wide debateon gas prices and what if anything we can do about them. the show starts right now. the big story today, the big story. all of the insight you need to sound smart and be smart at those cook-outs and cocktail parties this weekend. good afternoon, i'm matt miller in for dylan ratigan. before taking a break themselves, republicansaking one last swipe at medicare. senator mitch mcconnell saying don't believe the rumors. medicare changes will be part of any budget agreement. in europe president obama used an auto pen to sign the patriotic act into law for other four years. he heads home and flies to joplin, missouri this weekend to see the devastation there. hillary clinton in pakistan patching up things with the country leaders. officials say they did not know

bin laden was hiding there in plain sight. from pakistan to pain at the pump, prices plummet 20 cents before memorial day bp glad that problem solved. we have a senator so versatile, he can talk about all this and offer light beach reading too. in his first memorial daylightening round briefing democratic senator from oregon, ron wyden. he is from finance to intelligence. i want it get your credentials in there, senator. >> things for the inflated introduction. >> we need a high set of insight senator that i know you can bring folks as they head into the weekend. medicare, big news this week with the democratics smelling blood in the water politically with. outset win in the new york 26 district and ongoing budget talks. what should people be thinking about where medicare stands. >> i hope they read your piece

today. i think the challenge is to come up with good policy rather than just scoring political points. the key to that is to drive down healthcare generally not just in medicare. there are a couple key approach. you know i favor more choice and more competition. let's start with people who are 35 rather than 75. also we aught to be doing more to pay for value in healthcare particularly in medicare whereabouts 10% of the population consumes 60% of medicare dollars. these are folks who have heart conditions, stroke, die beet oes, chronic care. >> even with reasonably minded behind the doors, how do you think this will shake out between now and the election. >> obviously healthcare costs are key to any sensible budget deal. and you're going to have to put ideas on the table that are a little bit out of box. for example, i think democrats and republicans with respect to

medicare ought to talk about an ability to pay standard. that would keep the program universal, matt, but it would say that the subsidy would be targeted to those most in need. >> we will be coming back to that in weeks ahead. the patriot act. the president signing it with auto pen last night. i know have you made noise on concerns you have about the way the administration has the way to interpret in secret. tell us what the worry is. >> it is almost as if there are two patriot acts. you know the one everybody knowes fromming the text then the one the justice department secretly interpret. the key is to strike a balance between fighting terrorism ferociously and be sensitive to civil liberties but if the law is interpreted differently than it is written that could make it hard to win support for key

intelligence programs. >> your amendment did not get included, am i right, so there is still the ability for the administration to interpret in secret. >> sne worked out agreement with the chair of the intelligence committee dianne feinstein, senator mercury of my home state we were able to get senator feinstein to acknowledge this was a serious and important issue. well have hearings and have a clans to offer the intelligence authorization. senator reid said if he are not satisfied we could bring our amendment to the floor later this year. >> we are hopeful for progress on that down the road. let's talk about pakistan. hillary clinton in pakistan trying to patch things up there with leaders. how should we be thinking about our relationship with pakistan now? i think many americans are confused when it seems almost certain, you know, kind of matter of common sense, that bin laden couldn't have been there all this time without folks knowing and getting billions of

dollars. >> i think secretary clinton handled it well. she made it clear that we need to have strategic engagement with pakistan but also sent a pretty strong message that we aren't going to be willing, that americans won't support pakistan coddling terrorists. >> if we look at this over the next few months, do you think that we'll have to put this relationship on a different footing in some way or is this the kind of quiet diplomacy, the combination of vigilance and yet still cooperation, that's the right balance? >> in diplomaticlingo, it usually comes down to finding the right mix of carrots and stick. i think secretary clinton indicated earlier today when she was in the region that she gets that. >> let's talk about gas prices, senator wyden. you have been concerned i think with some of your colleagues that the commodities future trading commission, which is the somewhat on skeer regulatory

body that has jurisdiction over the oil futures and other instruments that get traded thon, that there may be activity there driving prices higher. tell us what your worry is and what should be done? >> my worry is that this key government agency, cftc cannot get itself out of regulatory swamp. we met yesterday with the head of it. i didn't get any sense of urgency. any sense it is a priority. if you have the speculators taking so much of the gas out of the market in effect, what happens is that drives up the prices at the pump for the typical work is class person. it means that folks who need gas it run a trucking company, run a restaurant, a farm, something like that, they pay higher price. this is one step you can take to moderate price. we will keep at it. we have senator susan collins sign a letter that the sent tore and i put together to make it clear to the cftc that the foot-dragging has to stop.

>> what exactly who they do then? are they trying to limit the way that folks can trade it? you had acknowledged legitimate uses for forward hedging for folks who actually use oil in their businesses? >> no question about that. what we are advocating somebody called position limits which basically says that speculators can't take so much of the oil out of the marketplace. the agency has the existing authority then that was in effect supplemented by the dodd frank legislation that gave additional opportunities to step in. what i was concerned about and you see it in the response they sent back it me and other senators is you didn't get any sense of priority. you didn't get any sense ever urgency. gary against letter is saying we will handle it with all of the other commodities. matt we know the american people are not up in arms about the price of cocoa today. cocoa is not driving the financial market. it is oil and we've got to have the cftc stop the foot dragging

and step up and protect the consumers. >> since you have records for brevitiy and insight i will shove another topic in, which is jobs. what should we be doing? washington is focused on the debt. everyone is talking about debt and deficits but in the near term the problem is jobs. is there a ron wyden answer in the near term for jobs? >> there are two steps i would like to see us take. i hope we can reauthorize build america bonds program. this is the for the first time brought the private sector into finance and transportation and i think we will have bipartisan support for this as well as i was very much encouraged by the comments that senator hatch made that the test on transportation is what is a politically viable way to find the new revenue for the critically needed infrastructure that our country is looking to. and i think build america bonds will bring the private sector into the finance. also with resbekt to another step, i would like to see taken, and that's tax reform. there are a variety of factors

that good into job creation but matt the last time that democrats and republicans got together on the taxes, democrats and ronald reagan, in two years of a tax reform our country created 6.3 million new jobs. if we could just a get a fraction of those new jobs we would be moving in the right direction. >> worldwide tour, ron, wyden. a fact that people may not know is that your wife is part owner of the legendary strand bookstore in new york. i wonder as we head in, everyone is heading to the beach, any recommendations from you or your wife? your father was an author himself, right? >> he was. let me take a second to just promote a really good book in oregon. i think that the perfect season in black and white that's called thorn ridge, the perfect season in black and white was written by scott lynn. it is a book about bringing folks together, black and white young people.

it took place in illinois. it is about basketball. you don't have to be basketball fan like myself to love this book. i think that would be a natural. maybe the justice department, matt, will declassify some of the legal opinions and folks who want to can read them at the beach. >> that's the wonky reading from senator ron wyden. thank you for this tour. up next, second revolution in cairo. can america calm the crowds by writing another check? plus, start your engine. sarah palin is about to board a bus and hit the road. will she drive that thing all the way to the white house? has she checked the price of gas lately snb americans need to get way from it all. are we ignoring what is driving it all. for strong bones, i take calcium.

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>> the arab spring intensifies with a second revolution in cairo. thousands of disappointed and angry protesters to the square, the largest protest since meu bab bar ak stepped down. today in france, president obama and g-8 leaders pledged billions to egypt and tunisia. the brits are giving another $180 million. the goal of the financial

assistance is to give them time to implement reform before they stage another level of revolt. let's bring in our memorial day mega pan toll decide. correspondent for the nation msnbc c. using this aid to both signal and offer assistance to the reform energy to the ground, can we influence events there. >> i think it is one of the best ways we can. we can give multilateral aid, support institution building and ultimately we can show particularly with less of a nagsistic vent that we care about supporting the peaceful revolutions there separate from politics which the president spok to in his speech. >> dave. >> can this be effective? >> it worked before when our goal was not quite as democracy minded. this, you know, giving people lots of money is a way that some

the regimes put down revolt. this th is not a bad idea. they are using a lot of capitol from other countries to do this. the appetite in this country, even if you could argue that it has good long-term benefits, it's not there. this is an an area where american politics are into giving money for any interest. >> i'm not sure if dropping tons of dollars on the arab world in tunisia that this will solve the problem p.m. i'm not sure. where does it go? how do we check if it is going in the right place? it's better than boots on the ground but i'm not sure this is the question. >> quickly, in libya, talk about the meetings this week with president obama and the g 8 that we are in there for the duration, i think we've got some sound also on why this is going to be something we will stay in to win. let's give that a listen. >> leaving the u.n. mandates of

civilian protection, cannot be accomplished. when khadafi remains in libya directing forces in acts of aggression against the libyan people. we are joined in resolve to finish the job. >> just quickly on that, is that a shift in now we are saying we are there to finish the job? that's regime change? that's a little forward motion on the official u.s. policy? >> it sounds like it. i think everyone wants to finish the job. the debate is what the job is. of course president bush, the first, famously went into iraq, not focusing on regime change. here we seem to be saying we cannot live with a libya run by khadafi. one other point is just last week the 60 days that are stipulated in the war powers act, which many presidents do protest but that is a real law on the books. those 60 days went up. basically we haven't heard anything, i don't think, serious in the media or from the

opposition party. the problem is you don't tend a get a military commitment as defined or supported by the public when it isn't congressionally authorized. >> other big news, dave, i will go to you. sarah palin. this is big news in the cable universe where the obsession with sarah palin must continue. it is kind of a divine law but she is taking a bus tour, we now know. lots of talk. it is ending in new hampshire. some controversy, even the bikers convention that she is actually launching it at, that's the rolling thunder motorcycle event, they aren't exactly thrilled about it. give this a listen. >> it is a big distraction. we're not political. this is not a political event. maybe she's coming because she knows we have a half million people in town. we're not endorsing anybody and she is not speaking on our stage. >> so dave, does this mean, does

this mean whether that group is a little bit offended or not, does this mean sarah palin between this, arizona home purchase, all of her other suspicious activity, she is recording herself to run? >> i think it is kind of her to think of cable news producers the way she does. >> you can think of something else sometimes too. >> there is always michele bachmann. it has to be one or the other. she announced she was leaving governorship on 4th of july weekend two years ago. this is memorial weekend. it is a bit of an act of cruelty to make the media change their vacation plans and follow her around. fox news is not even suspending her contract as they did with a couple other republican hopefuls who doubled as pundits for that network. we don't know quite what she is doing. she is just taking all of the spot lights over to her side when this was supposed to be a week that tim pawlenty used to

launch his campaign. this was going to be a week when michele bachmann declared whether she would run or not. p th is a day when rick perry is reigniting his presidential hope. all we will hear about for now is sarah palin. kind of legitimate. she has 15% in the poll. in iowa she is important. the race changes db -- >> wait a minute, wait a minute. >> this is not legitimate. >> i said kind of legitimate. >> this is what we as media people need because it sells tickets. it puts people in the seats to watch us because there are no interesting or entertaining gop candidates. this is not news. she's not running. >> i can hear people rushing to their televisions even now as we speak, because we are talking about this. you have have what i heard the only fresh take on sarah palin today. >> this is all i do is fresh takes. this is like on basketball and someone does a head fake and you

jump and they do a head fake and you jump. so you have to let her shake her head. this is 2 years of a she resigned the only position of real power she held in government which means to me she is not interested in being in government as a writer, i'm open to learning otherwise when she declares hr candidacy for president. until that time, let her do her thing shp she is taking a bus tour. it is a d.c. beltway -- >> how many times do you do a head fake before you are just bobbing your head? >> just bobbing your head. >> i want to say on rec perry before we move on, a great tweet from a political blogger called, got to laugh. i'm not sure who that is. rick per i wants it run for president of a country he wants his state to be no part of. yeah, that will work. referring to the rick perry succession threat. let's move on. politics of disaster aid. i think this is a bit reprehensible. you have eric and some other

republicans saying we need to do disaster resistance for joplin. as our resident conservative, eric says yeah we can do that but only if we find other cuts immediately to offset that. now i think eric cantor and other republicans voted for the katrina aid. why are we holding hostage the poor people of job joplin, missouri so we can show spending restrain at the same time. >> i saw this more as a rhetorical statement. cantor got a kwemt as weekly briefing. he dealt with it in about two sentences. it was a rhetorical tilt about how members of the prt prty defined what republican kes do. two years ago this is something ron paul would say. we can't aid of a disaster. can't build of a disaster unless we cut other spending. cantor is not saying i have drawn a line in the sand and we

won't do anything. he is saying we have to cut something thp. that is republican mantra on every issue. i saw this more as rhetorical housekeeping than as a real threat. but we are going to know a bit more in coming day. that's how i heard it first and foremost. >> do you have a sports metaphor that can put this into perspective? >> when i was young, i had to know the lawn. i had to do that about two weeks. if i was not up to speed on mowing the lawn, my dad would say, you can't do this until you know the lawn. you can't do this until you know the lawn. not that he wanted it keep me from doing things. he just wanted me to know the lawn. not fully a sport. are you with me? >> we're with you. >> there is a tremendous enthusiasm here to show that they care about cutting spending, tea party, et cetera. so that is the environment, agree with dave that some might be over interpreted.

>> on cable? come on. >> we've got to be able to take a step back and call out the crazy and it is crazy if we take cantor at his words, why wouldn't we? if we takes folks at their words that they would hold up funding and emergency relief for the people who are hurting. if we don't take them seriously, they are being irresponsible. if they are being serious we need to take them serious. >> stick around, guys, there is more to cover. while we are looking forward to the holiday weekend, many are on a permanent and unwanted vacation. we need ideas to get people back to work. we will pick the brain of noble prize winner michael spets. that's next. om allstate. you'll never pay a dime unless you use it and it's open to everyone. now, help is never far away. register now at allstate.com/roadside.

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>> new reports today confirm what many out of work americans already know. the jobs recovery is sluggish at

best. the labor department says 424,000 new workers filed first time unemployment claims last week. that's 10,000 more than the week before and the first increase we've seen in three weeks. to put it in perspective applications peaked much higher near 660,000 during recession. claims need to be closer near 375,000 to turn the market around. are we at least on the road to recovery? let's ask our special michael spence who received the 2001 noble prize in economics. he is also the author of the important new book the next convergence, the future of economic growth under a multispeed world. thank you michael for taking the time. >> thanks. >> lots of concern obviously, even with the excitement of memorial day weekend, tremendous slow growth and jobs gap if you look at 13 million americans still unemployed and the data that would take us even with the recent good, good, numbers, many years to get back to what we call normal unemployment.

if you were a dictator, i know you're not, but if you were, what is the government policy could take to try and accelerate the return to work? >> well we have problems. so we got to do both simultaneously, the obvious immediate challenges to stabilize expectations about the fiscal situation. and the debt levels and unfortunately, there is some investments we need to make for longer term employment and growth and things like education, infrastructure, energy related things and so on. and some of that is public sector investment and may get crowded out as we deal with the fiscal problem. >> some of that is longer term. but is there other stuff? is there aggressive form of public works programs that hasn't been tried? is there deeper tax cuts and payroll taxes or such as some folks suggest?

>> i think that well considered infrastructure projects have a lot of merit because they create employment now and they generate growth and private sector investment later. so i would go for that. >> ari has a question. >> thank you. we were talking about it back stage so i will bring it up here. if you look at facebook there is a move for people to use credit or mobile banking. jack at twitter is putting forward that people can be merchants by having their own portable credit card readers. you have looked at transportation changing in the way we look at commerce. so the question for you is do you think in the new digital space, internationally, that could open up a whole new level of individualized commerce or are we sort of overthinking and perhaps too, you know, too optimistic? >> it is interesting it is starting to happen here. in the book i talk about merging

economies and there, the mobile device is enabling the provision of financial services. savings channels, credit and so on. and giving rather poor people tools to engage in the economy. to start businesses, to transact with their customers and so on. so i think this is a very real and important phenomenon. >> any other thought? >> no, not at all. >> dave, i know you're here with a question for michael spence? >> well i guess i'm concerned generally with whether or not we have basically taken all of the low hanging fruit to use could youen's term, and we are never going to have the unemployment levels we got used to over the past 70 years. we have had the same education spending for a long time. there is just -- we're never going to see a reversal of the trend of task getting automated.

that's more of a fear than a question. i'm wondering what sort of level of unemployment you think we should be getting used to? >> no, i'm less pessimistic than you are, david. i think there is no silver bull tote deal with this in the short run at all. we have to invest at a higher rate that we have and we have to make the investments, including in education, more effective than they have been to date. those are problems this a lot of talented people are working on. if you look at this in the long-term we will have a lot of competition. this is a big, big global economy and by an earth we are a part of it. i think this is a difficult transition where we have to sort of makes sacrifices in the short run but longer term i dent see any reason to expect high rates of unemployment and difficulties competing in the global economy. >> before i get in there is no easy fix in the short term, politicians on both sides

believe there are. you are obviously not running for office but we should be taking all of the claims with a grain of salt because we just have to get through some of the overhang we have been through on the kind of debt problem? >> yes. again, we've got two challenge. one is we are still leveraging. we have a fragile housing market. we have balance sheets that are not healthy again. the excess consumption is not coming back so we have to sell more to people in the rest of the world and we have structural problems. it is not an easy hand it play but we shouldn't tell people there is not a short run solution. >> i want to go back to your book. you talk about a multispeed world. what is that? what are you talking about? >> i'm talking about the fact we are coming out of this, the advance countries, all of us, with excessive debt level. and fairly large employment problems. germany is a bit of an

exception. in the merging economies, bouncing back to growth rates and debtos of almost 40%. they are effecting us and driving their own growth. it is a complicated machine. but that side of it is working pretty well. >> say more about that. the challenges for the u.s. and particularly threats to the middle class you talk about in your book and your other work because of the changing nature the way the -- the work will be organized around the world which is good for humanity from the point of view of the countries that are rising but puts real strains on the american middle class. what's the agenda in terms of how we need to think about where the jobs will come from in the u.s. and what should government be doing? >> if you look at the past, meaning you know, couple of decades coming into the crisis, most of the net job creation was in the nontradeable side of the economy. that's where you don't have to

compete internationally. it is goods and services. and i don't think that's a trend to continue. basically, we pulled that off by having big growth in government, big growth in healthcare and excess consumption drove us right along. on the tradeable side, you get a mixed picture, matt. there is highly competitive things. managing multinational enterprise. computer design. consulting. all of the things you associate with us. on our innovative side. that is populated by relatively high income. relatively educated people. they have this global economy to play in, so they're happy. the people facing a more worrying situation are the middle class who used to work one nosh down in the value added component on the tradeable side and those jobs are moving off. to be honest with you, i think we're going to have to work to get some of them back. >> we will have to pick that up another day. michael spence, thank you very

much for taking time-out to talk about this. a lot of thanks to our mega panel. dave, torei and ari. bye, guy. as we go to break, i have a question for you three who are right here in this room. it is a mystery. if you look at the monitor, what is that, that you are looking a the? what is that? >> amoeba. >> amoeba, that's one answer. toure, do you have an answer? >> a weird hand with no fingernails trying to make a peace sign. >> very popular answer. >> michael, any thought on that? >> no clue. >> we're all going to find out together of a the break. [ male announcer ] this is charlie whose morning flight

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disposable person income did not grow at all. so how hard are gas prices hitting the economy? is there anything we can do? is this due it speculation or longer turn supply and demand problems? with us now is jarod bernstein and former chief economist peter moricci. welcome, gentlemen. gas prices, what's really behind this, jarod? and is there anything in the near term that we can do? is there any short term fix? >> first of all, i'm trying to get that milk shake out of my head. i think i'm okay. it is a great question, matt. this is a great system globally speaking. we import about half of our oil from abroad. about 17% from the persian gulf and there is just not much wiggle room in the system. if there a rotten tomato crop somewhere, we can substitute

away from it or maybe not have that tomato on our sandwich. but oil is such a critical import to the economy that when you have an uprise on the arab spring and libya in particular, one of our suppliers, there is not wiggle room. there is shake-up. you have seen prices pull back a little bit and that's helpful bp but there is not a lot one can do in the short run to mitigate any kind of a supply constraint like this. of course there is the petroleum reserves but they are really reserved for a much steeper shock than this pz peter, do you agree there is not much we can do in the short term. >> well in the immediate term we can't. but if we start -- i have an echo. if we started drilling three years ago, then when gas prices were last high, then we would be a lot better off today. like wise to say we shouldn't expand today because it wouldn't have an immediate effect is very

short sided. we can expand production from 6 million barrels a day to 10 million a day with conservation we can cut down what we import by a couple million barrels a day. then that money stays here, stimulates our economy, creates jobs. >> jared, you were in the white house until recently. what is the administration's thoughts on boosting the economic production even in the wake of the bp scandal? >> not all that different from what peter was just expressing. obviously in the wake of that real disave thor in the gulf, you know, we're not -- the folks a the white house are by no means ready to throw any of the kind of protective measures overboard the way some folks have add vericated but i want to say something about peter's point. one of the things that always gets under my skin, you are absolutely right that more domestic production would help. but the oil companies have all of the incentives they need and all of the available land they need to do a lot more production

now. they are sitting on lots of known reserves they are choosing not to drill on. in part because they are doing so darn well without it. now, my only point there is not that peter is wrong but that all of the incentives are pointing in that direction. i would look to the government to say, come on, guys, you're making a bad business decision. that's just wrong. >> peter, what's your response? >> well, i agree with jared that they do have those opportunities. but it could be broader. more of the gulf could be opened up. they do complain, jared, as you know that the regulations are too difficult and too ownrous especially for wild caters and small producers. not everybody is bp where they say drill at all cost and caution to the wind. most folks in the business are responsible and they are all treated like bad actors. >> you have a point. but coming off of my white house stint, guys like that complain all the time about stuff and frankly when i look at their profits, it looks to me like

they're doing great. i think there is one other piece to this, peter, see if we agree on this. let's not forget this is a finite resource and the mark set sending a signal. i agree with your introduction matt that this is pinching families big time. an interesting sideline here, payroll tax holiday kind of amounts to the same pmt amt that increase in gas is stucking out of the system. a bit of an offset there. but the fact is that the mark set sending a signal to conserve and we see consumers responding to that and that's not a bad thing. >> let me build on that point. peter let me ask first to you. jared, i want your view on this. one of the things i have trouble reconciling in my mind, europe is paying dlb 8, $7, $9 a gallon and that's through higher taxes on gas and other carbon based energy. as a result they have a lot more incentive to drive smaller car.

conserve energy in other way. that creates investment alternatives. how do you square that fact to use market incentive with the fact that it is just unthinkable politically, or seems be pob be for politics. >> americans are more spread out and will drive more mp $8 a gallon will have consequence here than in paris. you have to remember that alternative energy supplies can't be put in the tank. we have to produce more domestic energy. i think jared would agree. . as opposed to staying here to develop what we have here is not good for the economy. it is the trade deficit. it is one of the reasons we have a deficit. it is half of the deficit equation. one way or another we have to provide way for energy needs much more at home if we will have a an economy that grows 4 or 5% as we need it to do.

>> matt, this is another one of those walk and chew gum moments. i agree that domestic production is part of the answer here. but as you suggested, responding to incentive is really important and there is a price signal here around a finite resource. and interestingly both consumers and industry have been actually responding quite favorably, shifting to more fuel efficient car. we are getting a lot more gdp out of every dollar of energy than we used to. and at the same time while you can put necessary alternative fuels in the tank you can put batteries under the hood. when i was at the obama administration there is an area where we saw real traction. thanks to policies of the administration, advanced production in this country was moving from 2% of the global market to 40%. that's going to be a huge change and also getting back it some of mike spence's comments, that's a real infrastructure investment that creates good jobs. >> just a nano second left,

jared. my favorite answer to this is what they call tax in dividend. raise carbon tax et cetera to prices rise on this dirty energy but dividend it back through much bigger cuts in payroll taxes to average americans are held harmless. we got to run but is that idea worth pursuing. >> it is worth pursuing maybe when the business cycle is much more solid than it is now. >> thanks for much more illuminating this very upsetting situation for most more cans. next on "hardball" they're back. tea partiers grab the spotlight once again. toure is back on why she's running for president and why she's not. ♪

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>> back for the daily rant and now it's toure. >> for months i have prayed to the comedy gods in hope that most amusing imaginable mad cap political theater would happen. this year, ie, sarah palin would run for president. i know that you know how hysterically awesome it would be watching her put her foot in her mouth all the time. this week i began it think my prayers would be answered. she is releasing a glossy promotional film about her life and it will premier in iowa. the film is called the undefeated, even though in her last political campaign she was on the losing team but let's not let facts get in the way of a good title. she never lost a major race when

she sat the top of the ticket. palin is taking an east coast bus tour that will put her in touch with voters in states like new hampshire. she is reportedly said she has that fire in the belly, a ref roens to colin powell, a famous republican who flirted with running but ultimately did not. then this week came the smoking gun delivered via the new york times, the news that palin purchased $1.7 million home in arizona. which could, the times printed, could serve as a base for a presidential campaign. and i wondered, what qualifyes a house to be able to serve as base for presidential campaign? does the house to v to collect signatures and register with some organization? does it require a certain type of architecture? does it need to be located in real america? what is it that makes one house able to serve as the base for a presidential campaign while other houses can only dream of doing so? and then the great lawrence o'donnell broke it down for me.

>> my house in theory could serve as the base for presidential campaign. your house could serve in theory as the base for a presidential campaign. so sure. theoretically, it could serve as a base for a presidential campaign. but most 1.7 million dollar homes in scottsdale, arizona serve as a base for retirement of very rich white people who enjoy the company of other retired very rich white people. the palin home is actually minutes way from the home of dan quayle. where palin can easily obtain authoritative tutorials on what life has in store for losing vice presidential candidates who will never be president. >> and that's the moment i realized the comedy gods were not going to come through. sarah palin is not running. she's faking like she's running in toward bring attention and boost her brand but palin hasn't

hired the political advisers own operatives necessary to run a major campaign and hasn't spent the time in new hampshire and iowa. running makes no sense for palin. too much is at stake. she has stature and that threads a multimillion dollar income. once she gets in the race she looses value like a new car driven off the lot. she cannot risk losing the republican primary and polls suggest her chances are slim because she could no longer look us in the eye and call herself the undefeated. she may say she's got that fire in the belly but it's nothing a a little ant acid can't take care of. >> that's excellent. i have two quick thoughts, we only have seconds, but one here co-conspirators because any move she makes, like lawrence just said, even playing the front page of the new york times.