Doris Kearns Goodwin On Abe Lincoln: "I Was In Love With Him For So Long"

Imus chatted today with the loveliest of Presidential Historians, Doris Kearns Goodwin, about her son's current tour of duty in Afghanistan, President Obama's overseas adventures, and why she and her husband spend so much time in bars.

Goodwin spent some time with General David Petraeus recently, and felt reassured by his role as U.S. Central Command Chief in Afghanistan. "Hopefully with that man as our leader, things will get better in Afghanistan while my son is there," she said. "And for that country as a whole."

Imus was critical of President Obama's reaction to Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega's recent anti-U.S. rant; Obama jokingly thanked Ortega for not blaming him for events that transpired when he was just three years old, like the Bay of Pigs invasion.

"You have to look at it more carefully," Goodwin advised. "It was a moment to somehow undo all of the stuff Ortega had said; he wasn't agreeing with him...[Obama] was taking it to Ortega for our country, not for himself."

Imus quoted a column by Michael Goodwin (no relation) in today's New York Daily News, which observed that Obama was too critical of the United States during his trip to Europe and during last week's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad.

"By acknowledging our flaws and skipping our many grand achievements," Imus read. "He fed the sense that we are only the sum of our failures."

Goodwin did not dismiss this point, saying she'd heard "people in bars" complain about Obama's America-bashing. This comment caught Imus's attention, and Goodwin tried to backpedal.

"I mean...I've heard people at Red Sox games," she said, but Imus knew better. She confessed eating out with her husband every night at various bars and restaurants around town, engaging people in conversation on this topic.

"My feeling is Obama knows what's great about America — he's talked about it plenty of times," said Goodwin. "He loves this country, we love this country."

But, she added, "It is a very, very healthy thing to be able to acknowledge that we've made mistakes in the past...it's the way you learn. It's the way you get better."

Goodwin thanked Imus for his continual on-air appreciation of her son's service, and also for contributing to the success of her husband's play about Galileo. "I'm grateful to you, Mr. Sunshine," she sad, invoking the name given Imus in recent radio promos.

Working now on a book about Theodore Roosevelt, Goodwin said it has been hard to let go of her first love, Abraham Lincoln.

"I was so in love with him for so long," she said dreamily. "Thinking of him at night, waking up with him in the morning."

TMI, Doris.

-Julie Kanfer