don't know, but i think the white house realizes that before it could ever go down the road of much tougher either sanctions or even the very last resort of military course, that this is the kind of outreach that has to happen, and with ahmadinejad's speeches, i agree with richard he's not significant, but the fact he's relaxing his speeches means khamenei had him do that. he is a puppet. >> i think you have to talk a little before you start bombing. thank you, rich engel. we'll get back to you at some time and talk about your captivity. we had our worry beads out. >> thank you. >> as we should have. up next, yesterday was the president's big day, but didn't you get the idea that the vice president -- there he is -- you can't not laugh sometimes at joe biden -- was thinking about inauguration four years from now? he worked that inaugural crowd like it was a ward in iowa and this was a caucus meeting. this is "hardball," the place for politics. [ female announcer ] going to sleep may be easy, but when you wake up