joining me now from washington, vin weber and mark halperin. let me go to vin first. tell me what this means for the republican party. >> well, i'm of the opinion that the tea party movement-- broadly defined-- is overwhelmingly an asset for the republican party. now, the victory in delaware last night was not a good thing for the delaware senate seat. mark may have a different opinion about that, but i think that that's probably a bad sign for us. but the other part of that sign, charlie, if i were a democrat, for instance, running for the house or for the senate somewhere else in the country, i'd look at that delaware outcome and i'd say we have one more piece of evidence th the right in this country, the conservative base of voters, is enormously energized. they're going to turn out if large numbers. they turned out last night to defeat a moderate republican. but they're all going to vote in november and they're all going to vote against the democrats. >> rose: mark? >> i agree with that. in the short term the republicans suffer because they've take an sure win and

. >> democratic strategist tad divine and vin weber joins us now. vin, you heard sarah palin say, if nobody else wanted to step up, do you think that's the case that nobody else would step up. >> she left herself a very big out. first of all, a lot of candidates, especially if the republicans do well in the midterm elections, there's going to be a vulnerability on the part of president obama. we'll have many running. second of all, those candidates have seen the politics, everything else. they'll be running as conservatives. the criteria she established are not going to be met. having said that, this is the closest to say that she might seriously run. everybody knows when she gets into the race, she's a huge factor. >> no doubt. i want to play another clip from that interview where sarah palin says if she were to run, it would not be about self-gratification. listen. >> if my candidacy wasn't good for my family, if it wasn't good for the common sense conservative agenda that needs to be add mered to, then certainly i wouldn't run. i don't -- i don't

democratic strategy steve mcmahon and republican strategies vin weber. great to talk with you both. washington post" has a great pete about the republican party. are they now rethinking their playbook? vin? i don't think so. first of all, the republican party didn't dictate this playbook. the voters dictated this playbook. that's one of the things that amuses me. people get in an uproar about christine o'donnell winning or sharron angle in nevada. there's not a secret thing that hoisted these peel on us. the voters of those states chose them. i think in the -- >> vin, hold on. let me read from karen's piece. she make as good piece. she said, the new force with the republican party is con temp cheous of safe, pragmatic cal lations for winning swing voters. and offers no forgiveness for political compromises and ideological inconsistence sis. i don't recall a republican candidate lashing out against karl rove, denouncing what she called political cannibalism and karl rove calling a candidate nutty. >> i've never met christine o'donnell, but she had a lot of stuff dumped on her she was