work, it's all become a difficult decision. right now they're having an effect as you say. we should not revers iran a some sort of successful many power. it has used rates of using the death penalty. huge economic dislocation. it cannot even get from one side of the country to the other. it is not the right thing for israel to lots and attack right now. we have made that very clear. right now it is very clearly communicated. sanctions have further to go.

>>, an espresso at a fund-raiser in houston. then an impact of southern voters appeared after that, if questionbid t -- and and answer with tim weiner. >> they would northeastern japan. it has set off a nuclear crisis and are to blame with the debt of nearly 15,000 people. >> president obama was in houston friday where he attended to campaign fund-raising events. one at minute maid park. he listed the administration's

accomplishments including passage of the health care law. this is 30 minutes. >> 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] int's the choice we face 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 keep 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

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♪ ♪ newt gingrich and rep santorum speak at republican party. live coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. eastern.

>> now but that the impact of southern voters on the 2012 presidential campaign. this is from today's washington journal. what a land set is the stranger to southern politics. for many years, there are coming back to c-span. two key primaries. newt gingrich has been campaigning. what can we expect? >> you can expect a pretty close rally. we have seen polls in alabama over the past week in which all three of the candidates have had the lead at one time or

another. romney looks like he is in better shape in mississippi, with a seven point lead. i will be interested in the impact of kansas. it is so close. santorum ran away in the caucus. if you're looking for any type of a late breaking thing, it could give him a little bit of a boost in those states. if there were any surprises this tuesday to look forward to, i think it might be another kind of santorum break out like he had in tennessee or kansas. host: let's look at the results in kansas with santorum winning with 15,000 votes in the caucus over the weekend, 51% to mitt romney's 21%. in wyoming, mitt romney winning, but he won with 577 votes, just a few votes behind being wrecks santorum. what can you read from either of these weekend contests? guest: this is the yin and yang of this contest. kansas are the conservative, rural republican voters and romney is having a trouble winning them over.

this is the slow slog of delegates and the race for them, if you will. if he pulls ahead of the other two candidates in mississippi and he can hang on to that and come out on tuesday with a few delegates, then i think he continues to say that it is inevitable. host: mitt romney campaigning

with his unofficial southern strategy in alabama and mississippi. here is one event with the former governor of massachusetts, born in michigan. [video clip] >> come over year. he had four years at ole miss. his turning me into an unofficial southerner. strange things are happening to me. i like grits. host: your reaction to those comments? guest: there pretty silly. they will stick in the craw of a few southerners. i can remember george h. w. bush, and even though he was from houston, sometimes he would say things that would be dissonant with southerners. before ronald reagan became

ronald reagan, when he was still out there as a maverick governor from california making a tour through the south, he had a few instances of a cultural disconnections, too. ronald reagan had to record communication skills and he overcame that over time. host: our guest is tom baxter joining us from atlanta, a longtime observer of southern politics. we have a link to his blog available on our website, c- span.org. we want as to a fundamental question has been looked at a map of the south.

what is the new south? what is the southern strategy? what is the southern vote? guest: obama carried three of the larger southern states, virginia, north carolina, and florida. there was not a solid south in the sense we have spoken about in previous elections. the other thing about that election is that if obama had not won any of those three states, he still would have had the electoral votes to win the election. we come in to this year with this out, again, being the beneficiary of reapportionment. with the electoral votes in texas, it makes the south still necessary for the democrats to contest and try to take some of the states away from the republican candidates so that it will not be as solid said. host: james from grand forks, north dakota, on the independent line with tom baxter from atlanta. caller: when you talk about the primaries, you talk about mitt romney and the two other candidates.

i'm sure you are aware there are three other candidates running. guest: the other is ron paul and we should not ignore him. if we're talking about expectations for the results next week, i think almost every one of the polls has had him in the single digits. are you aware of any that have him higher than that? caller: the polls are unreliable when it comes to his numbers. the primary numbers are unreliable as well. i tend not to even trust the numbers very much because they seem to be spun from a false

web. guest: he sounds like a native southerner more like romney. there is some potential of their, but i think this will probably be a day in which social conservatives' turn out very heavily. those mid stirring conservatives in the south and are generally ignored but are really an important part of the votes are more establishment leaning. host: ron paul has yet to win a single contest with 23 primaries and caucuses. caller: there is always a first time.

host: asheville, kentucky, on the republican line. caller: how are you doing this morning? i guess i have a question and it regards to senator santorum, a comment that he made at a catholic university three years ago where he made the statements that he felt protestantism was not mainstream. he's a protestantism was in shambles. i'm just curious as to why none of the "protestant religions" have not asked him to explain that. guest: it might perhaps of something to do with the fact that the other two candidates he is running against are protestant. you are right in your presumptions that that, it would not go over well with a lot of conservative protestant republican voters in the south. really, the discourse of this campaign is being determined by these big super pac's and they are not getting into that territory.

host: tom baxter, let me put a few scenarios on the table to get your reaction. let's assume the decision is split. santorum wins one state, and and at romney wins the other. what does it mean that? guest: i think the question is what that would mean for newt gingrich, who has given mixed signals. there has been a last hurrah quality people have bred into man in his campaign. he has said it that he fully intends to go on to tampa and a matter what happens this coming week. whether he stays in the campaign or not, if he does not perform pretty well, and a good performance would have to be probably be winning in alabama and coming close in mississippi, then whether he stays in eleonore not, gingrich begins to receive and it becomes a long, drawn-out battle between

the one remaining viable conservative challenger and mitt romney. you know, looking at the calendar, you get past these two states this coming weekend the next big clump of votes is burgeron into april, mostly a lot of northeastern states. if romney can come out of this thing on tuesday with at least a partial win with some delegates to say that he is continuing that long march, he is not winning pretty, but he is moving towards the goal, i guess you could say. host: conversely, if newt gingrich wins one or both, what

does that mean? guest: it prolongs the argument the little longer. i guess there would have to be a little bit of a sorting out between santorum and gingrich. again, i think gingrich has pursued pretty much exclusively a southern strategy. he did not contest in kansas over the weekend. the first thing he would have to do is find some good northern states to get to make an impression.

host: clearwater, fla., on the democratic line. caller: good morning. can get the tax money out? as a former nurse, i have not heard anything about having about a health care system where we actually have competition to raise the quality and decrease [unintelligible] insurance should cover alternative medicine. i do not see any real suggestions. i would like a free, open market system. right now it is run by the insurance companies. please, let's see a president, or candidate, can really come up with a real solution. host: tom baxter, a quick reaction?

guest: that's one. newt gingrich has tried to stake out, being the candidate who has some innovative, free-market- oriented solutions in health care. unfortunately, that has 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. host: our guest is tom baxter joining us from atlanta. let's show you how newt gingrich is going after health care in this web ad. [video clip] >> he said he made it obam-ney care. >> this is the same bill romney passed in massachusetts. host: that is the argument that

newt gingrich and rick santorum have been making. now he will be campaigning in mississippi and alabama over the next few days. guest: it has some resonance, i think. obama is not popular in these states. the governor of massachusetts to has passed a health care plan will be a somewhat suspect. you have a lot of voters in these states who, their first priority, will be to turn the president out of office. they will be pretty pragmatic about which one they think has the best chance of doing that. host: on our independent line

from parkville, md., welcome to the conversation. caller: i wonder how many people will be like me. i am a registered independent for romney, not obama. i will not vote at all if santorum is the nominee for the republican party. host: why do you say that? caller: i think santorum is too far on the religious side. i do not like that part of the republican party. host: we will get a response from tom baxter. guest: that may be a conviction your firmly set in, but i wonder if the news stories of the past week have had any impact on you in that regard with the rush limbaugh story which has gone pretty much viral in georgia with a legislature or in georgia

that is making an analogy between women in the question of an abortion bill and farm animals that he had handled. i would just ask the caller is that feeds in to that sentiment. 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 tomorrow marks zandy gus is the rising profits. and missy ryan lives in the cost of operating the u.s. embassy in baghdad. "washington journal"