The Daily Show - December 9, 2010 - Edmund Morris

Edmund Morris Episode #15157 Edmund Morris believes a politician as multifaceted and complex as Theodore Roosevelt couldn't run for presidency now. (07:01) Tags: Edmund Morris, interviews, books, Theodore Roosevelt, history, death, elitism, business, environment, national parks, hunting

Watch the full episode here. See also: Theodore Rex (Modern Library Paperbacks), The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt (Modern Library Paperbacks), Edmund Morris's Theodore Roosevelt Trilogy Bundle: The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt, Theodore Rex, and Colonel Roosevelt, Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan

The Colbert Report - December 7, 2010 - David Eisenhower, Julie Nixon Eisenhower

December 07, 2010 - Julie Nixon Eisenhower and David Eisenhower Views: 52,258 Aired: 12/07/10 Episode 06155 Obama extends the Bush tax cuts, and David and Julie Eisenhower recall growing up in the White House.

Check the full episode out here. See also: Going Home To Glory: A Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961-1969, Eisenhower at War 1943-1945, Crusade in Europe

Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower from KERA's Think Podcast

[2010-11-30 13:00:00] What was retirement like for the great hero of World War II whose presidency marked the start of unprecedented prosperity for Americans? We'll spend this hour with David Eisenhower whose new book is "Going Home To Glory: A Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961-1969" (Simons & Schuster, 2010). Eisenhower will address the World Affairs Council of Dallas Fort Worth this evening.

Download the podcast here. See also: Going Home To Glory: A Memoir of Life with Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961-1969, Eisenhower Soldier and President, Crusade in Europe, Eisenhower: A Soldier's Life

"George W. Bush Memoir Has Sold 1.1 Million Copie"s by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

George W. Bush has joined Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in an exclusive club: presidential authors who have sold at least a million copies of their books. The Crown Publishing Group announced Wednesday that Bush's memoir, "Decision Points," has sold more than 1.1 million copies. It was released Nov. 9.

NPR syndicated this AP bit, which can be found here. In the book, he defends the use of water-boarding to extract critical information from terrorists: The Times (UK) reported this earlier this month:

George W. Bush has claimed that information extracted from terrorist suspects by “waterboarding” saved British lives by preventing attacks on Heathrow and Canary Wharf. In an exclusive interview with The Times, the former US President offered a vigorous defence of the coercive interrogation technique: “Three people were waterboarded and I believe that decision saved lives.” He denied that waterboarding, which simulates drowning, amounted to torture. Asked if he authorised the use of waterboarding to get information from the captured al-Qaeda leader Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, he was unequivocal: “Damn right!” In his new book he writes: “Their interrogations helped break up plots to attack American diplomatic facilities abroad, Heathrow airport and Canary Wharf in London, and multiple targets in the United States.”

Read the full Times article here. There's also this NPR All Things Considered podcast with and about the former president. See also: A Charge to Keep, George W. Bush on God and Country: The President Speaks Out About Faith, Principle, and Patriotism, Spoken from the Heart, The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment

HE'S BACK: Bush speaks in Chicago, plugs new book... from Chicago Breaking News Center

Former President George W. Bush reflected on his presidency, his life out of the spotlight, poked fun at himself and plugged his upcoming book today while speaking in Chicago at a conference for a finance trade association. Bush, wearing a black suit and purple tie with stripes, told a crowd of hundreds of conference attendees of taking his Scottish terrier, Barney, for a walk around their Texas neighborhood for the first time since leaving office. "I was out of the presidency for two weeks and I had a plastic bag on my hand," which drew laughter and applause from the crowd attending the Commercial Finance Association convention. "In the old days there'd be a guy with a plastic bag on his hand, following."

It's just a funny phrasing of the idea, the title. And we so, so miss his phrases making headlines. Read the full story here.

What Happens to 'Washington Outsiders' When They Get Inside Washington? from The Takeaway: Early Edition by feedback@thetakeaway.org (Public Radio International and WNYC Radio)

With mid-term elections only weeks away, many Tea Party candidates are campaigning as self-declared "Washington outsiders." U.S. Senate candidates like Sharron Angle, Christine O'Donnell and Ron Johnson are relatively new to politics and are using their lack of experience as a way to sell their candidacy to voters. But once these “outsiders” get to the inside, what do they find, and is it possible to really change Washington, like they promise to do? We talk with James Morone, a political science professor at Brown University, about the history of the Washington outsider in modern politics. Morone is author of the book, “The Heart of Power: Health and Politics in the Oval Office.”

Read the full post here. Listen to the podcast here.

Charlie Rose's Monday, June 7, 2010 conversation with Jonathan Alter, Author

CHARLIE ROSE: Joining me now "Newsweek’s" Jonathan Alter. He has
written a new book about President Obama. It is called "The Promise --
President Obama, Year One." He interviewed more than 200 people, including
the president and top aides like Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, and Valerie
Jarrett.

I am pleased to have him back at that this table. Welcome.

JONATHAN ALTER: Thanks, Charlie.

CHARLIE ROSE: Look at what’s happening today in the handling of the
oil spill. How do you assess it?

JONATHAN ALTER: Well, I think it showed he has poor political
reflexes, or at least insufficiently quick reflexes. And that, you know,
has been a bit of a problem.

The oil spill is almost a perfect metaphor for the Obama
administration in this sense, that so much of what he’s had to do is clean
up Bush’s messes, all right? So on Wall Street, the auto industry, the
bank bailouts, Afghanistan was a Bush mess that went worse. This is
another Bush mess.

You had regulators, Charlie, Bush-era regulators in the Denver office
of the Minerals Management Services who literally -- not figuratively --
literally were sleeping with the people they were supposed to be
regulating.

See the full interview here. Read the full transcript here. See also: The Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope

Richard Muller -- "Physics for Future Presidents" from KQED's Forum by forum@kqed.org (KQED Public Radio)

Richard Muller -- "Physics for Future Presidents" -- Physics can help inform our understanding of such hot-button topics as climate change, energy consumption, space exploration, weapons and war. Professor Richard Muller's new book explains the basics of physics that all voters and politicians should know in order to make educated decisions on these and other issues. Muller is a professor in the physics department at UC Berkeley, and faculty senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Listen to the show here, or download the podcast here.