democratic nominee but hillary clinton was staging big comebacks. she was winning the ohio primary. she was winning the texas primary. there were a lot of states in the future that hillary clinton was going to be very strong in. and there were still a lot of superdelegates that hadn't decided what to do. there was a chance if there was some controversy that erupted that disqualified obama as a democratic nominee, that was the only thing that could knock him off from ultimately getting the big prize. reverend wright was that kind of thing. when he and on the scene saying the incendiary things he said, obama immediately moved and said, look, i've wanted to give this speech for a while. this is a time to do it. he gave that speech you played the clip from, was roundly applauded for it across the political spectrum. then, of course, reverend wright came back on the scene shortly thereafter and said other disquieting things and that's when obama did something he didn't want to do in the...

but they served her interests in the bess possible way. >> let's turn back to the republican race and john mccain. the answer to this might be pretty obvious. as john mccain was searching for a running mate, finally selecting sarah palin late in the process, my question to you is how much of that was a political decision and how much of it was a decision that john mccain truly felt that sarah palin was qualified to be vice president? >> well, that's a great question, steve. i'm not sure we were able to get to the bottom of that sufficiently to answer that in the spirit in which you intended. it's clear they had a lot of political problems they needed to address. given that john mccain was being tied to george bush whose record at that point was unpopular with a large number of independent and centrist voters in the election they needed a game changing pick. in a perfect world he would have found someone unambiguously able to be president. most he considered seriously, all men, i think...