About this talk
America's school systems are funded by the 50 states. In this fiery talk, Bill Gates says that state budgets are riddled with accounting tricks that disguise the true cost of health care and pensions and weighted with worsening deficits -- with the financing of education at the losing end.
Friday, March 04, 2011
Thursday, March 03, 2011
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
#TED launches exciting new educational initiative! Educators, students, & creatives, learn more here: http://bit.ly/ggUKNN @TED_ED
#TED launches exciting new educational initiative! Educators, students
Every minute, three hundred new learners are born into this world. How can TED play a role in enriching the education of these individuals? How can TED enrich the education of the billions of learners around the globe? We need your help to answer these questions.
In a few weeks, TED will be launching an online forum. We're calling it the TED-ED Brain Trust. We're seeking the expertise of visionary educators, students, organizations, filmmakers & other creative professionals to guide, galvanize & ultimately lead this exciting new initiative.
To express your interest in joining the TED-ED Brain Trust, please click the button below & fill out the short form. To invite capable colleagues, please share this page. We will notify you when we launch the Trust.
Every minute, three hundred new learners are born into this world. How can TED play a role in enriching the education of these individuals? How can TED enrich the education of the billions of learners around the globe? We need your help to answer these questions.
In a few weeks, TED will be launching an online forum. We're calling it the TED-ED Brain Trust. We're seeking the expertise of visionary educators, students, organizations, filmmakers & other creative professionals to guide, galvanize & ultimately lead this exciting new initiative.
To express your interest in joining the TED-ED Brain Trust, please click the button below & fill out the short form. To invite capable colleagues, please share this page. We will notify you when we launch the Trust.
LetterMpress: A Virtual Letterpress on Your iPad
LetterMpress: A Virtual Letterpress on Your iPad
by John Bonadies
Experience the Art and Craft of Letterpress Printing on your iPad
Fuelcell buses
Green Tech Today 23: AC Transit
Host: Dr. Kiki
Top 25 Green Tech Innovators Series: AC Transit
The public bus goes green with AC Transit.
Guests: Jaimie Levin, Director of Alternative Fules for AC Transit, and Doug Byrne, engineer for AC Transit
http://twit.cachefly.net/video/gtt/gtt0023/gtt0023_h264b_864x480_500.mp4
Host: Dr. Kiki
Top 25 Green Tech Innovators Series: AC Transit
The public bus goes green with AC Transit.
Guests: Jaimie Levin, Director of Alternative Fules for AC Transit, and Doug Byrne, engineer for AC Transit
http://twit.cachefly.net/video/gtt/gtt0023/gtt0023_h264b_864x480_500.mp4
The New Evernote for iPhone Overview
Remember everything that matters with Evernote for iPhone and iPod Touch. This tutorial shows you how to create notes, search your content and use the new Evernote for iPhone.
Evernote Tutorial
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
The Shared Web: Making curators of us all
Some of the hottest companies I've seen this year are either content presentation companies like Paper.li or Flipboard, or content curation systems, like Pearltrees, Storify, and Curated.by. But today The Shared Web is going to change my ideas about everything.
"We decided to start The Shared Web in order to solve a problem that we noticed that we were having," says Kareem Amin, co-founder. "Something that we always talked about is, 'What are you reading? What are you looking at online?' What we realized is that what each other is reading is extremely interesting to us, and not enough of it is being shared on Facebook or Twitter, perhaps because people don't want to flood each other. What we decided to do is to build a platform for social curation that allows people like me and my friends to do just that."
The Shared Web uses an elegant flipping motion, like Flipboard, but it only curates shared web content, not status updates or random tweets. Then you get access to a highly targeted experience, by selecting the topic you want to read about. "We pull in the sharing that's happening on Twitter and Facebook, we organize it into different topics, and then we show it to you in a beautiful layout," says Amin. "We know that people are already sharing on these sites, but the core idea is to democratize curation, the same way that blogging democratized writing. It opened up for everybody. We want to open up the curation for everybody. And by curation, I mean seeing something that's interesting, and recommending it to the right audience through a topic."
Amin is aware that he's standing on the shoulders of giants—and he's glad to be there. "What we're really excited about is that today's the perfect time for this: in order to build our product, we needed somebody to figure out the social graph," he says. "Facebook and Twitter have already done that. Lots of thanks to them for that. We can build on top of what they've done, and start figuring out what is the interest graph, and start to personalize the web for you."
More information:
The Shared Web site: http://www.thesharedweb.com/
The Shared Web profile on Crunchbase: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/the...
Kareem Amin on Twitter: http://twitter.com/kareemamin
Cargo Collective: A stunning web publisher for eye-popping content
There’s a whole lot of content on the internet, and much of it doesn’t look all that good. But if you visit the Cargo Collective, like we did, you’ll see just how amazing the web can look when designers empower fellow creatives.
“Cargo is a web publishing system meant for creative professionals,” explains Folkert Gorter, co-founder of Cargo, and an interaction designer originally from Holland. “You can say it’s a CMS, as well as a system that provides web site templates that are starting points for designers to create their own web site. It’s mainly used by people who have a lot of visual content to publish, like designers, photographers, architects, stuff like that, though it’s transitioning more and more toward more textual as well. If you think about it, WordPress is mostly text-oriented publishing, and say, something like Tumblr is a lot more visual, like pictures. Cargo is sort of in between those, where we are truly multimedia: we put a lot of emphasis on the combination of text and image.”
Cargo isn’t a CMS for everyone—but those with eye-popping content and some knowledge of CSS can create sites that look better than almost everything else on the web. Amid their stylish design and sophisticated programming, Gorter and co-founder Josh Pangell have discovered some tricks to making HTML look fantastic. “‘Float left’, the CSS rule, is like our biggest thing,” says Gorter. “We float everything left, and it becomes liquid instantly,” adapting to whatever size screen it’s on.
How does Cargo set itself apart from a web dominated by big guns like WordPress? “L-O-V-E,” says Gorter. “We make no compromises. We have design skill, and we have programming skill, and we don’t f-ck around. We really design it in the best way possible and we don’t compromise.”
More info:
Cargo Collective web site: http://cargocollective.com/
Cargo Collective on Twitter: http://twitter.com/cargocollective
Space Collective web site: http://spacecollective.org/
SpeakerText: Extracting text from video, with speed and savvy
Rocky and I go around the world shooting videos. But it’s hard to consume the information in a video unless you have the 20 minutes to watch it, and Google can’t search the words spoken in my interviews. Today we’re going to see how SpeakerText solves the video/text conundrum.
SpeakerText is an online, on-demand, video-to-text platform. “What we’ve done is built this virtual assembly line that combines the power of crowdsourcing, with the parts of speech recognition and artificial intelligence that actually work,” says Matt Mireles, founder and CEO of SpeakerText. They do that by breaking the video’s sound into chunks, and sending it off to sites like Mechanical Turk, where workers transcribe the audio in units just five or ten seconds long. Then they reassemble the parts, have editors check for errors, use phonetic speech recognition to timestamp each word, and natural language processing to figure out sentence boundaries. And that’s just the platform.
“On top of that, we’ve built this application layer,” explains Mireles. “We’ve built this widget that taps into the JavaScript API of a video player, any player, whether it’s Brightcove, Ooyala, YouTube, blip.tv, even self-hosted videos. As the video plays back, it highlights each sentence as a video plays, and scrolls through the transcript. You can click on the transcript, and it will jump to the exact moment you’re interested in.” That also allows you to find a great quote in a video and tweet a link to that exact moment.
Mireles points out that this process, which he calls “distributed human computation,” allows SpeakerText to transcribe a two-hour long video just about as fast as one that’s only a minute long. “There are all these things where people are trying to create truly artificial intelligence, and it’s not there,” says Mireles. “It always reaches maybe 85 percent accuracy that is okay, but not complete. The way these problems actually get solved is by layering on the human component.”
More info:
SpeakerText web site:
SocialEyes: The intersection of video and the social graph
While video conferencing via the web has been around since the 1990s, the concept hasn’t kept pace with the radical changes in social interactions made possible by services such as Facebook. SocialEyes is changing that with a new tool that introduces video into the Facebook experience.
“The way that people collaborate now in the age of social networks is very, very different than the way they used to,” explains Rob Williams, CEO of SocialEyes. “SocialEyes is a social video product that lets people connect with their Facebook friends in much more dynamic and powerful ways than they have before and to go beyond their Facebook friends to connect with people who have a shared interest or passion…both in real-time and asynchronously.”
SocialEyes is a free service and works directly within your browser using Flash. You can have multiple video conversations going on at once in separate windows, and if you want to combine conversations, the software has tools to connect windows and create ad hoc group meetings.
By associating with Facebook, SocialEyes has an enormous potential pool of users, and the goal is to make it easy for each of them to use the service. “One of the very powerful things we do with SocialEyes,” says Williams, “is rollout something that works across every [Facebook] user–500 million users around the world–with essentially no software download.”
More info:
SocialEyes web site: http://www.socialeyes.com/
SocialEyes on Twitter: http://twitter.com/socialeyes
SocialEyes profile on CrunchBase: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/socialeyes
Motorola Xoom Review
Once considered mainly a recreational/entertainment tool, tablets are quickly making their way into the business world as more and more industries are finding ways to put the devices to use. Whether it’s a car salesman looking to accelerate the sales process before a buyer gets cold feet, or a contractor accessing material costs right from the job site, tablets are starting to make an impact.
The Apple iPad has led the way in terms of sales, but competitors aren’t standing idly by. Recently, Robert Scoble reviewed the new Motorola Xoom, scheduled for release tomorrow, and compared it side-by-side to the iPad.
A self-described “iPad freak”, Scoble was surprised to find several features of the Xoom superior to the iPad. “Multi-tasking on the Motorola is much, much better than the iPad,” explains Scoble. “The other thing I’ve noticed is the common Google apps are much better on the Xoom. Gmail is the full version and Google Maps has turn-by-turn navigation, which it doesn’t have on the iOS devices — not yet, at least.” Calendaring and contacts through Google also function better on the Xoom, and the screen resolution is superior, according to Scoble.
It’s not all bad news for the iPad, however, as Apple still has a big advantage in one area. “Apple is still winning on apps,” says Scoble, “and that’s going to be a huge problem this year for the Android devices.” Additionally, Apple will undoubtedly be addressing concerns and adding features with the much anticipated release of the iPad 2, rumored to be right around the corner.
Lithium Air: IBM’s quest for the super-battery
The four-minute version here:
Watch the whole video:
The days of $1.50 gasoline are long gone, and high costs coupled with environmental concerns have ignited a search for the battery that will power the cars of the future. IBM is at the forefront of this effort with its development of the lithium air super-battery.
The goal “is to create a battery that will power the typical family car about 500 miles between recharges,” explains Winfried Wilcke, Senior Manager, Nanoscale Science and Technology with IBM. “Today’s batteries…fall short of this goal by quite a factor, with [the best batteries] only lasting approximately 200 to 240 miles.”
Bridging this gap requires drastically increasing the battery’s energy density by making it lighter. IBM reduces the weight by getting rid of the heavy transition metal oxides like cobalt oxide or manganese oxide and replacing them with a lightweight, high-surface carbon structure.
The lithium air battery represents “the highest energy density of any imaginable system,” says Wilcke, “but it’s not easy to do. It’s a long-term project currently in its early science phases, but in the last six or seven months we have gotten a lot of positive results, which make me cautiously optimistic that this can actually work.”
Wilcke hopes to have a lithium air battery in cars by 2020. A battery that could power a car for 500 miles would certainly be worth the wait.
More info:
IBM Research – Almaden web site: http://www.almaden.ibm.com/
IBM Research – Dr. Winfried Wilke: http://www.almaden.ibm.com/background/?wilcke
Watch the whole video:
The days of $1.50 gasoline are long gone, and high costs coupled with environmental concerns have ignited a search for the battery that will power the cars of the future. IBM is at the forefront of this effort with its development of the lithium air super-battery.
The goal “is to create a battery that will power the typical family car about 500 miles between recharges,” explains Winfried Wilcke, Senior Manager, Nanoscale Science and Technology with IBM. “Today’s batteries…fall short of this goal by quite a factor, with [the best batteries] only lasting approximately 200 to 240 miles.”
Bridging this gap requires drastically increasing the battery’s energy density by making it lighter. IBM reduces the weight by getting rid of the heavy transition metal oxides like cobalt oxide or manganese oxide and replacing them with a lightweight, high-surface carbon structure.
The lithium air battery represents “the highest energy density of any imaginable system,” says Wilcke, “but it’s not easy to do. It’s a long-term project currently in its early science phases, but in the last six or seven months we have gotten a lot of positive results, which make me cautiously optimistic that this can actually work.”
Wilcke hopes to have a lithium air battery in cars by 2020. A battery that could power a car for 500 miles would certainly be worth the wait.
More info:
IBM Research – Almaden web site: http://www.almaden.ibm.com/
IBM Research – Dr. Winfried Wilke: http://www.almaden.ibm.com/background/?wilcke
Zipcast: SlideShow’s one-click web presentation tool
The ability to share presentations via the web has been around for years, but it has always involved both the presenter and the audience having to download an application of some kind. This often makes the process cumbersome and time-consuming. Slideshare is solving this problem with the launch of ZipCast.
“You can start a meeting from any presentation on SlideShare in one click,” explains Rashmi Sinha, CEO and founder of SlideShare. “You go to a presentation, and there’s a button called ‘ZipCast’. You click on it, and immediately it becomes a web meeting. You can then take the URL and post it on Twitter, Facebook, etc.” to invite participants.
ZipCast works completely in your browser and allows you to keep all other applications running. You can even skip ahead of the presenter during the presentation. The basic service is free, and there is no limit to the number of presentations you can give or the number of participants. For a monthly subscription fee, you can eliminate advertisements and acquire the ability to conduct private, password-protected meetings.
Hashable: The next step in relationship tracking
When you meet someone at a party or an event, do you just exchange business cards? Unlikely, unless you still have a Rolodex on your desk. Today, you probably have a smartphone, and Hashable has developed an innovative solution to help you use technology to make the most of your interactions.
Hashable is “a mobile-first service that allows you to track relationships,” explains Michael Yavonditte, CEO. “It’s similar to Foursquare in a lot of ways. As Foursquare is to location, Hashable is to people. So when you meet a person, you can say, ‘I’ve run into this person, I’ve met this person, I’ve just had a meeting with this person’. It runs the gamut to breakfast, lunch, dinner, drinks, coffee. Anything that a white-collar professional might do with another person, Hashable gives you a chance to log that event.”
If you enter an acquaintance’s information into the system, Hashable will reveal other people who have also posted interactions with that person. The more interactions with someone you post, the stronger your relationship with that person in the system. Over time, you can look back at your relationship graph and see the entire history of your relationship.
“It’s a way of keeping track and informing,” says Yavonditte. “It’s taking it one step further than any network has tried to take it before . . . There’s no doubt in my mind that this is going to happen. We want to be the company that it happens with.”
More info:
Hashable web site: http://hashable.com/
Hashable blog: http://blog.hashable.com/
Hashable on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/hashable
當年師傅不教 阿基師：偷瞄學的
最近獲網路票選幸福指數第1名的名廚「阿基師」鄭衍基，昨天對三重、蘆洲兩區學校志工和餐飲科學生主講「工作的幸福煮藝」。他說，在動盪不安的年代，會做菜就可養家餬口，足證「專業是很重要的」，阿基師認為現在學生很幸福，但校園、職場倫理不足，有待加強。
總統府前秘書長許水德在一次內部餐敘時，介紹阿基師只有初中畢業，李登輝前總統當場回說「沒讀書，做廚師有什麼不好，總比那些讀很多書，卻做很多傷天害理的事的人好。」讓阿基師很感動，也堅定自己努力的志向。
阿基師昨天用「叉燒包」來說明當年困難的學習環境，他學廚那個時代，師傅不肯將技藝傳授徒弟，連要做叉燒包的皮和的麵，都不讓他看，叫他去拿東西來支開他。
當師傅做菜，他就拿著蔥到對面切，但眼睛卻偷瞄師傅的秤盤，記住材料大約的量、步驟，然後偷偷記下、練習，憑藉著如此勤學及不斷閱讀吸收新的觀念，終於造就他頂級廚藝，他認為現在學生很幸福，有那麼多樂於傳授所學的老師。
處世上，阿基師講求態度決定事業，凡事要盡力做到100分。他爆料自己做的生菜沙拉竟曾被驗出生菌數過高，還被罰款，他沒生氣，而是檢討製作流程出了那些問題？還因為一場宴會的菜色被主人嫌棄，他擔起所有責任賠款和辭職，但這些事都讓他學會更謙卑。
阿基師勉勵餐飲科學生，多做少說是成功的關鍵，人生不要怕挫折，要樂於與別人分享歡欣與喜悅，知足惜福就是他對幸福的定義。
Camino del Rey, 2010
El Caminito del Rey (English: The King’s little pathway) is a walkway or via ferrata, now fallen into disrepair, pinned along the steep walls of a narrow gorge in El Chorro, near Álora in the province of Málaga, Spain. The name is often shortened to Camino del Rey (English: King’s pathway).
Shanghai Sideways: On a Changjiang Motor Bike!
Shanghai Sideways: On a Changjiang Motor Bike! from Jakob Montrasio on Vimeo.
Discover Shanghai from a sideways look, seated in the side-car of a classic motorbike.
Enjoy an incredible cruise through the city and avoid traffic jams. We make you feel the pulse of this fast changing city and take you from modern Shanghais futuristic look to the heart of the 1920s French Concession. Tours follow a ready-made route or tailor-made to suit your interest.
With Shanghai Sideways, you enjoy the company of a foreign guide and driver who is a long term Shanghai resident. Although our classic motorbikes are antics, they all are perfectly maintained and monitored to guarantee your comfort and safety.
THE GREEN POOL
The northern island of New Zealand has a geothermal area in Rotorua called Wai-o-tapu that is filled with these strange places. One of the best things about these are the names… Various mysterious pits have names like the Devil’s Throat, Hell’s Gate, and Devil’s Cauldron. You don’t want to drop your cell phone in any of these.
How to build a PC with HotHardware
Marco Chiappetta of HotHardware.com shows us how to build a PC from
the ground up in this super-sized episode of This Old Nerd (over 30 minutes!).
Unleashing Your Router
Today we have Robert Borgesi guest-hosting in the most intense episode of This Old Nerd where he shows you how to unleash the power of your router using DD-WRT. In particular, you’ll learn how to create a wireless repeater-bridge.
World Tapir Day!
http://vimeo.com/4222347
Flickr informed me that it was World Tapir Day, so I thought I’d give a little shout out to one of my favourite animals. Plus, I have this little vid that I took at the SF Zoo last year starring a very lovely and docile Tapir Goober!
Flickr informed me that it was World Tapir Day, so I thought I’d give a little shout out to one of my favourite animals. Plus, I have this little vid that I took at the SF Zoo last year starring a very lovely and docile Tapir Goober!
Monday, February 28, 2011
Chris Matthews, MSNBC
http://www.charlierose.com/view/content/11484
Chris Matthews of MSNBC's 'Hardball' on “President of the World: The Bill Clinton Phenomenon” which will air on Monday February 21 at 10PM on MSNBC.
CHARLIE ROSE: Chris Matthews is here. He is the host of MSNBC’s "Hardball
with Chris Matthews." He also has his own weekly news program on NBC
called "The Chris Matthews Show." His latest project is a documentary
about former President Bill Clinton. It is called "President of the World:
The Bill Clinton Phenomenon." Here is a look at the documentary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Bill Clinton’s post presidency is unlike any before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had always said that Bill Clinton would run for
president for the rest of his life. Not literally but figuratively. And I
think I underestimated him. I think he has been running for president of
the world for the rest of his life.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Following the former president is a little like going on a
concert tour.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god. It’s .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Different cities, different countries, exuberant crowds.
Always the same feeling, that wherever Bill Clinton arrives it is an event.
A happening, to be experienced and remembered.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Always the superstar, isn’t he?
BILL CLINTON: You can do it here, I can figure out how to put it
everywhere and get it funded for you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
BILL CLINTON: I will really help you out.
CHRIS MATTHEWS (on camera): Did you ever have a pause where you thought I
don’t know what I’m going to do next? And then this began to develop, this
almost global role you play now? It is global.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, in the middle of my second term
as president, I began to think about what I would do. And in general, I
thought two things. I thought number one, I want to keep being very active
in the things I cared about as president, where I can still have an
influence. And the second thing I wanted to do was to try to explain the
world we’re living in to my fellow Americans and the people around the
world. So everything has sort of grown out of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE ROSE: This special on Bill Clinton airs on MSNBC on Monday
February 21st at 10 p.m. I’m pleased to have Chris Matthews back at this
table, welcome.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Right before CHARLIE ROSE. We squeeze it in there, an
hour of greatness.
CHARLIE ROSE: Very good. So how did this come about?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I had the idea, I guess if you want to go the inner scenes
-- my son worked for the Global Initiative about four years ago. He came
out of Brown. I guess he was inspired to go in the Peace Corps, but he had
a girlfriend, he is married now. And he wanted to go several months, but
not two years. So he found the Clinton Global Initiative and he went over
to Rwanda. And I was so impressed by what I learned about the Global
Initiative firsthand, that we went over and visited. We went to see the
guerillas in fact, in Rwanda, with him. They get things done. It’s not
like AID.
CHARLIE ROSE: The Global Initiative does?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yes. They make sure, they say look, they go to a country
like Rwanda and say, look, make sure none of these cocktails, these
HIV/AIDS cocktails .
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: . get out back to the European secondary market, the black
market. We want to guarantee the donors that it gets to the people who
need them, the victims. And then they have somebody in the country to make
sure that gets done, a quartermaster, my son. And I said this thing really
works. This isn’t the old thing where you get a certain percentage, that
the minister gets it for his money sold off to Europe or the black market.
And it’s the kind of stuff like that that impressed me in the beginning.
That is the first thing.
CHARLIE ROSE: OK. But may I ask you how did this happen? So you were
impressed by the Clinton Global Initiative and you began to ask questions
that you wanted to answer about Bill Clinton?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I said this is -- Nobody is covering this story. Sure, we
had Monica, sure we had the impeachment, sure we had Marc Rich. We covered
all the good, the bad and the ugly of his administration and we covered it
incredibly. I covered it as much as anybody, I can tell you. And then I
said, wait a minute, this guy has been out of office, eight, nine, years --
it’s ten years now. And nobody has covered that. It’s all been good.
It’s been basically international more so than here. And I get the feeling
maybe he’s one of those figures like Winston Churchill who is bigger
overseas, and bigger around the world than we even appreciate. We don’t
get it -- remember even Nixon was popular in France. And are we missing
that story?
So I started to look around. The producers dug up the tape of where he is
traveling. And we started interviewing people. And I went traveling with
him to Ireland and watched the Global Initiative in New York with like
hundreds of CEOs, 160 CEOs of big corporations and worldwide leaders to
treat him better than they themselves feel they should be treated. Going
around the world and arriving in a country and being bigger than the
current host country head of state. And he’s bigger than that person when
he arrives. And that has never been like that before.
CHARLIE ROSE: And he instantly cooperated. He said I will do it, it’s
great.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, you know this business. First of all .
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I had to make up for being tough on him.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: So I had to call up Doug Band, his chief of staff .
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: .. and I said why don’t we go to Sylvia’s up in Harlem
where they work? And I guess he’s tired of going up there to dinner. He
said, how about Michael’s, of course, in midtown. So we met and had lunch,
about an hour and a quarter lunch, he was grilling me. And I said, look, I
want to focus on the Global Initiative, the substance of what he is doing.
You know, this isn’t exactly an investigative piece, this is about the
substance of what he has done for ten years and nobody has covered this and
it is a heck of a story. And I want to travel with you guys, and I want to
get inside. I don’t want to get committed to this, to spend a couple of
hundred thousand bucks and you have to say, you said to me, you’re not
going to get in the door. I want time with this guy, overseas, traveling
with them. I get back about two weeks later, and Band says OK, he said
yes, or I assume he said yes because Band said yes. And we got on the trip
.
CHARLIE ROSE: No conditions.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: No conditions, none, absolutely none. I mean, I had the
time -- I got to see what I got to see.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you say anything critical in this hour?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I make sure I touch all the bases. I remind you as if you
need reminding of Marc Rich, of the impeachment problem, I go all the
bases. I do at one point compare .
CHARLIE ROSE: What’s (inaudible) you touch base on the same thing--
(CROSSTALK)
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I cover the past but I focus on the new.
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And if I could find anything new that was bad, I would
have covered it. It’s good. What I have been able to find is good. The
Clinton Global Initiative is really, really good.
CHARLIE ROSE: So was this in some way you taking a second look at this
guy?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: No, it is a new chapter in his life. I think Fitzgerald
is wrong. I think there are second acts in American life. This second act
is very much different than the first act. And let’s face it, that guy has
been wrong for a long time .
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, you got a second act.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Fitzgerald has been wrong .
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: .. for about a hundred years now.
CHARLIE ROSE: Certainly.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think he was talking about if you drink yourself to
death in 30 years old, you are not going to have a good second act.
CHARLIE ROSE: OK. Here you spent the time with this guy.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Right.
CHARLIE ROSE: You know, this .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Traveling .
CHARLIE ROSE: President of the world.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, you are on the plane with the guy and it is almost
like Daddy Warbucks, he is flying around the world. He’s got his big
satchel of books next to him, his neat-looking bag -- I’d like to get the
bag -- and he starts pulling out all the books he’s reading. He’s reading
Yates, he is reading all this other stuff. He’s giving me -- I’m reading
this, I’m reading that, he is what do you think of this, what do you think
of this poetry. He starts reading this poetry. And then finally spends an
hour a day studying economics. I mean it’s "Wall Street Journal"
economics, business economics, because the great thing about him is when he
gives a speech now it is not Joe Garagiola (ph), you know, yesterday’s
stories about the old days. He never talks about the past. It is very
interesting. Bill Clinton talks always about what is happening right now
in the economy, in the world, what people care about. He keeps himself
current.
CHARLIE ROSE: So what new did you learn?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: What new did I learn?
CHARLIE ROSE: About Bill Clinton?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: That he won’t quit.
CHARLIE ROSE: That’s new?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, it’s current. It’s new .
(CROSSTALK)
CHARLIE ROSE: Come on. Hello?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Give me a break. I can only follow what I follow. The
guy does not want to leave .
CHARLIE ROSE: He doesn’t quit is new?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Charlie, you are ahead of me all the time. I think it is
an amazing story that the guy -- how many people do you know, you probably
know 10,000 people firsthand. I’ll bet you Bill Clinton knows 100,000
people firsthand, and he knows them all around the world. And I keep
coming across this, he knows all these people. He comes up to you in a bar
in the Shelbourne, in the Dublin, OK, it’s midnight. He has spent the
whole day, the morning with the Protestants in northern Ireland .
CR: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: . talking to the business guys, giving business advice.
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Then he goes and spends the afternoon opening up his
institute at City College of Dublin -- his own institute. Then in the
evening he puts on the black tie and spends the whole evening -- what you
and I would consider the end of the evening, black tie dinner for the
American Irish and the American Ireland Fund. Then he goes, puts on his
jeans, puts on this very hip new zipper sweater -- his staff, by the way,
all wear the same costumes .
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: . which is the amazing. By the end (inaudible), you know,
the Shelbourne bar in Dublin, beautiful old bar. He sets up court down
there, he’s surrounded by a phalanx of people, and he’s invited --
everybody knows in the British Isles to meet him like a dance card. They
each get their turn, and the guy just won’t quit. OK, now you think this
is normal. I think it is a phenomenon. The guy has been president now
what, ten years ago and he’s still being president around the world. He’s
as big -- you know those stories he could get elected president of Ireland
tomorrow. No, he could.
CHARLIE ROSE: He could get elected president of the United States?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Oh, yes, easily.
CHARLIE ROSE: Easily?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Not now, but the job is not open now .
CHARLIE ROSE: No, I know.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I mean it would be totally conceptual.
CHARLIE ROSE: But if he didn’t have that .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He is politically a genius and his ability to work with
people.
CHARLIE ROSE: Tony Blair says that, says he is the most captivating
politician that he has ever met.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And he talks about .
CHARLIE ROSE: He said that to you.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He talks about .
CHARLIE ROSE: Hello?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He talks about that in the doc, he talks about that going
down to Blackpool remember where they had to -- Brighton or wherever it
was, where they had their conference and how he just took over the place.
And that’s what he does. And the Kevin Spacey story that is in the doc
about him showing up somewhere in central Africa and the word gets out that
he is going to the Grand Marche, the big market, and he shows up and there
is like 10,000 people there yelling "peacemaker! Peacemaker!"
CHARLIE ROSE: So what is his genius in your judgment?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think it’s -- remember you used to talk about that thing
you have when you’re a kid, the big plastic thing filled with air but with
the sand in the bottom that you would punch that would come back up again -
- that’s him. And he said that before. I get down. I’ve -- He got
knocked out of the governorship, his first term. Blown away. He is
finished down there, he is in his 30s. He’s gone. Comes back and wins
five terms. He comes out on national television, 1988, remember, he gave
the terrible speech that went on for like an hour down in Georgia.
CHARLIE ROSE: At the convention in Atlanta?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yeah. Laughed at, Johnny Carson killed him.
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: A week later he is on Johnny Carson playing the sax, he
won us back. He comes back and wins the presidency in ‘92 when everybody
said way ahead of time. He gets all screwed up, too elitist between ‘92
and ‘94, Hillary and ego, too far, they didn’t know how to handle health
care politically. Next thing he’s blown out of office. He gives a speech
saying I’m still relevant. He had to say the era of big government’s over
-- all the, you know, all genuflections, he comes back, beats Bob Dole by
nine or eight points. You know .
CHARLIE ROSE: He leaves government - he leaves .
(CROSSTALK)
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He leaves at high -- and 60 some percent popularity when
he leaves, even with the problem of impeachment, he left with a very high
number. So he is able to keep coming back. And I think he had to come
back after Marc Rich, to be -- to answer your larger question. I think
part of this motivation for this incredible commitment to goodwill and good
efforts around the world, good work, I think a lot of it is to leave on a
very positive way. Who wouldn’t want to do that? It makes -- that’s part
of him that does make pretty easy sense, I think.
CHARLIE ROSE: And his ambition is?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Keep it going. Don’t turn out the lights. Don’t go to
sleep. Keep it going.
CHARLIE ROSE: Keep it going.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think -- and remember, and this isn’t a moral or amoral
judgment about him, but remember the day that Bush gave the inaugural
address .
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: There he is, down at the Capitol, giving the inaugural
address. Split screen. Bill Clinton’s giving a speech out at Andrews.
He’s not going, remember.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, we show that in the clips too. He said I’m still
president, you know, I’m still here.
CHARLIE ROSE: He also said to you I think that no one, other people might
have -- no one loved the job more than I did.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think it is a great honest line.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He is there talking about the burden and the loneliness --
wasn’t lonely for him. I mean, his whole thing with Hillary as the
secretary of state -- and by the way, the serious part of this, which we
don’t really get into, but we all have to look and see if it holds is the
coalition between the Clintons and President Obama. That is to me the key
political fact in the country today, that coalition. If that weren’t
there, Hillary Clinton if she were still senator from this state up here in
New York would be the lightning rod for every Middle East problem that the
president had, every economic problem. She would be the way Ted Kennedy
was back with Jimmy Carter. The party would be split. And the fact that
it is not split I think is key to its success, right, and its possibility
of winning a significant re-election. If they weren’t united as they are,
I don’t think they would be winning next time.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you think if she was in the Senate now .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: There wouldn’t be .
CHARLIE ROSE: The things that have happened, she might be positioning
herself to challenge?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Not to challenge, but even if she didn’t, she would be
positioned to inevitably play the role of critic because it would just come
to her. It would be the automatic role for somebody like that. And as it
is, because she’s part of the team and done this perfect job so far, Bill
Clinton’s part of the team -- it’s really that, I don’t know if I said this
before to you, but I think it reminds me of Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits on
"West Wing" when he offered the secretary of state job to the guy he beat.
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I mean it’s art -- It’s history imitating art. And it was
-- that moment made me cry.
CHARLIE ROSE: That’s team of rivals too.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: That made me cry.
CHARLIE ROSE: It’s team .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: It does, this stuff. I mean he said .
CHARLIE ROSE: Oh, I know.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And that would be you. When he said who is your first
choice, and Jimmy Smits said, well, that would be you. I’ll break my
heart. I love that stuff.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes, you do.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: It’s the (inaudible)--
CHARLIE ROSE: What is it about you that loves it so much?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Did I ever tell you the story about Tip O’Neill and Ronald
Reagan?
CHARLIE ROSE: No.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Reagan has been shot. He’s lost half his blood supply.
And the bullet was actually much closer to the heart if you read the
clinical reports. And Nancy Reagan was very concerned, of course. She is
a good friend of mine and yours too probably now and she is a wonderful
person. And she was worried about her husband surviving and she wanted to
keep him alone. But after a few days, the doctors did a fantastic job and
he was beginning to convalesce and get better. And she said with Jim
Baker, it’s time to let somebody in to see him, to let the country know he
is still there. So they followed protocol. They wanted to do something
really miraculous, said why don’t we bring in the leader of the opposition
to be the first guy to see him, the speaker of the house, Tip O’Neill?
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: His bete noir.
CHARLIE ROSE: So I didn’t know this story, because nobody .
CHARLIE ROSE: During the day.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Nobody knew about this. It was during the day.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Because you know the rest of the story. So Max
Friedersdorf, who was head of congressional relations, was stationed in the
other corner of the room when Tip came in -- here is this big guy, comes in
the room.
CHARLIE ROSE: And by the way, you worked for Tip.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I was his top guy.
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: So he walked in the room and went over to -- over to
Reagan. Nobody else knows about this. And I never said this on national
television, actually, Charlie, this is for you. And he knelt down next to
Reagan, this is the leader of the opposition, held both his hands and
together they recited the 23rd Psalm together, these two old guys, two old
Irish guys.
CHARLIE ROSE: That will make tears come to your eyes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And then he kissed him on his forehead after they’d done
praying together. He said, I want to keep you, you need your rest. And
just walked out. Nobody saw this. It’s chilling, but nobody saw this. It
was never reported, Tip never came back. I don’t think he told his family.
Reagan never told any of this. I got this in a letter from Max
Friedersdorf. Originally tipped off by David Broder about this story. And
it’s just -- it is a wonder of American politics at its best, to me.
CHARLIE ROSE: Did you, but you knew Tip so well. Did you talk to Tip
about it later?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I never knew about it, he never told us about it. I did
speak a lot of times, we would have late afternoon conversations where he’d
just sit there for hours and tell me about Curley and the old days, James
Michael Curley and amazing stories about the old days. I mean, he would
say the things to me like Curley was crooked by the standards of those
days. And I would say and that was his mentor, and I’d say, this the great
-- the purple shamrock, the old mayor of Boston, who went to the can. And
I said personally corrupt? He said personally corrupt. I mean we had
great conversations. I learned a lot from him sitting in the back room.
CHARLIE ROSE: You were fascinated by three people.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: Winston Churchill.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: John Kennedy and who is the third?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Ernest Hemingway.
CHARLIE ROSE: Ernest Hemingway?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Because all of them are avatars, they all lead you to what
you want to be. And they all take you in your life. If you think about
who made Paris great for you, Charlie. I mean, come on, I don’t care what
you say, it was Hemingway, the ‘20s. It was the period, you know .
CHARLIE ROSE: Oh, yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Morley Callaghan, and all that stuff. We all got into
that stuff. You know, George Plimpton, we all got caught up in that.
CHARLIE ROSE: You’d be a good shrink, wouldn’t you?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And then Africa, when did Africa became cool -- when
Hemingway said it was cool, and bullfighting.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes. And Cuba?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And Cuba, and bullfighting and marlin fishing .
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And Kennedy -- who made politics just glamorous? Before
then it was three piece suits and boring guys and stuffed shirts and Taft .
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, no, it’s not -- that’s not true.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: It was Taft ..
(CROSSTALK)
CHARLIE ROSE: Before that there was Teddy Roosevelt.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Charlie, this is before television. Didn’t count. Just
kidding, yeah, before that there was one exciting guy, and the Roosevelts,
of course. And the other is Churchill, of course, because here was this
little guy with a lisp who had really nothing going for him except in May
of 1940, when they hadn’t even saved the troops at Dunkirk, even they had -
- even before Dunkirk, even before they evacuated the expeditionary force,
when they were finished, Churchill just said to his larger cabinet, of
course we’ll fight no matter what happens. And they all stood up and
applauded. And that saved the honor of the west. Just that one move.
CHARLIE ROSE: Back to JFK. What do you know about his early youth? I
mean, he was the second son.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: He was never intended to be the public son.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: No. He was a writer. From the time he was sick -- I
think Jackie had one thing really important about him that she said
afterwards to Teddy White. You got to remember, he wasn’t this glamorous,
good-looking character that we all got to know, the tan and the lifestyle
and everything. He was a really sick kid his whole life. He was really
sick. He had scarlet fever. He thought he had leukemia as a kid. He had
a stomach problem his whole life. He had a back problem that was
congenital. He had serious problems his whole life, and they never really
went away. Those crutches were always in the Oval Office, as you know.
And he was always in pain.
And yet we never saw that because he kept that away from us. But as Gene
Smith (ph), you know, said to me one time, the great thing about him and
separated from all the rest of the Kennedys was because he was sick so
much, he read a lot. He was a real reader. I’m not going to go so far as
to say an intellectual, but he read so much in his life, and he had so many
heroes like Churchill. Imagine knowing a kid who read "The New York Times"
every day in high school, every day. Imagine knowing a kid in high school,
I don’t anybody like this, imagine a kid who had read Churchill’s history
of the First World War before he got to high school.
(CROSSTALK)
CHARLIE ROSE: But part of .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: So he was -- he was this self-made guy. Very much like if
you read "Gatsby", in Gatsby, he’s writing lists like self-improvement
lists like I’m going to come up with -- you know, needed, needed
inventions. He was very much like that.
CHARLIE ROSE: That was (inaudible) young John Kennedy.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Very much a Gatsby.
CHARLIE ROSE: And he made himself into what?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Into Jack Kennedy, a separate person from the Democratic
Party, from the liberal party, from the Johnson party, from his dad. His
dad was an anti-Semite, bad guy in many ways. He was a loving father, but
a bad guy in many ways, all totally wrong about World War II. Just he
thought it was a business, you could negotiate with a guy like Hitler. And
he said, he never had a sense about the moral horror of Hitler, where Jack
did. And if you look about it from the time he was a kid, he wrote about
(inaudible), and he understood that he couldn’t make that defense of
appeasement. You had to understand that there were reasons that in his
case, Neville Chamberlain wasn’t able .
CHARLIE ROSE: Let me just go back, he created JFK. I mean, he created .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think so.
CHARLIE ROSE: First. And then he created JFK, I mean you’re saying he
created two things.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He created Jack Kennedy.
CHARLIE ROSE: He created Jack Kennedy.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And then he created the guy that could be president. But,
you know, I’m working on it. It’s in progress. November. I’m working on
it very hard.
CHARLIE ROSE: All right. Let’s say a bit about .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I’m very -- Charlie, when you don’t see me, and I’m not
sleeping, I’m doing this.
CHARLIE ROSE: Running around with the president. Let me talk about
Washington today. Give me a sense of Boehner versus Obama.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think Boehner is approaching a kind of waterfall. In
the next week or two, they are going to be I think a government shutdown,
and it’s going to be one of those mano y mano kind of things, a Hemingway
kind of moment where he is going to have to come up against a very cool
customer, President Obama, who you know does well in the clinch. He has
that sort of, you know, in the movie "The Godfather," when he lights the
cigarette out in front of the hospital and you realize this guy was born
for this, I don’t want to go up against that guy. And I think Boehner is a
little more nervous.
He’s an average guy, in terms of temperament. He does get nervous, he gets
choked up, as we know. I don’t know whether he is ready for this fight and
I don’t think he wants this fight, but I think he’s taking it on because
the Tea Party people behind him want to cut government spending so much in
the current fiscal year, right now, they don’t want any more continuing
resolutions, that what is going to happen is there is going to be a moment
in the next week or two when they’re not going to be able to reach
agreement between the House led by the Republicans and Harry Reid on the
Democratic side of the Senate. And you’re not going to have a deal. So
the government is going to stop. And I think we’re coming up to that .
CHARLIE ROSE: What does that mean, the government stop?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Things like Social Security checks don’t go out. That
matters. I mean, Howard Fineman on the other -- checks don’t go out.
People say, oh, I didn’t get my check. It’s not like you can’t get into
Yosemite that night. That’s important to the person who is waiting outside
in the station wagon, but for most people it’s that check that’s not
getting through. And all of a sudden people say, you know, I like the
federal government more than I thought I did. I sort of like that check.
And it is serious business.
So if things stop performing, and I’d realized from last time, there is a
big difference between a legislative leader like a Tip O’Neill or Newt
Gingrich and a president. The country only wants one president. And they
don’t like the other side grabbing .
CHARLIE ROSE: But they clearly are aware of the lessons of Gingrich versus
Clinton.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yeah, well, they eventually cut their deal. And I think
with luck, what I think Obama is up to, to answer larger questions, he came
in with a pretty minimal effort to reduce government spending, his budget
of his last week. What he is trying to do is euchre the Republicans into
an iterative process, back and forth, a Ping-Pong thing, as they call it
now, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, over a couple of
years, where both parties begin to show their hand. And eventually you
have a kind of a situation you had with Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan in
‘83, where they went on another big story, Tommy O’Neill tells the story
that his dad went to the White House one day at the end of ‘82 when Reagan
had lost that election, lost 26 seats, and Reagan said to Tip let’s go for
a walk. And they went on a walk on the back lawn and came back with a
Social Security deal.
So I think it’s going to take a while to get there. As Obama said, Jack
Lew, I worked with Tip -- who is now budget director, said we’ve learned
from history that the person who sticks their neck out on Social Security
and Medicare and offers to do something doesn’t get it, they just get
killed. Nothing happens because the other side springs into action and
says gotcha.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you think Obama understands this?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think he knows that. They’ve said he does.
CHARLIE ROSE: And therefore that’s .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Therefore he is waiting for the Republicans to show
something.
CHARLIE ROSE: Therefore he’s not speaking to the deficit commission
report.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Exactly. And you can say that it’s irresponsible, or you
can say he knows tactically you are not going to get there, if that is
where you want to get, until both parties inch forward. So these guys are
like sumo wrestlers, they’re like doing this. And one of these days
they’re going to get closer and they’re going to engage, and he is saying
it will take that engagement of the two parties for it to work. It will
not work if I try to do it alone, because inevitably, you know the press,
you know the White House press corps, the second he calls for a Social
Security trim or a higher retirement age, that second they will say he hit
the third rail. He has ignited trouble. President taking fallout. The
whole story for days in ahead, excuse me, will be how the president made a
mistake.
CHARLIE ROSE: So what does this say about Barack Obama’s political skills?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He’s learning. I think he’s learning.
CHARLIE ROSE: And .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: This isn’t something you come to the office with. You
have to talk to people like Jack Lew who have been through it in the ‘80s,
have been through it in the ‘90s with Clinton, and say how does this work.
And you have to listen to people who tell you don’t make a quick move.
This isn’t about initial success. It’s about ultimate success.
CHARLIE ROSE: How much do you think he is being counseled by Bill Clinton?
You must have asked that question.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think he is counseled by his record.
CHARLIE ROSE: No, no, no. I mean .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I don’t know -- I don’t know. I don’t the answer to that.
CHARLIE ROSE: You pick up the phone and you say .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I don’t know.
CHARLIE ROSE: President Clinton, it’s President Obama calling.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I know Bill would like that call.
CHARLIE ROSE: He would like to get it more.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Who wouldn’t? I think I don’t hear anything like that.
So I don’t know if it is going on.
CHARLIE ROSE: And then when he reads that, you know, the Obama’s real
political model is Ronald Reagan.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: That stuck it to him, and he did that early in the
campaign. He said he was a transformative president and I want to be a
transformative president. He belittled. And he made a mistake there a
couple of times, he belittled the Nixon presidency. Whatever you think of
Richard Nixon, he was not, you know, a transitional president. He did a
lot of things. He ended the dual school system in the South, as you know.
He created the Environmental Protection Agency. He ended the gold
standard. He did a lot of things. Wage price controls. He did a lot of
things that were positive.
CHARLIE ROSE: I thought it was the Supreme Court that ended the dual
system in the South.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, he executed it. No, Pat Moynihan. I go by the God
(ph), Pat Moynihan told me it was Nixon who did it, because he actually
carried out the court’s instruction.
CHARLIE ROSE: Amazing Pat Moynihan, wasn’t he?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Miss him.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: You know what he once said to me? I was on a plane with
him. And he sort of -- you know, he was one of the -- he was an outer rim
of the knights of the round table with Kennedy .
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He was assistant secretary of labor. And actually he did
Pennsylvania Avenue. He carried out Kennedy’s plan .
CHARLIE ROSE: Right, right .
(CROSSTALK)
CHRIS MATTHEWS: . to making Washington beautiful like the Champs-Elysees.
And Pat once said to me, he was a wonderful man. He was so generous.
CHARLIE ROSE: What did he say?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He said, you know, we were talking about the Kennedy
assassination. He said we’ve never gotten over it, and he looks at me and
says you’ve never gotten over it. That was -- that was inducting me. I
will never forget that.
CHARLIE ROSE: This documentary, are you going to do more of these?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I hope so, I hope we have done a couple, we did one on the
rise of the right about the Tea Party.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And we’re going to keep doing them. I think the
commitment which I will say on the air they made a commitment to let me do
two a year. Now I’m going to make it official. I love doing them. They
take a lot of work. I work with some people like Tim Smith and Kate
Hampson of Peacock Productions at NBC and we’ve turned out some good stuff.
CHARLIE ROSE: Great to have you here.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Thanks, Charlie, it’s great. Thank you.
CHARLIE ROSE: Chris Matthews, his documentary is 10:00 on MSNBC on Monday
night.
Chris Matthews of MSNBC's 'Hardball' on “President of the World: The Bill Clinton Phenomenon” which will air on Monday February 21 at 10PM on MSNBC.
CHARLIE ROSE: Chris Matthews is here. He is the host of MSNBC’s "Hardball
with Chris Matthews." He also has his own weekly news program on NBC
called "The Chris Matthews Show." His latest project is a documentary
about former President Bill Clinton. It is called "President of the World:
The Bill Clinton Phenomenon." Here is a look at the documentary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Bill Clinton’s post presidency is unlike any before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had always said that Bill Clinton would run for
president for the rest of his life. Not literally but figuratively. And I
think I underestimated him. I think he has been running for president of
the world for the rest of his life.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Following the former president is a little like going on a
concert tour.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh my god. It’s .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Different cities, different countries, exuberant crowds.
Always the same feeling, that wherever Bill Clinton arrives it is an event.
A happening, to be experienced and remembered.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Always the superstar, isn’t he?
BILL CLINTON: You can do it here, I can figure out how to put it
everywhere and get it funded for you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
BILL CLINTON: I will really help you out.
CHRIS MATTHEWS (on camera): Did you ever have a pause where you thought I
don’t know what I’m going to do next? And then this began to develop, this
almost global role you play now? It is global.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Well, in the middle of my second term
as president, I began to think about what I would do. And in general, I
thought two things. I thought number one, I want to keep being very active
in the things I cared about as president, where I can still have an
influence. And the second thing I wanted to do was to try to explain the
world we’re living in to my fellow Americans and the people around the
world. So everything has sort of grown out of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHARLIE ROSE: This special on Bill Clinton airs on MSNBC on Monday
February 21st at 10 p.m. I’m pleased to have Chris Matthews back at this
table, welcome.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Right before CHARLIE ROSE. We squeeze it in there, an
hour of greatness.
CHARLIE ROSE: Very good. So how did this come about?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I had the idea, I guess if you want to go the inner scenes
-- my son worked for the Global Initiative about four years ago. He came
out of Brown. I guess he was inspired to go in the Peace Corps, but he had
a girlfriend, he is married now. And he wanted to go several months, but
not two years. So he found the Clinton Global Initiative and he went over
to Rwanda. And I was so impressed by what I learned about the Global
Initiative firsthand, that we went over and visited. We went to see the
guerillas in fact, in Rwanda, with him. They get things done. It’s not
like AID.
CHARLIE ROSE: The Global Initiative does?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yes. They make sure, they say look, they go to a country
like Rwanda and say, look, make sure none of these cocktails, these
HIV/AIDS cocktails .
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: . get out back to the European secondary market, the black
market. We want to guarantee the donors that it gets to the people who
need them, the victims. And then they have somebody in the country to make
sure that gets done, a quartermaster, my son. And I said this thing really
works. This isn’t the old thing where you get a certain percentage, that
the minister gets it for his money sold off to Europe or the black market.
And it’s the kind of stuff like that that impressed me in the beginning.
That is the first thing.
CHARLIE ROSE: OK. But may I ask you how did this happen? So you were
impressed by the Clinton Global Initiative and you began to ask questions
that you wanted to answer about Bill Clinton?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I said this is -- Nobody is covering this story. Sure, we
had Monica, sure we had the impeachment, sure we had Marc Rich. We covered
all the good, the bad and the ugly of his administration and we covered it
incredibly. I covered it as much as anybody, I can tell you. And then I
said, wait a minute, this guy has been out of office, eight, nine, years --
it’s ten years now. And nobody has covered that. It’s all been good.
It’s been basically international more so than here. And I get the feeling
maybe he’s one of those figures like Winston Churchill who is bigger
overseas, and bigger around the world than we even appreciate. We don’t
get it -- remember even Nixon was popular in France. And are we missing
that story?
So I started to look around. The producers dug up the tape of where he is
traveling. And we started interviewing people. And I went traveling with
him to Ireland and watched the Global Initiative in New York with like
hundreds of CEOs, 160 CEOs of big corporations and worldwide leaders to
treat him better than they themselves feel they should be treated. Going
around the world and arriving in a country and being bigger than the
current host country head of state. And he’s bigger than that person when
he arrives. And that has never been like that before.
CHARLIE ROSE: And he instantly cooperated. He said I will do it, it’s
great.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, you know this business. First of all .
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I had to make up for being tough on him.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: So I had to call up Doug Band, his chief of staff .
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: .. and I said why don’t we go to Sylvia’s up in Harlem
where they work? And I guess he’s tired of going up there to dinner. He
said, how about Michael’s, of course, in midtown. So we met and had lunch,
about an hour and a quarter lunch, he was grilling me. And I said, look, I
want to focus on the Global Initiative, the substance of what he is doing.
You know, this isn’t exactly an investigative piece, this is about the
substance of what he has done for ten years and nobody has covered this and
it is a heck of a story. And I want to travel with you guys, and I want to
get inside. I don’t want to get committed to this, to spend a couple of
hundred thousand bucks and you have to say, you said to me, you’re not
going to get in the door. I want time with this guy, overseas, traveling
with them. I get back about two weeks later, and Band says OK, he said
yes, or I assume he said yes because Band said yes. And we got on the trip
.
CHARLIE ROSE: No conditions.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: No conditions, none, absolutely none. I mean, I had the
time -- I got to see what I got to see.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you say anything critical in this hour?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I make sure I touch all the bases. I remind you as if you
need reminding of Marc Rich, of the impeachment problem, I go all the
bases. I do at one point compare .
CHARLIE ROSE: What’s (inaudible) you touch base on the same thing--
(CROSSTALK)
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I cover the past but I focus on the new.
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And if I could find anything new that was bad, I would
have covered it. It’s good. What I have been able to find is good. The
Clinton Global Initiative is really, really good.
CHARLIE ROSE: So was this in some way you taking a second look at this
guy?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: No, it is a new chapter in his life. I think Fitzgerald
is wrong. I think there are second acts in American life. This second act
is very much different than the first act. And let’s face it, that guy has
been wrong for a long time .
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, you got a second act.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Fitzgerald has been wrong .
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: .. for about a hundred years now.
CHARLIE ROSE: Certainly.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think he was talking about if you drink yourself to
death in 30 years old, you are not going to have a good second act.
CHARLIE ROSE: OK. Here you spent the time with this guy.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Right.
CHARLIE ROSE: You know, this .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Traveling .
CHARLIE ROSE: President of the world.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, you are on the plane with the guy and it is almost
like Daddy Warbucks, he is flying around the world. He’s got his big
satchel of books next to him, his neat-looking bag -- I’d like to get the
bag -- and he starts pulling out all the books he’s reading. He’s reading
Yates, he is reading all this other stuff. He’s giving me -- I’m reading
this, I’m reading that, he is what do you think of this, what do you think
of this poetry. He starts reading this poetry. And then finally spends an
hour a day studying economics. I mean it’s "Wall Street Journal"
economics, business economics, because the great thing about him is when he
gives a speech now it is not Joe Garagiola (ph), you know, yesterday’s
stories about the old days. He never talks about the past. It is very
interesting. Bill Clinton talks always about what is happening right now
in the economy, in the world, what people care about. He keeps himself
current.
CHARLIE ROSE: So what new did you learn?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: What new did I learn?
CHARLIE ROSE: About Bill Clinton?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: That he won’t quit.
CHARLIE ROSE: That’s new?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, it’s current. It’s new .
(CROSSTALK)
CHARLIE ROSE: Come on. Hello?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Give me a break. I can only follow what I follow. The
guy does not want to leave .
CHARLIE ROSE: He doesn’t quit is new?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Charlie, you are ahead of me all the time. I think it is
an amazing story that the guy -- how many people do you know, you probably
know 10,000 people firsthand. I’ll bet you Bill Clinton knows 100,000
people firsthand, and he knows them all around the world. And I keep
coming across this, he knows all these people. He comes up to you in a bar
in the Shelbourne, in the Dublin, OK, it’s midnight. He has spent the
whole day, the morning with the Protestants in northern Ireland .
CR: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: . talking to the business guys, giving business advice.
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Then he goes and spends the afternoon opening up his
institute at City College of Dublin -- his own institute. Then in the
evening he puts on the black tie and spends the whole evening -- what you
and I would consider the end of the evening, black tie dinner for the
American Irish and the American Ireland Fund. Then he goes, puts on his
jeans, puts on this very hip new zipper sweater -- his staff, by the way,
all wear the same costumes .
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: . which is the amazing. By the end (inaudible), you know,
the Shelbourne bar in Dublin, beautiful old bar. He sets up court down
there, he’s surrounded by a phalanx of people, and he’s invited --
everybody knows in the British Isles to meet him like a dance card. They
each get their turn, and the guy just won’t quit. OK, now you think this
is normal. I think it is a phenomenon. The guy has been president now
what, ten years ago and he’s still being president around the world. He’s
as big -- you know those stories he could get elected president of Ireland
tomorrow. No, he could.
CHARLIE ROSE: He could get elected president of the United States?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Oh, yes, easily.
CHARLIE ROSE: Easily?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Not now, but the job is not open now .
CHARLIE ROSE: No, I know.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I mean it would be totally conceptual.
CHARLIE ROSE: But if he didn’t have that .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He is politically a genius and his ability to work with
people.
CHARLIE ROSE: Tony Blair says that, says he is the most captivating
politician that he has ever met.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And he talks about .
CHARLIE ROSE: He said that to you.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He talks about .
CHARLIE ROSE: Hello?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He talks about that in the doc, he talks about that going
down to Blackpool remember where they had to -- Brighton or wherever it
was, where they had their conference and how he just took over the place.
And that’s what he does. And the Kevin Spacey story that is in the doc
about him showing up somewhere in central Africa and the word gets out that
he is going to the Grand Marche, the big market, and he shows up and there
is like 10,000 people there yelling "peacemaker! Peacemaker!"
CHARLIE ROSE: So what is his genius in your judgment?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think it’s -- remember you used to talk about that thing
you have when you’re a kid, the big plastic thing filled with air but with
the sand in the bottom that you would punch that would come back up again -
- that’s him. And he said that before. I get down. I’ve -- He got
knocked out of the governorship, his first term. Blown away. He is
finished down there, he is in his 30s. He’s gone. Comes back and wins
five terms. He comes out on national television, 1988, remember, he gave
the terrible speech that went on for like an hour down in Georgia.
CHARLIE ROSE: At the convention in Atlanta?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yeah. Laughed at, Johnny Carson killed him.
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: A week later he is on Johnny Carson playing the sax, he
won us back. He comes back and wins the presidency in ‘92 when everybody
said way ahead of time. He gets all screwed up, too elitist between ‘92
and ‘94, Hillary and ego, too far, they didn’t know how to handle health
care politically. Next thing he’s blown out of office. He gives a speech
saying I’m still relevant. He had to say the era of big government’s over
-- all the, you know, all genuflections, he comes back, beats Bob Dole by
nine or eight points. You know .
CHARLIE ROSE: He leaves government - he leaves .
(CROSSTALK)
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He leaves at high -- and 60 some percent popularity when
he leaves, even with the problem of impeachment, he left with a very high
number. So he is able to keep coming back. And I think he had to come
back after Marc Rich, to be -- to answer your larger question. I think
part of this motivation for this incredible commitment to goodwill and good
efforts around the world, good work, I think a lot of it is to leave on a
very positive way. Who wouldn’t want to do that? It makes -- that’s part
of him that does make pretty easy sense, I think.
CHARLIE ROSE: And his ambition is?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Keep it going. Don’t turn out the lights. Don’t go to
sleep. Keep it going.
CHARLIE ROSE: Keep it going.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think -- and remember, and this isn’t a moral or amoral
judgment about him, but remember the day that Bush gave the inaugural
address .
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: There he is, down at the Capitol, giving the inaugural
address. Split screen. Bill Clinton’s giving a speech out at Andrews.
He’s not going, remember.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, we show that in the clips too. He said I’m still
president, you know, I’m still here.
CHARLIE ROSE: He also said to you I think that no one, other people might
have -- no one loved the job more than I did.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think it is a great honest line.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He is there talking about the burden and the loneliness --
wasn’t lonely for him. I mean, his whole thing with Hillary as the
secretary of state -- and by the way, the serious part of this, which we
don’t really get into, but we all have to look and see if it holds is the
coalition between the Clintons and President Obama. That is to me the key
political fact in the country today, that coalition. If that weren’t
there, Hillary Clinton if she were still senator from this state up here in
New York would be the lightning rod for every Middle East problem that the
president had, every economic problem. She would be the way Ted Kennedy
was back with Jimmy Carter. The party would be split. And the fact that
it is not split I think is key to its success, right, and its possibility
of winning a significant re-election. If they weren’t united as they are,
I don’t think they would be winning next time.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you think if she was in the Senate now .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: There wouldn’t be .
CHARLIE ROSE: The things that have happened, she might be positioning
herself to challenge?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Not to challenge, but even if she didn’t, she would be
positioned to inevitably play the role of critic because it would just come
to her. It would be the automatic role for somebody like that. And as it
is, because she’s part of the team and done this perfect job so far, Bill
Clinton’s part of the team -- it’s really that, I don’t know if I said this
before to you, but I think it reminds me of Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits on
"West Wing" when he offered the secretary of state job to the guy he beat.
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I mean it’s art -- It’s history imitating art. And it was
-- that moment made me cry.
CHARLIE ROSE: That’s team of rivals too.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: That made me cry.
CHARLIE ROSE: It’s team .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: It does, this stuff. I mean he said .
CHARLIE ROSE: Oh, I know.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And that would be you. When he said who is your first
choice, and Jimmy Smits said, well, that would be you. I’ll break my
heart. I love that stuff.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes, you do.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: It’s the (inaudible)--
CHARLIE ROSE: What is it about you that loves it so much?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Did I ever tell you the story about Tip O’Neill and Ronald
Reagan?
CHARLIE ROSE: No.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Reagan has been shot. He’s lost half his blood supply.
And the bullet was actually much closer to the heart if you read the
clinical reports. And Nancy Reagan was very concerned, of course. She is
a good friend of mine and yours too probably now and she is a wonderful
person. And she was worried about her husband surviving and she wanted to
keep him alone. But after a few days, the doctors did a fantastic job and
he was beginning to convalesce and get better. And she said with Jim
Baker, it’s time to let somebody in to see him, to let the country know he
is still there. So they followed protocol. They wanted to do something
really miraculous, said why don’t we bring in the leader of the opposition
to be the first guy to see him, the speaker of the house, Tip O’Neill?
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: His bete noir.
CHARLIE ROSE: So I didn’t know this story, because nobody .
CHARLIE ROSE: During the day.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Nobody knew about this. It was during the day.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Because you know the rest of the story. So Max
Friedersdorf, who was head of congressional relations, was stationed in the
other corner of the room when Tip came in -- here is this big guy, comes in
the room.
CHARLIE ROSE: And by the way, you worked for Tip.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I was his top guy.
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: So he walked in the room and went over to -- over to
Reagan. Nobody else knows about this. And I never said this on national
television, actually, Charlie, this is for you. And he knelt down next to
Reagan, this is the leader of the opposition, held both his hands and
together they recited the 23rd Psalm together, these two old guys, two old
Irish guys.
CHARLIE ROSE: That will make tears come to your eyes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And then he kissed him on his forehead after they’d done
praying together. He said, I want to keep you, you need your rest. And
just walked out. Nobody saw this. It’s chilling, but nobody saw this. It
was never reported, Tip never came back. I don’t think he told his family.
Reagan never told any of this. I got this in a letter from Max
Friedersdorf. Originally tipped off by David Broder about this story. And
it’s just -- it is a wonder of American politics at its best, to me.
CHARLIE ROSE: Did you, but you knew Tip so well. Did you talk to Tip
about it later?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I never knew about it, he never told us about it. I did
speak a lot of times, we would have late afternoon conversations where he’d
just sit there for hours and tell me about Curley and the old days, James
Michael Curley and amazing stories about the old days. I mean, he would
say the things to me like Curley was crooked by the standards of those
days. And I would say and that was his mentor, and I’d say, this the great
-- the purple shamrock, the old mayor of Boston, who went to the can. And
I said personally corrupt? He said personally corrupt. I mean we had
great conversations. I learned a lot from him sitting in the back room.
CHARLIE ROSE: You were fascinated by three people.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: Winston Churchill.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: John Kennedy and who is the third?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Ernest Hemingway.
CHARLIE ROSE: Ernest Hemingway?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Because all of them are avatars, they all lead you to what
you want to be. And they all take you in your life. If you think about
who made Paris great for you, Charlie. I mean, come on, I don’t care what
you say, it was Hemingway, the ‘20s. It was the period, you know .
CHARLIE ROSE: Oh, yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Morley Callaghan, and all that stuff. We all got into
that stuff. You know, George Plimpton, we all got caught up in that.
CHARLIE ROSE: You’d be a good shrink, wouldn’t you?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And then Africa, when did Africa became cool -- when
Hemingway said it was cool, and bullfighting.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes. And Cuba?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And Cuba, and bullfighting and marlin fishing .
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And Kennedy -- who made politics just glamorous? Before
then it was three piece suits and boring guys and stuffed shirts and Taft .
CHARLIE ROSE: Well, no, it’s not -- that’s not true.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: It was Taft ..
(CROSSTALK)
CHARLIE ROSE: Before that there was Teddy Roosevelt.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Charlie, this is before television. Didn’t count. Just
kidding, yeah, before that there was one exciting guy, and the Roosevelts,
of course. And the other is Churchill, of course, because here was this
little guy with a lisp who had really nothing going for him except in May
of 1940, when they hadn’t even saved the troops at Dunkirk, even they had -
- even before Dunkirk, even before they evacuated the expeditionary force,
when they were finished, Churchill just said to his larger cabinet, of
course we’ll fight no matter what happens. And they all stood up and
applauded. And that saved the honor of the west. Just that one move.
CHARLIE ROSE: Back to JFK. What do you know about his early youth? I
mean, he was the second son.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yes.
CHARLIE ROSE: He was never intended to be the public son.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: No. He was a writer. From the time he was sick -- I
think Jackie had one thing really important about him that she said
afterwards to Teddy White. You got to remember, he wasn’t this glamorous,
good-looking character that we all got to know, the tan and the lifestyle
and everything. He was a really sick kid his whole life. He was really
sick. He had scarlet fever. He thought he had leukemia as a kid. He had
a stomach problem his whole life. He had a back problem that was
congenital. He had serious problems his whole life, and they never really
went away. Those crutches were always in the Oval Office, as you know.
And he was always in pain.
And yet we never saw that because he kept that away from us. But as Gene
Smith (ph), you know, said to me one time, the great thing about him and
separated from all the rest of the Kennedys was because he was sick so
much, he read a lot. He was a real reader. I’m not going to go so far as
to say an intellectual, but he read so much in his life, and he had so many
heroes like Churchill. Imagine knowing a kid who read "The New York Times"
every day in high school, every day. Imagine knowing a kid in high school,
I don’t anybody like this, imagine a kid who had read Churchill’s history
of the First World War before he got to high school.
(CROSSTALK)
CHARLIE ROSE: But part of .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: So he was -- he was this self-made guy. Very much like if
you read "Gatsby", in Gatsby, he’s writing lists like self-improvement
lists like I’m going to come up with -- you know, needed, needed
inventions. He was very much like that.
CHARLIE ROSE: That was (inaudible) young John Kennedy.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Very much a Gatsby.
CHARLIE ROSE: And he made himself into what?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Into Jack Kennedy, a separate person from the Democratic
Party, from the liberal party, from the Johnson party, from his dad. His
dad was an anti-Semite, bad guy in many ways. He was a loving father, but
a bad guy in many ways, all totally wrong about World War II. Just he
thought it was a business, you could negotiate with a guy like Hitler. And
he said, he never had a sense about the moral horror of Hitler, where Jack
did. And if you look about it from the time he was a kid, he wrote about
(inaudible), and he understood that he couldn’t make that defense of
appeasement. You had to understand that there were reasons that in his
case, Neville Chamberlain wasn’t able .
CHARLIE ROSE: Let me just go back, he created JFK. I mean, he created .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think so.
CHARLIE ROSE: First. And then he created JFK, I mean you’re saying he
created two things.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He created Jack Kennedy.
CHARLIE ROSE: He created Jack Kennedy.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And then he created the guy that could be president. But,
you know, I’m working on it. It’s in progress. November. I’m working on
it very hard.
CHARLIE ROSE: All right. Let’s say a bit about .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I’m very -- Charlie, when you don’t see me, and I’m not
sleeping, I’m doing this.
CHARLIE ROSE: Running around with the president. Let me talk about
Washington today. Give me a sense of Boehner versus Obama.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think Boehner is approaching a kind of waterfall. In
the next week or two, they are going to be I think a government shutdown,
and it’s going to be one of those mano y mano kind of things, a Hemingway
kind of moment where he is going to have to come up against a very cool
customer, President Obama, who you know does well in the clinch. He has
that sort of, you know, in the movie "The Godfather," when he lights the
cigarette out in front of the hospital and you realize this guy was born
for this, I don’t want to go up against that guy. And I think Boehner is a
little more nervous.
He’s an average guy, in terms of temperament. He does get nervous, he gets
choked up, as we know. I don’t know whether he is ready for this fight and
I don’t think he wants this fight, but I think he’s taking it on because
the Tea Party people behind him want to cut government spending so much in
the current fiscal year, right now, they don’t want any more continuing
resolutions, that what is going to happen is there is going to be a moment
in the next week or two when they’re not going to be able to reach
agreement between the House led by the Republicans and Harry Reid on the
Democratic side of the Senate. And you’re not going to have a deal. So
the government is going to stop. And I think we’re coming up to that .
CHARLIE ROSE: What does that mean, the government stop?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Things like Social Security checks don’t go out. That
matters. I mean, Howard Fineman on the other -- checks don’t go out.
People say, oh, I didn’t get my check. It’s not like you can’t get into
Yosemite that night. That’s important to the person who is waiting outside
in the station wagon, but for most people it’s that check that’s not
getting through. And all of a sudden people say, you know, I like the
federal government more than I thought I did. I sort of like that check.
And it is serious business.
So if things stop performing, and I’d realized from last time, there is a
big difference between a legislative leader like a Tip O’Neill or Newt
Gingrich and a president. The country only wants one president. And they
don’t like the other side grabbing .
CHARLIE ROSE: But they clearly are aware of the lessons of Gingrich versus
Clinton.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Yeah, well, they eventually cut their deal. And I think
with luck, what I think Obama is up to, to answer larger questions, he came
in with a pretty minimal effort to reduce government spending, his budget
of his last week. What he is trying to do is euchre the Republicans into
an iterative process, back and forth, a Ping-Pong thing, as they call it
now, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, over a couple of
years, where both parties begin to show their hand. And eventually you
have a kind of a situation you had with Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan in
‘83, where they went on another big story, Tommy O’Neill tells the story
that his dad went to the White House one day at the end of ‘82 when Reagan
had lost that election, lost 26 seats, and Reagan said to Tip let’s go for
a walk. And they went on a walk on the back lawn and came back with a
Social Security deal.
So I think it’s going to take a while to get there. As Obama said, Jack
Lew, I worked with Tip -- who is now budget director, said we’ve learned
from history that the person who sticks their neck out on Social Security
and Medicare and offers to do something doesn’t get it, they just get
killed. Nothing happens because the other side springs into action and
says gotcha.
CHARLIE ROSE: Do you think Obama understands this?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think he knows that. They’ve said he does.
CHARLIE ROSE: And therefore that’s .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Therefore he is waiting for the Republicans to show
something.
CHARLIE ROSE: Therefore he’s not speaking to the deficit commission
report.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Exactly. And you can say that it’s irresponsible, or you
can say he knows tactically you are not going to get there, if that is
where you want to get, until both parties inch forward. So these guys are
like sumo wrestlers, they’re like doing this. And one of these days
they’re going to get closer and they’re going to engage, and he is saying
it will take that engagement of the two parties for it to work. It will
not work if I try to do it alone, because inevitably, you know the press,
you know the White House press corps, the second he calls for a Social
Security trim or a higher retirement age, that second they will say he hit
the third rail. He has ignited trouble. President taking fallout. The
whole story for days in ahead, excuse me, will be how the president made a
mistake.
CHARLIE ROSE: So what does this say about Barack Obama’s political skills?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He’s learning. I think he’s learning.
CHARLIE ROSE: And .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: This isn’t something you come to the office with. You
have to talk to people like Jack Lew who have been through it in the ‘80s,
have been through it in the ‘90s with Clinton, and say how does this work.
And you have to listen to people who tell you don’t make a quick move.
This isn’t about initial success. It’s about ultimate success.
CHARLIE ROSE: How much do you think he is being counseled by Bill Clinton?
You must have asked that question.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I think he is counseled by his record.
CHARLIE ROSE: No, no, no. I mean .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I don’t know -- I don’t know. I don’t the answer to that.
CHARLIE ROSE: You pick up the phone and you say .
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I don’t know.
CHARLIE ROSE: President Clinton, it’s President Obama calling.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I know Bill would like that call.
CHARLIE ROSE: He would like to get it more.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Who wouldn’t? I think I don’t hear anything like that.
So I don’t know if it is going on.
CHARLIE ROSE: And then when he reads that, you know, the Obama’s real
political model is Ronald Reagan.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: That stuck it to him, and he did that early in the
campaign. He said he was a transformative president and I want to be a
transformative president. He belittled. And he made a mistake there a
couple of times, he belittled the Nixon presidency. Whatever you think of
Richard Nixon, he was not, you know, a transitional president. He did a
lot of things. He ended the dual school system in the South, as you know.
He created the Environmental Protection Agency. He ended the gold
standard. He did a lot of things. Wage price controls. He did a lot of
things that were positive.
CHARLIE ROSE: I thought it was the Supreme Court that ended the dual
system in the South.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Well, he executed it. No, Pat Moynihan. I go by the God
(ph), Pat Moynihan told me it was Nixon who did it, because he actually
carried out the court’s instruction.
CHARLIE ROSE: Amazing Pat Moynihan, wasn’t he?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Miss him.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yeah.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: You know what he once said to me? I was on a plane with
him. And he sort of -- you know, he was one of the -- he was an outer rim
of the knights of the round table with Kennedy .
CHARLIE ROSE: Right.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He was assistant secretary of labor. And actually he did
Pennsylvania Avenue. He carried out Kennedy’s plan .
CHARLIE ROSE: Right, right .
(CROSSTALK)
CHRIS MATTHEWS: . to making Washington beautiful like the Champs-Elysees.
And Pat once said to me, he was a wonderful man. He was so generous.
CHARLIE ROSE: What did he say?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: He said, you know, we were talking about the Kennedy
assassination. He said we’ve never gotten over it, and he looks at me and
says you’ve never gotten over it. That was -- that was inducting me. I
will never forget that.
CHARLIE ROSE: This documentary, are you going to do more of these?
CHRIS MATTHEWS: I hope so, I hope we have done a couple, we did one on the
rise of the right about the Tea Party.
CHARLIE ROSE: Yes.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: And we’re going to keep doing them. I think the
commitment which I will say on the air they made a commitment to let me do
two a year. Now I’m going to make it official. I love doing them. They
take a lot of work. I work with some people like Tim Smith and Kate
Hampson of Peacock Productions at NBC and we’ve turned out some good stuff.
CHARLIE ROSE: Great to have you here.
CHRIS MATTHEWS: Thanks, Charlie, it’s great. Thank you.
CHARLIE ROSE: Chris Matthews, his documentary is 10:00 on MSNBC on Monday
night.
King's Speech highlights stuttering
King's Speech highlights stuttering
Academy Award winning movie highlights the speech impediment that affects millions.
Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Farmer” Algorithm Update
Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Farmer” Algorithm Update
Feb 24, 2011 at 9:50pm ET by Danny Sullivan
In January, Google promised that it would take action against content farms that were gaining top listings with “shallow” or “low-quality” content. Now the company is delivering, announcing a change to its ranking algorithm designed take out such material.
New Change Impacts 12% Of US Results
The new algorithm — Google’s “recipe” for how to rank web pages — starting going live yesterday, the company told me in an interview today.
Google changes its algorithm on a regular basis, but most changes are so subtle that few notice. This is different. Google says the change impacts 12% (11.8% is the unrounded figure) of its search results in the US , a far higher impact on results than most of its algorithm changes. The change only impacts results in the US. It may be rolled out worldwide in the future.
While Google has come under intense pressure in the past month to act against content farms, the company told me that this change has been in the works since last January.
Officially, Not Aimed At Content Farms
Officially, Google isn’t saying the algorithm change is targeting content farms. The company specifically declined to confirm that, when I asked. However, Matt Cutts — who heads Google’s spam fighting team — told me, “I think people will get the idea of the types of sites we’re talking about.”
Well, there are two types of sites “people” have been talking about in a way that Google has noticed: “scraper” sites and “content farms.” It mentioned both of them in a January 21 blog post:
We’re evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content. We’ll continue to explore ways to reduce spam, including new ways for users to give more explicit feedback about spammy and low-quality sites.
As “pure webspam” has decreased over time, attention has shifted instead to “content farms,” which are sites with shallow or low-quality content.
I’ve bolded the key sections, which I’ll explore more next.
The “Scraper Update”
About a week after Google’s post, Cutts confirmed that an algorithm change targeting “scraper” sites had gone live:
This was a pretty targeted launch: slightly over 2% of queries change in some way, but less than half a percent of search results change enough that someone might really notice. The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content.
“Scraper” sites are those widely defined as not having original content but instead pulling content in from other sources. Some do this through legitimate means, such as using RSS files with permission. Others may aggregate small amounts of content under fair use guidelines. Some simply “scrape” or copy content from other sites using automated means — hence the “scraper” nickname.
In short, Google said it was going after sites that had low-levels of original content in January and delivered a week later.
By the way, sometimes Google names big algorithm changes, such as in the case of the Vince update. Often, they get named by WebmasterWorld, where a community of marketers watches such changes closely, as happened with last year’s Mayday Update.
In the case of the scraper update, no one gave it any type of name that stuck. So, I’m naming it myself the “Scraper Update,” to help distinguish it against the “Farmer Update” that Google announced today.
But “Farmer Update” Really Does Target Content Farms
“Farmer Update?” Again, that’s a name I’m giving this change, so there’s a shorthand way to talk about it. Google declined to give it a public name, nor do I see one given in a WebmasterWorld thread that started noticing the algorithm change as it rolled out yesterday, before Google’s official announcement.
How can I say the Farmer Update targets content farms when Google specifically declined to confirm that? I’m reading between the lines. Google previously had said it was going after them.
Since Google originally named content farms as something it would target, you’ve had some of the companies that get labeled with that term push back that they are no such thing. Most notable has been Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt, who previously told AllThingsD about Google’s planned algorithm changes to target content farms:
It’s not directed at us in any way.
I understand how that could confuse some people, because of that stupid “content farm” label, which we got tagged with. I don’t know who ever invented it, and who tagged us with it, but that’s not us…We keep getting tagged with “content farm”. It’s just insulting to our writers. We don’t want our writers to feel like they’re part of a “content farm.”
I guess it all comes down to what your definition of a “content farm” is. From Google’s earlier blog post, content farms are places with “shallow or low quality content.”
In that regard, Rosenblatt is right that Demand Media properties like eHow are not necessarily content farms, because they do have some deep and high quality content. However, they clearly also have some shallow and low quality content.
That content is what the algorithm change is going after. Google wouldn’t confirm it was targeting content farms, but Cutts did say again it was going after shallow and low quality content. And since content farms do produce plenty of that — along with good quality content — they’re being targeted here. If they have lots of good content, and that good content is responsible for the majority of their traffic and revenues, they’ll be fine. In not, they should be worried.
More About Who’s Impacted
As I wrote earlier, Google says it has been working on these changes since last January. I can personally confirm that several of Google’s search engineers were worrying about what to do about content farms back then, because I was asked about this issue and thoughts on how to tackle it, when I spoke to the company’s search quality team in January 2010. And no, I’m not suggesting I had any great advice to offer — only that people at Google were concerned about it over a year ago.
Since then, external pressure has accelerated. For instance, start-up search engine Blekko blocked sites that were most reported by its users to be spam, which included many sites that fall under the content farm heading. It gained a lot of attention for the move, even if the change didn’t necessarily improve Blekko’s results.
In my view, that helped prompt Google to finally push out a way for Google users to easily block sites they dislike from showing in Google’s results, via Chrome browser extension to report spam.
Cutts, in my interview with him today, made a point to say that none of the data from that tool was used to make changes that are part of the Farmer Update. However, he went on to say that of the top 50 sites that were most reported as spam by users of the tool, 84% of them were impacted by the new ranking changes. He would not confirm or deny if Demand’s eHow site was part of that list.
“These are sites that people want to go down, and they match our intuition,” Cutts said.
In other words, Google crafted a ranking algorithm to tackle the “content farm problem” independently of the new tool, it says — and it feels like tool is confirming that it’s getting the changes right.
The Content Farm Problem
By the way, my own definition of a content farm that I’ve been working on is like this:
Looks to see what are popular searches in a particular category (news, help topics)
Generates content specifically tailored to those searches
Usually spends very little time and or money, even perhaps as little as possible, to generate that content
The problem I think content farms are currently facing is with that last part — not putting in the effort to generate outstanding content.
For example, last night I did a talk at the University Of Utah about search trends and touched on content farm issues. A page from eHow ranked in Google’s top results for a search on “how to get pregnant fast,” a popular search topic. The advice:
The class laughed at the “Enjoyable Sex Is Key” advice as the first tip for getting pregnant fast. Actually, the advice that you shouldn’t get stressed makes sense. But this page is hardly great content on the topic. Instead, it seems to fit the “shallow” category that Google’s algorithm change is targeting. And the page, there last night when I was talking to the class, is now gone.
Perhaps the new “curation layer” that Demand talked about in it earnings call this week will help in cases like these. Demand also defended again in that call that it has quality content.
Will the changes really improve Google’s results? As I mentioned, Blekko now automatically blocks many content farms, a move that I’ve seen hailed by some. What I haven’t seen is any in-depth look at whether what remains is that much better. When I do spot checks, it’s easy to find plenty of other low quality or completely irrelevant content showing up.
Cutts tells me Google feels the change it is making does improve results according to its own internal testing methods. We’ll see if it plays out that way in the real world.
Feb 24, 2011 at 9:50pm ET by Danny Sullivan
In January, Google promised that it would take action against content farms that were gaining top listings with “shallow” or “low-quality” content. Now the company is delivering, announcing a change to its ranking algorithm designed take out such material.
New Change Impacts 12% Of US Results
The new algorithm — Google’s “recipe” for how to rank web pages — starting going live yesterday, the company told me in an interview today.
Google changes its algorithm on a regular basis, but most changes are so subtle that few notice. This is different. Google says the change impacts 12% (11.8% is the unrounded figure) of its search results in the US , a far higher impact on results than most of its algorithm changes. The change only impacts results in the US. It may be rolled out worldwide in the future.
While Google has come under intense pressure in the past month to act against content farms, the company told me that this change has been in the works since last January.
Officially, Not Aimed At Content Farms
Officially, Google isn’t saying the algorithm change is targeting content farms. The company specifically declined to confirm that, when I asked. However, Matt Cutts — who heads Google’s spam fighting team — told me, “I think people will get the idea of the types of sites we’re talking about.”
Well, there are two types of sites “people” have been talking about in a way that Google has noticed: “scraper” sites and “content farms.” It mentioned both of them in a January 21 blog post:
We’re evaluating multiple changes that should help drive spam levels even lower, including one change that primarily affects sites that copy others’ content and sites with low levels of original content. We’ll continue to explore ways to reduce spam, including new ways for users to give more explicit feedback about spammy and low-quality sites.
As “pure webspam” has decreased over time, attention has shifted instead to “content farms,” which are sites with shallow or low-quality content.
I’ve bolded the key sections, which I’ll explore more next.
The “Scraper Update”
About a week after Google’s post, Cutts confirmed that an algorithm change targeting “scraper” sites had gone live:
This was a pretty targeted launch: slightly over 2% of queries change in some way, but less than half a percent of search results change enough that someone might really notice. The net effect is that searchers are more likely to see the sites that wrote the original content rather than a site that scraped or copied the original site’s content.
“Scraper” sites are those widely defined as not having original content but instead pulling content in from other sources. Some do this through legitimate means, such as using RSS files with permission. Others may aggregate small amounts of content under fair use guidelines. Some simply “scrape” or copy content from other sites using automated means — hence the “scraper” nickname.
In short, Google said it was going after sites that had low-levels of original content in January and delivered a week later.
By the way, sometimes Google names big algorithm changes, such as in the case of the Vince update. Often, they get named by WebmasterWorld, where a community of marketers watches such changes closely, as happened with last year’s Mayday Update.
In the case of the scraper update, no one gave it any type of name that stuck. So, I’m naming it myself the “Scraper Update,” to help distinguish it against the “Farmer Update” that Google announced today.
But “Farmer Update” Really Does Target Content Farms
“Farmer Update?” Again, that’s a name I’m giving this change, so there’s a shorthand way to talk about it. Google declined to give it a public name, nor do I see one given in a WebmasterWorld thread that started noticing the algorithm change as it rolled out yesterday, before Google’s official announcement.
How can I say the Farmer Update targets content farms when Google specifically declined to confirm that? I’m reading between the lines. Google previously had said it was going after them.
Since Google originally named content farms as something it would target, you’ve had some of the companies that get labeled with that term push back that they are no such thing. Most notable has been Demand Media CEO Richard Rosenblatt, who previously told AllThingsD about Google’s planned algorithm changes to target content farms:
It’s not directed at us in any way.
I understand how that could confuse some people, because of that stupid “content farm” label, which we got tagged with. I don’t know who ever invented it, and who tagged us with it, but that’s not us…We keep getting tagged with “content farm”. It’s just insulting to our writers. We don’t want our writers to feel like they’re part of a “content farm.”
I guess it all comes down to what your definition of a “content farm” is. From Google’s earlier blog post, content farms are places with “shallow or low quality content.”
In that regard, Rosenblatt is right that Demand Media properties like eHow are not necessarily content farms, because they do have some deep and high quality content. However, they clearly also have some shallow and low quality content.
That content is what the algorithm change is going after. Google wouldn’t confirm it was targeting content farms, but Cutts did say again it was going after shallow and low quality content. And since content farms do produce plenty of that — along with good quality content — they’re being targeted here. If they have lots of good content, and that good content is responsible for the majority of their traffic and revenues, they’ll be fine. In not, they should be worried.
More About Who’s Impacted
As I wrote earlier, Google says it has been working on these changes since last January. I can personally confirm that several of Google’s search engineers were worrying about what to do about content farms back then, because I was asked about this issue and thoughts on how to tackle it, when I spoke to the company’s search quality team in January 2010. And no, I’m not suggesting I had any great advice to offer — only that people at Google were concerned about it over a year ago.
Since then, external pressure has accelerated. For instance, start-up search engine Blekko blocked sites that were most reported by its users to be spam, which included many sites that fall under the content farm heading. It gained a lot of attention for the move, even if the change didn’t necessarily improve Blekko’s results.
In my view, that helped prompt Google to finally push out a way for Google users to easily block sites they dislike from showing in Google’s results, via Chrome browser extension to report spam.
Cutts, in my interview with him today, made a point to say that none of the data from that tool was used to make changes that are part of the Farmer Update. However, he went on to say that of the top 50 sites that were most reported as spam by users of the tool, 84% of them were impacted by the new ranking changes. He would not confirm or deny if Demand’s eHow site was part of that list.
“These are sites that people want to go down, and they match our intuition,” Cutts said.
In other words, Google crafted a ranking algorithm to tackle the “content farm problem” independently of the new tool, it says — and it feels like tool is confirming that it’s getting the changes right.
The Content Farm Problem
By the way, my own definition of a content farm that I’ve been working on is like this:
Looks to see what are popular searches in a particular category (news, help topics)
Generates content specifically tailored to those searches
Usually spends very little time and or money, even perhaps as little as possible, to generate that content
The problem I think content farms are currently facing is with that last part — not putting in the effort to generate outstanding content.
For example, last night I did a talk at the University Of Utah about search trends and touched on content farm issues. A page from eHow ranked in Google’s top results for a search on “how to get pregnant fast,” a popular search topic. The advice:
The class laughed at the “Enjoyable Sex Is Key” advice as the first tip for getting pregnant fast. Actually, the advice that you shouldn’t get stressed makes sense. But this page is hardly great content on the topic. Instead, it seems to fit the “shallow” category that Google’s algorithm change is targeting. And the page, there last night when I was talking to the class, is now gone.
Perhaps the new “curation layer” that Demand talked about in it earnings call this week will help in cases like these. Demand also defended again in that call that it has quality content.
Will the changes really improve Google’s results? As I mentioned, Blekko now automatically blocks many content farms, a move that I’ve seen hailed by some. What I haven’t seen is any in-depth look at whether what remains is that much better. When I do spot checks, it’s easy to find plenty of other low quality or completely irrelevant content showing up.
Cutts tells me Google feels the change it is making does improve results according to its own internal testing methods. We’ll see if it plays out that way in the real world.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
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