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save you money and save car companies, too? is the recession over? that's what one magazine pro claims. this week we'll get a number that could tell us for sure. good morning everyone. i'm alex witt. this is msnbc sunday. we've all that, plus cyclist lance armstrong hopes to come close to hisry in paris. a new report from washington. the congressional budget office says a white house proposal that was expected to generate savings will probably do little to reduce health care costs over the ten years. mike viqueira joins us live from washington. good sunday morning to you. this is a setback for the democrats. how big? >> reporter: another setback to be certain. remember it was about ten days ago when the congressional budget office came back and said, you know what? this plan on capitol hill right now is not going do reduce long-term health care costs.

that's the stated goal of the administration and president obama because it's such a drag on the economy now and getting bigger. one-fifth of the company by 2020. to alleviate the problem, president obama time and time again over the last several day s at his press conference, town hall in cleveland, ohio, said he was going to create a commission of doctors and professionals that would look at medicare payments and crack down on a lot of wasted medicare. cbo playing spoil sport again. the congressional budget office comes out with a letter to democratic leaders in the house yesterday and said it's only going to save $2 billion over the next ten years. the probability is after that it won't save much more at all. one caveat, if the they put teeth into this thing, if they beef it up, it could cut long-term costs. whatever the case may be, alex. politically it's not going to play well with the democrats. they're in a very difficult position now as you know trying to get this legislation through congress. >> they sure are. certainly unwelcome news for the white house. thank you very much for that,

mike viqueira. more later. a new report from "the l.a. times" that says senator ted kennedy isn't letting brain cancer keep him from fighting for health care reform. the paper reports he's in constant phone contact with aides in washington. he watches washington hearings on his computer. democratic leaders want to bring kennedy to the capitol to vote on a health care bill even if he needs to use a wheelchair or hospital bed to do it. the ranking republican on the judiciary committee says he knows how he will judge on judge sotomayor. senator sessions says you're going to have to wait until he casts his vote to find out. the senate judiciary committee is expected to vote to sonia sotomayor's ap appointment to the supreme court in two days. > . steve, good morning. >> good morning, alex. >> i want to get your end prediction here. when all is said and done, what

do you think the full senate vote is going to be in terms of a count for sotomayor? >> well, i'll take a guess and say 68. they get the 60 democrats. we know they have five republicans so far who have said publicly they will vote for her nomination. throw in two or three more. it would kind of split the difference. sam alito got 58 on his confirmation a few years ago. john roberts got 78. i'll compromise and say 68 for this nominee. >> we'll see if you're right. we'll know pretty soon. it looks like congress will be breaking for the summer before health care reform comes to a vote. what are republicans and democrats going to do during before the recess to try to sway voters? >> a lot of people will be work together sway voters. white house aides tell us the president will continue working through august on this even if there are no votes in congress to build support. members in congress, particularly the house, are going to hear from their constituents. that won't necessarily be a good

thing for the prospects of passing this. if the trends continue and operation opposition continues to grow, they'll get an earful. there are those who can hear from constituents that they don't like this. i think what happens over august is more important than usual even though congress won't be in session. >> i want to talk about how much timing has to do with all this. president obama's decision to launch his highly ambitious agenda, arguing, quote, if he moved more slowly and with a narrower focus, obama could have nurtured his electoral majority, build greater confidence around his leadership and emerge with a bigger mandate to pursue his postponed campaign agenda. sweeping economic measures to fight the recession? >> alex, there's no doubt, whether there's confidence in

barack obama, there's no trust in the federal government. barack obama is running into some of the same problems bill clinton ran into in '93 pushing health care. i balked to bill gallston this week, smart guy who worked on the clinton health care proposal. he says they need to help build the trust in the government before asking the people and the congress to accept the idea of giving the government more control over health care. probably the best way to do that was to do incremental steps. what threw the monkey wrench in all this was the stimulus package. they wanted to go first, wanted to do this $800 million and people haven't seen any benefit from that. that's eroding trust instead of building trust. and i think in the end, i think this will all spell that the president may have to settle for less. >> how much do you think the report released yesterday that really the president's plan is only going to save $2 billion over ten years. the cbo putting that out there. do you think that's going to have a tremendous impact on

things and make things go a little further south? >> no doubt that makes it harder in congress. when the cbo said about ten or 12 days ago that the ft co-s were going to go up and not down without putting numbers to it, that was a game changing moment, that's when you start to see the opposition take voice among particularly moderate and conservative democrats and give more muscle to the republicans. that's going to happen again with this report. >> okay, steve. thank you very much. in just a few hours, sarah palin will step down as governor of alaska. after meeting with residents at picnicses in her hometown of wasilla, she'll attend a farewell picnic in fairbanks. that's where norah o'donnell is this morning. another good sunday morning to you. let's talk about the governor and what she's been saying on this farewell picnic tour this weekend. >> reporter: good morning to you, alex. we're here. this is exactly where governor

sarah palin is going to resign later today. she is going to deliver a farewell speech here in fairbanks in front of the second largest wooden boat in america. she's going the use this huge picnic, this annual golden day picnic to make that announcement, to give that farewell speech, to turn over the reigns of power to the lieutenant governor. a couple of interesting pieces of information, she used her twitter account last night to tweet that she packed everybody up and a camper full of kids with coffee to travel seven hours here to fairbanks. she also said she had been listening to country music, all kinds of stuff, listed all that. the other interesting piece of information to share with you based on some of my reporting is the reaction here from some of the people in alaska. we actually went out to the golden day parade yesterday, talked to a number of residents here who were largely supportive of her decision to leave office. but they did say they wish that she would have stayed in office.

they understand, essentially, why she's leaving. they say they wish she could have toughed out another year and a half. listen what they told me. >> i'm disappointed. i think she did a fabulous job. >> i wish she would have stuck it out. i wish she would have stuck it out. >> reporter: it's interesting some of the reaction there at the parade yesterday. then finally, alex, in speaking with some of her advisers, nbc news has learned that sarah palin has raised more than $1 million for her political action committee. in just six months, she's raised that much money, that's sig any, about $300, $400,000 since she announced she was resigning. that cash can fund a lot of political travel. her first expected stop is the ronald reagan presidential library in craft in just two weeks. alex? >> do you know who it is that's

donating that money, that's giving her $400,000 just a few weeks ago? >> these are her grassroots supporters, those who love and admire sarah palin, who think she's been treated unfairly by the press and the media. they do very little solicitation. sometimes you will see an advertisement for sarah pac. i'm told she has a list of more than 13,000 political contributors. that's significant. because in politics, you want a list. if you have something like 20,000, that means you've got quite a base to raise money from. it's significant she's got that many people, 13,000 people who have contributed to her political action committee. that's a well you can go back to and get more donations as she tries to spread her message around the country. she's not saying she's running for president, let's be clear. >> we've been monitoring the twitter page as well. u you mentioned what we picked

up from her official twitter page. she lists several of the musicians she's going to listen to on her seven hour row trip. they include kid rock, martina mcbride, big and rich, gretchen wilson and the black eyed peas. now you know. thanks for that. >> it is interesting. >> it is. she loves country music. >> reporter: loves country music and been sharing both a professional and a personal in these final days in office to let people know. she's got about 100,000 people following her on twitter which is significant. she hasn't spoken with the press in more than three weeks. alex. >> thank you very much for that, norah. we invite you to watch "meet the press" this morning. hillary clinton will be joining david gregory for a full hour. among the top picks, the upcoming talks with china and the nuclear threats with north kcorey yeah and iran. check your local listings for

the time. protesters across the country took too to streets in opposition to human rights abuses. crowds gathered at a civic center. demonstrators demanded the release of prisoners during the crackdown during protests last month. in chicago, activists called for the need to end the violence in iran. today authorities are searching hospitals in southern california for gunmen who may have been involved in the shooting death of a u.s. border patrol agent. at least two gunmen may have been wounded in that thursday shooting near the border in southeastern san diego county. on saturday mexican authorities announced the arrest of four men suspected in involvement of the shooting. the officer leaves behind a 2-year-old son and 11-month-old daughter. across texas there are police officers patrolling for people watering their lawns and gardens.

the officers and dozens of other state officials are scouring neighborhoods from dallas to san antonio to enforce strict no-watering rules. texas is the country's most draut stricken state according to the department of agriculture. severe conditions exist if 77 of the 254 counties. while water levels are dangerously low, there's no immediate danger to the state's water supply. the 13 astronauts aboard the shuttle space station complex are enjoying their first day off in more than a week following several intense space walks. "endeavour's" commander says he's had trouble to tweet. one more space walk is planned for tomorrow. "endeavour" and its crew of seven will depart the space station on tds and return to earth at the end of the week. one report could show the economy is back from the brink. we'll be talking about it. also a new report about farrah fawcett's will and who

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looking ahead to the week on wall street, on monday a report on new home sales is expected to show a rise thanks to interest in newly built smaller homes. tuesday's case schiller reports should show homes down 18% in april fell by a similar amount in may. on friday the big number of the week will be the gdp, a measure of economic growth. that reported is expected to show the economy bouncing back in the spring, shrinking just 1.5% after a 5.5% decline in the first quarter. on friday, a milestone for

the 107-year-old jc penney. the company will open its first store ever in manhattan right in the heart of new york city. the stock market will be kicking off the week tomorrow following big gains on friday. the dow had its best weeks since 2000. what can we expect this week? joining me live now neil irwin, financial reporter for "the washington post." good sunday morning to you. >> morning, alex. >> we have the dow, nasdaq, s&p starting up this week after gaining at least 4% last week. what do you think is driving the rally? does an economic recovery have to begin with the stock market? >> not necessarily. it's not the most reliable of indicators, but that said, it's good news what we've had the last couple weeks. two things happening, corporate earnings have been coming up for

the second quarter, though they haven't been fantastic, they're better than expected. also the economic data has come in pretty solid. some things, the housing market seems to be stabilizing some. consumer spending is stabilizing. the job market is still bad. but there are glimmers of hope up there. that's driving things a lot. >> any risk that these are false starts? >> there's a risk as the year progresses people either don't have a job or are afraid they're going to lose their job and lose that confidence they've gained in the last few months and aren't willing to return to stores the way people are expecting. there's a lot of risk for the economy. the question is can we sustain this momentum we have. the last couple weeks it's very good. stock market is up 11% in the last two weeks, about 44% since march. >> how about looking ahead to this week with the new home sales figures expected to be released tomorrow. what do you expect to see? >> that's probably going to show another gain. what's happening is with mortgage rates very low,

bargains out there, people are buying again. there's also this first-time home buyer tax credit for $8,000, there's a lot of reasons this spring and summer for people to buy a home, especially starter homes. it's not the big homes that are selling, it's the small ones where people can go in and buy for the first time. we saw that last week with the existing home sales numbers, we ought to see the same with new home sales. >> okay. what about tuesday with the latest consumer confidence numbers set to be released, consumer confidence index for june was down after two months prior improvement. what do you think we'll see tuesday? >> looks like we're probably seeing some bouncing around on consumer confidence, probably not a big move in either direction. the truth is consumers are still nervous about the job market, still afraid they might lose their job. the stock market being up helps. there is some signs of life out there. we seem to be in kind of a leveling period on consumer confidence. >> okay. the big number out this week on the gdp set for friday. that, of course, the broodest measure of economic activity.

if that is negative, neal, that will tell us if we were still technically in a recession last quarter. how is it going to read do you think? >> most economists are expecting it to be down by about 1.5% annual. by the standards of this recession, that's not too terrible. as you mentioned earlier, we have about a 5.5% retraction in the first quarter. shrinking only 1.5% rate is good news in this bizarre atmosphere. we're all hoping that turns flat or even positive in the second half of the year. >> the thing about these numbers, they're a look back. these are lagging indicators. just because it may have a negative tone to it doesn't necessarily mean we're still in the a recession. you can see me looking for the silver lining here, right? >> exactly. the other thing with gdp is in a weird way the more negative it is, the better the news might be. if it's negative because businesses were cutting inventory, that means they'll have to crank up factories in the second half of the year, in

which case the economy may look better in the second half depending how negative it is in the second quarter. it's a strange mix of things you look at there. >> okay. neil irwin with the washington host. always great to see you. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, alex. a cute little baby face making a debut. a baby giraffe was born on thursday, the male calf weighed in at 164, already 6'4". that's some baby. ell i was shopr a new car, ♪

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reports crews are making quick progress in restoring the electricity. to the west coast, a high surf warning remains in effect for several beach communities in southern california today. the waves could reach eight feet or more. you might want to watch the weather channel on cable or logon to weather.com for your latest weather updates in those regions in particular. let's go to the economy and the latest efforts to help u.s. automakers. a new government assisted program called cash for clunkers. one goal is to get drivers out of gaz gussalers into more fuel efficient vehicles. it's expected to breathe new life in the industry as well. why are critics ready to put the brakes on the program? mike ram say reports on the auto industry for bloomberg news. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> any idea how many people are taking part in this program since it started on friday? >> early indications are that it's actually driven quite a bit of traffic to dealerships. i talked to a number of dealers

yesterday. they're saying that there's a lot of traffic coming in looking. not everybody qualifies. quite a few of the sales they are making are being taken advantage of by people who have an old trade-in they can bring in and get up to $4500 for. >> let's get to some of those requirements because that is important before heading out to the dealerships. the requirements for the car, the car has to be less than 25 years old, 18 miles per gallon or less, drivable, insured. under this program consumers can buy a domestic or a foreign car. is the idea to get more people to buy cars or is it u.s. cars? >> really it's open to any manufacturer. in fact, if you do a search on cash for clunkers, gm will come up first with their website, then toyota. it's open to anybody. i suspect toyota, nissan and some of the foreign automakers are getting as much or more than the u.s. automakers to take

advantage of this program. >> if you're a consumer, here are the requirements. show proof of one year's appearance, one trade in for person, and the credit apply toss the purchase of a new car only. no cash back. you can buy any car with a list price below $45,000. so you can take a so-called clun kerr to any car dealership in any city and trade it in and get a new car? >> yeah, pretty much, you can. they put a pretty tight restriction. the fact of the matter is they're probably going to blow through the money very quickly. there's $1 billion allocated by the federal government. they estimate that could generate about 250,000 sales. that may sound like a lot. even in this incredibly slow sales environment, you sell almost a million in a given month. so 250,000 over several months is not a huge amount of cars to motivate people. i think the idea is, let's see

if i can trade this in, get a car and drive extra traffic to the dealerships. >> mike, just to be clear on how this works. if someone is ready to trade in their clun kerr, how much catch are we talking about? do you get the money in hand? how does it work. >> no. what happens is you go and the dealership handles everything. if your car is worth something very small, maybe $500, $600, you can get a credit up to $4500 as long as your car, the new car you're guying gets ten miles per gallon better fuel efficiency. you get the value of what you trade in and $4500. the dealer takes that off of the price and they handle the whole thing. the government reimburses the dealer. >> okay. well, sounds good for consumers if they qualify. mike ramsey with block berg news, thank you, mike. >> thanks very much. for all your golfers going out today, try pulling off this unbelievable shot. this is on the 15th hole of the

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6,000 people are expected to show up at sarah palin's governor's picnic in fairbanks, alge las ka. pale little will be signing autographs and handing out hot dogs and turn the keys to the governor's mansion over to lieutenant governor shawn parnell. she'll deliver what she calls a transition speech. i'm joined by eleanor clift, and jonathan allen. good sunday morning to the two of you. >> good morning. >> eleanor, a transition speech. what do you make of that characterization?

>> well, she's trying to redefine the terms of politics. she makes quitting look like she's actually hanging in there for the long haul, and she makes a resignation speech a transition to a new bright future for herself and the voters she represents. so there's some people who are going to buy this, but i must say the polling last week showed she only has a 40% approval rating, suggests that her transition into private life is not working out exactly as she might have planned. but this is a woman who is a runner. she's run many miles in arctic alaska weather. so i think she'll be around some time and i think her challenge is to find the issues that can catapult her onto the national stage if, in fact, that's what she wants, onto the national stage in a more serious way. >> another poll i want to look at in which it shows 53% of americans have an unfavorable opinion of sarah palin.

there's the gallup poll showing 72% of republicans view her favorably. jonathan, what does this mean for palin's next move? >> well, i think actually that may be deceptively high, the number of republicans that approve of her. it's a pretty simple question of approval, if you look at other political figures, other famous political figures, usually within their own party they're popular. you will get, for instance, the president's numbers among democrats and republicans. they remain tremendously high, i think in the 90s in most polls of the democrats. i think it can be misleading. i'm not sure how sarah palin makes a come baback. richard nixon said a man isn't finished when he loses. he's finished when he quits. i think it will be difficult for her to run for president of the united states or any office against people saying what are you going to do the first time things get tough in the foreign policy debate, run out?

>> are there any options off the table for sarah palin right now? >> i'm thinking for her maybe the audience is enough and she's going to earn a very good living in this new incarnation, and i think her appeal to parts of the republican party is not very good, the establishment. republicans don't really like her. to have a 72% approval rating among republicans as a species is diminishing in number, i think in the 20-some-odd percentile of self-identified republicans. to have a high number among a small group is not necessarily a great platform. having said that, is she going to campaign against cap and trade energy legislation? it's not particularly sexy. so i think -- i go back to what i said originally, i think she's got to find some issues here that resonate with the voters. >> jonathan, real quick. can you lay out a path that sarah palin would have to take to achieve the presidency?

>> i think she'd have to win something else. she'd have to come back to the stage in some sort of stepping stone capacity. i don't know what that is. maybe it would be appointed to a cabinet for somebody else. >> which says you're taking her out of the running for 2012? >> i'm sorry? >> which says you'd take her out of the running in 2012? >> i don't think she could win the presidency in 2012. >> thank you very much. appreciate your time. at the top of the hour i'll be talking to nbc's norah o'donnell who is covering sarah palin's resignation live in fairbanks, alaska. let's go to central america ousted hon duran president manuel sol lie yeah made a return after four weeks of compile from his country. he's expected to try to enter honduras again today. the government insists if zelaya

returns, it will be as a prisoner. >> reporter: i'm carrie sanders on the nick august want-hon duran border where the compiled president says he's going to return today and possibly cross the border into his home country of honduras. he gathered here on saturday with hundreds of supporters who are urging him to retake his official position as president in the country. he was deposed from his position june 29th at gunpoint, forced out of the country still wearing his pajamas, while he didn't make it across the border on saturday, he did on friday. he says he is trying to show the world that he symbolically can return to his country. the defacto government in honduras says they will not back down, that he would be legally removed from office when he tried to extend his term. his actions at the border the past few days have brought about u.s. criticism. zelaya says he is not going to accept the criticism.

he possibly will make his way to washington to meet with the state department on tuesday. carrie sanders, nbc news on the nick rag want-hon duran border. increedable pictures to see what it was like during a formula one crash on sunday. while driving he hit -- gets hit on a helmet with what appears to be a spring from another car. the driver ends up crashing into the tire barrier and is seriously injured. he is reported to be, though, in stable condition. at this hour, lance armstrong and another 179 cyclists are on the road to paris. it's the final stage of the three-week long tour de france. this time armstrong's 12th time participating in the race, he won't win. the 37-year-old texan is set to place third in the tour. for more i'm joined by keith miller. keith, good morning. i understand this is a spanish cyclist has all but sealed the win so far today?

>> indeed. barring an accident unforeseen on the accident. we have alberto con toredor will take the tour de france. he's lance armstrong's teammate. a bit of friction between the two, both highly competitive. armstrong really was never in a position to win the tour. he was among the leaders from the get-go. he will still take the podium along something he's done seven times before. for the first time he will now be in the third position. interesting, alex, he said it wasn't such a bad thing. in fact, his children would be there attending, watching the ceremony. it's the first time they've seen him not be the winner of the tour de france. he says it's a humbling experience and perhaps good for a bit of humility. showing quite a good character for a ferocious competitor. >> what's so remarkable is the

age factor here. the oldest person ever to win a tour de france was 36. armstrong, he's now 37. he's already saying he's going to be competing against next year? >> he's unstoppable. his record of seven wins is astronomical in terms of the cycling world, never before matched and probably unlikely to be matched for a long time. he gave the ap an interview and here is what he said about next year and this year. i wouldn't change anything about my performance. the tactics, about the preparation. sure we'll change some things next year, but looking back at this season, we did everything we wanted to do. so very confident. this young man, of course, had testicular cancer, fought back from a debilitating, life threatening disease, showed incredible stamina. he's been plagued for many years with charges of doping. he's passed the tests. he says he's available for testing at all times during the tour, showed tremendous stamina. as a weight loss program, i

highly recommend the tour de france. i read this morning that after three weeks the riders burn 130,000 calories. no wonder they're so thin. >> oh, my gosh. i'm speechless thinking about that. it makes sense. loofk at what they're doing. thank you for that keith miller from london. still ahead, the health care reform battle. how divided are the democrats. where do the republicans fit in this picture? the story coming up for you. first, a new report on farrah fawcett's will and the person she left out of it. a bit later some round sound is turning on the turntables on mp3s. this is "msnbc sunday." o see wh. on the internet. i'll be using the 3g at&t laptopconnect card. he won't. so i can browse the web faster, email business plans faster. all on the go. i'm bill kurtis and i'm faster than floyd mayweather. (announcer) switch to the nation's fastest 3g network

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want to let all of you know, we're getting breaking news. this into us from new york, from the macarthur airport, southeast flight 693 has made a safe landing, though certainly it was not planned to do so. there's two different reports here. southeast flight or southwest flight. i'm going to go with southwest flight 693 departed from bradley airport in connecticut headed to orlando, boeing 737 with 136 people on board. they've landed safely. the problem was an electrical fire on board. it resulted in the oxygen masks being dropped from the ceiling, no doubt a frightening time for the passengers on board. again, 136 people on board southwest flight 693 from bradley airport in connecticut, bound for orlando. there was an electrical fire on board. those people have landed safely, though, at macarthur airport

there in long island. i've got kras main from southwest airlines who joins us. chris, can you tell me what happened here? >> well, we have flight 693 from hartford to orlando diverted to long island due to reports of smoke in the cabin. don't have a lot of detail. i don't know the extend of what happened. had reports of smoke in the cabin, diverted to long island, landed safely without incident and on the ground assessing the situation as we speak. >> was it right after take off? connecticut, bradley airport, going to the macarthur airport. that's not very far. >> that's not very far. i don't know at what point there were reports of smoke in the cabin. i don't have all those details. they realized the situation on board and made the decision to divert to long island. >> any reports of injuries? >> not that i'm aware of at this

point. >> okay. what in a situation like this will be the plan forgetting the passengers to their final destination point, orlando? >> in many cases, we'll make the decision to swap the aircraft. we'll bring in a new aircraft to operate that flight. i don't know if that's the situation here. but we'll obviously take a hard look at the flight and go from there. >> what about the number, we have 136, is that passengers and crew or just the passenger number? >> that is passengers and crew, 131 passengers and five crew members. >> pilot, copilot and three flight attendants, that sort of thing? >> that's right. >> okay. last time this kind of thing happened too your memory, do you know of something? and when it comes to an electrical fire, do you have any idea what can be the catalyst for that? >> don't know any details. it's pretty unusual for that to happen. but it sounds like our flight crew handled it very

professionally and routinely. so i don't have any details as to a cause or anything else along those lines. >> okay. chris mainz with southwest airlines. thank you very much for the official update. this news just getting in, at least good news form southwest flight 6923 bound from bradley airport in connecticut for orlando, florida. there was an electrical fire on board. at this time that plane and its 136 people on board including passengers and crew, are safe. they're at macarthur airport in islip on long island. if one of your loved ones are on this flight, there will be delays getting there. but at least they're safe on the ground in long island. more news on the other side of the break.

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a british tabloid is reporting farrah fawcett left the bulk of her almost $6 million fortune to her troubled

son redmond. interesting she close to leave nothing to ryan o'neill. she died of cancer at age 62 last month month. today, the next chapter in the controversial arrest of a harvard professor is starting to unfold. cambridge city officials along with the police department are working out a map for the city-wide forum to address the controversy. msnbc contributor and "washington post" contributor jonathan kep hart reports, the arrest of henry louis gates junior has sparked another conversation on race in america that i suspect will end as quickly as it began with no clearer understanding of the roots of the racial reactions that fueled it. i'm joined life by jonathan kephart. >> i know what you just read sounds really pessimistic compared to where i actually am. there's a racial flair-up, we

talk about it for two or three weeks, do lots of soul searching and then move on to the next thing. we went through it with the jena six, katrina, o.j., the million man march, we can go on and on and on. i think the reason why i think nothing will likely come of this is that we as a nation don't trust each other enough to have this messy, uncomfortable con sigs. i think this announcement by the city of cambridge that they're going to try to put together this forum is a terrific announcement, but i hope it's not the beginning and the end of the process, but the start of an ongoing process. >> speaking of that, we have professor gates who writes of president obama's invitation to the white house, i'm pleased that he, too, is eager to use my experience as a teaching moment. and if meeting sergeant crowley

with a beer for the president would further that end, i'd be happy to oblige. gates himself seems optimistic about this teachable moment. do you think anything might come of this if the three to meet at the white house? >> certainly, absolutely. i think it was a terrific idea. what would make this even better is if once they have that beer at the white house, that sergeant crowley and professor gates keep talking, that they continue to have their conversation and their dialogue with each other in private, but maybe also in public. it's also important to realize that it's not just on the shoulders of the president and sergeant crowley and professor gates to have this conversation, but i think we should all use this opportunity to start building that trust that i think as a nation we don't have to have this uncomfortable conversation. >> you know, when you look at other national stories that involve race, jonathan, this situation seems very unique in that it's the nation's first

black president, a very popular one, is involved. doesn't this change the potential outcome? >> well, yes, it does. yes, we have our first african-american president, but we also have someone who is a chief executive who has gone through some of the situations that millions of african-americans and certainly african-american men have gone through. so the president understands both implicitly and explicitly what it means to have these run-ins. when he made his, i think, unfortunate "acted stupidly" remark, it changed completely the tone and tenor of the debate and ratcheted it up a bit. that's why i think his surprise appearance at the white house briefing room on friday was good to take a lot of the pressure off and to make it clear that we've got to get back on track. i think from his perspective, get back on track of the

nation's agenda, but also get people back in line with having this conversation that we need to have, to really turn it into a teachable moment as opposed to a flash point of conflict. >> all right, jonathan capehart, i'm glad we talked about it. thanks so much. coming up at the top of the hour. so long sarah palin. she's about to step down as governor of alaska. is she dropping clues about her future? the view from space as astronauts take a day off. this is "msnbc sunday."

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