>> it sounds vaguely familiar. >> welcome to nbc, which stands for never believe your contract. thank you very much. >> that was back when leno was finally awarded "the tonight show" over letterman. oh, what a difference 17 years doesn't make. >> never believe your contract. >> jeanne moos, cnn. >> nerve beliethat's it for us. thanks for joining us. larry king starts right now. tonight senator harry reid's racial remarks about barack obama calling him light-skinned with no negro dialect unless he wanted to have one. >> i've apologized to the president that i could have used a better choice of words. >> the president forgives him. >> this is a good man always on the right side of history. >> will the majority leader keep his job? plus, more from an explosive new

book. which gop insider called sarah palin a reckless choice as john mccain's running mate? >> thank you. >> why elizabeth edwards ripped off her blouse in a rage? how bill clinton broke down over media coverage of hillary. >> i'm not playing your games today. >> the so-called conspiracy that led to barack obama's candidacy. blowing the lid off back room politics next on "larry king live." all right. stand by. >> good evening. welcome. i'm soledad o'brien sitting in for larry tonight. let's take a look at the excerpt from "game changer" that ignited the political firestorm around harry reid. here's what it says in part.

>> joining us tonight to discuss reid's comment, his apology and all of the fallout are jeff johnson from b.e.t. james carville joins us tonight as well a democratic strategist and tear ray wall joins us, contributor to the daily caller.com a new political news website and the former deputy editor of the washington times. angie giles is here with me. nice to have all of you. >> thank you. >> let's get to it. nancy, since you're here. what's your reaction to these words? >> i'm embarrassed for harary reed. i would say harry how many black people do you know? okay? there's not one negro dialect, and this is something that's the

bayne of my existence for a long time. i've never heard for anyone call for one single dialect. people are people. there are different ways of talking. it blows my mind and its very sad to see what lies just below the surface of someone that one would think is a democrat, might be a little more liberal-minded. it's more proof at how having the first black president is blowing people's minds. >> jeff johnson, is it racist? >> no. i think that it was -- i think it was in bad taste, but there were a whole lot of black folks that said that. black folks said he was a respectable black guy. they were black people that said, is he black enough? so i think that this was an accurate statement. he is light-skinned and he was a safe black person. he was a break from what we saw normally from the activism of a jesse jackson or al sharpton

running for president. he was a safe negro. >> i really have a problem with that. >> have a problem or not, we heard black folks you and i both know -- >> i'm not saying they didn't say it. i have a problem with the whole concept. >> the concept of somebody is safe or not? >> yeah. these different levels of authenticity. i think loving oprah and hating condoleezza rice is a problem. i think judging a level of blackness is not a problem, brt butt harry reid was not alone in his assertion. >> is it just stupidity? how often do you hear the word negro being bantered about these days? >> i mean, honestly, coming from a senate majority leader no less, than one point to make. i mean, it's tantamount to saying light skinned black folks can pass as long as they leave their ghetto dialect at the door is what harry reid has said and just to be able to pass it off. black leaders and otherwise who are now passing this off as he's

sorry, it's okay because he's cool with us in the black community. that doesn't pass. that's what you call a double-standard. honestly the standard should apply across the board whether there's one standard said, which was set back with trent lott with democrats, then that's the standard by which should be met with harry reid. he's the senate majority leader, and in this day and age for him to have that underlying attitude that bubbling over, if you will, as your other guest just said, i happen to agree. that's just the bubbling out. it's not the first time he's made dismissive remarks about black americans. it's not the first time -- i feel sorry that president obama has to defend this guy politically when early on he made it clear that he wasn't going to, you know, take orders if you will from president barack obama. >> the folks who have been defending senator harry reid have said, look at his record. james carville, look at his record. >> that's an excuse. >> or an answer.

>> first of all, i think when someone -- i take my cue from john lewis, who i think is like the great american, when people seek forgiveness for saying inappropriate things we should grant it. trent lott was on a far, far more worst scale than what senator reid said. he was performing a political analysis if you will. an analysis na went on in a lot of different -- >> it's okay he says stuff for black folks to stereotype black folks? that's okay? >> no, i didn't say that. if we're going to have a discussion, i said that i thought that i agreed with john lewis when people sought forgiveness we should grant that forgiveness and at the level of forgiveness acquired for snot lott required than for senator reid. we can say it's inelegant and showed a certain incense activity but the idea he should resign for this i reject out of

hand. >> i totally agree with what james carville is saying. in a sense because somebody says something about race and somebody says something else about race, it doesn't even the playing field. do you know what i mean? it's very complicated and it shouldn't be shortcut as harry reid said something about negro and trent lott said we'd be better off if we lived in the dixie crack nation. they're two different things. >> senator harry reid was speaking to reporters in his home state today. i'll play a little bit of what he had to say. >> i've apologized to the president. i've apologized to everyone that -- within the sound of my voice i could have used a better choice of words. i'm not going to dwell on this anymore. it's in the book. i've made all the statements that i'm going to. >> he's done. he wants to stop talking about it. >> he sure does. >> i'm not surprised about that. >> soledad, i think we should

all be done. i think that this is a real opportunity for us to decide is the country going to have a legitimate conversation about race and not just about harry reid? because this continues to happen over and over again. >> i happen to agree with that. >> this bubbles up and there's this firestorm about someone's small comment, but then the country continues to do i think likeaeric holder said in the beginning be coward des about race in this country. >> how can you ask for this conversation when everybody has jump odd harry reid for what he said? >> first of all, we haven't -- as much as we want to dismiss this away and wish it away and all of that, we probably haven't spent nuenough time in dissecti some of this the same way, again, the standard has been applied across the board to the other side of the political party. i think in all fairness that hasn't happened. i do agree all of these racial things come up. they come up during the

campaign. fingers are pointed and all of that. at the end of the day the question remains is what is the standard and who sets it? there isn't one black thought out there or one group of black folks to say it's okay for harry reid to say this but not trent lott. we haven't come to that conclusion that that decision or had that discussion. that should be a next step. >> we have to take a short break. the authors mark halperin and john hooilman will be larry guests tomorrow. we'll ask or guests and more about that coming up next. stay with us.

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welcome back. cnn contributor roland martin, and we'll speak with him shortly, interviewed the president earlier today for a tv one special. he asked mr. obama about senator reid's remarks. take a look. >> harry reid is a friend of mine. he's been a stalwart champion of voting rights, civil rights. he's spending a lot of his political capital in the middle of an election to provide health care to every american, and that's going to have a great impact on african-americans and latinos around the country. this is a good man who has always been on the right side of history. for him to have used some

inartful language in trying to praise me and for people to try to may hay out of that makes absolutely no sense. >> roland martin interviewed president obama today. you've seen a little of that interview. you'll hear more of what the president said only to roland martin coming up in just about 60 seconds. 10 inch hose clamp pliers. you know what's complicated? shipping. shipping's complicated. not really. with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service shipping's easy. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that's not complicated. no. come on. how about... a handshake. alright. (announcer) priority mail flat rate boxes only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. ♪

♪ when it comes to protecting the things you care about... ...leave nothing to chance. travelers. insurance for auto, home, and business. roland martin spoke one on one with president obama about harry reid's comments. we played a clip from your interview with president obama a second ago. lynn a little more about what he had to say about senator reid's remarks. ly listen. >> he's apologized, but there was nothing mean-spirited in what he had to say and he's always been on the right side of the issues. the fact we spend days on this instead of talking about the

unemployment rate or talking about how we deal with energy or health care is an indication of why i think people don't understand what's happening in washington. i guarantee you the average person white or black right now is less concerned about what harry reid said in a quote in a book a couple of years ago than they are about how are we going to move the country forward. that's where we need to direct your attention. >> what was the president's tenor like? was he frustrated and feel like he wants this to be done probably as much as harry reid wants it to be done. >> he clearly he wanted to address the issue. i was talking to him for a tv one primetime special. i prefaced the question about senator harry reid with the whole issue of being post-racial. let me address harry reid first. even in his response you heard

him say this kind of issue goes on for days and days and days and it really is not a question of -- he said this later in the interview. it's not republican versus democrat or liberal versus conservative. you're not gaining anything from the conversations. i heard jeff talk about the need to have a conversation. the real question for americans should be, okay, he said it. believe it or not. how do we begin to ask ourselves or talk amongst ourselves and family members and friends about our own stereotypes and our own perceptions and views? how do we feel about an african-american man working at a company and people say he's an angry black man because he raises his voice but the white guy is a passionate guy in the workplace. all of those type of things people come away with different again perceptions and stereotypes that we have to address if we want to confront race. going back and forth saying who was right and wrong, double-standard, we learn nothing and get nothing and

achieve nothing. >> at the same time president obama has said, listen, i've forgiven the guy. he's a friend and i've moved on. at what point will everybody else follow that lead or will they? is it done? >> we all know we only move on until the next racial story comes up, because we haven't learned the previous lesson. that is, how do we have real dialogue about this? so if i'm sitting out there right now, america should ask themselves a question. if you're an african-american with a black-sounds name, you have a 50% chance -- less chance of getting a call-back for a job if you had a mainstream sounding name. same qualifications and same resume and different names. why do we do that in america? that should be the lesson. i don't believe we should just move on. i believe we should learn from this, this is a teachable moment and go deep inside ourselves but don't just jump off to the next thing and never have a true,

honest discussion so we can be better about ourselves. >> jeff johnson, is that a conversation the president has to lead? at some point let's move on, but hang on let's talk more about race and more in depth? >> i think the president has enough on his plate. i don't want him taking anything off of his plate to make race the discussion. i don't think, however, he should run from it. i think that perhaps he can do an alley-oop to somebody else that can lead that discussion. no, i don't think president obama should be leading the charge to have a discussion on race, but my fear and concern is that he seems to be trying to avoid a conversation on race as much as so many other people in the country. >> soledad, how is this here? we have seen more african-americans on television today in the last 48 hours about the senator harry reid story than we've seen in the last six months. here's the question for us in media. do we have african-americans of the same number to discuss

health care, afghanistan, iraq, education? we're very -- we can quickly find african-americans to talk about this issue, but what about other issues? it's a question we in the media have to ask ourselves. sunday morning talk shows yesterday virtually no african-americans. if we want to talk about race, i think we have to say what are we doing in media and what is happening in business and education, because we're all in this thing together. >> mr. carville, james carville, at some point you're a guy that's been through many a scandal as in turn of watching from afar. when does this blow over? does it blow over? does it impact to the point where he cannot lead if he does not choose to step down? >> congratulations to roland. that was great for cnn. this thing why we're having this discussion, it's probably to some extent a good thing to have this discussion. he's apologized twice and the

pez has accepted his apology. if you look at it, it was inartful the word president obama used analysis. we got health care, we got 10% unemployment in this country, we have troops in afghanistan and iraq and every where else and we have a lot of people around the world that wish us poorly. this will stick around for a while and some will remember it examine most will move on. i think the president -- two people that don't need it right now are the president and senator reid. the president has a lot on his plate, and senator reid has quite a bit on his plate. it was said, and you can't unring a bell. at a point and i think that's soon we're going to move on. >> if the president is not offended anymore and harry reid wants to move on, should we move on? >> artful? really. artful? how about to -- inartful?

how about to use the words of harry reid talking about trent lott when he talked about his words being repugnant. >> you're going to raise -- >> this is what the president was talking about. >> i get to ask the questions. hey, tara. let me ask you a question. really, do you believe that what harry reid said and what trent lott said are equivalent? >> i believe that the standard should be met across the board. >> yes or no. >> they both made racially incense active remarks and there's an equal standard for both. it's not up to me to decide whether harry reid should resign or anything of that. that's up to the senate colleagues. at the end of the day it's up to nevada voters. maybe they shouldn't re-elect them. let me read for you the words of john kerry back when the whole lott situation happened. i don't believe the country have someone who made these

statements be the leader of the united states. >> tara, trent lott's statements -- trent lott's -- tara, tara. >> in the same situation. if we have this wonderful moment talking about race -- >> trent lott's statements -- >> we are going to stop here because we're out of time. when co-come back, tara there's so many people that want to rebut your rebuttal, we'll hold on to the other side. we have opinions and analysis on both sides. we want to hear your opinions as well. let us know what you think. ahead, why did sarah palin call senator biden joe during their debate? it's not what you think. stay with us. that's ahead. national car rental knows i'm picky. so, at national, i go right past the counter... and you get to choose any car in the aisle.

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rnc chairman is michael steele. he took aim over the democrats' response to senator reid's remarks. this is what he had to say on "meet the press" over the weekend. >> there's a big double-standard here. the thing about it that's interesting is when democrats get caught saying racist things, you know, an apology is enough. if that had been mitch mcconnell saying that about an african-american candidate for president of the united states, trust me, this chairman and the dnc would be screaming for his head very much as they were with trent lott. >> jeff johnson, trent lott

comparesons all over the place. are they fair? you heard tara give one a minute ago. >> let's be clear. i think this is where we start trying to make race a partisan issue, and i think we need to be able to assess each statement within the context that it is. i listen to the rnc chairman, and i think what's interesting is i would question if any republican -- i'm not a democrat here. but i question if any republican who made a racist remark has the legislative record in working with african-americans and for african-americans that harry reid has. while i don't condone the comments, i think they're inappropriate and should have been held accountable. as somebody that worked with the naacp i know that harry reid has worked to fight for issues that affect african-americans and not one or two but a plet ra hora o issues. >> so have a lot of republicans. >> i'm going to interrupt since

you didn't let me talk before. i think what roland said is a bigger and more important a point of the fact that at least this gets black people on television talking about issues, and maybe this will start changing the media landscape and you won't only seen african-americans talking about so-called african-american issues. i'm speaking to you right now in my authentic negro dialect by the way, and i'm at ten right now. this is the top negro dialect. like people understanding that's i'm negro, i'm not putting on airs, this is how i talk. a basic thing like people understanding that black people can be and sound different ways, these are the kinds of conversations that really will start making changes. i look at president obama, and i'm blown away at how classy he is with all the things on hi plate, that this comes up time and time again. it somehow is being dumped on him to be this world referee for all things racial in the united

states. these issues are so complicated, soledad. >> there is value in these moments as unpleasant as they may be? >> yes, there is. >> let me ask james carville as our token white man on the panel tonight. when these conversations are started, i mean, how do people -- do white people say that's a very attractive black woman who was speaking a moment ago in her authentic negro voice? are these conversations not interesting at all? >> you know, just an excellent point is, you know, black people are different and white people are different. some white people react one way, and other white people react another way. i think president clinton started to try a dialogue on race, if we're going to have one we can't sit and filibuster inaccurate comparisons. michael steele either is being

disingenerous or he's a fool. that's the other real possibility. there's not a -- that's a real possibility. i mean, considering everything he said, that's possible. but i did believe -- >> what would make him a fool? because of his remarks? >> by using a blatantly derogatory term to describe native-americans and then attack senator reid for what president obama called inartful words. >> you would only refer to senator reid's comments as inartful or not stupid or repugnant in any way? >> i'm using president obama's words. >> see, this is the issue that i have. this is the issue about if we're going to talk about this, but, you know, we can talk about this every day. i think there are legitimate issues to raise about race. but i think at the same time until we are able to condemn

with the same passion that you condemn remarks that you see offensive, you know, it strikes me that democrats cannot even bring themselves to admit how offensive these words are to a lot of black people. not just me. but a lot of black americans, and americans in general. >> tara, what's the offensive thing that senator reid said? what was the racist thing that he said? >> i think it's very precivil rights, 1950s to suggest again that light skinned negros that he's okay as a light skinned negro as long as he gets rid of his ghetto dialect is basically -- that's the way i say it. >> that's not the word that was used. let's not rewrite it. he said that the electorate -- what he said was the electorate would be excited about a guy who was light-skinned and a guy who didn't speak with a negro

dialect. that's what he was talking about, the electorate. >> who uses negro in 2010 as a leader of the senate, and why is he making comparisons? >> is that racist is my question? is that racist? >> what does light skinned negro have to do with it? >> obviously, conversations about race obviously conversations about race can get very testy. that's why we like them. we got to take a short break. when we come back in a little bit, we're going to talk to former campaign insiders, democrats and republicans to join us with their takes on the sarah palin and john edwards shockers. are there more to come? first mark mcgwire's emotional interview about his steroids admission today. stick around. we have more on that.

i was having trouble getting out of bed in the morning because my back hurt so bad.

mark mike gir admitted today what many folks had suspected all along that he used steroids. they released portions an interview that bob costas conducted with the onetime slugger. take a look. >> it's tough because when you have to tell your son and your family for the first time, you know, something that i hid for a long, long time. especially my wife. close friends. it's not pleasurable doing that. >> jose con sake coast claims he introduced him to steroids. he's larry he's guest tomorrow. nothing going from one sport to another, back to the political panl turner everybody is talking

about. joining us is nancy who served as senior policy adviser for the mccain campaign as well. lenny davis is a democratic strategist and served as white house counsel to president capitol hill ton. lanny, let's begin with you because we're taking about comparesons, if there are any at all, to senator reid and trent lott. a lot of folks don't know that you have a part in that story in the trent lott scandal. tell us about that. >> first of all, i agree with james in a difference in degree and words used between senator trent lott and senator reid. there shouldn't be a difference in forgiveness. when senator lott after jack kemp asked me to take his call, he was in the middle of the worst of his crisis and he asked me would i call jesse jackson

that he could seek jesse jackson's advice but not privately, not to exploit that phone call because he knew i go back with reverend jackson for a long time. i did talk to reverend jackson, and he talked with me being on the phone and listening. the kind of con transition that he showed, the awareness of his background, his incense activity, his abltd to make the remark that he made and not realizing how awful it was. he admitted to reverend jackson, and reverend jackson said i forgive you and let us pray. it was a very moving moment for senator lott and reverend jackson together. a white man from the deep south recognizing over all the years his incensensitivity. forgiveness for senator lott was warranted the fact his fellow senators turned on him was disgusting in my opinion. i think senator reid is a great man with a great heart.

he's a good man, and nobody but nobody should accuse him of harboring ill will towards african-americans or anybody including republicans. he's a decent man and shouldn't resign when he's apologized the way he has. >> we talked earlier about the double standard. i'm curious, do you proeapproac republicans and democrats differently when you give advice on a race issue? >> i try not to. i think democrats apply a double standard. i think they're more partisan many comes to republicans making mistakes. democrats have more of a cushion because they're better on the issues on civil rights and ampiamp affirmative action. that's why african-americans give h give harry reid a pass. i don't like the fact democrats exploited the senator lott situation and the fact that republicans are now exploiting the senator reid situation.

this should not be political exploitation. it's a very sad moment for a great man like senator reid. we should be sorry. he said i'm sorry, and we should accept his apology as i felt we should with senator lott, which was a very sincere apology and certainly reverend jackson has no apologies to make about his record on civil rights. he accepted senator lott's apology. >> tanya, how do you think it will end? the guy said he's sorry, and the president accepted the poapolog let's move on? >> i think it won't result in another beer summit. we've had enough of those. i'm having an issue with this notion of a double-standard. to some extent we see a double-standard in some cases. harry reid and trent lott are not examples of a double standard. there is a big difference from saying the country was better off in an segregationist was president than this tasteful inartful thing that senator reid

said. it was bad. it was a variation of a thing that many african-americans have heard, myself included. foelgs say you sound white and you're articulation that some people say. is there a double standard sometimes? yes. is the way senator lott treated, is his treatment an example of that double standard? absolutely not. >> can he survive this? he's in a tight senate race. what do you think? >> he can survive the comment. he probably wouldn't survive the senate bid. you would be hard-pressed to find a majority leader this embattled in the polls because of his own standing. it shows what nevadans fear for a while, that he's out of touch and incense active. i didn't care for senator reid's reference last month to people voting against the health care plan and compared them to slave holders. i thought that was very unfortunate. when i he read today or last

night he made this other comment a couple of years ago now or a year and a half ago or so, i immediately thought of that. that somebody who in good conscious and out of principle does not want to saddle this country with $1.8 trillion of debt of a health care bill they haven't read, new taxes and regulations, and to say they were slave he holders i thought it was odd and i thought it was insensitive. i don't think he'll be re-elected. >> that and so much more in this new book. the revelations about s palin and what they mean for her future. we discuss that straight ahead. stay with us. 1200 mg of calcium and 800 iu of vitamin d, in just two tablets. share some tlc. tender loving caltrate,

the portrait painted of sar ra palin. they spoke about her appearance, her apparent ignorance of basic international affairs. take a look. >> after the convention was over, she still didn't realize understand why there was a north korea and a south korea. she was still regularly saying that saddam hussein had been behind 9/11, and literally the next day her son was about to ship off to iraq, and when they asked her who her son was going to fight, she couldn't explain that. >> this book is a page turner. this is a new book by john heilman and halperin.

this is damaging to democrats. is that of great value to republicans to underline things and lay this out there. >> i think they were bipartisan in their criticism that they lay at the feet of a lot of failed candidates. i think so much of that book was based on interviews with consultants, and consultants and handlers of some of the failed candidates who are in effect -- >> the revenge of the failed campaign? >> that's right. they're trying to justify and get back to the trough in future campaigns. it's called staff infection. candidates sometimes lose, consultants always win and come back and feed on the next one. i thought what was really fascinating to me in this book -- let's face it, picking on sarah palin is so 2008. fascinating to me is the talk about how close hillary clinton came to running in 2004 and how strong of an advocate and fund-raiser she was for senate candidate barack obama and how startled she was with him and how impressed she was with him

and she tried very hard to work for him and his senate bid. >> if she had gotten into the race in 2004, she would not have set up what had happened, which was essentially with john kerry in, there was this little known guy named barack obama who delivers this amazing speech at the dnc. >> the stuff about the edwards is just "as the world turturns." >> it is true. it is a page turner. you cannot put it down. is this true? you all have worked in these campaigns. is it as dramatic, as crazy, as chaotic? are the candidates as flawed and bizarre almost as they appear in this book? >> i think exaggeration helps sell book copies and so does controversy. certainly presidential campaigns are chaotic. that's why most people say they will only do one for son unforeseen reason i've worked two.

i'm here to say right now and wear never to work a third. they are chaotic and not for the faint-hearted. these are situations where everybody is under tremendous stress. they're rarely seen at their best moments. one thing everybody can take as the god's honest truth is there's a lot of profanity in campaigns, as you see in the book. nobody is wearing a halo there. people reveal themselves under pressure, and if there's one reason to read books like this, it's to try to draw out what is the essential truth of the individual candidates. what's there. you have with senator mccain a very profound sense of honor. he decided what we could and could not say, even if it was something that might have been frankly a very profitable line of political attack if he decided that it was not in his code of honor, we would not raise it up. >> they talk about absolute brutal fights with his wife in

front of staffers much to their discomfort and dismay. true? >> i didn't witness any, so he couldn't speak to that whether that's true or not. when i saw them, which was usually on the weekends, he would be through the virginia office and i was chained to the studio out in rosalynn. my world revolved around crystal city at that point. i never saw anything of the kind. so you really have to go to people who are physically present during those occasions to speak to that. again, this is an environment that is a -- it's not even accurate to call it a pressure cooker. it would be like a pressure cooker taken to the tenth power. so any stress that was already there was likely to be pushed as far as it could go. >> a married couple fighting is news, though. >> a married couple screaming at each other in front of aides. that is news i think it's fair to say. sarah palin, when she was announced around the globe and

certainly around the country, people said, who? who's going to be mccain's running mate? the walk-through of how that went down is absolutely fascinating. they sort of shred her credibility, her inability to get up to speed on the issues fast enough. this is going to impact what she does in the future as a candidate, do you think? >> the "they" is the mccain consultants talking to these two authors and mark and john are the messengers. this explanation of -- there are a couple things in there of frankly we thought she suffered from postpartum depression so we had a doctor on call. she complained about her makeup and smeared it all over her face and said i look fat in this. come on. that's the oldest book trick -- trick in the book. for me, to actually believe that a sitting governor had, quote,

mentally unstable, a mother of five, it's something -- it's a bridge too far. i think these guys want to work again. >> there's so much more to talk about. that's just of tip of the iceberg in this. it's a page turner. we're back in a minute to talk more about this book, more about sarah palin and the katie couric interview and what made hillary clinton fall apart during the campaign. that's straight ahead.

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want to take a moment to

check in with anderson cooper, see what's happening on "a.c. 360" tonight. >> thanks so much you're talking about it tonight. so are we. senator reid's comments from the book "game change." at the top of the hour on 360, we have the authors of that book. not only will we get into the remarks reid made but dig deeper into a behind the scenes version of what really happened between then senator barack obama and senator hillary clinton during the historic presidential call pai campaign. including why hillary clinton was convinced she would win the nomination and why she almost declined to be secretary of state. new details about bill clinton and hillary clinton and why hillary clinton's people formed a war-room within a war-room to deal with bill clinton. plus, on the terror trail tonight, exclusive interview with the father of a radical cleric. he says his son is an all-american boy, not a terrorist. we'll have that exclusive interview.

those stories and more ahead on 360. a call from atlanta, georgia, tonight. hey, atlanta. >> caller: hey, how are you? >> great, what's your question? >> caller: my question is to the panel, if you had an opportunity to advise sarah palin based on what you know, what's happened in 2008, if she were to run in 2012, how would you advise her and what suggestions would you make if she decided to run? >> how about a democrat answering that in. >> lanny davis, why don't you take that? >> first of all, shock everyone. i really like sarah palin. on a personal level i like the way she projects. she has energy. i think she is pretty sharp and the best speech i've seen for a first timer at any convention in my lifetime maybe other than barack obama in '04. pretty close. so she impressed me greatly. she lacks substance. she certainly needs to bone up

on issues and become more credible as a future president. that would be my advice. on a personal level i think she does great. >> soledad, can i speak to this issue about credibility and decision making? a lot of the allegations that are set forth in this book, they are juicy and she lashs and i cannot wait to devour them. i've been devouring the segments i've already read. most of the political books are really boring, i have to tell you. they're dull, dull, dull, dull, dull and this is interesting for change. >> it is. i think there's a really important issue here that we should think about which is that, you know, so much of the decision making that's made by a lot of these candidates and a lot of our political leadership is so short-sided. if it's true what steve schmidt said about sarah palin not knowing why there's a north and south korea, the notion of putting her up as our vice president was an irresponsible choice. in the same way the edwards cam pane and john edwards' decision to stay in the race

notwithstanding his brewing scandal that had his staffers worried rt a short-sided unwise political decision, so it seems that if there's one big picture thought or big picture theme in this book it's really we need to start thinking about how and why the folks making decisions on our behalf do that and what it motivating them. >> i'm also curious about the strategists. seems like sometimes you can't control the people you're advising at all. we're going to talk a little bit more about that. i want to get good dirt on that. the real elizabeth edwards, too. is there a big gap between what her image is and how some say she was behaving during the campaign? we're going to get more of that after the break. how about all of the above? the eight passenger buick enclave. may the best car win. tools are uncomplicated. nothing complicated about a pair of 10 inch hose clamp pliers. you know what's complicated? shipping. shipping's complicated. not really. with priority mail flat rate boxes

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page 127 of "game change," talking about elizabeth edwards. they say, the world saw valiant, determined, heroic what the edwards insiders saw paranoid, condescending crazy woman. final word from our panel. tonya, let's begin with you. she probably gets the harshest treatment in this book i think it's fair to say. >> i read excerpts and i have to say they were certainly surprising. really at odds with our public impression of mrs. edwards, but, you know, i think kelly ann made

a great point earlier. some of this, i like that term she had, staff infection. i don't know if it relates to the folks who -- >> get it out there. >> i don't know if that really relates to the folks who were making these allegations about mrs. edwards. this is one of those parts of the book that is probably more salacious than useful. there's nothing we're going to learn about how to make our country better by simply beating up on elizabeth edwards. >> there are no source notes in this book. >> exactly. still in the non-fiction list, not the fiction list. elizabeth edwards is portrayed as a shrew. doing profanity-laced tirades against staff. i looked at her and hillary clinton portrayed the same way and it's a compliment, frankly. this intolerance for male weakness. >> i thank our panel. lanny, we are out of time. tomorrow, you can come back and talk about that. larry is going to be back tomorrow with the authors of this become eve