good wednesday morning. i'm chris jansing. it is a horrible, terrible, really bad morning for mitt romney. after a night where he took a drubbing from rick santorum. he got beat in colorado, minnesota, missouri. a worst showing than he had in 2008. santorum beat mitt romney by 5% in colorado. that was the late count. that's a state romney won in 2008, but rick santorum spent a lot of time there in the last week. in minnesota for the first time in this primary season romney came in third beaten not just by santorum but ron paul. and in missouri though that contest doesn't decide delegates, santorum won big and the trifecta race raises new questions about mitt romney's ability to insight conservative

passion. >> this is a clear choice. i'm the only person in this race republican or democrat who has never served a day of time in washington. >> governor romney's greatest attribute is, well, i've got the most money and the best organization. well, he's not going to have the most money and best organization in the fall, is he? tonight we'd an opportunity to see what a campaign looks like when one candidate isn't outspent five or ten to one by negative ads impugning their i integrity. >> thanks to both of you. so if you're mitt romney this morning, are you sitting back and are you saying conservatives, i've changed my views on abortion. i've changed my views on birth control. i've changed my view of the central tenants of my own health care plan in massachusetts.

what more do conservatives want from mitt romney? >> he's basically not very accountable to a lot of conservatives. the fact he went down from how he did against mccain four years ago it's troubling. at the end of the day, look, romney is still very likely to get the nomination but it looks more and more as if this is going to drag on. >> because of the money and because of the organization. and you heard -- you heard what rick santorum said about the money which is that one-on-one contest, not a lot of super pac dollars, not a lot of advertising, and i won. >> that's right. that's right. and it speaks to something larger. mitt romney does not resonate with that base and it doesn't matter. he can change his underwear. it's not going it to matter because they don't like him. last week the conservative base, which is really rush limbaugh, mark levine, went on an assault on the airwaves and i think this is the result of that. every day they talked about how he's not a real conservative and that's really what this race is about right now.

>> and you saw last night, if we can go to that picture of rick santorum when he gave his victory speech last night, see the guy right behind him with the white hair, he's one of his big super pac contributors and i think he took in, rick santorum said on "morning joe" $250,000 just overnight in a matter of hours. is it too late for him, nick? are you saying that the money can't start pouring in? >> at the end of the day one of the basic problems anybody who really fires up in the republ republican primaries is just not going to win in the republican election. they want two things, somebody who appeals to the base and somebody who can beat obama and there is nobody who can do both. >> there is. and i made a prediction and i'm going to make one on the air, i think they're moving to a broker convention. it hasn't happened since 1948 with dewy but this is the perfect climate. they don't like mitt romney who you think is going to win the election. he got zippo. >> if nothing else this is a

wake-up call. they've got to be re-assessing this morning. and you can already see he's sort of adjusting the way he talks. let me play a little bit about what mitt romney said last night about his dad. >> my father never graduated from college. he apprenticed as a plastic car pent er and he's good at it. my dad believed in america and the america he believed in a laugh and plaster guy could become head of a car company. >> a plaster guy. he wants to become every man. rick santorum has the coal miner roots. >> the upward mobility card is kind of hard for mitt romney to play. i mean, that's truly the real constraint for him. >> how desperate. you're going to pull in the dad card out at the 11th hour? he would have mirrored his dad's whole authenticity. >> that's such a big issue for the general election but this conservative problem is really where we are this morning. and if you guys will stick around, i want to bring in major

garrett, national journal's white house correspondent. so i guess the big question is what is this going to mean for the race overall? rick santorum says that it's him, not mitt romney, who can beat barack obama. let me play a clip from this morning on "morning joe." >> mitt romney is not the best choice to go up against barack obama in the central issue of the day which is government and taking away our freedoms, our economic freedoms and as we saw in the case of obama care, our religious freedoms, our first amendment rights. >> so what happened in the last 12 hours besides obviously shaking up the republican race, major, what's the conversation in the white house this morning? >> well, look, the conversation in the white house is always this campaign goes on on the republican side, look at them devour each other, picnic on each other. the white house is general ly

content with this sentiment that they are dissatisfied with romney, the democratic national committee and obama for america have been running against mitt romney for the better part of four months and they will continue to do that so romney takes it from both sides. the question is did what occurred last night amount to a small tremor or a tectonic shift in the race? i don't think we know yet. rick santorum had three contests on a roughly even playing field. there wasn't a lot of money. there wasn't a lot of debate preparation meaning they didn't debate in those states and santorum could use organization enthusiasm to get his message across and, as we saw, prevail. what's going to happen in maine? well, that could be a good ron paul territory, for example, and mitt romney might run well there in the next set of caucuses and then michigan and arizona, those will be states that should be very good for romney. one of the other underlying issues from last night is look at the enthusiasm or lack thereof in turnout. turnout it was down 15,000 from where it was in 2008 in minnesota, down 5,000 in colorado. it was slack in the nevada caucuses on saturday compared to

2008. i think one of the underlying issues for republicans here is when their voters are asked to show up for these caucuses and primaries they're not doing so in numbers as strong as they did in 2008. >> why? >> you have dissatisfaction with the field and if not less than great enthusiasm about this field and i don't know what the other answer is. >> is the vote for rick santorum this rae emergence, do you think? is that what got some of the base that did turn out, to turn out because, look, you just wrote a column about the economy and comparing where george h.w. bush was, people thought the economy was great when he came in, at least the unemployment rate was better than it was when barack obama got in but are we seeing an important shift at least in this stage of the race what's important to voters? >> well, all three of these states, colorado, missouri, minnesota, when you talk about republ republican activists, those

conservatives do tend to be more socially conservative. that was very good terrain for rick santorum. that's not going to be the case in every primary or caucus going forward. i don't want to say there's a huge shift. the economy is still the dominant issue in this race and will remain so. romney did not work his magic to the degree he has in any of these three states. he will have to reform and now play his attention on santorum where it had been for the last couple of weeks on beginnigingr. when the romney campaign focuses, it has been effective in dealing with its republican rivals. very few are left standing so it will now be time for romney and san t santorum to engage. the one thing we've learned in debates, santorum can go toe to toe because santorum knows romney's record nearly as well as romney does and he can't take a punch. >> and we are talk iing about conservative issues from gay marriage to whether or not the hhs decision overstepped on the part of the obama administration. i want to talk a little bit more about exactly what the conservative vote means because you mentioned going forward here, major, and i want to know what we're talk iing about in

terms of numbers. so we asked richard lui to look into that. what did you find out about the conservative vote? >> chris, good morning to you. as you've been noting so far, there's a very important voting group and can mitt romney win without the conservative vote? we look at some of our exit polling. the voters call themselves very conservative in our polling are important. when mitt romney won that group of votes, that is when he won the states. so iowa and south carolina, for instance, when we take a look at those two, romney lost the vote of those who called themselves very conservative. he then lost the state there. new hampshire and nevada. when we look at those two, he won the very conservative vote there. he also won the state and the total vote. florida was mixed, though, as it was in its breakdown of conservatives when we look at this perspective so can romney win without the conservative vote is question. the number he needs to win as we know is 1,144 delegates. now the bird's eye view on conservatism across the country looks like this. light thor red here closer to the coast is below average

conservati conservatism. darker in the south and the middle is more conservative, medium red and medium conservatism. now just looking it at the below average conservative states they might be seen here as the states romney wins more easily. they total about, if you were to look at the delegate count, 649 delegates. still not that. 1,144. if we move over to the average conservative states, these here that are highlighted, this is also where romney could do okay. they total about 607 delegates on this. so let's total up what we've got, this group, with the group which is the below average conservatives and you get the number of 1,256 when you put those two together. so in this scenario he could win with those two groups there, but if he didn't, the above average conservative states seem to come into play here. they hold the lion's share of delegates. that's 964. now many states, as you know, still rae ward delegates if you

come in second. they're not winner take all. a national look at republicans shows that without the 21% that call themselves conservative here, chris, he still could win the nomination but without republicans who just call themselves conservative, that's about half of republicans, he would not be able to win the nomination based on just the republican votes alone. it's pretty clear here in these broad scenarios, they con can firm romney has a challenge ahead. >> fascinating stuff and you were nodding your head when you were looking at that. >> in the news media we love a good fight, but i think there is some risk that we exaggerate the impact of one bad night for romney. maybe the predictor with the best record of predicting election results is n-trade, the betting site. it had romney drop a little bit. it still has him with an 80% chance of winning the nomination and that frankly feels about right to me. i think that the risk is more that he gets hurt along the way in the long process.

>> it is, major, what you said about that enthusiasm and the dnc released this statement last night saying also is the lack of enthusiasm and low turnout we're seeing in these concontests. turnout is lower than it was in 2008 and they are increasingly dissatisfied with their choice of candidates. even if that makes up 1% or 2% of the difference in the electorate, the number of people who stay home, conventional wisdom is this could be a very tight election come november. >> a very tight election and, look, the white house is also concerned about enthusiasm. they know that their candidate, president obama, is not creating the kind of energy, excitement he did in 2008. probably never could. that was a magical year for then candidate obama and the democratic national committee organizing best it can to create that enthusiasm but they know their voting base is not as jazzed up as they were in 2008. what we're seeing on both sides is a reduction in that

enthusiasm compared to 2008. >> and i have to tell you, i have this vision in my head, it goes back to -- that was the first year i was on the campaign trail for the entire year, and i remember extremely cold, rainy, miserable saturday -- mostly saturday mornings going door-to-door with supporters of george w. bush in a race that we all know wasn't decided on election day. in many cases dragging along kids with them. they had kids in the strollers. and they're knocking on doors. it is that very conservative and very liberal base that really does, even in this age of twitter and social media and super pacs makes such a big difference especially when the race is close. >> this is not mitt's second go-around. the fact he did worse than last time, people know who he is. the it's not even a situation where they don't know this man. so it's going to be tough. i disagree with you. i think he's not going to win the nomination. >> i really think -- >> i don't think they like him. >> i'll bet you but not $10,000.

>> do you want to get in on this? >> well, look, every reporter wants a brokered convention. we've all been hoping for one. i don't see that yet. after april 1st, all the primaries and caucuses award their delegates on a winner take all basis. it's proportional which means santorum and romney as these contests go forward get a few delegates in each and every contest. here is the problem for romney. it's very difficult to fall in love with inevitability. you can fall in love and create inevitability but if it's what's coming at you, it's hard to fall in love with that, and that's the enthusiasm gap romney is dealing with. >> major garrett, good to see you. karen, nick, thanks to you. and it's a story everybody has been talking about this morning, that former white house intern who claims she had an 18-month affair with president john f. kennedy. nbc news special correspondent meredith vieira will join me with her exclusive story. and what do you do when the first lady of the united states challenges you to a series of

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an explosive tell-all from a former intern of president john f. kennedy hit store shelves today. it's "once upon a secret" and it was written by mimi alfred. meredith vieira sat down with her in an exclusive interview and is here to tell us more about the story. it airs tonight, a new time for "rock center" with brian williams. i don't know what it is, we are still so fascinated by john f. kennedy. she seems like a compelling woman. >> very compelling and credible this is a secret she spoke for 50 years, never spoke publicly about it. she was actually outed in a book back in 2003. and at that point she issued a written statement saying, yes, i am the mimi who had the affair with jfk.

after that she basically disappeared. >> i think we're privileged to play -- >> it was exciting. it was glamorous. it was fun. >> she was a 19-year-old college kid, an intern in the white house press office. >> as clearly and persuasively as i could. >> reporter: he was the 45-year-old leader of the free world, and she was mesmerized. >> i was sort of swept into this web. >> don't do it. the can't win. bad year. >> reporter: for the handsome president, his charisma, his magnetism. mimi alford says after losing her virginity to president kennedy on her fourth day on the job they began an affair, spending evenings together in the private residence as often as twice a week. europe 19. he's 45. what did you talk about? >> well, we didn't have a lot of time to talk. he was the president. what we talked about was certainly not world affairs. the president was very boyish and playful with me.

>> well, one of your friends, i believe, commented on it after the fact you didn't have an affair with the president. you had a play date. >> it did seem a little bit like that. i think maybe i reminded him of a wrung er time in his life. >> and as implausible as it seems today sometimes she actually spent the night with him it at the white house. did you start to get the sense that people within the white house knew what was going on? >> secret service might have known, but nobody ever talked to me about it. >> did you feel at any point guilty about the relationship? >> i should have felt guilty. he was married to mrs. kennedy, but i didn't at the time feel guilty because i think i felt this closeness to him. >> several people tied to the jfk administration confirm she was an intern and had special access to the president. but what makes her story so sad, one of the things, she always believed that she was special. she never realized there were other women in his life at the same time. she only learned that years later. >> a 19-year-old girl, what

would you expect? why now, though, really? why now? >> well, after she was outed in 2003, and she issued that written statement, in the years that followed people were writing about her in their books and she finally decided she w t wanted to own her own story. she saw things that were not true, and she felt that in order to find closure for herself she needed to put down in writing what she had experienced. when i asked her if she regretted the affair, she said it wasn't the affair she regretted. it was holding on to the secret because that just ate her up for so long. >> great of you to come over, meredith. i can't wait to see it tonight. meredith's entire exclusive interview airs on "rock center" with brian williams tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern on nbc. if you've been following this story, a chilling phone call from the social worker who dropped josh powell's two boys off at his house just moments before the fire that killed them. more of that harrowing recording

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scarlett johansson fund-raising for the president alongside. johansson said 2012 will not be easy. we have to fight even harder this time around. and this is just one of the pictures the president manning, yes, it's a marshmallow gun. we should have a caption contest. twitter just about exploded when this video came out of the president. he joked the secret service was going to be mad at him afterwards. the extreme marshmallow cannon was made by 14-year-old joey. look at how cute he is. february is black history month and on this day in 1986, if you can believe it, 0 oprah winfrey's television show appeared on stations across the country making her the first black woman to host a nationally syndicated program. oprah aired for 25 seasons with nearly 30,000 the guestses including five u.s. presidents.

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let's check out the stories people are talking about right now. syrian troops bombed residential neighborhoods in the city of homs for the fifth straight day. as many as 70 people were killed. the obama administration says it's not considering military action or arming the rebels to remove president assad from power. today the european union is set to adopt. the dramatic and haunting 911 recordings from the social worker who brought josh powell's two sons to his home for a visit on sunday. the calls were placed just minutes after powell set off an explosion. he was killed and so were the boys. >> he slammed the door in my face. i kept knocking. i thought it was a mistake. so i kept knocking and then i called 911. they're 5 and 7 and there's an adult man, he has supervised visitation and he blew up the

house and the kids. >> a public memorial will be held for 7-year-old charlie and 5-year-old braden. police say while they think powell's five, susan, is probably dead and he was their main suspect, her case is still listed as a missing person. officials are offering parents the chance to transfer their kids out of the california school after the arrest of two teachers on sexual abuse charges and according to the "new york daily news" a third female teacher may also have been involved. police are not commenting on that report. the school cleaned house and replaced the entire staff at miramonte elementary school after the arrests. and prosecutors now want former penn state assistant football coach jerry sandusky to stay indoors as he awaits trial on 52 sex abuse charges. while under house arrest sandusky has been seen allegedly watching children in a school backyard from his back porch. prosecutors are asking for a revision in sandusky's bail so he can't go outside except for medical treatment.

a federal court has declared california's same sex marriage ban unconstitutional saying it serves no other purpose than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians. opponents of gay marriage in california who pushed proposition 8 say they'll appeal. and while this may not be the final test case, the issue eventually may be heading to the supreme court. social issues suddenly the focus in the race for president. romney, santorum, gingrich all talking in the last 24 hours about gay marriage and, of course, also about the obama administration's controversial decision requiring religion affiliate affiliated institutions to include birth control in health insurance plans. the administration is getting hit in the editorials in "the wall street journal," in "usa today," and that debate spilled onto the senate floor. >> to one in the united states, no one, should ever be compelled by their government to choose between violating their religious beliefs and being

penalized for refusing. yet that's precisely what this mandate would do. >> and we are not going quietly into the night on this one. we will be here. we will fight back. we will fight for women and their families and health care and we will fight to keep politics out of the equation. al sharpton is host of politics nation here on msnbc. good morning, reverend. >> good morning. david gregory said he would be shocked -- he said this this morning on "morning joe" that he would be shocked if the administration didn't come to a compromise with hhs. should they? should they compromise? >> it's according to what we call compromise. i think the fact that the religious exemptions are there and this has nothing to do with people's right to religion and everyone's right to do with the services that a religious institution gives and whether those employ yaes have the right to the same coverage as other

people, even if those employees are not a member of that faith. in many ways what is perplexing to me is how you say that the church, and i'm clearly a baptist minister, should not have their rights infringed on to practice their religion but an employee of a hospital or something connected to a church should have their rights infringed on. suppose i'm not a member of that church, suppose i'm not a believer. i should be covered? >> that's a case in a lot of hospitals, in a lot of college that is are catholic. here is the argument on the other side and you know it well because there are plenty of ministers who have gotten onboard. they say, look, it's not about who the people are who work for these institutions, it's about what the catholic church itself teaches and you cannot, as a government, tell the catholic church that you need to go against what it considers to be a fundamental belief. >> if you take that argument to a logical extension then you can also then say i believe in evangelize and therefore i'm going in that house and preach

the church. i mrean, when you take governmet money and you do a deal with government programs, you have to leave a certain amount of what you do out anyway. so now you also have to say but i'm going to go by only what i believe in the church, but i want to use the privilege of government at the same time. you can't have it both ways. >> it's going to be something that's going to be continued and certainly the republicans are making a lot of this. but i also want to talk to you about a press conference you had yesterday announcing plans for the march against voter suppression. tell me about that. >> well, yesterday many civil rights -- >> there's the picture. a big group there. >> the national organization of women, the naacp, the urban league joinsed me on the anniversary of the montgomery march that martin luther king led. we are going har 4th to have a re-enactment. five days we're going to camp

out every night in the same places he did, congressman john lewis is kicking it off as he does every year but this year we're going all five days to protest voter i.d. and voting that is being proposed in 34 states. virginia just came in. there's been a report that has established 5 million people vo voted in 2008 will not give the voters these voter i.d. laws. >> 5 million? >> this will change this election but it will also beyond this election infringe on the voting rights of a lot of people particular particularly in minority communities and seniors and we are going this year to dramatize what this does to millions of voters. >> and we'll be following it all the way through. al sharpton, thank you so much pour stopping by. >> always a pleasure. >> tonight looking at where the jobs are. specifically in the health care industry. we will look for that tonight. i want to bring in new york congressman steve israel, chair of the democratic congressional campaign committee. good to see you, congressman. >> good morning.

>> i know something reverend al sharpton was talking about, voter i.d. is important to you as well. let me ask you to weigh in first on the contraception controversy. how big a role do you think these social issues are going to play in congressional races? has your view of that changed over the last couple of weeks? >> no, no. look, a year ago the house republicans, and this is why they're doing so poorly in every poll, house republicans were willing to shut down the federal government over a woman's right to go to planned parenthood for health care. then they try to redefine rape. they were sent to washington, particularly the tea party republicans were sent to washington to tray to create jobs, reignite the american dream, build the middle class. instead they have been focused on these social issues, focused on redefinding rape, shutting down planned parenthood, and as a result of that, being so badly out of tune and out of touch with their own districts, this is why house democrats -- this is one reason house democrats are running ahead in almost every single generic poll.

people want -- members of congress who are going to focus on solutions not ideology and extremism. >> let me ask can you about a solution a lot of people are waiting for. the deadline is fast approaching to extend the payroll tax cut. once again the house and senate can't find a way to pay for it. republicans say you guys, the democrats, are not offering a serious plan to cut spending. what's your answer to that? >> my answer is every time we offer a serious plan to extend the payroll tax cut for a year by asking oil company executives to sacrifice a little bit more, by cutting subsidies for special interests, by asking the rich to do a little bit more, the republicans say that's not serious. we will continue to offer the republicans a fair, balanced compromise, but they've got to meet us at least some of the way for the first time standing up with the middle class and not the richest of the rich. this is deja vu all over again. every few months the republicans

take it to the stroke of midnight and it's about their priorities versus our priorit s priorities. the question we now have a deadline looming, the question for them is are they going to continue to protect 350,000 millionaires or stand up for 160 million middle class taxpayers? >> let me ask you quickly because one of the things senator harry reid has said is really the solution is to bring up a whole new measure if the house senate negotiations remain stalled. might it come to that? >> we are interested in having a dialogue with republicans and with the senate towards the goal of making sure that as this economy recovers that we're not retarding that recovery by ending this middle class tax cut. so we'll entertain a variety of options but we need somebody to negotiate with and we need somebody based on creating jobs, rebuilding the middle class, rebuilding america, and not redefining rape and trying to shut down planned parenthood. >> congressman steve israel, good to see you again, thank you. >> thank you. if if we all get to keep our

payroll tax cut, maybe we could spend a little of that money on our valentine. the national retail federation is expecting a jump in spending this year. cnbc's brian sullivan is here with what's moving your money and i was shocked by the number. how much are we talking about? >> a lot, chris. you have to take a look at some of these numbers. valentine's day spending about $17.6 billion. that's what's expected and that would be up 8.5%. >> that's a lot of chocolates. >> we're not talking about chocolate. i'm going to show you some of the things might be buying. i wish it was chocolate in a way. it's $126 a person. men get hosed because we're expected to spend nearly twice as much on you as you spend on us. >> that seems fair since we do at least five times as much during the year but continue. >> okay. we'll have to have that as a long debate. either way i think food might be in fashion more than something sexy this year such as, take a look at this, a leopard and lace

chemise. it's $42. there's a velour robe. i'm not hugh hefner. some people may wear that. valentine's day is on a tuesday so apparently couples are more likely to go out for a nice dinner than stay in. which might mean less lingerie. and if you love the bling, jewelry is always hot. >> i love jewelry. >> there you go. how about this $700 for a gold key pendant -- >> $875 it says. >> if you're on the price is right it's $876. usb cuff links $250 a pair. >> come on. that's a real product? >> yes, it is. i know it's hard to believe. hold on, honey, let me get undressed and log into my e-mail. whatever. >> let's start another fight, okay, on the 14th of february. >> so jewelry is expected to be up a little bit. that's a weird product. i don't know. those are some of the things people are expected to buy and just a nice meal, you know.

>> c th bc's brian sullivan. mr. romantic himself. thank you so much. >> anytime. and if bad weather in europe wasn't enough of a headache for an overseas traveler, 40% of long haul flights have been canceled because of a flight. they are recommending passengers reschedule any flights planned through friday when they say the strike over labor agreements will end. rider. the "i'll sleep when it's done" academic. for 80 years, we've been inspired by you. and we've been honored to walk with you to help you get where you want to be. ♪ because your moment is now. let nothing stand in your way. learn more at keller.edu. leare you still sleeping? way. just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule.

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severely disabled people communicate easier. hi, everybody. good morning. i'm thomas roberts. in the next hour of msnbc, a trifecta for rick santorum in a three-state sweep of gop contests. how is mitt romney and team reacting after getting beat in colorado, minnesota, and missouri? then anger and demand for answers in a los angeles school district as a third teacher is reportedly accused in a growing child sex abuse investigation. and then prop 8 declared unconstitutional by a federal appeals court. one of the couples who started it all will be my guests. their reaction it to the ruling and what it means for marriage equality in america. chris? >> thank you so much, thomas. with millions of americans still struggling during these tough economic times, an innovative new nonprofit website is helping to pay medical bills or buy groceries for those in need. one family at a time. andrew boyoung one of t

thegrio.com's list of african-americans making a difference in their community today. the first congratulations on being named one of the 100. good morning. >> good morning, chris, thanks for having me. >> your website and, by the way, it's a terrific website t. works very well. but it's literally changing the way people give by prescreening and posting the needs of everyday americans on the site. and allowing donors to contribute directly to a specific family. how did this all come to be? >> well, what we wanted to do, chris, is create an opportunity to do two things. we want americans to be able to feel good about the gifts that they make. so many times we make these gifts of hard-earned money and it goes unrecognized. donors who make their gives feel the gift because they contract it. we want to help prescreen recipients, americans who are in many cases hard working but are unable to make ends meet who may not be able to get help from typical charity or government. >> and i've seen this as i've

done stories on this. it's so heartbreaking because there are so many people. it's very difficult for them to accept help. they may just need it as a stopgap measure. give us a sense of what you're seeing out there. i know you felt hundrehave help of families. is there something you can say is the greatest need or the most common story you hear? >> we help families every day with groceries and diapers and keeping their electric bill on. at the same time we also help famili families who are high school students unable to afford a cap and gown, who have gotten scholarships to college or a young woman who may have medical insurance but not vision and can't afford new eyeglasses. so the needs vary in a wide array across the country, and what we're doing is providing people the opportunity to get help who in many cases fall through the cracks. >> we've had so many stories about how people are having difficulties but what about

giving? i know early on in the recession a lot of charitable giving was down. how tough has it been to give donatio donations? >> you know, i think what we've done, chris, is created an atmosphere that makes giving fun again. it makes it exciting and you can pick the person that you want to give to in the community that you want to give to them and so it really does help you feel confident about your give and it puts you in a mind frame that your gift is really making a difference because you know and since who the family that you're helping and you can track that family to make sure that your money went to where you wanted it to be earmarked for. >> andrew "bo" young ceo of give locally.net. thank you for coming on the program. good luck going forward. >> thank you. >> conatulations to all of those making the gre owe 100. you can find it at thegrio.com. alec baldwin says the dow is at 12,800. lots of troops are coming home.

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quarterback confusion. a lucky dog and a big baby. let's get down to the wire. it was an exciting day for giants fans who celebrated their super bowl win with a ticker tape parade in new york city, but one so-called giants fan had a little quarterback confusion. >> what was it like to be -- >> amazing! >> who would you like to see? >> sanchez! >> eli. >> wrong team, girl. >> mark sanchez is new york jets quarterback. i think she meant eli manning. this is one lucky dog. the pup fell through a frozen colorado pond after it chase add coyote on the ice. rescuers were able to get it out, loaded it and got it into the vet to be checked out. another daring rescue, this one in new zealand. a diver shot this video just

moments before untangling a killer whale from a fishing rope. five others were swimming around watching him. they think he didn't attack the man because he knew he was trying to help. and they definitely needed a bigger boat. it took five cranes to help a fisherman in pakistan reel in a massive 40-foot whale shark weighing almost 7 tons. they found it dead in the arabian sea after it got tangles in nets. it is the largest fish in the sea. compared to that shark this baby is tiny, although i don't want to say that to his mom a. woman in china gave birth to this 15 1/2-pound baby boy yesterday. the big guy's name is chung chung and both mom and baby are doing well. wow. that wraps up this hour. i'm chris jansing. thomas roberts is up next. i'll see you back here tomorrow. uh oh.

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i don't stand here to claim to be the conservative alte alternative to mitt romney. i stand here to be the conservative alternative to barack obama. memo to mitt romney. it's on. rick santorum's three state sweep in minnesota, missouri and colorado. how bad of a catastrophe is this for the massachusetts governor, ands to it all but ensure a brokered convention? too little too late. the chilling 911 calls from the social worker who frantically dialed for help moments before josh powell blew up his home with his two young boys trapped inside. a third teach er is re