talking about the world and she made a comment about ic policy, too. they're unbearable. "countdown" is next. >> now on "countdown," mississippi gingrich, 33% romney 31 31% santorum, 27. >> mathematically this thing about over, but emotionally it's not. >> the math is not the issue. the issue is vision. governor romney, who has outspent me 10 to 1 is still not able to close the deal. >> by learn to go say y'all and i light grits, and strange things are happening to me. >> romney is probably the weakest american frontrunner

since leonard wood in 1920. >> romney does make a good point about what gingrich just said. >> if i'm a weak frontrunner what does that make gingrich because i'm far ahead of him. >> and 65% of those polled disapprove of the way the president is handling gasoline prices. the republicans try to drill home the connection. >> i can't fill up my truck any more because of gas prices. >> i would sign the keystone pipeline immediately. >> let me let fox remind you again. >> it really is not in the president's hand. >> the next time you hear a politician say he or she will bring down oil prices understand that it's bs. it's difficult because this president is a muslim. 45% in alabama and 52% in mississippi believe he is a muslim and 40% in each state

are not sure. nightmare in afghanistan an american sniper with the reported past brain injury wantonly kills 16 civilians, 11 of them from one family. almost every politician stops themselves from making any hey. >> we're not prepared to be ruthless enough to force them to change, yet we're an alien presence. >> and the "game game change. >> it really range true. >> you mean this really happened. >> did you hear what they said about me last night. >> you got to stop watching keith olbermann. >> wise words indeed, senator wise words, indeed. >> good evening, this is monday,

march 12th, 2040 days until the the 2012 presidential election. grits and gravy was introduced into the primary. grit rhymes with mitt, and grits reminds you of gingrich. >> yes, it's happy birthday on the road and i'm hoping from a real big present from alabama. >> mitt romney presenting a big gift the millionaire choosing not to enroll in medicare. the survey showing gingrich over romney by two with santorum close behind. and an even closer race in alabama, one point separating romney from gingrich and two from santorum. >> this is all about delegates and at this stage we're putting together as many delegates as we can. we have got a good solid lead.

>> and padding that lead over the weekend romney grabbing seven delegates in the wyoming caucus. and santorum thrashing romney in kansas and but romney scoring nine delegates in the guam caucus, and another nine in saipan. overall totals romney, 454 delegates. santorum, 217. newt gringrich. counting the total delegates not counting as much as it seems. >> the math is not the issue. the issue is the vision. governor romney outspent me 10 to 1 and still is not able to close the deal and is not on the path himself to get to this. >> romney is not having any of that. >> you know delegates are awarded proportionately. we're winning this, and i expect to get the nomination. >> newt gringrich doing what he

can to put romney's performance in the worse possible light. >> romney is probably the weakest frontrunner. he's the frontrunner but almost all conservatives are opposed to him which is the base of the party. >> for the record, major wood won the new hampshire primary and he never really ran for office in his life. harding got the nomination. still gingrich might have had a point. the latest post ab this, polls showing 74% of republicans thinking romney will win the g.o.p. presidential nomination. well under half that have total would like to see romney win the nomination. romney with an answer for them and former speaker of the house. >> if i'm the weak frontrunner what does that make newt gringrich? i'm well ahead of him. >> he has a point. rick santorum wishing it were otherwise and while he would not ask other candidates, specific

specifically gingrich to to get out of the race. >> it would be great if they would clear the field. >> not the intention of former national committee share michael steele saying when he helped change the g.o.p. rules, he said i wanted a brokered convention. that's one of my goals. steele doing an about face telling "huffington post" that was his personal view and not something that the committee set out to design. >> they are not going to nominate a moderate--we're going to be the nominee. we're going to be the one who provides the best vision and best contract to president obama, who has the best chance of winning. governor romney will not make it. >> not as long as he insists on treating southern republicans to sit homes in this ways. >> i'm learn to go say y'all and i like grits. strange things are happening to

me. >> "huffington post's" sam stein tweeted how much his friends own stuff. now just on the bidding of payton manning quote, i don't want to see him at miami or the jets. both owners are friends of mine. hash tag humble brag. we'll look at romney's humble brag in a minute. i'm joined by ken vogel with politico. good evening. >> hey keith. >> gingrich stepped on a rake. if romney is the weakest frontrunner how come gingrich is not beating him? >> and where is gingrich in that analogy? he could see himself as harding or santorum as harding and let's not forget illinois governor frank lawden. so sort of awkward historical

analogy doesn't not end there because romney then answered this criticism by saying, hey let's not forget in 2008 the eventual nominee won. >> that just rakes all over that lawn, and i stepped on one and i called him governor harding and he had been senator from ohio. how about the romney lead. gingrich and santorum are acting at this stage that the lead does not count for much in the delegate count doesn't count for much. are they delusional or do they have to say it. >> they have to say it, but it is delusional especially when they state their goal is a brokered convention, and mitt romney comes in with the commanding lead. there's no hope of that. mitt romney needs to win the 50% remaining delegates.

santorum has to win 65%. newt gringrich has to win 70% and you look at the schedule going on here on and it plays out in mitt romney's favor to the extent that the remaining contest or the next several contests are primaries where mitt romney intended to do better, and where organization and money is awarded where the ground game and grassroots enthusiasm can sometimes overcome the type of organization that mitt romney has a huge advantage over both gingrich and santorum and things seem to be looking mitt romney's way even if it's not a pretty process. >> the vision quest aspect of this suddenly vision is brought up as this magic and almost important delegates ingredient. there was another patrician candidate george h.w bush laughed at that.

are gingrich and santorum correct, does romney need it to win? is it quantifiable in any way. >> it's the narrative. it fits into the knock that has been developed on romney both in 2008 through today. not just by conservatives and his rivals for the nomination, but by democrats and the republican party this idea that mitt romney has no ideological mooring. he's sticking his finger in the wind to decide which stance to take when in regard there are litmus test issues within the republican party. that said, george h.w. bush did win the presidency in '88 before losing to clinton obviously and there are a lot of similarities. he too, was generated a luke warm reaction from the base but nonetheless was regarded the viable, electable candidate, and so mitt romney could only wish for a result like that. >> he also had ronald reagan as his predecessor.

>> that clearly helped. >> last point. and there is some polling today although it's all over the place in terms of obama versus the republican. the national polls that show republican leaning voters believing that mitt romney will end up with this thing and half of that saying that that's a good thing. is that in any way possible to overcome no matter how good these individual candidates might be appearing in the polls directly against obama right now? is that fatal to a romney candidacy? >> if he can get through the nomination, and it helps him to have both gingrich and santorum continuing to put forth this line that the delegate math doesn't matter. mitt romney is saying, great continue up the delegates and even if people feel this way about, where half want to see him come away with the nomination is going to go down

to his benefit to continue this ugly fight. the more you can stay above it, and highways not always done a good job of that, but the more he stays above it, the more helpful in the general election. this status quo, seeing this quite where the second-tier candidates are taking shots at mitt romney and at each other does it look good in the moment, but in the long run it probably come around to mitt romney's benefit. >> thank you. >> thank you keith. >> the primary votes are tomorrow i'm join by craig crawford, good evening. >> how y'all doing. >> good, now we're going to get it from you. at least you have chops when you do this. let's start with that point. when you hear a northerner or a werner, somebody who is not a southerner trying to speak southern, i was under the assumption this was somewhat off-putting rather than feeling

like an embrace from somebody who wants to get to know you and in addition to this, we have the controversy over the catfish. i don't know if you're aware of this. in january at south carolina at a barbecue place he said he was not a fish man. and then in mobile he said i had catfish for the second time. it was delicious just like the first time. does anyone feel patronized. >> some southerners may say kiss my grits but he does it with enough self self deprecation. i think back to the 1988 campaign you never seen awkward appeals to the south like michael dukakis. he made some really pitiful efforts. in the end people know he's not from the south. i don't think he has to keep

reminding him. that's the problem with what he's doing. >> essentially a three-way too-close to call race in mississippi and alabama tomorrow. what do you make of it? >> this is like student council election math. you get two popular jocks against the nerd. the nerd can win. this is basic aright tick here. you got these two candidates, and they're splitting up the same votes. and i think it shows in mississippi they're almost twice romney's number. that's what's going on here. and that's why romney's campaign does not want them to get out not now any way. they need to get through the next week or two of this dynamic. they want him out eventually, but the way to hurt romney is each together they pile up so many delegates that romney does not get the majority at the end. >> is mitt romney financing foster friess and sheldon

adelson. >> you got it. i was talking to a smart operative on the democratic side who observed i wonder if they're working for romney because this is helping him so much with their money. it's only their money that is keeping santorum and gingrich in. in the end its helping romney. that's the irony for gingrich. staying in the race is helping the guy he apparently hates so much. >> goodness. this is not just pertinent to the south but we're having romney and ownership issues. and this--this seems likely y but it seems almost symbolic of the man's life let alone this campaign and the 99% versus the 1% and all the rest that have. he said he was not a nascar fan but he knows the owners of the nascar team. and then payton manning becoming free agent. he said, i don't want to see manning at miami or the jets because both owners are friends

of main. say tailgate. didn't anyone say don't mention owners any more. >> it is who he is. he's most comfortable and comes alive when they go to wall street and fundraise in corporate boardrooms. that's where he has the most fun at all. that's the person that we're seeing. i think this is the narrative that the democrats need to see and certainly will, i'm not telling them that they don't already know, but this idea that he's a leverage buyout artist who wants to layoff people and cut his own taxes that narrative will hurt him if they pound it, don't get away from it and pound it all the time. >> all my friends own stuff. it's simple and an easy to understand point and it might be the year to understand it. craig crawford author of "politics of life." >> and full disclosurclosure, i'm

a lousy southerner. i hate grits. >> if you know what is in it, you might have that opinion. >> it comes from grit trees. >> thank you very much. the price of a gallon of gas. the same politicians and commentators who explain that the spike in 2008 was not president bush's false or the >>i'm a political junkie. this show is my fix. [[vo]]this former two-term governor is ... but for today's game i'm a little... [ neck cracks ] fuzzy. so you tried to fix me. but you just made me loose. newsflash. if you have cut rate insurance you might not be covered for this. so get allstate and protect your house and car from mayhem like me. [ dennis ] dollar for dollar,

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you're missing two hours of our political lineup. >>it's our job to bring you stories that other people aren't bringing you. >>unlimited, unfettered. >>check out "the young turks" with cenk uygur. >>you can't beat that, it's such a winning issue. >>step into "the war room" with jennifer granholm. >>never ending enertainment. >>the young turks at seven countdown with keith olbermann at eight and the war room at nine. current tv's prime-time lineup weeknights starting at seven-six central. only on current tv. what's up? >>hi! >>how ya doing? >>good. >>what you got there? >>a u.v. light lunch box. >>wow! how does it work? >>you put the fruit in, you turn it on, you wait for ten seconds, you take it out. it's a healthy apple to eat. >>that's big. if you sell as manny of those as we sold records, one day i'm going to be going to your house. >>got a cool idea of your own? enter it now at wouldntitbecoolif.com. four finalist will have the chance to pitch their idea to will.i.am. one winner may see their invention idea brought to life.

>> over the last few weeks republicans have been hammering the president over the price of gas. when a new poll came out with a high disapproval of his handing of gas prices they seemingly jumped for joy. but the reality is the two appear to have very little to do with each other because everyone knows that the president can do very little with the price of gas. >> the facts are as you suggested no president has the power to increase or to lower gas prices. those are market forces. >> yesterday's oil hit a record high and politicians cannot do a thing about it. >> it's really tough for this president, i have to be honest with you us because he does not have a control of the market and economy and it really is not in this president's hands. >> the next time you hear a politician say he or she will bring down oil prices understand it's b.s. we need a strong leader who is

honest smart, courageous and willing to explain dubious associations. >> it's complete b.s. but despite those defenses four years ago when the new poll showed a new drop in the president's approval rating, many republicans pointed to one aspect of it. 65% said they disapproved of the way that the president was handing the price of gas. even wall street journal tried to pivot away the gas prices from the president writing that u.s. gasoline prices are determined by global market forces. it's hard to see how president obama's policies can be blamed. but many believe it's a winning message not that small businesses with increased costs but the guy who can't fill up his monster truck. >> i just took my kids to northern wisconsin skiing yesterday, and the gas pump clicked because it had hit the limit with what the gas station would sell me. i can't even fill up my truck

because of gas prices. >> sorry your ski vacation was blighted, mr. man of the people. according to the same people, many people felt that the financial hardship created by the gas prices was the same as eight years ago when a man name george w. bush won the election bid regardless. >> whether every president deserves t everybody president gets it, blame. what is this white house trying to do about it. >> they're not going skiing in suvs up to colorado with their four kids. whatthe white house is trying to show how they're disconnected and market forces and economic policies gas policy cannot be the same thing that drive the prices down. global demand is a factor. china is using more and more of

it. so is india. there isn't much that they can do besides try to explain it and push for renewables as the way to get these prices and this pain in the pump to go away for good. >> since the keystone excel pipeline, it's so easy to misunderstand and it's a i assumingly easy talking point and newt gringrich said if he were present president the first day he would sign the keystone project. are they agree to go build this pipeline to be shipped out of the country is not going to reduce the cost of gas. there is some indication that it's going to push gas prices up in the midwest. is the white house doing enough with what keystone excel could give them? >> they're letting a lot of surrogates do a lot of heavy lifting on that. they were out today talking about how keystone excel is not a magic bullet, and the president himself said there is no magic bullet. it is not a magic bullet to get

gas prices lower. it is not going to be built or pump it's first drop for several years. the number of jobs, that argument is speechless in that it's not going to create nearly as many jobs as a study confirmed it would not create 20,000 jobs as the republicans say it would. the president and the surrogates for the white house are getting that message out in different ways. the white house is also promoting a fact sheet on white house.com.gov that talks about how gas drilling has increased and the markets still won't pull the prices down in the united states. >> the explanation was in 2008 as a matter of fact forces speculateors, that's the way it is and it's the case now is the white house doing enough with that? once again it would seem that the time is ripe for people to be willing to live to the argument that there are big companies and big investors and others who might be called the

1% who are driving the gallon of gas at their local station. >> i would look for them to do even more. you got the president who has talked about speculations, there are the task force set up to look at this. i don't know if it's the security exchange, but it's the commodity trades council. they're looking into speculation on wall treat what effect that has on gas prices. so certainly there is some information that is leaking out, but it has not been set in a broad scale. i think the president as long as this will go on will start talking about this more and more. there are already expert who is are backing him up on this, fox notwithstanding talking about how this is a normal kind of ebb and flow, if you will, for what the oil market has become today and we were here last year as gas prices inched up. the panic up sided and everyone went back to their old habits and they'll keep pace as they're expected to do now.

>> the lowest price was inauguration date in 2009. last point how far can the republicans go with this attack given as you just referenced we keep showing that most of them are on tape in 2008 saying the opposite thing about presidential responsibilities about gas prices. >> they'll go as far as they can. you already hear newt gringrich somewhat irresponsibly many experts say already claiming he'll bring prices down to under $3 a gallon. right around $2 a gallon, give or take. not going to happen unless he knows something that we don't know. keystone excel the biggest single argument for it, the fact that it will take longer and you're sending gas to the heartland of america point to the gulf coast disaster. there are leases not being used domesticcally. deep water drilling around the world is taking place.

we won't know what will happen because some of these drilling riggs have not been held to safety standards and going two to three miles below the ground. the final thing to say every president since carter has talked about the need to wean or cut back on oil. still has not happened yet. a lot of these policies are unpopular. if we kept some of things that we talked about, we would be in more control of our destiny than we are now. >> surprisingly we did not. joe williams, thank you. >> my pleasure. >> the disturbing information that the alleged shooter was not just an u.s. marksman but

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>> roughly eight out of ten voters headed to vote in mississippi and alabama are convinced that the president is a muslim or are not certain that he is not.

born jack carilac the beat righter. he created his own way to simulate baseball games with dice invented his own teams leagues, histories and kept records from 1935 to 1967. and we haven't even mentioned his table top horseracing game. time marchs on. >> we begin with a snowboarding possum. just let that settle in. that's "ratatouille"," quite possibly the world's only snowboarding awesome, and i'll go out on a limb and say he's the world's only sweater-wearing possum. he says he loves the sport but he's he not into the whole snowboarding culture. we'll check in with high school sports. here is in the regional.

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pass--stolen--oh no! wisher! we are tied! we are tied! i don't believe this! marist strikes again, david strikes again. it anti-midnight yet y'all! >> can't remember his name from baltimore. marist lost the number one seed sineon in the championship game this weekend. >> the darkening picture from afghanistan as we learn more from the american stay tuned for the answer.

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>> new details emerging about the u.s. soldier who without provocation killed 16 civilians. our third story telling all news organizations that the suspect was not just an american sniper but two years ago the man had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury during one of his three tours to iraq but he was found fit for duty and he was from washington state which has been a plagued with high rates of suicide and post traumatic stress disorder. an iraq vet murdered a park rangeer at mount rainier, and there was a rogue unit of american soldiers involved in the killing of three afghan civilians.

>> after the killing the soldier returned to his base and turned himself in. the president expressed condolences but maintained that the tragedy will not speed up the timeline to pull troops out by the end of 2014. >> but, what we don't want to do is to do it in a way that is just a rush for the exit. we've got hundreds of hundreds of advisers in the civilians as well. we have huge amounts of equipment that need to be moved out. we have to be sure that the afghans can protect their borders and prevent al-qaida from coming back in. we'll do it in a responsible way. >> i'm joined by "huffington post" contributor author of afghanistan road trip. welcome. >> thank you. >> is there any sudden awareness to recognize that we've been sending troops back too soon and

too damaged and too often. >> i certainly hope there is some sudden awareness but this is a society who is in denial of many things things. what i found myself thinking about a lot, ever since the incident with the four maureens urinated on the dead taliban back in january a great science fiction novel called "the forever war" and this guy is zapped into the future to further and further away planets, and every time he thinks he's going to join civilian life he's zapped back again. it's a haunting book and it tells the story what we're going through now. >> is there any push in the pentagon or civilian who is are responsible in the defense department to act like this is just the first ultimately

disastrous time bomb of a series that could go off in afghanistan? >> keith, this is not the first time bomb. this is only the latest one. we've had three or four in just the last couple of months. the urination incident, which was appalling and shocking. then the qur'an burning thing and i know only too well how this is playing over there and it's not playing well. i certainly hope that people in the pentagon are sitting up and taking notice. >> we thought we had problems in afghanistan after the urination case and after the burning of the qur'ans. what does this do not just to our credibility but ten ability. at what point are we at the risk of being you know, driven out rather than choosing some time and advanced ordinarily withdrawal request. >> i just heard--you played the president and his words about

the orderly withdrawal. the image that keeps coming to my mind are the helicopters on the roof of the embassy in saigon. i hope it doesn't come to that in this case. yeah, our credibility at this point is severely damaged and our ten ability certainly is as well. i don't say that with any pleasure. i'm a patriotic american. i love my country. i want to be proud of my country, not ashamed of my country, and i also want my country to not to be further damaged. we're doing a lot of damage not only to afghanistan by our presence there and by things like this incident, but a lot of damage to our own society as well. >> the damage here, i imagine we can survive but i think there we're hanging by a thread collectively in terms of afghanistan, and that country is always hanging by a thread. the president knows that. he has known that since the day he stepped into office. his characterization in

afghanistan is looking to find the least worst outcome. but in the future relatable to this event, is there any way to repair the damage there just relative to this thing? >> you know, the really important thing in my article that was in "huffington post" i quoted a guy named todd shea, a remarkable great american who does life-saving work in pakistan and in haiti and japan and many other places. a wonderful guy. high school dropout who who--someone who was a screw up, but certainly knows what is what in that part of the world. and what he said, and the quote in my article was if only 20 years ago we had acknowledged acknowledged--treated people in pakistan and afghanistan as important in a human way that's really important phrase, important in a human way. do we acknowledge our shared humanity with pakistanis afghan

afghanistans, with the taliban for that matter. people all over the world need to believe genuinely that americans know them to be human beings. and i really don't think a lot of people in the world are confident of that at this point. >> try to get that past the pentagon even right now. ethan casey, author and contributor to the "huffington post"." thank you for your insight. you've contributed much to this discussion thank you. >> the number of republican voters who are convinced the president of the united states is not a muslim i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i i

planned parenthood. anna talked to a conservative and it got a little contentious. drama, when we return.

you hear what keith olbermann said oh about me last night. look, i'm not the one who canceled on letterman. i'm the guy who they got