mark halperin? >> guest: we knew that one of the challenge is writing the book about politics in this day and age is a lot of our political discourse through the media and politics have become partisan and we were trying to write a book and hope we did that is not partisan because there's stuff in here not report that the democrats but there is a lot not report about the republicans. we are heartened by the fact the book has received praise from people on the left and right. shawn hannity said nice things about the book as did ed schultz and i think the strength of the book and extend it has is we've reported everything we could find we thought was germane to telling the story about both parties, the candidates in both parties without fear or favor and with an eye towards history and eliminating what happened not covering things up. there has been a concern i will say quickly that why wasn't the stuff reported in real time. people are not going to be forthcoming the way they were with us in the heat

mark halperin of "time" magazine. in washington former senate majority leader bill frist, he was a heart and lounge transplant surgeon before he entered politics. and ezra klein of the "washington post". with me in miami at the public television station facility is donna shalala, she served as health and human services secretary during the clinton administration. and she is now president of the university of miami. i am pleased to have each of them here. we begin with bill frist who knows the legislature well. i want to talk about three things this evening. number one is what happened today. number two, what happens next. and number three, where does this lead health care, where does it leave health care at the end of the day. so i begin with you, bill frist. tell me what happened today and your assessment of it. >> well, charlie, it was a remarkable day, i thought. and i say that based on the 12 years that i spent in washington. very similarly to where these senators are today. what was different today, i didn't see

mark halperin, first to you. are you surprised at what these e-mails show? they're pretty revealing and he is asking questions about every possible appointment to commissions and judgeships. he basically was signing off on everything. was he the chief of staff? >> it's not a surprise for a couple of reasons. first of all it is a very small state and as the palins point out, past governor families have been involved in politics but as i show in "game change," todd palin was involved in every aspect of his wife's professional and personal life, political standing in alaska and constantly working with her to try to get the mccain campaign to devote resources, yard signs and television advertising to support them back home. very focused on their state. as the e-mails you all have maintained show, very focused on todd playing a huge role in appointments and other official business. >> john feehery, does this hurt her within either the republican party, tea party, the palin movement, whatever it is right now? >> andrea, i don't think so. i think spouses play a big

host: we are joined by the authors of "game change," and john heilemann and mark halperin. it you have a list things that you thought would make use in this book what on that list has not made news, or what are you surprised at? guest: a lot of things. when john and i set out to write the book, we hope it would be interesting book to read an interesting story. but we were also going for breaking news because we thought there were things that were uncovered during the campaign. i will give you one. john will have others. sarah palin was picked by john mccain and people were shocked when it happened to that time, the campaign said that she had been on consideration for a long time and receive as much of a background check, so-called vetting, as any of the other people john mccain considered. there is skepticism about that at the time did not of the political journalism parade moved on and there were other things to cover. -- there was skepticism about that at the time it. but the political journals a great move on and there were other things to cover. the truth is that she wa

"time" magazine's mark halperin, the co-author of the huge book "game change." it's about the last election. "newsweek's" howard fineman is an nbc political analyst. let's take a look at the president up there in new hampshire. >> the message you all sent when you elected me, the message that was sent this past month is whether you're democrat, republican, independent, you're out of patience. you're out of patience with this kind of business as usual. you want us to start worrying less about our jobs and more about your jobs. you want us -- you want us to worry less about our election and more about solving your problems. >> something's working. the gallup poll which does daily tracking shows the president's job approval has been heading upward the last few days. at the very right end of that, you see it going up to 51%. after all those months of coming down, that's the black chart line coming down. the black line coming down. the red one is his disapproval. finally disapproval starting to tick downward after all these months. howard, it's finally turning around

"time" magazine's mark halperin, the co-author of the huge book "game change." it's about the last election. "newsweek's" howard feinman is an nbc political analyst. let's take a look at the president up there in new hampshire. >> the message you all sent when you elected me, the message that was sent this past month is whether you're democrat, republican, independent, you're out of patience. you're out of patience with this kind of business, as usual. you want us to start worrying less about our jobs and more about your jobs. you want us -- you want us to worry less about our election and more about solving your problems. >> something's working. the gallup poll shows the president's job approval has been heading upward the last few days. at the very right end of that, you see it going up to 51%. after all those months of coming down, that's the black chart coming down. the black line coming down. the red one is his disapproval. disapproval ticking downward after all these months, howard, it's finally turning around. maybe tactics are enough. you don't need stra

. >> abc news political analyst mark halperin and national correspondent john hiligman appeared on c-span's washington journal to discuss their news making but about the 2008 presidential campaign and the impact of the book on politics and policy in washington. the program is an hour. 's the we are joined by the authors of game change. mark brin let me begin with you. i heard i think it was you are one of you say you had a list of things that you thought would make news in this book, and it has been out there for a little bit now. we have heard many of the pieces in this book. what on that list hasn't made newshour what were you surprised that? >> guest: john and i set out to write a book we hoped people would find to be in lynching book to read in an interesting story as we say in the subtitle in the campaign but we also were going for breaking news because we thought there were things uncovered during the campaign. i will give you.

c-span: we're at the cpac conference talking with mark halperin, one of the authors of "game change". can you tell us to to get the reaction you thought you'd get? >> every author writes a book hopes it has some success, but john and i were proud and pleased that we wrote the santa book was set of drivers conversation about it's so it's nice to execute a plan and i was saying we've had more success than we help to force iraq any saying an expected to come from the reaction? >> one of the things we did hope for we didn't know if we would achieve is the book has been well received by both the left and right, most political books today being sold at cpac are books that inspire you to the far left or far right and what are hopeless to read in on person book that told the star of the 2008 presidential campaign as a story with great characters in great part but from a gradual journalistic point of view and as we come to meetings like this and as we've done talk-radio around the country left-wing and right-wing and cable-tv we have pleasantly been surprised by the lack of people are doing as