mark for the blood. and that's "hardball" for now. thanks for being with us. politics nation with al sharpton starts right now. welcome to politics nation, i'm al sharpton. tonight's lead, the president goes on the road with a message for republicans who want to replace him. get ready, it's game on. no doubt the president is in campaign mode. his campaign has released a 17-minute documentary to sweet home chicago to take republicans to task. >> welcome to the land of lincoln because i'm thinking maybe some lincoln will rub off on them and i hope they also take some time to reflect on the

first republican and you may be watching some of them. this avalanche to take a look at this is not appealing to the better angels of our nature. >> wishful thinking, mr. president. i don't think we can change them even if change has been a specialty of yours. >> change is the decision when it collapsed and even though some say let's let detroit go bankrupt. the entire economy and the midwest and the country at stake. what is important, 200,000 new jobs created in the last 2 1/2

years. >> the change in an auto industry booming again, the change in jobs creation, the change in an economy back from the brink. but the leading front-runner on the other side built his whole campaign running against this fact. >> when he took office, the economy was in recession and he made it worse and he made it last longer. >> he didn't create the recession but he made it worse and longer. >> he did not cause this recession but he made it worse. >> things are worse. they really aren't worse. >> i didn't say things are worse. >> except you did, willard. that's been the backbone of your campaign and you tried to deny it but the jig is up. >> i believe we're in a recovery mode finally. >> you really think so? >> it's hard to know. no one can predict precisely

what's going to happen. >> things will get better. >> it's not because he's not smart and he's never it's not how the economy works. >> that logic it pretty lightweight with no motivation left for your candidacy, good luck running against this man. >> you hear a lot of politicians talk about values in election years and i'm sure some of the ads have been talking about that here in illinois. let me tell you about values. hard work is a value. looking out for one another, that's a value. the idea we're all in this together, that i'm my brother's sisters and my sister's keeper, that's a value. >> joining me is melissa harris

perry, host of melissa hairy perry and dana milbank, columnist for the washington post. thank you both for being here. >> hi, reverend. >> hi. >> let me start with you. the president is not waiting for the republicans to have a nominee. are you surprised at all by that? >> no. because the president, as you can see, loves campaigning. and it's interesting because in many ways i think a lot of the criticism about president obama over the course of his administration has been that while he was governing, he wasn't communicating enough about what his accomplishments were with the administration. but particularly maybe this is in part being at home, in the chicago crowd, you can see the feeling he's having in front of that crowd, the sense that, i have something substantive to run on, i have something to say. and as he sort of begins to warm up for this campaign and it's going to be a relatively long one here, i'm not at all surprised he's going to start it now, keep taking it wherever the republicans are in their primary mode he's going to go and remind voters that there is another alternative. >> now, dana, i heard the

president referring to the avalanche of negative ads. do you think that is one of the reasons that they are starting early, that there is going to be an avalanche of negative ads as we've seen willard romney do against his republican opponents? >> well, of course there will be. that goes without saying what will happen later in the cycle. i think what you see happening right now is really a smart move in politics and that is to take advantage of a situation whenever you can. as your clips were illustrating there, romney and the others were beating up on the president when it appeared that things weren't getting better. unfortunately, for romney, that became the campaign message and he now has to sort of retool this thing right now and just as it was hard earlier for president obama to say things would have been worse if we hadn't done what i said, now romney's in a position of saying, well, things would be better if the president weren't

there. but it's a very hard argument to make. i think you need to be feeling bad for willard and praying for him, reverend. >> yes, lee definitely do that. and i'm serious, melissa, let me say this. when he says it's difficult for them, the fact that the approval rating around the signature achievements of the president are pretty high in many areas, let me show you. raid that killed bin laden, 86%. withdraw from iraq, 78%. financial reform, 65%. auto bailout, 56%. health care law, 47%. 37% for stimulus. with high numbers on your signature achievements, that he's going to be running on and that is what we saw in this documentary last night, many of these things mentioned, that's a hard mountain to climb for whoever the nominee is. >> it's particularly hard if you're making the mountain out of a house of cards, which is

what we see the republican candidates do. there are two signature things that we go to. now that we are in economic recovery and they can't keep talking about how bad the economy is, one is gas prices. so now they are claiming that the president is responsible for the high gas prices. but here's the crazy part about that. gas prices are set by a market and these are folks who -- >> speculators -- >> right. these are people who keep saying the market is more powerful than the government and now they want to say the market causes this even though it's market-driven. they want to revive these culture wars which are in some cases 50 or 60 years old and they are going to lose on those issues as well in part because their statement is between the citizens and it doesn't work and you put them in the bedroom.

dana, the documentary by president obama and his campaign last night emphasized health care. do you think that is the smart move? >> well, it's a surprising move given that we would not have expected this a long period of time ago. i think underlying that is an assumption that many of us share that even though it looks really ugly for romney right now, it's hard to imagine anybody else becoming the nominee. he's a much weaker nominee to run against obama on the issue of health care because he's been supportive of something very much like obamacare itself. and i think you're also seeing more of a contrast now. i was at an event when four prominent republicans came out and ended obamacare immediately. so now that obama has a real contrast to make and suddenly what seemed scary about obamacare is not as scary as immediately ending medicare. >> i think whatever the feeling

we're trying to get, they took it out with these culture war arguments, contraception. let me show you two things, melissa, because i really, really want your take on this. let me show you what they say about health care and then i want to show you what willard said about the documentary. let me show you health care. >> i regularly told them, look, you don't have to spill this much political blood. you won't get what you are seeking but you'll have something. >> but he knew from experience the cost of waiting. >> when my mom got cancer, she wasn't a wealthy woman and it pretty much drained all of her resources. >> and he remembered the millions of families like his who feel the pressure of rising costs and the fear of being denied or dropped from coverage. >> now, i thought that was well done where he talked about his own experiences, his own mother, and i think that that brings everyone to their own personal

experience with health and situations that they may face in their life. but, of course, mr. romney saw the documentary differently. look at this. >> i found it interesting this morning to hear that the googenheim documentary is on youtube. and i'll give you some help, mr. going again him. >> can you interpret for me what is willard talking about? >> well, it sounds like romney is angry that the president has put out a campaign commercial. and, you know, it is a documentary that is about the president's accomplishments. >> right. >> and therefore it is positive. it is a positive assessment of the president. and additionally, as you pointed

out in this sort of comment about the health care, when i heard that the first time, oh, he understood the problem with waiting, i thought they were going to be talking about the clinton health care plan and how it's bad for the whole country. instead, they went to that personal narrative, the experience of his mother and her battle with cancer and that kind of connection where american voters say, oh, that's right. this isn't some scary bureaucrat. this is personal. this is about my life and about how the president can see what my life is like. >> dana, the reason why i said to melissa, it seems like they go to these talking points rather than ever addressing the issue. if you're going to address the documentary, why doesn't he say where health care wasn't done right? why go through a whole commentary on who did the documentary?

anybody's documentary is going to be positive. he never really addresses the point. >> i love this notion that a campaign video should have the integrity of "dateline" or "60 minutes" or something. of course it's supposed to be favorable. rahm emanuel says they could have done this in different way. look, romney will engage surely on the specifics of these issues. he's got a lot of other things to worry about starting right there. >> yeah, including coming up with a documentary that tells us what he does wrong. i'm waiting on that, willard. melissa harris-perry, thanks for your time tonight. both of you have a great weekend. you can catch melissa harris-perry on weekends from 10:00 to 12:00 on saturdays and sundays. ahead, the shocking report

out on bin laden's plan to go after president obama. our guest got an exclusive look at documents taken from the bin laden compound. plus, willard saying he won't apologize for his wealth. so why is he hiding it? you won't believe what he's doing with the basement in one of those mini mansions. and sarah palin still wants to be a player in the political cycle. so she's attacking president obama. it's ugly and it's actually ironic. we'll explain. you're watching "politics nation" on msnbc. [ male announcer ] this is the network -- a living, breathing intelligence teaching data how to do more for business. [ beeping ] in here, data knows what to do. because the network finds it and tailors it across all the right points, automating all the right actions... [ beeping ] ...to bring all the right results.

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an exclusive look at documents inside the bin laden compound reveal what he was plotting. the reporters who saw those documents joins me next.

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tonight i can remember to report to the american people and the world that the united states has conducted an operation that killed osama bin laden. >> it's been ten months since the death was announced of bin laden and the death of thousands of people around the world. but today we learned something new. while the president was watching the raid from the white house situation room, osama bin laden had been plotting an attack of his own. the terrorist was hoping to get america again by killing president obama and u.s. general

david petraeus. the plot was outlined in letters bin laden wrote taken from his compound by u.s. forces the night he was killed and then classified as top secret. joining me now is david ignacious, opinion writer for t the washington post. that's for being here. >> great to be here reverend sharpton. >> now, david, how was bin laden planning to do this? >> bin laden talked, in one of the messages in which he had instructed kashmiri oh organize cells with the express purpose of trying to kill president

obama and general petraeus in their aircraft as they were traveling, presumably the idea was to find anti-aircraft missiles of some kind. i'm told by white house administration officials that this plot was never a serious threat. they didn't have the ability to carry it off. but the fact that bin laden was still trying for this kind of terrorist spectacular shows us how dangerous he remained until the day he died. >> so you are the only one in the media, the only one that has really seen these documents and these were documents taken from bin laden's compound, letters that he wrote to his aides? >> these are documents -- i've seen both the arabic originals and the translations that have been prepared by the agencies that have been reviewing them. they have been declassified.

i should make clear, i wasn't looking at classified documents. >> right. >> but they have been declassified and i think they are going to be put out widely to the american public and the world so people can read, as i have been able to, what bin laden was thinking and i think it's going to be really fascinating when millions of people are able to read these documents. what they are going to see is a man who, as i said, was plotting to the very end to try to do damage to the united states. but also a man who was deeply worried that al qaeda, his organization, had so badly hurt its image that as he said in one of the documents, it ought to think about changing his name. >> let me push along the point of the assassination on general petraeus. according to what you put out, these words that bin laden said,

quote, obama is the head of infidelity and killing him automatically will make biden take over the presidency. biden is totally unprepared for that post which will lead the u.s. into a crisis. as for petraeus, killing him would alter the war's path in afghanistan. now, notwithstanding the politics and his assessment of anyone, what i think people -- what a lot of people have said, okay, got bin laden, but he was hiding. but even in hiding bin laden was still actively, whether he had the wherewithal or not, planning to do something to the president of the united states and the general that was over the forces there in afghanistan. so this was not a man who was somewhere hiding just trying not to get caught. he was still actively pursing a strategy of terrorism, according to these documents. >> he was, reverend sharpton, trying to run his organization

from in hiding. but you can see in these documents, how difficult it was, how pinned down he was. it would take as long as three months for him to get answers to these messages he was sending off by couriers to his key contacts. so in that way, some of this planning was really fanciful. the organization was on the run and had trouble communicating with itself let alone figuring out a way to figure out how to organize these plots. it's fascinating in the excerpts that you quoted to see how in one sense how connected he was. he obviously spent a lot of every day watching the television news. >> right. >> but how disconnected he was. vice president biden has had a lot more experience on the foreign affairs committee in truth than the president did. so to say that he was totally unprepared was surprising.

but obama was a kind of special focus for bin laden. >> right. >> bin laden felt that obama had really turned the tables on him. he notes in one of these documents that obama has stopped talking about the war on terror, which was bush's phrase, and then instead was talking about the war on al qaeda and bin laden felt very threatened by that and i think saw himself kind of toe to toe with obama and i think that was why he was focused on trying to kill him. >> now, quickly, the brand is something you never think a terrorist would be concerned about. but he actually was concerned about the brand name of al qaeda had been tainted and that was considering changing the name. tell us quickly what that was all about. >> well, it's as if he saw himself as a ceo of this terrorist organization. he does talk about branding, almost as if he was a branding consultant.

he says the problem is that our name has been shortened and it's really al qaeda and jihad and listed ten alternative names and wants his associates to talk about how we need to have a deputy amirs and they need to send annual reports. it's like he's trying to run a corporation, again, in hiding, in desperate straits with his associates out there, ducking for predator missile strikes. >> david ignatius, great reporting and thank you for sharing it with us tonight. >> thank you. sarah palin, she's back. she's a force in the gop. but what does she want? that's coming up. and george clooney arrested in washington today. he's pointing a celebrity to a

worthy cause. we'll talk about it. stay with us. do you have anything for a headache...like excedrin...

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quote, the plan would essentially end medicare and nearly two-thirds of ryan's plans came from medicaid and food stamp that gave direct help to millions of people. the plan was so unpopular that many republicans ran away from it. but a year later paul ryan is back. ahead of the new budget introduced next week, ryan is out with an unintentional video where he recalls the past, warns of a coming debt crisis, and blames it all on the democrats. >> what if your president, your senator, your congressman knew it was coming? what if they knew? what they needed to do to stop it from happening and had the time to stop it but chose to do nothing about it? what would you do about that person? this is why we're leading. this is why we're proposing and passing the house budget to fix this problem. so we can save our country for ourselves and for our children's

future. >> i got to hand it to him, great acting, well done. give the man an oscar. he fails the budget but wins when it comes to videos. in fact, i was so inspired by it, i made one of my own. take a look. what if paul ryan knew his plan would kill medicare? what if he knew it would hurt seniors. what if he knew when he was walking down the hallway he stumbled and tripped a little? this budget is a disaster in the making. this is why we're fighting. this is why we're organizing. this is why we're filming this with all of this very dramatic music. so we could all have a laugh. because if we didn't, we'd all be crying. >> reverend sharpton, blueberry

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there's no going back. welcome back to "politics nation." with three ee electrics in the next four days, the republican presidential race is getting really nasty and too many obama mitt romney would, quote, be malpractice, that willard's literally the worst person you could possibly want to be the nominee for 2012. >> on so many fronts there could be no person in this country we can nominate who would be any worse on taking on barack obama on the most important issue of the day, obamacare, than governor romney. and it is -- the equivalent of malpractice to nominate someone that gives away the most

important issue in this race. >> malpractice. couldn't be anyone worse. wow. for his part, governor romney is running a new ad in illinois that accuses santorum of, quote, economic illiteracy. >> santorum's real weakness is the economy. he's never run a business or a state. his plan, economic illiteracy, inexcusable. the worst idea of any gop candidate. >> but you know, willard, this isn't the real problem as you. his real problem is himself. talked about how romney has failed to communicate any narrative about why he should be the president. one calls it, quote, a clumsy campaign that lacks a message. another says, their messaging is a head-scratcher and yet another says, joe six pack doesn't give

a damn about delegate counts. joining me is a political reporter from "the washington post" who has been covering the republican presidential race. let me ask you, does romney have a convincing answer to why he wants to be president? >> you know, i don't think he does yet. conservatives certainly don't think he does and some top republicans, a conservative columnist, the gop should essentially give up on mitt romney or whoever the gop nominee would be and focus instead on congress, on swallowing in the house and lead them to victory in november. one of the issues, of course, is he has this nominating fight that has gone on much longer than his team realizes and this is the team that is very good at opposition research and levels his opponents but hasn't been so great at messaging. >> now, the reason i'm asking is

not only the experts i'm quoting but if you look at the polls and compare mitt romney now when we asked about his enthusiastic support is that 35% but john mccain at the same point four years ago was at 47%. so he's really not generating the enthusiasm of john mccain and john mccain wasn't exactly filling stadiums. >> that's exactly right and he had to turn to sarah palin to fill those stoud studios. even if you talk to them now, they have to hold their noses and vote for john mccain in 2008. it's obviously a really big problem for romney. how is he going to generate enthusiasm. his selling point is that he's got a great campaign infrastructure and a lot of money but he's got a campaign that is like a luxury car without an engine.

santorum is the one with the engine, the one with a lot of momentum. you go to those campaign rallies and people are feeling a great connection with rick santorum. the problem is, mitt romney has been running for office, some office, whether it be senator or office or president for the last 20 years and it's unrealistic to think that he's going to become a better candidate, some of those things fundamental in terms of running for president, feeling your pain, connecting with people, and give speeches that have yet to really do that. >> you know, it's funny you mention engines because i was looking at an article about romney has the gop strapped to the roof of his car. you remember the whole story about seamus' dog was strapped to the car when the family was going on vacation? well, bop shrum says, republican voters are the seamu of 2010

he's sputtering toward the nomination as the roof-bound electorate periodically pops on his parade. they are pooping on his parade. a funny comparison to seamus but it does seem like he can't close the deal. >> yeah, he can't close the deal and one of the things that you see the campaign doing is they keep setting the bar. this is the hurdle as they finally pass it, it will all be over and they have done that over and there is a primary really edging closer in some of those polls and you've got newt gingrich and rick santorum saying that they are going to be in this thing through the long haul. they want to deny mitt romney this nomination. they want to take it to a broke it or open convention in tampa and he just hasn't been able to put this away. leading republicans to say, well, if this guy has so many problems putting away santorum

and newt gingrich, then what sort of candidate would he make in a general election against barack obama? >> now, nia, it's interesting. "the wall street journal" had an article about wealthy people building subturanian undergrounds and mitt romney may be one of those people doing this. his old mansion was 3,000 square feet. the new basement, just the basement, is 3600 square feet. and when they were questioning his architect, of course the architect says, the clients want to be discrete about the scale of their home and one way to do that is by pushing things underground. now, when you bring up things like, 3600 square feet basements and his mansions, willard says, like he did this week about, he's not going to apologize for being wealthy. let me show you his statement on

that. >> i've made a lot of money. i've been very successful. i'm not going to apologize for that. in this country, we want someone who can help other people become successful. >> and you know, nia, i'm not questioning his wealth, i'm not questioning his huge basement. i just think it's interesting that maybe even he knows he needs a bigger house because he's not going to the white house. >> well, that's really one way of looking at it. listen, i think this, again, goes to the tone-deafness that we've seen for romney and his inability to talk about his wealth in a way where he seems comfortable. i think they are rooting around for an answer. this is probably a little better when he says he won't apologize for his wealth and wants other people to share the american dream and to be, you know, live the american dream in the way that he has had to and has been able to. but that's a little better but

we will see. >> well, i think you're right and i don't think anyone wants him to apologize for his wealth. i think he should quit asking americans to be middle class or poor, though. nia-malika henderson, thank you for being with us tonight. coming up, sarah palin is going back to her old playbook of attacking president obama. george clooney is arrested. i'll tell you why i respect him more than ever. wake up!

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we have a breaking news update from orlando, florida, on the shooting death of 17-year-old trayvon martin. we had planned to interview his parents on our show tonight but in this hour we've learned that they are headed to the police department to listen to the tapes the night their son was shot and killed by a volunteer neighborhood watch leader. three weeks after the shooting, the man who claims self-defense has not been arrested, and trayvon parents are demanding justice. we plan to talk to the parents soon. we're also going to florida next week to get more answers about this troubling case. imagine zero pollutants in our environment. or zero dependency on foreign oil. ♪ this is why we at nissan built a car inspired by zero. because zero is worth everything.

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spoon dent dad in the desa descendents. but he was arrested along with his father at the sudanese embassy in washington, d.c. several members of congress were also lead away in handcuffs. but it was clooney who led the fight. >> i'm standing here together with my father see at one moment in time when people ask, where were you, where do you stand, i want to say i was standing on the right side of history. >> i've rallied with george clooney on this issue. we've talked about his activism in the sudan. a cause that he's been passionate about for years. he co-founded the project to tell the world about human rights abuses there. and he's traveled to the region many times. i fully support what george did and dick gregory and others today and i respect them ever

the more for it. >> it used to make me sad but now in a political argument because i know personally, growing up in a military family, the sacrifice that is made on a daily basis. the troops aren't red and blue. they are not black and white. they are not male and female. they are americans. when they put their uniforms on, they are americans and that's a fact. of investing technology is now within your grasp with the all-new e-trade 360 investing dashboard. e-trade 360 is the world's first investing homepage that shows you where all your investments are and what they're doing with free streaming quotes, news, analysis and even your trade ticket. everything exactly the way you want it, all on one page. transform your investing with the all-new e-trade 360 investing dashboard.

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welcome back. sarah palin is doing anything she can to stay rel rant in the republican race. that means dusting off the old playbook and going after president obama. palin argues that four years ago the media, quote, refused to bet barack obama. then she called for the vetting to begin. let me repeat, sarah palin is asking the sitting president to get a full background check. yes, she is. >> so thank you, gentlemen, staying in there, allowing yourselves to be vetted by the media because they didn't do it when barack obama ran. >> folks, this is not saturday night live. this is the real thing. and this defines ironic.

sarah palin is the least vetted vice presidential candidate in the history of the united states and she's saying this now just how bad it was. >> i'm not sure how much she knows about foreign policy. she didn't know why north and south korea were countries. >> governor, the queen is not the head of england. she's head of state. >> well, then who's the head of government? >> the prime minister. >> do you know what the fed is? >> and yet and on her facebook page, there's an idea that would be must-see tv. joining me now to talk about the

syndication features jonathan, opinion writer for the washington post and msnbc contributor. thank you both for joining me tonight. >> hi, rev. >> let me start with you, bob. what is sarah palin trying to do saying she wants the president vetted? >> well, first of all, somebody gave that to her as her word of the day. up until this point she thought it had something to do with animal doctors or something like that. but she is trying to stay in the spotlight. i think that she is giving every appearance that she is hoping for, some sort of brokered convention that would, in fact, choose her. she would come out as the candidate and follow her usual pattern, not following the hard work but getting the reward. it would be a shattered convention. >> now, jonathan, this week, former mccain staffers admitted

hbo are the game change movie that i showed clips of, they admitted that hbo got it right, palin was not vetted. look at this. >> i think it showed a process debill stated by secrecy, compartmentalized, that failed, that led to result that was reckless for the country. >> now, jonathan, you said that one of your all-time favorite moments from 2008 was an example of vetting, or a got you moment. you be the judge. but when miss palin kind of -- well, let me just show it to you. >> when it comes to establishing your world view, i was curious, what newspapers and magazines did you regularly read before

you were tapped for this to stay informed and tounds -- >> i read most of them, again, with a great appreciation for the press and the media. >> but what specifically? >> all of them. any of them that have been in front of me overall these years. >> can you name them? >> i have a vast variety of sources where we get -- >> i mean, any of them, i have a vast amount of sources, jonathan. >> you know, one woman's vetting is that same woman's got ya question when it's applied to her and that particular interview she described as a got ya moment on behalf of katie couric but this is a question that anybody should be able to answer let alone the vice presidential nominee of a major american political party who stands -- who stood a chance of

being a heartbeat away from the presidency. it was just that moment among many others, one of many outrageous moments of sarah palin's short-lived vice presidential career. >> but with all of the joking aside and sarcasm aside that i was using, how much respect do you have for the american people if you can even risk putting someone like that or potentially a heartbeat away from being the head of the free world? i mean, this is serious and for americans to see that they are that careless has to say something. >> well, i can't be sarcastic? come on. the truth of the matter is that she is a product of, unfortunately, i have to say it, it's the television, where you're able to pretend that you've covered a particular be subject with a soundbite where you've convinced people that you know what you're talking about. i can see in the debate right

now, and there's absolutely no reason to have a debate, where the ground rules would be no katie couric as a moderator, but beyond that, no big words and no complicated questions. >> now, jonathan, palin told cnn she would be, quote, open to a floor nomination at the 2012 gop convention. she says, anything is possible. i don't close any doors that perhaps would be opened out there. so, no, i wouldn't close that door and my plan is to be at that convention. is she doing all of this to stay relevant? >> of course she is. of course she is. she used the game change a couple weeks to thrust herself back into the national conversation. the game change has been out now for at least a week and we're still talking about her, which is her ultimate goal. of course she's going to go to tampa. there's no denying that she is at least visibly a leader within

the republican party. but the problem that she has, especially if she has visions of being the person who takes the nomination away from the people who are actually running, the problem she has is two-fold. one, she only talks about what she believes and what she thinks and what she feels about things in the confines of facebook, twitter, and fox news. you're not getting tough questions. you're not being challenged. the vetting that the media should do, she has not been willing to subject herself to. and whatever vision she might have of the presidency is that her disapproval rating is in the high 50s, just below 60%. last i checked, it was about 58%. you cannot run as president of the united states in either party with a disapproval rating like that. >> but, bob, you know, i think that jonathan is a little annoyed. but what is he talking about she doesn't take serious questions.

>> look at this. >> you know, it reminds me of a joke we tell in alaska. what's the difference between a hockey mom and a bimbo? >> lipstick. >> lipstick. >> there you go. >> and for those joe six packs out there playing a drinking game at home, maverick. >> i can see russia from my house. >> oh, yeah. people keep asking me, what does sarah palin think of this new game change movie? and i say, i don't know. alaska. >> as long as peop like to laugh at late-night comedy, you will always be around, miss palin.