Roundtable III: Political Optimism

when I remember that night, it was extremely cold. feet, he nad no socks. My heart went out to him. I ran ahead of him. I went into skechers. I asked them, I don't care what it cost, this gentleman... See More

when I remember that night, it was extremely cold. feet, he nad no socks. My heart went out to him. I ran ahead of him. I went into skechers. I asked them, I don't care what it cost, this gentleman needs a pair of shoes. They were able to help me out. It was cold. I didn't want him doing it himself. I just knelt down. I didn't think anything of it. And that simple act of kindness from the officer went around the world. It has been seen millions and millions of time. Ght now, it gives us the opportunity here, to identify some things that are giving you hope in the political world. In the political world? I'm just back from vietnam, where I was doing some work for save the children, eventually we get it right. It takes a long time some times. We're doing wonderful development work there. We're putting shoes all kinds of people, especially little children. Dan? This week, the jack kemp foundation is having its inaugural conference and people like paul ryan and marco rubio arking at it, you look at their speeches, it's all about the war on poverty. It's all about strengthening civil society. You look at these ideas, he said that this is something that we could do. Strangely there's a war on poverty campaign that democrats and republicans could find common ground. What gives me hope that we had an election that was hard-fought. In the end, the american people basically made a statement that they believe in government, they believe that government can still help solve programs. They believe it's government's job to focus on those most in need. Look, I think -- I agree. The american people, I think, told us they want us to work together. The great thing about our system is, over time the will of american people always works through it. You got some checks and some balances. But in the end, politicians do what people tell them to do. I think you got a public employee going above and beyond the call of duty to help a homeless person just makes me think our government workers are pretty good people. No question about that. One of this things that I was encouraged looking back at the election, we actually saw that young people stayed engaged this time around. Their share of the electorate actually went up over 2000 and that's a hopeful sign to have continued participation going forward. Thank you all very much. Great roundtable. Dan is going to stick around and answer questions.