>> at the top of the hour, we are wcspfm washington 90.1 in the washington metro area. "washington today" continues. >> i want to tell you what's real bankruptcy. the economic theories of gingrich, santorum and romney. they are bankrupt. if you give any one of these guys the keys to the white house, they will bankrupt the middle class again. >> vice president joe biden on the campaign trail today in toledo, ohio as the obama effort continues to ramp up today with the release of a new 17-minute video and the vice president the first of four stops in four battleground states. welcome to hour two of "washington today" on c-span radio. i'm steve scully. politico puts it this way. headline kickoff day for the obama campaign. meanwhile, caning for a second day in puerto rico, rick

santorum says making english an official language should be a condition of statehood for this u.s. territory. puerto rico set to hold a referendum on statehood in november. it currently does not have full voting rights in congress. it does have delegates for the republican convention. rick santorum campaigning there today and mitt romney also eyeing the delegates. the next key state is illinois on tuesday. ron paul refusing to commit to backing mitt romney if romney becomes the republican party's nominee for president. ron paul describing himself as the anti-war candidate saying that he would need more information about romney's foreign policy. he spoke to reporters after a rally in missouri. caucuses in missouri taking place this saturday. well, the toledo blade has the story of the vice president stopping in perrysburg, ohio, defending the bail out of the auto industry and the bailout offering a vigorous defense of the president's auto industry bailout and drew a distinction between the president's economic policies and those of his

potential republican challengers. here's more with vice president joe biden in toledo, ohio. >> even though the verdict is in, morrisey, our republican opponents they just won't give up. they can't deny the automobile industry is back. they can't deny we're creating good jobs, good paying jobs again. so now they're trotting out a new argument. it's kind of old and new. they say not only should we not have done it, but had we not done it, the private sector would have done it. they say the private markets would have stepped in to save the industry. governor romney says, the market, wall street will help lift them out." wrong. any honest expert will tell you in 2009, no one was lining up to

lend general motors or chrysler any money or for that matter to lend money to anybody. that includes bain capital. they weren't lining up to lend any money either. [ applause ] so now when that argument doesn't have legs, they've gone to the new argument. they argued that our plan to save the industry was just a giveaway to union bosses and the unions. senator santorum said it was, and i quote, a payoff to special interests end of quote. you know, it's kind of amazing. gingrich and romney and santorum, they don't let the fakes get in their way. -- let the facts get in their

way. nobody knows better than you and your families the real price you paid to allow you this reorganization to take place. plant closures, wage freezes, lower wages, they know, everybody knows. these companies would not be in existence today without the sacrifices of all of you in the uaw that you made. [ applause ] then they trot out another argument. they argue that if gm and chrysler had gone under, that's okay. because ford and other auto companies would have stepped in and filled the void. absolutely zero evidence for that. in fact, alan mulally said of ford motor company, ceo, said that if gm and chrysler went down and i quote him, they would have taken the industry down,

plus maybe turned the u.s. recession into a depression. end of quote. ford would have taken up the slack, ford says hey, no. had you not done what you did, the whole thing would have collapsed. look, i want to tell you what's real bankruptcy. the economic theories of gingrich, santorum and romney. they are bankrupt. [ applause ] if you give any one of these guys the keys to the white house, they will bankrupt the middle class again. >> vice president joe biden in toledo, ohio, ohio a state that the barack obama won in 2008, a clear battleground state in 2012, the president there just two days ago with british prime minister david cameron and joining us live on the phone for perspective on all of this is the washington bureau chief for yahoo! news, dave chalon. >> thanks for having me into it

used to be a president running for re-election would have an announcement, kind of a kickoff event. today we have the vice president beginning four speeches in four battleground states and this new 17-minute documentary released later tonight. >> yeah, it's actually happening in stages. so about a year ago, they formally announced the creation of the re-election campaign and so that was to kick off a year's worth of fund-raising so that they could storm the country, joe biden, barack obama, michelle obama and everyone else on the team to raise tons of money. they've been doing that. today really is the kickoff of their general election campaign in ernest. again, according to plan, steve, because they looked at the calendar and this is not dissimilar from what preserve did in 2004 right after super tuesday, we saw the first campaign ad from the bush team. you may remember it had some of that 9/11 imagery in it and a bit controversial there. the same thing now. they looked at the calendar and said after super tuesday we're going to start telling our story.

they have been surprised how much the obama team has that they could sit back and just watch this republican race. you heard the president made the joke he might put some of the debates on as a television ad because they see this on going republican nomination contest as beneficial to them that it's not wearing well with independent voters and other key general election groups. but that was not going to be sufficient for them. they know when you've got still a majority of the country that thinks the country's headed in the wrong direction, still unemployment north of 8%, still a president's approval rating under 50%, they've got a tough fight even the ongoing republican race and they need to start telling their story. that begins today in ernest with the vice president's biden's speech and the movie rollout. >> let's talk about the 17-minute documentary. this is a hollywood style tom hanks narrated documentary called "the road we've traveled," going online tonight. there's going to be a new youtube platform that will allow

the obama campaign to showcase this ad, and to identify the voters and solicit campaign contributions from those voters. here's just a portion of this new documentary out tonight. >> his advisers would ask, where to begin. which urgent need would he put first. >> which is one, which is two, which is three, which is four, which is five. >> where do you start? >> if we don't do this now, we'll be a generation before 30 million people have health insurance. >> if the auto industry goes down, what happens to america's manufacturing base, what happens to jobs in america? what happens to the whole midwest? >> we're talking with david chalian of yahoo! news. in that trailer you're hearing the narration of tom hanks, now the mayor of chicago rahm emanuel discussing the various problems that the president inherited, the vice president and elizabeth warren who is running for a senate seat in

massachusetts. >> yeah, and you know, what's so interestinging about this film that they're putting out is how they rolled it out. you were just playing some of the trailer of the film, right? and that they rolled out i guess it was a week ago. and then they will rolled out -- >> they gave exclusives to the "today" show. >> which of course made every other news organization very hungry to get a piece of it, as well. they rolled out a little bit more when they showed that bill clinton had sat for interviews on it discussing the killing of osama bin laden. how he hoped he would have made the same gut the president made had he been in his old job. now tonight -- they have gotten be about i would imagine tons more free media play than they would have if they had just rolled out their traditional here's our first big 30-second spot of the campaign going up in all of the battleground states. by doing it this way and having this film narrated by tom hanks they get to milk this a bit more

for more free media attention and organizing. i will say this also. one senior campaign adviser told me you could expect to see a lot of images in this film in their campaign advertising going forward. one thing that struck me, steve, when that trailer rolled out, the first 20 to 25 seconds of i thinks of barack obama were all from election night 2008 in grant park. and to me, that's going to be one of the big struggles for the obama campaign. i thought it depicted it visually spot on since then. they really have a challenge to find a way to re-create the energy that they had in 2008. they're working relentlessly in organizing neighbor to neighbor grassroot voter contact. they've got the best sort of organization to do that than i think we've ever seen in presidential politics and even better in 2012 than it was in 2008 and far more developed at this early is taken of the game than it was in the last cycle. if what they have to go to sort of tug the heart strings of supporters is to get back to

grant park, there's not something from the last three years they want to put front and center? to me that's their struggle throughout this entire campaign. where can they find that pixie dust magic that existed around the obama campaign in '08 and how do they -- they're not going to be able to re-create that. what do they do to make up for that this time around. >> one final point about david plouffe, david axelrod, david gibbs, jim messina. but what other names are involved in the re-election campaign in chicago? >> so stephanie cutter, who was -- who played the communications director in john kerry's campaign in 2004 who served in several white house roles in this white house who in the 2008 campaign helped sort of craft michelle obama's image and message throughout account 2008 campaign. she's a deputy campaign manager out in chicago this time around. and still remember some of the

same sort of senior advertising team, jim margolies and other consultants, eric smith, the democratic consultens around town that worked on the advertising component of this. >> quick question about illinois. what's the latest polling between mitt romney and rick santorum? >> i still think the latest polling is showing it it is a tight race. i don't have a sense from the campaigns that there's a lot of private polling going on right now. but i will tell you this. the way illinois is structured is tailormade for mitt romney. this is a big allege challenge for him. he has been doing really well in the suburbs and urban centers. just in the context of a republican nomination race. chicago and all those suburbs around it, the north and towards the west should be just perfect territory for mitt romney and that is where all the voters live. there's not enough down state and rural for rick santorum

where he is traditionally strong to really make up for that. if mitt romney performs as he hud in the suburbs and city. if illinois remains this close and if santorum really threatens to beat romney there, i think it might be some of the most exposed weaknesses we've seen of romney thus far because of just how much illinois should play to his strength geographically. >> let's listen to two of the ads dave, first from the santorum campaign, his super pac, red, white, and blue now on the air in illinois. >> meet the real mitt romney. supported the wall street bailout putting america trillions in debt, raised job killing taxes and fees by $700 million leaving massachusetts over a billion in debt. his health caretakerover the blueprint for obama care. mitt romney more debt and taxes, less jobs. more of the same. rick santorum a bold plan for the middle class.

create dynamic jobs and cut wasteful spending. rick santorum for president. red, white, and blue fund is responsible for content of this ad. >> dave, quick reaction to this ad. >> i think that you're going to hear rick santorum talk about health care and romney care every single day from now till he either wins the race or leaves it. he's talking about it on the ground every day. this is his main message. this is the one issue that is going to define this election other than jobs. this is where republicans are going to get really excited to vote for the republican nominee, vote against barack obama and that mitt romney by his health care law being the grandfather to the obama law has the potential to put the republicans at a major disadvantage than they otherwise would be if he had a true opponent. that's the argument rick santorum is going to make. that's what he said in puerto rico on the ground today and i think we're going to hear a lot of that. >> from the romney campaign, his

super pac, restore our future, let's listen and watch. >> who has the right experience? mitt romney helped create thousands of jobs. >> rick santorum is caused the ultimate insider. >> many rony rescued the olympics. >> santorum was in washington voting to raise the debt limit five times. >> romney vetoed 800 times and turned a deficit into a surplus without raising taxes. >> santorum bass voting for billions in waste including the bridge to no with are. >> romney and santorum, big differences. >> restore future is responsible for the content of this message. >> dave chalian, reaction. >> what's interesting about this, this is a message being run by the super pac but it's not actually being echoed as consistently by romney on the trail. this notion of rick santorum as the insider is something i would say for the last month since santorum has really proved he's here stay for a while is something that the campaign and the super pac have gone after in press releases and advertising but romney seems to drop it

often from his -- he tries to say hey, i'm a business pan and make himself the outsider. he doesn't harp on this the way the advertising has. i still think that will romney's biggest challenge is not to continue to find rick santorum as much of an insider as everybody else that the republican electorate would not want him. mitt romney's challenge is to come up with a story about himself, his experience and his vision for where he wants to take the country. right now he doesn't get out there and tell a story every day. i just think that is a missing component for him, and i don't think we've seen that this message of rick santorum as an insider has been sufficient to sort of turn away the republican conservative base. we still see rick strum doing quite well with conservative voters, the very same voters most repulsed by washington insider dom and the spending. this doesn't seem to be gaining traction as an issue. >> with the romney campaign

talking about the path and the inevitability of romney getting the republican nomination, will we hear and see sharper attacks from the santorum campaign when it comes to issues like obama care, romney care or other wedge issues that we've heard everywhere rick santorum but not as consistently? >> i don't think that the wedge issues in terms of like social and cultural issues in that way have proven all that successful for rick santorum inside the republican nomination race as well as to an overall sort of strategy looking towards november if he were to be the nominee. clearly rick santorum is -- he's pretty happy with where he's at right now. fact that he can be as competitive as he is while being outspent 8-1 in illinois and larger margins if you do the aggregate overall is a pretty significant feat for him. to remain this competitive while being outspent is a big deal for him and they are quite sort of confident about where they stand right now.

that doesn't mean they're confident they're going to get the nomination. they're confident they're being successful at causing heartburnton romney and having some standing within the party but have not made any argument or claim that they can get to 1144 delegates by the end of this calendar they admit they can't. their entire mission right now is to deny mitt romney the nomination, not to win the nomination outright themselves. that's where the santorum argument starts falling apart. you're not going to be able to just say to you delegates hey, we're more conservative so go with us. they do have to win an absurd number, i think 68% of the remaining delegates in order to actually close this out. and to me, that's where santorum has not yet proven how they're going to get better organized this state, some of which in the month of april are very tough for rick santorum in a way to actually win delegates. they don't make that argument, so they're still missing a key component, a real sort of

building block of how to become the nominee and that is the math argument that the romney folks make which as uninspiring as it is is real. i mean, he's won about half the delegates at stake thus far. he needs to win about half the dels for the rest of the calendar in order to get 1144 before this is done. that's not impossible. and i guess i'm one of those folks that i just -- i am not at the place where i can see us going to tampa without knowing who the nominee is he. >> we'll talk to you next wednesday. >> and puerto rico. >> absolutely. a lot going on, louisiana next week. dave chalian, thanks for keeping us up to date on all things politic. his work available at yahoo!.com. this is washington today. in a floor speech earlier today, mitch mcconnell calling out his democratic colleagues for stalling a vote on the jump start our business startups act. it's an acronym for the jobs act. he says democrats are more interested in 30-second

political ads than in supporting the jobs plan which passed overwhelmingly in the house of representatives and does have the support of the obama white house. senator mcconnell citing a report in politte koept in which chuck schumer of new york said that his claim is to drive some of these wedge issues into this election year. here's more everywhere senator mcconnell earlier in the day. >> i'd like to start out this morning by saying that i'm glad we're turning to the bipartisan jobs bill that passed the house last week by such a lopsided margin. here's a chance not only to help entrepreneurs build their businesses and create jobs, but to show that we can work together around here to get things done on a bipartisan basis. unfortunately, some of our friends on the other side don't seem to like that idea very much. apparently they'd rather spend the time manufacturing fights and 30-second television ads than helping to create jobs.

first, they tried to even keep us from bringing this jobs bill up for debate on the senate. now we read they're trying to figure out ways to make this overwhelmingly bipartisan bill controversial. they want to pick a fight rather than getting this bill to the president's desk. and then they're going to use same strategy on a number of other bills. their plan isn't to work together to make it easier to create jobs but to look for ways to make it easier to keep their own. than use it for campaign ads in the run-up to the november election. i mean, if you're looking for the reason they congress has a 9% approval rating, this is it. a day after we read a headline in the congressional quarterly about democrats moving to sole a jobs bill that got 390 votes, we see a story today about how the number three democrat in the senate is scheming to spend the

rest of the year scheming to hit the other side. it lists all the ways he plans to do it and then it says this. "none of these campaign style attacks allow for the policy nuances or reasoning behind the gop opposition and some of the bills stand no chance of becoming law. but that's really not the point." so in a moment of economic crisis, the number three democrat in the senate, the democrat in charge of strategy over there is sitting up at night trying to figure out a way to create an issue where there isn't one. not to solve our nation's problems. but to help democrats get re-elected. so i'd like to enter into the record the politico story i just referred to entitled "schumer schemes to hit gop." >> without objection. >> it play lays out the democratic strategy. the american people need to know

what's going on in the democratic-controlled senate. and frankly, so should posterity. 50 years from now, i really would like an american doing a research project to look back at what's outlined in this politico article today so they can understand what this democratic-controlled senate is like. so they can understand what their priorities are. what did this country's leaders do to make america stronger for the nexgt generation? well, read the politico piece. it provides a unique insight for future generations of americans to understand what this senate has done for the country. they can decide for themselves what they think of it and what its legacy should be. >> mitch mcconnell is the republican leader in the u.s. senate from the kentucky. his comments earlier today on the senate floor and that story that he referred to is available online at politico.com.

well, if you go to the web site brandon carmichael.com, you'll see rather dramatic photographs and his story. he says hi, my name is brandon carmichael. i'm a husband, a step dad, a trend, a brother, a son and finally a student at minnesota state community and technical college. my life was complicated in april of 1999 when i was diagnosed with a smoking related illness. i was in my senior year of high school. i was only 18 years old. brandon began smoking at the age of 15. his story is available on his website and today at the newseum joined by secretary can the kathleen sebelius, part of an effort by the hs department and the federal government to take aim at smokers with real life stories about what happens when they smoke. >> i started smoking when i was 15 years old, peer pressure drove me to pick up that first cigarette. just three years later at the age of 18, i was diagnosed with

buer ger's disease a disease that affected younger smokes between 20 and 40. it causes inflammation and clotting resulting in reduced circulation. i suffered extreme pain, multiple sores and even gangrene. by the time i was 19, i had lost my left leg, i had lost my right leg at the age of 23. and because of my poor circulation, both my index fingers are now shorter than the rest of my fingers. off and on throughout this ordeal, i continued to smoke. at the age of 27, i was finally able to quit. the use of nicotine replacement therapy helped me in this process. but a home health care nurse gave me the will power and strength to finally quit successfully. that nurse is now my wife. not everyone will have the guardian angel that i consider my wife to be in helping me through this process. for those people still struggle to quit, i urge you to get the

help that's available. there are tools and resources out there that can help. if there is anything else to learn from my story it's that smoking has consequences, you may not even be aware of. you just don't know what that consequence of that next cigarette will be. thank you. >> and brandon carmichael told his story today at the newseum joined by hhs secretary kathleen sebelius. you can expect to see this new anti-smoking campaign on the air, on the web and on radio in the days ahead. this is "washington today" on c-span radio. >> in some other news today, positive news about applications for unemployment benefits, credit that is the unemployment benefit applications went down last week. credited at one factor that sent the stock market higher today for the first time since the great recession. standard & poor's 500 index closed above 1400. the dow gained more than 58

points for its highest close since the last day of 2007. final numbers 13,252. nasdaq was up 15. the swift financial transaction service that is capital swift says it's cutting ties with iranian banks subject to european sanctions. in a statement today, the banking hub that is crucial to oil financial tractions and other trade said the eu decision prohibits companies such as swift to continue to you provide specialized messaging services to eu sanctioned banks aimed at forcing iran to demonstrate to the international community it's not trying to develop a nuclear weapon. the american campaign in afghanistan suffered a couple of blows today. first president hamid karzai demanded nato troops immediately pull out of rural areas notice wake of the killing of 16 civilians and also the taliban broke off talks with the u.s. the setbacks effectively paralyze the two main tracks for

ending the ten be-year-old war. parts of the strategy is to transfer the -- new york police commission ker raymond kelly is at odds with council member who's say department's surveillance of muslims needs extra moempbting. some members want to create an inspector general to regulate the program. undercover police have monitored cafes and grocery stores and students groups and monitored the internet activity of people as far as buffalo, new york. actor george clooney attended a meeting today with president obama to talk about the humanitarian crisis in the border regions between sudan and south sudan. he says he came away from today's meeting that there is high level interest in doing more to help a region that soon could suffer mass starvation. he testified on capitol hill yesterday and he attended the official dinner with the british prime minister at the white

house yesterday night, as well. and finally, in politics, this out of deep friday politics reporting the election board has voted 2-1 along party lines to find senator richard lugar and his wife ineligible to vote in their former home precinct. the two the democrats on that board found that the lugars abandoned their residence and no longer reside there. according to election board attorneys they could submit new voter registrations based on a physical address in the county with which they currently have a connection. back in one minute with more of "washington today." >> on march 26th, 27th and 28th, the u.s. supreme court hears challenges to the health care law. you'll hear an argument cited in some of those cases saturday on c-span radio's historic supreme court oral argument. from 1992, the consolidated case, the state of new york and others petitioners versus the united states and others respondents. >> we recognize that