A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

Barry Goldwater was only quoted that Social Security should be "made voluntary"--or "privatized," as we would say now--once, during the New Hampshire primary in 1964. The backlash was so ferocious he never mentioned it again.

-- Rick Perlstein, historian and author of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

What President Obama has done so masterfully of late is to say, in so many words, "I'm signing this executive order permitting federal funding for stem cell research, but I realize that many good, moral people are opposed to this, and I don't take that lightly."  I think we can be more civil and empathetic in our discussions of public policy, and I hope my book can be a contribution to that tone.

-- Kevin Roose, author, The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

People want to pass a sustainable future -- a living planet -- on to their kids. That crosses red and blue. And the indigenous people call it the "Well, duh." People are saying, "Well, how are we going to do that?" Because it's not coming from the top down, and people really are rolling up their sleeves. I certainly came back a lot more hopeful than when I first launched in 2005. I just kept thinking, "Man, if we just get somebody from the top who will help, I think we can still turn things around."

-- Riki Ott, author of Not One Drop: Betrayal and Courage in the Wake of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

I first starting researching and writing about this movement when I was looking into the phenomenon of pharmacists who were claiming conscientious objection to filling birth control prescriptions. ... Looking back... there was a really organized movement of people behind the anti-contraception movement, and they were really talking most about how feminism had led to birth control, which had led to abortion. They had to attack the root of this problem, which was attacking women's rights, and women's right to control their fertility.

-- Kathryn Joyce, author of Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

If Obama would do what Roosevelt did, and say I welcome their hatred, I'm not going to put the CEOs in charge of the bailout, and, yes, we're going to have salary caps on these banking positions when they get bailout money, and, yes, we're going to fire the executives who caused the problem -- why would we hire them? -- if he would do that, it would tap directly into the overwhelming public sentiment against Wall Street.  He's got an opportunity here that's just remarkable, really.

-- Jim Hightower, radio commentator and author of Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow (available autographed for BuzzFlash readers by Jim.)

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

For liberal talk to succeed, they have to know how to play the radio game, rather than just build an ideological wall around themselves. ...

People come back to listen to personalities they like, the ones that they are entertained by, and the ones that keep them from turning off the radio. That's the key in broadcasting -- keep 'em coming back and keep 'em tuned in.  

-- Dennis Rafferty, LTR/Liberal Talk Radio

Progressive talk radio has had a tumultuous recent history.  There's a spirited -- and often acrimonious debate -- about why progressive talk has been so difficult to get off the ground.

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

Leave it to Jon Stewart to make the best funny about all this, when he asked Obama, just before November, what might happen when he stepped into the voting booth on election day - would his white half really help pull the lever for a black guy for president? Maybe a fight would break out in the voting booth. Obama said he'd been worrying about that a bit himself. And (cable) America laughed along.  

-- Greg Mitchell, author, Why Obama Won

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A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

... what the Reagan library is peddling is the Disneyland version of Reagan. 

-- Will Bunch, author of Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future

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Will Bunch and BuzzFlash have been a mutual admiration society for some time.  Will pens for the Philadelphia Daily News, but his writing is frequently featured on BuzzFlash from his blog Attytood.

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

Anyone who thinks Obama will have easy sailing in Washington is profoundly naive. A lot of College Republicans have bought the ["Boogie Man"] DVD to study the Atwater playbook.

--  Stefan Forbes, Writer and Director, "Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story"

As BuzzFlash readers have been debating whether President Obama's "bi-partisan" approach will work with an obstructionist GOP minority (particularly in the Senate), we decided to interview Stefan Forbes, the director of the remarkable Lee Atwater documentary biography,  "Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story."