like baking matzo during passover and causing countless numbers of jews to be killed. was it an appropriate use of blood libel in this particular case? >> you know, look, i think these are difficult words and at a time when you want to be a national leader. i think it's your job to ratchet down the rhetoric rather than ratchet it up. these words have been used in a "wall street journal" op-ed the day before. we can argue about whether or not she should have used them. what i think is important is that her defenders had been making a very good case for her. people and the american public now believes that she didn't have anything to do with this, that the rhetoric doesn't have anything to do with this. the case had been made. so what sarah palin should have gone out there and done is the top of her speech, which was essentially a call for unity and a declaration of sending your