulder from a secret service agent and when he whispers in my ear the president need to in the helicopter in 10 minutes. i didn't want to make any sudden movement because when you are press secretary the reporters watch your every move so i played it cool for a second but inside i was very nervous because we know from experience that terrorists try to strike in times of transition. so i just played it cool and got to the ship out of the helicopter and condi is there, condi rice and a couple of others. i didn't know was going on. i got on the helicopter and the president bounds aboard and he

said let's go seal this deal. it was his idea to visit as a surprise to navy s.e.a.l.s training center nearby which was a 20 minute helicopter ride to they did know he was coming. this huge hangar and there are all of these amazing young american men in their suits listening to dick cheney give a speech. all of them had really long beards. the president gave remarks off the cuff full of emotion in the end than he has tears in his eyes and the marines they will not stop clapping. it was an order they did not have to obey. i made my way to the back of the room like a good staffer does and they came up to me and said excuse me maam are you the press secretary? they even know who i am, that's amazing. they wanted to get their picture with me so i asked a questions

in the first i said what made you want to become a navy s.e.a.l., sense of adventure family tradition chance to see the world, physical challenge, what was it in the first s.e.a.l. says oh no man -- they get it. >> even with a beard and a said yeah they get it. the second s.e.a.l. i said when you're going, preparing to go wherever it is you may be going do you have to take a lot of language classes and he said oh no man we are not there to talk. [applause] >> that's great. >> and i tell that story because as we get on the chopper to head back its my last flight in marine one of the prison he said

that was cool. e that was great and i tell him the story and he threw back his head and he laughed and he said god, i love those guys. they understood the mission. they understood freedom and what we were fighting for. i got to see him last weekend of all the things that come with the presidency the only thing he misses his being commander in chief. [applause] >> for those of you who don't know there is also an ugly side to working at the white house. long hours, incredible stress and i think this book does a great job of telling the wonderful stories about what it's like to work so close it with a president but also gives a sense of how tough it is and

there are moments i think that all political staffers go through where they question what they are doing. the data you became white house press secretary was also a day that you maybe had had enough. tell us a little bit about that. >> the day i got the job to be white house press secretary was the day i walked into the white house fully intending to resign. the theme throughout the book is every time i make a plan god had a different idea and it turned out to be better than the one i had. that's the reason amazing and ed gillespie was director of indications of the white house. he recently ran for senate in virginia and came this close to winning. he should have won that seat that he was the director of the indications and one of the things around this time of the presidency that the obama administration is facing right now which is 18 months ago you had people that have been there

since the campaign and as a staffer you do get tired. one of the things i write about very openly for the first time if that some of the health challenges that i ended up with mostly because i didn't take care of myself and if i had to do anything over again it would have been that. josh bolten the chief of staff said to us if you don't think you can make it until the end of the administration should think about leaving now. i had to be honest i was barely crawling. my husband and i went on a trip and he was running this, this really crazy idea of running the middle of the woods with these people. i had the day off and i said we really should talk about this. a family member white house senior staff are goes through a lot as well and he was quiet about it. choosing to be loved is not a

career limiting decision. lisa doesn't have to be in it wasn't for me. he would support me whatever i want to do and he knew how hard it would be for me to say i wouldn't get a chance to work with george bush. once you leave the white house it's unlikely you're going back. so we decided i was going to leave and we make all these plans on the way home. i'm going to go to target and i'm going to make breakfast twice a week. of course i do have a plan. i will walk the dog monday wednesday and friday. and i get to the white house that morning on monday morning and i say i don't know how i'm going to tell the president. we get to the morning meeting, the bush white house started it 7:30 and i saw ed gillespie the director of the communications my stick and i talked after the meeting text the meeting ends and the leader of the meeting says dana can you stay behind,

everyone thinks you're in trouble. i always think i'm in trouble sorry buddy files out and i sat down and i'm ready to blurt it out to ed. he said you might if i go first? i sat back and that's what he said the president would like to make you the press secretary on monday. and i said oh really? [laughter] and i wasn't sure if i was a convenient choice but i remember thinking what am i going to do? >> did you say yes before you called peter? >> oh yeah. i whispered into the phone and told peter and he said anything you need i will be there to help you. the president knew how hard it was on staff and tina what they did? one of the things i wanted to talk about in the book was the personal side of him and as a manager have the new that i could do the job but i was gone 18 hours a day and even when i

was home i wasn't present. asa take my black area upstairs. i will be right back and i go upstairs and i'm yelling at "the new york times" usually. and the president invited me and peter t. camp david soon after that and it was peter's birthday. peter hadn't said anybody that was birthday but the president knew it. out comes this big cake and his biggest bragging rights as president bush and condi rice singing happy birthday. i bought me another year and a half. [applause] >> so many presidential staffers write books that are a little bit negative telling us the gossipy side of what's going on in the white house. he wrote a very different book

and you peel back the curtains on a president that we know in the love because he teaches us lessons about life. tell us about why you chose this tell some of the stories that have not been public? >> when i left the white house i worked on several other books and i did the prm book tour for karl rove charles krauthammer and other people and i was asked by a publisher for i ever intended to write a book and i said oh no it they said why not? i said and i had written on a piece of paper the idea for this book and it was in my wallet. i said i kept carrying it around for two years and i said i have this idea and they said that we'll never sell. [laughter] i hope they are watching now.