Sideshow: Palin…apologizes?

>>> back to "hardball." in the "sideshow," a protest takes a turn for the better. it started out when ohio senator rob portman took to a stage at a fix the debt conference in washington today. a group of protesters pre-empted portman 's speech with a staged walkout and a chant about republican plans to cut spending. it was caught on camera by buzz feed.

>> we're gonna grow, not slow, the economy. we're gonna grow, not slow the economy. we're gonna grow, not slow, the economy. we're gonna grow, not slow, the economy.

>> but here is how the episode ended. there you see senator portman with four of the protesters after his speech. well, according to buzz feed, portman and those four protesters, all ohio residents, had an impromptu meeting after his speech ended. it lasted about 20 minutes and concluded with that group photo. i guess thas one way to be a politician and a protester. gets the guy's attention, he gets their attention, they meet, you have a meeting, something gets done.

>>> also, why is sarah palin apologizing to fellow republicans? it turns out she's having second thoughts about warning them not to be with uses in debates on taxes and government spending . here is palin and her mea culpa , plus a nugget about socialism.

>> well, i guess i shouldn't call politicians names --

>> i don't not?

>> i apologize for calling the wobbly ones wusses. that distracts from the points that has to be made. i say go back to what the blanks in your platform represents. it represents reining in government, putting back the power and the responsibility in the individual, not in the state, not to government. again, that gets us towards socialism. what goes beyond socialism is communism. i know i'm going to get slammed for speaking to blunt biabout what's going on.

>> there's sean hannity getting history lessons from sarah palin . wonderful.

>>> next, a bit of the postmortem from "mad men." what romney staffers nicknamed their ad team. manchillow thinks they did a few things right. first of all, he says, their in-house production operation allowed them to churn out ads in record time. but minutekhillo also say if you make the chinese news agency angry, i figure you're doing something right. romney drew their wrath for promising to label them a currency manipulator. unfortunately for the mad men it wasn't just the chinese who were paying attention. general motors spokesman accused them of entering into a parallel universe with that ad saying jeep was shipping american jobs to china.

>>> finally a toddler takes in cnbc's fiscal cliff talk.

>> that's like young kids who say they like me saying let's play "hardball." that's going viral obviously.

>>> up next, 44% of a certain group of americans tell pollsters seceding from the union might be a good idea. who are these people in half the republicans think a.c.o.r.n. which no longer exists stole the election. wait until you see these stats. it's like jay walking with jay le leno. i don't know who these people are. anyway, "hardball," the place for politics, coming