interesting. he really did sort of limit the military options in syria. clearly, the regime there is not moderating its behavior. there's growing pressure to do something in the face of atrocities being but he said that syria's military is so intermingled with the civilian population that identifying targets would be much more difficult than it was where there was a limited mission which is protecting civilians and more identifiable gaddafi targets. >> i want to ask about afghanistan, too. let me throw in the missile defense conversation that you had with the chairman. jim wolf. i mean, you wrote about it. how -- what did he say today? >> well, the bottom line was that he is open to the possibility, he said, of sharing a narrow band of classified information in order to work out a missile defense cooperation deal with russia.

that's significant. the russians and the americans are at odds over this. the russians are talking about taking countermeasures including deploying missiles. and i think that his support for the administration's willingness to discuss such possible sharing arrangement is significant. >> and this dates back to the bush administration. >> yes, that's apparently the case. the bush administration as well was going down this path. >> right. afghanistan. what did you hear real quickly? >> well, right now, the plan is to remove the surge forces 33,000 by the end of the summer. october 1 time frame. and he mentioned that he thought commanders on the ground would not want to remove the remaining forces between then and 2014 as quickly as the white house would like. setting up some form of tension between the two sides over that issue. >> and the number? >> post-2014, combat forces are out, he talked about 5,000 to

10,000 troops which we haven't heard a specific number yet. nato hasn't recommended anything yet. but i think that is a real good starting point for understanding what that post -conflict force looks like. >> jim michaels, jim wolf, thank you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. captain john kirby is a spokesman for the pentagon and joins us by phone in washington. captain kirby, what happened? >> well, thank you for having me. we have investigators on the ground in kandahar province. and investigating the scene of what appears to have been a mass murder. perpetrated allegedly by an american soldier in the very early morning hours there on

sunday. details are still coming in. and you can imagine there's much that we don't have necessarily all nailed down right now. but it does appear to be more than 10 afghans shot by this one gunman. and several of them are being treated by u.s. doctors in kandahar and again, where watching this very, very closely. and as i said, investigators are on the scene. i will add that the gunman, the alleged gunman is in u.s. cust did i -- is in u.s. custody at this time. >> where did the shootings take place? >> in a village outside one of our bases in kandahar. so i don't have a whole lot more specifics on the exact location. but it was a village that was just outside one of our operating posts in kandahar province. >> what do you know about the

service member who committed the shootings? >> we certainly have a suspect in custody. and again, i'm not going to be able to go into too much personal details about the individual. but he's being questioned as we speak. >> and slightly conflicting reports, the a.p. reports afghan officials say 16 people were killed. and that included nine children and three women. you have a slightly different count at this point. >> we actually are not putting out a count right now. because we're still at the scene. and we still have some afghans that are being treated as i said in a medical facility. but -- i don't want to get into specific numbers but it's more than 10. >> what steps will the security force in afghanistan and the pentagon in a wider sense take from here and what does it mean for everything that's been going on in afghanistan? >> well, look. this is a tragic incident. and we're going to treat this very -- very appropriately. we're going to work with afghan authorities and investigate this rapidly and thoroughly.

and we're going to hold anyone accountable for these crimes, these murders. we're going to hold them accountable to the american military judicial process. that's -- that i can assure you, i can assure your viewers, and i can certainly assure the afghan people. but this -- we shouldn't let this impugn or diminish the greater work that's being done by the tens of thousands of u.s. and coalition forces with our afghan partners every single day. we have 90,000 americans on the ground there in afghanistan. they're working every day with more than 330,000 afghan security forces. conducting literally thousands of partnered operations every single month. that work continues. and it will continue. and we have had terrific success working with our afghan partners. over the last few winter months. as we've tried to stem any possibility of a major spring offensive by the taliban. and we believe we're making

great progress. so this is not going to affect the mission. it's not going to change our focus. it's not going to affect the trust and confidence that we have in our afghan partners or that they have in us. >> the pentagon's captain john kirby. we appreciate your time. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> president obama release add statement offering condolences to the families -- released a statement offering condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and saying the incident does not represent the exceptional character of our military. secretary of defense leon panetta issued a statement saying that he had spoken to afghan president hamid karzai. that a full investigation is under way. and that the u.s. will continue to work with afghan partners on the mission there. coming up here on c-span, president obama at a campaign stop in houston on friday. that's followed by a look at the impact southern voters are having on the campaign. we talk with columnist tom baxter. at 8:00 eastern, q&a with tim

weiner who has written a book about the f.b.i.'s 100-year history and hidden details about j. edgar hoover's war against terrorists, spies, and subverseives. this week, during question time, british prime minister david cameron responds to questions from the house of commons on news of six british soldiers missing and presumed dead. after an explosion in afghanistan. they also asked about the prime minister's upcoming visit with president obama. prime minister's questions tonight at 9:00 eastern and pacific. >> earnest hemingway is considered one of the great american writers. and his work still influences readers today. but not many people know of his work as a spy. during world war ii. >> there were a couple of instances that he was aware of, german submarine approaching fishing boats and saying we'll take your catch. and your fresh food. so earnest says i'll wait for them to come alongside and then my jailee players will lob hand

grenades down the open hatches and the other members of the crew are going to machine gun the germans on deck. >> military and intelligence historian nicholas reynolds on hemingway, the spy. tonight at 8:30. part of american history tv. this weekend on c-span 3. >> c-span takes our book tv and american history programming on the road. the first weekend of each month. march featured shreveport, louisiana, with book tv at the nole memorial library. >> a local man who was born here most of his life. and he started accumulating books when he was a teenager and continued until he was in his 80's. over his lifetime, he accumulated over 200,000 volumes. >> if we have a gem in the collection, it's probably going to be this one. one of the books we're most proud of. it's in the original binding

from 1699. and it was once owned by a very famous scientist. you can see he's written his name i. newton. and we are not pulling it out so much anymore because it is starting to flake away on the title page. >> an american history tv looked at civil war era medical practices. at the pioneer heritage museum. >> pioneer medicine is a long stretch from what it is today. you consider that, the things that we take for granted today, when we go to the doctor. things like the instruments being as germ free as possible. or the doctor has washed his hands before he decides to work on us. and we use the term loosely for doctors when we're talking early medicine. a lot of these doctors in our region were self-taught. or they had worked under somebody else who had been self-taught and getting ready to retire. so they would just learn as they went. >> our cities tour continues. the weekend of march 31 and

april 1 from little rock, arkansas, on c-span2 and c-span3. president obama was in houston friday where he attended two campaign fundraising events. one of them was here at minute made park. home of -- minute maid park. home of major league baseball's houston astros. this event runs about half an hour. ♪ >> hello, texas! [cheers and applause] ah, it is good to be back in houston. [cheers] the weather wasn't quite cooperating. [laughter] but we got here. and so did you. we've got some wonderful folks here. but first of all, can everybody please give denver jones a big round of applause! [applause] we have in the house your

outstanding mayor, anise parker! [applause] we've got congressman gene green. we've got congressman al green. [cheers] he's the one who taught me how to sing. [laughter] we've got congresswoman she willa jackson lee. -- sheila jackson lee. and we have all of you. it is good to be in this -- in this facility. as a white sox fan, i have fond memories. of this facility. i want to thank jim crane for helping to make it available. and i want to thank all of you for being part of this thing here today. i love you back.

so i'm here today not just because i need your help. i'm here because the country needs your help. there was a reason why so many of you worked your hearts out back in 2008. it wasn't because you thought it was going to be easy. after all, you decide to support a candidate named barack obama. you knew that wasn't going to be a sure thing. [laughter] you didn't join the campaign just because of me. you joined it because of your commitment to each other. you joined it because you had a common vision for america. not a vision where everybody's left to fend for themselves. it was a vision where everyone who works hard has a chance to get ahead. not just those at the very top. but everybody.

that's the vision that we shared. that's the change that we believed in. and we knew it wouldn't come easy. we knew it wouldn't come quickly. we knew problems had been building up for decades. but i tell you what, in just three years, because of what you did, we have begun to see what change looks like. [applause] change is the first bill i signed into law that says women deserve an equal day's pay for an equal day's work! [cheers] our daughters should be treated just the same and have the same opportunities as our sons. change is a decision that we made to rescue the american auto industry. save it from collapse. even when some politicians were saying let's let detroit go bankrupt. with one million jobs on the line, i wasn't going to let that happen. and today, g.m. is back as the

number one automaker in the world reporting the highest profits in its history. [applause] and with 200,000 new jobs created in the last 2 1/2 years, the american auto industry is back. that's what change is. that happened because of you. change is a decision that we made to stop waiting for congress to do something about our oil addiction. and finally, raise our fuel efficiency standards. and by the next decade, we will be driving american made cars that are getting 5 miles a gal -- getting 55 miles a gallon and that was american families $8,000 at the pump. that's what change is. that happened because of you. change is to stop handing over $60 billion in taxpayer subsidies to banks in the student loan program, give that money directly to students and as a consequence, millions of

young people all across the country are getting help that they didn't have before. that happened because of you. change. [cheers and applause] change is the fact that for the first time in history, you don't have to hide who you love in order to serve the country you love. don't skrks don't tell is over. -- don't ask, don't tell is over. and yes, change is health care reform that we passed after a century of trying. [applause] this is reform that makes sure that nobody in this country goes bankrupt just because they get sick. and already 2 1/2 million young

people have health insurance today that did not have it before because this law lets them stay on their parents' plan. because of this law, preventative care is now covered. and yes, that includes preventative care for women, checkups, mammograms, birth control. we fought for this because the top doctors, the medical experts in the country, said this kind of preventative care saves women's lives. we fought for it because we know it saves money. it's a lot cheaper to prevent an illness than to treat one. so when you see politicians who are trying to take us back to the days when this care was more expensive and harder to get for women, and i know you're seeing some of that here in texas. you just remember we can't let them get away with it. we fought for this change. we're going to protect this change. it's the right thing to do.

and change is keeping another promise i made in 2008 for the first time in nine years, we do not have any americans who are fighting in iraq. [cheers] we refocused our efforts on the terrorists who attacked us on 9-11. and thanks to our brave men and women in uniform. and there are a lot of them. a lot of service members and a lot of veterans here in the great state of texas. al qaeda is weaker than it's ever been and osama bin laden will never again walk the face of this earth. [cheers and applause] none of this has been easy. we've got a lot more work to do. there's still too many americans out there looking for work. still too many families struggling to pay the bills or make the mortgage. we're still recovering from the worst economic crisis of our

generation or many generations. but over the past two years, businesses have added almost four million new jobs. our manufacturers are creating jobs for the first time since the 1990's. our economy steadily has been getting stronger, the recovery is accelerating, america is coming back. and the last thing we can afford to do is go back to the same policies that got us into this mess in the first place. [cheers and applause] of course, that's exactly what the other folks running for this office want us to do. they think you all have amnesia. [laughter] they think you've forgotten how we got into this mess. they want to go back to the days when wall street played by its own rules.

they want to go back to the days when insurance companies could deny you coverage or jack up your premiums without any reason. they want to go back to spending trillions of dollars more on tax breaks for the wealthiest individuals, folks like me, even if it means adding to the deficit or gutting education or gutting investments in clean energy or gutting medicare, their philosophy is simple. we're better off when everybody is left to fend for themselves. let me tell you something, they are wrong. in the united states of america , we're always greater together than we are on our own. we're better off when we keep that basic american promise. where if you work hard, you can do well enough to raise a family or own a home. start your own business. send your kids to college. put a little away for retirement. maybe someday own the astros.

[laughter] that's the choice we face in this election. look, we want everybody to succeed. we want everybody to do well. not just a few. but everybody to have that chance. that's what america's about. no matter where you come from, no matter what you look like, if you are willing to work hard, if you're willing to roll up your sleeves, you can make it. that's the american way. and this is not just another political debate. this is the defining issue of our times. this is a make-or-break moment. for middle class families and everybody who is trying to get into the middle class. i mean, we can't go back to an economy that's built on outsourcing and bad debt and phony financial profits. or we can fight for an economy that's built to last. and that's what we've been talking about for the last three years. an economy built on american

manufacturing. an american energy and the skills that american workers need. the education that our kids deserve. and the values that always made this country great. hard work and fair play. and shared responsibility. everybody. from top to bottom. everybody pitching in. and you know what? that's actually what everybody wants to do. when you hear some of these political debates, poor people, they want to work hard. they want to find a job. wealthy people, they believe in this country. they want to give back. but we've gotten into this pattern where our politics divides us and pushes us apart. we need to make sure that the next generation of manufacturing takes root not in asia, not in europe but right here. in detroit and pittsburgh and cleveland and houston.

[cheers] we don't want to be a nation, nobody should want us to be a nation known for just buying and consuming things. we want to build things. make things. and invent things. sell things. all around the world. which is why we need to stop giving tax breaks to business that is ship jobs overseas. let's reward companies that are creating jobs right here in the united states of america. [cheers] we've got to make our schools the envy of the world. and that starts with the men and women in front of the classroom. an interesting statistic. a great teacher can increase the lifetime incomes of a classroom by over $250,000. just one teacher. so i don't want -- -- don't want folks bashing teachers. i don't want folks defenderring the status quo. i want to give the schools the

resources they need to recruit and keep good teachers on the job. to reward the best ones. let's grant schools the flexibility to teach with creativity and passion. stop teaching to the test. train our teachers, and those who aren't helping our kids learn, we're going to have to replace. and when kids do graduate, the most daunting challenge is affording the cost of college. right now, americans owe more in tuition debt than credit card debt. so this congress, and i know these members of congress agree with me here, we've got to stop the interest rates on student loans from doubling in july. [cheers and applause] and colleges and universities have to do their part. if they can't stop tuition from going up, then there should be

some penalties. because taxpayers are willing to help young people. but ultimately colleges and universities have got to do their part, too. higher education can't be a luxury. it's an economic imperative. that every family in america should be able to afford. an economy that's built to last is one that supports our sciences. and our researchers that are trying to make the next breakthrough or make the next product or discover the next source of clean energy right here in the united states of america. you know, houston, this is an oil town. and that's good. we need oil. and we've got high production of oil right now. when you hear folks saying obama is not supporting oil

production, we've got the highest production we've had in eight years. we're opening up millions of acres to new production. got more rigs than the entire world combined right here in the united states. but we don't need to subsidize oil companies when they're doing this well. so what i've said is rather than continue 100 years of taxpayer subsidies, to an industry that's very, very profitable, let's double down on our investments in clean energy that's never been more promising. that will create jobs in texas, solar power and wind power, biofuels. we want an all of the above strategy. yes, oil, yes, gas, yes, solar. yes, wind. yes, we can. we can do it.

[cheers] we've got to rebuild our infrastructure. you know, i'm biased. i want america to have the best stuff. i want us to have the best roads. the best airports. the fastest railroads. the quickest internet access. so i've said let's take the money that we're no longer spending in iraq, let's use half of it to pay down our debt. let's use the rest to do some nation building right here in houston. right here in texas. right here in the united states of america. [cheers and applause] and let's make sure our tax system has everybody doing their fair share. you know, i've called for the buffett rule. if you make more than $1 million a year, you should not pay a lower rate than your secretary. and you know what? most of white house have done well, they agree.

they understand. -- most of us who have done well, they agree. they understand. 98% of american families who make $250,000 or less can't see their taxes go up. you you agree with that. [laughter] but folks like me, we can afford to do a little bit more if it means protecting our kids , making sure that we're investing in the future. this isn't class warfare. this isn't about envy. this is just basic math. because if somebody like me gets a tax break, that i don't need, that i want asking for, and that the country can't afford, then one of two things happens. it either adds to our deficit or it's going to take something away from somebody else. from a student. suddenly their college tuition gets more expensive. or a senior citizen. is paying higher on their prescription drugs. or a veteran who desperately needs help.

to recover from sacrificing on our behalf. that's not right. not only is it not right, it ain't right. [laughter] [applause] that's not who we are. as americans. you hear a lot of politicians during election years, they talk about values. well, look, i agree. we should be talking about what are our values as americans? hard work, that's a value. looking out for one another, that's a value. the idea that we're all in this together as deborah said, that i am i brother's keeper, immy sis tr's keeper, that's -- i am my sister's keeper, that's a value. everybody here, whatever success we have, it's because someone somewhere took responsibility, not only for

themselves but also for their kids, for their neighborhood, for their church, for their community, for our country's future. our american story has never been just about what we can do on our own. it's about what we can do together. we're not going to be able to compete around the world when and win the race for new jobs and businesses and creating, re-creating middle class security with the same old you are on our own economics. it doesn't work. it didn't work when it was tried right before the great fregs. it didn't work when -- great depression t didn't work when we tried it last decade. why do we think it would work now? that's another example of amnesia. [laughter] some of these folks have. we tried what they're peddling. it did not work. you understand that. look, let me give you just an some examples. you know that if we attract an

outstanding teacher to the profession, by giving her the pay and respect and support that she deserves, and that teacher then goes on and educates the next steve jobs, we all benefit. if we provide faster internet to some rural town in texas, suddenly that store owner in that little town can start selling his goods all around the country and all around the world. we benefit. the economy benefits. america benefits. if we build a new bridge that saves a shipping company's time and money, workers, customers, that business, everybody, we all do better. this isn't a democratic idea or a republican idea. it was a republican president, abraham lincoln, who launched the transcontinental railroad, the national academy of sciences, and the first land grant colleges in the middle of the civil war.

it was a republican, teddy roosevelt, who called for progressive income tax. dwight eisenhower built the interstate highway system. republicans helped f.d.r. pass the law that gave millions of returning heroes including my grandfather the chance to go to college on the g.i. bill. [applause] this should not be a partisan idea. and you know what? that same spirit of common purpose that lies at the heart of america, it's still there. it might not be there in washington. but out in america, it's there. it's there where you talk to people on main streets or town halls or v.f.w. halls. it's there when you talk to the members of our armed forces. you go into a church or a synagogue or a mosque, and you'll find out people are supporting each other. and believe in the notion of everyone pulling together.

our politics may be divided. but most americans understand that we're in this together. no matter who we are, what we look like, where we come from. what our names are. we rise and fall as one nation. and as one people. and that's what's at stake right now. that's what this election is all about. i know it's been a tough few years. i know the change that we fought for hasn't always come as fast as we would like. and after all that's happened in washington, sometimes it may be tempting to start feeling cynical again. and think maybe change isn't possible. but i want you to remember what we used to say during last campaign. we didn't promise easy. you never heard me say change was easy. real change, big change, is hard. it takes time. it takes more than a single

year, a single term. it will take more than a single president. what it really requires is ordinary citizens, all across the country. committed to fighting and pushing and inching this country step by step, closer to our common ideals. our highest ideals. you know what else i said in 2008, i'm not a perfect man. i didn't promise i would be a perfect president. but what i promised you was that i would always tell you what i thought. i would always tell you where i stood and i would wake up every single day fighting as hard as i could, fighting as hard as i know how for you. and i've kept that promise. i have kept that promise, texas. [applause] so if you're willing to keep working with me and marching with me and standing with me, pushing through the obstacles,

to reach for that vision, that you hold in your hearts, change will come. if you're willing to work as hard in this election as you did in the last election, change will come. we'll finish what we started in 2008. god bless you! god bless the united states of america. [cheers and applause] thank you. ♪ >> four more years! four more years! four more years! four more years! ♪

[captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] ♪ keep marching keep marching on we have to keep keep marching keep on marching on ♪ we got to keep keep keep on

keep marching keep on marching keep marching keep marching keep marching we have to keep marching you got to keep on keep marching on keep marching eep marching on ♪ keep marching keep marching on ♪

♪ >> oh, yeah, baby i'm still strong oh, baby signed, sealed, delivered, i'm yours in that time i went and said goodbye now i'm back oh, baby signed, sealed, delivered i'm yours here i am, baby baby here i am, baby

hey, hey yeah didn't i seeing this world oh, baby here i am signed, sealed, delivered, i'm yours i'm yours oh, baby here i am, signed, sealed, delivered, i'm yours for force here i am, baby hey, baby baby

yeah, baby i've done a lot of foolish things here i am here i am baby signed, sealed, delivered, i'm yours baby eah ♪

>> ♪ sun coming up over new york city school bus driver in a traffic jam ♪ >> our ancestors came across the ocean in sailing ships you wouldn't go across a lake in. when they arrived, there was nothing here. they built their tidy little cabins and they did it with neighbors helping one another, not federal grants. >> as candidates campaign for president this year, we look back at 14 men who ran for the office and lost. go to our website. c-span.org/thecontenders to see video of the contenders who had a lasting impact on american politics. >> this is also the time to turn away from competitive preoccupation overseas to the rebuilding of our own nation. america must be restored to her proper role in the world.

but we can do that only through the recovery of confidence in ourselves. >> c-span.org/thecontenders. >> coming up here on c-span a look at the impact southern voters are having on the campaign. we talk with columnist tom baxter. at 8:00 eastern, q&a with tim weiner who's written a book about the f.b.i.'s 100-year history. and hidden details about j. edgar hoover's war against terrorists, spies and subverseives. that's followed by prime minister's question time with british prime minister david cameron. this week during question time, british prime minister david cameron responds to questions from the house of commons on news of six british soldiers missing and presumed dead. after an explosion in afghanistan. they also asked about the prime minister's upcoming visit with president obama. prime minister's questions, tonight at 9:00 eastern and pacific. c-span's 2012 local content

vehicle, cities tour, takes our book tv and american history tv programming on the road. the first weekend of each month. march featured shreveport, louisiana, with book tv at the knoll memorial library. >> mr. knoll was a local man and started accumulating books when he was a teenager and continued until he was his 80's. he consume lated over 200,000 volumes. if we have a gem in the collection, it is probably going to be this one. it's one of the books we're most proud of. it's in the original binding from 1699. and it was once owned by a very famous scientist. you can see he's written his name i. newton. and we are not pulling it out so much anymore. because it is starting to flake away on the title page. >> and american history tv looked at civil war era medical practices at the pioneer

heritage museum. >> pioneer medicine is a long stretch from what it is today. you consider that, the things that we take for granted today when we go to the doctor. things like the instruments being as germ free as possible. or the doctor has washed his hands before he decides to work on us. and we use the term loosely for doctors when we're talking early medicine. a lot of these doctors in our region were self-taught. or they had worked under somebody else who had been self-taught and they were getting ready to retire. so they would just learn as they went. >> our cities tour continues the weekend of march 31 and april 1 from little rock, arkansas, on c-span2 and c-span 3. now, political columnist tom baxter on the impact of southern voters on the road to the white house. alabama and mississippi hold their primaries this tuesday. over the next 45 minutes, he talks about the current political landscape in the

south. and changes in the region. >> atlanta is no stranger to southern politics. tom baxter writing a block. he is the former editor of the southern political report. and for many years at the "atlanta journal-constitution," mr. baxter, thanks for coming back to c-span. we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> two key primaries on tuesday. mississippi and alabama. states where newt gingrich has been campaigning, also rick santorum and now mitt romney in an effort to secure delegates and wins in those two states. what can we expect? >> well, you know, you can expect a pretty close finale here if you look at these rasmussen polls. and alabama, they had what did they have, gingrich up with 21 points. romney with 20 and santorum at 17. on friday. and actually, we've seen polls in alabama over the past week

in which all three of those candidates have had the lead. at one time or another. romney looks like he's in a little better shape in mississippi. he had a seven-point lead in the last rasmussen there. i'm going to be interested in the impact of kansas. because it is so close. the fact that santorum sort of ran away with it. and the kansas caucuses, possibly if you are looking for any kind of a late breaking thing, it could give him a little bit of a boost in those states. so if there were any surprise this tuesday, to look forward to, i think it might be another kind of santorum breakout like he had in tennessee or kansas. >> let's look at the results in kansas with rick santorum winning with about 15,000 votes in the caucuses over the weekend. 51% to 21% for mitt romney. newt gingrich and ron paul coming in third and fourth respectively. and in wyoming, mitt romney win

being the wyoming caucuses. -- winning the wyoming caucuses. he won with 577 votes compared to a couple of hundred votes apprehend for rick san form -- votes behind for rick santorum. what can you read into these contests? >> i think you can read two things. the yin and the yang of this campaign. one is kansas tells you that that socially conservative, maybe rural republican voters are just not that warm to romney. and he's really having a problem winning them over. but the other result, it's just that slow slog of delegates. and the hardening cement of the delegate race if you will. as i say, if he's polling ahead of the other two candidates in mississippi, if he can hang on to that, and come out of tuesday with a few delegates, then i think he continues to say that it's inevitable.

>> mitt romney campaigning, what he is calling his unofficial southern strategy in alabama and mississippi. here's one event that received a lot of attention with the former republican governor of massachusetts, born in michigan. let's watch. >> this guy, i see every day, time after time after time, and this is a guy from mississippi. and his name is garrett jackson. come over here, garrett. four years at ole miss. and so he's now turning me into -- i don't know. an unofficial southerner. and i'm learning to say y'all. and i like grits. and the strange things are happening to me. >> tom baxter, your reaction to those comments from mitt romney. >> they're pretty silly. and they'll probably stick in the craw of a few southerners. but i can remember george h.w. bush campaigning. and even though he was from houston, a lot of times some of

the things that he said were southern -- dissonant with southerners. and people don't remember this. but before ronald reagan, i guess, became ronald reagan, when he was still out there as a kind of maverick governor from california, making tours to the south, he had a few instances of cultural disconnections, too. the difference is ronald reagan was -- had terrific communication skills. and he overcame that over time. and we're going to have to see if romney has anything similar. >> our guest is tom baxter. he's joining us from atlanta. he's a long-time observer of the political process writing for "the atlanta-journal constitution." and we also have a link to his blog available through our web site at c-span.org. and tom baxter, i want to ask you a fundamental question. we look at a map of the west and south. what is the new south? what is the southern strategy? and what is the southern vote?

>> hmmm. that's a good question. if you look back to the last presidential election, you saw two significant things happen. one was that obama carried three of the larger southern states. carried virginia, north carolina, and florida. so there wasn't a solid south in anything like the sense that we've spoken about it in previous elections. but the other thing about that election was that if obama had not won any of those three straights, he still would have had the electoral votes to win that election. now, we come into this year with the south again being the beneficiary of reapportionment. and with a net seven electoral votes in the south, four of those from texas. and, you know, it makes the south still -- it makes it necessary for the democrats still to contest in the south. and to try to take some of

those states away from the republican candidate. so that it won't be a solid south. >> james is joining us from grand fork, north dakota. good morning to you. independent line with tom baxter in atlanta. >> i'm wondering why when you're talking about these primaries you talk about mitt romney and the two other candidates. i'm sure you're aware that there are three other candidates running. >> and the other is ron paul. and we shouldn't ignore ron paul. although if we're talking about expectations for the results next week, i think almost every one of the polls has had paul in single digits in these states. are you aware of any that have him higher than that? >> the polls are very unreliable when it comes to ron's numbers. and i found that the primary numbers are unreliable as well. so i tend not to even trust the

numbers very much because they seem to be spun from a false web. >> i'll give you that. but he sounds a lot more like a native southerner than ron paul. and perhaps there's a little bit more potential for him out there than some recognize. but i think this is probably going to be a day in which social conservatives turn out very heavily. and those midstream conservatives in the south who are generally ignored but are really an important part of the vote. and they're pretty establishment leaning. >> and ron paul has yet to win a single contest with 23 primaries and caucuses. he hasn't won one yet. >> but there's always a first time. >> we'll go to brent next in ashland, kentucky. republican line, good morning, brent. >> hi. how are you this morning? >> hello.

>> we can hear you. i have a question regarding senator santorum a comment he made at a catholic university three years ago. in which he had made the statement that he felt protestantism was not mainstream christianity. and that protestantism was in shambles. and i'm just curious as to why none of the "protestant" religions have not asked him to explain that. >> you know, it might perhaps have something to do with the fact that the other two, neither of the other two candidates he's running are protestants. and you are quite right. and your presumption that that comment would not go over very well with a lot of conservative protestant republican voters in the south.

but really the discourse of this campaign is being determined by these big super pac ads and they're not getting into that territory. >> tom baxter, let me put a couple of scenarios on the table and get your reaction. these are just hypotheticals. let's assume the decision is split. that rick santorum wins one of the states, mitt romney wins another, alabama and mississippi, what does that mean? >> well, you know, the big question is what does that mean i think for newt gingrich who has kind of given mixed signals over the last few days as a last hue are a quality that a -- hurrah that a lot of people have read into his campaign. he's said this past week that he fully intends to go on to tampa no matter what happens this coming week. whether he stays in the campaign or not, if he doesn't perform pretty well, and i

think a good performance would have to be probably winning in alabama and coming pretty close in mississippi, then whether he stays in it or not, gingrich begins to recede. and it becomes a pretty long drawn out battle between the one remaining viable conservative challenger. and romney. and, you know, looking at the calendar, you get past these two states this coming week. and the next big clump of votes is farther on into april. most a lot of northeastern states. so if romney can come out of this thing on tuesday with at least a partial win, with some delegates to say that he's continuing that long march, i think he's in reasonably -- he's not -- he's not winning

pretty. but he's had moving toward the goal. i guess you could say. >> and conversely, if newt gingrich wins one or both states, then what does that mean? >> then i guess -- you know, it does prolong the argument a little longer. i'm not sure that -- i guess there would have to be a little bit more of a sorting out between santorum and gingrich. and again, i think -- gingrich has pursued pretty much exclusively a southern strategy. he did not contest in kansas over the weekend. so the first thing he would have to do is find some good northern states to get to and make an impression. >> clearwater, florida. good morning. democrats line. >> good morning. i just want to know if we could ever get off that pac money

out, i see our election system being very corrupted and as a former nurse, i haven't heard anything about having a free market open health care system. where we actually have competition to raise the quality and decrease the cost. with being a pen tur, ho -- with being a -- i want -- right now the system is strangled by pharmaceutical companies, the insurance, the a.m.a. please, let's see if any president, presidential candidate really comes up with some real solutions. >> sherry, thanks for the call. tom baxter, quick reaction. >> you know, that's one area that newt gingrich has tried to stake out as being the candidate who has some innovative and free market or

solutions in health care. and, you know, unfortunately that's been drowned out in a lot of the name calling in this campaign. it's amazing to have 20 debates with really so little fundamental working out of the issues in all those debates. >> our guest is tom baxter. he's joining us from atlanta. and let me just share with you how newt gingrich is dealing with the issue of health care and going after mitt romney in this newt gingrich web ad. >> president obama said that he designed obamacare after romney care and basically made it obamneycare. >> this is similar to the bill that mitt romney, the republican governor and now presidential candidate, passed in massachusetts.

>> and tom baxter, that's the argument that newt gingrich is making and also the argument that rick santorum has been trying to hammer home these past couple of days with caucuses yesterday in kansas and now the next few days as he campaigns in mississippi and alabama. >> yeah. and it has some resonance, i think. obama is not popular in these states. and certainly a governor of massachusetts who passed the health care plan is going to be somewhat suspect. but i also think that you have a lot of voters in these states who their first priority is going to be to turn the president out of office. president obama out of office. they're going to be pretty pragmatic about which one they think has the best chance of

doing that. >> joan is joining us from parkville, maryland. our line for independents. good morning. welcome to the conversation, joan. >> good morning. i wonder how many people are going to be like me. i'm a registered independent. and i am for romney. i'm not for obama. but i will not vote at all if santorum is the nominee for the republican party. >> why do you say that? >> i think santorum is too much on the religious side. i don't like that part of the republican party. >> ok. we'll get a response, tom baxter. >> i wonder, and that may be a conviction that you already firmly set in. but i just wonder if the news stories of this past week have had any impact on you. in that regard. with the rush limbaugh story, we have a story which has gone

viral on the internet here in georgia of a legislator, republican legislator, who seemed to be making an analogy between women and the question on the abortion hill and farm animals that he had -- that he had handled. is that -- i would just ask the host: can you follow-up on what the caller was saying in this issue from the front page of "the new york times," writing about the president's efforts to court women. there will be a series of mailings going out to millions of women in the battleground states in three separate versions foremothers, older women, and young women. the obama campaign is trying to use the current political climate to regain a traditional part of the democratic base.

tom baxter, your reaction? guest: i think that is a pretty obvious course of action. i think it probably has had some impact over these past few weeks. host: are you still there? caller: yes. i have always been against santorum. i agree with rush limbaugh on different things. they're using this to try to get the women votes and they have ms. fluke, which i think is it put up by the democratic party i was a republican at one time, but i get out of the party because of all this right wing religious stuff. host: thank you for the call. from atlanta, where tom baxter is this sunday morning. jonathan? caller: good morning. i am libertarian in a lot of things.

when it comes to abortion, you know, my views are fixed in stone, but the question of the viability of the fetus is common sense. abb in the third term of gestation deserves some kind of protection or recognition under the law which is something that santorum talks about. i listen to santorum for the last year on a bill bennett's talk radio show. the guy is probably as knowledgeable about how government works as anyone i have ever heard. when it comes to the economy,

one thing that i think romney really needs to do, and gingrich touched on this several times, is talking about economic history when it comes to tax reform. in 1983, i think republicans need to compare and contrast obama's third year and ragan's third year. one month in 1983, september, we produced 1.1 million jobs. it there was an average of 300,000 or more jobs per month. this was 30 years ago. we had 8% quarterly growth figures. one quarter was 9.3%. we had 1.7% last year. we need to hammer this, and win over the political will with a knowledge of history. a parent they do not know it. it talked about kennedy, the 1920's and george bush's tax cuts and we had the greatest

time in our history. people need be informed about this, when over the political will, talk about tax reform and reducing taxes. host: thank you, jonathan. tom baxter? guest: if his point is that republicans are having a hard time getting up the message, i think it's true. as a plea on jobs, it is always the latest statistic. that is something i learned a long time ago. it is never the big numbers but the small matters that mattered most. if your brother in law gets a job, that matters more than it added 200,000 jobs nationally or not last week.

i would certainly agree from a strategic point of view that republicans have really let themselves get off track on this. they have not concentrated in their lack of focus, at the national and state level. if you look at how much jobs legislation or economic development legislation is coming out of any of these legislatures across the south, even the newly elected lieutenant governor of south carolina resign, be invited to come and be convicted on the same day. you have the collapse in alabama of this bingo trial, and for viewers not from this part of the trial, but the alabama legislature went from democratic to republican two years ago largely on the strength of this vote buying scandal having to do with the video games. this past week, the government case against six of these defendants were found not guilty and completely cleared of these charges.

and then in mississippi, you have this furor over the hailey barbour pardons, when you add these together in gives you a picture of other republican party that have had a hard time beating out where to go from here. host: let's get some historical perspective. i want to assure you it photograph from president lyndon b. johnson 1964 signing the historic voting rights act with the martin luther king behind him. i also want to take a look at the electoral map dating back to 1956 when dwight eisenhower won easily but the south remains solid for adelaide stevenson. this is back in 1956.

then you can see how it changed. in 1964 when lyndon johnson said they lost this out, he indeed did lose the key southern states of louisiana, mississippi, alabama, georgia, south carolina, despite the fact he won everywhere else. in the 1980's, this is what jimmy carter look like winning, but of course he was from georgia. du can see the south remaining pretty solid for ronald reagan. what does this tell you? guest: what was happening while all of that progress was going on for republicans was that things were moving very glacially slowly up the local level. you of all over the past 30 or 40 years with the bifurcated politics where you may have locally elected state legislator tors, but increasingly people would vote for the republican presidential candidate and maybe the senate or gubernatorial candidates.

the really big news from this last election, the 2010 election was that after years and years of efforts to drive this down to the grass roots, in 2010 it exceeded completely with a republican majority legislate tors and holding the governor's offices all over the south. lyndon johnson's predictions sort of came true, but it took a lot longer read it took the election of an african-american president in addition to the passage of the civil rights voting act all of those decades ago to really complete the process. host: this is what the electoral college map looked like in 2008. christians in this country are just as dangerous as the extremist moslems.

as for santorum, that leaves them out completely for me. also the woman should have the right to do what she wants with her on body. that is debatable but that is my opinion. i appreciate you letting me make my opinion known, thank you. host: thank you. any reaction? guest: we talked a lot about the impact of religious conservatives. they are a very loyal voting bloc and they will certainly have an impact this year. if religion becomes too central question, i think in this primary process, there is a danger. i imagine this gentleman who

just called i could predict will vote for barack obama anyway but they're a lot -- but there are a lot of independent voters who are may be conservative on one issue in middle of the road on the other but they have a healthy distrust of religious extremism and if things go too far, that could become a factor. host: "the baltimore sun" about this this week --

lawrence's joining us from hickory, n.c., welcome to the program. caller: maybe you could walk us through how the electoral college would choose a candidate if none of these fellows reach the magic number. is it possible that of gingrich could join romney and combine their electoral votes if one decided to be the running mate with the other to steal it or something?

guest: at this stage of the game, we're not talking about electoral votes for the electoral college that will elect the president in the fall but we are talking about the republican party system for allocating delegates to their convention. when you look at the states, they are not proportionally allocated as they were in the past because the party now gives bonuses for republican performance. if you elected a republican u.s. senator or republican governor, if republicans took over the legislature, you get points for those. as were the reasons why the southern states actually have a fair number of delegates. republicans have done pretty well there. with that being said and the

fact that it is harder for any candidate to get the 1147 -- something like that -- that many delegates quotes that are required to cleanse the republican nomination, another reform has been that these states are not winner-take-all but they are allocating their delegates proportionately. it is a longer, slower process but it still rewards the candidate who's got the resources to go to the places to guam and wyoming to get delegates wherever they are. you are asking me what happens -- i think you are saying what happens when we get close to the convention and we don't have any one of these republican candidates with a republicanlock -- -- with a solid lock --after that, you throw away the rules and make new rules. host: people say it would not be a brokered convention.

the last time we saw a republican convention in which the potential nominee did not have enough ballots going into the convention hall was 1976 when jerry ford was being challenged by ronald reagan. that headline from "the washington post" --

another call from the south in tennessee, democrats line, good morning. caller: good morning, i find it interesting that the state of georgia is made up of around 65% black and 40% of white. you go through atlanta, you turn your radio on and all you hear is the blasting of the current president. i wonder where this representation of a majority of democratic 60% black bar? guest: it is not 60% black in georgia. there is no stay where blacks are in the majority. it is close to, i believe, 30%. that is closer to the actual percentage of african-americans in this state of georgia. caller: i don't hear them getting their information out in georgia. i hear it is all biased one way.

guest: i will tell you an interesting insight into that -- if you're driving through atlanta, you are right, you hear a lot of ahnnity and limbaugh and there is a lot of that on the airwaves. there is a lot of help the average american radio, too. one thing that is coming along that i think is not in anybody's sites right now but the influence of hispanic radio across the south. there are dramatic instances of this. the demonstrations opposing the georgia immigration bill at the

state capital this year were organized largely through hispanic -- the spanish-language radio. in these immigration bills and the struggle over these immigration bills and alabama and georgia, a hispanic radio which is all the way on the right side of the am dial and very few english speaking conservatives or white or black go over and listened to that. it is having a growing impact in the region now. host: let me share with you what "politico" is reporting -- do you think it would end for rick santorum or newt gingrich? guest: i know the answer that

rick santorum or newt gingrich would give to that. the romney people what this and they want it to reach a conclusion very quickly so they are trying to force it. at the same time, a win by one percentage point would preserve that shaky aura of inevitability that he has now. host: this is the headline from "the chicago tribune" -- in this survey, between 16%-18% but remain undecided.

alberta, mass., independent line -- caller: i am sick of every time a politician, especially from the south who was baptists or whatever, i don't like to go after religion or anything else, goes after women and women's rights. they try to terrace up one way and the other because of one thing -- -- they try to tear us up one way or another because of one thing of how they do wrong to people. at's see them run as politician and not as a person to tear down women. it is sickening. that's all i have to say. our health care in massachusetts is working even though mitt romney did some of it, the rest is up to our government now. believe me, we're not unhappy. thank you, goodbye.

host: more of a comment, not a question, do you want to respond? guest: that response sort of sums up priority number one or what should be priority number one for the republicans coming out of this primary campaign. they have really got to turn around this idea that they are the anti-women's party. [laughter] i think they need to start develop effective women's started voices for the nominee or they really have a problem. host: in your blog, you write that there used to be two george's and now there are a dozen atlanta's. what is your message? caller: it is increasingly urban and a more diverse region. it had a great time at the dold institute for politics last year leading a study on the evolving politics of the south. we called one of the sessions 'the new gumbo' because this is

a region that has traditionally been seen in the focus of white and black. now it is becoming one of extreme dynamism. you've got the second largest korean population in the country here in the suburban county that i happen to be in right now in atlanta. you go across the region and you see pretty dramatic demographic change that may not show up in this election but i think we will see it showing up in elections across the coming decades. host: our guest is tom baxter, a writer for "the atlanta journal constitution." he now has a blog. you can reach it through a link from our website, c-span.org. where can viewers and listeners

find you? guest: that blog is associated with the support your report in atlanta. -- the supporter report in atlanta. this has given me the opportunity to pay more attention to my own home town that i have in writing over the past decade or so. i am enjoying host: pine bluff, texas, good morning. caller: i am calling in regards to the funding of the corporate money that funds the politics. as an american citizen, i think more and more americans are becoming the government

watchdogs. they are not investigating so much but educating themselves on formulas and the corporate -- the role of the corporate productions. me, personally, i have written a major test. i have studied the formula for the oil industry here in the private sector. this is the deal -- we were always taught to keep the money in the neighborhood. to make money in your town, keeping your town and don't drive 100 miles down the mall because you don't have a mall. keep at home and the mall will come. why do we keep allowing for our american-based companies to be

overseas and not be penalized as opposed to bringing them home and giving it to them within the senate? host: tom baxter? guest: that is a good question. you'd probably get a counter argument from the corporate office in cocoa: here in atlanta which is opposed -- corporate office of coca-cola here in atlanta. you kind of touch on a lot of sentiment that is out there. there is a general distrust of big money and its influence. it was striking during the wave of occupy demonstrations. not only were those demonstrations held in most of the big cities across the

country but you had a lot of small southern towns, relatively places you would not think, that you would see that kind of demonstration. in many cases, it is not as much associated with traditional left and right definitions in politics but a deeper sense of unease about where we are going with all this. host: this is from north carolina -- we have heard this every four years against an incumbent president. how prevalent is that in your perspective? guest: i think abo in many cases would spell mitt romney. that is the sentiment that even though these folks may not feel so secure withhim means he would still do well in the southern states whether he is the candidate of first choice

or not. host: long branch, new jersey, independent line -- caller: good morning, is new mexico not considered a southern state? why is gary johnson being ignored by the republican party? he is a two-term governor and apparently a good one and he is being snubbed and is running as a libertarian and that is allied plan to vote for barry and i voted for obama, will not do it again and i will not vote for willard. half of them are out of their minds by gary johnson had altogether i thought. john hulsman -- john hulsman did not want -- did not make me want to throw up. new jersey was brought down by a fat man.

i had to get that in darien high loved gary johnson and they don't give him anything. host: thank you for the call. guest: i guess new mexico is a western state to be distinguished from a southern state because it is a brand of libertarian politics that plays better in the west than it has traditionally in the south. i thought gary johnson was an interesting candidate, too, but one of the reasons why he is not considered in contention is simply that he maybe had one or two debates spots early on but was excluded from the big kind of "dancing with the stars"- style debates which have been collaborations between one news network and some political organization. this starts with the fact that he was excluded from most forms. host: final question with an

eye on tuesday, mississippi and alabama, what are you looking for? guest: from the perspective of georgia, i am looking to see whether newt gingrich can do well in alabama enough to be serious about moving along. if i am looking for a surprise, it might be rick santorum getting some bounce out of this kansas victory over the weekend and over-performing in the states. if things stay the way they are an mitt romney wins his share of the votes in the states, he comes out looking pretty good. host: tom baxter was joining us from atlanta and his perspective on southern politics, thank you for being with us. another headline we want to

share with you courtesy of the newseum -- >> ernest hemingway's consider one of the world's great writers. not many know of his other work. >> he was aware of german submarines approaching fishing boats and sang we will take their catch in your fresh food. he says i will wait for them to come alongside. then my highlight players are hand grenade and others are going to use the machine on deck. >> historian nicholas reynolds on ernest hemingway comedies by. it is this weekend on c-span3. it is this weekend on c-span3.