gwen: ups and downs in afghanistan, in the g.o.p. race, and the obama re-election campaign, we explore tonight on "washington week"." >> tragic events of recent days that this continues to be a difficult mission. gwen: and an apparent rogue soldier goes on a rampage. 16 villagers are killed and u.s. policies are on edge again. >> this is the end of the rope again. gwen: mitt romney is ready to claim the nomination. >> some who are conservative may not be in my corner. gwen: he has to shake off santorum first. >> we did it again.

gwen: as gas prices soar, the president takes aim at republicans on energy policy. >> when some of these folks were around when columbus set sail, they must have been members of the flat earth society and would not have believed that the world was round. gwen: covering the week in policy and politics, martha raddatz and alexis simendinger and karen tumulty. >> award winning annual is, covering history as it happens. live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week" with gwen ifill. corporate funding is provided by -- >> since 1875, we have been there for our clients through

good times and bad. when their needs changed, we were there to meet them. from insurance to investment management to real estate and retirement solutions, we developed new ideas for the financial challenges ahead. this rock has never stood still. and that's one thing that will never change. peru detentional. -- prudential. >> we know why we are here, to protect our forces when they need it. >> to help troops see danger before it sees them. >> to answer the call of the brave and bring them safely home. >> around the globe, the people of boeing are working together to support and protect all those who serve. that's why we're here. >> corporate funding is also provided by norfolk southern.

additional funding is provided by the annenburg foundation and public broadcasting and contributions from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. koran-burning, random murder, in recent weeks, american forces stationed in afghanistan have been implicated in each of these acts. the army staff sergeant who has apparently confessed is back in the u.s. tonight, but the questions about his actions remain largely unanswered. u.s. officials, including defense secretary, who was in afghanistan this week, said the incident will not affect the american timetable there. >> in the discussions that i just completed with president karzai and also with the other afghan leaders, we really did focus on the strategy for the

future. and what needs to be accomplished. as we move towards the end of 2014 and then beyond 2014, the missions that we need to focus on to maintain an enduring presence. gwen: it is not clear that karzai agrees. martha is back from a recent trip to afghanistan. does this feel by a pivot point. the name of the staff sergeant was released. >> they weren't going to release his name until he was charged with 16 counts of murder, but the name started leaking tonight, 38 years old. a pivot point? one of the things i learned from being in afghanistan last week, early last week was that there are so many cases where you think, oh, this is going to change everything, this is going

to be terrible, and things seem to keep going forward over there. it plods along and weren't huge outbursts or protests about the massacres of civilians and children. it will be a huge domestic story because you have to say to yourself, what happened and the more we learned tonight, he was in a battle in 2007 in iraq and he is talking about helping people in iraq. he said i have never been more proud of my unit. this is the real difference between being an american as opposed to being a bad person, we are there to help. this is the same person. people are going to say what happened. gwen: we know he had four deployments.

a lot of high-level conversations and karzai came up with pretty tough talk. >> one of the things you have to remember about president karzai like our own politicians, you talk sometimes to a domestic audience and sometimes to an international audience, he said he wants american troops to go back to their major bases next year and get out of the villages. this place where the massacre occurred this was a small base where the massacre occurred. he has to say that domestically. in some ways, the administration might be saying, that's ok, we would like to pull back a little earlier. say what you need to say. but at the same time, they sort of funnelinged this drawdown any way. they say everybody out by 2014 and they are saying you have to start getting out by next year. >> we had defense secretary gog over there this week and

his arrival is disrupted by an explosion which i couldn't tell from the coverage, did this have anything to do with disrupting his trip? >> i landed at the same base last week and i landed with general john allen and there is security everywhere. the pentagon tried to downplay this so much this week it was extraordinary. we can't prove he was going after panetta. panetta's plane is landing and obviously there is a lot of security and don't tell people that panetta is coming and there were a group of greeters, senior marine was standing there. a truck had been hijacked by an afghan interpretter. these are the most trusted people. went barreling towards the greeting party and they had to jump out of the way and the

truck ended up hitting a ditch and the guy either burst into flames and there was gasoline in his car, who knows, but the truth, we will never know, all during the week it was downplayed. it is a serious -- there was quite a bit to see there. again, it goes back and forth, back and forth between the americans doing something. >> we were talking about karzai and what this does for the strategy, whether it is timetable or pace. what about the taliban? because they weighed in this week with discussions about walking away from the peace table and that's part of the strategy. where do we go with that. gwen: nothing but bad news. the taliban, exactly right, they said they would suspend the peace talks that hadn't gotten started yet. this is a major goal of the administration. they have to have the taliban involved in the peace talks in order to get an orderly drawdown

and withdrawal in afghanistan. now, again, i think this is something that can probably get back on track. you see this all the time. we are going to suspend and come back, but there is a timetable, very little time to do this. and the white house said you have to have a general solution. gwen: has it changed or is there always going to be another setback? >> i can't answer that question. when i talk to people over there and i was over there after the koran burning and whether things have changed, they are staying on course and nothing has changed, but you have to stay tuned. all these events, while the afghans may have not have huge protests, domestically, people are going to get tired of this, even more tired than they already are. gwen: you are right that domestic politics rule the day. republican primary campaign has

turned into an exercise of collective wishful thinking. mitt romney wishes that rick santorum would just go away. >> we aren't going to be successful in replacing an economic lightweight. i'm an american heavyweight. gwen: santorum would like to deny romney the delegates he needs to clinch the nomination. >> if we keep winning state after state after state, i will be the nominee. gwen: newt gingrich wishes someone would do the math differently. >> the conservative candidates got nearly 70% of the vote and if you are the front runner and you keep coming in third, you're not much of a front runner. gwen: i love these numbers. you can read them any way you want. how much up in the air is this really? >> as a political reporter these

days you feel you should be carrying a pocket calculator. gwen: i did. >> the republicans set up their primary process this time, nominating process so it would drag out. they would proportionly allocate their delegates so the process would take a while and they succeeded. [laughter] >> we have now reached the point where it's not about momentum but really is about math and it is this slog to the 1,144 delegates that it is going to take to secure the nomination. look at the latest estimates and people disagree over how many delegates have been awarded but looks like mitt romney is somewhere around 500, 481, twice as many as rick santorum and rick has twice as many as newt gingrich has. but at this point, all of them

are well short of that magic 1,144. at this point, it looks like only mitt romney has even a chance of getting to the convention with the number of delegates. gwen: the reasoning aside from the idea of appealing to vision as opposed to numbers, his idea is to deprive romney of enough delegates and enough of these upcoming races so that everything is an open bet going into the convention. >> that's right. he would come into the convention under this 1,144. this is not an unusual circumstance. it happened in 1980 to jimmy carter and happened in 1976 to gerald ford, which both ended up losing in the fall, which is a cautionary note when it comes to you know, having this settled that late into the process. >> and you talk about math, wasn't it math with hillary

clinton and barack obama? >> and that's what the republicans keep saying. they say this made barack obama a stronger candidate but it was very different. barack obama was taking on the biggest name brand in politics as he was eating -- slowly accumulating his delegates. it's a very different thing for the guy who was primed to be coming into this with all the advantages to find himself in that situation. gwen: the front runner, mitt romney, by the math, has twice as many delegates as santorum. santorum has as many as newt gingrich. where do they go to move the pieces on the board? who has to be weaker and who helps the other. how does it work? >> santorum would like to see newt gingrich get out because he feels he would be able to consolidate the conservative votes but there was a poll that came out that newt gingrich

likes to make and say it would help mitt romney. all of my voters wouldn't necessarily go to santorum. gingrich says you need both of us in the race to keep a blockade in front of romney. newt gingrich is not going to get out at least until people close to him where he might assess louisiana. gwen: you said there are republicans are fine to let this thing fight out. but aren't there mainstream republicans saying how do we get rick perry to get gingrich out and get these people to consolidate and unify? >> establishment republicans want this thing over with, because they feel romney who is the odds-on favorite to be the nominee, needs to start consolidating his base and

getting his message together to take on barack obama. and start pulling in some of those independents. gwen: and not so many of the issues be on social issues. >> as long as this goes on, the candidates all find themselves in this big fight over contraception which has the potential to alienate swing he voters and women voters in the fall. gwen: do we know this has happened? >> the polling suggests and everyone you talk to says it definitely has the potential, because the group of women that we're talking about are the late-deciding swing-voting women. single women talk to vote for the democrats. not talking about women in the republican base, the independent-minded woman could be turned off, not because of the issue itself, but why are

you talking your eye off the ball. gwen: if you think the obama campaign is sitting on the sidelines as the republicans are slugging it out, you would be wrong. the president went to separate fundraisers, including chicago. >> you might have noticed that we have some guests in illinois this week. apparently things haven't quite wrapped up on the other side. my message to all the candidates is welcome to the land of lincoln, because i'm thinking maybe some lincoln will rub off on them while we are here. gwen: the president is still down in atlanta. they launched a 17-minute video and dispatched vice president biden to take the republicans on by name. >> mitt romney, rick santorum and newt gingrich, these guys

have a different economically philosophy than we do. it is kind of amazing, gingrich, romney and santorum, they don't let the facts get in their way. gwen: joe biden doesn't use the names which barack obama doesn't use the names. have the democrats decided they can't sit on the sidelines anymore? >> the morning after super tuesday, the chicago campaign was talking about the things that were stressing them out the most. this was still going on so long and romney is eventually going to be the nominee and too long for them to stand and wait for the nominee to show up. they started talking about dispatching joe biden to be the ambassador to the middle class, that wasn't the phrase they used but that was their idea. gwen: interesting they would need an ambassador to the middle

class. >> but joe biden from scranton, pennsylvania. the president is spending the entire day and will not be back in washington until the morning after he has departed, two cities, five events, money, money, money and concerned about this of the independent money and super p.a.c. money and concerned about getting on the offense because the republican field is beating up against them pretty good and they are looking at the polls. martha talked about afghanistan. obviously, the president knows where the public is on that. gas prices. gwen: wasn't going to mention that at all. >> he has been saying let's stay the course and meeting this week with british -- >> you won't hear it much anymore. gwen: one of the first promises

he kept and it was to end the war in iraq and talked in this video about osama bin laden. his foreign policy has been great. >> you are asking the question which is was the significant domestic policy that the president hasn't talked a lot about. and will begin to talk about health care. a signature achievement that he did not ever embrace for many, many months and afghanistan is supposed to be the righteous war, this was his war, that we were supposed to do this right and he talks about responsibly ending it. can you afford not to talk about it. gwen: i also think in afghanistan he is talking about ending the war. not going to talk about the war still ongoing. also on the health care thing and gas prices, too, how does he deal with gas prices. every night we have it on our broadcasts. the gas prices going up, up, up. >> his response is i don't

control this and trying to argue more defensively than offensively and that the republicans are selling the americans on the wrong policy that a newt gingrich can bring down gas prices to $2.50 a gallon. he has said listen to me, there is little to control this. this is a world marketplace and go to go see him in the next seven days going to oklahoma. where is that? the beginning of the second part of the keystone pipeline and he will be talking about drilling, drilling and drilling and suddenly he is the president who is the drill, baby, drill. gwen: he said we are drilling everywhere, maybe not in your back yard but maybe everywhere. >> the video they put out narrated by tom hanks. to what degree are they trying

to remind the people how close the economy was to the abyss and seems like they are going to back to the rationale to decisions that people are questioning. >> the 17-minute -- it's really a commercial and being used by the campaign and released this week and really to the base, to speak to the base and fired up and volunteer and remind them -- it is called "the road we traveled." it's a look back. things aren't dire as they were before but organized around change and achievements that the base of the democratic party is rallied around. gwen: they must be aware of how volatile this situation is, because you read the poll number, there was a 10-point swing at wunt point in his approval rating in a couple of days. are they on edge on that? >> you are asking me whether

they look at those snap shots and they definitely look at the snap shots, but the rolling average, his job approval is like a set point in your weight, 46%, 47%, 48%. rolling average, he stays in that place. they worry more about the unemployment because we could see that go up. gwen: thank you all very much. i appreciate that. by the way, congratulations to martha here, he was presented with the first amendment award from the radio-television digital news foundation. thank you. >> good job. gwen: we have to leave you a few minutes early tonight to give you the opportunity to support your local pbs station. the conversation continues online, including an assessment of this week's state visit by cameron. and keep up with daily developments on air and online

and we'll see you around next week on "washington week." good night. >> "washington week" was produced by weta which is solely responsible for its content. >> funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> one line helps communities turn plans into reality. help shippers forge a path to prosperity. helps workers get back to work. one line is an engine for the economy and the future. norfolk southern, one line, infinite possibilities. >> corporate funding is also provided by prudential financial, boeing.

additional funding is provided by the annenburg, public broadcasting and contributions to public broadcasting stations from viewers like you. to public broadcasting stations from viewers like you. thank you.