senate today if it were not for governor sarah palin. [ applause ] >> joining me now is sam stein, political reporter from the huffington post, and michael scherer, white house correspondent for time. gentlemen, today we get sarah palin in a new pac ad. has her moment passed? >> clearly not. >> but in terms. being a queen maker, does she still have that power? >> it's hard to say. she clearly has a good following. she knows how to get the conversation going. she backs candidates who often are insurgents in primaries. and she has a decent record. she has some notable losses, but she has successes too. >> which is surprising because she's so humble about her losses. >> but yes, she is a player, primarily she talk about her all the time. >> you notice you saw ted cruz in that video, who is a rabble-rouser inside the halls of congress. in some ways hasn't made a lot of friends inside the republican party. the double hydra is enough to make even members of the gop shudder a little bit. >> you can see they've raised about $5 million. they've got a big donor pace. but they've spent almost all of it