the recession when the taxed the stimulus pl. >> this is the gtest abrogation iave seen since i ha been in congress. >> the only thinghe stilus plan stimulated is more government and more debt. joe biden gives them an opening or are they talking out of both sides of their mouth? we wilhave more coming up. plus, sarah palin, yet another ethics cplaint filed against hetravel reiursement from her closing days in the me in her office. her lawyer says it is unfair a a prob with the state regulation xed. this hou my entire one-on-one interview with the governor. plus, e white house strikes aealth care dl with the tion's hospitals. they s they will produ $155 billioif savings to hp cover 47 million insured americans but are ther stngs attached that could actuallyrive costs up? good day, i'm andrea mitchell. the g8 smit of worl leaders ha now under way, a broad agenda, cluding the global recession,iran's nuclear

ambitions and loot more. nbc news politil director and chief white house corresndent chuck todd is in rome. chuck, the meeting in russia didn't go quite as well as the u.s. might have wanted, the body langua alone. you terviewed the presint, how diffilt was his meeting with vladimir putin? well, here is my favorite anecte. white house ofcials said -- tolde that --uring the private session, president oba goes t prime minister putin says, you know, how did weget here? that is his opening question. 50 mites later,5-0, vladimir putin finishes hisiatribe how ey get there said it wasn't lecture, wt a rant but it was very -- sll we say, sort of recalling the d soviet ways of reminng the west of maybe how that they don't --heir world view suspect necessary everyone's world view but it w apar

appa apparently, at the end, the presidt came out of that and i asked him about tin, and he says, look, thguy seems like he is practical at the e of the day isn't going to be stubborn but his world view is shaped by the cold war, someing we have tounderstand going forward. i think we have to get a measure of how well or not how well moscow wt for the presiden when we s whatever stament the g8 here, these group of eight nations, pts out on iran. will it beomplety bacally meaningless language, frankly, that foreign ministers ofhe g8, they got together a few mohs ago, they put ou on in sayi have good human rights and hold eections that have the will of the people or be something tgher? it is allussia thatolds up the idea of doing something toughe >> chuck, one of the things this does remind me of, when reagan and gorbachev met i1985 in their meeting what gorbachev used to do to reagan and, give

him a lecte and one of the things that put reagan ff, put him f. the white house maybe misjudged, this the president in an inrview with the sociated press onhe fridayefore he left two days before left for the summit tooa shot at puin, describing him as havinglanted in old cold wa mentality. also did something strangeby meeting with him in the morning. ople that know putin know he is not a breakfast guy, he's dinner guy. yoknow, did they kind of misread how to play vladimir tin? >> you know, one thing that a lot of us have asked them, tey flinch, are you trying to prop up medvedev, the president, and trng to create some so of power spt, trying to lift medvedev up and put putin i his place because of, you know, what you st brought up? putin wanted to ha a meeting with obama, not even i scow. he wanted to do it another part of russia andhat is where

he wanted to havehe meeting and he wanted to i think, have a little mor is mope y'all. didn happen. as you said, ended , he wnted more tn just a breakfast meeting. didn't happen. putiat least went ahead and did themeeting. could have not t with him at all. so youw, yes, i d't know whether they believe they have misread him, but i tnk they went at this bea living medvedev is the guy they are going to want to deal with d figure out how toad tolerate putin. >> i can tl you one thing you can tolerate is the backdr there in rome chuck have good time. hey, we are getting cser, andrea. weere 12 -- my favorite the other night 12 hours apa now it's six, were getting there. you are getting a little closer. maybe i willeet you somewher inbermuda, check out the uighurs there. some a to thischina sry and we are getting there. >> y are falling in love with this foreign travel, i can tell, chuck todd. thank you very much. >> all right. joining me w, jim

hoagland, reign affairs lumnist for the "washington post." m, let's talk about the relationship withrussia, what we can expecthem to get from russ in as far as a strong approach toir with the g8? is the president playg this ld presidency as described to me the other day in ruia is he playingit srtly for the united state >> wel thinkhis meetingn moscow will prove divis down theoad perhaps. you have tlook at president ama as very much a strategic thinker and will have seen this meeting, not in terms of the one or two-day impact but how this plays out over the next four ars. he started a relationshipith putin. i was surprised that he was a little critical of putin but accurate aut putin in his statemen here in washinon. i think now he given the russians, thoh, something to work for, a better relaonship there is n illusion among the nationecity team of

president obama that medvedev is really if power. they understand ry well that putiis the key player but they also understandth medvedev is going to have a key role, it is important to build him up it's important tosee how putin responds to , what the internal dynamic i and h you play that out over the long-term and noin terms o a two-day meeting. >> is there aing to the fct th the russian people did n respond toarack obama nor to michle obama the way other members of t public did on previous summits when he wa in prague, when he was in cairo, even? the "new york times" t, clifford j. ly and ellen barry writes cros do not clamor for views of him. telesion programs was uninterrupted. devote test to of therussian jue judy had nothing to fear even during the war, ron fad reagan created a stir when he did a walkabout in red

squa. >> i think tha really is exactly right. it i partly a matter of the times, we do not have therama of the cold war,we do not feel the sions made at tes meetings will have immediate and stratec impact on our liv as weid the cold war but part it ishe nature of the rusans. not understood in russia to put it delicately. i'm not srprise there had was outpouring o emotion surrounding obama and think in me ways, that is probably healthy, that it gives him a chance to pursue e kinf realistic, i would s coldlooded politics tt he practices pretty well. >> to put it undelicately, race may have been a facr the yet for this summit in an interestinway, president obama brought his children and h fe. he wanted to make a mo personal relationship. guess he did.

that's very hard to do with vladimir putin. i have been on the receiving end of a couple of putin's monologues. i n'think it's ral question of stility. it's auestion of style. putinikes to develoov 50 mites his views on things that's the way he talks to people. th it's y he tked to obama. >> remin me a ltle bit in fact on the disstaff side, nancy reagan a gorbaev. she used to complain that raisa gorbachev neverwarmed up to he the two memade a connection. >> they had something to work on together and had a sategic relatiship. i think you ll see that develop or at least obama those will develop what he hasdo is moverom the bush period where the invasion ofeorgia showed that ruia had felt it had nothing more to gain and nothg to lose in its relationship with the

bushadminiraon. i thi oma tried to give people a sense that there is something to gain working with him, the qution othe missile defense in europ and how that gets resolved. ihi he has given the russians some hope that relations will impre and some reason to try to make them improve. jim, do you think there's anything really to beained from t unitestates' perspecte out of the g8 summit? here you have beusconi, the host, completely ovwhelmed by scanda tabloid allegations about froliing with 17 and 18-year-olds or 18 and 19-year-olds, whatever, people other than his wife. angela merkel has been unwilling to bst -- stimulate the german economy. the french are not exactly allies. there is always an edgy retionship there. what can the u.s. eect to get, especially with the middle st, the economy aniran, out of this summit? >> ipect the president's

advisers will be telling him play defense. the's not a lot to be gained here, particular since the g8 and key members of the g8 ve already taken the drama away from this meeting putting much emphasis on the g20 meetings i london in ail and now the one to come in pittsburgh in th fall. so, there's not much they can do. the g8uit statement onran will be an indicator of the way politics are moving onhat i uld expect a statement that goes a little biturther in condemng iran than has been the case in the past. i think the russians will move a little bit on that but other than the iran statement, i don't see that much will come o of this eetingother than the hes trying to avoid being photograed withbeusconi. >> w has the most interesting suntan since stromthurmond. thank you very much. >> all right. >> good to see you.

goodo see you. jim hola. y much. governor sarah palin told me one of the main reasons she is resigning is the fancial burden placed on her state after a flood what she calls frivous ethics complaints against her. 18 days before she leaves office, another complaint has been filed. i taed to her attorney abo moments ago and he says that th one also is without merit. we met up with thegovernor and her familyt aemote fishing site on the wen coast can alaska where her husband's family has fished commercially for generations. i wanted tosk you abo everything 's going on. and now at you have ma these very big disions what are you going too next? >> oh, well, i lookward to- after handing the reins over, the transition of power to an parnell our lieutent vernor in the next few weeks, i look forward toetng out there and working hard for other people who want to fight for the right things, the right reass that anybo would want to serve and help other people, i or out

of office. those things, for me, the principles that are america, energy independencend strong nationalsecurity, gerent form that we need to rein in government and shrink it, not keep growing it. those things are important to me, i want to fight for ot people w wt to g out there and affect that kind of change. i knew that everything changed on aust 29th in politics in alaska tt is the day was tapped to run for vice president of the united states. things chang and it was quite obvious at thing would ever be the same for our mistration. ca back after the campaign ended and woed extremely hard for alaska and my administration we did ite ell, but so many diractions that wereoutside of our control. the choice i had to makewas, okay, w am i going to reacto the circumstances, to the anged nditions? am i goi to just keep plugging away? keep my head downndot try to affect anymore chang every time we do somethin we get hit with an ethics violation

charge or a awsuits, because that is the pocal game being played right now, even thogh we have won ery single one of them that's be thrown our way bumy choice in how to ret to ese circumstaes, my choice has been,u know, i willing to not rungain for re-election. i'm lling to step aside and low the progrs that our independence and contributio to naonal security, i can do th by stepping aside and i was llingo do that. >> even some o youruprters in wasilla said to us, she signed up for four year we are disappointed that shis quitng. >> well, you know, i think that some people may not be fully aware all of the condions. andit's perpxed me that we reporters and showe them how it cost thousands and thousands of hours in ate time and llions of dollars intate resources to continually send off these frivolous, ridiculous wasteful -- >> how much debt do you have, l fees?

>> we have a legal bill of about half a million dollars, but that's not the consideration. the considerations how does this affect the state? now, these are plic dollars and publi time that isn't going to fund troopers and fund teache and fund fish ri resear that we need for this aspect ofoueconomy. >> half a miion dollars? half a million dollarsof legal es? you have got a famy, you have got a special needschild. you have got this place that you love. >>ust one aspect of the innity of this political game that's being played. see,t doesn't ct the adverss a penny,ot a penny, to filehese wasteful ethics violatis charges. it's crges like,andrea, when i returned from theampaign l and i was bombarded b reportersn my state office when i walked in the door, the day after the campaign, i answered their questions and got hit with an ethics violion, had to hirean attoey to prove that i was just dog my job. twyears ago, i was out here commercial fishing, i caught a fi, somebody snapped a picture of me with the fish, it was used

in a state seafood a t promo alaskaild seafo. i was hit withn ethics violation charge, had to hire an attorney to prove that the a forward board was just doing i job. i wore a wrm snow machio that i wear, cat gear for years, as a mter of fact, i just noticed i have a logo her i might get hit with a violation, but wear a warm snow machine coat to a cold snow machine event, i get hit with anthics violatio those are examplesf the ridiculous frivolous ethics charges that we ve to hire attorneys to fight a the ti. so i said, you know tt is kind of distracting but that's not all of it. i knew wasn't going to run for re-election. not nting to play that political game that most policians do they kind of pretend if they don want t run again. inew i'm not going toun again and honestwith alasnsnd say one term is enough. as iead into my final year, making this announcement, hois this decision going time pact alaskans?

gointo get wse for alaskans because the adversars, knowing it is a lameuck session and doesn't costhem a dime to file these things, just going to get worse, distcting, stymie progre that is not fair to the peoplehom i love. >> youhaven't finisd the j, some wou say. >> you're not listening to me as to why i wouldn't be able to finish that fal year in office wiout it costing the state millions ofollars and couness hours ofsted time, wasted --e have true, worthy blic causes,y son ghting over there in iraq right now with theops who are fighting for free demrat of the pss and free speech and fair elections, all those thingthat are near and dr to america's heart, those things that a wohyause and tha is where our public resources should go, not in is ridiculous superficiapolitical blood sport that's being ayed. alaska, fortunately, was seeing too mh waste, a lame duck sessionrovides even more opportunity for wastend i wa't going to putaskans through that. >> sah pan in her own words. ll she make a run for the

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the b we sarah palin pporters are asking,il she run for president in012? more now from my one-onne interview with the governor during her last days in offi. can u agine yourself runng for preside? >> i don't knowhat the future lds. i can't predict what the next fish run is going to look like, much less what going happ ia couple of years,but my focus is on my state, stil

and it always will be and myamily and what is bt for them. what is best for theis to not run for re-election an to avoid a lame duck knd of -- a wasteful session in a final yr office and say i' going to step aside. that way we cantill proess our good agenda because the eutenant governorhas been sdehrough all of. this he knows what the agenda is we usher that through. >> some have said that you saw the bright lights from the national campaign and came ba and it w vy hard t readjust to the nitty-grittyork of -- >> the nitty-gritty le the fishlime dirt und t fingernails? >> younow, the state capital, the hard legislative slog? >> , that's not -- am fighter. i rive on challenge that is a challenge. at i don't thrive on and why i'm not wired to all wastes because m a very busy person and i want to be productive and i wanto be on a president of truthfulness, most fullilled

people share that. an no i just don't want to wasttime and i don't want to waste blic resources, theyre too valble and i love my s tomuch to see askans waste any of their resours. >> you started out in telesion, a longime ago. can you e yourse doi a talk show? could you reach more people that way? would that beun? >> i don't know, again what t future would hold? i certainly don't need a title or high position to affect the change that needs to be affected in our nation and what has to happen right we need to rein in government. obama is growing government, last thing weeed to do now. we nto quit growing this multi, multiillion dollar debt we areoing to hand onto our children and is moral and uneconomic, th path he has us on, i don't agree withwhate is doing a i want to fight with and for people who will usher in t positive change that we need to counter what is going on in washington, d.c. right now. want to bolsternational serity, not cut back as we

hear proposed and i want energy independence for our country. the only way wean do th is to resnsibly develop domesticly, something else that the oba administration esn't quite seem to derstand. >> dyosee any republican candides out there who you think could be competitive with barack obama? >> there are plenty of them. i'm not goi toame names, know anyime anybody else names the name and they leave somebo else on the list, get -- the phones srt ringg and g ewed ou i'm the not going to name names. a lot people out there i want to fight with and for so they n get leaked, certainly and affect the change wes nee >> how mh part of this was the way it was affecting your kids, your fami? >> well, any mom w telyou that any adverseeffects on thei child is heartbreaking and certainly that was affecting the decision. more so paralleling that s

be what is the best interest of the state of alaska,he statthat i love? soappened to be not deciding to run for re-election was the best desion for my family, too. >> a you sorry now you said yes to john mccain on august 29th? >> not ithe least. absolutelynot. it was a gat honor tand by a true american hero. i i believ in john mccain, i appreciate him. i honorhim. and i woul have done all at, again in a heartbt. >> are you hurt that some of his people have criticized you? . what i have discovered that they e on a ntional level this kind of took me aback, andrea, we see on a state levewhen run a campaignnd i have run many of them a local level and a statelevel, you get a lot of strange people who kind of leech themselves into a campai, odd ppeninger-owners, i was surprised to see thahappened on the national level,oo, and there were se odd people involved in aspects of the campaign and i think they have

kind of madeheirefforts, any wakethe caaign manifest for people today. it was odd. t that was then, this is now. and at i now is just as i did, the day after the campan ended, get back to workfor alaska. i ll work hard for the state i love but not behind the governor's desk. >> me from blool bloombers margaret carlson and palis critics, fir a suter and then a critic, kathleenarker. stay with us

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half a mililonon dollarsrs n debt a aft 16 separate ethics complainint, n the new complaint filed againstovovnor sarah palin, her attorney says it i i without mmer. joining us n now kathlele ararr,

syndicated writer wiwith t "washington popost" ddumored news c cumumni margaret ccaron. whererdodoe start in kathleeeen yoyou re an earlyy suppororte i ur first few columns aer she wawas med to be ththe rniningmae ananthen what happened s sepmbmr 26, about month later? >well, anandr,, let meusust y for the rcocord ttt i amotot the anti-palin. i have a lot of admatatn for sarahhalal and iid love eveverytngng abo h h when she ca o outf the gatee becauau she was soso rrereing and completely new, she was a a nene k kin of mimini, it was nice to see a wowoma of a d dferentrorofi emerge at the top of a ticket. threason became i increininly disappointed, after r reree interviews, shee w wast readyfor pree time. on september 26thth, i i wte th columnmn thagogome l labed an

anti-palin. i ink it was clear now that she wasn't ready. there are lots of peopop t to blame for thatat including the mcin campaign t that cked h soon. i can understand why sarar s sai yes, one of f thoseepeople that se outtoto do what ee set out to dooo reason to believe shee don't co-ment d do this. don't think anyone c b b ququit prepared for whwh t that particicular araa is like uil ththey a i inheheiddle of it. y yourote in yourololum today -- i was j jus g goi to sy you wrote in your comn today enen you're up totoyour waders n bar crude a,a, blame themedia anandquit your job a and say yo diit for thehe people and hi an agegentndnd trytoto keep a straight f faconon your way to e banknk. >>yeyea well i belilieve evytythi sarahpalin told y,, listened to thatat interview d susureshsh everywoword of that l osose ings are factors but not alall t the actors, really, a tough do andrea,a, i ask yoself whatat i doo wantnt to dodo govn alasaskadedeal withall ofhh

close, harsh sututy, deal wiith ethics viololatioor i do want to hit the speaeaking circuitan mama $50,000 apop, sellmy bobo, maybe do a a tv show? sarah palin has a a greatfuture asas a nonpublic official anand surely, she has taken all thoho thgsgs io nsideration. it silyly keke sense on multltiplevels, a a win-wi siatatio by the y,y, people wiwith the reblblan party are elighted bebecaus s sarahalals can raiai funds like noo one sese. she wiwi b be player behind the scsces and very helpful bubut ty feel likehe r ralallyuspect politically viable on a fafashnanal vel,cecertnly not inin general election so, it's kind like, wewel, sarah isis now going to d d wha sasarahss best at goinin to fi some balance in her life, letet her makellll theooney she c. at's --vverody sees t th as a great thing butut it alsls so eliminates heherrom -- itit is something g of problematic character for th rtrty. >> margaret carlsoso y you have

en watching sarahpalin as lolong aththrest of uss have, what is yoururreaction t to e wy she ququit a what her futururis? >> if she hahaduiuit in a bette waifif there is a aetter way to quit, , mit not still be talking about her. andrea, like kthleen at the bebegiing, my firstolumn about sararah palin was h headnene "a star is born," s sheas very imprpressi a athe convention. that speech was a a squanander t w in your interview, anandr, sheaaed the people in n ee cain campapann that it would manifest, i thininshshe usused word mananesesthat theyey wer odd, a a people w who leech int mpmpai are, but a lot ofofhose people are the opeperaveve hear ofof t republicic party. and they had no ininteststin turnrning sarah gge, it was against their interestst and thr asssment was thatmccain shshou not haha pickedher, she

was rrea. she has proved that ever since. beg governor offing a a alaaa is a long, hard slog, as bining governor of any statee these days i i n see why she might jusust want a fresh startrt and get ou of there b buyoyou n't give a rarambng press conference, more mbmbli than governor nnfo's going -- hiking down the papalaian trail for three minutes s thathehe did. she has been aweweng for it ev since. in youriierervi, andrea, s she had to f fa upoo t anomaly thateverybody would bebe lmeme ckcks at quit before theirr term was because t ty didn't wawant be one. they didn'thold togetheher. thank gooooesess for your interview, i think we got a a lililele b closer to the utut >>t t isery hard, she is on her turf,otot an area that i i obviviouy,y,ou know, miliar with. shshe v very comfortable there.

you know, it did strike me, in fairness that we in theedia ying w whe is sarah page did a d j job onriday, the way she announced, the fact i every ly 4th weekdd and bebett beberere a after that that is e peak of the smon ruru wherere he family retreats, whee her husband and hfamily woededor generaratis,s, you know, all suerer commererci fishing the sasaonon. so you do h ha to g ginin some perspectivive erere is a difference with the e lifeylyl there anand mybe that makes it momo difficult for h her as a national candidatete. margaret, i wantededo o asyou about ththe gaupupollingshshowg ve demonstrably, she e is popolalar th epublicans, not democrats bubu a national p pray is in t the repepublinn partrty. does s s h havsome big advavantag there? you know, a w wee when t media, ich s she hates but may join is talkingngbobout sarahh palilin dd criticicininger is a we w whe sarah pinin fafavobility goes up amongg her

base. itit h this week anand prabab will conontie e to she becomemes shsh limbaugh, sh ysys le lalask work for alalas, even though i i no longer gogovnonor, that's tt t case. e gave noinstance of howow she isoioi to do that she going too become a national memedia >> sorry abououttt, margagat carlson, we had d so cocoununicion difficululties on ththe satellitee f fom blblobebg ththksks t margaretcarlson, thanks to kathleen parker. coming up,epeplican leaders lashing out at the obamama administration tododaybobouthe onomy. > up next, cnbc's ron sasa andformer h hou maajori leader ck a aeyey whether a second ststimul c cld be on the way. should ?? this is "andrerea mitcll reportrts".

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minority leadeder john bhner is accusising the vice president abt lying about the state e of economomy. ron insanaa joins us. so goodd to see you again. let me sre with you two lile ts of sound. ththe first joe biden on c on sunday talki about whwhher or not a new stimululus, the second stimulus wouould be needed and then the president kiind of puttttg him down in his interview wiwi chk todd in moscow. let's watch. >> so, either you misread the economy or the simulus package is too slow.w. >> the truruth is, we and evevee else, misread the economymy. the figures we worke off of i i january, where the cononsensus figureand most othe blue ch indexes s out there thee truh isis there was a misreadingng o just how badad an economy we inherited. >> ratr than s smisread, haincomplete information. we came in janua 20th. . it was onlyyfter the firstst quarter numbmbs ce iin, as you

recall, that suddenly everybody oked a sasaid, the econony shshrank 6 so itas happening muchch mor rapidly, at an acacceleratepace thananhe proctions outhere atat the tim >> n,when we t talk about the ststulus ppackage, was it ev contemplated that itit would al be felt t is quicickly? isn't therere a lagging effect? unemplment is a lagindicator. >> righght. >> is this argument t political argugunt or economic argumentnt? >> i think mostf what you heard in the past f few seconon are politicalarguments. to say that e first quartrt gdp p number,ontraction of 6% was a s surpris would be incocorrect,ince the ecomy contracted 6% in e prior quarr as well. so i think the incoming adminiration had all the infoformatioit needed to determine that this econy was effefectivelin free fl. that's been trueor many,, ma moments before thehey camein. now, wh respect too the imulus, andrea, there is a lag,g,dependg on hohowhe

stimulus package is constructed, had the administratioion in m estimation, donene the rht thing and gone with a proll tax holiday for a year, nott that im not taing about the politicics of t t cut herere, talking abou the economics, consumers would have felt that much more immediately, less s an a trd of this s stimul package s been spepe to date. i think i it was poorly construcd, poorly execututed, front-loaded a a of itnd moved up to o the current envirment, i think it woould have much re impact. ron ianaa, thank you so much. >> t thank youandrea. >oinings now, forer house majority leader dick armeyy who is an economics -- ph.d. in economics, thanks, mr. leader, for j joiningus. >>hank you. >> tal about the seconond imulus the deputy omb director tetestified day put that downwn sayi they are not con temp plighting the second stimulus d that it wassomethg meioned by an outsider, lau tyson, in a a meeti in sininpore but this w was not an administration poly. do youou think there shoulul be second stimulus? >> absolutely not.

yoknow, they forg the fact that georgrge bu had a smulus billack in ocober, which this president sasa was the wron pocy and left m with a real prlem. geororge bush ft me hding the bag, then he comes u up with big ststulus bill, which doest rk. thth fundndamenta fact i u can do, evenenf yo go back t tthe diensian fofomula, you can do stimulusus by expananng governmt spending or cuing taxes a leaving therivate sector to b be moreree to end, whichh will do re wisesely. so, in fact, r ron was crect. thth appropriatete policy wowoud have beeee to have somee reductn of taxeses and too cus on re e reducingng this enormous burden at the federal governmnment is now onhe economy. and, andrea,a, if i may, t me just daw my analogy. the erican economomy is the fastest, most well-t-trainedorse in the race. s problem is itcarryi a

250-popod jocy that's r ring sidesaddle a and seering the horse with its feet and d stuffg itself with an ice cream m sund alg the way andnd the biggest mo fundamental problem is this private onomy c cnot cay thisglutinous governnt. so disciplinene the government into reducing itsununnecessar and meddddlesome programs and t economy willll carry itselflf a carry the governmement along wi it. ro also de the point, which has s be emphasized. ey hav not been takiing serious, rigorous, disciplineded economic policy decision they h he been making political decision andndhey ha got to give up the politicscs and gege serious about e enomic they are ing to get to the rht licy prescription. dick armeyey joining us f fm capitohill. thank you so v vry much. i'm justst thinkiki abouthat fat jockey on thth slow-movinin

horsrse. thanank you. quite an age j new numbers today sh that g gvernor pain's surprisese reg cis nation hasas acally boosted her suppo amononhard-re republicans. up next, pat buchanans, msn about c'sown,n why me republicicans ill love sarah.

alaska governor sarah palin says she will keep working for the state she loves but it won't be fromehind government nor's desk. does she have the support to ay on as a majorational republican political gure? bring msnbc political analyst, pat chanan. yosethe numbers in the gallup pol, 3 would pefer she leave the naonal stage o independence, t she picks up a t of suor 71% of republicans. so is she still a viable candidate? >>ell, i don't know if se is a viable candidateor president. i certainly hi if she got into the race in 2011 in iowa she would be one of thehree top caidates. i think rney would be in

there, had huckabee, mae newt, she would be. i thought she had a terrific interview therendrea and i ink quite frankly in that interview, she did a far better jo explaining w it is she is steppi down in aska than she diin that somewhat disjote prs conference on the lake, whh was very hurried. >> pa let me itch topicsnd before i lose ou, get you comment on wh beenoi on between vladimir putin and barack obama. is the president simply face th inevitab conflictith putin or could he have handled this differently or ds it matter? >> look, i think the president's going to have problems th vladimir utin. putin represents the russian people who believes we treated russia very,ery badly when they tried to be our friend in the 1990s. we moved nato up to thei borders, trying to bring in ukraine an georgia, putting missiles in poland, cut th out of the oil of th caspian. they sawhe united states after e cold war as taking advantage of a nation flat on its back

when they thought wewould be their friend. and i think putin represent ares that tough, nationalistic authoritarian stra in russia, whichas alwaysbeenthere, but i thin the president doing the right thing in the way he's handling this. and exct i've got me questions about sateg arms treaty but in the way he is handling putin and medvedev, i think he is doing theight thing. >> and what about the way he oulddle a summit hosted by berlusconi, a man who scandals go bond thing. >> berlusconi says gos if berlusconi saycome on over the house, we e having a party after th summi don't go. look ihink that -- look, berlusconi is the head of governmentmaybe the head of the sta there and i don't care who they e. you ha got to treat them with a certain measure of digty and respect, no matter thr personal misconduct and behior or even their ideology.

d this is an area where think barack obama rack obama's natural griousness and couesyl rvhim well. pat buchanan, tha you so much. what political sty will be making headlines? that's next on "andrea mitchell report ports". stayith us.

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>> what story will we be talking ababo, if we can ttal in thehe nxt 2hours. chchk it up jetlag. ris cillizza,ututh of t t fix. help m meout. >> welcome back f from alaska, andrea. yoyou re mimiss.. second,ig nenews out of illinois toy.y. lisa madigan, t ste attorney neral who has been courteted by the white house said shehe i no gogointo runoror that nanat

she's not f fining toto run for vevern either.r. this is the blowo the democrats. if magan had run, very l lilyl that mark cur koko would have sted out. mamadin's out.. kirk's in a a we're probably looking at a r rearace. >> and youuroke that sty,y, chris. y you've beenigging deeplyntnto what's happeniningnn ilnonois what's ppening with t new senator? >> thank you u fo mentioning that. yes, th newnator, roland burris, it's's notenentily clea wh he's doing a it related t t 1010. he raised almost n nmoney in the rst quarter of t theyear. the truth ofthe m matrrisisthths ra i i going o on withthtt him. your now verylikely tosese

ris kenendydy getntnto e ce. alexi, a yououng guy,y, is alre in the rae.e. again, this is going to bee a ry cpepetive race. i think demococraave to be fafared, but with madigan, had she rrun isis is aace we wouldn't be talalngng about aiai whe e hoe has tried to weigh in on a number of things. they tried to get roy c cper ne. theyey d g g a y new york out to clearhe race for k kin gillibrand.. malon

maloney. >> thanks so mumuch. read more from chris onhis blog. that does it for me. i'm ananeaea mchell, live in shshgton. contntes b brer picks it up ne. coming u up,e e ve these laakakeron capitol hill liningng up on two sides. e side, there should b be congressional hohor r fomichael jacksoson. the other side, , so s sayo way, evenenililli to walk out in a momont of silence. >> so, a public figure chased. anthen his opponentss pu for crininalharges of adultery. hohow ds s ll-o sugar free ding fit all that ric chococolatey tae in 60 calories? ♪

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gogood wednesday. big hourur eead here. lawmakers s veve tllionsn the li with healthth care, , stulul anand energy bills. yet, what arar t the fighghti abt? michael jackckso a handful o of