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primary coverage tonight. see you in a little bit. which of these stories will you be talking about tomorrow? michigan and the battle of the robo calls. >> you're making calls to republicans today. [ cheers ] >> yeah. yeah. and the santorum campaign is making calls to democrats today. all right. >> santorum's response:

the michigan sub text the battle of the unforced errors. romney again remembers something that didn't happen. >> i voted against ted kennedy, tip o'neal, and bill clinton. >> they were never on the same ballot together. >> we went into a recession in 2008 because of gasoline prices. >> no. and david shuster in michigan steve kornacki, and sam seeder. $20 million off of women's healthcare. not off of the price. off of the care. pushing to deny more women more health care even as alabama and virginia have to back off some of their preabortion transvaginal ultrasound demands. and where fox news gets it's quote, news. >> this could be the intent of the obama administration. >> and the latest from michigan too close to call and arizona,

romney in a breeze. and the quote of the day. >> i'm not willing to light my hair on fire to try to get support. >> i'm sorry about that. that i would have paid to see. all of that and more now on "countdown." ♪ >> good evening, this is tuesday february 28th 253 days until the 2012 presidential election. republicans voting tonight except in michigan where one in ten is a democrat voting in the primary. the majority of michigan polling places closing as this new hours ends tonight. romney's home state of michigan anything but a guaranteed win.

the latest public policy poll showing, front runners romney and rick santorum the race is too close to call. similar numbers in a whites a associates poll. low turn out with many democrats voting for santorum or ron paul to deny a win for romney. that massachusetts mitt romney hands over the call on fox news. >> deceptive and a dirty trick. it's a new low in this campaign.

>> but not the last. santorum also on fox news, then thumbing his nose at romney. >> one of the things that the governor romney's people say is oh, he can't attract democrats. well, i think we can. >> and this time from his michigan call center. >> we want to make sure we get republicans out to vote. we want this to be a process where republicans choose a republican nominee. >> santorum having none of that as he complained. >> democrats enjoying the whining from both sides. michael moore tweeting just said he went to vote for santorum but each time he asked

for a ballot and laughed. and adding a ps that is sure to bring legions of hard cores to his camp. >> it is very easy to excite the base with comments. i'm not willing to light my hair on fire to get the nomination. >> despite his complaints romney admitting in an interview during the 2008 campaign: the governor tried to clarify that today. >> my case i was certainly voting against the democrat who i thought was the person i thought would be the worst heard of our nation, and in this case as i recall it was bill clinton. >> two of the greatestest slate

fors in our history. and they never ran on the same ballot and the gap between o'neal's last election and clinton's primary was a mere eight years. meanwhile: >> give him a day or two, and santorum might be backing off another unfortunate claim. >> we went into a recession in 2008 because of gasoline prices. the bubble burst in housing projects because we were looking at $4 in gasoline. >> wrong on all counts. and newt gingrich is concentrating on next week's super-tuesday primaries with from adelson. while olympia snow not helping the gop in its efforts.

announcing today she will not run for recollection. ironically that is likely to pave the way for an extreme right winger to take her place. david shuster is coming from michigan a suburb near detroit. david good evening. >> good evening to you. >> the free press says turnout is low. the exit polls suggested that just under half strongly favored their candidate they voted for this afternoon. how do we interpret that? >> the turnout is lower than it has been lower than it should be. southeastern michigan where they have been bombarding the airwaves with television ads the turnout is a little bit lowerhere. and that is a problem for romney. as far as winning the overall

popular vote he has to pick it up here in southeast michigan. a lot of very nervous people here tonight in the romney watch party. >> on the other hand apparently in 2000 when john mccain won this primary, 17% in this open primary of the voters were democrats who were trying to make -- their own selection of who the nominee should be? so perhaps this is successful? perhaps it wasn't. but 10% is large enough margin to decide it, isn't it? >> it is. and there are some union households, but for the most part they got instructions from the uaw over the past couple of days that they should be part of this depreciation chaos and

support rick santorum. so not just the self identified democrats, but people who go by different labels there was this entire effort to try to cause mitt romney some trouble, and again, the santorum campaign is saying wait a second, if romney wants to complain about inviting democrats and independents into this primary then romney should complain about what he himself did. >> uh-huh. and you spoke of operation chaos and problems with the romney campaign. it would seem at least symbolically that operation chaos has been lead by romney in terms of self inflicted injuries. we heard the candidate made mistakes romney referring to himself. is there anything going on surface? >> yeah, keith there's already

infighting in the complain about who is responsible for the problems in michigan. the financial supporters saying we have done everything we can the candidate just had a bad weekend. and they were scratching their head over his comments in florida where he said he knew some nascar team owners, and of course that follows the horrible friday he had where they only put a few people in a stadium. and they are already starting to reach out to their activists, organizers and states like ohio and super tuesday states. they are terrified of a tsunami of bad intentions. so they are trying to get them to say do whatever you can spin this to try to control

whatever damage we face tonight. >> do they have any way to shut down his mistakes? because he is remembering things that didn't happen of something he attended nine months before he was born and this great vote in 1992 where he voted against continue o'neal six years after his retirement. that's a big problem if a candidate is beginning to have memory loss. >> perhaps too many advisors are in romney's head saying you need to be more likable. and he is not that candidate. he is much stiffer than i think the campaign wants him to be. and as a result when they are giving him so much advice it makes matters worse. >> i'm telling you though if he lights his hair on he'll get a heck of a crowd for

that. great thanks, david. >> keith, thank you. >> for more on the republican primaries i'm joined by steve kornacki. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> first off under half strongly favor their candidate. 1 in 7 want a true conservative, 33% are considering electability in terms of the primary. of those who are -- everybody -- not just host those are considering electability, 50% saw romney as more electable, and only 25% see santorum as the most electable. do you get the sense that the republicans in michigan are going through the motions. that this is a primary because they sort of half it is really what

the whole process has felt like. it shows that what santorum has emerged as is the proxy for the doubt that still lingers towards romney. it doesn't mean he has generated any enthusiasm for himself. we can talk about the weekend from hell that mitt romney had, but santorum really put on quite a show for the last week or two, where i think he probably unnerved even people who agree with him, is he really what we need to put up in the fall. so that's a tough choice, and i think it's reflected in his numbers. >> 54% said what mattered most was the economy, 24% said the deficit, and i guess that is distinguishable, although the politicians would have you believe otherwise. 4% said abortion and 3% said

illegalimmigration. given you have the detroit bailout was supported by 43% of republican voters in michigan, 40% evangelicals voted but what i'm getting at is michigan usable predictive about this race -- in other words if romney wins here, did we learn anything about this campaign? >> i think there are sort of two romney wins scenarios. if he wins this thing by a big margin. i think we see the old romney formula still works. he can wait for the conservative rival to emerge out spend them like crazy, and win the must win state and keep marching towards the nomination. what i'm wondering is what if this is a really long night? what if this is a one or two point mitt romney victory in his

native state and after outspending santorum. at that point i think that does a lot of damage to the romney formula that he has been using too. and i think that could help santorum too. >> but if only 1 in 7 look for the true conservative, if 33% is the low so far in the primary are considering electability it's almost as if that middle ground is giving you kind of an honest opinion and if they are split between romney and santorum with paul and gingrich in the back still, does that just suggest the republican base has no focus at this point, and they are going to go behind romney because nobody else can really stand up to fight him? >> if the voters are going behind romney he was always playing on -- and we saw this with that robo call -- he is also playing on class identity

and class resentment toward rommy. playing himself up as a guy with middle class roots, and middle class image, and he is hoping that that resinates to the voters who aren't necessarily the most conservative members of the party. >> percentage quickly of a slight romney win that actually can be spun as a santorum victory is what 2, 3%? >> i would say when you get above 2 it starts to get dicey, but really the key is how long does this night go? because the longer it goes the clearer it is that this is not clear-cut either way. >> thank you, steve. >> sure. the president won't be running against romney or it's super tuesday with live coverage and analysis from keith olberman. a special edition. countdown, super tuesday, with keith olberman.

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the real big winner in the michigan primary, president obama almost giggling today. and even the republicans are toning down their attacks on women's health rights and this center tries to up the anti-. the former car alarm voice over actor, makes a claim about the president being south african or something. and what the actor ed harris says about me in his roll as as the republican candidates push in the arizona and michigan primaries, the big winner is already clear to fella named

president obama. who spoke with all of the excitement you would expect to see in a victory speech. he addressed a raucous audience and we saw a return of the campaigner in chief. at the united auto worker's conference, the president took time to speak about the success of an auto industry who was once on the verge of bankruptcy. >> it's been funny to watch some of these folks completely try to rewrite history now that you are back on your feet. [ cheers and applause ] >> the same folks who said if we went forward with our plan to rescue detroit you can kiss the american automotive industry good-bye. now they are saying we are were right all along.

>> 43% of michigan voters said they supported the rescue and only 51% were opposed, the republicans. >> manufacturing is coming back for the first time since the 1990s. companies are bringing jobs back from overseas. the economy is getting stronger. the recovery is speeding up. now it's time to keep our foot on the gas, not foot on the breaks, and i'm not going to settle with a country where just a few do really well and everybody else is struggling to get by! [ cheers and applause ] >> but others are not so positive. in a piece titled housing is the core of the recovery,:

and joining me now is robert ryshe, the former labor secretary, now professor at uc berkeley and author of "aftershock." >> good evening, keith. >> to your piece on the housing market in just a moment. but first of all, the clips we heard from the president today. is there a reason to your knowledge that he doesn't speak with this type of energy anymore? >> the winds are at his back right now. the economy does seem to be moving in the right direction. it may not be moving as strongly as it ought to be and his opponents are all going after a smaller and smaller minority of extreme right wingers, and dents are swinging over to the president. the president's poll numbers

look better and better and he is charged up and it is kind of a self fulfilling prophesy. >> and here you come with your note that the stock market is up, and yet the housing market is still this rotting core. >> i don't want to rain on anybody's parade. i want to be as optimistic as everybody can and should be. but there is one major chink in this armor, and that is housing. housing is the major net worth, the major assets of most mourns. most americans don't have much money if any money in the stock market. most americans really are reliant on the value of their homes. that's the biggest asset. and home values are down over 33, 34% on average, since the second quarter of 2006. that's a huge drop. it's going to take years to get

those houses back. >> the original growth in the housing market though, is based in large part on what is fairly well understood if not in the economic particulars at least in a general sense by the public as a no pun intended house of cards, by loaning money to anybody who could show up with their breath on a mirror. is there a way to recover any kind of growth? and is there any way to regain the confidence that homeowners or potential homeowners would have had five, six seven years ago? >> it's not going to come back very soon. i hope that we are reaching bottom. we keep on hearing we're reaching bottom with regard to home values and certainly the decline seems to be slowing, but it's still occurring, keith. beyond the bubble or house of cars that was created in 2003, 2004, beyond that has been a

change in the attitude of americans quite suddenly. housing was the best investment you could possibly make housing values for everybody's experience kept on going up. well, now you have a large cohort of margins who have been traumatized by the housing market. and they are going to hold back. >> so if there is -- if the question becomes not -- in which degree the arrow is pointing improvement or disimprovement in the economy, and housing is not really going to be restored in any sense, that it could be decisive in terms of the election, does that brood term 50% of the voters in michigan voted on the economy, is that boiling down to jobs and then the rest of it is gas prices? >> yeah would say -- again, this is not scientific. i would say jobs is the overwhelming issue. if we see a good jobs report for

january, and if the jobs report continue to improve even if they don't improve dramatically most people are going to feel well the economy is doing fine. consumer confidence is quite bland right now. the housing market is going to continue to be a drag on the economy, gas prices -- look it's mostly speculation. as far as i can tell keith, those underlying fundamentals with regard to supply and demand are not pointing to much higher gas prices. the hedge fund managers are getting in there bidding up the price of gas, but that could fall as quickly as it did last may. >> we have all of the supply we can demand whatever the hell rewant. robert ryshe the author of "aftershock" great thank for your time

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the republicans escalate their assault on women's health rights despite the fact that in two other states the women have fought back successfully. but first of all the movie "game change." i have been informed that only did i appear in it but, quote, have you heard what olbermann said about me? time marches on. ♪ >> we rebin as we always do with the world's largest sandwich bacon, peanut butter.

13-by-4 foot was cut up and sold as part of the baconfest. in sports it's the final round of the pba u.s. open where pete weber is about to surpass his own father. he needed that strike. and he's more than a little excited. [ cheers and applause ] >> i did it! are you kidding me! that's right! who do you think you are! i am! >> who do you think you are? i am. formerly just a song title, now the greatest sports taunt ever. finally we end with dolphins. lots and lots of dolphins. 2,000 dolphins spotted by a whale watching boat. try to top that sea world.

the dolphins were reportedly using their flipper, flipper, to move faster than lightning. time whims on. alabama and virginia try to pull back slightly on what is it's a bit like asking if they want a big hat... ...'scuse me... ...or a big steak... ...or big hair... i think we have our answer.

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no matter what time you are watching, this "countdown" is live each night at 8:00 eastern, the longest continuously running 8:00 pm news hour on cable, unless you consider fox, news. a nominee from new york said if roe v wade were appealed nobody would notice senate majority leader reid said allowing any employer to deny health services to his employees

because of moral objections will come up for vote on thursday. senate democrats are not going down without a fight here. patty murray describes the amendment as quote: and much like virginia where the contention transvaginal ultrasound bill was amended to be a transabdominal bill and another bill lasted a fortnight before its sponsor said he was water down the bill which: but the bill goes even further:

it might be legal, but you can sue. let's bring in the political reporter for the "huffington post." thanks for your time. >> thanks for having me. >> i assume it would still be iffy in a republican controlled house. what is it purpose? >> i think it's purpose is to galvanize voters. republicans are fired about this. democrats are also fired up about this and it is getting people into politics who otherwise wouldn't necessarily be and i think republicans are courting the catholic vote right now, and a lot of people criticized obama's birth control mandate, and so this is a way of saying nobody has to cover health care for anyone.

unfortunately that -- the problem that democrats have with it is it takes the decision away from the women. where is the employer conscience mattering more than the women's conscience? >> in politics 2012 everything is a dog whistle, but which is which here is the idea of obama curtailing religious freedom, is that the dog whistle, or is it the other way around? >> i think that women's health right now is -- the argument is being refrained as an argument about religious freedom. and they have had i don't know how many hearings at this point that are actually specifically about this birth control amendment, and congress congress coverage and the republicans say this is not about women's health this is about religious freedom. and millions of women would lose

contraception coverage. >> the pushbacks are slight in alabama and virginia and in virginia it might be a bit of a shell game in terms of terminology, but is there any sense that the entire susan g. koman debacle was a tipping point here? where many suddenly woke up and said -- the only stage left would be to repeal women's right to vote. >> absolutely. a lot of these bills have been around for a long time. this ultrasound bill has been considered in lots of other states prior to virginia and considered in virginia in previous years, and even with the birth control mandate, that has been law in new hampshire for 12 years and nobody noticed.

i think this susan g. koman defunding planned parenthood brought in a lot of people and now any fight against women's health they are going to fight back. >> what do we understand about what the politicians in alabama and virginia have heard to get them to pull back in this description of what the ultrasounds had to be? >> you know, the governor of virginia said he didn't realize that the ultrasound was going to be a transvaginal ultrasound and when he learned the procedure would be invasive he changed his support. i don't think that's a case because a senate who is also a doctor stood up and explained what it would be and they still passed the bill. it made them the laughing stock and i think the republicans started to see what it was and become a little embarrassed.

>> laura bassett, political reporter for the "huffington post" thanks for your time tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> we discovered an error in our broadcast? a story about a new jersey judge recommending recommending -- as i made clear o'keefe was originally charged with a felony but pleaded guilty to

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5% of the vote reported so far in michigan his hair still isn't on fire and we do not know if we'll know ever how many democrats came out to vote against him. the polls closing, and we'll have more on them in michigan and arizona.

first the worst, from comments on right wing

the polls in the central time zone about to close in michigan. first because these people are bullies, and this is where we get to call them out. here is "countdown's" nominees for the worst person in the world. one of the cohosts on the political whore house that is fox news? he has now devealed his sources. >> this is what we choose respect that. >> i read on a conservative blog last night that this could be the intent of the obama administration. they just want the catholic institutions to close. >> i read the same thing, and the hundreds of people that write into these blogs, they say

that is the point of what is going on. >> i read it on a conservative blog he says? and the other guy goes on to say the read the same thing. i always assumed they were slow witted witted propagandaist, but they may be the victims of profound psychological abuse. and now darrell issa his problem appears to be he doesn't pay at attention to the details. he was spoke about the prospects of a republican president. [ applause ]

>> uh-huh. so now he is south african. i thought he was kenyan or hitler or something. where does this come from? think progress has sucked it out. the supreme court ruth bader ginsburg said the constitutions of some other countries like south africas might be better models for future democracies, because the news ones influence individual rights. it's funny he is not lashing out at the supreme court justice who recently testified that they are much better than ours. and then colby schwartz. he killed in committee a bill that would have strengthened oklahoma new anti--methamphetamine law. it turns out for his last

campaign. he received $1,500 from drug maker eli billy, and several others. pfizer who makes pseudo fed took schwartzed out to dinner last august and just to top it off before going to the oklahoma legislation, schwartz was a sales rep in the pharmaceutical industry. to be fair they don't hook just republicans. oklahoma democrats also voted against it and also got donations from big pharma one oklahoma rep said he didn't know how he would be able to look social workers, or cops in the eye, he said: and that was doug cox a republican and he

deserves applause for telling it like it is. but his colleague planned parenthood. anna talked to a conservative and it got a little contentious. drama, when we return.

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only with all forms of higher education, and then the separation between church and state. mitt romney has not been so quick to engage in that fight, refusing to even question santorum on those comments instead the former governor of massachusetts in between events that didn't even happen or happened before he was born he has worked to redirect the conversation to the economy which he considers his strength. >> i'm going to go to work to get our economy going again. that's what this is about. >> joining me now from "the ring of fire," sam seder. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> we were talking about what constitutes a win for romney but just on the basic of it

what is a win and what is a non-win win for romney? >> it is really hard for him to win now even if he wins. you got to remember santorum is up in ohio in the polls. he is beating romney in georgia, a second to newt gingrich. he is up in tennessee. these are the biggest electoral states coming up and romney should be -- there should have been no contest in michigan, and there is obviously a contest. >> as we look at some of those exit polls, they give you a good feel of direction at least, it doesn't seem like this was really an extremist one way or another voting group. you have 40% evangelicals, 30% as independents and 10% as democrats. 1 in 7 said they wanted the true conservative and 1/3 considered

electability as the prime their number. >> it is hard to say who is the true conservative in this. there was a time when people thought romney was the guy who was going to beat obama. nobody seems to believe that anymore. and santorum was never considered one of those hard core true conservatives. so that is the problem there is no constituency. neither one of those guys represents one of those constituencies. >> however when asked who was more electable, a little more than 50% said romney and about 25% said santorum. so on these core points about romney michigan isn't buying any of them. >> romney's original big sales pitch was i can beat obama, and

there are less and less republicans who are starting to believe there, and he has got to walk this tight rope because on one hand ho has got to convince the conservative base of the republican party, on the other hand he has to maintain his integrity in the general election, which he has lost 10 12 points over independents over the last few weeks, so he had to stop that hemorrhages and protect his right flank, and he is walking a tight rope and not doing very well. >> obviously those of us on the left have been watching this and laughing our backsides off. ed rollins say it's a an f-ing mess. the governor of maine said let's pick a fresh face at the convention. but weren't we all saying exactly these things about the democratic race in 2008 four

years ago to this day probably? >> i don't think so. i think the concern four years ago was there was going to be such acrimony between the people who supported obama and the people who supported clinton that they would never come together. that is usually an insurmountable problem. but romney has been hurt empirically with the independents, because he has had to move so far to the right, and i think you are seeing that reflected within the republican base. they are looking at him, and don't see him as the guy who could definitely beat obama. >> gingrich and the other fellow -- what is his name again? -- ron paul has 23% in the polling, and had between them 18%. sounds like they are irrelevant

and trivia but with something this tight, they are vital. gingrich just got another $10 million from sheldon adelson, and ron paul might as well be wearing an 11 century visor over his head but at what point is their endorsement irrelevant. >> i think paul will make it all the way to the convention because he has a base of support. he is going to go in there with some very enthusiastic supporters, and i think he is looking for a good speaking spot. but gingrich has good numbers in georgia. he has a lot of books to sell. he has some problems right now with the election commission and he has basically been -- this has been sort of like his job, in a way, and it has been his way of selling books, and i think he'll stay in