Update: To hear the entire 7 Days show or read the updated post and excerpts, click here.

Air Americans, you'll be especially interested in our interview with
Bill Moyers, who, with Galbraith and Schlesinger, is one of the three
greatest progressive, public intellectuals of the modern era.

We talk about America's "story" of democracy, how Obama won't
be "Willie Horton-ized," how money in politics is the great issue not
part of the '08 campaign, and how he's only wanted to be a journalist
-- or, he'd rather write than be president.

After I concluded that he performed better this week on the
Daily Show with Jon Stewart than Douglas Feith the night before -- "oh,
thanks!" -- we talk about his book, our country and his career.

Then listen to or stream all of 7 Days in America this weekend (Saturday 6-7 pm ET or Sunday 9-10 am ET) with my two panelists, the two leading ladies of the left -- 7 Days co-host Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post and guest panelist Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation.

EXCERPTS FROM 7 DAYS IN AMERICA INTERVIEW W/ BILL MOYERS, AUTHOR OF MOYERS ON DEMOCRACY

MOYERS: Q: In the first chapter of your new book Moyers on
Democracy, you write that while 21st Century America needs many
reforms, what it needs most of all is a new story -- and the story is
Democracy. What did you mean by that? A: "Well the story that's been
told for the last 25 years is the story that Ronald Reagan and the
right have told -- that free markets are the answer to all of our
problems, that America has the muscle of an empire and should flex it,
and that everybody's getting rich in America because the system is
working. And of course that's not true. That says nothing about how the
answer to organized money is organized people, how people have to stand
up and fight for their own rights as guaranteed by The Declaration of
Independence and The Constitution."

MOYERS: Q: You argue there's a democracy deficit. Can you give
us a democracy report card on the Bush/Cheney administration? What have
they done to worsen an already weakened democracy? A: "We are spoiling
our nest, the Earth that sustains us -- and the administration has
placed the government in the hands of the industries that it is
supposed to monitor. The gap between people at the top and people at
the bottom grows larger everyday; as Vice President Cheney said in an
interview many years ago after they passed the big tax cut for the
wealthy, 'we deserve it'."

MOYERS: Q: You've been a big proponent over the years for
public financing for public elections. What's the chance that can
happen in '09 with a Democratic president and congress? A: "Mark, I
became interested in campaign finance reform because I read the book
you wrote 30 years ago, Who Runs Congress? That book opened my mind
even though I had been in Washington for seven years. You would think
that the measure of any democratic system of politics would be its
ability to address the problems that it has created for itself. And we
cannot do that because money has a monopoly over the decisions of those
in power. I'm pessimistic at the moment but I am not fatalistic. We are
in the drive for public funding where the abolitionists were in the
1830s or the women's suffragettes were shortly after The Civil War.
This is a long march toward a fundamental reform of a system that has
gone terribly awry. It will take long-term commitment, the pursuit of a
moral idea, that representation requires controlling the amount that
can be raised and spent. It will require a couple of generations, I
think Mark, before we get it. But we have to get it or ,like slavery
and inequality it will be the issue that brings us down."

MOYERS: Q: Let me ask you about the presidential race of '08.
In 1988 we saw how Willy Horton and exploitation of the flag helped
defeat a Democratic Greek nominee named Mike Dukakis; in 2008, we see
how Rev.Wright and flag pins are being used against a potential black
nominee in Obama. What is your level of optimism that, should Obama be
the nominee, America in 2008 won't be as gullible or easily distracted
as in 1988? A: "During the West Virginia Primary this week, I heard a
BBC report with some very frank responses from voters down there who
said, in that West Virginia accent, 'down here we don't think much of
black people, we're not likely to vote for them.' I mean there is
latent as well as overt racism still prevalent in America. But it's not
what it was in 1988, when the Bush people ran the Willy Horton ad.
There is a greater appreciation of our diversity."

MOYERS: Q: While it was mentioned periodically by the press in
the past, Bill did you ever seriously think of running for office? A:
"My seven years in government and politics were a detour. I set out at
the age of 16 to be a journalist. That's really all I wanted to do. And
convergence and coincidence brought me into politics in 1960. I wanted
to be a political journalist, that's how I got to Washington in the
first place. But as a young man I got caught up in that campaign and in
organizing The Peace Corp, and then by the tragedy of John F. Kennedy's
assassination thrust into The White House with my mentor Lyndon
Johnson. But as soon as I had the opportunity, January of 1967, only
three and a half years after I'd been in The White House, I left
because I had the opportunity to get back to journalism, to come to New
York and be the publisher of Newsday. I've never looked back."