the jfk presidential library. and later, anne-marie slaughter examining their region -- recent rise of tensions between the u.s., the international community, syria, and iran. w.j." is next. host: good morning, two days to go before florida voters go to the ball at an estimated 10% of republicans have already cast their ballot in the florida early voting for it a new poll overnight shows mitt romney with an 11-point lead over how -- newt gingrich. herman cain an ounce last night that he is supported his fellow georgian newt gingrich. it is january 29 and we will show you some headlines and begin with your phone calls. tweeets e-mails.

the fun numbers are on your screen. -- the phone numbers are on your screen let's look at some of the headlines from the miami herald -- from the tampa bay times -- and "the palm beach post" -- look at this latest survey and get some background and a couple of minutes but the

shows that mitt romney has held onto his lead over the last couple of days. this is from mason-dixon polling showing mitt romney of 42%, newt gingrich at 31% and wreck santorum who is off the campaign trail today because of his daughter's illness, 14% -- and ron paul in single digits. last night in palm beach county, new gingrich delivered his remarks but before hand, herman cain with his endorsement. [video clip] >> i hereby officially and enthusiastically endorse newt gingrich for president of united states. [applause] one of the biggest reasons is the fact that i know that speaker gingrich is a patriot, speaker gingrich is not afraid of bold ideas, and i also know

that speaker gingrich is running for president and going through this sausage grinder, i know what this sausage grinder is all about [laughter] i know he is going through this sausage grinder because he cares about the future of the united states of america. host: herman cain, a fellow georgian, supporting newt gingrich in palm beach county, florida. that event is available on our website at c-span.org. we go live to the fphone. let's take a look at the numbers. mitt romney with a double digit lead over newt gingrich. what has been happening? guest: probably the most important thing is that mitt romney has been outspending newt

gingrich on television advertising by a very large margin. florida is a state much larger and much more diverse than the three states that voted previously. we have 10 television markets down here. retail politics really is not as effective as it is in the smaller states. those television advertisements are basically is what has brought mitt romney back and put him into the lead to. >host: it has not made a huge difference with reckless santorum or ron paul. guest: neither one are running television at all. if you don't run television in florida in a statewide race, you have no chance, of having any kind of significant shelling. it will be interesting to see

what rick santorum may have gotten out of his debate performance on thursday night but other than that, his presence here has not been that great. host: let's dig into some of the numbers and look at early voting. about 10% of florida republicans have already cast their ballot in an advance of tuesday. as you looked at supporters of mitt romney and newt gingrich, 42 percent -- 47% of their early borders supported -- of the early voters supported mitt romney. guest: it tells me mitt romney has a better ground organization than gingrich. early voting started well over a week ago when he was able to target his voters and get them to go ahead and vote early. early voting has become increasingly popular in florida from election to election. of thend our poll

people who voted early, mitt romney was getting 47% so he has banked votes that newt gingrich will have to overcome with election day turnout. we will see how it holds up. it is a very good early sign for mitt romney that he has been able to turn his people out and get them to vote early. that certainly is going to be a major factor in what comes out on tuesday host: the hispanic vote is critical for any candidate. we had this issue of self- deportation, a proposal that mitt romney put on the table and was blocked by newt gingrich. as a look at the hispanic vote, mitt romney, about 2-1 over newt gingrich. what do you attribute that to? guest: the hispanic vote in florida is different than nationwide. it is heavily cuban-americans who have been here for generations.

people who come here from cuba are automatically granted political asylum. illegal immigration is not really an issue in that part of florida. the political establishment in the cuban community is almost uniformly lined up behind mitt romney. senator rubio's is neutral on a few occasions this week, he called out speaker gingrich on a couple of things that he was trying to do. it almost created a perception that rubio is more inclined to support mitt romney. that is the big difference between florida and say texas is the hispanic vote here is not as into into the immigration issue as perhaps -- as they are in places like south texas. look at twotake a hypothetical matchups in

florida. and have your response to what this means for the president and his campaign. in a head-to-head match up, if the election were held today in florida, mitt romney would get 40% and the president would get 44% in florida. and the president verses newt gingrich, the president would win over new gingrich critics blame these numbers. guest: the takeaway is that mitt romney as of today would be the much stronger general election candidate and speaker gingrich. the gingrich problem is once you get outside of republican voters and bring in independents and democrats, his negative rating is unfavorable and his name recognition is 53% where as mitt romney is only 29%. voters are sort of split on president obama. his favorable to unfavorable ratio is 4:1 at his job of cruel

low.val rating is he only beat john mccain nearby 3%. the slightest job in support from four years ago will make this race -- the slightest drop in support from four years ago make this race very close. the number is among republicans are somewhat similar although mitt romney does a little bit better than big reds. the big differences between independence where romney is running even with the president against gingrich, obama as a 14- point advantage and has a majority of the independent about korevotwe. and democrats, mitt romney gets a crossover vote of about 50% and newt gingrich only gets about 8%.

-- 15% and newt gingrich, gets about 8%. host: our guest is brad coker on the telephone. thanks very much for being with us and the sunday morning. you can send us a tweet and we are divided our fault lines between those who support mitt romney, and newt gingrich, rick santorum, or congressman ron paul. \ / s a tweet --\ from the front page of "the new york"york -- -- "the new york post"

first up on the fun is in david from iowa, good morning, a supporter of gingrich. caller: i would like to save that where the republican establishment always wants to put newt gingrich down and slap them down on his record, it reminds me of when you have a popular african-american politician pande -- in a democrat party wants to completely be slammed down, the fact that he is an african- american on of the republican side, that is what i would like to say. host: daniel, a houston, texas, a supporter of rick santorum. caller: morning. i'm actually not a supporter of

rep santorum. you guys left ron paul off the screen. host: we do have run ball. -- we do have ron paul. joe is on the fun, st. louis, a supporter of newt gingrich. will try one more time. we will go to john in batavia, n.y., outside of rochester. why do you support romney? caller: i'm wavering between santorum and romney but basically, i don't think ron paul has a snowball's chance. the tactics with newt gingrich, because we saw and south carolina his super-pac adds,

some of his attack ads, if you played the more listen to the radio, they are really better and wrong. they take a lot of stuff out of context. withot really thrilled mitt romney but depending on his vice presidential candidate, i will have no problem supporting him. host: christopher, long beach, new jersey, a supporter of newt gingrich. caller: i wanted to talk about the patriot act and the national defense authorization act and things of that nature. host: go ahead and. caller: it is pretty important that the executive branch of government now has the ability to make a decision that could lock up an american citizen for life of necessary without any charge or trial.

even the assassination of an american citizen has occurred without a trial. host: banks for the call. this is the front page of " the new york times" --

that second debate on cnn will air later today here on c-span and you can check at our schedule information at c- span.org. barber is joining us from the port -- detroit, a supporter of newt gingrich. caller: i am so tired of the news media and the gop trying to shut mitt romney down our throats worse than obama did with his medical coverage. i think newt gingrich is getting eaten alive by the media and i think he could do a better job. host: thanks for the call, maria, a supporter of ron paul, good morning. caller: i feel that ron paul has been marginalized by the national media to a great extent.

they seem to only show clips of them and not his substance and i don't include him in national polls where evil -- polls very well against the president and they think he is only part of a to get part of the platform. he is in a to win. i don't think is fair that florida has winner-take-all. i think it a pretty much aborts the process of the race. about president obama -- the press never wants to go into his college record. he was registered at occidental college and admitted as a foreign student. where is the press on that? are used host: still there lead reymont reminded the coming up after "washington journal" is our "newsmakers"programs . he will join us at 10:00 eastern time.

among the issues we talked about is the issue that maria just brought up on delegates and a whole winner-take-all. here is a portion of that interview in his take on the florida vote tuesday [video clip] >> you lose half of their delegates and you'll probably get the same number of delegates seated at the conventions. a former chairman of the republican party, michael steele, says that all is not exactly a done deal and your office, the current rnc, has confirmed to nbc that is in fact winner-take-all and whoever wins -- what do you say to chairman steel on this? >> 50 delegates, winner-take- all, it is our role. our rules committee signed off on it and our committee voted on at. the rnc had their legal counsel

look at it. chairman steel is no longer chairman so it is what ideas. it is. >> with your delegation be penalized in any way? >> yes, we will have 50 delegates, we will not have the full 99 exceeded. i believe it will be 50, winner- take-all. as far as the hotels and guest passes, we are now focused on the big picture. host: you can watch the entire interview at 10:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. this is the front page of " the new york times" --

back to your phone calls, boca raton, fla., a supporter of mitt romney. caller: i voted early for mitt romney. i devoted a week ago yesterday. i think he has the gravitas and he will do well against president obama. president obama flip-flop on a lot of things. there will be time enough and

now we are concentrating on the primary. there will be a lot of time for us to compare what ever foible'' or whatever flaws president obama has to, i hope it will be, run it. newt gingrich, could you imagine with his acerbic tongue and his voice, us having to look at him and listen to him for four years? i think it would really great on everybody. yesterday in boca raton under the mall, and i saw many people holding up signs for ron paul. i suppose it is because the younger folks are really enchanted with them. i did see that yesterday as i was out and about around town. i did not see anything else but

i did get several things in the mail prior to voting last mitt romney. ron mccurta he had a very good on the ground organization here in florida. it is the fourth largest states. i am so happy to talk to you. you have always been my favorite. host: thank you for that call and i appreciate your insights. about 10% of florida republicans cast their ballots in the early voting because florida along with iowa, south carolina, and eir hampshire moved ther primaries up and they will be penalized by only having after delegates. the primary will be up for grabs in virginia because newt gingrich is not in the ballot in

virginia. this is about the next round of primaries in nevada which will take place next month. adelson is in the process of buying big nevada caucus for newt gingrich. mitt romney has an 11-point lead. there's a story about the man behind the gingrich money. next is greg, from union new jersey, a supporter of mitt romney. caller: i appreciate letting me talk. mitt romney has the ability to get our country through this problem we have. he understands business whereas barack obama never did understand business. mitt romney is a very intelligent person. he will help our country out just being president. host: thanks for the call.

this is the front page of the "tampa bay *" -- -- "tampa bay times" next is a supporter of rex santorum from illinois. caller: i am not listening to the pundits who are saying it is a two-person race between gingrich and mitt romney. to me, romney is very rich but he just comes across as an empty suit to me. newt gingrich is too volatile. i think the only one who could actually be to obama in the race would beat santorum. he is smart and has good ideas and has good morality which this country needs.

the only thing the press keeps saying is that he does not have the money but i heard yesterday that some billionaire is backing him. i never heard that before and maybe you can tell me who that is. host: you may be talking about the billionaire backing newt gingrich. wreck centaurus off the campaign trail because his daughter, isabella, who is 3-year-old was born with genetic defects and has been suffering are the last couple of days. if she is in a philadelphia hospital. we talk with rick santorum about his family including his daughter isabella and that interview is available on our website c-span.org. it is part of a series of interviews we conducted last year with many other republican presidential candidates. this is from "the palm beach post "--

here in virginia, ron paul and ann romney are the only ones that are on the ballot. so i won't be voting. i find it very interesting. i was with santorum to begin with until i learned about his 'each according to his means 'test and his pro-union stance. i cannot support that. ii come as a william buckley conservative and it is fascinating that mitt romney is trying to tell people that he is pro-private market. this is a guy who has taken, according to "the boston globe," and 1991 bain bellsouth.

this is a guy who's got tarp- funded payments in banks for goldman sachs bag in his campaign during this is not the free market. i find it troubling that some people think newt gingrich is volatile. he is the one that brought balanced budgets and worked with bill clinton. he is the one who gave as these tax cuts. it is his leadership the made that possible. this private market idea is unbelievable. host: inside the front page of " the new york times"

loretta is joining us from tampa city, missouri. caller: good morning, i just want to say that nobody in the country is getting what ron paul

is saying and that it is about freedom and the constitution. the other three they are trying to push on us, they don't talk about freedom. does this country really want to be under the heavy hand of government? if we have another four years of president obama, it will be much worse. this country is following along like sheep. that is incredible to me. ron paul is the only one that is talking freedom and the constitution. host: thanks for the call. "the weekly standard"cover story --

♪ [video clip] secretive oil billionaire is attacking president obama. what independent watchdogs call this president's record on ethics unprecedented and the clean energy industry is 2.7 million jobs and expanding rapidly. for the first time in 13 years, our dependence on foreign oil is below 50% president obama kept his promise and strengthen america's energy, mccurtain >> am barack obama and i approve this message. host: from "the washington post" -- this is from the outlook section of "the washington post" --

also, the great debates that were not so great. why newt gingrich should not reply to the lincoln douglas debates with president obama barre in .

that is this morning from "inside the washington post." we cover the re-enactment of the lincoln douglas debates more than a decade ago but we still have the website if you want to watch them and you can get it all by logging onto c-span.org. alan is a supporter of newt gingrich from, gary, indiana -- caller: until i see how they are all going against the president as he got in, i was disgusted. i have seen on tv today were i have seen herman cain and gingrich on the same stage patted each other on the back and in doors to each other and i thatd not stand the fact they are two adulterers.

i am quitting the republicans. host: thanks for the call. next is sandy, tulsa, a oklahoma. caller: thank you for taking my call. i enjoy your show each sunday morning. i am a little bit nervous but i find it interesting that people continue to criticize mitt romney for his wealth and being privileged and people never mentioned the fact that fdr was from a well known, very wealthy family and the same is true of john f. kennedy. they never make any mention of that. i think mitt romney could

easily defeated obama -- barack obama. he is a man of morals, he is a faithful husband, his wife has ms, and i find it also interesting that newt gingrich's second wife who has had a horrible thing to say to him but she also has ms and that would be curious to know whether or not he divorced her after her diagnosis of ms and his third wife, he had a six-seven-year affair with her as a married man. i like the fact that when i saw mitt romney on television recently, something about running for president, that he was saying god bless america is one of his favorite songs and he stood there and sang "god bless

america." i think he is a very fine man with high morals, integrity, and his family, his children, his grandchildren, his wife noem is a very dedicated man. he is intelligent, articulate, host: thank you for your call. we appreciate your perspective our telephone lines are open and you can send us an e-mail -- let's look at the latest numbers from this mason-dixon poll which says that mitt romney now has a double digit lead, 11 percentage points over new gingrich. 42%-32%. rex santorum is a 14%. let's go back to this story from

"the washington post" -- next is john, a supporter of rick santorum. caller: good morning. i want to talk a little bit about how the mainstream media has been supporting both newt gingrich and mitt romney. both these guys are receiving millions of dollars from the super-pacs from millionaire wall street guys and they're both trying to be against that. as opposed to rick santorum. real question we have to ask ourselves is how is the republican party opinion being directed by the mainstream

media? for example, obviously everybody knows about rick santorum's problem. "saturday night live"had rick santorum in one of those homosexual clubs like he was a guy who like to have a dildo shoved up his -- host: guest two new ads in florida gave you a sense of the tone and discussion of this debate through the airwaves. millions of dollars is being spent, let's watch. [video clip]

florida families lost everything in the housing crisis and newt gingrich kasten. he was paid by an agency that helped create the crisis. gingrich resign from congress in disgrace and an kasten -- cahsed in. [video clip] >> if a man is dishonest to obtain a job, he will be a dishonest in the job. mitt romney said he has always voted republican when he had the opportunity. the 1992 massachusetts primary, he had the chance to vote for george h. w. bush or pat buchanan but he voted for a liberal democrat instead. romney said his investments in fannie mae and freddie mac were

in a blind trust but as reported, romney earned tens of thousands of dollars from investments not in a blind trust. romney denied seeing a false advertising that his campaign used to attacked newt gingrich to run his own campaign paid for the ad in romney's own voice is on the ad proving the content. if we cannot trust what mitt romney says about his own record, how can we trust him on anything? host: those are some of the advertisements on the air. here is a tweet -- it is being called a february intermission but there are a couple of states that will be holding caucuses or primaries leading up to super tuesday in early march. this is what some of you are reading according to " the new york times"best seller list.

hjan is joining us from san francisco, welcome to the program. caller: it is nice to see you again. i support newt gingrich because when the time came that we were in so much trouble, we had president clinton and the democrats running washington and they were just spending and spending and newt came in and cleaned up and he managed to leave us with a profit in the government. we actually had money left over in the budget. also, he ran washington and got things done that had to be done such as welfare and so many ways

of getting rid of extra spending. we have a situation now where our country is in a deficit. we just printed money. we are in such trouble and obama does not know what to do. he has not rolled up his sleeves and done anything so we need a man who said he was going to do something and he got a balanced budget for us. we need someone that can do that i think mitt romney is a good man but when it comes to washington, that as a maze where you need someone who knows other relevant -- run things and i don't like the corruption there now with solyndra. it was a company that obama was told that they would not have problems and was a losing company. his own people told him that. he took the tax code money and gave them half a billion dollars

and they took that when they went out of business within one year. ithe investors got the money back, not the taxpayers. is it -- is turning out that obama is getting money for his campaign. we need new congress because he is a man that can get things done. host: here is a story inside a "time" magazine. a rather robust conversation going on on our twister page. wendy is joining us from connecticut, a supporter of ron paul. caller: imi ron paul supporter.

he makes a lot of sense. we're not giving them a chance because he thinks he can't win. what he says makes a lot of sense. i feel the young people that do support him are the ones that matter. the young people that will be running this country will be the young people that will be looking for jobs. is the young people that are stuck with the student loan spread is the young people with the war, his defense part is what they're worried about but we will never -- never get rid of our defense because we are the strongest country in host: from our twitter page --

there is a related story from the front page of " the new york times" -- next is kim john is from ohio, a

supporter of mitt romney. caller: thank you very much and i support mitt romney. i would like to know a little more about the comment you did not make. a lady called in and mention something about president obama of being admitted to occidental college as an indonesian exchange student. she hung up when you did not say more. i would like to hear more. host: i was curious to find out what our information was. he lived in indonesia and is an american citizen if you believe his birth record. there is no question by all accounts. caller: you are saying that obama never lived in indonesia? host: that again? caller: you say he never lived in indonesia? host: did live in indonesia.

caller: i read his book. host: her point was as and indonesia-, i want to clarify what she was saying -- caller: she said he was admitted as an indonesian exchange student. i wondered about that, what it said about him. i just wondered about it and i want to hear more. host: ok, thanks for the call. from "the new york post" --

lorraine is joining us from ohio, a supporter of rick santorum. caller: good morning. i am not a good speaker and i go around a little bit so bear with me. i do not disagree with us having upper-class, middle-class, to lower class. that is the way the world runs. i get it. what if we don't like the people that are running? if we just let them through and that's it, let's go on. i think it is wrong to think -- i'd think we need to do some change their bread i think barack obama has had a lot of problems with the people that he is dealing with. they don't like them. they put him at a halt. his hands are up in the air. right now, i don't think changing presidents would help was going on in the world. our deficit is very high and it

has been there for a long time and running current i'm very worried about what is going on outside the country. we need to be very careful about what we do. this is not just about who has money. there is more serious things going on in the world that we need to pay attention to. i think we need to change government. i think the upper-class and the smart people, we need to do something about the way our government runs. we need change. they have taken from the beginning and got way out of the league of what we should stand for. i am ashamed of the united states and i love our country but look at us -- we are failing at everything and we are the most powerful country but many people are laughing at us. the people that are running, do you think this is the way our politicians should be talking, one against another? host: thank you for that call. marie slaughter will be

joining us later and will talk about the situation in syria and many are predicting a civil war could break out with more fighting over the weekend. an estimated 5400 people killed by the assad regime. if you're interested in recordings of john f. kennedy including the final days before he was assassinated in november of 1963, we will let you listen to some of those recordings and take some questions about what the president was planning to do as he was preparing for his own reelection in 1964. our son the round table is coming up in a couple of minutes as we dig deeper into the primary and presidential politics. that is the topic on the other sunday morning programs. >> good morning. re-airs of the five tv talk shows will have presidential politics in the tuesday florida republican primary and a

legislative agenda in congress. we begin at noon with "meet the press." president obama's reelection campaign adviser david axelrod will be with them. also senator john mccain, and fred thompson. at 1:00 p.m. eastern, here abc's "this week." they will have new gingrich and the current speaker of the house, john boehner. at 2:00 p.m., "fox news sunday." they will talk with newt gingrich and the chairman of the house budget committee, congressman paul ryan. at 3:00, cnn "state of the union. ." at 4:00 p.m. eastern,"face the nation."

also the republican representatives. re-airs the five network talk shows begin at noon eastern time. listen to them all on cspan radio on 90.1 in the washington, d.c. area or on your iphone or blackberry. you can listen online anywhere to cspan radio.org. >> the road to the white house coverage takes you live to that candidate events in florida leading up to tuesday's gop primary [video clip] our young people have a great deal of concern. they are concerned about issues like global warming and things of that nature. they are concerned about humanity.

if they take one of these drugs being smuggled into this country, they are partially responsible for deaths. i want them to understand the tens of thousands of people who are being killed by virtue of drug use in this country. it is time for the united states of america to take responsibility for the pain and suffering and torture and murder that is going on throughout latin america very we are not a good example in this regard and that must stage. if i am president, i will campaign in an aggressive way to our young people -- stop taking drugs because you're telling people are in [video clip] >> hugo chavez says openly he is our enemy. i am prepared to accept that. [applause] there have been few occasions -- in in ministration filled with embarrassment, there have been few more embarrassing moments then when president obama met hugo chavez and attended to be

pleasant and hugo chavez had an anti-american book. i think we need to understand that when chavez and on the degette get together and they say want to harm the united states, they mean it. i think we should take an aggressive strategy, a non- military strategy, but an aggressive strategy of replacing chavez and giving the people of venezuela the opportunity to live in freedom. [applause] >> see what the candidates are posted on social media along with political reporters and viewers like you at c-span.org/ camping 2012. >> "washington journal" continues. host: this is the sunday round table with carol lee. and aaron sharockman is joining us as well. let's begin with a lead story in your newspaper, a double digit lead for mitt romney at 42% in

the statewide survey and 31% for newt gingrich, 14% for rick santorum and congressman ron paul at 6% for what do these numbers tell you? beyond the obvious? guest: clearly, mitt romney is outspending newt gingrich 3-1 and the poll numbers are reflecting that. we see two decent debate performances by mitt romney and the state and newt gingrich has struggled this week. we have the momentum that can at a south carolina has now staggered. we are a couple of days before the primary and mitt romney is holding an inevitable leave unless something happens. it looks like it will be a victory on tuesday for mitt romney. host: the panhandle tends to be more conservative, an area that mitt romney did fairly well in a few years ago and the corridor

between orlando up for the jacksonville area and finally in south florida, both of reston, fort lauderdale, and miami. guest: this is a very diverse state geographically. there are different types of voters. you have your conservative core republican voters in the north part of the state. in the south part of the state, you have many cuban-americans and that has been a big play this week for both mitt romney and newt gingrich to appeal to the cuban-american voters. the quarter will be your swing voters in november. -- the corridor. it acts as a type bustling area where you will have your suburban working-class white collar republicans will have to make a decision between romney and gingrich. host: the headline of "the miami

herald" -- guest: mitt romney always had an advantage heading into florida over newt gingrich. he had a lot of money there and good organization on the ground there. he also had a lot of endorsements from various people in the state. he already had that advantage heading into it and what you saw in the last couple of days is that the nude gingrich momentum slowed in the mitt romney campaign regrouped to go after newt gingrich more directly. that seems to have not to newt gingrich of his game. you have to have a lot of money to play there and it requires having a lot of organization and the mitt romney has been building the organization for one year as newt gingrich had not. host: look at the numbers --

there is a huge disparity between the romney campaign and a gingrich campaign there. guest: you have to have a lot of money to play in florida and that is a complete and balanced. the other interesting thing is that romney had a bit of a cushion but his campaign has been chasing absentee ballots. wasks before gingrich campaigning and got sort of any operation together to do that. that will provide in somewhat of a cushion heading into tuesday's primary host: we have an e-mail from one of our viewers --

guest: by moving its primary in florida and getting into the mix, negated from 99 delegates down to 50. part of rnc rules is that if you come in early, you're supposed to award those delegates proportionately. the florida republican party says that a letter from the rnc and they said this is winner- take-all and that is what ron paul is not campaigning here. there is a potential challenge year. this is a hypothetical thing that if we come down into august and we are still fighting for every delegate that there is a telling someone could make that said florida broke the rules and could go toward these -- and

should award these delegates proportionately. they're operating as a winner- take-all state and whether that remains will remain to be seeger i seen. michael steele has talked about this not being fair. mitt romney appears comparably and they're not talking about this as much. host: "the new york times is focusing on adelson and has contributed sap -- at least $70 million to the new gingrich campaign. it says he is a loyal friend and

agrees with them on many issues. he agrees with his view on israel. guest: this is the man who could keep the new gingrich dream alive. he intends to fight on to the convention varian ♪. $5 million to sheldon adelson is not what it is to me and you. they have the ability to do this. they have similar personalities in terms of their bombast and boldness and they have a longstanding friendship. can keep new gingrich a flood and certainly is in florida and could continue to do that. host: we will be there in florida as well. we are following the speeches including this one from mitt romney yesterday on the campaign trail. "washington journal >> he is and has started but that does not

give them the right to rewrite history. he was given the opportunity to lead our party. he failed. some of us remember, the contract with america was a good thing. what happened four years later? he was fined for ethics violations. he had to resign in disgrace. he cannot rewrite history. we have to go back and look at history and say he may have had a lot of great ideas but he is not a leader that we need a critical time. host: follow on that. there is a related story in the washington post. from your vantage point, did newt gingrich fail is the speaker? how would you assess john boehner and what he has and has not been doing in his years as speaker of the house?

record ast gingrich's speaker is being poured over. people have different opinions on how he served. i think some of what john maynard -- john boehner is interesting in the sense that he is in the situation of being met in mitt romney has been trapped by the tea party movement and being beholden to them in his speakership. you see the same problem dogging mitt romney, whereas newt gingrich has managed to tap into that sentiment on the campaign trail. host: aaron sharockman, i will get your reaction on this as well. kirit campaign sparks revolutionary comparisons.

guest: i think this is an interesting narrative through this campaign. you have speaker gingrich, who early on most voters only remembered the contract with america, and they forgot how things and did. -- in did. -- ended. we know we have talked a lot about him resigning in disgrace. we checked it out and said, pretty much, that is what happened. that is part of history.

that has been left out over the weeks in this campaign. what has happened here is that once mitt romney felt this real threat from newt, he attacked and attack and attack. we see these lines, and anyone in this state is being pilloried with a 30-second spots saying the same thing. the two debates leading up to this primary, we saw a lot of the same lines as we see is the campaign ads. they are getting this reinforced through the print media and that remediate and it is taking a toll on the speaker who does not have the resources to combat at governor romney. host: this endorsement last night from an event that newt gingrich was attending from herman cain. [video clip] >> i hereby officially and

enthusiastically endorse newt gingrich for president of the united states. [applause] one of the biggest reasons is the fact that i know that speaker gingrich is a patriot, speaker gingrich is not a parade -- is not afraid of bold ideas, and i also know that speaker gingrich is running for president and going through this sausage grinder. i know what this sausage grinder is all about. [laughter] i know that he is going through this sausage grinder because he cares about the future of the united states of america. host: comments of herman cain. also, sarah palin weighing in,

not officially endorsing newt gingrich, but critical of the republican establishment. how important will this be toward the vote? guest: the not-run the vote, who was a going to coalesce around, and that has been answered. when i was in florida two weeks ago talking to the newt gingrich office in orlando, a lot of voters are former herman cain supporters. he had already managed to siphon off those voters when herman cain dropped out of their race. this is definitely a good thing for new cream ridge. host: aaron sharockman, let me point this out. unlike nikki haley campaigning, mr. scott has not endorsed a candidate and has scarcely

acknowledge the fever pitch in building up for a primary race. -- in developing the florida primary race. guest: different from four years ago. charlie crist made a surprise endorsement of john mccain. he used his campaign operation to help john mccain, to win that and come back from the dead. and then go on to the gop nomination here in florida. conversely here in 2012, our governor is very unpopular. the latest approval rating has and that 43%, disapproval at 47%. gov. scott without endorsing a candidate, he is generally supportive of rick perry. now that governor perry, who he considered a friend, is out of the race, he has sat on the sidelines.

he is putting his head down and going to work for him. his battle is to win over florida voters for a potential reelection in 2014. it is unclear how much his endorsement, how much weight it would carry. an interesting story here as well, herman cain really launched on the national scene in part every he won a straw poll in september unexpectedly. it forced voters across the country to take a look at herman cain. it launched into the next level. an endorsement from cane for gingrich could help in florida. what is strange about what happened last night is that the endorsement occurred in palm beach. newt gingrich was in orlando with all the national media and essentially the national media peeled off and the endorsement came after they were all gone. it was a strange thing that you

do not think that people in romney-world would not have let happen. that would have more cameras and journalists around it. for some reason, in this case it did not happen. it is unclear what herman cain's staying power is come tuesday. they might one a coalesce around one conservative alternative, but it might be difficult to see whether herman cain can deliver those votes. host: aaron sharockman joining us from tampa, and here in our studios, carol lee. you can send us comments on our twitter page or send us an e- mail. rick santorum has gone with his daughter to a hospital. in a statement from the center on campaign, rick are admitting

his daughter to a hospital. guest: he has talked about his daughter a lot on the campaign trail. obviously she is not well. this is a blow to his campaign, clearly, because he has to leave the campaign trail. i don't think anyone begrudges him taking the time. host: we did an interview with rick santorum in which she talks tenderly about his daughter and all loss of his son. part of a series of interviews we did with many of the republican candidates that you can see at our video library. click on senator rick santorum if you want to check it out. south carolina, republican line. caller: thank you for c-span. i can believe i got through. i think that in the long run,

newt gingrich is 10 times better than the other three. i agree with what he said the other night on the debate about the space station and the state of nasa, that thing on the moon, i thought that was brilliant. if it comes to a debate between him and obama, i think he has the best shot. i think he has the most fire in him. they are so many things i like about him. he has an immaculate way. i also think that -- i think, i mean, he has the the nichols on that man. eugene one going to the democrats' line. caller: has a god-fearing christian man and a gay person,

i am praying for the santorum family. that they would have peace and that their daughter would get better. secondly, as a conservative democrat, i am actually more fearful of newt gingrich getting the nomination, because he does sound much more like ronald reagan. he does appeal to me. he appeals to the things that i believe then, and i believe that if the republican party chose him, it would spell almost doomed for mr. obama, because america is more easily and more to forgive rather than promote someone who believes they are perfect and will lie to allow that preakness to be shown. host: thank you for the call.

from the washington post, new gingrich vowing to go all the way to the republican convention. and the poll, showing that the former speaker does lead in some polls nationally. guest: the differences when you talk about who democrats are more fearful about going up against president obama, in a head-to-head, newt gingrich does not do as well as mitt romney against president obama. in terms of game birds having light and fire in the belly, that is something the republican voters want. they want someone who can take it to barack obama and give him a run for his money in november. if you talk to people in the obama campaign, they do not think that person is newt gingrich. they would prefer to against newt gingrich than mitt romney. in terms of our polls, the very good news for the obama campaign

showed that voters are much more optimistic about the economy. his numbers are on the way up. if you talk to the obama campaign, they are happy to sit back and let the republicans fight it out right now. but the economy get better -- let the economy gets better and get back on its feet. host: from north carolina, welcome to the conversation. caller: i understand that goldman sachs gave mitt romney millions of dollars to campaign. i cannot understand why people would want to vote for him, knowing that every vote for him would be for wall street after we build them up. host: let me follow up with aaron sharockman on his comment and this from dave.

guest: a couple of interesting comments there. quite frankly, both newt gingrich and mitt romney have a difficult questions to answer when it comes to where some of their money is coming from, and how they are spending their money. if you look at newt gingrich, $10 million coming from one casino family. that my rubs some people the wrong way, especially as we move down through the process. no doubt that mitt romney is taking money from folks at bain capital, again, which might bring up some questions. but the fact is that it takes money to run campaigns. i don't think anyone will bear grudges either candid it too much. -- either candidate to much. as far as style, we talked about

this a lot. newt gingrich has got a lot of ideas. the knock on him is that he has 10 ideas an hour and five of them are good and five might be terrible and he does not know which the good ones are. the caller talked about the moon base and a coloring joy that concept. in republican primary, i don't see how that plays well even in florida. talking about committing huge amounts of resources to make something happen, quite speculative, and he had talked about the pride that if you deliver the moon base, you get a prize. most big companies would not be interested in the money because there is not enough money and cannot guarantee that you would when it set -- you would get its should you win. newt gingrich is a man of ideas. what happened in the newt gingrich presidency is tough to

say. he has changed much of his rhetoric now that he has been on the campaign trail, and wants to be a conservative crusader repealing much of the work that the president has done in the last 3.5 years. we will see. host: this caricature, to the moon, romney. carol lee, your reaction to aaron sharockman. guest: the moon and idea is emblematic of what reporters like about newt gingrich. he embraces the grandiose idea. but i want to go back to the goldman sachs point. the fact that mitt romney is getting all of these donations from goldman sachs, it is not a huge deal in and of itself, but it feeds into the overall narrative, that's certainly the obama people are trying to create in the campaign, this

perception of income inequality, wall street versus main street. in a different election cycle where the mood was different, it might not be as big a deal. this year having goldman sachs being one of your largest contributors is a problem for him. host: aaron sharockman, you are inundated with television ads as you watch the programming. what have you seen in the greater tampa bay area? guest: a couple of interesting ads. one of my favorites is from deliver union group running anti-mitt romney adds trying to link the medicare fraud that occurred at a time when mitt romney was at bain capital, at one of the companies called damon corp. it is linking mitt romney to rick scott, who knows -- who was elected despite his company

paid $1.7 million in medicare fraud fines. you have two things happening here. you have a liberal group supporting president obama in november of attacking and playing in this gop primary, and on top of that, they are trying to link the governor of massachusetts to the current governor of florida, to score political points. it is playing in heavy rotation. the ads that romney is playing, and his super pac, they are singularly focused on newt gingrich. he has been on tv since the beginning of january in the state. earlier ads focused on rex santorum, but with him dropping into a distant third spot, he can focus all of his money and message on attacking newt gingrich. host: our sunday roundtable will aaron sharockman and carol lee.

let's look at some of the ads. beginning with the romney campaign ad. cease and desist from nbc news and tom brought out. still getting attention. [video clip] >> good evening. newt gingrich came to power after preaching a higher standard. a man who brought down another speaker on ethics accusations, tonight he has on his own record the judgment of his peers, democrat and republican alike, by an overwhelming vote. they found him guilty of ethics violations. they charged him a very large financial penalty and they raised several of them serious questions about its future effectiveness. >> i am mitt romney and i approve this message. ♪ >> a lot of reasons not to let

me. -- to elect me. >> with medicare, the government says that con artists are draining the life blood by filing millions of dollars in false claims. >> we did not do that. >> we did not do any work with the government. ♪ >> winning our future is responsible for the content of this message. host: aaron sharockman, just how personal has this campaign and its primary gotten? can the wounds heal for the general election? guest: tough question. certainly ultimately the answer

is yes. but the big question with mitt romney, since he has been running, which has really been since 2007, is can he consistently win over the conservative voters? in florida, i could speak specifically to what is happening here. you have many conservatives rallying around his campaign, some officially, some unofficially. for instance, a great back and forth down in south florida, miami, newt gingrich running a spanish-language radio edward heath called mitt romney anti- immigrant. newt is trying to run to the left of mitt romney on immigration here in south florida. a big huge push back from the former governor, jeb bush, or really revered among republicans in the state as part -- as well as marco rubio who could be a vice-presidential candidate and president one day.

both said it was out of bounds and came to mitt romney's defense. he is not a moderate. he is someone who can serve the conservative wing of this party. a similar attack made by the newt gingrich campaign over mitt romney hiring former charlie crist staffers. both jeb bush and more rubio came out and slapped him on the wrist. there will have to be some feeling that will likely occur. quite frankly, as much as republicans want to pick their primary choice, primary goal is to be -- is to defeat president obama in november. we talk about this and every cycle, but in most cases we have a good uniting if that happens, july, august, and september. the biggest challenge would be you ron paul running as a third- party candidate. that would splinter away more libertarian-leaning republican votes than internal struggles

between a conservative wing and the more establishment folks predominately supporting governor romney. host: jeb bush in washington last night for the annual out of a club dinner. it meets once a year. a political note -- he has not endorsed the republican and says he will not. guest: neither of the heavy -- half the republican heavyweights are weighing in, jeb bush and marco rubio. they do not want to stick to their neck out for any of these guys at this point. the way that senator rubio has played this, he has relationships with both of these men. he has been friends with newt gingrich for years, exchanging e-mails and ideas and have talked over the years. newt gingrich single them out before he was speaker as a national start to watch. and then you have mitt romney,

who flew down to florida and endorsed marco rubio when he was in a primary against charlie crist. he was one of the first people to do that, but for newt gingrich. -- for newt gingrich. rubio has chosen to stay out of the race and call balls and strikes when he thinks that candidates have gotten out of line. but there is no genuine upside for either of these men to stick their neck out for either of these candidates. host: tuesday the president delivers his state of the union address followed by a three-day tour, including bipartisanship, part of the weekly address. here's a portion of what he had to say over the weekend. [video clip] >> just two days ago, a senator promised to obstruct every judgeship i have appointed

unless they fire the consumer watchdog i put in place to protect the american people from financial schemes or malpractice. for the most part it is not that the senator thinks that the nominees are unqualified. in fact, all of the judicial nominees being blocked have bipartisan support. almost 90% had unanimous support from the judiciary committee. instead, one of the senator's aides told reporters that the senator plans to delay and slow the process in order to get the president's attention. well, this is not about me. we were not sent here to wage paulette -- perpetual political campaigns against each other. we were sent here to serve the american people. and they deserve better than gridlock and games. one senator coming up the whole works for the entire country is certainly not what our founding fathers envisioned. the truth is, neither party is blameless and tactics like these, but it is time for both

parties to put an end to them. i am asking congress both democrats and republicans to stop this kind of behavior by passing their rule that allows all of judicial and public service nominations a simple up or down vote within 90 days. host: carol lee, he was referring to orrin hatch. your response to what he was talking about. guest: you are seeing him trying to go back to post-partisan per sauna, -- persona. whether he is trying to be a fiery or consolatory, -- conciliatory, his whole goal was to lay out the argument that he wants to make in the campaign. he was able to do it in a way that did not seem overly partisan vote it was extremely partisan in terms of the policies he put forward, who he had set with the first lady,

warren buffett secretary. that cap that they fought over last year. and richard cordray, who he did a recess appointment of an stuck it in the eye after republicans, and in the weekly address, he focused on congress and we know he will be running against congress, and is trying to get back to this idea opposed partisanship and being conciliatory in washington. look at his record, one of the big things he campaigned on, one of the big things he has not been able to do since he came to washington. host: the white house correspondents' dinner is open but the alfalfa club is close. these are excerpts released by the white house. we will fit your reaction. it is great to be here tonight because i have 45 minutes more

on the state of the union that i like to deliver this evening. he also said, you heard it from the pundits, obama is duluth, he is in the bubble, he is not connecting, and that is why one of my big goals this year is to be out among everyday ordinary americans like the men and women of the alfalfa club. guest: it is good for the president to be funny in an election year. he probably did have 45 minutes more the state of the union. he is very long winded. host: aaron sharockman, he also said it was good to see jeb bush, who was accepting the presidency of the club again. he says, with jeb bush accepting the nomination, it is not fair to tease your friends like that. guest: certainly jeb is one of

the real stars of the republican party. people suspected he ran in 2012, which he said he was not doing, the field might have cleared for him. certainly he remains young and up. the more we get away from the bush legacy, george w. bush, the more attractive i like governor jeb bush's, especially many conservative republicans. this time might be in 2016, depending on what happens. that is part of his gamble, i suppose. there would be a shot for him in 2016. he and george h.w. bush were in the white house and in the oval office with president obama on friday. no doubt, an interesting conversation the three had. host: tom joins us from kentucky. caller: i just wanted to say to

florida what a beautiful state and how close it is to my heart. i just wanted to say that christopher columbus discovered america there, and the space plane that carries the airliners and stuff. host: let me go back to the point about the space coast. we heard newt gingrich discussing it in mitt romney saying that we do not have the money for that kind of an effort. aaron sharockman, your reaction. guest: certainly on the east coast of florida, space issues are huge. it is definitely a big issue and will be in the state. it is one of the reasons why i unemployment numbers here are closer to 10%, the closing of the manned space shuttle program took a toll here. what happens going forward is another question.

most people realize that whether you're democrat or republican, focusing resources on space is a difficult sell. even here in florida. one of the bigger questions is how to use that manpower, the resources, whether the engineers or whether it is the blue-collar types working on the east coast, how'd you find them good, solid employment jobs, and the answer may not ultimately be in space for a little while. i know the governor in this state, rick scott, is working on bringing high-tech companies into that area to supplant what was lost when the man the space program left. certainly there will be investments and continue to be investments in space in florida. but there are many people preparing for the next cycle, or something may be replaced space, whether computer technology, some type of the it

corridor. host: carol lee, a tweet to you. he is obviously in texas. host: his name is not come up in this debate. ronald reagan has come up 50 times. no one has asked for his endorsement. guest: he is still not someone that a candidate wants to embrace. there is still bush fatigue out there. house andn the white the president bring him up, he has come back into the conversation a little bit. he is not someone that the party -- the party has not sorted out how they feel about george w. bush. they're still division within the party about that and no one is actively going to be seeking his endorsement.

host: in the new york times, maureen dowd. talking about what the president faced with jan brodeur in arizona, and she concludes with one point, the president can be thin skinned but the governor can be that headed. -- fat headed. guest: if you remember that david axelrod memo about his concerns with the president. he worries about what the people think about him. this is a president there reads everything, he digests everything, he did not read the entire book that he read that excerpt, and the meeting that she felt -- that he felt she had mischaracterized.

it brought the -- when she handed him that letter, he brought that up. he plays a very close attention to that. he can be very thin skin. but the photographic came out of that interaction did not do her any favors for the idea of putting your finger into the face of the president of the united states is not something that will give you a lot of sympathy. it might fire a particular base. but if i were the broader electorate, i would not think that was something that you should be doing to the president. host: aaron sharockman, this twitter says -- guest: the person who would not say that a is jeb. he was governor of florida for

eight years. he says he likes making money. he is down in south florida, he has an hispanic leadership group, working very hard to get our reach so the republicans can potentially win over hispanic voters. his brother was able to do that to some degree in 2008. -- in 2008, literally no hispanic support for became. he is also working on education reform. he pushed through a huge educational reforms as governor. trying to move to more of about your system, where he says students can choose the schools that want to go to. students and parents. he is happy in that private and semi-public life. if there is anything we have learned about this cycle, it is sometimes a lot better to be wanted them to throw your name in the rain and face all the scrutiny goes with it. host: i do not want to get too

far ahead of the news cycle when it comes to running mates, but there is an article about the governor of virginia. he has come out early for mitt romney. there is a huge military vote in virginia. guest: and a very important state in the general election. the short list, you hear the names likemcdonnell, rubio, chris christie, and jeb bush, although i cannot imagine him being number two. but he was certainly a very early supporter of mitt romney and you can look to him as a vice-presidential running mate. host: the vice president has said that he is responsible for a half-dozen states, including pennsylvania where he was born.

areas talking about that. [video clip] >> i have been given five states as a focus. i will be in a lot of states, but pennsylvania, ohio, michigan, iowa, new hampshire, and florida is where i spend most of my time. coincidentally, that is all -- that is where a lot of your targeted seats are. host: about 30 campaign visits scheduled between the spring in the summer. guest: if you look at where they are having him go, he is going to places where the president's struggle. he is an emissary to places. the vice-president has been an active campaigner for the president. he is a big advocate. obviously he is a big draw when they send them out. and they are strategically using

him to go to these places where the president is already struggling, and he has a connection with these types of voters in a way that the president may be does not have. host: from south carolina, the democrats' line. caller: i would like to have your guests address an issue that i do not hear very much about. we all know that citizens united, that corrosive force on politics and the unbelievable amount of money pouring in, but no one has talked about the recipient of said unbelievable amount of money, which is you guys, the news media, television, radio, newspapers -- they are all just reaping the benefits of citizens united. they are forming new talk shows,

everybody is writing books, and so what really scares me the most about citizens united, is its corrupted influence on media. how are we ever going to get money out of politics it if it is not only welcomed by the politicians but the news media is going to have to let go of all of the extra cash? host: aaron sharockman, let me go back to the numbers we posed to carol lee. roughly $70 million spent by the romney campaign. guest: certainly a lot of money. and that is just the super pac. you can raise unlimited amount of money and spend unlimited amounts of money. for my company, the tampa bay times, we are a newspaper and i have not seen one super pac newspaper ad.

we are not benefiting from the financially. that would be one point out what may. more generally, though, i think that our role in this campaign is to cover the ads and talk about what they are saying. most journalism organizations worth anything have a good fire wall between their advertising side and their business side. hopefully no news organization makes news judgments on advertising dollars. host: the wall street journal, a one a path -- point out a map of florida. these are the results from 2008. you can see that mitt romney did extremely well in jacksonville, for myers, and panama city. he did ok in orlando, better in tampa, not very well in miami and fort lauderdale. this is from 2008. he lost the state debt john mccain with an all-important

endorsement by charlie crist. that helped john mccain in his win over mitt romney. what changed four years later? guest: a couple things. primarily in south florida where mitt romney has spent a lot of time and a lot of big-name endorsements, essentially all the cuban american congressional delegation. he has the firepower down in south florida. he has been very aggressive courting the voters. he remains very strong and jacks t -- in jacksonville. one of the stops it is the villages, a central florida mega-retirement community. he is supported by the developer of that community. mitt romney has a lot of advantages in the state. he has outspent newt gingrich by

millions and millions of dollars. through his campaign in the super pac. he has been campaigning here essentially since 2007. he has the best crown came in 2008 and did not pay off. -- best ground game in 2008 and it did not pay off. but he has been here ever since. he has touted pfizer's in the state. the romney folks have been looking for every absentee ballot that they can. when it comes to the ground game, it does matter. but in part because of the dynamic of this national race, if there is any help to a ground game, it is all going to run the other campaigns just cannot have it. guest: the question was whether ronnie's organization was going

to trump the energy that was following newt gingrich into florida. we have seen a couple of things. his ground game does matter and the money does matter. and two, after the refocusing of the romney campaign to focus in on newt gingrich, it has knocked him off his game. he had that opportunity in thursday's debate and people were expecting him to come out swinging. he did not. he was lethargic and did not seem to be into the debate. now you're seeing that when mitt romney puts all of his firepower out there, the energy that newt gingrich came into florida with has been sacked. -- tapped. host: a related story in the new york times. digging into the strategy of the mitt romney campaign. other headlines from fort myers,

florida, undecided. a look at the long time supporters. rick santorum and ron paul, and from the orlando sentinel, who contends the dupont -- who can fix the economy? from the tampa bay times, the poll showing mitt romney with an 11-point lead according to the latest mason-dixon survey. another vote not in the primary but in the general election, the chair of the florida republican party, he joins us on newsmaker is at 10:00 eastern time. [video clip] >> obama kennel win the presidency without florida. i do not think the republican nominee will be able to. florida is a must win. we have a heavy lift here. we are up to the task. host: as we heard in 2008, it was florida, florida, florida.

guest: florida is a must-win for the republicans. the way that the demographics have changed in various states, the democrats have been able to put those in the play. obama in 2008, and david plouffe, now a senior adviser in the white house, was always saying that they had different strategies that do not include florida or ohio. they're looking at virginia and north carolina. colorado is a huge gap for them. they would really like to win there. you hear them talking about playing places like arizona, or least forcing republicans going to defend that turf, which they had had not to do in the past. if your republican, you absolutely have to win florida.

florida is the state or the independent voters really matter. you see the president making a play for the independent voters and whoever the republican nominee is, they have to have policies that appeal to independent voters. the obama campaign, uc mitt romney being the nominee who has a better shot at winning over the independent voters. host: there just over a 11 million registered voters in the state of florida. equally divided between democrats and republicans. taking a look at those numbers and the state's unemployment numbers, just below 10%, the most current figures, 9.9% compared to the national average of 8.5%. how do those numbers play into the dynamics of florida in

november? guest: you have to go back to 2008 and remember that president obama won florida through a huge amount of circumstances. his rhetoric, definitely one thing, but on top of that, the vote turnout, getting a huge african-american turnout in this state, any still only carried by three percentage points. in 2012, if you flip 2% of those folks, he loses this race. our latest poll numbers show him trailing in a hypothetical against mitt romney, while defeating newt gingrich year. all the millet the state of florida comes down to the high-4 corridor, which cuts from tampa through orlando and over to the east coast. it is where the independent moderate voters are. the moms and dads raising kids who will vote on pocketbook

issues. that is why president obama opened here as the underdog. but that the unemployment numbers in the state, 9.9%, people looking for work and not finding it. the housing market here is still very much depressed, more than four when 10 homes, the mortgages are under water. a lot of bad news still in the state largely because our economy is so dependent on tourism and housing market. the housing market certainly has not rebounded. an interesting state to see what happens. quite frankly, florida will be in play, but i can see s chairman curry has said, he is absolutely right. republicans need this state and i think that for the president, to be reelected, i don't think florida is as critical this time. host: aaron sharockman, thank you for being with us from the tampa bay times. carol lee?

guest: the biggest thing happened was that polls show that voters are feeling better about the economy. that is a huge thing for the president. if that continues, some of these other concerns about where the president is now are going to subside. the one sleeper is europe, something totally out of the president's control. but if there is a meltdown in europe, and the crisis deepened. back to throw the united states economy back into a bad place. host: carol lee, whose beat is the white house for the wall street journal, thank you for being with us. we will continue to cover the campaign tomorrow and tuesday as well as results and the speeches by the winner and those who came in second in florida. as no, the santorum campaign is

taking the day off because of his daughter's illness. ron paul is skipping florida. he is campaigning in maine. coming up in a couple of minutes, some of those jfk recordings, the final words of the president shortly before he travel to dallas in november 1963. we will be talking to david coleman, keeping track of all of these recordings. and the latest in syria. anne-marie slaughter joining us to talk about her perceptions of what is happening. is civil war breaking out in syria? it is sunday morning, january 29. we are back in a moment. ♪ >> our coverage takes you live to the candid events in florida for the weekend. leading up to tuesday's gop primary. >> our young people are

concerned about global warming and things of that nature. they are concerned about community. how can they understand that if they take one of these drugs being smuggled into this country, they are partially responsible for deaths? i want them to understand that tens of thousands of people being killed by virtue of drug use in this country. it is time for the united states of america to take responsibility for the pain and suffering and torture and murder going on throughout latin america. we are not a good example in this regard. and that must change. if i am president, i will campaign to our young people, stop taking drugs because you are killing people. >> hugo chávez says openly and publicly that he is our enemy. i am prepared to accept that. [laughter] [applause] there have been -- in and

administration filled with them berson, there have been few more embarrassing things when president obama met him and attempted to be pleasant. chaffetz smiled and handed him an anti-american his project book as a fact of a little bit contempt. when they get together and say they want to harm the united states, they mean it. i think that we should take an aggressive strategy, non- military, but aggressive of replacing him and giving the people of that as well the opportunity to live in freedom. guest: see what the candidates are posting in social media along with political reporters and viewers like you at c- span.org. >> 14 years. [applause] [unintelligible] >> thank you, thank you, thank

you. >> next weekend book tv in american history tv investigate beaumont or the texas oil industry got its start. saturday on book tv on c-span2, john roberts on the literary culture and the challenges of running an independent bookstore. also the author on teddy roosevelt pause year-long post- presidential expedition to africa. one american history tv, sunday, january 11, 1901, the lucas gusher change the economy of texas and helped usher in the petroleum age. with the oil came the roughnecks, and with their roughnecks, vice. to a brothel. decades of prostitution and gambling thrived until a james commission crackdown. beaumont, texas on c-span2 in c-

span3. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we want to focus for the next 40 minutes on some of the recordings of president john f. kennedy. joining us is david coleman, the chair of the presidential recording program at miller center. thank you for being with us. one of the scandals led to the announcement that richard nixon was not the only one with recordings in the oval office. guest: richard nixon had secretly taped in the white house. directive -- lead to further revelations of secret recordings. presidents from both political parties have started with fdr, president kennedy, and lbj. host: this is from september 1963. these are the last recordings

before president kennedy was assassinated on november the 22nd. this conversation focusing on the situation in vietnam. [video clip] >> [unintelligible] host: no secret that president kennedy had a lot of issues with his generals as a result of the commune missile crisis, the bay of pigs, and what was happening in vietnam. guest: in this particular recording, kennedy is trying to get a report about vietnam and he is hearing from two people.

a general had been in vietnam talking with the military people. and the other person was the department of state. what he is hearing from these two people are very different stories about what is going on. so he is trying to reconcile these very diverging views and recommendations coming from the political side, the civilian side, and the military side. host: these were not phone conversations but actual recordings in the oval office. guest: dealers might be aware of the lbj tate, telephone tapes. you have two people on the phone, speaking directly into the microphone. there 12 hours in the kennedy recordings of telephone recordings. most of the kennedy tapes like the nixon tapes are meeting recordings. they are quite different. there are microphones hidden in

the oval office and cabinet room. they were embedded in the coffee tables. they are away from the speakers. no one apart from the president knows that they are being recorded. they are not speaking of. they are not explaining themselves well. oftentimes they might be 20 feet away from the microphone. the hearing is not very clear, because it was not designed for picking up the best quality. host: talking about the jfk recordings. our phone lines are open if you have any comments. you can also send us a tweaet or in the mill. not only the and on, but our situation and relations with russia, including discussions with the foreign secretary.

host: i should apologize for our radio audience. it is rather hard to hear. for those of you watching the television, we have the script on the screen. guest: that particular clip is president kennedy meeting with the soviet foreign minister. this is an october 1963. one of the things interesting about this is that this is only

the second time they met in the law office. almost a year to the day before and come up that two had had a very famous meeting just a few days after kennedy had been shown photographs of soviet missiles in cuba and had not yet announced it to the world, the two met in the oval office and he asked the foreign minister if they were and still in missiles in cuba. he said no. that was used to of an example why kennedy and his advisers thought of soviet duplicity in the cuban missile crisis. the relationship between these two is strained. now they are meeting again in the oval office and kennedy is trying to convince him that relations are actually improving, the developments in west berlin and other places, the cold war tensions are easing. the foreign minister is constantly saying, no, i do not think so.

he is less encouraged by this. kennedy is trying to put a positive spin on what is happening in the cold war. host: why did kennedy want these recordings? guest: a good question. he never said why but he was historically minded. it was a prize-winning author. he had a very strong sense of history. our best estimate is that he wanted these for his memoirs. . they had one about jfk had

called johnson and was on to him about the c.i.a. and a coup. accused him of having a coup. and six months before kennedy was shot, he put out 600 million dollars i think it was that did not go through the fed and none of them like that. guest: one of the big issues that they're discussing in the summer, late summer and fall of 1963 when these record's came out is the coup in vietnam. and this is actually a very active topic of discussion within the united states government. there's a very big split amongst his advisers. and this is one of the things that comes up constantly in these tapes during this period is what united states policies

should be toward the south vietnamese government whether the united states should support a coup. and of course in early november of that year, 1963, there ended up being a coup against the south vietnamese president and his brother, both whom were brutely murdered in sigen and the united states had not necessarily -- well, had not known that the outcome would be so brutal but had been discussing for several months about whether to depose him. >> our copy of the recordings are justice david coleman. bill joining us outside of chicago. good morning. caller: good morning. my question is this. on the kennedy tapes and also some of the others, who decided when to tape? was this a presidential decision? or was this the person running the recording device or was there any pattern that you can

decipher? >> thank you, bill. >> that's an excellent question. and it varies for each president. in the case of president kennedy, he decided to install the tapingsome. there was no legislative reason to do it. he decided on his own. he asked the secret service to install the system. his secretary did know about it. but kennedy's system was something that he activated. he controlled. he considered these his records. and in the cabinet room he would sit at the middle of a long table and there would be a button that just looked like a buzzer in his table there. in the oval office he had some other consealed buttons. and it was kennedy who pushed the button on when to record and when to stop. his secretary could also decide if she thought that kennedy forgot to turn machine off or something like that but it was kennedy deciding when to record and when not to record. so whether or not you end up with is a fairly sporadic record. you have a lot of recordings

from keppedy in the period through -- kennedy in the period of the cuban missile crisis and then it drops off. other presidents are different. lbj tapes many telephone calls. richard nixon had a voice activated system. it basically captured everything when he was in the room, which led to some problems. but these presidents approached it different lifment but each president decided independently to install the system because they decided their records. these were not at the time considered federal government records belonging to the people. >> a followup question from your earlier point saying this was in the resolution of the cuban missile crisis. one of the proposals that had come through late on the cuban missile crisis in october 26 and 27 was the soviet union

suggested, well, -- and this came through in a letter from cruise chef himself. one of the things we would like for the united states to remove its missiles from turkey. at the time the united states and kennedy responded, ignoring this issue and essentially the issue became diffused without acknowledging it publicly or directly in any of these letters. what was going on behind the scenes was there was a secret channel of discussions going through the soviet embassy with robert yind and the soviet ambassador and other people. and through that secret channel there was indeed an undertaking that the united states would remove its missiles or in fact they were nato missiles, they were suppliesed by the united states, which were in turkey. so for cruise tchoff this was symmetrical. soviet union would remove its missiles close to the united states and the united states

would remove its missiles close to the soviet union. this was never publicly acknowledged. >> and you mentioned lincoln was kennedy's secretary. here's a note that lincoln's secretary was named kennedy. caller: a bar hero himself who received the navy cross and his brother being killed in action also his older brother joseph being killed in action in world war ii. it's my feeling that president kennedy was our greatest president and it's ashame that he never could serve a second term. it's also a shame that his son 's life was cut short. i think he would have probably picked up that mantle. and i believe that john f.

kennedy was a moderate but his brother teddy was a liberal. and i think his death was to robert to become more liberal as well. but i just would like to say that. thank you for seaving my call. guest: thank you. >> kennedy had a complex relationship with the military as you mentioned he was indeed a military veteran and a war here ovement when he became president, he had a difficult relationship with the military brass. and as a young lieutenant in the navy he had idealized some of these people that he was now commander in chief of, people like admiral burk. and particularly with the bay of pigs invasion in april of 1961, kennedy became disillusioned with the advice that he was getting from the pentagon and he installed at that point one of his advisers, general maxwell taylor in the

white house to help smooth through the process and protect his interests better. and he continued to have a difficult relationship with the military brass through the cuban missile crisis and through his presidency because his relationship now was very different. he was commander in chief. he was trying to balance not just military views but stated department, central intelligence agency and the american electorate. so his relationship had fundamentally shifted and he had a very difficult relationship starting especially with the bay of pigs invasion. and that went very, very poorly. host: i'm going to read this tweet because it's critical of us focusing on us. let me take that point and ask you, as you look back at these recordings, what historical value is there? guest: let me address why this is coming out now. the kennedy library has release

it had last batch of the kennedy tapes, the last 45 hours and this has happened in the last week. so this is the first time we've had access to some of this material from 1963. the library has been doing this for years. its archivists have been doing a wonderful job making it available to the general public. the question though that's broader is what, does history matter? i know the story. i'm going to say yes it does matter. it's important to see where current policies and everything else, where we are now, where that's come from. what was happening in the 1960s that may be influencing today. you also have the fascinating history of a first-term president looking forward to reelection, which obviously has some parallels a democratic president in office looking forward to reelection. but the broader question i think is does history matter. i'm going to answer yes to that. >> host: and done putting out on this twitter page.

>> he certainly handled it well and i think the tapes -- when he came out of the missile crisis there was a brief discussion on how to define the crisis whether it was a success or failure. it became to be defined as a great moment, a great victory of the united states and also a defining moment of jfk and his presidency. when the tapes came out we have a better view of that and it's possible here minute by minute during the discussions on how he handled it and how he was thinking about this. and i think you come away with an even greater appreciation of how he handled this. as to how another president would handle it, i don't know. i can't answer that question. >> backing you up on your point. again some of the comments at

twitter.com. charles, charlotte, north carolina. good morning. caller: are you was? >> caller: yes, i'm here. host: go ahead. caller: ok. my name is charles and i'm from north carolina. what i want to understand is that i've been studying this for a long time. i've always wondered what was the reason and purpose of kennedy getting killed. and i saw on your -- host: let me take that question, his assassination if you want to respond to that. that's something that's part of history and discussion and debate for the last 50 plus years. >> one of those questions that i think a lot of people still don't regard as settled. historians for the most part --

it's a complex mix of things. i'm not an expert on the details of the assassination because there's an incredible amount of details that came out of this. as to the purpose, from what i have read, from what i have studied, i don't see some grand conspiracy here behind it. but then again, there are other people who know far more about this than i do. host: in this day and age of digital phones and i phones and hdtv, back in 1964, color television was the big new invention. the debates were in black and white. so as john kennedy preparing for his own reelection effort with an eye on convention in 19 of 4 had this to say about what films he wanted to show and how he wanted them to be viewed. >> television black and white. nbc are in color so --

>> the convention planning, first of all the level of detail that he was involved in ten days before his assags nation. >> that's right. well, there's two things going on. yind a year out from the election is thinking about the election. these days we have very long campaign seasons. this current campaign seems to be going on forever but in this period, the idea of starting so early was actually quite novel. it was something that kennedy himself had regarded as sort of the greatest contribution he could make to his reelection was starting early. so you've got a president a year out thinking about this great detail about how to

present his case to the american people. and he's talking in this about films to be shown at the the democratic convention. and -- >> in atlantic city. >> in atlantic city. and kennedy himself had been somewhat of a pine near of using television for campaigning. brought a great boost to his campaign. he worked with it. he was also a fan of him. he liked to watch a lot of films as he liked to read a lot. he also very early on embraced what would now be essentially called reality tv. because he had invited during the campaign a film maker named robert drew to come and film behind the scenes what was going on during his campaign. and he invited him back in the summer of 19643 to take a view of the civil rights crisis in alabama with george wallace. and so kennedy himself had a very strong sense of how

technology at this point it was color tv, might play into an election, how it might be seen as new, as part of the new generation, as part of a hopeful 1960s. and in he is in great detail minding out this is the type of thing that we should be showing at the convention, this is the people who should be producing it. >> the latest recordings from the kennedy library. david coleman keeping these at the miller center at the university of virginia. caller: i can answer the last caller's question. the reason why kennedy was murdered was because of the certain secret societies that they had here. there is a treaty of 1783 that was made between the english empire and the united states. that's why today america they say it's the united states but it's not.

guest: host: another theory. thank you. let's go back to some of the recordings. and this is again the same conversation that president kennedy was having in october of 1963. a young carol line and jack kennedy can be heard in the background. >> let me clarify what we just heard was president kennedy talking about his trip to texas and trying to schedule something for either friday the 29th and saying no he's going to be at the cape. instead, he needed to do it on

that tuesday which ebbeded up being the day of his funeral. guest: that's right. this is the last batch of kennedy tapes and they go up to within a few days of his assassination. and as you would expect he is planning ahead. he is trying to schedule things for the next week, trying to change his schedule to be more manageable and these provide a very poignant view of the the president and the the presidentsy at this point. at the time it was fairly mund dane scheduling issues. but the poigsy is added because we know what happened after that. host: we'll go to charlie next in west virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. my question is was there anything revealed in the tapes that have been reviewed by mr. col lynn that would suggest that there indeed was a concern

on the part of president kennedy of secret societies in america? guest: i have seen nothing on that particular topic. not on the tapes. host: back to his health issue because we have a viewer who has tweeted in about his back problems. in the recordings any indication that he was in pain? guest: rarely. this was not something he often talked about. there are some unusual short clips where he is for instance talking to the white house doctor about getting some medication sent over and things like that. but no, it's not something that came up very often. it's not something he would often talk about directly. his aides would notice that he was in pain. not something that he would talk about. but not the type of thing he was generally taping. he is choosing what to tape. he is taping for history trying to tape these moments. in general taping meetings or

important conversations. he is not in general taping day-to-day life. >> gerald ford ripped out the taping system when he became president. safe to say that it no longer exists? >> safe to say. host: next to thomas joining us from massachusetts. good morning to you. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i'm calling from kennedy's birth place. and i had a question about if there were any discussions on any tapes or any conversations john kennedy had as president regarding lyndon johnson's role in 1964. guest: i had not heard anything about his role in 1964. johnson does turn up on some of the tapes. he is part of the executive committee of the national security council so he is present in the room for many discussions about the cuban missile crisis. i have had not had a chance to list ton the entire tapes of the discussions about whether

there was going to be a roll for lbj or what that role may be. it's entirely possible. it takes a time to list ton these. host: but as you listen to these tapes, do you almost sense -- you're really eevesdropping into a window into this president and his conversations. guest: absolutely. these are very different to the usual type of historical materials trying to deal with j.f.k. or any other president. these are not something written up after the fact and they don't rely on memories of mem worse and stuff like that. these are very real times, so a fly on the wall as it's happening. not trying to explain in retro spect. and so you really are put into the oval office or the cabinet room as the decisions are taking shape. you're not only able to hear what the president is saying but you're able to hear what he is hearing. so what his advisers are saying. the different points of view

coming. and he's trying to balance that and trying to form a decision based on that. so they're very different. they're real time. these are unfit filtered this is very raw history and never meant to be made public. these are regarded as private records. they weren't scrubbed or prepared for public release in the sense that kennedy or anyone else was trying to manipulate what was going on. host: virginia beach, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to comment on president kennedy's so called heroism on the high seas. it's just amazing to me how the press and our country in turn has followed the press and the kennedy i guess -- well let me get to the point here. how did he get hit by a destroyer on the high seas?

it's my understanding that president kennedy had some physical problems that would have prohibited any other man from serving as a lieutenant on a pt boat. host: thanks for call. again dating back to the 19 40's, the pacific war and the p t 109. guest: kennedy did have family connections that hoppede him get into the military at this point. i am not a military person. i do not know the intricacies of the particular action that took place that night so i can't answer that question. but certainly during the 1960 dam pain this war record was por trade very correctly an image that stuck and that has been part of this jfk, that has actually grown in estimation since his presidency for a whole host of reasons.

his approval ratings now are much better than they were at the end of his presidency. host: we'll go to dale next. caller: good morning. the thing i remember about kennedy, he was really concerned about inflation. he was constantly fighting the price increases on steel, oil, and even on the automobiles. he said i think he was going to buy all american motor cars. i wonder if romney will run that company then. but if they didn't back down on the price ins increases he was really concerned about inflation. he has most respect of any president i ever voted for was john f. kennedy. >> and george romney was running american motors before he became governor of michigan. >> kennedy did have high profile run-ins with big business during this period and inflation and tax and

everything else as you would expect from any president this was something very high on his agenda. in 1962 with the economy not doing so well he was considering all sorts of things about tax cuts and things like that. and there was this big debate going on within the administration about what to do within the economy. things do improve against what the pundits were saying in 1963 that obviously the economy is going to be something very high on any president's agenda. whether or not the economy is going well. it's one of the most complex parts of being president. host: in his latest book math ust writes about the steroids that he was on. he did have a perptull tan but was suffering from addsen's disease. from your research can you answer that? guest: i'm not a medical doctor. i have never heard of his illnesses -- and there were

many which were not fully disclosed at the time. we found out much more about them in recent years. i've never heard any of them described as terminal. they were serious, however. and from a very early age, he had suffered through a whole series of illnesses, was not a very healthy person, basically. and he from fairly early on was getting treated with steroids and at the time it was not known what the side effector were and there were all sorts of side effects including depleting his auto immune system making him vulnerable to other illnesses. and i've not heard any described as terminal but they certainly were serious. host: mike on the phone, wisconsin. good morning. kiveraget i really enjoy your research so far. do you have any insight or any knowledge of people in southeast asia, like in vietnam, that perhaps were our friends in world war ii and end

up being our enemies at the start and continuation of vietnam? and i'll listen to your comments. it's very interesting. thank you. host: thank for the call. this is of course leading up to u.s. escalation and involvement in vietnam. guest: this is a period where particularly in the summer and fall of 1963 vietnam is one of the top issues the administration is facing. and of course it did not just appear from nowhere. there's been a long history here of sort of changing relationships, changing dynamics between people in southeast asia, leaders in southeast asia and elsewhere with the united states. as kennedy and his advisers are trying to grapple with this through the summer and fall of 1963, they are trying to work out not just who their friends and enemies are but the best place for the united states, what the united states' future in southeast looks like and how to shape that. this pre-dates a lot of the big

buildup going ofpblet there was some buildup but hadn't escalated until 1964-1966. and it's only right at the end of president kennedy's presidency when the south vietnamese lareds were assassinated which is regarded as one of the great turge points, some will regard this as the moment of no turning back. this hasn't happened in the summer and fall of 1963. so you hear on the tapes yind trying to shape what the united states policy or what the united states involvement in southeast asia looks like. and there's still at this point choices. >> host: we'll listen to one more recording. this is a hypothetical. if kennedy were alive today he would be in his mid 90s. if you could ask him one question, what would it be? guest: i guess why would you tape? because if he answered that, it

would give all sorts a questions about how he viewed history, how he viewed his presidency, how he was viewing things as he was looking forward. and i think if he answered that question, about what were you thinking about in doing that it would answer all sorts of questions about how he thought about the world and his place in it. host: carol 89 and john kennedy junior can be heard in the oval office just a month and a week before john kennedy was assassinated. >> part of the camelot legacy. >> very much.

this is just weeks before he was assassinated. and you hear him, you hear john john and caroline being part of the white house. you hear kennedy being a father as well as a president. and of course they're living in the white house, they're living in the workplace. and it's very poignant, of course. john john i believe was three years old, caroline was six and they're talking about the dog that was now their pet and it's poignant. >> if people want to listen to these recordings, where can they go? guest: two places. jfk library.org is the place where the original tapes are. they've got wonderful resources. encourage people to listen. you get a wonderful view of kennedy, his presidency. the miller center web site as i where i work as well. we've got a whole lot of other materials related to the u.s.

presidency. host: thank you very much for your time and perspective and putting these latest recordings into context. guest: my pleasure. >> host: when we come back we'll turn our attention to the situation in syria, a developing story over the weekend, many saying there could be more turmoil and strife, the potential of civil war. an expert of the region, former state department official as the "washington journal" continues in just a moment. of course politics dominating the sunday morning conversations. and we air all of the programs on c-span radio beginning at noon eastern time and nancy keeping track of all of that. . .

>> at 3:00 p.m., state of the union, a republican presidential candidate and texas congressman ron paul. also floor republic as governor rick scott and senate minority leader mitch mcconnell. at 4:00 p.m., face the nation from cbs. dnc chairwoman debbie wasserman schultz, and rnc chairman reince

priebus. also allen west. california five tv talk shows begin at noon eastern time with meet the press, abc's this week, fox news sunday, state of the union, and face the nation from cbs. listen to them all on c-span radio, listen on your iphone, a nationwide on xm satellite radio channel 119. listen online anywhere at c- span.org. >> we take you live to the candid events leading up to the tuesday gop primary. >> our young people are very humanitarian, concerned about global warming and things of that nature. they are concerned about humanity. how can they not understand that if they take one of these drugs

being smuggled in this country, that they are partially responsible for deaths? i want them to understand that tens of thousands of people being killed by virtue of drug use in this country. it is time for the united states of america to take responsibility bear for the pain and suffering and torture and murder going on throughout latin america. we're not a good example in this regard and that must change. if i am president, i will campaign aggressively to our young people, stop taking drugs because were killing people. >> hugo chávez says openly and publicly that he is our enemy. i am prepared to accept that. [laughter] [applause] there have been -- in administration filled with embarrassment, there have been few more embarrassing than when president obama met them and attempted to be pleasant. he smiled and handed him an anti-american book.

an active delivered contempt. i just think that we need to understand the windchavez and ahmedinejad say that they want to harm the united states, they mean it. we need to take an aggressive strategy, non-military, but aggressive of replacing him and giving the people of that as well the opportunity to live in freedom. >> see what the candidates are posting on social media, along with political reporters and viewers like you. c-span.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from princeton as professor anne-marie slaughter, a professor of politics and international affairs. she is a former state department official. the situation in syria and the region. thank you for being with us. guest: my pleasure. host: a couple of developments, arab observers have left syria because of the ongoing and

escalating violence in the country. the washington post points out that this is urgency to in 10 months of violence indicating that at 5400 people had died as a result of the violence by syria's president bashar assad. the u.n. is taking it up again. put all this into perspective. guest: in many ways we may be heading at least for the beginning of the endgame. the syrian government has been steadily shedding people in the streets for 10 months. but in relatively small numbers, relatively only on the world scale, 20 here, 30 there. and now so that it is repressing opposition but has not triggered massive calls for intervention. that is now changing. they are escalating the violence and they have been escalating it with arab monetarists in country.

-- arab monitors in country. the arab league pulled out its monitoring mission because the violence was increasing this week. there is also violence in the suburbs in damascus and aleppo, that two cities that have been strong supporters of the government. at the same time, the arab league is now going to the united nations and saying we need a resolution that endorses a political way out, assad steps down and a national unity is formed and that there are elections. we have a political track, we have escalating violence, we have a sense that this cannot go on. and finally, we still have russia, a very strong supporter for president assad, arming his government saying that they would veto any effort to pass a resolution that would have him step down. host: there was a roadside bomb

killing soldiers by opponents of the syrian leader. also the associated press report in this moment -- this morning that the syrian military going on the offensive, trying to tamp down the demonstrators and the violence that has been in suing. guest: exactly. the other factor here is that a free syrian army, an army composed of the factors from government forces, has been growing steadily, not in huge numbers, but steadily growing. they are protecting civilian demonstrators. what is not clear is whether they are also planting bombs like the one that just went off. sometimes their suggestions that the government is planting bombs to make it look like they are being attacked. what is clear is that the syrian government is deciding that it really does need to escalate the violence to tamp this down with

tanks, with troops, and that actually is putting in motion the outside chance that on the part of the arab league in the western countries that we cannot stand by and let this continue. host: what about russia? you indicated that they are standing firm with syria. that complicates the situation at the united nations when it takes up the matter this week. guest: it does. again, the way they the -- the way the assad government has said that this is outside groups trying to destabilize the government, pointing out that the united states has never been friendly to this government, other governments, sunni governments in the region would like to see another government. it says that outside powers are behind the opposition, which i do not think is true. russia is supporting that view and saying, look, this is an effort has in libya to overturn

the syrian government. we're not going to put up with that. that is an interference with sovereignty. you're standing with the syrian government. the problem is that if russia will not yield, we are likely to head into full-scale civil war in syria. it would really be disastrous. on one side you have the iranian government supporting assad, the russian government supporting hezbollah and lebanon, and on the other side, other western countries. civil war in syria in the heart of the middle east would be quite disastrous. host: why and how is president assad maintaining his power? guest: syrian politics are enormously complicated. an offshoot of shiaism, he is unable to support a government

supported by minorities, but also critically by the merchant class in damascus and aleppo, the big cities. they are senator, but they have benefited under his rule. -- they are sunni, but they have benefited under his rule. many of the protesters are from poor cities who have not benefited from his rule. but assad as the core of support, probably more gaddafi had in libya. assad has been able to portray this as the activities of terrorists and outside forces against a regime that actually does have the support of a certain number of his people. host: of your is saying how was it a civil war when there is so much help from outside forces? one of our questions on our twitter page.

how do you respond to that? guest: that is the argument from assad, but this movement started inside syria, back in march with the torture of a number of children who had scrawled graffiti on walls. there are one of the -- in danaa, one of the syrian cities. there was no outside -- knows outside help for those coordinating committees. as a group, turkey has provided some -- as it grew, turkey has provided some help to the opposition, but this is a homegrown syrian revolution by people who want the same rights that people across the middle east want. and as it has escalated, other countries are looking at the prospect of civil war and worrying deeply about what could happen.

but the origins are not far and inspired. certainly not from countries around syria and certainly not from the west. host: our guest is anne-marie slaughter who was co-authored more than half a dozen books including a new world order. as a former state department official and a former dean of the wilson school, and now is at princeton. welcome to the program. caller: dr. slaughter, my question is on iran. the obama administration's policy on iran is puzzling. it is an improvement over the policy of the previous administration. at the rhetorical level, it is quite sensible. on the other hand, one gets the sense that too little time has been the gut -- devoted to actual negotiation. there has been deadline setting and the hurry up nature on the topside, -- talked side, and

pushing the sanctions to vigorously. i'll give two or three examples to support my case. one, the administration seems more interested in getting another set of sanctions in place that in moving forward on the turkey-brasil deal, or kneel-deal on enriched uranium. despite some internal discussion, two, the administration has not moved to send americans to our station in tehran, something that would be too large bandage. and three, i see no movement on a agreement on a particular agreement to our military. please comment. host: from mclean, virginia. guest: those are all very good question senate is a complicated situation. president obama started out trying to engage iran, reaching

out to the government. the iranian government did not respond and before we could continue that policy, the green revolution broke out, which made it much harder for this administration to negotiate with a government shooting its people on the streets of tehran. since then, we have tried to pursued a dual track policy of sanctions, but also negotiation. we thought we had a deal whereby we would provide fuel for the tehran reactors. they would sheep out -- shipped out some of their fuel. that fell through on the iranian side and in the turks and brazilians created a similar deal, but at that point it looked like the iranians were only doing that to avoid sanctions, something they have done for a long time. we would like to have direct negotiations. they say they want them but then they backed off.

at this point, the one fact you did not mention that is very important, the israeli factor. kif we are not pushing iran hard on sanctions and making clear that we have read lines, the israeli government is making it fairly clear that they are likely to take matters into their own hands. in my view, that would be quite disastrous. there are three parties at this table. only two visible, the united states and iran, but one of the big factors behind the pressure tactic is also the need to make sure that israel feels secure enough to not act. host: let me follow-up on all those points and share with you what the president said last tuesday at his annual state of the union address. [video clip] >> as the title for receives -- tide of war proceeds, change washes across africa, and a year

ago, gaddafi was one of the longest serving dictators, a murderer with american blood on his hands. today he is gone. in syria, i have no doubt assad regime will soon discover that the forces of change cannot be reversed and that human dignity cannot be denied. we will safeguard america's own security against those who threaten our citizens, our friends, and our interests. but iran. for the power of our diplomacy, all world once divided about how to deal with iran's nuclear program now stands as one. the regime is more isolated than ever before. its leaders are faced with crippling sanctions. as long as they shirk their responsibility, this pressure will not relent. but there be no doubt -- america

is determined to prevent iran from getting a nuclear weapon and i will take no options off the table to achieve that goal. at a peaceful resolution of this issue is still possible. at far better. and that iran changes course and meet its obligations, it can rejoin the community of nations. host: and yet there is news this morning from iranian officials saying that the head of the state's oil company predicts that gas prices will go up because the price for carol " will increase up to $150 per barrel as a result of the key u.s. embargo. -- the european union embargo. and then the situation along the straits of hormuz. guest: yes. i point out that the israeli factor, and the domestic political factor on president obama. note that huge applause when he said he would take no options off the table. meaning a military strike is one

of those options. and the relatively muted applause when he said a peaceful solution is still possible. he is operating in that context as well. the oil prices, the eu did really agree to sanction or run to cut off its own oil trade. that is a very important step. iran is saying, well, that would drive the prices of oil way up. saudi arabia says, no, it will produce enough to prevent that spike in oil prices. there contending as to whether saudi arabia can do that. but it is in iran's interest to try to convince the world that this is going to upset the global economy. with regard to the state of hormuz -- the strait of hormuz, a run is threatening to close it -- iran is threatening to close it, but it would be cutting off its own remaining

economic lifeline. it is still selling to india and china. we are trying to convince the chinese and japanese and koreans to not buy from iran. but if they were to close it, it is blockading itself. and we have also made it very clear that that is a red line for us. nobody wants to go there because then you really are risking out and out conflict between the u.s. navy and the iranian navy in the gulf, in the persian gulf, not something any cut -- anybody wants to see. host: on the human rights issues, from one of our viewers. guest: that is the question. i actually think yes. i think that as the arab league becomes more and more

determined to stop this, and i have to say, this is a remarkable step forward in terms of protection of human rights that other arab countries that long have been completely unwilling to sanction there remembers, they are now saying this has to stop, assad has to step down and transfer power to the vice president, there has to be the election so that the killing will stop -- i think it will be very hard for the united nations not to support that. russia may be persuaded to abstain or possibly you could get general assembly resolution. i actually think we are moving toward outside pressure and possibly a lot of military intervention in a way that could stop the killing. host: our test server with

hillary clinton at the state department. she has written an article available at the atlantic magazine website. renee is on the phone from mississippi, the independent line. caller: i have a few questions in a few comments. department, the justice department, and homeland security, are they on alert for the deposed president of yemen, to arrest him for the killing of hundreds of his own countrymen in their democratic uprising? host: thank you. guest: was the question whether they are on alert? host: yes. guest: it is a very good point. the united states helped broker the agreement whereby he left

the country. i think the answer is no, not because he has not killed or is not responsible for killing thousands of his own countrymen, but because the most important thing for the yemeni opposition was to get him out. and both egypt in the united states helped broker the agreement, which i think i was not party to it, included his ability to get medical treatment in the united states. at least immediately, i doubt he will be arrested. longer-term, that is not impossible. host: this from the associated press, reprinted in be washington post. he is in the united states for medical clear. it is unclear how long he intends to remain in the united states. in a speech, he promised to return home before the election, but the u.s. and its allies had pressured him to leave yemen for good. that story inside the washington

post. tabitha joins us from new york city. good morning. caller: good morning, professor. a simple solution for the syrian crisis. gaddafi was overthrown with the help. at the friends in the u.k. in the united states have not bombed him, he would still be alive. the usa and france [unintelligible] but if we had a choice, it is now bomb the syrian regime where it hurts the most, like we did in libya. host: is that type of military intervention at all likely even in discussion? guest: that kind of military intervention is not in

discussion right now. i suspect nato is doing some contingency planning. turkey has been thinking about what might be necessary. but even if there were some kind of intervention, i do not think it would look like what we saw in bosnia, in kosovo, or in libya. in the sense that it would take the form of creation of a safe zone along with richard along the turkish and possibly the jordanian border to protect civilians who are now getting massacred by the government. but it would be very unlikely to actually include bombing the capital in syria. we might well see forces taking out syrian tanks or other weapons used a massacre of civilians. but i do not think anyone, including certainly the united states or france or britain at this point, isn't a situation

where they wanted the directly trying to overthrow the syrian government. it is really up to the syrian people and the arab league to try to broker a political solution. if force has to be used to protect the syrian people, that could happen but there will be a real effort to make about protection, not about overthrowing the government. host: matthew, good morning. caller: i write for a newspaper and used to work for the state department for a short time. traditionally, israel and the massad had backed the syrian regime. mossad has concluded that they would rather deal with a secular business-oriented assad regime than what might come after. guest: yes. indeed, that was the u.s.

position with respect -- not just a syria, so much, but certainly egypt and other governments, or stability -- where stability was deemed more important than supporting the rights of citizens, precisely as you say, because you could not foresee what would come after. in egypt, we still do not know. in yemen, we do not know. and you are right, if the assad government were to fall, it is not clear what would follow. at this point, i think you heard the president say that at tide of history is moving too to fast and forcefully and we have to stand for our values and support the people fighting for those values and do whatever we can to try to ensure that what follows is not dangerous for our

interests in the region. host: let me conclude with this point. we only have one minute left. last night, there was an indication that the navy was beefing up its presence around the strait of hormuz. what concerns you most about escalation along the waterway? guest: i am most worried about a misperception and an accident leading us to war. when you have the iranian speedboats coming very close to u.s. ships, when you have our own special forces were smaller ships that could be -- smaller boats that could be in iranian waters that could be fired upon, the likelihood of getting to a situation where neither side feels that it can back down and thus would have to escalate is very high. we have seen plenty of warts in

human history started by a misperception, an accident, and in the diplomatic crisis where both sides concluded they had no choice but to raise the stakes. that is a very worrisome situation in the strait of hormuz that most of the world's oil passes through. it is an extremely volatile and import region. host: professor anne-marie slaughter joining us from princeton. thank you for being with us. guest: my pleasure. host: we will continue the conversation tomorrow. a lot of topics to dig into including tuesday's florida primary. the former chair of the florida republican party and now with the american conservation union. we will also talk to the president and ceo of the national council of la raza, and then dig into details of the

pentagon budget with todd harrison. that is all tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern time, for clock for you in the west coast. live on c-span radio. thank you for joining us on this sunday. "newsmakers" is coming up next. enjoy the rest of your weekend and have a great week ahead. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] ♪ live "road to the white house average continues with a newt gingrich campaign rally beginning at 1:30 p.m. eastern. and we will show you and we will show you presidential