this was written by michael wolff in "vanity fair" about politico. a lot of great things have been written about politico, and, sam, i'm gonna ask you to respond to it. "at politico's level of specificity, there may be no room for a general-interest reader. the conversation arguably comes limited to professionals and compulsives. if one of the gravest dangers of politics and the real rap against the beltway," he says, "is its insiderism, politico vastly compounds the problem. the propensity of the political class to speak only to itself is enabled to a new degree by politico." >> well, who does "vanity fair" think they're appealing to? >> [laughter] >> who does michael wolff think they're appealing to? a general audience of mom, pop, people in rural illinois? no. every publication these days has to find an audience. i think politico serves a great purpose, but if you're asking me whether the people in tucumcari, new mexico, are gonna hit that blog first, the answer is no. >> let's take some questions from the audience now. hi. go ahead. >> my name is

wolffe. richard, you are watching what is going on -- michael, stay with me, don't go anywhere. the politics of this is what? could this be on the other side of the political spectrum, the balance to the tea party? >> well, it's certainly the energy and organization you were talking about at the top of the show. it also frames what we're seeing. actually we start with the tea party itself. there's this enduring resentment at how wall street and the financial sector has behaved, not just because of the meltdown, not just because of the profits, but also because of how they're behaving right now. you know, some of the president's most strident critics right now are the banks, the financial institutions who say he's antibusiness, he doesn't get it. how dare he even question whether bank of america could charge people for using the debit cards. they want to roll back everything that's been done, which by the way most of the people on the streets would say isn't nearly enough. so you have a really clear line that runs through the last several years on the right and the left in terms