john: i'm john heilemann. mark: i'm mark halperin. and with all due respect, it is time. republican stock up on granite. o'malley keeps his nose to the grindstone. it may not be forever. but first, hillary is getting rocked. she has turned the page down on controversy and is staffing up. she is expected to announce her campaign soon, perhaps by the end of the month. which could be good for that all-powerful narrative, but then again, could make her a bigger target and she is now.

what will her operation look like after this launch? john: it will have a lot of star-studded names. we know some of them. it will eventually have john tedest at its head. it was lots of concentric circles and be big and sprawling. and will be like every clinton campaign, in the end, kind of a carnival. mark: i wonder how quickly they will start doing stuff like answering press e-mails, fund raising. the minute she starts going to donor maintenance and courtship events, stuff will leak. i hear people complaining, oh, the leaks have already started. so far, this is the least leaky clinton operation ever. john: and it's not even a campaign yet. it's the first big controversy, and there have been doing arrows from inside her campaign.

mark: not very much. once she starts talking to donors, that is when she has to start answering questions like "are you afraid of jeb bush, and what is your message?" she needs to start figuring out what she's going to state, even if she does not do a lot of public events. that's what she's going to say even though she may not do a lot of -- she needs to start figuring out what she's going to say, even if it's not at a lot of public events. john: in this campaign, podesta, benenson, they have been silent. we will start hearing them. they will become the face of the clinton campaign that she is not. mark: here is one thing. what will the roles of chelsea and bill clinton be?

a huge question, and many people think those will be deferred and late for a long time, but not unimportant. john: the question of the clinton's role was so important in 2008. you would think they figured it out, not too hot, not too cold. they figured up the goldilocks strategy. even after the towering inferno that has raged around her for the past week, hillary clinton remains the presumptive democratic standard bearer. the question is whether she will have any challengers or if her main opponent will be the press. in the former category, a lot of names bandied about, from elizabeth warren and joe biden both of them highly unlikely to run, to lesser-known names like ernie sanders, and -- bernie sanders and martin o'malley. speaking of, here's the maryland governor talking about the challenges of hrc. governor o'malley: that inevitable frontrunner is inevitable until he or she is no longer inevitable.

i think we will see a conversation about how to restore middle-class opportunity. john: from hillary's point of view, how she looks at things, would it be better for her to have a credible challenger or challengers, or better off with none of that and going to go with the press? mark: she will get martin o'malley helping her out. to his base: governor, but behind his back i call him unemployed. he's close to his faith. i call him governor, but behind his back i call him unemployed. he's close friends with the clintons. the role he will serve will be in the debate and discussion not attacking her, but giving her a sparring partner. john: i was interviewing him this morning and i asked him what kind of campaign are you going to run if you run this campaign? will you run to win coming in the things that people do to run to win?

will you attack her? and he said, i've never run a campaign not to win it. we will see if that is true. the best thing would be for joe biden or elizabeth warren to run against her. she was still win the race and be the democratic nominee, and be a better, stronger, tougher candidate having come through that. her running simply unopposed with just the press corps and having to organs that devil she knows so well, that is the most the worst scenario for her. mark: the e-mail thing has ratcheted down today since the whole thing broke, but there are still tons of unanswered questions. the fact is, on her current trajectory, i don't care how many good relationships she has with the media, she is looking at being in the barrel her entire campaign. i think you're right, the more she can bar with democrats -- spar with democrats, the better off she will be. john: one of the smartest people in the democratic is not

affiliated with her and that person has said, from now until the moment she gets the nomination will be horrible for her, essentially all the way through. because of this very dynamic. she's unlikely to have credible challengers, and that dynamic of hillary going toe to do with the press will be horrible for her. she will survive, but it won't be pretty. mark: the people that work with her in media relations will be stunned at what they're up against. jeb bush, scott walker, rick perry, and ted cruz -- if you are in new hampshire in the next 100 or so hours, you are bound to run into one of them also i recommend taking out the red arrow diner, or the manchester radisson if you really want a looksee. new hampshire presidents are prospect at this moment in time. john: i think jeb bush is a very good candidate, much better than for iowa. mark: and in the last one, "take a chance on me.

john: his issue profile, he fits well. the other one that i think will be a strong candidate is rand paul. there is a bigger libertarian set up there, and more restraint on foreign policy. mark: i will be up there watching bush, but also scott walker. he has not made a splashy trip there. this is the first one since he has been on his iowa-fueled run. if you get there, and i think he's a good cultural fit for the state, if scott walker ran for governor, i think he could become governor. he's got a chance. and then there is chris christie. those to me are the big four. there are nine people who could win in iowa. i don't think there are quite that many who could win in new

hampshire. rick perry is there today. ted cruz is going over the weekend. you could easily imagine those guys saying, you know, this is not going to be a good state. but they are going there, and the geography of the state is smaller than i was. you can get around almost the whole population of the state relatively easily. there is no mr. romney or john mccain. until someone takes off there, it's a free-for-all. john: i am much more skeptical about chris christie's prospects than you are. i will say that is the place for you have to do it, and that the place where you could do it because of the traditional of town hall meetings. he's good in that setting. he could go up there and do a mccain-like thing. good catch fire in new hampshire. mark: one thing people love is to be told to sit down and shut up.

john: you know who i love, howard dean. potentially a payback for rahm emanuel leaking a nasty story about him in 2006. this is getting good. maybe even president obama will stop by his old stomping ground to help his guy, rahm, out. can he lose? will he lose? mark: it is not just have bad blood be on that one story. it is not a surprise. the challenge is, nobody knows how this is going to turn out. you could say, well, maybe rahm emanuel's people turn out because there is a different demographic. maybe the challengers will turn out because they are more enthused.

what i do know is that it's possible he could lose. i would be surprised if the president did not come back for him, or bill clinton, or both. but i'm not sure how much that will help. they got a couple of debate coming up and this thing is fluid. again, there has never been run off like this in chicago. john: you cannot model the turnout among because you cannot look at the primary and then in the runoff, because we not had that before. the person you didn't mention, willie wilson, a guy who ran for mayor and got about 50% of the votes -- mark: about 10%. john: against 10%. this may give a permission slip to some african-americans who do not like rahm emanuel to go over to chewy. mark: i think the way he wins this easily, he's got to destroy

the sky. he's got to establish him as a non-credible candidate not just for white voters, but nonwhite as well. and i'm not sure how he does that. this is a populist antiestablishment thing, and this city should not, by all right, have a white pair. john glenn and rahm emanuel, as you know, a guy that we both know and like, is known to be as much a political operative as he is a governance figure. this could play against him. mark: and let me just a claim what i mean by saying they should not have a white mayor, just to not get myself in trouble here. voting along demographic lines it's much harder for a white mayor. a lot of nonwhite people are doing very well in the city council, etc.

and rahm emanuel has had clashes with some of the closing schools. there is some anger at him. i still think he's the favorite but i would not be the least surprised if he lost. john: a lot of people are starting to say that he could lose. coming up, crisscross, firestorm, ball zone with special guest fred david and chris laha right after this. ♪

john: our guests are so biased and so full of old that if kimball brown were here, she would have cut their microphones during a break. thanks for going head to head. taking you straight to the crisscross firestorm no spin ball zone. what is in your mind the biggest

question or questions that remain unanswered that are political for hillary clinton? unanswered questions in the hillary fiasco, fred? fred: my opinion is we are in a one long stream of foibles that hillary has hoisted upon herself. is she being honest and truthful with the answers that we heard the other day? hard to buy that. john: chris? chris: my perspective on this is that at the end of the day after all the sound and fury the real political question is when she announced, will she be prepared to announce with a big idea to make her case? that will be the most critical idea out there.

i'm very confident that she will, but that is the big political question out there. fred: i think chris is right. she has to change the subject. i've talked to a lot of people this week that think the e-mail thing will be short-lived. i don't think it will until she changes the subject. chris: to me, this is a really interesting general election will he get there. but for her, she has a competitive advantage for starting earlier than others. the sooner she's able to get out there with a really big idea, an idea that gives her theory of the case, that emphasizes what she's got in this election for stuff she does not really have a primary challenge. it enables her to position herself to a huge competitive advantage. that is why get back to -- it gets back to whether it will be that way. i'm confident she will be able to do that.

but she really needs to lever. mark: in this competitive controversy, does it help any of the other candidates more than others? fred: i don't think it does. you could go the case that jeb didn't release some information and did and all of that. chris is right, there is no credible primary on the democrat side this year. i think everybody versus hillary and she gave him great fodder. john: you said something i want to put a fine point on. you don't think anything that has happened in the last week has increased the odds for a credible challenger to step forward to take hillary clinton on? chris: i see no sign of even a crack in the door on that front.

one of the reasons to go out there and answer the question is to make sure it never got to that point, but if you just look at where she is on the ground, where she is in terms of public standing, where she is with constituency groups and the donor community, it's difficult to see some out there that could be a serious threat in the primary. a lot of smart candidates know that and recognize that. mark: fred davis, you work with senator corker, who is one of the few republican senators who did not sign that letter to iran. i'm curious what you think the reasons were and what it says about the republican party that people like the chairman of the foreign relations committee did not sign it, when most republican. fred: bob corker and senator alexander are both clients of mine. i know them very well. they are very reasonable human beings. they are not bomb throwers and they just want to see the world progress.

mark: i will put words in your mouth. i guess you are saying that the rest of the republican conference is just a bunch of irresponsible bomb throwers? fred: no, but you are talking about two people that are very much thought leaders on the republican side. i can imagine them in the caucus talking about that and i can see them saying, let's take a practical, reasoned approach. chris: you guys had talked in an earlier segment about the idea that it that are to have a primary challenger because you don't end up having to run against the press. that is a good point. i would posit that if you look at this issue of the 47 signatures, the department of homeland security threatening to close down last week, each week goes by where the republican right has created a huge issue for the presumed democratic nominee, hillary clinton, to engage.

i don't think think whether she has a primary opponent has to do with that, or is effectively running against the press as has been suggested, i think this is a real opportunity for her to get out there and run against the republican field, and some of the ideas coming out of the republican party that would generate energy and position her well. john: fred, given what you just said about the letter and what the people on the left call the 47 traitors, some of them have signed on to that letter. do you think it would be smart for other republicans to stand up with corker and alexander and it was a bad idea? smart politically. fred: i do. you and i have talked many times about the possibility of there being two republican parties. corker's position is maybe the more reasonable, or

middle-of-the-road republican party. and those on the far side would send a letter in a heartbeat. it's just going to come down to that one of these days those two parties coming together. john: but would you counsel a jeb bush or scott walker or marco rubio to take a strong stance against that letter? for political gain. fred: no, but if you look at bob kerr and alexander, they didn't take a strong -- bob corker and alexander, they did not take a strong stance. they simply chose not to sign in. mark: one eight on the record before you go. one named answer. who is the republican front-runner? chris: jeb bush. fred: jeb bush for the

establishment. scott walker for the farther right wing will stop mark -- farther right wing. mark: thank you. john: after the break, our exclusive report on what you will and likely to use for her campaign. might use. is likely to use. probably won't use. ♪

mark: well hillary clinton the side when combining if, if she's going to announce her campaign madison avenue is already dreaming of slogans she could use. we asked them to brainstorms about her very best campaign bumper sticker themes.

collect hillary is all about convenience. hillary clinton: i opted for convenience. convenience. correct i'm thinking, "hillary putting convenience first." that is just one option. there's also family. hillary clinton: i'm still in the grandmotherly glow. >> i'm thinking, hillary, the challenges, real grandma. it turns out she loves yoga. americans love yoga. ever seen one of these? i'm thinking, "hillary, now must stay for america." and then i was thinking about the other democrats in the running and they are practically anonymous and americans hate anonymity. i'm thinking "delete the rest, keep the best."

and then i forgot her biggest strength, bill. americans love bill clinton. then i'm thinking "hillary, you get bill, too." now it's time to see which wednesday with the american people. mark: don't be surprised if she uses one of those for her real slogan. we will be right back. ♪

john: there is a new "star wars" movie coming out and apparently it is going to be called "rogue one." apparently, that means that sarah palin is in it. i would love to see her with princess leah hair strapped to her head. mark: thank you for watching and sayonara.

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pimm: hello, i'm pimm fox and this is what i'm taking stock of on this march 12, 2015. the dow jones industrial average and people and more than 1%. the u.s. dollar traded lower against the euro for the first time in seven days. it is slightly lower than it strongest level in 12 years. lower-level predicted than previously and -- previously estimated. the company's recognition that reputation as being hurt because of a report on formaldehyde in the flooring. the chief executive said the flooring is safe and expressed his frustration.