what happened to harry truman? >> guest: harry truman did not care about polls, as his own... >> guest: and went out of his way to show it. >> guest: ...diaries--yes. he simply did not wish to bend to public pressures. he--again, he stressed leadership is the thing. and this sets up a problem for the presidency, because everyone's trying to bend, to compare themselves to harry truman now. all the presidential candidates did. he's believed to be a great leader. but he wasn't in his own administration. and so to be successful, in the long run, we're asking presidents to be very unsuccessful in the short run. to ignore polls in the short run can cost you your office. harry truman did not seek re-election. harry truman's approval ratings were way too low to have a reasonable chance at re-election in 1952. he ignored polls. so he was... >> guest: we talked about an uneasy balance. >> guest: that's right. >> guest: that presidents have to sort of walk a tightrope between ignoring popularity too far and following it too c

may i come back to harry truman? i didn't ask your question how hoover felt about truman. he obviously had criticisms of truman but i do not think the personal dimension was there. with roosevelt, there was a feeling of dislike of roosevelt's personality and modus operandi. >> and questioning of his character. >> yes. whereas with truman he might disagree with truman's judgment but it wasn't that kind of critique. in 1963, as the book was nearly completed and its umpteenth edition, hoover actually sent word to hard harry truman that he hoped that truman would not take umbrage at the publication of a book called "freedom betrayed" and hoover was thinking about the betrayal of the communist and truman said nothing that herbert hoover could do would lower my estimation of him. so hoover had sensitive that the people he criticized might be upset and that tended to make him hold off and revise even more. he wanted the manuscript to be perfect in every way, factually perfect, but he also was concerned about what he called mud volcanos that might erupt on the left from some of th

harry truman was still live at the time that he died. so there was some reason for perhaps holding it back for a time so that the time can heal the wound and now we are at a point where really this is a as historians say plenary source. this is a matchless window into his mind and in his later years and it's a book which he thought is most important of his life and so i felt honored to have been given the opportunity to prepare it for publication to -- >> host: how many new stripsach chollet came together to form this? >> guest: this version of it which is the last version that he wanted to publish and it was essentially completed just before he died in 64, this version was one of many additions the stored wheat in the 40's. the final version i think at ten different variants he called them editions and then he got tired of revising and called the last edition the last letter of the ultimate and that is when he was 88. there are over 100 linear feet pertaining to this book and that includes many many early draft. he was an inveterate rev

harry truman was still alive at the time that hoover died so there is some reason for perhaps holding it back for a time so that the time can heal the wounds and now we are at a point where really this is as historians say, is a primary source. this is a matchless window into hoover's find in his later years and it's a book which he thought was his most important of his life. so i have felt honored to be given the opportunity to prepare it for publication, to edit it. >> host: how many came together in whole or part to form this? >> guest: well this version of that which was the last version, the ones he wanted to publish and was essentially completed just before he died in 1964, this version was one of many editions that started way back in the 40s. this final version i had i think 10 different areas. he called them renditions and he got tired of revising them and call the last addition z for the last letter of the alphabet and that was when he was 88. there are over 100 linear feet of materials pertaining to this book and that includes many many many early drafts. the man was an inv

truman knew that europe and in particular devastated germany need to be rebuilt and working with the united states germany did rebuild their economy and put into place these protections for workers that today are responsible for germany's seemingly recession proof economy unfortunately during that time of rebuilding in germany harry truman couldn't help workers in the united states he was up against a republican controlled congress the eightieth congress was elected in one thousand nine hundred six truman called it the do nothing congress even though it did do a lot namely kill progress. it sabotage truman's hopes for a single payer you know universal health care system for example and they passed half heartedly overriding term truman's veto which created the were right to work states were corporations could move in to do business with out unions i call them right to work for less states and because of that congress the idea of congress united states fell behind when it comes to creating an economy that benefits the ninety nine percent and not just the one percent while germany surge

and this was particularly true, for example, in working on harry truman. many of those people who were close to truman, as members of the white house staff, or members of his hometown friends and so forth was infinitely valuable. >> host: the young lady right over here. >> mr. mccullough, when you're tackling these presidents like adams and jefferson that previous historians have written so much about, how important is it you find primary sources that nobody's used before? and can you still do that -- >> guest: i'm sorry. because of the airplane we couldn't hear you. >> oh, i'm sorry when you're tackling presidents like adams and jefferson is it important to find primary sources that no one's used before and can that still be done for presidents that we've all studied so much? thank you. >> guest: it depends with the president. thomas jefferson was an extremely private man. and he destroyed virtually every letter that would let us in the door to his private life. he wrote to his -- after the death of his wife, he destroyed everybody letter she ever wrote,

more generally he should speak the way franken roosevelt spoke and act the way harry truman acted. if you look at the speeches by roosevelt, he never wrote a speech and he had a voice that was magic that you can't imulate. the words were very simple, punchy and communicated very clearly. he didn't need seven foot sentences. and obama has done that recently, i think a couple of times. if he keeps making that kind of speech and acts more strongly which he started, as well. >> what should he take from harry truman? >> act. do it. don't talk about it. don't talk about it. do it. he has the republicans in a very interesting position. he didn't do it to them. they did it to themselves. they are in a position that they started by saying we can't cooperate with him. if we cooperate with him it will make him look good and we will not be able to beat him in the race. it was selfish and stupid. what happened now is the people are beginning to figure out, you guys, the jobs cut, the tax involved there, you made a good point for the president. and what they are going to start figuring out now t

this looks like harry truman, chris: welcome back from new hampshire. john, "tell me something i don't know." >> a lot of people have forecast that rick santorum could have a high ceiling here in new hampshire because of the pat buchanan analogy. chris: and he won here in 19 the -- 19 6, did pat. >> there are not as many blue-collar voters as there were back when pats was winning and i think that holds rick santorum back. >> but the rise since iowa has hurt john huntsman as the roll any alternative. it will be all over if he does not do substantially better. >> the big takeaway for democrats outs of iowa is they feel like that romney, in going so far to the right in immigration, could mean that in a general if it's romney, they could get 75% of the latino vote. obama got about 6% last time and that could be the difference in the election. chris: does this push the case on mark rubio? >> it does but it is difficult to sell his stance on immigration. >> romney went to the rights on immigration to destroy newt and that may hurts him in the general. african

when we got to the end of the war, roosevelt died, harry truman comes in -- harry truman essentially agrees with roosevelt on many of these issues. they're different kinds of people, two very different presidents but on these issues, truman is ready to go on with a lot of this. truman comes in. the economic planners are wanting to institute this but they think the war is going to go on till 1946. germany, of course, surrenders in '45. it appears that it will go on for a long time. truman did not know about the atomic bomb when he became president. that's one of the shocks. roosevelt had never informed him that it was being developed. in fact, one of the odd things was the day that truman became president he did not know we had an atomic bomb but stalin did. one of the ironies of history, the russians knew we had it, the president of the united states did not. happily, secretary of war stimson told that to truman early in his presidency so now he knew and when he decided to use it on japan in august, congress is out of session. it takes most of america by surprise, august 6th an atomi

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the answer, harry truman who lost in 1952. eventually harry truman decided not to seek the nomination again. >>> we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily rundown" live from new hampshire only on msnbc. hampshire, msnbc. this is an rc robotic claw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. ♪ isn't that cool? and that's pretty cool. whee wheeeeeeeeeeeee! wheeeeeeeeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee! whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! pure adrenaline. whee whee wheeeeeeeeeeee! everything you love about geico, now mobile. download the new geico app today. whee wheeeeeeeeeeee-he-he-heeeeee! >>> bring back our panel. casey hunt, michael steele. i want to show thi

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we've seen that before from harry truman. will it work for this president? we're right back. >>> and in "psycho talk" tonight, we're kicking off the new year of 2012 with good old donald trump. never fails us, does he? the donald is still trying to convince us he's going to run for president. apparently there's a crack pipe group of folks down there in texas trying to get trump to get in the race as an independent. this morning trump responded with his trademark arrogance. >> certainly there are millions of people that would like to see me do something, not because of me, but because i want to protect this nation. i've been saying from the beginning that if the republicans pick the wrong candidate, somebody that's going to lose, which is certainly possible, i would certainly consider it. i switched from an independent. because if i didn't do it by the first of january, i wouldn't be able to do it. i do have my ducks in line. if i wanted to do it. i'd love to see the republicans pick somebody that was going to win and take over this country. >> did you hear w

my favorite is harry truman's quote that you have here. where harry truman says, "well, all the president is is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they're supposed to do anyway." that, i think, is one of the important items here in your piece, is that let's start off with an understanding of just how difficult it is to persuade other adults in washington to do things they don't want to do. >> that's it. and you know, the more i liked a to the memos and the more i talked to people and the more i sort of reported out what the president was actually confronted with, the decisions that he was confronted with it, i never saw a memo where it said, mr. president, do you want to change 40 years of polarization and sweep away the fundamentals of the country? you don't get that option. you get, you know, bad option "a" or bad option "b." and you know, the more i read through this stuff, i said, that's the story here, is the constraints on this office. and i think there'

. >> rose: and people who read it were influential people, not harry truman but a lot of people around harry truman. >> i like to think it started with a clerk, saying why is this 5,000 words -- and it was passed up to language and then the content of it was extraordinary. >> rose: what did he say? >> he said, in effect, that soviet union is not going to be the grand and glorious all in the postwar period that it had been in the wartime period, and we had to get used to that. he said that the soviet union, the soviet system, stalin required a hostile outside world, and so there wasothing we could do to overcome that hostility, it was inherent in the system. but he also said if we were patient then the internal contradictions within the system, sooner or later would frustrate its ambitions, we had time, stalin was not hitler, he didn't have a timetable, and so with patience and some building of fortifications on our side, in time, the system would umble from within. so it is an extraordinary anticipation ofhat would actually happen. >> rose: but we had to resist every extension of their

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harry truman... >> rose: nato troops. >> no, they're american... yes, they are nato troops. you know what nato troops are called? >> rose: no. >> americans. it will overwhelming majority of nato militaryorce is american. >> rose: and is the overwhelming marity of equipment american as well? >> yes. in fact, in libya where the president did the right thing by saying "for once, will you people do something?" they had to buy equipment from america. this is ita, france, country that can spit and hit libya when the wind is right but they didn't have their own material. i would say this. first of all, i never... we never should have gone into iraq. i am ready to pull out of afghanistan. i think that's a... here's the point i think... >> tell me where you would have gone in with respect to afghanistan. >> oh, i voted to go in. >> rose: i know you did. >> so i would have pulled out... even before we killed bin laden. >> rose: you would have pulled out if, in fact, iraq had never happened? because some say ere might have been a different result in afghanistan if iraq never took place

we're going to get a repeat of harry truman, 1948, this do nothing congress. i did what i could. they wouldn't go along with it. >> we talked about mitch daniels before. he started his speech talking about the state of the union being great, completely the opposite view of where the country is right now according to president obama. is this indicative of how divided the country is? >> yes, i think it. is i think there are two different perspectives, one in power, one out of power. the team in power will always paint themselves in the brightest light and the people out of power will say wait a second, we need improvement and there are really different philosophies about government. i think those will be definitely illuminated during a presidential election campaign. >> wtop political analyst mark plotkin, thanks very much for your perspective. we want to know what you think. do you think president obama's economic plan will create jobs? we invite you to log onto www.myfoxdc.com and vote in our web poll. >>> new tonight you could earn up to $10,000 all you have to do is give police

i think he was looking at the past a trying to sound like harry truman, rather than looking like a 21st century president. >>ose: all right. andy? >> mean, i think the important thing here but that he did all the right things about his accomplishments and about sort of policies for the future, i think the ctext mannered mattered and i think the context is, there is an basic american belief in work and taking responsibility and i think he played very strongly to that. the issue offairness i think is a basic core gut value of americans, and i think drawing the line a saying i am tired of obstructionism and not going back to where things are and laid out a series of things like a financial unit to investigate fraud and public lands being able to drill -- or alternative energy, from 3 million on, so i think he was strong and i think, you know, we should understand there is something very basic that americans understand that en you work hard, you should be rewarded and i think that is a key theme that is incredibly suessful. >> rose: kurt? >> i think given half or two-thirds of that speech,

something that was thought by democratic presidents in harry truman. >> ifill: as we watch the president walk out of the hall tonight it's really interesting. you wouldn't know that just a few minutes ago he was accusing this congress of carrying out a perpetual campaign of mutual destruction. that was pretty tough language coming from a president to a joint session of congress. >> brooks: he does believe in institutions quite a lot. i thought the institutional reform part was one of the better parts of the speech when he opposed the filibustering and talked about getting the nominees. he sort of had passion. i think that is genuine to him. it was not particularly well received. it's in the perpetual executive branch grab for power. it will be a campaign theme. they're the do-nothing congress. i'm trying to do something. i'm running against a republican congress. >> marcus: one does have to point out in his call for filibusters that we saw sitting there the chief justice of the united states whom he chose to filibuster. it depends on how you feel about that may depend on where you sit. >