imagine being george back in the 1950's living in cuban. that's where george came from. he was there watching his father lose his job because he had the audacity to speak up and express his political points of view. he watched his uncle spend more than 10 years in prison for doing the same. at just 13, talk about a vulnerable age, 13 years old, he makes his way to the second largest city in the united states of america speaking only spanish, uprooted from his home country, and he comes out to this state in this nation, learns english, learns the value of hard work and discipline, works his way through college at california state university system at long beach. joins the army, makes his way as a young man to the los angeles police department and works his way up extraordinarily. in the wake of rampart, works his way up as assistant police chief in one of the largest police departments in our nation, distinguishes himself there so much so that he is recruited to facea, arizona, and then makes front-page news across this country because he has the courage, the same courage

please welcome george stephanopoulos. [cheering and applause] thanks so much. hey, george. good to see you again. how's it going? all right, sir. that's the big news. what is this? >> i heard you were running low. >> stephen: you want to do a couple shots? >> let's go. >> stephen: all right. let's do it. okay. you first. >> go ahead. [cheering and applause] >> stephen: there you go. now, george, i imagine you need a hit of whisky after this debate on saturday night. >> that was fun. >> stephen: we'll get to that in a moment. talk about you're returning to "this week." >> going back. >> stephen: great show. you're going back. but isn't that greedy because you're staying at "good morning america." what's next? are you going to take jimmie kimmel show? >> i asked about, that but it's in l.a., so i can't do it. >> is it going to be permanent? >> at least for the election year. >> stephen: good luck. >> good luck to you in this election year. >> stephen: thank you very much. we will see. we will see. now, you used to be one of the guys who goes on shows like "this week" with geo

>> without a doubt, do you not, george? >> i'm asking the questions. >> do you believe that corporations are people? >> i'm not going to weigh in on that. we're going to have a long campaign here. >> corporations are people. you won't weigh in on whether some people are people. that seems kind of racist, george. >> i'm going to move on. >> really, i bet you will. >> one of your top supporters, jon stewart, he's running now -- he's running your super pac. listen to roger ailes said about him, he said that stewart hates conservative views. he hates conservative thoughts. he hates conservative verbiage. he's crazy. he makes a living by attacking conservatives and stirring up a liberal base against it. it's not going to help you all that much in south carolina. according to roger ailes. to have someone that hates conservatives. >> i agree with roger. i mean, that's why i'm disavowing anything that jon stewart does that is not accurate. i believe that jon stewart is a loose cannon. i believe that he's a liberal. i believe that h

this is george lucas. this is not spike lee. this is george lucas. he had to fight to get it by. >> i think he had to go to the dark side of the force to make something happen. what was taking place -- he has been working at this film for 23 years. he started developing the story. things went along and there was not enough to happen. there were people battling whose story we use. finally, after 23 years, he gets to the point where he is ready to get it made. he goes to studios. nobody wants to touch it. he says, "i will put my own money up." he puts up $50 million, shoots the movie, polishes it. brings it to fox initially, where he has brought them billions of dollars in the past. his record shows this is a profitable man. he gets there. the telephone, "it is a good movie, but we do not know what to do with it. we do not know how to market it." it is an action movie. but it is an action movie with a black cast. they do not think it is viable outside this country or outside the black community. all of the bad guys are white. so? that is just history.

but it really is a great job, george. you get to work with wonderful people like, of course, our now newly elected and soon to be inaugurated mayor ed lee. you get to -- [applause] >> you find that when you're the district attorney of san francisco, you definitely want to have friends in sacramento, in particular in the legislature because we have a very active office that is often finding ways that we can improve the laws and so we have found a great leader in senator mark leno who is here, of course. [applause] >> it's always helpful when the president of the board of supervisors was a former member of the office and that of course, is david chiu. [applause] >> and then when you got someone like dennis as city attorney who is always find his way into prosecution is helpful. so it's a great job. it's a wonderful job. i remember when gavin as mayor talked to me about the fact that he was going to bring in this new police chief and i had actually heard about him from bill bratton, who was the police chief of los angeles be

>> we'll see, george. i don't think that frankly, bringing a bain mentality to this economy to running this economy makes him a strong candidate. i don't think shifting around on fundamental positions is one that people are going to embrace. trust is a big issue in the presidency. i think there's a big trust question when it comes to governor romney. >> others last night started to take aim at president obama on issue of national security and defense. coming off the announcement that the military is going to be down sized. governor perry was tough on that last night. >> you cannot cut $1 trillion from the department of defense budget and expect that america's freedoms are not going to be jeopardized. that to me is the biggest problem that america faces is a president that doesn't understand the military. and a president who is allowing the reduction of the dod budget so he can spend money in other places and it will put america's freedom in jeopardy. >> goff noer perry has had accounting before. the trilli

she had high expectations for george. he was one of the first disabled children to be in a regular education classroom. this is 1968, long before inclusion was accepted. my mom realized early on that george had a special gift. he was able to play the piano and organ by ear. just by hearing a song, he would go to the piano and play it with his left hand. his right hand was affected by his birth defect, so he was unable to use it. gradually, george's health deteriorated, and he was declared legally blind. he stumbled around the house, falling and running into walls. again, my mom never complained. she constantly bragged on george, telling him he was such a good son. she made sure his every need was met. george had an amazing life and was very happy. sadly, he passed away in my mom's arms in october of 2011. my mom has centered her life around george for the past 53 years. her wants and desires have been sacrificed for her three children. she has always put her children first in her life. my mom is a wonderful role model. >>

>> no, i don't, george. part of the reason is, because everybody political writer that's on the a team on the political realm is in new hampshire right now. if rick santorum bypassed new hampshire and gone to south carolina, people would have said he just couldn't compete. four years ago, the decision we made to compete in new hampshire, knowing that we probably would not do better than third, if we knew that if we didn't do that, he's a regional candidate. he can only compete in the south. or he's a demographic candidate. he can only compete with evangelical candidates. rick santorum is doing the same thing. he has to, he cannot somehow be pegged as the guy who can only campaign where there are value voters. that would be disastrous. more so than competing. >> lot of conservatives concerned that the conservative vote will be split. newt gingrich going to south carolina. rick perry going to south carolina. rick santorum going to the south carolina. and mitt romney going to south carolina. is this the field?

said, don't you think so, george? marshall looked at him in surprise for two or three reasons. one of the first was they were shot being called by his first name by a man he barely knew. he was president of the united states and i didn't like such a misraechgz our presidency. marshall fired back and said mr. president, i don't agree with that at all. roosevelt shot him a surprised look and shortly thereafter the meeting concluded and he said it would be a short stay in washington. it seemed to be the mood, but as marshall said later, and it didn't seem to both him at all. in april 1939 he was summoned by the president to the white house and told that he was going to be chief of staff. marshall being marshall said you must understand that i will speak my mind and it may be unpleasant and roosevelt said that's all right. he wanted to go ahead and so he did. time magazine had called marshall at that point at the time of the appointment that he could be so blunt as to offend strangers, and i thought, well, what else can y

[laughter] george, if you would repeat after me. i, and george gascon, do solemnly swear that i will support and defend the constitution of the united states, and the constitution of the state of california against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and i will bear true faith and allegiance to the constitution of the united states, and to the constitution of the stick california, and i take this obligation freely without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that i will well and faithfully discharge the duties upon which i am about to enter during such time as i hold the office of district attorney of the city and county of san francisco. congratulations. [applause] >> thank you. [applause] >> it is really a tremendous honor for me to be here today. first, i want to say a few words in spanish. [speaking spanish] to my sons, you are incredible. i am so proud of all of you. before i go on, i also want to say a few words to the people behind me. these people have made the difference for me. i am going to start with mayer br

very tactful. >> rose: the book is called george f kennan, an american life. thank you. thank you for joining us. see you next time. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

time for a check on the morning commute with george. >>george: as we move closer to 7:00 a.m. we're starting to see congestion on the bay area freeways. we are still lighter than usual around the bay area. on the bay bridge there are no incidents. we have not seen any hot spots this morning but we are ever vigilant. the golden gate bridge is problem free across the span. no problems on oil drive. he thus in the east bay, we mentioned some congestion starting to show up. elizabeth's low in leading to walnut creek on 680 southbound. i have a report of an accident, the first area of concern for possible hot spot is on 680. >>george: 101 southbound, an easy commute. from 37 to the golden gate bridge we are delayed free. speeds are at the limit or better. the >>james: in the south bay, a new details and a story we brought you live yesterday morning. three people have been arrested following a traffic stop in san jose. these are the suspects in custody. the man alleged grant from this car after being pulled over on saratoga avenue. investigators say the other two people in the vehic

to discuss that is george will, donna brazile, austan goolsbee and laura ingraham. >>> george, some new polls numbers out of florida. romney at 41. gingrich 27. romney opening up that gap. what's going on? >> time is not newt gingrich's friend. the more time he has the more he talks. he said i would love to be civil. but i'm running against a liar. that's pretty strong language. i don't know if you have ever told longfellows nursery rhyme to your 4-year-old daughter yet. >> not yet. >> when she was good, she was very good indeed. when she was bad, she was very horrid. >> he won south carolina. it threw the republican nomination process in turmoil. he's being outspent 5 to 1 in florida. mitt romney, one fourth of floridians voted early in 2008. once again we're seeing a great deal of floridians going to the polls early and voting early. independents, women, hispanics, they're voting against newt gingrich, he as problem, florida will either make him what i call the third combback kid or destroy his campaign. >> he said i'm the real conservative. mitt romney is the faux conservative. he be