captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> hello, i am linda gasparello, co-host of "white house chronicle." if you thoughts of my own. it is springtime in washington. for baseball fans, you know that means. the nats are getting ready for their season this year, and they

have a new thing that is called natitude. for women it means something different. go out and buy something beautiful. i forgot to buy my hat, but in the meantime, i have one that has natitude. is not quite the nats hat, but it is pretty naty, would you not say? we will be back with a message from our sponsor and a surprise guest. >> many have spoken out on the need to transition to a clean energy future. we are acting. by 2020 we are committed to reducing or displacing 20 million metric tons of greenhouse gases by greening our operations and offering more low carbon electricity in the marketplace. we are taking action and we are

seeing results. >> "white house chronicle" is produced in collaboration with whut, howard university television. and now your program host, nationally syndicated columnist llewellyn king, and co-host linda gasparello. >> welcome back to "white house chronicle." i told you that i have a great guest, and i do, it is none other than the host of the show, llewellyn king. >> thank you, linda. >> after that great introduction? >> i am a great guest, linda. >> would you like to wear the natitude hat? which is your hat. >> it does look remarkably like my hat. let's go with the show. [laughter] >> let's go on with the

elections. >> what a show that has been. this is going to go down in history like the long parliament that sat forever in england and would not go away. >> getting them to go away is first. >> this will be the bait -- a great build up to the election. the enormous length of time. the ups and downs. the ins and outs. >> has this benefited republicans? this length of time? >> i am not sure that it has at all. >> the 20 debates? this is more like a demolition derby. >> that may be true. you put your finger on it with demolition derby. nonetheless, it is an extraordinary event. what is disappointing is that all the candidates have given us much more in these months then

they gave us initially. one wants to be the president of debates, one wants to be the president of morality, one wants to be the president of money, etc. there has not been any fast growth and the subjects on the table have remained remarkably constant and very narrow. we have not seen much discussion about pakistan or iran. not a lot about europe or the rest of the world. >> the economy. >> china, a growing force in the world. the great raven beginning to stand on its hind legs. we have not heard about that. we have heard about trivial issues, all of the issues like contraception, with which we were bored a long time ago. stop talking about fluoride in water, or one of the other tired topics that used to exercise people.

>> we still have not come to the general election yet. >> it is interesting that the selection of a candidate for the republican nomination has almost eclipsed the real president, who is there running the country and having to keep the job. >> do you not think that for president obama, he has been absolutely locked out -- lucked out by this long, drawn-out time -- drawn-out primary season. we have gotten to know these candidates in a way that maybe we would not have known or would not have wanted to know. >> it will prepare him on policy and in every way on debate. he has gotten quite smart at stealing their thunder by doing a press conference on the same day as a primary, or something else like that. he is still the president. he can still command the attention. i think that he is enjoying this

scrum in the republican party. but the trouble is for the republicans, because there is a feeling that none of the above is a great sense. more than i ever remember in one party, a sense of none of the above. >> no one wants to rally around anyone person. i will say to the president that in this sometimes comical scrum that goes on, the president has really benefited in a way that women look at him. believe me, women are an important part of this election. they voted in more numbers and have a voted in more numbers than since 1980. >> once it became -- the way they talk, you would think that these republican men had no mothers, daughters, four wives. that women were someone to be dealt with at an arm's length,

and alien. >> at the democratic national committee, as howard dean said that the one group is women that you do not want to alienate. >> generally, it is a good idea to have them on your side. >> here again, in everything they talked about with their reaction to the mandate in health care, this is all brushed back, blown back. >> it has been a boon for local television stations. a boon for the cable television stations, getting an audience for cable networks. and of course it has been a marvelous sandbox for reporters to play in. they have covered themselves in the stuff, having had delightful fun. it is very difficult to know what to do for a general election.

the president of's chances depend on advance overseas as much as domestic protagonist and. -- protectionism. >> events overseas this week are changing the contest of the presidential election. >> that is right. >> let's move on to one of the things that has come up in the republican primaries, which is the topic of energy. >> the reason that i talk about energy in the story is back in 1969 i wrote an energy paper and then founded one called "the energy daily," which i proceeded to publish for 33 years, which gives me a sense of energy, although that can be dangerous because things change. energy has come back as a subject, but historically it is a terrible subjects for

presidents. because they cannot deliver on it. newt gingrich thinks that he can get the price of gasoline to $2.15? that is a ludicrous. the price of gasoline is not determined by the american president. it is determined in the world oil market. right behind it, sucking it up. >> the price of gas is also determined by unrest in the middle east. >> absolutely. i think it is 30%. the american energy institute says it is about 15%. i think it is about 30%. this is the jitter price. this is the worry price. the exchanges on trade futures and gasoline, which we have looked at with the oil itself, they look -- a look at this disturbance in the middle east and they do not know what is going to happen -- they look at

this disturbance in the middle east and do not know what is going to happen. this is brought up most vigorously by newt gingrich, but others as well, that we can somehow magically be self- sufficient in oil in the united states. we are self-sufficient in gas, there's plenty of it, and we are self-sufficient in the fuels that we used to make electricity, which is uranium -- wheat import uranium from different -- but uranium and coal, of which we have a great deal of, and gas. but the problem is oil. we have between 2% and 3% of the world's supply of oil in the ground, in the west you can drill -- in the u.s. you can drill and drill and you will find some more. you can also break up the rock, as you'd do for gas, shale formations, to get oil up.

it is very expensive. north dakota is a great oil producer, but it costs $50 just to get the oil to the surface. chevron, one of the great, i would assume, wide oil companies, if that is not an oxymoron, they have withdrawn from shale speculation. >> that is a big deal. that happened this week. >> a big deal. you know, the oil is not there. doyle was not there. the gas is there. >> what are -- the oil was not there. the gas is there. >> what are the projections for the american oil institute? a 100 year low? >> we get these over quite a long time. there is oil coming out of north dakota, the third or fourth largest producer. there is oil, i believe, in the

eastern part of the gulf of mexico, and quite possibly off of the virginia coast. and there are not that many oil options. there are a lot of gas options. we know where those are and there is a lot of gas coming by 100 years guaranteed supply abroad. but to believe that the gas story can be repeated in oil is, i think, fictitious and dangerous. >> and an outright lie. >> i do not know if it is that at all, but i think for example the american petroleum institute really believes that they should call chevron on the phone to see with those chaps think. >> once again, it seems like we have being in the gang in energy. -- a yin and yang in the energy industry.

george w. bush came from that. therefore, he went there to look for his solutions in energy. this is going to be a yin yang problem for a long time. >> i am not sure if i understand your analogy. oil and gas are extracted. coal is extracted. these are extraction industries. nuclear is somewhat more sophisticated but at some point you do have to extract the uranium. it is most acute with oil. it is in the genes of the bush family, so naturally they would look to their. it is -- look to there. it is interesting that george w. bush would be driving around his pickup truck, running on gas. >> natural gas? >> not natural. >> petroleum gas, that is it? >> someone wrote to me about

this, sending me the drawings. >> i think that maybe at this point, llewellyn, i met -- i might let you talk to our viewers on the politics of the united states, or people of the united states, channel. channel 124 on siruius. >> that is sirius xm radio. >> yes. at 3:30 p.m. in the afternoon and 6:30 p.m. in the evenings, at the potus channel 124. it can also be viewed on the 200 channel in the united states, and voice of america television. we are very proud of that. we have recently admitted a woman who is austrian, who watches the program in austria. a great thrill for us. back to the united states.

the candidates have been talking somewhat about business and a little bit about entrepreneurship. what does that mean to you? >> they all talk about entrepreneurship. i think that that is something that is in the genes. universities are trying to teach it now. there is a foundation that wants to encourage it. >> the lemonade stand is in your jeans? >> i think so, a bit. mitt romney has been disingenuous in talking about himself as an entrepreneur. a well-heeled kid goes to work for an investment bank and makes a lot of money, is that really entrepreneurship? >> and he from people who are entrepreneurs. >> they want to look -- they're people that want to work for themselves. like my friend, mike, who started a restaurant called tarasaul. >> a combination of earth and

sun. >> thank you for the language lesson. [laughter] these are people that want to run the restaurant. they get artisan of pots and things -- it is a gathering. >> right, a gallery. >> those are the real entrepreneurs. my father was a notch offender. he had a pickup truck and he repaired water pumps, anything that was broken. he was never that successful. but if you can get that and move it into a large or even medium- sized business, you can succeed. but these are not people who are worrying about whether they get tax breaks. they would like to stay in business long enough to pay some taxes. >> therein lies the emphasis of

the republican conversation. >> because they have a lot of money and they start thinking about taxes. people starting businesses, like the man the started mcdonald's, he was not worried about how much tax he had to pay, he was worried about whether he could flood a enough of these hamburgers. >> arthur croc knew my father and he would take me there and meet that is what he would say. >> we know who to blame? >> my father, for not being more successful, like arthur crock. >> that is right. [laughter] entrepreneurs are people who wanted not to be employed, want to be self-employed, and would like to make some money, but mostly would like to be self- employed. >> white. how can they do that in this environment? who is making it easy for them? >> it is not so much easy, but it is being made harder by large

chains. much harder to start a restaurant against a mcdonald's or a tci after friday's, or any change -- t g i f fridays, or any chain restaurant. thousands and thousands of water from yours will not get going because of change everything -- thousands of on shipping years -- of entrepreneurs will like it going because of chain everything. >> yet republicans complained endlessly about banking regulation. i am not sure that all of that is to the detriment of business. i think at some of it would have freed up some capital for small entrepreneurs. >> most of the capital in banks has never been lent to small entrepreneurs. it is not easy, but it is enormously rewarding.

>> right. moving on, and the wellington, you have been involved in -- llewellyn, you have been involved in a very dreadful disease in the united states called chronic fatigue syndrome. >> this is something that i do because a friend of mine, from the 1970's, a colleague, was made out by this disease. >> a subject of the president's election. >> desperately ill for 23 years. i wrote a column about her. i got hundreds of letters. so, i wrote more columns and i got hundreds more letters. then i started a youtube channel, under the old name, my object encephalitis -- mecfs alert, where i interview people.

1 million people in the united states are affected. hat 7 -- 17 million worldwide, but we do not know, that is a calculation. it is painful, awful. you lose your life. you stay alive, but you cannot enjoy anything. sleep does not help. pain, headaches, a ghastly this day's the ghastly disease that is under the radar. there are no treatments. insurance companies do not want to know about it. >> insurance companies will not cover it? >> i do not know. it varies from insurance plan to influent -- insurance plan. if they do not like it, they want to treat it as psychosomatic, when it is not. it is a vast physical problem for people that hurt. >> it is one of those problems where doctors do not know how

to code the disease. >> i do not know about coating. i think it is too amorphous to be reasonably coated. as they say in madison, there are no markets. -- medicine, there are no markets. it is a disease of the immune system. you cannot find anything in the blood that says you have these -- have this disease. it is that you have it. people know when they get it. collapsing after exercising, a terrible journey into hell. the most famous sufferer, helen brand, who succeeded in writing best sellers, but has to stay in her house. she is married to a very supportive husband to be productive. the people i have interviewed and met are scarcely able to get through the day, let alone to be

productive. we hope that there would be more government attention, more research dollars, and more tolerance of this disease. not just people saying that they are lazy and tired. mononucleosis on steroids. >> that is the common response? >> i have common -- i have letters of boys who have been thrown out of their homes, girls who have been ignored. i have it -- interviewed some of the young victims of the disease, young girls who will never get married, never have children, never enjoyed their teens or all of those marvelous things that are part of the heart -- part of the human condition. i have become absorbed in it. anyone who is interested, please write me. i will be happy to share the knowledge i have. go to the website and see these

little five minute videos that i have put up there. >> people can write to you on the website? >> that is the best place. >> right. so, what is the hope for mecsf? >> like all diseases, that a cure will be found. or before that, a way to alleviate the suffering. there are two ways to deal with this disease, if it does not kill you instantly. this is something that does not kill. a lot of suicides, though. but it does not kill in the normal way, except it breaks the spirit. some sufferers say that they lie in bed and imagine after days and days that they are in their coffins already. the hope is that for the whole human race, with research,

research, followed by deployment, the we will find a drug, drug manufacturer. once a drug is found, it parallels aids -- and other immune disorder. >> in what way? >> initially it had stigma, it still has stigma. what we know was a surprise. they had to find the virus and attack the virus with a cocktail of drugs because one drug -- >> but the thing that happened with aids was that very quickly aid got celebrity advocates. >> well, i am not very sure that it was that quick. i could not find anyone who wanted to work for it once started a publication. it was thought of as a haitian disease, a homosexual disease. that it had strange

connotations' involving primates. it was like when people, like when elizabeth taylor, who saw the artistic community dying, they got up. unfortunately, there is no elizabeth taylor at this point in time for chronic fatigue. it needs a forward spokesman, and someone who does not have it because if they have it they tend to be 26. -- to sick -- too sick. >> are there any advocates in the congress? >> to a small extent, harry reid, but i have not had the chance to speak to him about it. >> wow. let's move onto something maybe a little different, certainly. and now for something completely different, as monty python would say, right? >> parliament, straight out of monty python, is it not?

>> how are the systems different? >> they are very different, they have some truths, but some negatives. parties control the party. you cannot have an independent, as i and our election. well, you can, but you will not get anywhere. your political career is substantially within the party. you're voting record is controlled by the party. you're very constituency is issued by the party, if you will. -- your voting record is controlled by the party. your very constituency is issued by the party, if you will. the thing that everyone sees is question time, because c-span, in their genius -- where was pbs? c-span, in a genius, started running this highly entertaining weekly -- used to be twice a week, now weekly, and it is a riot of entertainment.

people say very witty things. they also say some quite awful things. "sit down, you fat faced twit." id is not always polite. >> very impolite, i would say. >> but if a prime minister cannot handle it, someone wanting to be prime minister, probably could not get there. newt gingrich probably desperately wishes that he were in the house of commons, where he may not be prime minister, but he would succeed. >> that will be our last question, i think. let's do this again. >> absolutely. >> ok. thank you very much. ♪

>> many have spoken out on the need to transition to a clean energy future. we are acting. by 2020, we are committed to offsetting or displacing more than 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, by helping our countries and communities, and offering more low carbon electricity in the marketplace. we are taking action and seeing results. >> "white house chronicle" is produced in collaboration with whut, howard university television. from washington, d.c., this has been "white house chronicle," a weekly analysis of the news with insight and a sense of humor, featuring llewellyn king, linda gasparello, and guests.

this program may be seen on pbs stations and cable access channels. to view the program online, visit us at whchronicle.com. to view the program online, visit us at whchronicle.com.