after 50,000 interview, 50 years in the business. after all of that, larry king does not have an enemy in the world. he is a giant of this medium and this industry, and all of us here at this other 9:00 p.m. show, we all wish him the best. we salute you, sir. that does it tonight. now it's time for "the last word" with lawrence o'donnell. after weeks of liberal democratic progress, does anyone still support the president? results from the latest nbc/wall street journal poll gives president obama a reason to be optimistic. >> i feel like he's bottoming out. i feel he's building back now. >> he's not yet down for count. . >> months with fighting for democrats and republicans might not have been so bad for the president. >> his approval rating is down to the lowest level.

45% approve, 48% disapprove. >> it's remarkably stable, just two points down where he ended 2009. >> meaning the president appears to have withstood the bickering with congress. >> hell, no, you can't! >> the bp oil spill controversy. >> i want my life back. >> and even the tea party chaos of the brutal midterm elections. >> president obama by his own admission took a shellacking of late. >> positive on his personal, 58%. 36%. >> people want him, i believe, to be a successful president. >> 72% say they like obama personal personally, even if they don't like his policies. >> we've been saying here for two years that he was way too far left. >> but even that is looking up, especially with the obama tax cut compromise. >> 59% of people approve of this deal. 36% disapprove. >> there's another number in this poll. even liberal democrats say the

democrats ought to compromise. >> i hate this bill, this tax bill. but now me he's focused like a laser on jobs. and i can't believe those numbers don't start creeping up. >> but there is still room for improvement. >> when you look at some of these professional qualities, firm and decisive, knowledgeable, experienced, good commander-in-chief, he takes a hit. >> i think there's a gap about how people feel about the president and his performance. >> and how does he fare against republicans that might run against him. and what about sarah palin? >> president obama versus sarah palin, 55 to her 33. >> who should be making the decisions? >> good evening. from new york, i'm lawrence o'donne o'donnell. a new poll shows that president obama's job approval rating is tied at its lowest point, 45%, and more people believe the nation is on the wrong track than at any other point in his presidency. and yet, he still leads all

prominent and generic republican candidates in theoretical matchups in 2012. 42 to 39 against an unnamed republican. 47 to 40 against mitt romney. 47 to 27 against john thune, and 53 to 33 against sarah palin. obama's ratings have held surprisingly steady over the past year and have been especially resilient with his core constituency of african-americans, democrats, latinos and younger voters across the board. people to like the president personally, but are less likely to view him as a strong leader who's uniting the country and changing business as usual. so has president obama done the best he could given the limited powers of the presidency, the

deadlocked congress and the conservative nature of the american people? joining me now are richard wolffe, author of "revival -- the struggle for survival inside the obama white house" and ari berman, author of "herding donkeys -- the fight to rebuild the democratic party and reshape american politics." ari, are you surprised at these numbers, given all the criticism the president has been getting from both left now and the right? >> yeah. not totally, lawrence. and thanks for having me. i think if you look at the polling his numbers have held steady for quite some time. there's some glimmers of hope in that latest news poll you talked about. there's also some unsettling numbers out there that i'm sure we're going to talk about. no president since fdr has been elected or re-elected when the unemployment rate was over 8%. wrong track figures are very bad for him, 2 to 1 in another poll i saw, believing the country is

on the wrong track. and more broadly, i think he is losing some support from liberals in his coalition. he doesn't seem to be gaining support from independents as a result of this tax cut compromise. it's still unclear how things are go toing proceed going forward. >> richard wolffe, the tax cut compromise seems to be playing well in the polls. 59% overall approve of the tax cut compromise. 54% of democrats supporting it. 60% of independents support it, not surprisingly, 68% of republicans support it, since it is a tax cut compromise. >> they say it's about the economy first and economic needs, especially for the long-term unemployed, but also they're thinking strategically about where this places the president moving forward.

yes the polls matter, but we're two years from the president needing to worry that intently about the numbers here. but strategically, it puts him in the middle. when you have democrats out there beating him up, the more they beat him up, the better it is, because they're sending a signal, not just the democrats, but the white house that they have, in fact, gone to the central ground where hopefully those independent voters, at least from the white house's view, those independents will come home. support has dropped from 82% last month to 76% now following the tax compromise deal. do you read that as liberal supportle faing off or some possible sectors. >> yeah, well, gallup looked at this and found obama is below support for liberal democrats for the first time in his presidency, below 80%. and they looked at how support has fallen among democrats more broadly. he's fallen more among liberal democrats than he has among conservative democrats.

i think the polls in ferms of people supporting democrats, supporting this tax cut, i think they support it begrudgingly. i think there's a lot of people that don't support it enthusiastically. there is this uneasy relationship between the president and his base. that was heightened, the tension was heightened during thf latest compromise. >> i hate to use anecdotal information in the face of polls. i've been surprised how much e-mail and comment i've gotten from what i consider mainstream democrats as well as liberal democrats complaining about this tax cut agreement. it seems the democratic party rhetoric and the obama rhetoric in particular on the tax cuts prior to the election really got traction with obama supporters. i don't think the polls indicate that it got much useful political traction outside of obama supporters. but they definitely bought into the obama theory about why the top tax bracket should go up.

and their disappointment on this is really strong in any kind of one-on-one communication you get about it. and is there something that the white house needs to know inside these polls that these polls might not indicate in their aggregates? >> well, look, they know how much heat they're taking for it. luckily for democrats, they're going to have this whole debate for the next two years. this whole thing is going to be played oit in the general election. it's hardly a lost cause for people who feel passionately about it. the president knows he's going to be making exactly the same case again for the next election. the surprising thing here is that a plurality of democrats, in fact, whatever it is, 50% of democrats say this tax deal is the right thin to do. the interesting point, i feel, going over on a book tour, hearing from people in california, for instance, is that i think democrats are trying to figure out who they are. and when you were talking about

a bush era thing or you're talking about foreign policy, it's kind of easy. this economic argument is something that clinton had to navigate, that democrats now find much more difficult. are they there to have a more fair justice -- more fair taxation system or to help people at the bottom in this economy. and that's an identity question that democrats have to figure out about themselves as well as this president. >> ari, as the clock ticks down on this lame duck session, what would a win on don't ask don't tell do to those poll numbers in terms of democratic support, liberal support for president obama? >> i think it will make a big difference because it can show democrats can accomplish something big and show that the white house is willing to fight for something big. that's what's been missing and what so many democrats were upset about during the tax cut fight. it wasn't that he compromise pd .he looked like he compromised before he even had the fight. i think if they can get some movement on s.t.a.r.t., repeal "don't ask don't tell" it will show he's serious about having a

fight with republicans that he can bring people in and win a debate. we know the american people are with him. now the question is, does he have the political will, do democrats have the political will to actually capitalize on it. >> richard, i mentioned the limited powers of the presidency in my introduction to this discussion. i studied my high school textbook on government carefully showing that real domestic governing power resides in the congress. then i went to work in the senate where i got to say, my experience of the presidency was, that was the guy who would beg the chairman of the ways and means committee or chairman of finance and other chairmen. and those chairmen would do them or not. and i never saw the presidency as a particularly powerful force in legislating. the way they claim to be as candidates when they're running and they pretend there is no congress. they say elect me and the follow thing will happen. when i listen to that, i never believe it.

tell me what the chairman of the ways and means thinks. what was the attitude of these people come into this white house. did they think that they had more legislative power than it turned out they had? >> well, they did do a lot legislatively. i think part of the problem was, in fact, they gave -- they handed over their messaging and their strategic positioning to those leaders in congress. and it turned out that that was no way to go actually communicate with the outside world, tell people what their mission was. you can talk about health care because maybe you would be closing a door to a certain deal. how is the recovery act going to be structured. who was controlling it. those are important mission statements that people kind of judge what have they stand for. i guess for democrats that's one of the measures, but for other voters they want to see what's

the purpose here? what was the recovery act trying to do? how was it trying to do it? and what they saw was this ugly, messy process which may well be entirely what the founding fathers wanted, entirely what washington operates like, but is actually ends up being bad politics, especially when the other side, mitch mcconnell and his strategic geniuses over there have a very clear message and clear mission. that's when these two things fall apart. >> richard wolffe, ari berman, thank you for your time tonight. the attacks against senator harry reid's religion for suggesting the senate work through the christmas week might be backfiring. even some fellow republicans say the majority leader is owed an apology. senator michael bennett joins me. and later, how just a small donation from you can have a huge impact on schoolchildren in africa. tonight, how my trip to malawi far exceeded my expectations,

and how you can be a part of that success. itbut every decemberg to the eas31st, we always make it.s. the very first people to meet the new year. "get up. you're gonna miss it!" we like to think of ourselves... as a welcoming party. for the life you live. a car you can love. love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru.

the republicans are blocking everything they can in the senate. so now that majority leader harry reid is tletdenni threate take away their christmas vacation to get work done, now some are questioning his religion. and my trip to malawi and what we can do to help young students there. and also, a conversation with writer nora effron ahead.

on tuesday, senate minority whip jon kyl told reporters he had a problem with thmajority leader harry reid's ambitious legislative agenda in the days leading up to the holiday. but his problem wasn't with how little time the senate had for the legislation, it's also the holidays. >> frankly, without disrespecting the institution and without disrespecting one of the two holiest of holidays for christians and the families of all of the senate, not just the senators themselves but all the staff. >> senator demint echoed kyl saying you can't jam a major m arms control treaty right before christmas. what's going on here is just wrong. this is the most sacred holiday

for christians. those complaints prompted a rebuke from harry reid on the senate floor yesterday. reid noted that many of those fortunate enough to have a job don't get a two or even a one-week break off at christmas. they must work through the holidays to make ends meet. later that day, vice president biden came to reid's defense. his concern was the senate's delay on passing the widely supported s.t.a.r.t. treaty. >> don't tell me about christmas. i understand christmas. i've been a senator for a long time. i've been there many years where we go right up to christmas. there's ten days between now and christmas. i hope i don't get in the way of your christmas shopping, but this is the nation's business. national security at stake act. >> joining me now, the democratic senator 23r colorado, michael bennett. on my calendar, christmas is december 25 and my calendar also

notes that chris eve is december 24. the world christmas actually doesn't appear anywhere else on my calendar. it's not on the 26th, 27th, 28th, 29th. in your senate kallcalendars ist word christmas there for two weeks or what? >> you know what, i think it's amazing the observation made earlier about how the entire rest of the world works between christmas and new years seems to be lost on this place. and what i was put in the mind of as former superintendent of schools is that not only do our teachers work during christmas, they actually usually take a second job to pay for christmas presents and there's servely nothi -- certainly nothing unchristmassy about that. >> let's listen to what joe scarborough said this morning. >> this is one of the ways that we conservatives, the 12 most conservative guys in the house of representatives on fiscal matters in 1997 got our way on

budget cuts. everybody wanted to leave for easter holiday and we refused to let them go until -- >> till you got the job done. >> if we kept voting down the rule, they needed to pass this bill to keep the house operating they refused to do it. they said a lot of really nasty things to us, but jim and senator kyl would understand that people like steve largent was in the room with me that day that we did that, and to call harry reid sacrilegious is calling all of us who did this in the past sacrilegious. it's just offensive. >> joe scarborough is not the only republican thinking that way. are you getting quiet nods that think what senators kyl and demint have said is out of line? >> i have gotten quiet nods on people from both sides of the aisle that know what i learned during this tough campaign. people back in the states want us working together to actually

solve problems. i think the tax cut deal is a good example of that going forward. if we did more of that rather than less, i think congress might actually start to see their approval ratings some place other than the basement. but i think complaining about having to work over christmas is 234 not going to contribute to that. >> tipping points in our politics are sometimes hard to disstern and sometimes come over what seems like very minor things. i've been wondering since i've heard this language thrown around, is this a tipping point for republicans in what has become the overuse of religion, not just in campaigning -- it's one thing to hear it in campaigning. you hear a lot of it in campaigning. but actually using it as a device in terms of legislative blocking maneuvers. is this the kind of thing where t the public hears it and says wait,'m not listening to these people any more about god. i if i'm going to be listening to anybody about god, it's going

to be in my church. >> i don't know that, but i can tell you that they can see right through this. the start treaty supported out of the committee, brought be bipartisan support and has been lingering around the senate for months and months and months and has been held up, not by proponents but by opponents, and to now say we're out of time just seems so unwise. and people can see right through it. i'm telling you. they know exactly what's going on here. we've got to roll up our sleeves and get this work done. i do think a very significant tipping point happened last week when both tom coburn and dick durbin signed up to the report of the president's bipartisan commission on the deficit and the debt. that, i think, is going to represent a very significant inflection point in the political conversation going on in this senate of ours? >> senator, a treaty, as you know, is the highest vote threshold you have to clear. it requires 2/3, a vote of 67 to be approved in the senate.

if you can get it to a vote, do you think 67 votes are there? >> i think 67 votes are there. i had a chance to hear dick luger, the republican from indiana on the floor yesterday going through the arguments against the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. he was pointing out again the soviets line of negotiation were never our negotiating position. the soviet position was being held out as reasons why we shouldn't approve this treaty. there's no question in my mind there's 67 votes to pass this. >> senator michael bennett, democrat of colorado, thank you for your time tonight. . >> thanks for having me. i appreciate it. happy holidays. >> thank you. coming up, "the lost word" and msnbc announce a new partnership with unicef to make a difference in africa. i'll tell you what you can do to help. and later, huffington post's nora ephron is here to discuss her new book "i remember nothing." we'll make her holiday. that's why only zales is the diamond store.

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still ahead on "the last word" my trip to africa to help get schools something they are in desperate need of there, and a special announcement tonight on how you can help as well. and in tonight's "rewrite" congressman louis gomert says if don't ask don't tell is ended, it will basically be the down fall of the united states of america.

and now to what i did on my summer vacation. i know. i'm a little late with my report, but there's a reason. i had a week in waaugust where could go anywhere in the world or do anything. naturally, i went to malawi. it is one of the poorest countries in the world. the entire country is a high-risk malaria zone. hiv/aids has spread to 12% of malawi's 15 million people. life expectancy is 53 years. riding into town from the airport in malawi, i gazed across the african landscape and said to my jovial driver who had never seen another country, it's beautiful here. he said really? i went there because a few weeks earlier, a friend who created a charter school in my old neighborhood in boston told me about her trip to malawi.

she visited schools there and asked teachers what they needed most. i guessed paper, pencils. no. the deprivation level in malawi defies our untrained imaginations. you have to think even more elemental than paper and pencils. where would the kids put the paper and pencils if they don't have desks? no desks. not one. no desks for students or teachers in any of the schools my friend visited. this is what going to school in malawi looks like. in most schools, the kids are sitting on dirt floors. in the better schools, they sit on cracked cement floors. seven hours a day. and the teachers stand on those floors for seven hours a day. every teacher says the same thing. >> this school has no chairs. >> we need chairs.

they don't ask for desks and chairs. desks would be great, but first, they just want to get those kids off the floor. chairs are a dream to malawi teachers. not an item on any reasonable wishlist. most malawi teachers have never seen a desk or chair in a classroom. a teacher asking for chairs in malawi is asking for too much. none of them expect to ever get chairs in their classrooms, but if you ask them what they need most, which very few people ever do, the first word they say is always chairs. when my friend told me this, i suddenly heard myself saying well, i can get them chairs, can't i? i met with some people in new york who run charitable organizations in malaw i, but none of them had any idea how to get school furniture in malawi.

i didn't want to buy a bunch of desks in new jersey and ship them. if i spent money, i wanted it to go into the malawi economy. by the time i went to malawi, i didn't think i would be able to find desks or chairs there, i was hoping to do an initial round of fact-finding that would allow me to maybe come back later even get something done. the first two days in my week in malawi, i visited schools and tried to find chairs. a typical malawi classroom is about the size of a typical american classroom, because typical classroom has 90 students in it, itically falling all over each other as the day wears on. one first grade i visited has about 120 students and no classroom. they sit outside in the dirt. if they come back to school next year, they will get to see the inside of a classroom for second grade, but a lot of them won't come back next year because the conditions in the schools are so

discouraging. none of the schools have electricity. light comes from windows that are usually crude holes in a wall. most classrooms don't have doors, but if they do, they are left open so some sunlight can come in. on the third day, i found a hardware store with a back room woodworking shop. the owner had a prototype of a student desk and chair and a teacher's desk and chair and was gearing up to make some for unicef which has begun a program to rebuild and properly outfit malawi schools. i told them i wanted to outfit one classroom this week, could he make 30 student desks and one teacher's desk in two days? he said no problem. he would just hire extra workers and put his little factory on 24 hours shifts. motion's desks are a brilliant

design, made to unicef's specifications of durable wood and steel. each one is designed to seat two children on this bench. attached to the desk. $48 each. $24 per student. but in the overcrowded classroom i was going to furnish, three kids could easily squeeze on to this little bench. needless to say, obesity is not one of the perils of the childhood in malawi. at three kids per desk, for $16 per student, the price of a manhattan movie ticket and popcorn, i was going to be able to get 90 kids off the floor. sure, there are more important things to do in africa, stop genocide in darfur, get clean water supplies, fight aids and better people than me are trying to do those things every day of their lives. get some kids off the floor, well, that's the best i could

do. how important is it? try sitting on a cement floor. you'll be uncomfortable in ten minutes orless. then you will be in pain. your back, your hips, your bum. now stay there for seven hours. now try doing that five days a week. and don't forget to read and write while you're sitting on that cement floor. and while you're at it, try to learn something. anything. a language maybe, something that requires real concentration. we live in a culture that expects us to give up our seats on a bus or subway when someone gets on who needs the seat more than we do. and elderly person, a pregnant woman. and we do it without hesitation. sometimes right here in new york, a tough town, we actually compete to give up our seats faster than anyone else because it's important. because we know that that pregnant woman really needs to sit down, and we don't give her

the seat forever. we give it to her for eight minutes. 18 minutes. maybe 30 minutes if she's going all the way to brooklyn, and we think that's worth it. so how important is it to get chairs in a classroom in malawi? it seemed important to me. motion made good on his promise and delivered desks on friday morning to a school bubbling in anticipation. a unicef official who help med find the desk maker told me what it was going to be like when the kids saw the desks. >> i can tell you, the desk delivered at a school, that's christmas for kids. christmas comes december 25 and pretty much nothing happens in their lives. when a desk is delivered to them at the school, that is christmas. you have made their day, you have made their year, you have made their lives. >> reporter: malawi is a musical

country. kids burst into song when they're happy. motion brought some workers with him but he didn't need to. the kids rushed the truck and did it themselves. in a few minutes, this classroom became this classroom. i make no grand claims about what will happen in those kids' lives because they don't have to sit on the floor anymore. maybe they'll just be more comfortable. and to me, that's enough to make it all worth it. just as it is on the bus when you give up that seat to the person who needs it more than you do. but if we give someone a seat in an educational setting, the theoretical potential for what could happen is unlimited. maybe. just maybe in the back of one of those classrooms right now struggling to see his teacher is

africa's next nelson mandela or a future bill gates or future nobel prize winning scientist and maybe by lifting that child off the floor by giving her what will feel like a throne, and the surge of empowerment that could come from that, maybe by giving children their own little stage from which to perform, maybe by giving students their dignity, maybe by simply giving a student eye contact with a teacher, that classroom miracle can happen that transforms an unreachable student into a great student. and that great student could go on to do great things, for malawi, for africa, for the world, for all of us. maybe. just maybe. >> i want to be an accountant. >> i didn't want to tell you about all of this until i could offer you a way to do something

for malawi kids in need of desks. this is the season of giving, but this is not a good year to ask people to make more charitable contributions, unless you're one of those top tax bracket people who's getting a big christmas present from congress. if you do have something left to give, $24 will get a child off the floor. $48 will purchase a desk like this one. countless students will use for years and years. you can contribute on line at lastworddesks.msnbc.com or 1-800-for-kids. click on the link, kids in needs of desks. k.i.n.d. that will connect you to the k.i.n.d. fund set up for the last word and administered by unicef to deliver desks to malawi classrooms. the money you spent will be paid to workers in malawi to make

these desks, and deliver them to schools. if you join us in this unique partnership between msnbc and unicef, you will be lifting the malawi economy, and you will be lifting students off the floor. for the hungry families of the workers who will be paid to make these desks, and for the students, you will change their world. ♪ [ male announcer ] you know her. we know diamonds. together we'll make her holiday. that's why only zales is the diamond store. where you can get up to $1,000 off now through sunday.

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for me, it means an aspirin regimen. before you begin an aspirin regimen. speak to your doctor. coming up, why a republican from texas says a repeal of don't ask don't tell will lead to the destruction of our country. and later, author, oscar nominee and most importantly huffington

post blogger nora ephron gets tonight's "last word."

time fornight's "rewrite." in the heat of debate yesterday afternoon, a lot of good things were said and a lot of bad things were said. there's a lot of spinning on don't ask don't tell. i'm waiting for the report.

then i didn't read the report because i'm too busy reporting. then i read the report, and it doesn't say what it says it says. thlg r then there are opponents that don't go with the fancy washington spinning. they go with their gut. and their rank studioty. i give you congressman lou lou louie gohmert. >> if you look thoroughly at history, when militaries throughout history of the greatest nations in the world have adopted the policy that it's fine for homosexuality to be overt, they're toward the end of their existences as a great nation. >> he's not saying it's cause and effect. as a report of the brookings

institution pointed out earlier this year, australia, canada, israel, which all allowed open service, they found the transmissions were remarkably boring. the israeli army remain, soldier for soldier, the most effective military in the world, considering their country is effectively under siege every day. as it happened, eloquence triumph offed in the house of representatives yesterday on don't ask don't tell. so rather than offer a specific rewrite of gongman gohmert's silliness, i will yield the balance of my time to the gentleman of georgia, the honorable john lewis. >> mr. speaker, i have just two words for you, my colleagues. vote yes. vote yes to end don't ask don't tell. vote yes for equality. vote yes because discrimination is wrong.

vote yes because you believe in a sense of community. vote yes because every american deserved a write to serve their country. vote yes because the survey results are in and the military leader said the troops are ready. vote yes because on the battlefield it does not matter who you love, only the flag that you serve. whatever your reason, i urge you, each of you, each of my colleagues to vote yes today. and stand up and vote yes. vote yes because it is a right thing to do. [ sneezes ] you're up next.

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>> as a blogger for the huffington post, she has exposed us to dick cheney's need for love, explained why it's hard to be democrat and prepared us all for the obama presidency. join meg now, three-time oscar nominee and the author of "i remember nothing and other reflections. my friend, nora ephron. why is it so hard to be a democrat? >> because they break your heart. you believe them. they make promises, hope springs eternal and i do think that liberals tend to be more romantic. than conservatives. we believe in the essential

goodness of mankind. >> i just discovered why it's so easy for we the irish to be democrats. we have no hope. we don't believe my promises. >> why are you democrats then? >> what else would you be? it's the romantic part. democrats are more romantic. >> you just keep thinking it's different. even elections we forget all the things we know, like it's all about ohio. you rattle off all these polls every single night. in the end, it's all going to be that one state. >> i have a poll for you. barack obama 53, sarah palin 33. >> that's good news but that's

so not gong to be what happens. anything but the good news is what's going to happen? >> i don't know, but that's not going to happen. here's the thing i can't figure out. i don't have any sense with him. you know that thing called it's great to be the king? you know that thing you felt even -- you certainly felt it with clinton. in the worst days he loved to get out there and press the flesh. and i keep waiting -- yes, all right, okay. but -- but even george bush who was so unprepared for how much reading he had to do and therefore didn't do pit but this guy doesn't like being the king. he doesn't like being president.

do you think? >> what would he rather do? >> you look at him and think bad job. why do we wish this job on anyone we like? >> for the money. you make after president. >> you deserve it, don't you? >> you are a student of character. and so when you say he doesn't like it, there are scenes where the character tells you i don't like whey'm doing. >> i just feel that he wants to -- you know, he wants to go have a hamburger in a really big way. and it's like get some takeout. >> he wants to have a cigarette. >> he's having a cigarette every now and then, don't you think? >> the book, this is relevant to mr. john boehner who wrote the following, beware of men who

cry. it's true those who cry are in touch with their feelings, but the only words theyend to be in touch with are their own. >> yes, i wrote that. >> you remember writing that. >> i remember that. >> you remember something. >> i do remember some things. >> apply this to john boehner. >> i thought that as i watched it. because you always see that kind of scenario that they're writing of the poor little child grew grouing new the bar. it wasn't so moving to me. >> this has been very helpful to me because i cry more than you realize. to the point where it puzzles me why i cry. now i know. it's just a completely self-centered exercise.

>> i think crying is very narcissistic. i don't mean to call you a narcissist. i don't mean to do that. >> no, i got there first. >> i'm just saying -- >> in "i remember nothing" to not have those things wandering around. >> they're pinging at this wall. there's no room. for example, i am trying very hard not to know the difference among the kardashians. you know? >> that's easy for me so far. that's going to be good. and then all of a sudden a country pops up that you haven't heard of. i'm sorry to say there are three of them. >> oh, you do? you're ahead of me. >> and they have a mother.

but she's not a kardashian anymore. o . >> oh. >> i'm so embarrassed i know that much. >> it might to declare it on national tv. what are other things you're eager to forget? >> i haven't quite let the distinction among things like electoral pop and hip hop and stuff like that, that i -- >> there's a big difference. i feel like i did pretty well for a while. i got into e-mail in a big way. this is before e-mail became the nightmare that ruins our life. i got into blogging earlier. >> you were a charter member. >> that's right. and i wrote a movie about a blogger, but then twitter came along and i thought this is technological advance has been put on the earth to make me feel old. and it does. >> yeah, yeah. i tweet.