is like, hey, where did my dog go and looks running for his dog. >> that's totally new york of you. dogs smell a earthquake coming. >> i believe it was the dog. i don't know what the dog of doing in the newsroom in the first place. that's it for 360. larry king starts now. see you tomorrow night. tonight senator harry reid racial remarks about barack obama calling him light-skinned with no negro dialect unless he wanted to have one. >> i apologized to the president. i could have used a better choice of words. >> this is a good man 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? why elizabeth edwards whipped 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 backroom politics next on "larry king live." good evening. welcome, everybody. i'm soledad o'brien sitting in for larry tonight. let's look at the excerpt from "game changer" that ignited the political firestorm around senate majority leader harry reid. here's what it said in part.

>> joining us tonight to discuss the comments, his apology and all of the fallout is jeff johnson from b.e.t., james carville tonight as well, a democratic strategist and cnn political commentator tara wall joins us. tara is the former deputy editor of the washington times. nancy is here with me. she's a social commentator, actress and contributor to cbs sunday morning. nice to have all of you. let's get it right to it. nancy, since you're here, why don't you begin. what's your reaction to these words? >> i'm embarrassed for harry reid. harry, how many black people do you know, okay? there's not one negro dialect. this is something that's the

bayne of bane of my existence for a long time. i never heard people call for one single white dialect. there are different ways of talking. it blows my mind and it's 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? >> i think it was in bad taste. there are a whole lot of black folks that said that. there were black folks that said he was a respectable black guy. black people said, is he black enough? 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 that safe negro. to put it in context -- >> i really have a problem with

that. >> have a problem or not, we heard black folks -- >> i'm not saying they didn't say it. i have a problem with the concept. >> the concept of somebody saying -- >> there's different levels of aus then advertise city. >> i think loving oprah and hating condoleezza rice is a problem. i think judging the level of blackness is a problem. harry reid was not alen in his assertion. there were people -- >> tara, is it just stupidity? how often do you hear the word negro bantered about these days? >> i mean, honestly come from a senate majority leader no less, that's one point to make. it's essentially tan mount to saying light-skinned black folks can pass as long as they leave their he ghetto dialect at the door is what harry reid has said. just to pass it off, black leaders and otherwise who are now passing this off as awell he's sorry and he'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 set, which was set back with trent lott with democrats. then that's the standard by which it should be met with harry reid. he's the senate majority leader, and in this day andage to ha nd that underlying attitude as your other guests said, that's the bubbling out. that's not the first time he's made dismissive remarks about black americans, and 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. he ruled the senate. >> the folks who have been defending 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 said that when someone day i take my cue

from john lewis, who is one of the great americans. when people seek forgiveness for saying inappropriate things, we should grant it. what trent lott was far, far more worse scale than what senator reid said. he was performing a political analysis if you will, an analysis that went on -- >> it's okay because he said some stuff for black folks to tear yo type black folks? that's okay? >> excuse me. i didn't stay that. if we're going to have a discussion, i said that i thought that i agreed with john lewis when people sought forgiveness that we should grant that forgiveness and at the level of forgiveness that was required for senator lott much hirer than for senator reid. what he said i was inelegant or came across a certain way and showed a certain insensitivity and the idea that he should resign for this i reject out of hand. >> i do, too.

in a sense just 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 dixiecrat nation. >> i'll play a little of what harry reid had to say. >> i've apologized to the president and to everyone in the sound of my voice that i could have used a better choice of words. so i am -- 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. >> of course, not exactly surprised about that. >> no, 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 re reid? this continues to happen over and over again. this bubbles up, and there's this firestorm about someone's small comment. then the country continues to do i think like eric holder said in the very beginning of this administration, be cowardess about the issue of race in this country. >> how can you ask for this conversation when everyone has jumped on harry reid for what he said? >> i happen to agree. first of all, as much as we want to dismiss it away, we haven't spent enough time die he secretarying some of this and what has been said and the intentions were and all of that. 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 that, you know, 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, i think the question remains what is the standard and who sets it? who is the arbiter out here? you know, we haven't come to that conclusion that the decision or had that discussion. that should be a next step. >> we have to take a short break. the authors of "game change" are larry's guest tomorrow. is that that double-standard when it comes to comments about race? you probably have your own answer. we'll ask our guests more about that coming up next. stay with us. (announcer) want to give afrin a try? yeah. it cleared up right away. i can breathe. (announcer) so where would you rate it? 99.9. (announcer) afrin. why suffer?

sitting in for larry tonight. ro roland martin interviewed the president earlier today. subcommitt 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.

roland martin spoke one on one with president obama about harry reid's comments. here's here to talk to us about that. we played a clip from your interview with president obama a second ago.

listen a little bit more about what he had to say about senator reid's remarks. listen. >> he's apologized recognizing he didn't use appropriate language, but there's 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 wanted to address the issue. i was talking to him for a tv one primetime special. we talked about a number of issues specific to african-americans. i prefaced the question about senator harry reid with the whole issue of being post-racial. let me address harry reid first. he clearly was irked by it. 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 wi with a black-sounding name, you have a 50% chance -- less

chance of getting a call-back for a job if you had a mainstream-sounds 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. why is that? 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 terms from watching from afar, not

personally speaking. 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 a heck of a get that. that was great, and 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. the man's apologized twice and the president accepted his apolo 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 everywhere 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 and most people 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. i'm sure he wished this never happened and he never said it.

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. >> guess what? 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 insensitive remarks and this r there should be an equal standard for both. it's not up to me to decide whether harry reid should resign

or any of that. that's up to the senate colleagues. at the end of the day it's up to nevada voters. if the senate doesn't resign it, maybe they shouldn't re-elect him. let me read for you the words of john kerry back when the whole lott situation happened. i do not believe the country can afford today have someone who made these statements be the leader of the united states senate. >> 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 we come back on this, tara, there's so many people that want to rebut your rebuttal, we're just go to hold on to the other side. we have opinions and analysis on both sides. we want to hear your opinions as well. go to cnn d.com/larryking. ahead, why did sarah palin call senator biden joe during their debate? it's not what you think.

stay with us. that's ahead. okay, class, our special guest is here -- ellen page. hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! hi, ellen! we're going on a field trip to china! wow. [ chuckles ] when i was a kid, we -- we would just go to the -- the farm. [ cow moos ] [ laughter ] no, seriously, where are you guys going?

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for joint pain. more than the medicines in tylenol or aleve. the medicine in advil is the #1 doctor recommendation for joint pain. relief doesn't get any better than this. advil. rnc chairman is michael steele. he's no stranger to verbal controversy. 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 comparisons 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 plethora of issues. >> so have a lot of republicans. we don't hear a lot about them, but there are. >> tara, 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 see 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. even a basic thing like that. like people understanding that's i'm negro, i'm not putting on airs or acting white. 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 his 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 din engeneral -- disingeneral with us or the other possibility is he's a fool. 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? >> this is what stupid is -- >> 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 basical --

that's the way he said 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.

some developing news on the baseball front. mark mcgwire 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 conseco claims he introduced mark mcgwire to steroids and helped him inject them. conseco is larry's guest tomorrow. it's an exclusive. now going from one sport to another, back to the political page 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 bill capitol hill tlinton. tanya acker is with us. lanny, let's begin with you because we're taking about comparisons, if there are any at a 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 nor lo senator lott and jack kemp asked me to take his call, he was in the middle of the worst of his kreis and he asked me would i call jesse jackson so that he could seek jesse jackson advice, but privately but not to exploit the phone call. he knew that 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 contrition 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 insensitivity.

forgiveness for senator lott was warranted the fact his fellow republicans turned on him was disgusting in my opinion. i think senator reid is a good man, a great man with a great heart. you could have political disagreements with senator reid, but he's a good man. 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 approach 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 when it comes to republicans making mistakes. the fact is democrats have more of a cushion because they've been better on the issues on civil rights, on affirmative

action. that's why african-americans give harry reid a pass. that doesn't mean there's not a double-standard here. 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 apology, 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 if a seg gree gagsist 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. folks who say you sound a little white and you're very articulate that some people say in a different way. 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 insensitive. 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 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. he will survive it. i don't think he'll be re-elected. >> that and so much more in this new book. we'll talk all about it. the revelations about sarah palin and what they mean for her future. we discuss that straight ahead. stay with us. walgreens invites you to stay well this new year. ♪

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the portrait painted of sarah palin in "game change" isn't flattering at all. they spoke about her appearance, her apparent ignorance of basic international affairs. take a look. >> after the convention was over, she still he didn't really 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 heilm oo n ann and mark 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 turns," every single page. >> 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 some unforeseen reason i've worked two. i'm here right now swearing to never do 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 certainly didn't witness any, so i couldn't speak to that, whether that was 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 rosalind. 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 sanctimonious splangs of -- there were a couple of things in there of frankly he we thought she suffered from postpartum depression so he 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 got to take a short break. we're back just in a minute to talk more about in book, more about sarah palin and the katie couric interview and what made hillary clinton fall apart during the campaign. that's straight ahead. my mother made the best toffee in the world.

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we'll check in with anderson cooper. hey, anderson. >> thanks so much. we're talking about senator reida comments from "game change." he have the authors of that book. we'll get into the remarks that reid make but dig deeper into a behind of scenes version what happened between then senator barack obama and nor hillary clinton during the historic campaign, including why hillary clinton was convinced she would win the nomination and began planning her transition to the white house and why she already 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. the exclusive interview with the father of a radical cleric. he says his son is an all-american boy and not a terrorist. we'll have that exclusive interview, and those stories and more ahead tonight on 360. soledad. thanks. to the phones in atlanta, georgia tonight. 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 answer that one. >> 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 but pretty close. she impressed me pa greatly. she lacks substance. she certainly needs to bone up on issues, and she certainly needs to become more credible as a future credible. that would be my advice. on a personal level i think she does just great. >> soledad, can i speak to this issue about credibility and decision-making? a lot of allegations in this book are juicy, and i cannot wait to devour them. i've been devouring the segments i've read. >> most of the political books are really boring. they're dull, dull, dull. this one is actually interesting for a change. >> it is. it is. i think there's a really important issue here we should think about, which is so much of the decision-making made by a lot of candidates and political leadership it's so short-sighted. if it's true what steve said about sarah palin not knowing

why there's a north and south korea the notion of putting her up as a he vice president was irresponsible, in the same way that john edwards made the decision to stay in the race notwithstanding this brewing scandal that had staffers worried was a short-sighted and unwise political decision. so it seems that if there's one big picture thought or big picture theme in this book, it's that we really need to start thinking about how and why the folks making decisions on our behalf do that and what motivates them. >> i'm curious about strategist. seems like you can't control the people you're advising at all. we'll talk more about that. the real liz he beth edwards, too. is there a big gap between what her image is and how some say she behaved during the campaign. you're watching larry king live. stay with us.

127. they talk about elizabeth edwards. what the insiders saw was abusive, intruce sif, condescending and crazy he woman. let's begin with you. wow, she probably gets the

harshest treatment in this book i think it's fair to say. >> i read some of the excerpts and they were certainly surprising. they're really at odds with our public impression of mrs. edwards. i think that kelly ann made a good 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 a part of the book that's probably more sa lay shus than useful. there's nothing to learn from beating up on elizabeth edwards. >> there are no source notes in this book. >> it's still in the nonfiction list, not the fiction list. elizabeth edwards is portrayed as a shrew, doing these profanity-laced tirades against staff. i look at her and hillary clinton portrayed the same