good evening from los angeles, i'm lawrence o'donnell in for keith olbermann. the senate finance committee got bogged down this morning when it spent two hours discussing just one of the 564 proposed amendments in its long-awaited health care bill. at that rate, four amendments a day, 20 a week. 80 a month. in our fifth story on the "countdown," does the senate finance committee really need seven months to vote on its version of the health care bill? day two of the markup of the bill getting off to a slow start. if yesterday republicans were complaining that they needed more time to understand the proposal, today they were looking to delay the vote, starting with the handiwork of sometimes sleeping republican senator jim bunning, who proposed an amendment that would have required the congressional budget office to evaluate the bill in technical legislative language before voting on it. waiting for the legislative

language draft to be written and for the cvo to evaluate that would delay the process by at least two weeks. republican olympia snowe of maine argued that was not a lot to ask for. >> and i truly do not understand the skepticism about this request. i don't understand the reluctance, nor do i understand the resistance. this is about doing our job. if it takes two more weeks, it takes two more weeks. >> the bunning amendment would have required the committee to have the legislative language of the bill along with the cbo cost estimate posted on the internet for 72 hours before voting on it. democrat kent conrad questioned what civilian could possibly understand it. >> let me just read you some legislative language that comes out of this committee. tell me if this will help the american people understand what

we're really doing. m.a. benchmark based on plans competitive bids, one in general, section 1853, sub j of the social security act, 42 usc 1935 w/23 a is amended by striking amounts for purposes and inserting amounts. number one in general for purposes. b by redesignated paragraphs one and two as subparagraphs a and b respectively, and indenting the subparagraphs appropriately. >> pure poetry. unlike yesterday's session when senator bunning had trouble keeping his eyes open, drifting off for a short nap, that's him on the far end of the table. the kentucky republican was able to honor the senate tradition of staying awake for debate on his own amendment. the bunning amendment was defeated but just barely, by a

vote of 12-11, democrat blanch lincoln voted with the republicans as this program predicted she would on occasion, still, it looks like senator lincoln is leaning toward voting for the baucus bill in the end. >> for some time i have said i cannot support any health reform proposal that the congressional budget office cannot certify as reducing the deficit and bringing down the cost of health care over the long-term and in the out years. under the chairman's amazing leadership, the mark as proposed does meet these very important goals. >> much to talk about tonight with senator sherrod brown, democrat of ohio and a member of the committee on health, education, labor and pensions which has already passed its own health care bill. thank you for your time tonight, senator. >> of course, lawrence, thank you for what you do, thanks. >> senator, your committee took what, about three weeks to get a bill marked up?

it looks like the finance committee is going slower than you did. >> we started off fairly slowly the first few days. the republicans were doing a slow walk. we went through only a couple of three, four dozen amendments in the first four days. we ended up doing 11 days of markup. chris dodd, the chairman who handled it very well, simply said on some days we're going to stay here tonight until we finish this title of the bill. and amazingly enough, the debate got shorter because people didn't want to work until 2:00 or 3:00 or 4:00 in the morning and we finish at 9:00, 10:00, 11:00 at night. and that's one of the ways of doing it. but it's clearer throughout this whole process, lawrence, the republicans' delay is their friend. and they played that out in negotiations with grassley and enzi during the negotiations with baucus and congressman bingham and snowe. delay is what kills health care reform. it plays into the hands of the drug industry and the insurance industry. they keep this going long enough, they think they can defeat it. we don't run rough shod over

them, we get this bill to the floor sometime in october. >> we learned yesterday with studies that came out indicating that in your state of ohio, health care premiums have risen seven times faster than median wages, and i don't see anything in the senate finance committee bill that addresses that, do you. >> there are a few things, i like the health bill. there are four bills that have already passed out of committee, education, labor, ways and means and energy and commerce and the house, the health committee in the senate, our legislation. each of those bills is good, each of them has a strong public option. if i think about republican delays, all i can think about as i go from lima to akron to warren, to dayton, to chillicothe is that 390 ohioans every day lose their health insurance. 390 people in my state lose health insurance every day and when i hear republicans trying to slow walk this, it's an insult to those 390 people every

single day. we're not going to rush this and do it next week on the floor. we're going to do this and get this committee going, do it in october in the first round votes, get it to the president sometime between thanksgiving and christmas so we can start the new year by providing health insurance to people who don't have it. giving consumer protections, those who are happy with their plans, but need protection against preexisting protection. other disqualifications. it helps small business provide the insurance that every small business person i know in ohio that talks to me about this wants to provide insurance if they can afford it. the health bill, the other three bills in the house all do that. that's the bill we're going to send to the president's desk, something that looks like that. >> senator, there's the expectation that the bill that you voted on in your committee will be somehow merged out of the bill that comes out of senator baucus' committee. is there anything that you voted on in your committee that absolutely must be in the final bill in order to get your vote?

>> yes. i don't think there's any one thing that would cause me to vote no. i have great -- i helped to write the public option, michelle, in the white house, asked us and senator kennedy helped with that. would i have great difficulty voting for the public option. i would have great difficulty. if we're going to mandate health insurance, we have to help with refundable tax credits for the lowest-income citizens we're telling them get insurance to help them pay for that insurance. any one of those, i would have great difficulty supporting it. don't know what it's going to look like yet. but i think we'll have a good bill with a strong public option on the president's desk. and i look forward to being on the right side of history. and i think, lawrence, some number of republicans -- i know people who went through the medicare debate. some republicans who had buyer's remorse after they voted no some years later. i think some republicans are going to think, i don't want to

be on the wrong side of history. i'm going to come around and make this bill bipartisan in the end even with a public option. that's my hope. that's what i think will happen come november, december. not yet in the finance committee but that it will happen in november and december. >> senator sherrod brown from ohio, thank you for your perspective tonight. >> my pleasure. thank you, lawrence. for more on where things stand in the senate tonight, let's turn to our eugene robertson, associate editor and pulitzer-prize winning columnist for "the washington post." thank you for joining us, gene. >> great to be here, lawrence. >> gene, one amendment takes two hours. we've done the math here. it's seven months to get it out of the committee. is this a microcosm kind of a prelude to what we're going to see when they finally get out on the senate floor, where the grand tradition of the senate is what they call unlimited debate, which is to say, unlimited amendment? >> unlimited. lawrence, you know the workings

of the senate as well as anybody does. it is -- to say it's not designed for efficiency is an understatement. it's in some ways designed for inefficiency. and i don't think that this pace, this starting pace, you do the math as you did, will continue to the whole time. but i do agree that delay is definitely a tool of those who oppose health care reform. and to the extent that republicans can draw this out, and the senate rules, let them draw it out a lot. i think they're going to try to do it. >> but one of the things that you see in this delay process, as occurred today with some of the amendments that were offered to chairman baucus is, he actually considers accepting them, meaning they don't play as absurdly ridiculous delay tactics. a lot of this input to the public can certainly sound like

a perfectly rational addition to what senator baucus is trying to do. >> yeah, it sounds rational. for example, today's amendment, it sounds rational to say, well, let's see the actual language of the bill. but you heard that snippet that was read. i mean this is incomprehensible jibberish to a lot of people. the bills have to be written in this arcain language, as you know, you pass a law, it has to amend other laws, repeal other laws, it's got to refer to the whole fabric of u.s. law and something as big as health care is going to have many, many ramifications on many existing laws. so it has to be written that way. you can't just pick it up and read it. it's not a page turner. >> and, gene, it seems that what the polling is indicating is that delay also erodes support in the public, polls just are not turning president obama's

way as time goes on, gallup polls came out yesterday indicating that people overwhelmingly believe that whatever they do, it's going to end up costing me more money. people who already have health insurance, despite all these protestations from the obama administration, what we're trying to do is cut your costs. so that's one of the other casualties of delays which is the message struggle. that's why he is doing the big media blitz. >> it makes the message campaign more difficult for the president. but there are underlying poll numbers that still give impetus to this whole effort on health care reform, which is that it's the -- if you ask people cold, you know, do we need health insurance reform? people say, yes, we do. now -- and i think the complaint that i hear when i travel around the country most often about washington is they never get anything done.

i think in the end, there is a -- there is certainly a great risk to the democrats if they don't get this done because they seem ineffectual and incompetent. but i also think there's a risk to republicans if they are seen ultimately as obstructing the actual doing of something in washington, which people don't see enough of. >> well, the other perspective for democrats is are we trying to do something that the public doesn't want? in which case, you're looking at bravery on the democrats' part if they really legislate into the public opposition. right? i mean, that's the bigger worry that they have. >> that's true, and they should have that worry. i think their instinct is that as senator brown said, that they're on the right side of history, that they haven't done a very good job of selling what they're doing, and they better start doing a better job of that.

but that ultimately, if people understand what they're trying to do, and how it would help them, that people will support it. i think that's what they believe. it's a gamble but they knew the job was dangerous when they took it. >> and they need people to understand it within 12 months after they pass it for that 2010 election. eugene robinson, pulitzer winning columnist. thanks for joining us. >> good to be here. and up next -- maybe a public option until you can afford health care. plan b, if that doesn't work, there's always charity. later, president obama's first address to the u.n. general assembly. how his message to world leaders resonated. our special guest, queen noor of jordan. crest whitestrips has created a strip so revolutionary...

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eric cantor, the number two republican in the house of representatives, says the speaker of the house is, quote, living in another world, end quote, because she said the viciousness in the health care

debate could lead to violence. and in our fourth story tonight, "countdown" has confirmed that in fact speaker nancy pelosi and the rest of us do indeed live in another world from cantor, a world known as reality. meanwhile in cantor world, quote, i've not been anywhere over the last several months where i would even think such a situation where violence is in the offing exists. because such situations have not occurred in cantor world, they must not exist. so why haven't any of mr. cantor's town halls got even the slightest bit ugly? perhaps because he held only three, and they were all held on the telephone. his first public forum taking questions on health care was this week bipartisan diverse, and run by a newspaper rather than one of the right wing groups fueling the behavior that has speaker pelosi so concerned. one woman there asked what to do about a sick relative who lost

their job and now has no insurance to pay for the surgery she needs to remove the growing tumors in her stomach. mr. cantor had plenty of time to think about his answer while democrat bobby scott responded. mr. cantor then explained republican health care. first, sell everything you own, your house, your car, whatever to pay your medical bills, until you are poor enough to qualify for medicaid, a government-run health care program. and if that doesn't work -- >> i guess i would ask what the situation is in terms of income eligibility and the existing programs that are out there. because if we look at the uninsured right now, there is probably 23, 24% of the uninsured that is already eligible for an existing government program that frankly the government has not done an adequate job at going out and making people aware and signing them up. >> and if that doesn't work, get

on your knees, stick out your hand and beg for charity. >> i know that there are programs, there are charitable organizations, there are hospitals here who do provide charity care that if there's an instance indigency, no one in this country should be sitting without an option to go address in terms of health care. and that's really -- that's really what i'm here to tell you. there are resources available. >> let's bring in the founder and publisher of the daily kos and the author of "taking on the system, rules for radical change in the digital era." thanks for your time tonight, markos. >> always great to be here. >> earlier senator colburn told

someone suffering from brain injury, and her neighbors should pitch in. and now we hear cantor saying, turn to charity, but only after making yourself poor enough to qualify for medicaid. isn't that exactly the right kind of answer that would make reasonable people in his audience think, wow, we really do need health care reform in this country? >> well, we really do need health care reform. and if there are any reasonable republicans left, they would believe that. but unfortunately this has been taken over by this fringe tea bagger component that's led by the rush limbaughs and the glenn beck's of the republican party who really believe that if you can't afford something, then you do not deserve it. that certainly applies to health care. so, you know, at the end of the day, there are no government programs that can help these people. there are no private charities that can help these people. because if there were, we wouldn't have this problem. we're having this debate precisely because the current system is broken.

>> now congressman cantor, finding himself talking to constituents about health care for the first time, also said he thinks that more uninsured people should take advantage of government programs, run by government bureaucrats, something he usually inveighs against. is he even listening to his own answers on this thing? intellectual consistency isn't the strong suit of republican. but i'm sure that the republicans would be more than -- work to bolster them to truly solve this health care crisis. >> and he complained today about the democratic intransigents on health care, that the democrats are blocking everything in the congress because the only thing they want to do is health care. but in the senate finance committee, we watch the republicans all day long successfully slow that process to a crawl.

so, i mean, who's blocking who here? >> well, republicans have no interest in reforming, that much is obvious. but i have to say, you know, you can give a pass to those democrats who are working hand in hand with republicans to obstruct. i mean, the american people elected vast democratic majorities in congress to make this stuff happen and if you're an insurance lobbyist you know republicans have no power anymore. you have to go after a few handful of democrats unfortunately are working hand in hand with republicans to stop this. >> markos of the daily kos, thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you. sarah palin defends her death panel lies, where does she make this defense? in hong kong, in her first paid speech since quitting her day job as alaska governor. and later, the moammar mayham. no place to pinch his tent in the u.s. ahead on "countdown."

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still ahead on "countdown," president obama tells the u.n. general assembly he will never apologize for defending the interests in the united states and tells other world leaders it's time to step up and not wait for the united states to fix everything. and then, there's gadhafi, already causing problems before he even started his speech. new jersey refused his traveling

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today was certainly not president obama's first time on the world stage. but in our third story on the "countdown," it was his first speech to the united nations general assembly, the full general assembly as america's 44th president. and only at the u.n. side show there was libyan leader moammar gadhafi, who spoke for one hour and 36 minutes from a couple of pages of handwritten, pardon the expression, bullet points. president obama was warmly received today by the u.n. general assembly and he used the opportunity to acknowledge recent mistrust, but also to make sure that he will not make apologies where america's vital interests are at stake. >> this is almost reflective of

anti-americanism, which has also served as an excuse for collective inaction. like all of you, my responsibility is to act in the interests of my nation and my people. and i will never apologize for defending those interests. >> the president was able to point to a list of notable policy changes under his leadership, like america's ban on torture, his order to close guantanamo and his administration's new commitment to combat global warming. he also tried to turn a familiar criticism of the u.s. on its head. >> those who used to chastise america for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for america to solve the world's problems alone. >> then for wacko theatricality, under style, the next speaker did not disappoint. moammar gadhafi seethed of all the next speaker did not disappoint. the libyan leader moammar

gadhafi sieged of all things american. more than half of the general assembly seats were empty by the end of gadhafi's speech and the exhausted english language interpreter had to be replaced. the only real surprise is the way in which gadhafi praised president obama, suggesting that president obama should stay as the u.s. leader, quote, forever. and then gadhafi proceeded to attack the united states for everything, from the jfk assassination up to and including president obama's current policy in iraq and afghanistan. a great pleasure now to welcome her majesty queen noor of jordan, who's a humanitarian and activist of global zero an international group devoted to the abolishment of nuclear weapons. queen noor will be sitting in on tomorrow's closed session of the u.n. security council as a special guest. thanks so much for your time tonight. >> thank you, thank you for your interest.

>> now what was president obama's mission today? what do you think he set out to accomplish and what do you think he actually did accomplish to that audience? >> i can't speak for the president, of course, but in listening to his remarks and having watched his progress since he became president in terms of trying to reset america's relations with the rest of the world, i think this was a continuation of the effort to emphasize the collective -- the requirement that there be collective action to resolve so many of the global problems that face us, that there needs to be a cooperation and dialogue and the united states is open and willing to do that. and the rest of the world are greeting a new president, a new tone, and god willing, a new set of priorities and policies to address some of these key issues. climate change having featured and nuclear disarmament having featured as well and the pillars

that he articulated as critical to our future. >> and what are we to make of gadhafi's speech where he praises obama personally and then attacks the united states so virulently, is that a common reaction in the region that, you know, we love your president, but we hate your country? >> i think president gadhafi clearly had a lot on his mind and i, of course, was listening for references to the elimination of nuclear weapons in most of the speeches today and was very, very heartened by president obama, president medvedev and the president of china's very clear calls for the elimination of nuclear weapons, of course that globalzero, that is the reason that we exist and we are very heartened by tomorrow's u.n. security council

special session that will be chaired by president obama. we hope that will be the beginning of a process that is multilateral which the nuclear and nonnuclear states work together for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. >> do you see president obama as having any advantage in that negotiation that his predecessors have not had? is there some reason for us to hope that he can make more head way in nuclear disarmament than president bush could have? >> he's certainly been very clear about it and that always helps. and he and the russian president, president medvedev, made a historic commitment to work together in april for the elimination of nuclear weapons and that has been repeated and it was again repeated today. so this is historic. tomorrow's u.n. security council meeting will also be historic if

the resolution is passed by the members of the security council to work for the elimination of nuclear weapons. because the experts believe that the only way to avoid or to prevent the nuclear threat increasing is in fact to eliminate all nuclear weapons. there is no in between and we are very close to a nuclear tipping point in which it will be impossible to rein in the dangers that these weapons pose in terms of nuclear terrorism in terms of nonstate actors or even the accidents that have occurred and affected so many millions of people over the years. >> queen noor of jordan. great thanks for giving us your insights tonight. >> thank you very much, and i hope your audience will go to globalzero.org and learn more about the organization. thank you. >> all right. the bizarre sideshow at the united nations all day surrounded gadhafi, not due to his first-ever speech to the

u.n., but his sleeping accommodations. new yorkers do not want the despised libyan leader setting up his trademark traveling tent. and sarah palin delivered her first speech in asia. even though she was in china, she managed to bring up those mythical death panels yet again. of course she did. and when rachel joins you at the top of the hour, palin's call for deregulating the financial markets. paul krugman will explain why that might not be such a great idea. have some fun with that truck. vroom... vroom. okay, time's up. here ya' go ! that's a nice one, i made that. that's a piece of junk. yeah. i want the red truck. well, you can't have the red truck. see, that was a limited-time offer only.

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"but i don't even live near the water." what you don't know about flood insurance may shock you. including the fact that a preferred risk policy starts as low as $119 a year. for an agent, call the number on your screen. last night, the town of bedford, new york, stopped the construction of moammar gadhafi's bedouin tent being built on an estate owned by donald trump. in our number two story tonight, new questions about whether gadhafi would be able to sleep under the stars apparently have been answered. bedford town hall officials confirmed to nbc news that gadhafi's tent has been dismantled and removed from the trump property. the trump organization has issued the following statement. we have requested that the tennant occupying the property in bedford, new york, remove the

tent that was erected. they have complied with this request. additionally, mr. gadhafi will not be going to the property. last month, gadhafi's plan to tent out in inglewood, new jersey legislators. he asked for permission to build a tent in new york's central park. that request was denied. in the past, gadhafi has taken his bedouin tent wherever he traveled, from paris to rome for belgium. it is his preferred form of overnight stay outside of tripoli. this week presented a unique problem for the libyan leader. new york's skyscraper hotels are not an option, because gadhafi who has no fear of palling around with terrorists is actually afraid of elevators. joining me now is congresswoman nita lowey, she represents new york's 18th district which

includes the town of bedford. congresswoman, welcome, thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you, larry for asking me. >> can you confirm for us now that moammar gadhafi is not sleeping in your district tonight? >> well, frankly, i've been in touch with the local officials all day, the state department. donald trump didn't return my call, although i have known him since he was a kid when we all lived in queens. and it's clear that the tent was taken down and we're following it very carefully. westchester county police were asked to provide security. this is really extraordinary when you think that he was about to camp out in the backyard of victim families. >> now, i don't know donald trump as you do, but i've been sure for a long time that there isn't anything that he isn't willing to do for money. but knowing him as you have

growing up in queens, did you ever think, even donald trump would go this far? >> i'm very glad he made a wise decision because this was so shocking to the victims' families that gadhafi would camp out in their backyards. i knew one of the families -- in fact, we went to high holiday services together. and the grief and the pain has consumed all of them, and to think that gadhafi was coming to westchester county was totally -- totally outrageous to everybody who was living there. >> and you represent families of victims. new york state was unfortunately heavily represented in the victims of that plane crash, and i know that new york senators

and congress members have had to deal with this aftermath for a long time. is there -- do you think that maybe somewhere else in the country that this would have gone more smoothly? i mean, have we forgotten lockerbie elsewhere in the country? is this just a new york thing? >> well, larry, i think that for the last couple of years gadhafi was trying to make amends. but the picture of gadhafi embracing the bomber, the mastermind of the destruction of pan am 103 was beyond anyone's expectation. it was outrageous. so if he ever tried to make amends, he certainly didn't do it in the last couple of weeks, embracing him. >> what do you think we should do in the future? these kind of things are predictable. should we recommend to leaders that they should stay in their

own missions in new york and embassies and they shouldn't try to do this kind of thing? >> frankly, gadhafi stayed last night in the libyan mission in new york, and there was no reason why he had to camp out in the backyard of the victims' families. and although there isn't a legal justification i was told by the state department to keep them from traveling, certainly it was common sense that he should be told rather forcefully and others who may or may not come to new york and have that background, that they would not be welcome if they moved outside of the mission. >> congresswoman nita lowey of new york, thanks for your time tonight. and let us know when donald trump returns that call, will you? >> thank you, larry. coming up -- sarah palin's speech to business leaders in hong kong. if they expected her to say something new, they did not get what they paid for. next on "countdown." u'll love i, you'll send your old duster packing. ♪ love stinks!

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she says she represents main street, usa, and wants to be called a common sense conservative. she then went on to blast the bailouts, derived liberalism, questioned president obama's campaign promises, critique his administration's policies and of course bring up the death panels. our number one story, sarah palin gives her first paid speech since quitting on alaska. it was closed for the press, naturally. the ex-governor venturing into international territory, speaking to a room full of investors and bankers at the annual clsa conference in hong kong for money. big money. >> i'm going to call it like i see it, and i will share with you candidly, a view coming from main street. main street, usa.

>> ms. palin covering a wide range of topics from cap and trade to terrorism and afghanistan. "the wall street journal" reports ms. palin never referred to president obama by name, but called his campaign promises nebulous, utopian sounding. now ten months later, though, a lot of americans are asking, more government, is that the change we want? mrs. palin also explained to the bankers the cause of the financial crisis. i hope they were taking notes. quote, we got into this mess because of government interference in the first place, end quote. the federal reserve was the root of the collapse. she added, the words "fox" and "henhouse" come to mind. the international bankers were offered such profundities as, we're not interested in

government fixes. we're interested in freedom. she also brought up her death panel hallucination that she posted for free on facebook. "i seem to have acquired notoriety in the national debate and all because of two words, death panel. and it is a serious term. it was intended to sound a warning about the rationing that is sure to follow if big government tries to simultaneously increase health care coverage while also claiming to decrease costs. the reviews from the crowd were mixed, ranging from, she was brilliant to she frightens me. and the afp reports, some u.s. delegates walked out of the speech, quote, in disgust. one remarking, quote, it was awful. we couldn't stand it any longer. joining us now, national editor for "vanity fair," todd purdham. good evening, todd. thanks for joining us. >> hi, lawrence. glad to be here. >> todd, we learned in this segment last night that tom delay is doing "dancing with the stars" because it actually pays a lot more than you think.

so he's in it for the money. sarah palin is doing this speech for the money. i've been trying to figure out ballpark how much. what do you get, sarah palin? what do you have to pay her to fly across the pacific and give this speech? >> you know, i've never been very good at guessing how many jellybeans are in the jar. 20 years ago president reagan briefly scandalized washington after he left office by taking $2 million for a single speaking trip to japan. you have to figure governor palin is making someplace in the neighborhood of $250,000. there's some reports suggesting $300,000. she's not doing it for chump change, that's for sure. >> and this is -- this is her business. this is what she does now. she's going to be speaking for money. we're going to see a lot of this, right? >> apparently so. >> and she didn't ever use his name, but she did bad mouth the president on foreign soil. now, we have been led to believe that republicans just don't do that. that's a real no-no in sarah palin's america, isn't it? >> it is.

she badmouthed him rather gently. but the truth is governor palin doesn't think the rules apply to her. rules are for suckers in her view. so i think she would be the last person to consider the inconsistencies, say, of the right wing criticism of the dixie chicks when they criticized president bush, and she wouldn't hesitate to criticize president obama in alaska or china or hong kong or anyplace else. >> now, why did big money corporate audiences, presumably a pretty sharp audience that knows a thing or two about the world, why do they pay for such nonsense? why do they sit there listening to someone who can't teach them anything? >> well, lawrence, you live in los angeles. everybody loves the circus. i think everybody also loves to be first with the -- first with the most and the latest. so this is her big debut. these people probably wanted to tell their attendees, you know, you'll hear her. you can't hear her anyplace else. in truth, she hasn't been making very many public appearances.

so i think it's everybody loves a show. >> now, the clfa, of course, closed palin's speech to the media. they said that they did that after she indicated that -- this is quoting, after she indicated she would have to adjust her speech if reporters were present. the afp reports that mrs. palin only took prearranged questions. so is this how it's going to operate, this will be the deal when you hire sarah palin to speak, no press and prewritten questions that she can check out before she even gives the speech? >> i honestly don't think that could be the deal if she's serious about pursuing a political career. she has to accept much more give and take than that. she didn't say anything especially controversial but if she had, it might have hurt her that there wasn't coverage of the speech because then we would be left to parse the secondhand accounts who try to say what she said as opposed having her own words. in some ways it's much safer for a politician to have his or her own words than the secondhand

account of listeners recounting them. so i don't think she can get away with that in the long term. >> and speaking in controlled environments this way doesn't really seem like a good spring training exercise for going to iowa and campaigning for president in the free-wheeling environment you run into out there, does it? >> no. i think what's fascinating and somewhat poignant, if she made the speech in january or february or march, instead of making it now, people might have been saying on a program like this, this is exactly what she should be doing. instead she frittered away that period after the campaign last year and got in trouble at home in alaska, and this is a little bit late for her to be doing this now. >> todd purdum of "vanity fair." thank you for joining us tonight. >> thank you for having me. that will have to do it for this websz's edition of "countdown." our msnbc coverage continues now.