now. ♪ >> that's "mustang sally," the commitments off of catherine crier's play list. nice to have you. thanks for being with our panel. then you have old hands with us this morning. brett o'donnell is back. he advised mitt romney on the presidential primary debates and michele bachmann as well. he's back. we love talking politics. will cain is a contributor to cnn and contributor to theblaze.com. the table has gotten bigger. >> i feel far away. >> but close in my heart, will. we get right to our "starting point" this morning which is the race and what happened. it could have gone any way. literally, this would go any way. it was a very tighten race but in the end it was former senator rick santorum who came out with

two big wins last night. narrow victories in alabama and mississippi. mitt romney won hawaii and the american is a ho american issamoas. >> the time is now for conservatives to pull together. the time is now to make sure, to make sure that we have the best chance to win this election and the best chance to win this election is to nominate a conservative to go up against barack obama. >> yeah. but the math doesn't work out. in the race for delegate, santorum still trails mitt romney by, you know, literally half. gingrich is in third place with 139 delegates. despite not taking home a single win last night, he is not taking he's sites off of tampa, listen. >> i i'm emphasize going to tam because one of the things tonight proved is that the elite media's effort to convince the nation that mitt romney is

inevitab inevitable just collapsed. >> the daily campaign manager for newt gingrich. nice to have you. welcome to our panel this morning. we'll get going with your analysis of the results. you had actually looked like you were doing well in the polls and it didn't go your way. what happened this. >> well, we worked very hard to win those states. we would have preferred to come out on top but congrat ligss to rick santorum. it was a close race. it was only a couple of points but doesn't change the underlying dynamic of this race. that is prks it's a three-person race. what comes away with last night's results and last several campaign results is that mitt romney cannot force his nomination. nobody is going to have the math to win this nomination before the convention in tampa and i think mitt romney is facing a prospect that he's going to go to a convention where two out of three delegates want a conservative to lead a con zf tive party. massachusetts moderate is not going to have, in that

situation, a great case to make to lead a conservative party. >> is that accurate? >> no, he can reach the 1144 that he needs before the convention. i guess my question is last night speaker gingrich said he was happy with second place, butty in race you got to win to justify going on. i wonder how the gingrich campaign makes hay out of two-second -- or second place finishes last year. >> what is the strategy there? >> we have a three-point dynamic. this is not foray again in 1976. we have a three-way race, wedyn. when people come to realize that mitt romney is not going to be able to win this thing were before the convention, people are going to want to have a debate in the conservative room in the party between gingrich and santorum. santorum was in leadership in the senate in 2 how 1-2006. gingrich was part of the reason

that the republican party had a tors defeat. he set the stage for nancy pelosi, harry reid and eventual election of barack obama. he took the balanced budgets and turned them into deficits. spending bing in the 2000s and it hurt the republican party. some of santorum's strongest supporters in 2006 saying the washington republican, good rinse. he's coming back to the republican party asking for a mulligan. >> soledad, you asked what's the strategy. we heard it now from vince. we heard it from newt gingrich last night. in the paper this morning there's their chairman bob walker saying the goal is to deny romney the election. if that is the goal that you recognize you can't get to the number of delegates needed to win the nomination and your goal is to become just to deny mitt romney. what do you hope happens at the convention.

what is your goal in that hall at the kol tension? >> the goal, the strategy is to win. >> do you think you can win a brokered son ven eed convention? but you go in that hall and you win a brokered to convention? >> we have a long way too go until june. also a big choice now for which the republican party stands. the candidate who makes the best change, the person who can change washington and the person who finishes strong is going to win this election. you have to convince the candidate. you have to be barack obama and you are to bring change. newt gingrich is the only candidate in this race who has demonstrated he can change washington. rick santorum republicans had the worst election defeat since watergate in 2006. big spending record, in balanced budgets, increased the national deficit 12%. that's a big debate in this party. >> i see it as two fronts. either the role is to be a

spoiler, just like sure that mitt romney does not win, or the role is to win the brokered convention. is that what you're saying. or do you think that newt gingrich will? >> it's a dynamic. >> it's a yes or no question. he'll me. >> you can win a debate in the course of this campaign and if you starting to collect that newt gingrich is the best candidate to change washington, you're going to have momentum and you're going go so the convention with a -- with quite a number of delegates and the national majority behind you to win that convention. >> catherine crier. >> catherine crier here. a comment that gingrich made that i was intrigued by. that is the possibility of pairing between gingrich and santorum and maybe we declare this early on and rally those conservatives. but he even suggested, oh, we can argue about who is on top later on. it's hard for he to imagine gingrich concede that position.

but is that actually a suggestion that gingrich would consider a second spot if santorum would bring him onboard to rally the conservatives romney? >> march 24th is louisiana. that's at the halfway point of this campaign. it is so premature to talk in any way like this. the republican party, the voters of the republican party are making -- they're looking at delegates. excuse me, they're looking at candidates and the case for change. we're to the going to have an endless discussion for the delegate math in the next six weeks. >> no, i think we might, actually. >> no, the best case for change. and for republican voters and conservative voters they want to know who has the best chance for change. >> we're crunching the numbers on the dell gaits and at this point it is not in your favor an the math doesn't seem to work out in your favor as well. thank you. >> thank you. let get to other headlines

making news. good morning. >> good morning. a developing story in northern japan. under a tsunami watch after a 6.8 magnitude earthquake. it happened in the same region over a year ago triggering a disaster in fukushima. no immediate reports of damage. it was located in the pacific ocean. tsunami warning for the region has been issued with the possibility of waves approaching two feet. new overnight, a roadside bomb exploding in afghanistan killing eight people as defense secretary leon a nell a arrives in the same province unan nunsed to try to diffuse the crisis. a fury over a massacre of mostly women and children and civilians. the questions being asked this morning was that accused soldier drunk when we went on that ram pain? military investigators now awaiting toxicology results to determine whether alcohol might have played a role in the attack that killed 16 afghan civilians.

shu officials say alcohol was found in his living quarters. a bus accident in switzerland is a tragic day. 28 people, most of them children, were killed when a bus they were riding in slammed into a tunnel wall in switzerland. the 46 children and 6 adults were returning from a school ski trip. belgium used two military planes to take parents to see their injured kids. the cause of the crash is still under investigation. prime minister david cameron and president obama is holding high level talks today. expected to discuss the upcoming nato and iran and the global economy on the agenda. tonight they will attend a state dinner honor of the british leader. prime minister cameron got a chance to experience something uniquely american last night. ncaa basketball game, complete with hot dogs. president obama bringing the british leader to ohio for a

front review. mr. cameron promising to return the favor some day. >> minister cameron, talk to me. this is your first time. >> very first time at a basketball game. >> what do you make of the experience so far? >> i'm enjoying it. it's pretty fast and furious. it's hard to follow exactly who has done what wrong. >> was ore president helping? >> he's giving me tips. helping me fill out my bracket. >> and he's going to teach me cricket because i don't understand what's going on with that game. >> the president's pick for the final four. kentucky, ohio state, missouri, and north carolina. >> i don't really get basketball, you don't really get cricket. we can come together. oh, my goodness. all right. christine, thank you. still ahead this morning on "starting point," no budget, no pay. that's a bill that coulds for members of congress to give up their paychecks if they don't do their jobs. we're going to talk to the bipartisan team that's behind it. also, our "get real" this

morning. who exactly invited these guys. a band shocks a school assembly on bullying with an anti-gay message. freaking out the principal and everybody else. you're watching "starting point."

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♪ ♪ one, two, three, four ♪ you say ♪ flip it over and replay ♪ we'll make everything okay ♪ walk together the right way ♪ do, do, do, do

♪ the smile on your face lets me know that you need me ♪ ♪ there's a truth in your eyes saying you'll never leave me ♪ ♪ the touch of ♪ ♪ >> that's alison krauss. "when you say nothing at all." that's congressman jim cooper's play list, joining us this morning. you can see our entire play list on our website at cnn.com/startingpoint. nothing has been played of mine yet. if you talk about congress people, $174,000 a year is what you get as a paycheck. it's minimum that you make if you work in congress. that's a time when congress' approval rating among american

is at an all-time low. i believe it's at 9%. it was 10%. down to 9% now. this morning though we are hearing there are hearings in congress to change that, no budget no, pay bill. cut off paychecks for members of congress if they can't pass a budget by the fiscal end of the year. they haven't passed a budget since 2009. latest idea from the group called no labels and has bipartisby par bipartisan support. bill cooper proposed the house version bill. he and tom davis from virginia are co-founders of no labels. they're going or testifying at a hearing today. c good morning. congressman davis, nice to see you. you had a chance to come visit with us. i know what is behind the bill is a frustration. and i'll get to that in a moment. first, i want you to walk me through the specifics of the bill that's proposed. >> all we do is to say that congress has to pass its budgets and appropriation bills on time. and on time means by the

beginning at fiscal year which is october 1st every year. congress has largely failed to do this in the past. we think it's high time that congress did its job this year. >> or what? >> or congress would not be paid. and the signs are that congress could, you know, be a few days late or even a week late but i think eventually congress would do the job on time and congress would want to get paid. >> congressman davis, 34 in the house, 36 in the senate. several hundred people have a vested interest in the bill who may not be so inclined to sign on. what's the likelihood a bill leak this would pass? >> it's got a hearing in the senate. i suspect there will be hearings in the house at this point. look, the key here -- congress has not passed the appropriation bills on time since 1996. that means the government agencies can't start doing their work because they didn't know what budget they're going to have for the year. means contracts aren't let,

people aren't hired, innovations don't take place. this is borne out of frustration. the senate passed a resolution last year that said if there was a shut down senators wouldn't get paid. i think there's a frustration among the members that they want to get this stuff done. they just want been able to do it. a year ago it was may before you got the appropriation bills done for a fiscal year that started october 1 sglst catherine, is this legal? >> sure. governors have done this and it's occurred in state houses. absolutely the ledgislature should do it and they should do other things this organization is talking about. the notion that we're not getting a five-day workweek. the notion these guys can show up on a tuesday afternoon and go home on the thursday afternoon and get the kind of recesses they get. >> you're talking about insider trading? >> insider trading and we won't bet into the manipulation of rules and the processes but i think this is a great step. if you can get a bipartisan

passage of this, that would be extraordinary but we've got to do something because they're stalemating the entire process. >> ultimately i'm sure this is about frustration and trying to stave off the public frustration with this system. internally frustration in congress as well? you must be i'm bembarrassed by the approval ratings. >> what this bill is about is about aligning interests. today there are some members of congress who benefit from these delays. we want to make sure that no one benefits. >> they get publicity and publicity in politics is like gold. some are able to favor certain special interests without having a cut taking place as soon as it would have. there are other ways to manipulate our system. everyone back home understands if you don't do the work, you can't get people. >> medium net worth of a congress person is just under a

million dollars. do you think really ultimately withholding a salary at the end of the day is going to be a huge disincentive to sit around and basically run to open mikes and run to press conferences? >> i've been out for three years. retired undefeated, unindicted. just happy to get -- >> we love when you say that, by the way. tremendous frustration among rank in file members who come to washington to get things done only to find out they don't get the choices they want on this. i think the theory behind this is, if the members are saying let's get on on time. they will prevail on the leaders to get the vote. >> why not add the word balanced to the board budget, too. and then you get your pay. >> baby steps. baby steps. >> never get paid. >> don't go crazy. all right. nice to see you. we're going to follow up and see how this goes when you do your testifying today. still ahead on "starting point," dick cheney is not going

to be visiting canada any time soon. he says it's too dangerous rnts and a get real band blind sides a school where they've been inexcited by an assembly that went a little bit off the rails. you're watching "starting point."ne you are in, you are in, managing expenses seems to... get in the way. not anymore. ink, the small business card from chase introduces jot an on-the-go expense app made exclusively for ink customers. custom categorize your expenses anywhere. save time and get back to what you love. the latest innovation. only for ink customers. learn more at chase.com/ink in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota,

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okay. our "get get real" could be called welcome to crazy town. high school assembly that went off the rails. here's a little bit of how it went. >> disney movies, okay? they used him in a lot of sound tracks. how many of you have seen "the lion king."

so you noel on the john. this is moral standard of little kids. influence our kids. there's nothing wrong with going to bed with somebody of your own sex. i think people should be free with sex. they should draw the line with goats. s that where they stop. is that a good moral standard? would you allow your son or daughter to spend the night at elton's house? >> well, it goes on from there. this is an assembly that was supposed to be about bullying and making good choices at an iowa high school. kind of spiraled into -- they talk about goats he was talking about there, and gay bashing. the school invited a band junkyard prophet, paurt of a minnesota non-profit group called you can run but you can't hide. listed as a hate group by the southern pav verity law center. he was telling the kids that gay men die by the age of 42. divided the students up into girls and boys, told the girls

that, quote, they'll have on their wedding dress fess they're not virgins before marriage and your kid has been sent to the school assembly had pictures of aborted fetuses, the band was showing the kids, the students who walked out were basically shouted at and the superintendent apologized saying that this was not the plan, that the group was supposed to be talking about bullying and respecting people and now he has a second -- a second assembly where they basically said they had to talk to the kids and, you know, making counseling available actually and try to get back the money from the band which you heard very little playing and lots of just weirdness. if i were a parent an a bandied anything other than like get up and give -- >> sing a song. >> right, you're right. i believe the limit should go, here's a song, here's another. time for gym class. cumbayah. time to go.

i -- i -- >> i'm very up comfortable with this. i don't care what side of the fence you're on. it's not an appropriate place. that's not what you do. and it's much more that sense that we are so divided, that a group would even think about coming in and a large portion accept this as an appropriate conversation in a classroom. >> you know what's very strange, too, is there are obviously administrators, in the end they thought it was strange. no one jumped up and said, whoa, whoa, stop, pell low. assembly dismissed. that is what i thought it was a little bit strange. like it kind of just went on. >> yeah. less worrisome about the message per se, if you're a parent and that's the message you want to deliver to your kid, absolutely. >> but anti-pulleying message, wouldn't it be nice to vet the group and have an idea of what they're going to say. >> the superintendent said he was very surprised.

he said, the other schools did not mention this. "starting point," earlier this week we talked about that flight at 2e7bd can't screaming about a plane crash, apparently having a mental breakdown on the job. now the 911 tapes are out. listen. >> it looks like they're fis clay restraining a flight attendant. >> fissionically restraining a flight attendant? >> yeah, she's lost it. >> yeah, no truer words were ever spoken. we're going to have more about those tapes coming up this morning. rick santorum riding high after sweeping the deep south. we leave you with brett's play list, chicago. i'm walt gale,

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that's "island in the zone sun" by dr. sanjay gupta's play list. first, though, the headlines. christine has those for us. >> good morning, soledad. the hate crime and spying case against a former rutgers student could be wrapped this week. jury deliberations begin today in the trial of dharun ravi spying on his roommate's tyler clementi's intimate encounter with another man. just released 911 calls reveal the chaos on board an american airlines flight last week when a flight attendant snapped. >> she apparently suffered some sort of mental breakdown. screaming about 9/11 and plane crashing. it happened as american flight 2332 was taxiing for takeoff in dallas. several passengers made

emergency calls. >> it looks like they're physically restraining a flight attendant. >> they're physically restraining a flight attendant? >> yeah. she's lost it. >> none of the passengers were hurt. no charges have been filed against the flight attendant. one of her colleagues told police the woman is buy pole loor and had not taken her medication. well, most of the attention was focus tond republican presidential primary context in alabama there were a bunch of low level offices up for grabs. ten-term bacchus beat his challengers despite being slammed with a slew of negative ads exploiting an ethics investigation that he's under for insider trading. "minding your business," u.s. stock futures are higher after a big stock market rally yesterday. the dow closed well alove 13

now. the highest since 2007. the fed says the economy is roring and key stress tests on the banks. bull but forebanks taszed those tasks rchts don't expect to see former vice president tick chain that in canada any time son. when he was thpt, of course chine any had no problem vis ting troops and war zones in walk but he and his daughter canceled an appearance next monday. their personal safety is at risk for protesters who called cheney a war criminal. riot police were called when he visited can voufer in september and protesters there turned violent. >> christine, thank you very much. so there are five doctors who meet every monday morning at chelsea general hospital to talk about their mistakes. mistakes like operating on the wrong side of a brain or mistakes like not checking labs. it all sounds like the making of a good medical drama and it actually is.

chelsea general is a fictional hospital. cnn dr. sanjay gupta has written his first novel called "monday mornings" on shells now. nice to have you. big party last night celebrating your book release. >> even got my parents to come. it's a party. >> hugely proud of you. >> it's called "monday morning" because this is when the five doctors meet. is this fictional or something you experience as a doctor? >> no that type of meeting where it's a doctors only sort of meeting no, lawyers or administrators invid does happen. just about every teaching hospital and most private hospitals as well. it's sort of a quality assurance conference, this isn't about punitive things but if you made a mistake, i want to be able to talk to you about that so that you don't make that dismake again but also nosh else listening in the room is a mistake as well. >> is that why you did a fictionalized can't because you couldn't do it as true lives, true stories?

>> we talk about mistakes a lot. what happens after the mistake? i thought it to be as honest as i possibly could, i thought fiction would be better. it wasn't about implicating familiar doctors or hospitalings but showing people the medicine. >> people don't realize you do surgery. you're a brain surgeon. it's not brain surgery, it is, actually, technically. >> i've never heard of that yoke. >> you're a correspondent and you went around the world koring disasters. >> with you. >> how do you do this? physically, literally, do you write for an hour every morning. >> i didn't for this. a lot of it was on plane rides. when saw me typing on the keyboard -- work. other gig. >> fiction can be cathartic at times, fun weekends. >> one time i wrote for over a bench straight. you know i got thept involved in the process but i one day wrote

forever of day straight. i tried to put it down as quickly as possible. >> we have pictures from your book party last night but, you know, got great review tons books so far. there's us. >> hope my life is not watching. >> i'm in a lot of those pictures with dr. sanjay gupta. >> what is that? >> i wrote a book.actually, the is in the early stages of possibly turning into a tv series. >> you know, david kelly, terrific guy, terrific writer. he's writing a pilot that's being filled now which is very exciting. >> name of the stoors who will be in it? >> jennifer finnegan, alfred molina, it's a really amazing -- >> sanjay gupta. >> no. >> no actor? >> no. >> no. so it's fun. i think he really sort of gets

the concept of what we're trying to do with the book so, you know, we'll see. as you know, you're a television person, there's 1,000 steps between now and ever being on the air but it's a fun process. >> you have written books that are nonfiction as well. what do you like better? >> in the beginning when you're crafting the whole outline, i think fiction can be more challenging because you have to create the cashers. once you start drinking you don't have to source everything. it's made up. with nonfiction i think the organization is easier because you have an idea. but then the sourcing and everything, reading all the purnt papers, updating the book as it comes out, it's harder. >> i can completely see sanjay going completely hollywood. >> can i ask a substantive question about the book? sort of meaty stuff. a lot of times we see studies that report about 100,000 deaths

a year from avoidable medical errors in hospitals. when i was doing research on the issue 18 months ago i was finding studies upwards of half a million. >> yeah. >> where is the -- we don't -- >> you can find the studies though. >> the 100,000 number came from an institute of medicine. >> it's been around a long time. >> right. at that time it was thought this was just not full reporting. it's a really hard number to come by, cast therein. so of the stuff is, fires of all, what exactly is a mistake. if somebody makes a judgment mistake, check the labs? if you operate on the wrong side of the brain like soledad mentioned. all sorts of different qualitative mistakes as well. i think the number is high forks 200, 300,000 and mistakes like education errors. i got a decimal point off,

obvious error. >> it's hard to parse it down and define it. >> i think dr. catherine crier in the tv version of this can lurk. have your people call me. >> want to know if the stories are true and names changes? >> no, good question. >> the lawyer -- refer back to the lawyer on that one. >> all right. sanjay, nice to see you. the book is called "monday mornings." go out and buy it on down load it on amazon. still ahead this morning on "starting point," rick santorum sweeps alabama and mississippi and says the numbers do add up for him to twin nomination. we are going to crunch those numbers. santorum's senior mat test up next. that comeless hot spot stunt. now, the man behind the idea is responding to the critics. you're watching "starting point." we're back in just a moment. okay, team! after age 40, we can start losing muscle --

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i love this song. it's "how to save a life" by the fray. that is john brabender's play list. rick santorum picking up serious momentum momentum. he beat both newt gingrich and romney in alabama and mississippi. mitt romney, however, claimed hawaii and the american samoas. santorum's victories setting up important showdowns in puerto rico. santorum said he is going to win it all. listen. >> we want to make sure that everybody knows we're campaigning everywhere there are delegates because we are going to win this nomination before that convention. >> john brabender joins us now from washington, d.c. the polls were not in your favor and i got a sense everybody was tamping down expectations leading up to these two races and then you won.

what happened? >> yeah, we mean, everybody thought romney was going to win mississippi and everybody thought gingrich was going to win alabama and rick santorum won both of them coming off the heels of kansas on saturday. it's an exciting time for the campaign. rick santorum said it best, a at of average americans are showing people the pollsters don't know as well as they do. upset last night and certainly gives the campaign a tremendous amount of momentum. >> we just played a clip of what he said. let's cue that up again because what he said about the math was he could win the delegates before it gets to tampa. let's listen. >> we want to milwaukee sure that everybody knows we're campaigning everywhere there are delegates because we are going to win this nomination before that convention. >> does the math work on that? >> i think it's tough but i would be interested to hear john's case. earlier in the week there are delegate strategists that said that they would get to the

convention and win on a second ballot. but, john, i would be interested to hear your take now after last night's victory, a good night, but what's the path forward for the delegate math? >> what's the math? >> frankly, there's two paths. if we can get tea party supporters and conservatives to rally and unite behind one candidate, which we believe rick santorum has earned to be that candidate, then you can have states coming down with road the massive delegate wins. texas is a good example. winner take all by congressional districts. so if you have a big night in texas you can get a wheel mess of dell greats. >> let him get to his one point. one strategy. you said you had two. >> the second is that mitt romney had a problem that he is having trouble figure out how to get to 1144 number. he said he has to win 50% of the all the delegates out there to get there. the problem is he's not -- like

last night was another example where he did not win 50%. on saturday he did not win 50%. he's having trouble getting to 1144. many of the delegates are not bound at this moment. many can switch who they go for. many who switch go from a conservative candidate they might have backed earlier and go for another conservative. >> all of that depends on newt gingrich getting out of the race which sounds incredibly unlikely. every single time he's asked he sounds more enthusiastic about staying in tum a. >> i think he's had a tough go of it of recent. rick santorum game right into newt gingrich's backyard and wins by about five.sin alabama. you are seeing a lot of people, saying, look, even if news doesn't get out, that's a vernl decision for newt. romney who is a moderate, getting 36% of the vote in each

date cannot be that guy buzz we're splitting our vote and there are a lot of calls today to say to conservatives and tea party supporters, let's unite behind santorum and make sure our voice is louder than the minority of the party who want romney. >> he laid out two strategies. one is basically get 70% of the delegates. numbers are high. the second path is more interesting to mow and more likely. simply deny the path for mitt romney. if that's the more likely math and you may not grant me that premise. if that's the more likely path do you see santorum winning a brokered convention or is the goal just to keep it from mitt romney? will you be happy with an out come that mitt romney just simply doesn't make the to nation? >> he's not running to be the con ze tive alternative for mitt romney but to barack obama. and there is a strong belief

that with mitt rom, we take things like heat care off the table. we're seeing it ad. bailouts we take off the table because mitt romney supported the wall street bailouts. i can go on and on on the list. the belief among conservatives is we're in the going to beat barack obama by putting up barack obama light, and so there is a real path that says if conservatives and tea party supporters decide that we are now going to unite behind one candidate, not only will he be the nominee but i strongly believe will beat barack obama. >> romney said rick santorum is desperate. listen to this. >> senator santorum is at the desperate end of his campaign and is trying in some kato boost his prospects and frankly misrepresenting the truth is not a good way of doing that. >> he was talking about an aent which said the governor left

massachusetts $1 billion in debt. he basically says all of this is indicative of desperation. >> first of all, that ad was not done by the campaign so i can't even speak to it. second of all, you're talking about the guy whose super pac has already spent $40 million brutally attacking the other candidates. quite frankly, i'm not sure i'm going to listen to a value judgment of a guy who strapped his dog on the top of a car and went burling down the highway. for him saying this is desperate is an insult to the voters in places like mississippi and alabama who evidently didn't get the romney desperate memo. nice to have you. thanks. thanks for you music as well. >> very thaingful you had me here. appreciate it. ahead this morning on "starting point," a top goldman sachs banker up and quits after a decade at the firm. he's talking about why. we'll hear about what he has to

say about has to say about toxic greed that he worries could kill the company from within. let me think. >> let me think. i personally love siri, but apparently this guy does not. siri, find me a lawyer. a man says siri is not as smart as advertised. we'll tell you what he's doing about that. you're watching "starting point." we're back right after this break.

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♪ i can tell you my love for you will still be strong after the boys of summer have come ♪ that's off of will cain's play list. that's "boys of summer ". let's take a look at these exit polls. one of the things i like best about primary season, the next day the exit polls. mississippi, your support for your candidate. strongly favor, 53%. have reservations, almost 40% have reservations. i mean, what does that say? >> yeah, low confidence in the candidates right now. i think this is because one candidate has not been able to get out in front and establish momentum through a bins bunch of races, like happened last time. i think proportionality has done that. i also think the order of the states has changed this time.

last time around super tuesday truly was a bigger event and mccain established pure momentum. mitt romney dropped out and the race was essentially over in the middle of march when mccain won texas and ohio. >> when michael steel said he did that intentionally, that he thought sort of leading up to a brokered convention made it high drama, i'm sort of quoting him. >> look, he was wanting to build excitement. look at what happens. >> it's not everywhere but in some cases. also a look at the conservative. romney's positions on the issues. two conservatives say 10%. 50% say he's not conservative enough. that's certainly sticking. >> we always look for historical pair parallels. in 1980 ronald regan was running against george h.w. bush. people were asking former president gerald ford to consider stepping back in the race. the point is not this that mitt

romney or rick santorum or ronald regan. ronald regan wasn't ronald regan at this point. we continue to look at these guys struggling to win over voters. put that in context. it doesn't mean each one of these guys is absolutely awful and will lose to obama. >> history is always interesting. historically my knee jerk reaction is the disaffected will fall in line once there is a candidate. >> and i don't think you can tell that until -- >> this is what's interesting. because the tea party influence, because of the social conservatives have gotten so powerful and we haven't had -- this is post 2008. we haven't seen whether they are going to give up -- >> we just do not know. that is very true. we have to take a short break. still ahead. it's a good morning when you can start with george clooney. hello. george clooney. he's going to be joining us live. we'll be talking about the violence on south sudan. then we'll talk about that homeless hot spot debacle using

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[ tom ] i wanna see that again. ♪ on "starting point" this morning, winning dixie. a rick santorum sweep in the south makes things lots more interesting this morning. >> we did it again. >> oops, we did it again. he's got momentum on his side, but he doesn't have the money and he doesn't necessarily have the math either. those two things still seem to belong to mitt romney. >> senator santorum is at the desperate end of his campaign and is trying in some way to boost his prospects. >> we're going to talk to mitt romney's campaign straight ahead this morning. also, george clooney's going to join us live. he's just back from sudan. he's heading right to the senate with visions of burned out villages and people hiding in caves fresh in his mind. actor adrian brody is going

to join us. he he's going back to school for his latest roll and how new york city -- it's wednesday, march city -- it's wednesday, march 14th, 8:clnl a.m. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ♪ jim's play list. that's the eagles, "take it easy." kathryn cryer. she's the author of patriot acts. brett o'donnell is back with us. he advised mitt romney and also michele bachmann on their presidential campaigns and the debates specifically. nice to have you. will cain is a cnn contributor and also contributor to the blaze.com. nice to have you as well. our "starting point," of course, is what happened last night. rick santorum winning it all. the doubleheader at least victories in alabama and mississippi.

romney picked up wins in hawaii and american samoa. we got the results from hawaii this morning. two big races in the south, undeniable boost and a big one for rick santorum. he put a stop to gingrich's southern strategy which then became a deep south strategy. and further positioned himself as the conservative alternative to mitt romney. now as for newt gingrich, he has shown no signs of dropping out. in a speech last night he took a shot at romney's performance yesterday. listen. >> the fact is, in both states the conservative candidates got nearly 70% of the vote and if you're the front-runner, if you're the front-runner and you keep coming in third, you're not much of a front-runner. >> he said that a couple of times. jim talent is a senior advisor to the romney campaign. thanks for talking with us. we certainly appreciate it. >> thank you. >> polls showed that the race was essentially tied. yesterday when we were talking about it it looked tied for first place. ended up in third place both in the state of alabama and in the

state of mississippi, one in hawaii which we found out this morning, american samoa as well. analyze the race for me. what happened? >> we won more delegates than anybody else last night so, i mean, we're right on path to where we want to be. we've done better than i expected to do in the south. we've been competitive everywhere and we've won a couple of states. i think what happens is that sometimes because governor romney has a big lead, some of his voters get complacent. i think that's what happened in mississippi. >> that's an interesting strategy. will cain, what do you think of that? because he's got a lead everybody feels like we don't have to turn out in the primaries. >> with all due respect, i don't think much of it. every poll going in however inaccurate, it turned out they were regarding santorum specifically. i think the mississippi voters knew their vote counted. if they wanted romney to win they should have voted for him. it think it does show that romney has some weaknesses. we have to admit this.

certainly winning in the delegates, but this reveals some things about the romney campaign, don't you think? >> the romney campaign made the statement that they expected to win in alabama. >> they did and then they started backing away from it. excuse me, senator. you were about to jump in. >> the romney campaign is winning in the delegates and that's what matters here. i mean, we won more delegates than anybody else last night. we're going through a patch of the schedule where we're not playing in territory that is our strength and we're doing what we need to do. any election where neither rick santorum nor newt gingrich gets at least 65 to 75% of the vote is an election where we move ahead. that's what's happening. >> when newt gingrich, you heard the clip -- let's cue that up again and play it. he kind of assessed all the other arguments outside of the delegate argument. listen. >> the fact is, in both states the conservative candidates got nearly 70% of the vote and if you're the front-runner, if you're the front-runner and you keep coming in third, you're not

much of a front-runner. >> to some degree he's got a point. it's hard to keep that front-runner status and if you're saying delegates, delegates, delegates. >> you can tell that to john mccain. he lost 19 states and he won the nomination. you know, when you have a contest with a number of people in it, you're not going to win anywhere. i don't know anybody that's won the nomination where you have a contest, open presidency, and you win everywhere. governor romney is hitting the messages that matter to people, on the economy, getting the budget balanced and on beating barack obama. those are the key messages for republican voters. we're going to go now to puerto rico, missouri, illinois. i expect to do well in those states. >> senator, quick question for you. no one doubts that you shouldn't have to win all the states. you are winning in the delegates. your message has been received, but are you really telling me that the votes last night, mississippi and alabama, were virtually meaningless to your campaign? >> no, they're very meaningful. we needed votes to get

delegates. once you get past the initial stage of the primary so it's not shut down early and given the process this year, that was going to be the case baecause a you know, so many are back end loaded, then you have to get to the total. we're running against the delegate total more than against the others. by that standard we're doing really well. we won more delegates than anybody else won yesterday. >> at what cost? >> they're the ones that needed to win twice as much as anyone else to get the nomination. >> outspending rick santorum over $2 million is what your campaign spent on tv ad spending to rick santorum's just under $400,000 at some point there's a different kind of math, maybe not delegate math, that says that's bad math. he won and spent under $400 million. we took a $2 million hit. the campaign spent $55 million, campaign alone, i'm he not talking about super pac money, $55 million as of january 31st. >> the other way of looking at

that is that if you can't raise any money, it has a bearing on whether you're a good candidate and whether you can beat barack obama. it's all part of being a good candidate, having an organization, having a strong message, being energetic on the stump, raising money. this is the national campaign that is moving towards the nomination. i mean, we're doing as well or better than mccain did four years ago. like i said, we're doing better than four or five months ago i thought we would do in the south, at least as well as we expected, and so now we're going to move to other territory and continue getting delegates. >> senator jim talent joining us, senior advisor to the romney campaign. thank you for your time this morning. >> thanks. other headlines to get to. christine has those for us. hey, christine. >> good morning, soledad. new overnight. a roadside bomb exploding in afghanistan killing eight people as defense secretary leon panetta arrives in the same province unannounced to try to diffuse a crisis there. the country erupting in fury

over a u.s. soldier's massacre of mostly women and children civilians. the question being asked this morning, was that accused soldier drunk when he went on that rampage? military investigators are now awaiting toxicology results to determine whether alcohol might have played a role in that attack, an attack that killed 16 afghan civilians. officials say alcohol was found in the suspected soldier's living quarters. we're still waiting to hear what caused a bush crash in the swiss alps that killed 28 people including 22 children. the bus was heading back to belgium after a school ski trip when it slammed into a tunnel wall. another 24 students are in the hospital this morning. there's a controversy brewing over an advertising agency's use of 13 homeless people as human wi fi hot spots. it's a marketing plan coming out of the south by southwest festival in austin, texas. each of the homeless people are being paid $20 to carry 4g

supplied by the ad agency bbh. the head of innovation for bbh defended the program to ashleigh banfield on "early start." >> this is an opportunity for these people, these homeless individuals that have participated in this program to say, you know what, they run this like their own small business. they have an opportunity to tell their story. these individuals have felt very empowered by it. it's been a very positive experience for them and they're just happy that people are stopping and talking to them and they get a chance to actually give them some perspective on what it's like being a homeless person. >> critics call the program exploittive. in an online op ed the washington post wondered, have we lost our humanity? a history making win in alaska's race 25-year-old dallas seebe being the youngest musher to win. the eye dit at that rod's a family affair. his grandfather competed in the very first iditarod 40 years

ago. this year he beat them both to the finish line. hey, siri, find me a lawyer. a new york man filed a class action suit against apple claiming siri, she's not as smart as she looks on the advertisements. he says the company has been misleading and deceptive about what that virtual assistant can do. my siri works just fine. >> does she? >> i don't ask her to do a lot. do you have siri. >> do my laundry. >> siri's only as smart as the operator sometimes, right? >> i think that's a compliment kind of sort of. bad for the guy. >> christine, thank you very much. ahead this morning on "starting point," we're going to talk about this case. a grandmother who's now facing the death penalty allegedly for forcing her 9-year-old granddaughter, we talked about this, to run, the little girl to run until she literally dropped dead over a candy bar apparently. plus george clooney's going to join us live. he's heading to the senate today. just back from a trip to sudan. he is fearing a second genocide

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♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. actor and activist george clooney, in just about two hours he'll be testifying before the senate committee about the crisis in sudan. he just returned. while he was there he witnessed some of the violence firsthand. here's a little portion of his video diary. >> that was taken out of that young man's leg two hours ago? >> yeah. >> very brave boy. >> those people are civilians. >> that's the truth. >> george clooney joins us along

with john prendergast. it's a genocide group. you'll both be testifying. i appreciate you joining us. you've called yourselves the anti-genocide paparazzi because you're really taking -- it has kind of a ring to it, i guess. what is your biggest concern when you look at that region, that border region between sudan and south sudan which has been violent and continues to be violent and has been for a long time? >> well, there's a lot of concerns. it's not just that. of course, it's also the nuva mountains which is along the side which is where there's infinitely more violence going on now. the trouble is what we're seeing, we have a satellite up in the air, digital globe was nice enough to donate the money and the imagery for us to be able to keep an eye on these people. what we've been lucky enough to catch in the last few weeks are bombs being dropped on innocent civilians.

mass graves. >> when you say lucky enough, that's because really you're able to capture something that usually would go by without anybody ever saying a word. >> well, they don't allow any press there. they don't allow any cameras there. more important than that, it's very difficult to catch these images even with a satellite because it's not running continuously. it requires coordination between on the ground and in the air. what's important about this is this is -- as to the geneva convention, these are war crimes. when you are indiscriminately bombing innocent civilians, you are committing war crimes and that is what they're doing. it's a cowardly act. that's what they're doing. >> we have some images off of your website. this one's labeled apparent civilian displacement from a it dismantled village. i want to show folks what you are capturing and showing. the left-hand side shows a civilian village and the right-hand side is the aftermath. you can see it's pretty much wiped clean. do you ever get concerned that

your involvement taking pictures doesn't go far enough? i know you're going to be testifying today, but photos of the start, it has to translate into action? >> well, there's a number of things that go along with it. having the photos is terribly important. getting on the ground, visual evidence is terribly important. having sudanese people who are the victims of a lot of this, survivors of these terrible atrocities telling us their stories and then documenting that, and then building a constituency of people in the united states who care about these issues and will tell president obama and their members of congress and senators that it matters to them that we -- that the united states steps up and takes a leading role in helping to resolve these problems. >> that's a relatively short list, but each of those items is huge and sort of difficult. are you finding that you're getting a ground swell of support, enough support that will actually spur action? >> we certainly are getting support in the white house and in the -- and in congress.

we're meeting in congress because the house is trying to pass a bill right now that has a very good chance of passing that has some pretty robust sanctions. we're hoping the senate will do the same. the truth is, there is a lot of ways to attack this problem. one is to do what we did with terrorist groups, which is go after the money. find where the money is. these guys are not buying their weapons with sudanese pounds. find their offshore accounts in malaysia, places like that, and freeze them. that's one of the ways we could do it. the other way is to actually work with china, not try to guilt them, but work with them to say, listen, you guys are losing 6% of your oil import right now from the sudan because they've shut off the oil. let's work together to find a way to get that oil turned back on by if i canning these cross bored injury problems. so there's a lot of effort and a lot of people interested in helping right now. >> it's called the satellite sentinel project. folks can go to your website and take a look as we did and look at the various images and

underneath you have a caption that shows what you see. what's been the most troubling, the most difficult thing for you to see? >> well, we came back yesterday. you know, we went up about six, seven hours over the border and saw for ourselves. we were there when they fired three rockets over our head. we were there when we saw a young man get both of his hands blown off. we were there a couple hours after that. it's very difficult to see these people living in the kind of fear that they have. this is every single day these people have to live this. these are not the cave people of nuva. they're living in villages. they're hiding in caves because they're being killed. that's a very hard thing to see. >> tragic story. you'll be testifying today. i thank you for joining us. we appreciate your time. nice opportunity to bring the story to the public. still ahead on "starting point", a former goldman sachs executive, as in he quit today,

writes an op ed where he really blows the whistle on toxic and destructive greed. that's a quote from his leaving letter. he says over the last five months i've seen them refer to their own clients as a muppet. that isn't the bad stuff he says. you're watching "starting point." we'll read you that letter straight ahead. lf. brad needs car insurance, but, uh, brad doesn't want to spend too much. who's brad? this is brad. ahh! well, progressive has lots of discounts for a guy like brad. brad's intrigued. paid in full, safe driver, multi-car, going paperless -- all can help brad save a bunch. sign brad up. cool! jamie will ring you up. show brad the way. who's brad? oh, here we go again. discounts that everyone can use. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

so a top goldman sachs executive has quit after almost 12 years, and the resignation

letter that he -- you e-mail your friends because i'm leaving. >> i've learned a lot. >> learned a lot. moving on to other things. his resignation letter is called why i'm leaving goldman sachs. it is in "the new york times." it is three full pages. he calls the environment toxic and destructive. talks about the firms sales meeting saying it's purely about how to make the most possible money off of clients. that's only the beginning, christine romans has gone through the entire thing with a fine tooth comb. good morning. >> we know that it's so rare for gold man people to talk ill of their firm. this is a very insular firm. even in the height of the financial crisis circled the wagons and the only thing was about protecting their clients. when the history books are written about goldman sachs they may reflect that the churnlt chief executive officer and the president lost hold of the firm's culture on their watch and culture really matters. that culture is being good to your clients, making money for your clients, and that clients matter. press doesn't matter.

public doesn't matter. congress doesn't matter. clients matter. this is what he says. over the last 12 months i have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as muppets, sometimes over internal e-mail. it goes on and on about how the culture of the firm now makes him sick, that they make fun of their clients. >> and they don't necessarily have their client's best interests according to greg smith who will never work in investment banking again as long as he lives. >> no. i should say that goldman sachs responded to me this morning saying obviously they disagree with these views, that they -- they successful -- being successful for their clients is what makes them successful. the fundamental truth lies at how they conduct themselves. lloyd has told me several times, you guys, the media, the public all thinks goldman sachs is so evil. only matters what our clients think. this is the first real shot to the heart of that. >> this is a list sort of for the clients of here's why you should think the company that represents you is evil, literally details why he

believes that they're not serving their clients. the thing that was interesting, the guy's name is greg smith. it says he's resigning today as executive director and head of the firm's united states equity derivatives business in europe, middle east and africa. he said he was a rhoads scholar. he went from south africa. won a bronze medal in table tennis at what's known as the jewish olympics. >> now i'm really concerned for gold man. >> meaning he's fleshing out who this guy is. when i first heard that someone had written this letter i thought it was an angry, disgruntled employee who didn't have a lot of time at stake. >> the firm he started with is not the firm that he's leaving right now. i also think this letter caught people at gold man off guard. >> clearly. >> it shouldn't. this has been decades. i can go back 40, 50 years. i can go back to when lufkin decided it wasn't going to be a partnership and we allowed corporations, then we allowed publicly traded corporations where it is the next quarter's profits and stock markets and

yet -- and stock prices and even within that you look at the amount of proprietary trading going on, in house trading not for their clients, the percentage of profits that go to pay executive salaries not are paid out to the stockholders, and everything about the structure of the major investment banks are done so -- >> that's not his argument. his argument is, that's all fine, but now they're not serving their clients. >> the point is is the client is goldman sachs. the customers are peripheral. they are their own major client and that structural flaw is going to promote this and it's not surprising. >> it will be interesting to see what other letters have come out. there's been a spoof. >> it took five minutes. >> why i am leaving the empire by darth vader. today is my last day at the empire. after almost 12 years, first as a summer intern, then in the death star, and now in london. it goes on and on. how did we get here? the empire changed its way of thinking about leadership.

leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example, and killing your former mentor with a light saber. both of these letters i have to say, this one is entertaining. the other one is literally stunning. absolutely stunning. going to be fallout from that. >> oh, yeah. >> still ahead this morning on "starting point," police say a grandmother forced a little girl, 9-year-old, to run to death. apparently it was all over a candy bar. now the grandmother is facing the death penalty. plus oscar winning actor adrien broady is going to talk to us about his latest role. our. and our communities... america's beverage companies have created a wide range of new choices. developing smaller portion sizes and more low- & no-calorie beverages... adding clear calorie labels so you know exactly what you're choosing... and in schools, replacing full-calorie soft drinks with lower-calorie options. with more choices and fewer calories,

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morning. christine has those. >> good morning, soledad. an ivy league school rocked by some pretty gross hazing charges. dartmouth college has charged more than two dozen members of the sigma alpha epsilon fraternity. dartmouth senior first raised the issue two months ago with a column in the school paper describing dehumanizing experiences which included getting pledges to swim in vomit. british prime minister david cameron and president obama will be holding high level talks in washington today. they'll discuss the upcoming nato and g8 summits with afghanistan, syria, iran, the global economy all on the agenda. tonight they'll attend an estate dinner in honor of the british leader. david cameron got to experience something american. hoops and hot dogs. barack obama brought him to ohio for the ncaa tournament games. mr. cameron promising to return the favor some day.

>> prime minister cameron, this is your first time being at -- >> very first time at a basketball game. >> what do you make of the experience so far? >> i'm enjoying it. it's pretty fast and furious. it's hard to follow sometimes exactly who's done what wrong. >> is our president helping you follow it? >> he's giving me some tips. he's going to help me fill out my bracket. >> he's going to teach me cricket. because i don't understand what's going on with that cricket thing. >> the president's picks for the final four, kentucky, ohio state, missouri, north carolina. just released 911 calls reveal chaos aboard an american airlines tape when a flight attendant snapped. she apparently suffered some sort of mental breakdown screaming about 9/11, the plane crashing. it happened as american flight 2332 was tanxiing for takeoff. several passengers made emergency calls.

>> it looks like they're physically restraining a flight attendant. >> they're physically restraining a flight attendant be? >> yeah. she's lost it. >> none of the pass sengers wer hurt. none of the charges were filed. one of her colleagues told police she was bipolar and had not taken her medication. a new breed of apps generating a lot of buzz at south by southwest in austin. this err rae all about location, location, location. social discovery apps that highlight and allow you to share primarily through location. they automatically inform other friends on the service when you're in the same area as they are. and geeks out, rockers in. it happens every year at south by southwest. the big switch a roo. the time when the interactive side of the festival gives way to the music side which begins today. there's more crossover than ever before. i'm not sure i want people to know where i am all the time, soledad. >> yeah. that could have so many down sides, it's not even funny. >> i want to know where my kids are but i don't want people to

know where i am. >> christine, thank you. a grandmother accused of forcing her 9-year-old granddaughter to run until the little girl collapsed and then eventually died. in that case prosecutors are seeking the death penalty. the woman is 46-year-old joyce gerard. she's been charged with capital murder. the stepmother jessica mayharden is charged with felony murder. that apparently doesn't carry a death sentence. they forced savannah to run for four hours. she lied about taking a candy bar. za raid da sambolin spoke with ashlee . she was friends with the little girl and said she saw savannah running. >> the grandmother did approach the school bus and tell the bus driver that she was going to make the little girl run for eating the candy bar the day before until she couldn't run no more is her exact words. my little girl was on the bus. she's telling me, mommy, i feel

so sorry for savannah. they make her run and pick up sticks. but i did not know the severity of it. i did not know that it was that serious. >> apparently a lot of people saying that they didn't really know at the time just how serious the running would end up being. this, of course, all took place in alabama. it's alabama prosecutors were talking about. death penalty for the grandmother? >> no. this certainly doesn't mean that there isn't part of me that could pull a switch in a case like this, but i do believe that the prosecutors are riding the emotional wave right now. this is not in the scheme of things a death penalty case. >> you're a former prosecutor, former judge as well. >> yeah. again, this is not empathy whatsoever, sympathy for the grandmother or the stepmother, but in the scheme of things is it a murder case? this did take place during the course of child abuse, absolutely. but however the prosecution occurs, i would expect a guilty verdict and a severe sentence,

but what bothers me is once again we're looking at a school bus driver who had this on video. you've got families around this family who knew the wall of silence that goes on around domestic abuse, be it child, wife, others. >> but it's a very strange case, too. little girl doing circles in the backyard wouldn't necessarily make everybody say, oh, my god, that's child abuse. a lot of -- several people -- >> you just heard the interviewer say, my child had said this had happened before. the tape on the bus, she said the grandmother said this to the bus driver, i'm going to make her run until she can't run anymore. there were numerous visits with nurses at the school and others. >> kathryn, there's an emotional -- we're all appalled by this case. what element is missing to call for the maximum pun nirchment? is it the element of intent? >> it may be that we learn that she basically stood in the back corner and said, i'm going to kill this child, but, again, you

have a grade deation of crimes. >> how does this fall short? >> we look at 9/11 and talk about death penalty. we look at someone manufacturing a plot to go in and kill many people. you don't see a lot of death penalty cases where it's the one on one. maybe the stranger that gets gunned down in the robbery attempt. it's a domestic family, long time simmering. we've got the father, several divorces. a lot of internal things that went on in this family. it would be very surprising to me if this actually results in a prosecution conviction under the death penalty. >> you know those cases every time the details come out it's more horrible. >> it's horrible. >> we've got to take a break. still ahead this morning, going to talk to adrien brody. he is the product of a new york city public school system. he's also the son of a public school teacher. he sort of models his next role on his father. we're listening to will cain's play list. not this stuff but what we're going to play now.

kenny chesney. you're watching "starting point." ♪ do my best to waste another day ♪ abou're watching "starting

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feel better? yeah...thanks for the tip! i am loving our music today. loving our music today. a little bit earlier, politics all morning and talking about the results of the primaries. let's play john a little bit earlier. he was rick santorum's strategist. here's what he said. >> you're talking about the guy whose super pac has already spent $40 million brutally attacking the other candidates and quite frankly i'm not sure i'm going to listen to the value judgment of a guy who strapped his own dog on the top of the roof of his car and went hurling down the highway. for mitt romney to be out there saying that, you know, this is desperate is an insult also to the voters in places like

mississippi and alabama who evidently didn't get the romney desperate memo. >> he makes an interesting point, and i think it's consistently rick santorum and occasionally but less frequently newt gingrich who circles back to the voters all the time, back to the voters. i think in this recent end results you've heard that less from the mitt romney campaign. >> it's voters, only the voters, that can defeat massive amount of money and the campaign efforts that romney can put up because it's one person after another that's casting ballots that makes the difference. so they better darn well better rely on voters. >> the romney campaign is relying delegate math. >> that means he's winning more votes. >> messaging. i'm talking about in terms of when you give a speech and what you say to the public you can say, you know, listen. what he was saying. at the end of the day we're talking to voters. what we're hearing from the romney campaign is at the end of the day we're crunching the numbers. >> yeah. >> too much on process.

>> yes. we talked about this for 1.5 hours this morning. mitt romney is winning the math battle. he will most likely be the republican nominee for president. he might want to start acting like it and talking to all of the voters. >> that's interesting. i think what he was saying there, do you think it's true when he said, listen, he's dismissing, by saying desperate, he's dismissing those people who cast votes in mississippi and alabama? >> i think it was setting the expectation game too high. i think the romney camp thought they were going to do better in one of those states than they did last evening. they had the expectation level that today they'd be able to say, you know, we put both gingrich and santorum back and we're now the front-runner who's going to win. it's inevidenceable. today they can't do it. >> senator jim talent was also a guest. he was representing the romney campaign. here's what he had to say. >> if you can't raise any money, it has a bearing on whether you're a good candidate and whether you can beat barack obama. i mean, it's all part of being a good candidate, having organization, having a strong

message, being energetic on the stump, raising money. and this is the national campaign that is moving towards the nomination. i mean, we're doing as well or better than mccain did four years ago. >> he's got an interesting point, right, which is at the end of the day it is about the delegate math. ultimately the money doesn't matter. the advertising doesn't matter. all of these other stories about the dog strapped to the top of your car if you win the delegate math. >> he's right 100%. he ought to leave those kind of facts up to people like me to lay that out. he ought to come on here -- >> you think it was a big mistake -- >> he needs to come up and talk about why his message didn't connect. he should talk about why it might should have. >> might should have? >> i'm from texas zbli might steal that. >> they have the message to really move forward in terms of talking to voters about the economy and jobs and right now what this election ises about.

the problem is when we start talking about delegate math and those sorts of things, i think it takes the campaign off that message. it might make their math a little tougher. >> looking forward because it doesn't end, we have more contests this weekend. >> he has to be careful too because when he does try to reach out and talk to the voters, he tells us about the football team owners, the nascar team owners. >> that's authentic. i like that stuff. >> cheesy grits. i said this before we got started. hala mean yes cheese grits, everyone. no one has put that forward. >> they've moved on. >> texas is still there i'm just not sure that he can even ann said for a while, you be quiet. ahead this morning on "starting point," we're going to be talking to oscar winner adrien brody. he found the only thing harder than being a teacher is being a substitute teacher. there he is in our green room. we'll see you in just a minute. >> announcer: with nothing but his computer, an identity thief

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♪ hey, teacher, leave them kids alone ♪ we're back. pink floyd. another brick in the wall.

this new movie in theaters starts on friday. it takes a look at the american public school system. it's called "detachment." the story line might be a little bit familiar. it's nothing like you've seen before. take a look. >> you know, it's funny. i spent a lot of time trying to not have to deal, to not really commit. i'm a substitute teacher. there's no real responsibility to teach. your responsibility is to maintain order, make sure nobody kills anybody in your classroom, and then they get to the next period. >> adrien brody joins us this morning. attachment comes from sort of the attitude of the substitute teacher, henry barths. the s is silent at the end. what was appealing about a role like that. >> actually, he's not quite detached. he ends up being ultimately

attached through the process of meeting some people who i think share some of the sense of isolation that he feels in the world. i think that's the common thread here is that so many people feel a sense of detachment from the world around them. and he is a very complex man who suffered a lot in his youth. he's compelled to be a guiding voice for these youngsters and it's so crucial. >> it sort of takes his complexity and mirrors that of the american public school system which is also complex, both in terms of some of the problems, the problems of the students, the problems of the teachers, the problems of the administrators, the problems of society. i read that you -- your dad was a high school teacher. >> junior high. >> junior high school teacher and that you modeled the role a little bit in some way, if you will, on him. is that right?

>> well, my father is an amazing kind, generous, thoughtful human zblk just a little bit. >> my character is completely dysfunctional, but he manages to muster up this incredible, thoughtful, and caring approach to his students in spite of all the obstacles. i don't feel lake this film is really just a commentary about the state of affairs in the public school system, i think it's about the failings of all the systems, of the home, family unit. that's where education begins. the reason i took this role was how much i understand the value of having a father figure and some guidance and that that education really has to come

from your parents and, you know, to encourage young people to, you know, explore the lives or their lives and become individuals and to be curious about the world around them. >> you went to laguardia high school. >> performing arts. down the block. >> not very far from here. did you go back to this? how do you prepare for a movie like that? do you have to say, listen, i was in tons of classrooms. i know exactly what it's like or do you go and actually sit in a classroom and -- >> it doesn't hurt that i've grown up through public school to then jump into a public school and understand some of the numbers there. i wasn't a teacher. i have a new found respect for teachers and how difficult it is facing the challenges, but i knew that anyway. it's definitely an underappreciated profession. and a very generous thing, to

teach. i feel like young people should see this film. the reason i like to visit a school, the reason i went back to talk at laguardia, was to encourage young people and to say, hey, i'm -- i'm -- i'm proof of -- that miracles can happen, really. i'm from queens. i took four trains to school every day. i have nobody in the entertainment industry in my family. i've struggled. i've done largely independent films and it's a remarkable thing. it is kind of truly remarkable that i have managed to surmount all those obstacles and do what i love, but they're all trying to do that. i think that it's great that there are schools that provide programs for -- that encourage

and help educate kids to do creative -- pursue creative goals. >> the movie is a very small movie. it's gotten terrific reviews so far. as will cain said, oscar, oscar, oscar, baby. >> that's very kind. >> we hope so for you. it's nice to have you visit with us. >> thank you very much. we have to take a short break. "end point" is next. the best part of any great meal?

delicious gourmet gravy. and she agrees. with fancy feast gravy lovers, your cat can enjoy the delicious, satisfying taste of gourmet gravy every day. fancy feast. the best ingredient is love. time for "end point." i'm going to let will cain. >> i want to talk about newt gingrich's strategy which has evolved over time from a national strategy, to a southern strategy, to a deep south strategy, to apparently now we know it is a spoiler strategy. deny mitt romney, specifically in isolation deny mitt romney. >> we'll see how that will work for him. judge cryer. >> i think they ought to consider newt gingrich you can be number two on the ticket.

he's helping romney by staying in there. i think it is a business situation. bain capital is perfect for this. the structure is all business right now even though we feel the heart and the emotion around the political process. >> brett, you get our final word this morning. ma i can it good. >> i think the interesting thing about last night is that the deny mitt romney strategy might be the help mitt romney strategy. the best news of the night for mitt romney is that newt gingrich is staying in. >> that's an interesting case. i think every single time a primary ends we all sit around and say, fill in the blank might drop out. there seems to be no reason for that. maybe ultimately that's about the super pacs. what do people say? you don't lose presidential elections, you just run out of money? that's the way it ends. i thank you, our panelists. nice to have you join us this morning. always. always with a bang as we head off to "cnn newsroom" with carol costello. i'll see everybody back here