To the Best of Our Knowledge: The Politics of Audacity

The Politics of Audacity
To the Best of Our Knowledge (Wisonsin Public Radio)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is. From Bold declarations to bald-faced lies. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, the audacity of American politics. How did we get from Thomas Jefferson to William Jefferson Clinton in a little over 200 years? And, where are we headed?

SEGMENT 1:



NPR's Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr talks with Steve Paulson about the audacity of today's politicians. Schorr thinks the only hope is an alert corps of journalists. Schorr's latest book is "Come to Think of It: Notes on the Turn of the Millennium." And we revisit Donald Rumsfeld on the subject of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

SEGMENT 2:



We revisit President Reagan's threat to fire air traffic controllers in 1981. Also, Rachel Boynton is director of the documentary film "Our Brand is Crisis." She talks with Steve Paulson about her film which follows the efforts of an American political consulting firm which became involved in the Bolivian presidential election. And, we revisit President George Bush aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Also, Jean Edward Smith is the author of "FDR," and tells Jim Fleming about Franklin Roosevelt's Supreme Court-packing scandal of 1937.



SEGMENT 3:



Matt Taibbi is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine and is the author of "Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire." He talks with Anne Strainchamps about political audacity, voter memory and the scandalous behavior of some defense contractors in Iraq. Also, we hear Archibald MacLeish's poem "The End of the World."

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