At the request of Missouri Boys State we have deleted a previous post (Missouri Boys State is a private entity).  

State Auditor Tom Schweich (r) spoke in Warrensburg at Missouri Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri last night.

State Auditor Tom Schweich (r) speaking at Missouri Boys State in Hendricks Hall on the

campus of the University of Central Missouri on Thursday evening.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Previously:

Missouri Boys State – 2013 (June 16, 2013)

Kansas City Mayor Sly James – Missouri Boys State – June 16, 2013 (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 – one word (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 (June 18, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 – Q and A (June 18, 2013)

Bob Woodward – Missouri Boys State – June 18, 2013 (June 19, 2013)

Bob Woodward – Missouri Boys State – June 18, 2013 – Q and A, parts 1, 2 & 3 (June 20, 2013)

Bob Woodward – Missouri Boys State – June 18, 2013 – Q and A, parts 4 & 5 (June 20, 2013)

Secretary of State Jason Kander (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 20, 2013 (June 20, 2013)

Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander (D) spoke this afternoon in Warrensburg at a Missouri Boys State assembly on the campus of the University of Central Missouri.

This afternoon in Warrensburg Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander (D) addressed

a Missouri Boys State assembly on the campus of the University of Central Missouri.

The audience of close to a thousand Missouri Boys State citizens and around

one hundred staff posed for a group photo before the announcement of Boys State election results.

Gary Grigsby, a long time Missouri Boys State volunteer, listening to Secretary of State Jason Kander (D).

Former Missouri Governor Bob Holden (D), also a long time Missouri Boys State supporter and volunteer.

Greeting Missouri Boys State citizens after the assembly.

Previously:

Missouri Boys State – 2013 (June 16, 2013)

Kansas City Mayor Sly James – Missouri Boys State – June 16, 2013 (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 – one word (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 (June 18, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 – Q and A (June 18, 2013)

Bob Woodward – Missouri Boys State – June 18, 2013 (June 19, 2013)

Bob Woodward – Missouri Boys State – June 18, 2013 – Q and A, parts 1, 2 & 3 (June 20, 2013)

Bob Woodward – Missouri Boys State – June 18, 2013 – Q and A, parts 4 & 5 (June 20, 2013)

On Tuesday evening Bob Woodward, author and associate editor of the Washington Post, was the keynote speaker at Missouri Boys State in Hendricks Hall on the campus of the University of Central Missouri. He spoke for approximately twenty minutes, then took questions from the audience for close to an hour.

The first part of the Q and A: Bob Woodward – Missouri Boys State – June 18, 2013 – Q and A, parts 1, 2 & 3 (June 20, 2013)

Bob Woodward, associate editor of the Washington Post, taking questions from the audience

in Warrensburg at Missouri Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri on Tuesday evening.

“…And he takes his hands out and throws them in the air and shrugs like only Bush can…”

Part 4 – on reporting, secret government, on comparing Benghazi and the IRS to Watergate, political polarization:

Part 5 – on Barack Obama, the NSA story, and George W. Bush and Hilary Clinton:

Bob Woodward: …Now, no one asked, uh, this question but I want to answer it. Hilary Clinton, what’s she gonna do? Now, I, uh, got to know her, uh, when she was, uh, First Lady. And, uh, she is, uh, a dynamo. I, I believe, don’t know, that she’ll wind up running. And I want to tell, uh, there’s somebody who’s happy about that. [laughter] And, uh, it’s interesting. What does Bill really think? [laughter] Uh, I suspect he wants her to run. But, I saw, there was a, it was about six years ago, I was giving a talk like this in Washington and she was the other speaker. And, uh, afterwords, uh, she came over and, and said, uh, oh, I quote from one of your Bush books, all that, she’s a senator at this point, uh, gearing up to run for president, didn’t get the nomination that Obama did, uh, several years later. And she said, I quote from one of your Bush books all the time. In fact, I quote so often I should pay you royalties. I stupidly said no rather than how much. [laughter] I said, what do you quote? And she said, well, it’s the second Bush book, Plan of Attack, about how Bush decided to invade Iraq. And, uh, at the end of the book, uh, said, well, what do you quote? And said, the end. And at the end, uh, I’d been interviewing Bush for hours over two days and he’s standing in the Oval Office at the end of the interviews and has his hands in his pockets. And just asks, uh, I just ask, uh, how do you think history will judge your Iraq war? And he takes his hands out and throws them in the air and shrugs like only Bush can [laughter] and, and says, History, we won’t know, we’ll all be dead. [applause] Comforting thought. And, he was ducking the question, but, you know, that’s the, the Gerald Ford story I, I told, uh, in a way that it looks one way, certain era, and it looks quite the opposite, uh, twenty-five years later. So we don’t know. And I remember going home after the interview and my wife said, how was it? And I said, he answered all the questions, but the really good news is I have the ending to the book. Endings are hard to find. And here it’s all about how he made this decision and then the question, how’s this gonna be viewed by history? We don’t know. And, uh, so I asked Senator Clinton, I said, why do you quote that? And, uh, she said, uh, well, George Bush is a fatalist, somebody who just kind of does their thing then they almost let others decide. And she said, you can’t be a fatalist and be President of the United States. And I said, well, Lincoln was a bit of a fatalist. And she, and she got real, uh, intense. Almost lamp throwing intense. [laughter] And, uh, started pounding her fist into her hand. And, uh, said, you can’t think and talk like that and be President of the United States. And, I pushed back a little bit more and she kind of did this, you know, you can’t, I’m telling you, can’t. George Washington would never talk like that. Thomas Jefferson would never ever talk like that. Bill would never talk [laughter] like that. And so, I, my thought was, the new Mount Rushmore…

Previously:

Missouri Boys State – 2013 (June 16, 2013)

Kansas City Mayor Sly James – Missouri Boys State – June 16, 2013 (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 – one word (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 (June 18, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 – Q and A (June 18, 2013)

Bob Woodward – Missouri Boys State – June 18, 2013 (June 19, 2013)

Bob Woodward – Missouri Boys State – June 18, 2013 – Q and A, parts 1, 2 & 3 (June 20, 2013)

On Tuesday evening Bob Woodward, author and associate editor of the Washington Post, was the keynote speaker at Missouri Boys State in Hendricks Hall on the campus of the University of Central Missouri. He spoke for approximately twenty minutes, then took questions from the audience for close to an hour.

Bob Woodward, associate editor of the Washington Post, taking questions from the audience

in Warrensburg at Missouri Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri on Tuesday evening.

The question and answer portion, part 1 – on journalism, partisanship and balance, the lack of resources for oversight, true believers, and reporting on Watergate:

Part 2 – on national security versus the story, mistrust of government, Watergate and Nixon:

Bob Woodward;…it is astonishing to hear the rage and anger and, uh, it, the job of the president is to serve the country and the dog that doesn’t bark on thousands of hours of Nixon tapes, to my knowledge no one ever says, what does the country need, what would be right? The question always was, uh, what’s, how can Nixon use his power to use, uh, the power of the presidency to, uh, you, kind of come up with vengeful acts, get the CIA, the IRS, get the, uh, FBI on people who are political opponents. Well, the presidency is not something to be converted to an instrument of personal revenge. It’s about what the country needs. And that doesn’t come up in the Nixon tapes. That’s the horrify, it’s not crimes, abuses, in the end the sadness of Nixon is the smallness that was always of him…

Part 3 – on the Watergate burglary story, All The President’s Men and Deep Throat, print and online media, the practice of journalism and pursuing interviews:

Previously:

Missouri Boys State – 2013 (June 16, 2013)

Kansas City Mayor Sly James – Missouri Boys State – June 16, 2013 (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 – one word (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 (June 18, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 – Q and A (June 18, 2013)

Bob Woodward – Missouri Boys State – June 18, 2013 (June 19, 2013)

Previously:

Missouri Boys State – 2013 (June 16, 2013)

Kansas City Mayor Sly James – Missouri Boys State – June 16, 2013 (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 – one word (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 (June 18, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 – Q and A (June 18, 2013)

On Tuesday evening Bob Woodward, author and associate editor of the Washington Post, was the keynote speaker at Missouri Boys State in Hendricks Hall on the campus of the University of Central Missouri. He spoke for approximately twenty minutes, then took questions from the audience for close to an hour.

Bob Woodward, associate editor of the Washington Post, speaking in Warrensburg

at Missouri Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri on Tuesday evening.

Remarks, part 1:

Part 2:

The transcript:

Bob Woodward: [applause]  Thank you. How nice to be here.  And what, uh, we’re gonna do, I’m gonna compress what I would like to talk about and then try to answer your questions, uh, for forty-five minutes. So I’m really, uh, gonna compress.

Uh, it was, uh, uh, eight years ago. I was at a conference like this, uh, and, uh, it was in Colorado. And at one of the dinners I was assigned to sit next to former Vice President Al Gore. Now whether you agree with Gore or disagree with Gore, I’m telling you, sitting next to him at dinner is taxing. [laughter] In fact, it’s unpleasant. [laughter] And if you know anything about Gore’s, uh, biography before he went into politics he was a journalist and practiced journalism. And it turns out he thinks he invented that also. [laughter] [applause]  And so it was really a rough dinner for me. [laughter] And, uh, he started, this is two thousand and five, I’d written two of my Bush, four Bush books on Bush’s wars. And, uh, so, Gore said, well, why don’t you come out against the Iraq war and against Bush, and, uh, like you did with Nixon when you and Carl Bernstein wrote about Nixon? Uh, you condemned him and the crimes of Watergate. And I said, No, actually, uh, that’s not the case. The job of a reporter is to be empirical and get the facts and not take a position. And, uh, he said, words to the effect of horse manure. [laughter] It was a little stronger than that. And, uh, he said, uh, look, uh, I read those stories that you and Carl Bernstein did and I said, I wrote those stories. [laughter] And it did not move the needle of self doubt on, on Gore’s part at all. And, uh, his reading was more, uh, important than our writing of what those stories said. [laughter] And, uh, then we got to the question, the central question of journalism, really, uh, for not just journalists, uh, but for citizens. And that is, how do we really know what goes on in government?

Now there is such, uh, a concentration of power in the presidency it is mind boggling. And, so I just asked Gore, I said, suppose, uh, you know, let’s think about the Clinton Administration when you were there, uh, had an important office in the West Wing, involved in everything, what percentage of what went on that’s of interest or consequence do we now know? And, uh, Gore said, one percent. And, uh, I almost died, having tried to understand Clinton and figure out what went on. And I have to, uh, confess, when he said one percent to having an unclean thought. [laughter][voice: “Yeah!”][applause]  Some people know what I’m talking about. [voice: “Yeah!”] And so when he said one percent I, we just only knew one percent I thought, is it possible that there are that many women that we don’t know about? [laughter][applause] Think about it, that could be a big number. [laughter] And, uh, then I said, suppose you wrote a tell all autobiography, what percentage of what’s of interest or consequence would we then know about the Clinton Administration. And he said, two percent. [laughter] And, uh, he’s being ornery and he’s being, uh, Al Gore, [laughter] but.

That’s the question, do, and it’s certainly one or two percent is absurd, we know a lot more. I think it’s about sixty or seventy percent. But, it is not enough.  Ever. And, uh, the problem is the part we don’t know about we don’t know what it is. And, so, as, uh, reporter what you try to do is develop a method. And it was, it, it is a method you would use, now use as students if you were writing a paper or studying for an exam. You want to be exhaustive, you want to immerse yourself in what’s going on. Because I have the luxury of time for these projects for the [Washington] Post or for the books, uh, it, it is a, uh, tremendous opportunity to interview people, reinterview people, get documents, get what I would call the gold vein of research, particularly about presidents’ contemporaneous notes of meetings or phone calls, decisions they’ve made, so you can actually, uh, get the order and the language right. And, uh, then, uh, in the case of the Bush books or two Obama books I’ve done I then send the president a, uh, long memo. And in the case of Bush I remember for, uh, the early books I did, uh, after nine eleven I sent him, in one case, a twenty-one page memo. And I remember, uh, colleagues of mine at the Post, said, you sent George W. Bush a twenty-one page memo? I said, yes. They said, you’ve finally, have lost your way.  [laughter] Uh, there’s no evidence, uh, in all of Bush’s years at Andover, Yale, or Harvard business  school that he ever read anything that long. [laughter][applause] And, uh, I said, uh, I’m an optimist, and I sent the memo. [laughter] And the next day, uh, the National Security Advisor, uh, contacted me and, and said, and called me in to the White House and said, you’re gonna write these books or each particular book whether you talk to the president or not? And I said, of course. And, uh, they said, he’ll see you tomorrow. And I was able to interview Bush for hours and hours, uh, able to interview Obama, uh, the same way because you’re coming in from the outside and saying, I’ve spent a year trying to understand why you made the decisions you made. And it, you send, uh, a message even the president, I take you as seriously as you take yourself. And presidents who live in a world of sound bites, press conferences, uh, jump at the opportunity when somebody comes in a says, I’m really making a serious inquiry.

Uh, I want to go through some of the discussions with presidents, some of the things I think, uh, I’ve learned or that can be learned from how they tried to work their will or fail to work their will. Uh, but each time you do one of these things, uh, there’s surprises. And, uh, I want to take, uh, one clear example, uh, which was a real cold shower for me, uh, a, uh, humbling experience. This goes back to a month after Nixon resigned as president in August of nineteen seventy-four. Gerald Ford, uh, who had been vice president, uh, became president and a month after, uh, the, Ford became president he went on television early on a Sunday morning announcing he was giving a full pardon to Richard Nixon for Watergate. And I think he went on, uh, television early on a Sunday morning hoping no one would notice. [laughter]  But it was widely noticed, uh, but not by me, I was asleep. And my colleague Carl Bernstein called me up and said, have you heard? And I said, I haven’t heard anything. And, uh, Carl, who truly has the ability to, uh, say what occurred with the most drama and the fewest words, and I’m gonna quote him here, it’s not my language, it’s his. I said, well, what happened? And he said, uh, the son of a bitch pardoned the son of a bitch. [laughter][applause] Sorry, I understand, uh, that’s not Boys State language [laughter], but you live in the real world, right? [applause] So, at the time I thought the, the pardon is, uh, the ultimate act of corruption. And there was an aroma, there was really an aroma that there was a deal between Ford and Nixon on this that, uh, Ford would, uh, get the presidency if he guaranteed, uh, a pardon for Nixon. Was some evidence of it, it was unclear, there was lots of suspicion, there was the question of, which hopefully all of your lives you will deal with, and that’s the question of justice. What’s fairness in the system? And the president is the only one who got the pardon. He got off, forty people went to jail because of the crimes of Watergate. Hundreds of people had their lives wrecked. If you look at the history going back, uh, Ford lost two years later to Jimmy Carter, uh, in the presidential contest, largely because of the suspicion of that pardon. And, uh, there, really very, uh, strong feeling and polling and articles and columns and editorials that, that, that Ford should not have done this.

And, so twenty-five years later I undertook one of my projects, a book that, uh, became, uh, called Shadow, about the legacy of Watergate in the presidencies of, uh, Ford through Clinton. And I called Ford up, uh, wanting to interview him about this, being pretty certain he would not talk, uh, and say, you know, I have a golf tournament or something like that. And, uh, but I called him and he said, oh sure, I’ll be happy to talk to you. He was in New York at that, uh, first call. So I went up to New York, he was at a board meeting, and interviewed him about the pardon and the sequence, his motivation. Uh, I again with the luxury of time, I had, I had two assistants who read all of the newspaper magazine coverage of the pardon. Got, went to the Ford library, got the legal memos. I interviewed everyone who was involved, uh, who was still alive. Interviewed them again. Uh, went to the Ford’s house in Colorado, interviewed him there a couple of times. Interviewed him three or four times at his main house in Rancho Mirage, California. Doing drafts, asking that question, what really happened here behind the scenes? What was the driver? What was the motive? And in the last interview with Ford I remember asking him, why did you pardon Richard Nixon? And, uh, he said, well, you keep asking that. And I said, well, I don’t think you’ve answered it. And he said, okay, I will answer it. And these, I tell you, these are the moments you live for in my business. When somebody’s kind of worn down and they say, I’m gonna tell you what really happened. And Ford said, you’ve got to back to that time in nineteen seventy-four. The economy was shaky  it was the middle of the cold war, uh, it was not, uh, it was a very dangerous time, the Watergate special prosecutor sent Ford a letter saying that Nixon now is a private citizen, was going to be investigated, certainly indicted, tried, uh, almost certainly convicted ’cause there was such overwhelming evidence, testimony from his aides and his, uh, secret tape recordings. Uh, and so Ford said to me, he said, so we were gonna have three or, two or three more years of Watergate. And he said, the country could not stand it. We had to move on and he said in this very plaintive, uh, I believe, truthful way, I needed my own presidency. We needed to move on. And so then he said, he pardoned Nixon, not for Nixon, not for himself, but for the national interest. He said, I had to, I was sitting in that seat with that constitutional power, we needed to move on, we needed to get beyond the Nixon presidency.

So, I wrote in, uh, Shadow, that in fact, uh, what this being a corrupt act, uh, was a very gutsy thing that Ford did. And, uh, after the book came out Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of the late, uh, John F. Kennedy, president, her father, uh, called me up and said she and her uncle, Teddy Kennedy, the senator from Massachusetts, had read this and agreed. And, uh, that, uh, they were gonna give the Profiles in Courage award to Gerald Ford for pardoning Richard Nixon, an annual award given at the Kennedy Library for somebody who didn’t play the political game in their own interest, but found a way to assess what the larger national interest is and act on that. So, several months later at the Kennedy Library, uh, and I remember watching this, there was Teddy Kennedy saying, giving this award to Gerald Ford, uh, because he broke frame, because he found a way to figure out what the country needed, not what the interest group needed, not what he needed, not what his party needed, but what the country needed and that is in the tradition of, uh, Teddy Kennedy said, of his brother’s book, Profiles in Courage. And there was Gerald Ford standing there, uh, receiving that award, beaming, somewhat vindicated in history. And I watched this and, uh, what a deep humbling experience, because I was so sure in nineteen seventy-four that this was the ultimate corrupt act. And then you look at it through the neutral lens of research and history and time and what looked to be this turns out to be exactly the opposite. Uh, and I think that happens time and time again in our politics and our history. And pro, somebody tries to deal with it at the moment, it’s very sobering to see that what looks to be certainly this way may not be, uh, that way at all.

Uh, I could go through other pres, presidents and maybe they will come up, questions, but, uh, the lesson there is, and we, we see it more and more in our media today, driven by this impatience and speed and tweeting and blogs and the polarized, uh, cable television, uh, talk shows. That everything is rushed, everything is judgmental, and, uh, maybe those judgments and facts as presented are just not right at all. And it’s, it’s, it’s hard to get the moment right when it’s happening, but you have to try. But sometimes you just don’t get it right.

Uh, real quickly, after, uh, I’d written one of my books for, all of them have been published by Simon and Schuster, the head of Simon and Schuster took me to dinner in New York. And I thought, wow, this is great, the boss is taking me to dinner. And, uh, we sat down and he said, okay, what’s your next book gonna be? And I said, well, I’m gonna do some reading and thinking and reporting. And he said, what, why are you gonna waste your time? I said, well, that’s what we try to do. He said, no, no, we, you’re one of our authors, we need to know what the next book is. We are in the marketing business and the product delivery business. And he, he’s one of these people, uh, you may know people like this, you may have parents like this, who just grind on you. And he, for two and a half hours he’s grinding on, what about doing this, what about doing that? And I didn’t, uh, agree at any point to do any of the subject, but he’s grinding away, so finally, near the end of the dinner I said I figured out what my next book is going to be. He said, oh, good, at last, uh, what’s it gonna be? And I said, my next book will be an expose of the publishing business in New York City. [laughter][applause] And he said, that’s great. And I said, what, you think that’s great? And he, and he said, yes, in fact, I have a great title for that book. I said, I don’t think there are any great titles left. He said, there’s one. I said, what? And he said, uh, your book, your expose on the publishing, uh, business in New York City will be called My Last Book. [laughter][applause] And he really meant it. [laughter] And it may be the only sincere thing he said. [laughter] Uh, if you look at the list of books I’ve written, uh, I’m not here yet, but I’ll get there, uh, some day. And of course the point there is no one likes to be looked at and, thoroughly. No one wants somebody to do, uh, in depth investigation of them and what they did and what their business is. But that’s what, uh, in my view, uh, we need more of. Particularly in this hurry up news environment.

I’m gonna stop there so we can do, uh, questions. I think, uh, Gordon Liddy has provided microphones. [laughter] See, you, you’re too young, you don’t know who Gordon Liddy was or is. He is one of the people, uh, very strongly involved in, in Watergate.

So, we’re gonna…

Previously:

Missouri Boys State – 2013 (June 16, 2013)

Kansas City Mayor Sly James – Missouri Boys State – June 16, 2013 (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 – one word (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) taking questions from the audience after speaking

at Missouri Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri – June 17, 2013.

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) was the keynote speaker for Missouri Boys State on Monday evening. After his address he took questions from the audience:

“…So, citizenship for me is this wonderful mix of personal responsibility, but also being part of a team. It’s built on the idea that we all have responsibilities to ourselves, both to family and to friends, work and school, but that we’re part of a larger community. And being part of that larger community requires us to see beyond our front door. Trying to understand how things work. Showing intellectual curiosity. Figuring out ways that you can add value, figuring out ways that you can make a difference. And once you get in the habit of thinking like this, it becomes part of who you are. And it shapes nearly every decision that you make going forward in your lives…”

Previously:

Missouri Boys State – 2013 (June 16, 2013)

Kansas City Mayor Sly James – Missouri Boys State – June 16, 2013 (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) – Missouri Boys State – June 17, 2013 – one word (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) was the keynote speaker for Missouri Boys State on Monday evening. He addressed the audience in prepared remarks and then took questions.

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel, speaking in Warrensburg at Missouri Boys State on the campus

of the University of Central Missouri – June 17, 2013.

“…You know, most of my neighbors, they worked with their hands, they used their physical strength whether they were garbage collectors, electricians, laborers, auto workers. It taught me a special appreciation for those who build, who work with their hands on a day to day basis, and how all of us depend upon them. That’s something I take with me every day as a public servant – importance of respect and dignity in the workplace, the importance of good jobs and ultimately what those good jobs can mean for a family and for a community…”

Prepared remarks, part 1:

Part 2:

The transcript:

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D): All right. So, Hazelwood West [High School] in the house? There he is. Hey, Hazelwood West can make more noise than that. [voice: “St. Louis!”]

It is, it is so exciting to be with you tonight at Boys State. Thank you Mike, for the, for the kind introduction. And I also want to tell you it is just a wonderful honor to be able serve as your State Treasurer. Uh, you know, I’ve been through twelve years of election cycles, uh, and I still come to work every day with the same sense of excitement that I did after my first election in two thousand two. I feel so fortunate to be able to serve my fellow Missourians each day.

And I love coming to Boys State specifically because I always walk away with some optimism about our future. You usually send me away, not just with that stylish, fashion forward, Boys State t-shirt, but with also, uh, a heck of a lot of energy and enthusiasm that I can take back, uh, with me. You know something that I agree with, that together we can make a difference in our State and we can make a difference in the world at large. And one impressive thing that you’re doing by spending this week here at Boys State, you’re translating that energy and that enthusiasm into a real sense of purpose. One indication of the value of this is the alumni who have made it their priority to make Boys State happen for you just as it has happened for them. We have a hundred volunteers that are committed to providing you the same moving experience that they had many years before. This is a [applause], this is an important investment that you’re making and they’re making just by being present in the moment here this week.

You know, we think, we think a lot about job training as being or training as being job specific or skill specific, related to some area of study, whether you’re a carpenter, engineer, banking, teaching. Those all are examples of jobs and professions that require specialized training and obviously they’re all very important. But there’s another type of training, regardless of your profession, your area of interest, that helps you grow, builds your community and makes our state stronger. And that is training to be a good citizen. You’re already showing your belief of the importance of civic responsibility. And as you know, maintaining our nation’s leadership position requires us to be to good citizens. It requires us all to give back a little more than we receive. And all the institutions that we often take for granted, whether they be universities like this here today, school boards, city, county governments, public libraries, fires districts, political party committees even, these institutions help build and they help create the civic life that embraces progress, that makes us part of communities, not just a gathering of individuals that are out there acting alone by ourselves.

So, citizenship for me is this wonderful mix of personal responsibility, but also being part of a team. It’s built on the idea that we all have responsibilities to ourselves, both to family and to friends, work and school, but that we’re part of a larger community. And being part of that larger community requires us to see beyond our front door. Trying to understand how things work. Showing intellectual curiosity. Figuring out ways that you can add value, figuring out ways that you can make a difference. And once you get in the habit of thinking like this, it becomes part of who you are. And it shapes nearly every decision that you make going forward in your lives.

So tonight I want to visit with you just a bit about that civic responsibility and leadership, my job as State Treasurer, while also sharing with you the path that I’ve sort of created for myself in bringing me here today.

Now, as Mike said, I grew up in Florissant, uh, in the northern part of St. Louis County. My dad’s a retired carpenter, my mom’s a retired hairdresser. And I learned so much about hard work from both of them. They set a standard and an example for me in so many ways. Now they weren’t involved in politics, but they voted, they read the newspaper, they volunteered their time coaching at our school, helping out at school. And like each of you, my community and my neighborhood that I grew up, it shaped me and gave me a point of reference to the larger world. And one of those defining characteristics was hard work.

You know, most of my neighbors, they worked with their hands, they used their physical strength whether they were garbage collectors, electricians, laborers, auto workers. It taught me a special appreciation for those who build, who work with their hands on a day to day basis, and how all of us depend upon them. That’s something I take with me every day as a public servant – importance of respect and dignity in the workplace, the importance of good jobs and ultimately what those good jobs can mean for a family and for a community.

Another defining moment for me, that Mike talked about, was growing up I was the first person in my family to walk on to a college campus and to graduate from college. It, it was [applause], that experience was a transformational experience for me. I still remember walking onto that campus for the first time. And my world suddenly got a lot larger, seeing the choices that I had before me, professors to interact with, diversity among the student body. That opportunity of higher education is a big part of who I am today as a person, but also as a public servant.

And I grew a lot in college. I was interested in journalism. It took me a few months to get the courage, uh, to actually contact the student newspaper, but I finally did. I knocked on their door and I asked if I could volunteer as a, as a news reporter. They said yes and two years later I was managing editor of the paper, running the editorial section and writing weekly opinion columns. And I really loved every minute of it. And I spent a lot of time on campus writing about campus politics, writing about news and feel, and started feeling a pull about running for office someday. And I made the decision to run for student government vice president. Now, not only did I win that election with more votes than my presidential running mate, but I actually met my wife on campus. Now, I didn’t get her vote, but I did finally get a date. [applause]

Now, so, in so many ways my, my experience in those two area, my parents’ work and the opportunity that I had to attend college, shaped my philosophical view on government and society as a whole. And I really, truly believe this, so, no matter what your political philosophy is government does play an important role. It sets a foundation for all of us to work from. It sures, it ensures that opportunity is present and that progress for society is within reach. I see it first hand as I travel to every corner of our state. At its best I’ve seen automobile jobs being retained and grown here in Missouri, I’ve seen a school get rebuilt in Pemiscot County after a devastating tornado, I’ve seen veterans get trained and rehired for jobs here in, and I’ve seen children who don’t have a mom and dad in their lives at least have a fighting chance of making it. And I, whose grandfather stopped going to school after eighth grade and started working, had the opportunity to attend college and become a statewide leader. Folks, our investments in others matter. They matter because I see it every day in every part of Missouri.

I worked after graduating from college and went back to school got an MBA. I had a little bit of political experience at this point, but not a lot. And I had made a decision to run in two thousand two for election against a state representative who had been in office for ten years at that point. Now, I was really confident of victory. I knocked on seventy-five doors a day every day beginning in June first. And as I got toward the end of August, a few days of knocking I was getting the same constant comment, come back. Folks were saying somebody just called about your election. They wanted to know how we’re gonna vote. So I called the Democratic Party and asked if they were conducting a poll. They said yes. I said, well, I want to know the results, I feel great about my prospects for victory. I know everybody in the district. We’re gonna win this thing.

There was dead silence on the other end of the phone.

They said, Clint, you just can’t pull off this election. Our polling only has your name identification at eighteen percent and of that eighteen percent forty-eight percent are voting against you and only eighteen percent are voting for you. You’re not going to win this election. And I thought of the individuals in my life who had invested in me along the way, my parents, my wife Janice, neighbors walking down the street who were encouraging me, saying they were praying for me, volunteers who had spent so many hours canvassing, calling and mailing on my behalf. They had all taken a leap of faith with that campaign that I had run in two thousand two. I talked with Janice and realized that we had to keep going. So I kept knocking on doors through a cold election day in November. And the first election results came in early that evening, we were losing by three hundred votes. So we waited and we waited. And at the, at midnight we won that election by sixty-seven votes out of fourteen thousand cast. [applause] Now, six years later I’m serving as your State Treasurer.

And I’m a little biased, but on your first election night when you’re down by three hundred votes for most of the evening and you come up and you end up with sixty-seven ahead at midnight, you develop an immense appreciation for the difference one person can make, you develop an immense appreciation for the power of small investments and understanding how to climb toward your goals. Each of you in this room has that same power and ability in your own lives and in the world around you. Giving to charity, competing in small active, in, in school activities, working hard, finding ways to help others, gives you that foundation to grow. It’s about being the best person that you can be here and now.

I’ve worked to implement that same approach in my administration on a day to day basis, that basic idea that we can make a difference in society. And I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished. You know, we had two basic goals. The number one job was to do all of our core competencies with excellence every single day. But the second one was to have a larger impact on public policy in our state, to use the power of my administration to shape policy to change people’s lives.

That core function first meant protecting taxpayer dollars, keeping them safe and sound during a very uncertain period. I protected our three point six billion dollar portfolio, updated our investment policy to protect taxpayers in a new world of finance, and we retooled how we think about and manage risk. We actually strengthened Missouri’s fiscal position during difficult times.

But those core functions also meant modernizing my administration, using technology, doing more with less, developing partnerships to help Missourians afford college. We’ve helped Missourians save now more than two billion dollars through our college savings program, touching Missourians in every corner of the state. And for the first time ever we have a matching grant program that set aside a half a million dollars to help parents save for college along the way.

But it’s also my belief that as elected officials we should do more than the basics. That’s why we’re elected. So we’ve found ways to help children and families throughout this state. I developed an economic development strategy that paired the assets that we invest in Missouri banks with small businesses that were trying to borrow during a very difficult environment. When we took office there were only hundred lenders across the state of Missouri using the Missouri Linked Deposit Program. I rededicated staff, we passed sweeping legislation, we reached out to community lenders and within two years we now have three hundred community banks using that program on a day to day basis.  We’ve leant out one billion dollars in small business and farm loans, touching every corner of Missouri. [applause]

That, that responsibility also means caring for our most vulnerable in society, our veterans, our children in foster care, and our fellow citizens that suffer from mental illness. We’ve now built seven hundred units of housing that pairs supportive services with bricks and mortar housing, giving individuals an opportunity for growth, recovery and one day, independence. And we did this by making government work smarter and work better. And it didn’t cost an extra penny of taxpayer dollars. [applause]

But the reason I’m here tonight is because I know that a long term investment in getting young people thinking about public service is one of the most important investments that we can make as a society. It’s going to take young leaders from both parties to help us turn, turn the corner in this country and in our state to develop consensus and bring citizens together.

You know, the gamesmanship that we often see, governing without any sense of responsibility, both Democrats and Republicans do it, it takes away from the real conversations we have, not just as a party, but as a state. How do we make our elementary and secondary educational system to make as dynamic as possible, developing new ways to approach learning, training and recruiting teachers, rewarding them to help our kids compete in a global economy? How do we lead on transportation, whether it be air, rail, public systems or highways, so that a state in a middle of the United States can develop a lasting, competitive advantage? How do we achieve excellence in public higher education through research and teaching and economic development, but also insure that a new generation of first generation college students have opportunity to attend college, too? And how do we think creatively about entrepreneurialism in Missouri, developing ideas that don’t just to react to current needs but drive a culture in this state of capital and risk taking that positions Missouri as a leader for people and growth, investment, and ultimately jobs.

The opportunity cost of that status quo debate, the gamesmanship, is huge because we miss the issues that matter the most.

You know, I work a great deal with numbers on a day to day, day to day basis as your State Treasurer. I can’t predict though with certainty where the stock market will be tomorrow, what interest rates will be, or a variety of other economic and jobs data, but I can tell you this with absolute certainty, Missouri’s ability to grow its population, grow its state product, increase its relevance in the world, create jobs and opportunity for all, is based on education, transportation, and entrepreneurialism. And we cannot be locked into a box doing things the same old way on those issues. It’s not enough. We have to be challenge, willing to challenge orthodoxy and try new ways of approaching things. This is how all of our political involvement should be judged. What are we doing to transform and compete for the long term? And not just scoring the victory here or there, but truly moving the needle. We have to work with the same sense of energy, urgency, and focus that Missourians do every day.

In April I toured my home town after a tornado ran through my old district and met with the owner of an optical shop, a business owner there, who in a few minutes time lost much of what he had built up over the previous two decades. But he was remarkably calm, even after being up most of that night, and was actually telling me stories about the first weekend that they opened that optical shop. His daughter, who was now close to being my age, was out in the street with a sign that was encouraging people driving down the street to come by her dad’s new optical shop, that they were staring a business for the first time. And he was smiling big as he was telling that story. And it was remarkable, that in the midst of losing his business in just a few minutes he is quietly putting one foot in front of the other, telling me how he was going to rebuild, finding a pathway forward. They deserve no less from us. [applause]

Thank you for allowing me to be here tonight with you. Have a great week.

Previously:

Missouri Boys State – 2013 (June 16, 2013)

Kansas City Mayor Sly James – Missouri Boys State – June 16, 2013 (June 17, 2013)

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) in Warrensburg speaking at Missouri Boys State

on the campus of the University of Central Missouri – June 17, 2013.

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D) was the keynote speaker this evening at Missouri Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri. After his prepared remarks he took questions from the audience. One question, on nullification of federal laws, prompted a one word response:

[….] Question: Considering your experience in the state legislature, do you believe that states have the constitutional ability to nullify federal laws?

State Treasurer Clint Zweifel (D): No. [applause][laughter]

By the way, you’re not gonna get a lot of one word answers from politicians, so enjoy it. [laughter][applause]

That’s a significant difference between a statewide office holder and the republican controlled General Assembly.

Previously:

Missouri Boys State 2012 (June 16, 2012)

Attorney General Chris Koster at Missouri Boys State 2012 – Q and A (June 17, 2012)

Governor Jay Nixon (D) and Kansas City Mayor Sly James at Missouri Boys State 2012 (June 18, 2012)

Kansas City Mayor Sly James at Missouri Boys State 2012 (June 18, 2012)

James Carville at Missouri Boys State 2012 – photos (June 19, 2012)

James Carville spoke at Missouri Boys State in Hendricks Hall on the campus of the University of Central Missouri on Monday night and was honored with the 24th Annual George W. Lehr Memorial Speakers Chair.

James Carville spoke at Missouri Boys State on the campus of the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg on Monday evening.

The transcript of excerpts from the question and answer session:

[….]

Question: [….] As a man who’s been on television for years and is heavily involved in media how do feel about the large amount of bias that range from CNN to Fox News and the need many reporters feel to add their opinions in on every story instead of simply sticking to the facts. [voice: “Yeah.”][applause]

James Carville: That’s a, that’s a question that I think a lot about. And I, uh, let me, let me back up a little bit here. You gotta, news is like anything else. It can be used for good, it can be used for whatever. And you gotta distinguish between news and opinion. When I went to LSU and, and some of the older people here, there aren’t very many, would, but we got one paper. We got the Baton Rouge paper. I suspect somebody went to Central Missouri when I, in the early sixties, you got the Kansas City Star, that was it. And if you wanted to read the New York Times and Wall Street Journal you had to go in the library and it’d come four days late on a stick. [laughter] And they had like two or three like nightly news shows, that was it.  I do not think that we knew any less than young people today. And, and you gotta be careful how you use it. ‘Cause see, you, you could be in, in, in, that was all the news you got. Now, now, how much news you have, how many cable shows there, how many web sites they have? Millions. Literally, if, if you’re liberal you never have to read a conservative thing. Or, if you’re a conservative you never have to read a liberal thing. And so you use, people use this information like a drunk uses a lamp post, for support, not illumination. [laughter][applause] People, and so you ask yourself, are you using things to validate what you already think? All right. That’s not, that’s not, you can do that and you have the perfect right to do that, but you’re not gonna be enlightened, you’re not gonna learn anything if you’re watching somebody to say, you know, I knew I was right the whole time. So, and there’s plenty of places you can get things. You can discern your own opinion. And you can read opinions, but you gotta understand there’s a difference between opinion and the news. That’s all I’m telling you. And it, and, and you have to sort of discern it. It, you know, certain things after a while you develop, if you develop an opinion you can argue your opinion. It’s developed, it’s nuanced, it, it’s rooted in at least your version of the facts, that’s fine. And not, none of us, this idea that there’s somebody out there that is totally neutral is pretty hard, pretty hard for me to accept. People grow up, they have prejudices, they have biases, they have a point of view. They can’t simply remove them. It’s just, it’s just human nature. That, that, hardest thing, judges, anybody, some people are better able to do that than others, but, but it’s a difficult thing to do.

[….]

Question: [….] Recently you’ve said on various media sources that if President Obama wants, do, reelected for a second term his, uh, campaign committee needs to focus more on, uh, addressing economic policies he wants to do. What specific economic policies would you like to see the President talk more about?

James Carville: Oh, great, great question. I, I think that the, from, I was, I was the oldest of eight children and my dad was postmaster and ran a kind of like a country store. My mother sold encyclopedias. And, and the one thing that we always knew growing up is that an education was the way to do things. That you always knew that the value of an education far outstripped its costs.  And we had a, a, a growing, vibrant middle class in this country. We have sort of lost that for any number of reasons [inaudible]. What I would like for the President, and I think he’s done many good things, I think he’s had any number of things that he’s had to sort of concentrate on, uh, but I think that the emphasis in his second term, I hope he does this in the campaign, is how do we get this middle class growing again.  How are people able to, to cope with this, how are people able, how can we make the, the costs of an education line up with the value of an education or even have the value of an education exceed the cost? How are people not one health care bill away from being financially decimated? How is it that we can figure out how there are things we can make and how do we become producers again as opposed to consumers? And I think if the President does that kind of stuff and talks about the kinds of things that we need to do as a country that make investments in rebuilding the middle class I think he’s gonna be a lot more successful. And that’s what I’d more like to see him talk about. And that’s what I meant when I talk about the economy I’m talking about a broad based economy. That benefits people across the board. Now you’re always gonna have some people as, as, as would happen in, in any, in any economy some people by virtue of their drive by, by virtue of their willingness to take risk, by their work, their, their willingness to accept failure then succeed, well, we should have that.

One of the really distressing things that’s happened in this country, and it’s happened in my lifetime, and, and it, it really saddens me, is more and more the predictor of a person’s success is determined by the success of their parents. And I don’t like that. I don’t like the fact that the greatest predictor of somebody, how far somebody go in life is how far their parents went. That [applause], I don’t think that’s a good way. And, and, and we need to, and we need to think about that as a country. And you need to, this, you need to think about that as a young person.  And, I want a, I want a country where the thing that’s gonna determine how far you go, the biggest thing that’s gonna determine how far you go is not what your parents did, but what you do. And that’s becoming less and less, and that bothers me greatly. It really does. [applause]

[….]