National Book Festival 2008, Part II

I have to say I enjoyed Bob Schieffer the best out of the three speakers. I saw him several years ago and was equally impresses. He just seems like your average joe. He seems genuinely surprised that so many have come out to see him.

He told a story of going down to a college in Louisiana and the place where he was speaking was packed. People were sitting on the sills of windows that had been opened. There were even people on trees outside the windows. He said to the audience how grateful he was so many people had showed up to hear him speak. Then someone in the audience said it was mandatory.


He talked about the general state of politics. He said that with the bailout it was one of the few stories that he had a really hard time understanding. He said the experts are saying we need to do something but he added these are the same experts that got us into this mess in the first place.

He then said some of the things he believed in for the US. We don't torture. We don't have secret prisons. That's what the other guys do. Not us. That the power of ideas are far more powerful than any of our weapons. He said the reason the Cold War ended is that the people behind the Iron Curtain were able to see through television what other counties had.

He also said how Hubert Humphrey said that the voting rights act of 1964 was one of our most powerful foreign policy weapons. It showed that we really meant all people were created equal.

He then related this story. One of his first major assignments was when James Meredith was admitted to Ole Miss in 1962. He said there were riots and several people were killed. He remembers being shot at by National Guard snipers who were trying to control the crowd. Schieffer he'd never been more scared in his life even when he was in Viet Nam. He said last night I was in Oxford Mississippi to see the presidential debate. Participating was the first African-American with the chance of being president and a real war hero. Schieffer said we have a long way to go in this country but he never believe in his life time he would see this. He said it was truly historic.





























































































This last picture is of Bob Schieffer texting and he did it for awhile before he went on stage.