hello everyone. it is high noon in the east, 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to weaning ends with alex witt. among the stories we'll bring you this hour, overseas, search for a killer, fight for michigan. danika patrick fro fanity. carp invasion and nelson mandela

news. we'll get to all of it. we begin with breaking news, a man hunt is under way for an afghan intelligence officer wanted in the killing of two u.s. army officers. authorities are searching for abdul sabur but stopped short of calling him the gunman. the taliban says the on going attacks were in response to the accidental burning of korans by u.s. troops. atia baugh' is live in kabul. what's the latest from there? >> reporter: good evening, alex. the latest information that we have right now is that abdul sabur was working inside the interior ministry. what we hear from afghan officials is he was, in fact, a high-ranking intelligence officer. u.s. officials was saying he was a low-level police officer with access to the interior ministry,

access to the office that is the two american officers were working in. he walked in and shot them point blan nk the back of the head according to afghan officials. what we've also heard is they're looking for him but can't find him. instead, they found his family. they have even arrested some people within his family. today president hamid karzai had a press conference calling for calm and dialogue once again. he's telling the afghan people they have every right to be upset that the koran was burnt, but they should not lash out on of gans or americans or any other westerners, that that in itself is wrong as well. >> atia, by your description, it sounds like these were execution-style killings, having been surprised and shot in the back of the head at point-blank range. i know the taliban is claiming credit for this. is there evidence to suggest that the taliban is behind this or is it more rhetoric coming from them? >> that's the big question that's going around right now. was this done by the taliban or

just a man who sympathized with the taliban. this could be one angry afghan who feels his religious was disrespe disrespected. all through out the country many westerners are afraid to leave their homes or compounds because they're afraid any afghan upset about the incident could lash out at them. afghans that just last week wouldn't have cared to see a westerner out in the street, but this week looks at him or her and thinks they're against him. even today there was another protest, hundreds of demonstrators going after a u.s. base there. one of the demonstrators lodged a grenade into the base and injured eight american soldiers. so this doesn't seem to be dieing down when it comes to the rage of the afghan people toward americans, toward westerners. although we have seen less protests throughout the country today. >> atia, thank you. front page politics now. just two days to go until the

krurnl gop primaries in michigan and arizona. both mitt romney and rick santorum are fighting for a critical win there. both made their cases on the talk show circuit today. >> ten days ago i think rasmussen had me down 15 points, now tied, slightly ahead. i think i can show i can fight real hard and come from behind. >> this a is a state that i'm sure governor romney getting into this race thought he would have to spend $20 and easily cruise to victory in michigan. here we are being badly outspent again by his super prksac and big dollar friends. newt gingrich is campaigning in california and emphasizing his domestic energy policy, specifically the keystone pipeline and oil in the gulf of mexico and alaska. >> in three signatures, you would have 2.3 million barrels a day of additional energy in the united states, three signatures.

so i would say, we're not looking for silver bullets. we're looking for presidential leadership. joining me now, msnbc contributor for agree oh.com perry bacon junior and cnbc chief washington correspondent and political writer for "the new york times," john harwood. good to see you both. perry, do you see anyone having clear momentum going into arizona and michigan. >>? >> i think romney said it accurately. romney is gradually going up in the polls, at a clear advantage in arizona in the polls. you can tell by sanitorium's behavior he's complaining to the media, complaining mitt romney and ron paul are ganging up on him. those are the signs of a candidate worried about losing his lead. santorum looks like someone who is not doing as well as he was o two weeks ag grow. >> politico was talking with

paula page at the national governor's conference talking about the current gop nomination fight. let's take a listen to what he said. >> i'd love to see good old-fashioned convention and a dark horse come out and do it in the fall. i really believe -- i believe that. i think the candidates in my mind have injured themselves, and i think it was just too messy. it's been too messy. i just believe we ought to go to the convention and pick a fresh face. >> what are the chances it's going to happen, john? >> very low. not surprising a governor of maine would make that argument because this republican party is so conservative as to be out of step with much of the northeast. so maine is not -- would not be ground zero for the republican ticket if it comes from this existing field. it's just too difficult, i think, for somebody to come in

late, for people to prevent one of the candidates whose in the race fighting for delegates to get is a majority of the delegates. you have to look at the current situation given the balance of resources, given his comeback to the lied in the state of michigan. rick santorum's forces are bracing for a loss. mitt romney remains in decent position to win this nomination. there's enough weakness to his candidacy, enough difficulty he's had connecting with the republican base. newt gingrich and rick santorum are going to be able to drag this out for a long time. >> perry, also coming out of the governor's conference, reports democratic governors are bullish on president obama's re-election prospects. in interviews many democratic governors seemed almost didity about obama's chances. and here is whathill overseas said about snit. >> well, that is not hillary

clinton right there. that is rick santorum. let's go. >> those politicians all look alike. >> he's our president, he represents all of the united states and he will be re-elected president. i think that will be a very clear signal to the entire world as to what our values are and what our president believes. >> okay. she's weighing in there overseas. perry, do you think the democrats are getting ahead of themsz selves? >> there was an interview with univision where he said i have five more years to get immigration reform done which is a very confident statement. i do know some are worried, getting a little too excited. it's february. the economy has still been up and down some. there's a lot of signs obama should be confident. mitt romney's negatives are way up. we still have a long way to go. >> how about this, john. newt gingrich commented on

president obama's apology for last week's accidental burnings of the koran in afghanistan. take a listen. >> the president apologized for the burning. i haven't seen the president demand that the government of afghanistan apologize for the killing of two young americans. there seems to be nothing that radical islamists can do to get barack obama's attention in a negative way. he has consistently apologized to people who do not deserve the apology of the president of the united states, period. >> is this typical campaign rhetoric, john? and has the white house responded to these criticisms. >> those statements from newt gingrich are idiotic and nakedly political. newt gingrich is trying to get traction with conservatives by sneering at president obama for apologizing. remember, this is something george w. bush did in a similar circumstance during his war on terror when he was the president. and to say that there is nothing that radical islamists can do to

get barack obama's attention, i think osama bin laden got barack obama's attention and that's something you'll hear about from the white house during the campaign. >> we have rick santorum commenting ability the need to revive the manufacturing sector. let's listen. >> president obama said he wants everyone in america to go to college. what a snob. he wants to remake you in his image. i want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his. >> what's your reaction to that, perry? >> two problems with the comment. the first one is, the president's budget, if you look at it, is full of money for americans to do more, get into more trade jobs, electricians. he doesn't require a college degree. sanitorium is factually wrong. the president is four people finding jobs and doesn't require

a four-year degree. the second problem is santorum has to broaden his base to republicans worried about electability and finding someone who can win in a general election. comments like that don't helm him with electability which is one of his chief problems against mitt romney. >> can you figure out, john, what he was trying to say here? >> i can. he is trying to appeal to the notion -- it's broadly shared among many in the political community including the president, that four-year college is not the only way for people to add value to this economy and help contribute to economic recovery. he's trying to link that up with the ideas of political correctness and liberalism on college campuses. the problem, as perry mentioned, is the obama administration shares his view that four-year college is not the only way for many people. they've talked about partnerships between business and community colleges and vocational schools. so it is a way to play into some of the feeling among working class americans that the

democrats are a party of the elites, a party of harvard and yale and liberal college campuses. so he's trying to do that, but it doesn't jive exactly with where the president is on policy and what he's trying to push in his budget. >> no mention of usc? john harwood, perry bacon, junior, thanks so much. the michigan and arizona primaries will be held this tuesday. washington state will caucus on march 3rd. then 11 states will be holding primaries and kuxs on super tuesday, march 6th. 93-year-old nelson mandela is out of the hospital today. he was brought from a military hospital to his home in johannesburg. doctors are attempting to diagnose chronic abdominal pain. ron allen is live in johannesburg. any official word on how he's doing? >> reporter: well, he's said to be at home resting comfortably with family. doctors have been saying all day this was not an emergency, this

was a planned hospital visit and his life was not in danger. but information has been creeping up very slowly where we still can't confirm what hospital he's at. we believe he's at his home. mandela has not made a significant public appearance for almost two years. that leads to a lot of speculation, a lot of concern and worry about his overall health even if today things went well. he was in the hospital for about 36 hours we believe. he's 93 years old, will be 94 in july. life expectancy beyond so many people in this part of the world. there's still a lot of concern, even though what we're hearing now tonight is that he's resting comfortably at home. >> we hope it stays that way and he recovers well. gas prices coming close to $4.00 a gallon. why do prices shoot up so quickly and come down to slowly? are gas station owners part of the problem? up next, you'll hear from the ceo of gulf oil. [ male announcer ] we know you don't wait

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another turn in the growing tension between iran and the u.s. and its allies, iran refused to give greece 500,000 barrels of crude oil in retaliation for sanctions against iran. thaft week they also stopped selling to britain and france. the eu decided to stop importing crude from iran starting july 1st over its disputed nuclear program. new outrage over the burning of korans in afghanistan today. the violence has left four american service members dead just this past week.

the most recent attack wounded seven americans today. meanwhile afghan officials are hunting for one of their own, an intelligence officer is wanted for killing two u.s. officials inside the afghan interior ministry yesterday. msnbc analyst and retired colonel jack jacobs joins us. our fellow military colleague general mccaffrey had this to say, this could be a water shed event. what's your assessment. >> i think this is very big news and very big business. we've had a lot of incidents like this where americans have been killed and wounded by afghans that were trying to train. i, myself, was an adviser in vietnam and know how difficult it is to deal with indigenous people you're trying to train. i think the timing of it and the circumstances of it and the location of it are such that this is going to have a very, very big negative impact on a relationship with afghanistan. all this because of the accidental burning of the koran

a week ago. does this give all of us a disproportionate few of what's going on inside afghanistan? if you listen to administration officials, they say there's been significant progress against the taliban. >> it's one thing to say there's significant progress. it's something else for the president of the united states to apologize for a single specific incident. i think the fact that the president has done this, and i think it was a mistake, magnifies. >> you think it was a mistake for him to apologize? >> i think it was a mistake for him personally to apologize. there should have been apology but from a much lower level in the chain of command. it makes something really big even bigger. this will have the biggest impact on the congress who at the end of the day is really in control of the money and, therefore, in control of what happens overseas. >> in terms of what's supposed to happen right now, u.s. forces set to withdraw from afghanistan in entirely by the end of 2014.

could they be withdrawn sooner? >> i think it's possible you'll have people in the congress on the left and the right insist there be a more rapid withdrawal citing the fact it's clear we're not having the positive impact the administration says we are. >> how fast could we withdraw? >> if you went to a general and said in order to keep people safe, how fast lo jilticly could you get them out? we've done it in other places as well in a year. >> what about the overall takeaway of the situation in afghanistan, what we've contributed, what we get from it. we're ten years plus. >> ten years plus. don't forget we ignored it for seven years when we went to iraq and went back and tried to redo it and it didn't look. it's clear it's going to take lots more time, that we're not willing to contribute to it. i think the american public is really fed up with it. i think all this demonstration how difficult it is to deal with

afghanistan, whether it's 2014 or 2114, i think the american public is fed up with it. >> colonel jack jacobs, many thanks for coming up. >> my pleasure. to number four on our first five web stories, heavyweight help in the fight to stap asian carp. the government plans to spend more than $50 million to prevent the invasive fish. they're destroying the rivers of the midwest. watching "weekends alex witt." your finances can't manage themselves. but that doesn't mean they won't try. bring all your finances together with the help of the one person who can. a certified financial planner professional.

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rest of your sunday? alex wallace from the weather channel has that. >> good sunday to you, alex. as we head through the second half of the weekend, a quieter time across the northeast as we'll be dealing with less wind. sunshine back towards the great lakes. not so great into florida where we've got rain. of course, the daytona 500, could be wet on the track. the northern tier of the country dealing with some snow as we track a storm system there. southbound into the southwest we're staying dry from southern california up into san francisco. but seattle, you'll be dealing with wet weather for the day. now, as we work our way through this day sunday, there's our storm system moving across the northern plains and upper midwest. with that we've got showers and some snow to deal with. some of that snow could be piling up five to eight inches across the arrowhead of minnesota. that liss stem will work its way east. and we'll focus on the next system pulling its way to the west. interior areas for monday, even rain into southern california,

that will exit east. tuesday could be talking a significant system. northward we've got snow. southward the threat for severe storms. >> okay. alex wallace, many thanks. now a litany of standouts. first, more proof of apple's dominance. the tech giant tops a new list of the most profitable retail stores in america, thanks to more than $5600 in sales per square foot. tiffany's is second, coach is third. during these tough economic times, more folks using coupons to get by. coupons.com looked where coupons are used the most. it turns out the midwest and the south. top city for digital couponing, that is atlanta. st. louis ranks second, tampa third. forbes magazine features a new rank of the most influential celebrities. oprah winfrey ticks takes the top spot. michael j. fox is the first runner up, followed by stephen

spielberg. ron howard places fourth and george lucas is rounding out the top five. >> i'm not sorry i woke you. >> actor christopher plumber could make history at tonight's academy award. if the 82-year-old wins the best supporting actor oscar as expected, he'll. [ the oldest perform tore win for acting. billy crystal is planning to host the oscars for the ninth time, the second most, ahead of johnny carson who emceed five times and trails only bob hope who hosted a whopping 18 times. those are your number ones here on "weekends with alex witt." mid grade dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve fix a flat jumper cables 5% cashback

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welcome back to "weekends with alex witt."

rising gas prices, aaa is reporting the national average fuel price is $3.79 a gallon, up 11% from a year ago. in some places it is far worse. drivers in california saw prices clear the $5.00 mark on thursday, going up to $5.09. price haves yet to break the record high reached in july of 2008. consumers are still angry and looking for someone to blame. joining me now -- we're about to be joined in a short while with joe petrowski, the ceo of gulf oil. we'll get back to him as we can. let's go to strategy talk. super tuesday nine days away. up for grabs are 437 delegates from ten states. first on the calendar is michigan. it's a win for sanitorium -- if it would be a win for santorum it could be pivotal in gaining the nomination. joining me is larry saab toe from the university center of

virginia for politics and former pennsylvania governor ed rendell. good to see you both. >> good sunday. >> good morning, alex. >> governor rendell, i will start with you. the latest nbc news poll shows president obama handily beating all four gop candidates in mash gan. can a gop candidate beat the president in similar key states like ohio and pennsylvania. >> i think michigan is a special case because they ought to bail out because the president acted decisively and saved the automobile industry, that won't have nearly as much effect in ohio and pennsylvania. so i think michigan is probably not a battleground state this year, but ohio and pennsylvania certainly are. >> okay. governor, how would you expect a general election race between president obama and rick santorum to fair in your home state? >> obviously rick santorum will get a little of the home-town bounce. i think president obama, if things stay as they are now, would win pennsylvania by five to ten points.

senator santorum has an uphill fight with suburban pittsburgh moderate republicans and independents. i don't think he can scale that wall. >> larry, there have been reports that there's growing confidence for president obama from democratic governors, one in particular was mentioned was the democratic governor of colorado who said he thinks obama is going to win that swing state. do u i don't think that's dangerous to put that out there? >> i think it's a little early to put it out there. look, there's every reason in the world at this point for democrats to be optimistic. let's be honest. when you -- you know what the real test is, alex? when you get republican politicians, people who have been elected to something major, get them off the record and ask them how things are going. i would say it's somewhere between doom and gloom. that's what comes across in the discussions that they tend to have with you. at the other hand, i always remember that old political

phrase that i know governor rendell knows well. when you think you're guaranteed to win, you're halfway to losing. it is february. the election is in november. a million things will happen that we can't even imagine right now. >> okay. so we've got about ten days or so till super tuesday, larry. who do you expect to be the big winner? >> well, assuming romney does, in fact, do what the polls say he'll do, win michigan and arizona, i think overall romney will end up getting more delegates on super tuesday than anybody else. but as i like at the map, there's something there for everybody. gingrich is nair rowly ahead in georgia. you'd expect him to win that. santorum is well ahead in october ochblth you'd expect him to win that. romney has some built-in advantages. he and paul are the only two on the virginia ballot. plus massachusetts and vermont are being elected. the delegates from there are being elected. ron paul, you've got five caucus states counting washington on

march 3rd. if paul is going to win anything, he has a chance to win one or more of these caucus states. the headline coming out of super tuesday may be mixed. let's remember, this is snotd a supercalifragilisticexpialidocio tuesday. only a fifth of the delegates are being elected on this super tuesday. four years ago more than half of the delegates were elected on super tuesday to the republican contention. >> you make a good point there. governor rendell, i want to talk about the obama campaign which is working on this new slogan, one option of which is "greater together." what do you think the president needs to do to bring the nation together in such a polarizing election year? >> well, first i want to say quickly on super tuesday, i think ohio is the ski state. i think governor romney needs to win ohio. on michigan, i think your viewers should watch out for the fact that democrats and independents can vote in that primary. i think there's going to be a union effort to have people turn out to vote against governor

romney. that's an x factor not necessarily showing up in the polls. in terms of what president obama has got to dorks it's very hard because there's such dis unity in washington. the president has to continue to reach out in washington to republicans. let's do a comprehensive energy bill, that's do a jobs be, let's take some steps together to significantly reduce the debt. even if those initiatives fail, he's got to be the one reaching out. he's got to be the one who is looking like he's trying to unify the country. frankly, i don't think nick is going to get done until after the election. if the president is re-elected, there's probably a four-month window where he's got to take the caucus leader of all four caucuses, republicans and democrats alike and try to hammer out real solutions for the country. right now it's more the perception game. so he has to look like the one who comes to reach out. >> can i ask you both to give me a gut check on something? i'm even going to ask you to react to a tweet put out there

by doug weed, senior adviser to ron paul's campaign. will be on alex witt today at 1:30 eastern. romney-paul deal for vp? what do you think? >> not going to happen. ron paul cannot be the vp on mitt romney's ticket and have a plausible chance of him carrying the election in november. >> i think doug is going to come on and say there's been no official coordination between them. do you think there's an alliance? do you see one, larry. >> by the way, it could rand paul, not ron paul. >> there's a wrench, yeah. >> in politics i've learned over the years it's the winks and nods that matter more than what you actually say. i think that's what's happening between romney and paul. >> it is interesting. i can't wait to ask doug about this. good to talk to you both. thank you so much. >> have a good sunday.

now to our number three on our first five web stories. danika patted triblg's potty mouth on saturday. on saturday patrick was running in the middle of the pack when her chevy was bumped by a teammate. she ranted after the incident. the bleeping 88 hit me while we were in a big pack. what the bleep. "weekends with alex witt" back after this. ohh dear... i'm not sure exactly what happened here last night. i was out helping people save money on their car insurance. 2 more! you're doing it! aren't they doing great?! hiiiiiii!! come sweat with me! keep going richard. keep sweating!! geico. fifteen minutes could save you sweat! sweat! fifteen percent or more on car insurance.

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♪ some awesome films right there about paris. the places you see in the movies, now travel experts are taking advantage of that. while going to the theater can be a nice escape, some are actually getting away to one of this year's oscar pick locales. some top films in hawaii and paris. travel expert robert reid is here to put those destinations into focus. we have "midnight in paris." what a great film. how can we go? >> first of all, i think the academy awards should add this as gnaw oscar, the best travel destination. for "mid night in paris" i moved to new york because of woody allen films. now he's done the same thing for paris. so much of it is about the paris of the '20s, about the left bank, places where hemmingway went. owen wilson meets hemmingway. he goes back to the restaurant

from the 30s. you can still go. so many things that are timeless. >> the flea market is a big one. this is in a different part of paris. you can help with from noungs asian, ouen, where he picks up the old porter records and meets this french woo man who reappears later in the movie. it's all about vintage fines, been around since the 1800s. this is a great place to see yesteryear of paris. >> he does a great job. people are talking about wanting to go. how do you find out about wanting these places? where can you go? >> a lot of it is because he did set it there. the places he did go are there. there's a lot of walking temperatures, a lot of americans like to go and do walking tours. some parisians will mock the idea. john baxter leads literary based walking tours, he says where the shakespeare and company book

originally was is to literature what the yankees is to baseball. he can do walking tours. a lot of ways to access that part of paris. >> if you want to go in the other direction and head to hawaii which is where "the descendants" was filmed. i felt like i was in a place that was nonterista. >> the heart is set on the real hawaii where george clooney jogs on the beach and where the ranch is. that ranch is real. you can tour there and you can take atv vehicles to water falls, camp in that beach. that beautiful value you see is called the kipu ranch. the luau place is called the tahiti nua. you can still find empty beaches on kauai. kauai is rising. >> "the artist" brings up old

los angeles. there's stuff you can see in l.a. >> that movie you want to jump in there and stop talking a little bit. there's a do it yourself walking tour, discoverlosangles put together. the movie where he has his premier, where charlie chaplain did "city lights" maybe the best silent movie of all time. >> i really want to go. if we're not here after the break, that's the story. robert, thank you so much. come see us again. we've been asking all of you today about the oscars, what film do you want to win and why? herbert simmons says i've only seen three nominations, "the descendants" is my choice. the ar rift. i feel like i was trance part r ported back to hollywood land. flavio writes "the descendants"

because it captures the reality of our everyday lives. my handle is @alexwitt. aaa is reporting the national average fuel price is $3.69, up 11 cents from a year ago. if you look at numbers here, way worse than that. drivers in california saw prices clear the $5.00 mark thursday going up to $5.09. consumers, they're angry, they want to blame someone. joining me now, gulf oil ceo joe petrowski, we're not blaming you but welcoming you on the show. thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me, alex. >> what are you seeing on the ground, joe? are consumers cutting back because of the high prices? >> yeah. in the last two to three weeks -- remember we operate 600 convenient stores along with our gas stations at cumberland farms in primarily new york and new england. we're starting to see real

distress. less people coming in who go to the pump, less of a market basket when they do come in, more of a shift to cheaper private label products, all signs that we saw back in '08 where the high prices are having a serious and negative impact on the consumer. >> do gas stations make more profits when the prices are high? >> just the opposite. they make much more money when the prices go lower. and the reason is 80% of the all purchases are done with credit cards. the average retailer pays a 3% commission to the major banks and credit card companies. so your cost of the transaction goes up as the price goes up, and the cost of operating your business goes up in holding inventory and your sales get impacted, whether they're car repair sales, whether they're convenient store items, they make much less money with high

prices than low prices, the retailer. >> here is something that always confused me. it makes me upset because whenever you see crude oil prices rise, you see it right away at the pump. when the crude prices fall, it takes weeks sometimes for consumers to feel and see that decrease. >> well, that's really not the case. if you go back and really do study retail prices. >> it feels like it, joe. it feels like it. >> i know. that's psychological. i think what happens is we don't want, as consumers, it's in our face, we don't like high prices. it's a -- not a purchase that is for many people discretionary. and so there is a psychological component. it differs by area. in urban areas there's a much quicker price response up and down because of the amount of turnover and people that come in. in rural areas there's a lag up verses down.

but historically there has been really no correlation between the two. >> okay. if you say so. treasury secretary timothy geithner was talking to cnbc on friday and had this to say about the cause of rising prices. let's listen to this. >> you're seeing two things, work to push prices higher. the first is growth is gradually getting stronger, not just in the united states but around the world, at least outside of europe. that's making people more confident in the expansion and that's helping push prices higher. also it's doing sabre rattling. those are the two main factors. >> do you agree with him? >> half agree with him. we actually on gasoline have the lowest usage that we've had in gases lean in almost eight years. it is rebounding a little bit, but demand is extraordinarily weak in gasoline. there is some strength to diesel which is a smaller component of our overall petroleum.

certainly iran and the issue with israel is probably adding $10 to $15, as much as 30 cents to a gallon. i think the biggest reason are the factors that we in public policy are not really addressing and things we can do that would really help the situation long run. i mean the big thing in the market right now, alex, the discrepancy between prices at the coast verses prices in the interior of the country. denver, kansas city are about $3.05 in gasoline prices, even adjusting for taxes. 60 cent differentials per gallon. that's unprecedented. >> i will say there's a difference if you fill up in new jersey rather than new york. for those of white house can hightail it over the gwb sometimes it's worth it. joe pet trosky, thanks so much.

after hope and change and yes, we can, the search for a new slogan for the president's re-election campaign. ok, guys-- what's next ? chocolate lemonade ? susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast speeds. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small businesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon. i wonder how she does it. that's why she's the boss. because the small business with the best technology rules. contact the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 1-800-974-6006. can you enjoy vegetables with sauce and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables.

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♪ president obama's presidential campaign is trying out a new slogan. the campaign used "greater together" for its outreach effort for young people, and that could become the overall slogan for the president's' election bid. the president and campaign officials seem to feel a new slogan is needed for the new reality after his first time in office. joining me from washington is jeff mason white house correspondent for reuters. i'm glad you're here. are they getting any good reaction to this "greater together" slogan? >> well, it was used for their

youth campaign so it has sort of a narrow audience. i think the reaction there has been pretty good. even though some obama advisors like that, i think they're still thinking they need something that's a little bit more all encompassing for the slogan for the whole campaign. >> greater together was on a college tour trying to galvanize and get kids involved in the campaign. they have these other possibilities, "winning the future," and "we don't quit." >> those are a couple we've heard them road testing. winning the future is one the white house used on its budget. we don't quit was used at a fund-raiser last week. we're looking for words and phrases he uses as well as other surrogates use as they figure out what is resonating with voters. >> why does it seem to be kind of difficult for the obama campaign to form a new brand this time around? >> well, the circumstances have

changed. four years ago obama could paint himself as the outsider. he could talk about bringing change to a system that he didn't really identify himself with. now he's a big part of the system. he's been governing for the last three years. so he has the challenge of being a part of that, but also encouraging people to give him another term. >> the president still says that change we can believe in phrase. but does that really work anymore? >> well, it goes back to the fact that he's had three years change. he's talked a lot about the issues that he's accomplished, whether it has to do with don't ask don't tell, health care, a lot of the other policy things that he's achieved. but his challenge is basically to say i brought some change, i need more time to finish. >> in terms of time, how much time do you think they have before they have this campaign slogan and it's out and about. >> they tell me they won't roll

out a new slogan until they know for sure who their opponent is. i think we'll probably take a couple more months depending on how long that crazy republican primary race goes. >> jeff mason white house correspondent from reuters. thank you. we have a couple of pictures that caught my eye. peek a bear woke up during his winter hibernation in finland. he decided to take a nap in a full snow bank. they like to den in a protected spot during the winter months. cute, huh? you're watching "weekends with alex witt." seven years ago jesse and greg bought a stalin island movie multi-plex that couldn't compete with the big chains. they upgraded with new seating, state-of-the-art technology and lobby renovations.

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my dad and grandfather spent their whole careers here. [ charlie ] we're the heartbeat of this place, the people on the line. we take pride in what we do. when that refrigerator ships out the door, it's us that work out here. [ michael ] we're on the forefront of revitalizing manufacturing. we're proving that it can be done here, and it can be done well. [ ilona ] i came to ge after the plant i was working at closed after 33 years. ge's giving me the chance to start back over. [ cindy ] there's construction workers everywhere. so what does that mean? it means work. it means work for more people. [ brian ] there's a bright future here, and there's a chance to get on the ground floor of something big,

something that will bring us back. not only this company, but this country. ♪ flash points and bloodshed. koran burning anger. now six straight days of violence. we have a live report next. going home. what was it that sent nelson mandela to the hospital and how

is he doing now? in the battle for the white house, santorum slipping. why he's calling the president a snob. plus the silent treatment. will "the artist" make the biggest noise at tonight's oscars or will a young orphan steal the show? hello and welcome to "weekends with alex witt." it's 1:00 in the east coast, 10:00 out west. we begin with the breaking news from afghanistan. a grenade attack at an american base has wounded eight u.s. soldiers in the northern part of the country. meanwhile officials are searching for an afghan intelligence officer wanted in the killing of two u.s. army officers yesterday. the taliban says those murders are in retaliation for the accidental burning of korans by american forces. atia abawi is live in kabul. let's get the latest on the situation there. >> reporter: what we do know is

there was a demonstration in northern afghanistan where approximately 400 demonstrators were trying to attack a u.s. base. one of the demonstrators launched a grenade injuring eight american soldiers. this is a day after two high ranking u.s. military officers were killed here in the capital of kabul by a gunman who apparently had access to their very secure compound inside the interior ministry. what we do know is it possibly could be a man named abdul sabur, an intelligence officer within the ministry. he had access to the compound. he may have gone into that room, shot and killed the two officers while they were sitting at their desks not knowing what was happening. alex? >> when we talk about the taliban, they've been claiming responsibility for this. can people put two and two together and say definitively that is the case?

>> reporter: right now we can't put this man together with the taliban. the taliban have claimed responsibility. he seems to be a man that sometime thighses with the cause of the taliban. the taliban has been milking the fact that the u.s. soldiers accidentally burnt korans about a week ago. they sent out statements, they've called on afghan security forces who they've attacked in the past. they've called on them now to turn against the american forces, to turn against the westerners, use the access they have working with them to kill them, to attack them. they've sent out statements going out to the afghan people telling them that they should be outraged and that they should take that rage out on the westerners that live and work inside afghanistan and attempt to get them out of the country. unfortunately, what we do see is the rage continuing on six days later, although the demonstrations seem to have slowed down through out the country, it is still a very frightening situation for both western military workers as well as western civilians living

inside the country. >> nbc's atia abawi, many thanks. a number of developments in the afghanistan story within the past few hours. for all the latest, check out msnbc.com. now to front page politics, rick santorum making the case just two days ahead of the primary in michigan. the former pennsylvania senator appeared on "meet the press" and took direct aim at mitt romney. >> governor romney, as you know, has a long and strong reputation of voting on both sides of almost every single issue. >> meanwhile, romney met with voters in troy, michigan, criticizing santorum's record, specifically his support for the no child left behind act. >> we can't do that anymore. we can't continue to take one for the team. my team is the people of the united states of america, and i'm going fight for that team, not for the partisans in washington. >> well, a brand new gallup poll reveals support slipping

nationally for rick santorum, showing 31%, mitt romney has 30%. just last week santorum was po. i'm joined by erin mcpike and jane murphy. good to see you both. >> good afternoon. >> patricia, what do you make of this new poll that shows sanitorium basically losing his lead and being neck and neck with mitt romney? >> i think to keeper speculative of the fact he is still neck and neck with mitt romney is shocking to most people who have watched the race. i do think it shows what everybody knows, that once somebody gets to be a front-runner, they get a target on their back. everybody goes after that. i don't think rick santorum did himself any favors in the last debate. i think a lot of his positions came forward that people didn't know about, conservatives didn't know he supported no child left behind, don't like a lot of earmarks he voted for in the senate. i think the more his record

comes to light, the more likely it is he is going to start to drop in the polls. >> erin, picking up on patricia's sentiments, let's look at the state of michigan with the primary 48 hours away. that is romney's home state. the polls are so close. if you have to fight for your life to hang on to your home state, have you already lost? >> not in this cycle because just a week ago mitt romney was down to rin sanitorium about ten points in the polls. if he's going to have this roaring come back, he totally changes the narrative. i think lit be great for him if he wins michigan, even by a hair. >> patricia, mitt romney seems to be getting a taste of his own medicine, but not from the gop candidates. there's a pro obama super pac, running these anti-romney ads in michigan. if romney wins michigan, despite

all the negative ads, does it suggest he's stronger than some think? >> i think he better win michigan no matter what happens. there's no excuse for mitt romney to come close to losing michigan. i think it shows he has a lot of money, is willing to spend it. he runs a lot of negative ads, and i predict, i feel like he's going to win michigan because he can't afford not to win michigan. he's dumping a ton of resources in here. i think these ads also show the obama campaign still thinks romney is the guy that will win the nomination and they want to start going after him now. >> i'm curious about this other dynamic. ron paul is not seriously competing in michigan. however, he's running these anti-sanitorium ads in this state. have we figured out this dynamic yet? >> yes. what it is is that ron paul wants rick santorum and newt gingrich out of this race. he wants to get enough delegates in order to get to the convention and get what he has

to say into the republican platform, get a speaking role at the convention. he's trying to help mitt romney out because ron paul essentially figured out a long time ago that mitt romney is going to be the nominee. in a way he's helping him out. >> he's trying to come in number two, that's what he's shooting for? >> that's what it looks like, yes. >> what about rick santorum having spoken in troy, michigan, about the need to revive the manufacturing sector? here is part of what he said. let's listen. >> president obama once said he wants everybody in america to go to college. what a snob. i understand why he wants you to go to college. he wants to remake you in his image. i want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his. >> last hour i had john harwood and perry bacon, junior,

explaining this to me. my first reaction is this is red meat for a certain crowd. it doesn't necessarily feel right in any context. what's your take, patricia? >> of course that's my first reaction, too. i think the merits of a college education have been settled. i don't think there's much argument. there's lots of information that shows without a college education you're more likely to be unemployed, more likely to fall into poverty. if you look at what rick santorum is doing here, he changed the stump speech to call obama a snob. that is as much about the president as mitt romney. he's appealing to this blue collar, working class, sometimes democrat, mostly republican white men trying to get their votes, pulling them away from mitt rom any. there's a huge group of republicans that does not relate to mitt romney. i think that's the group he's going after with a message like that. >> i'm so passionate about

education. i don't like anyone running down a four-year college degree. trade schools have their places and they all do in terms of education. i guess the political perspective from you, erin, what's your take on what he said? >> i agree with what patricia said. i think this particular line of comments was a bridge too far for rick santorum. it's part of the american dream to go to college. so in any context, as you say, i think it was probably the wrong thing for him to say. >> patricia murphy and erin mcpike, good to see you both, thanks. let's head overseas. 93-year-old nelson mandela is out of the hospital today. the former president arrived home in johannesburg from a military hospital. doctors performed a laparoscopy to diagnose chronic abdominal pain. he's said to be in good condition. we'll bring you a live report from a reporter who has known mandela for more than 30 years. pakistan is trying to erase any signs of osama bin laden's

compound. heavy equipment was used to start tearing down the compound where he was killed last may. anna bell roberts is in london. what's the latest on the demolition there? >> reporter: alex, guards have been at the site all day keeping out any unwanted visitors. i understand a kur view was imposed around the site in this part of ab bad bad away. walls protected bin laden for six years from the outside world, the most wanted man on earth able to hide there away from all the forces that were searching for him. it still seems incredible that this happened in such a busy and populous town. now there's very little left, only some rubble. the work started last night under cover of darkness. it's all gone now. there's no word from the authorities why they picked today to do it. obviously they clearly didn't want this place to become any kind of tourist attraction or a

shrine. alex? >> if by your description it's nearly rubble right now, i'm curious how long it will take to clear everything out and go forward with these plans and complete them for a tranquil park? is that what i hear they're going to put there? >> i think that's one plan that they might go ahead and put a park there. i understand they've been removing the rubble as they go and that is perhaps why it's taking slightly longer than you might expect, just to knock it down. they will be very keen to clear the site and really to remove any memory of what happened here, who hid here for such a long time, alex. >> from london, nbc's annabel roberts, thank you. in a moment they're putt ag real strain on wallets across the states. what is fueling those soaring gas prices and what, if anything, can bring them down? let's do that in a hurry, right? [ toilet flushes ] i come in peace...

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getting a look at times square as we look across the nation. fuel prices are on the rise. hardest hit are california and hawaii where aaa is reporting the average price is well above $4.00 a gallon. nationally the average price jumped 30 cents in just the past month. who is to blame and what can be done to curb these out-of-control prices? joining me is lacey black key, chief economist for edmunds.com. good day. >> we've heard all the usual suspects out there, the speculators, the demand, the geopolitical risk. what do you think is really causing the fuel prices to go

up? >> i think at the moment it's fear. people are worried there will be some sort of major supply disruption during to the closure of the straight of for hues. all of a sudden there won't be enough supply and prices will go skyrocketing at the pumps. there may be additional demand driving it as the u.s. economy is slowly recovering. what we've seen is that consumers have been cutting back on gasoline prices in the last month. purchases are down about 6 prs from that period. what we're seeing is a lot of fear because supply hasn't been cut yet. gasoline inventories are at their highest in ten years. >> lacey, are we slow to respond to lower demand? you study in economics courses that supply and demand have a direct correlation with one another. so people are not asking for as much gas prices. should those prices just come down? >> that would be the theory. but there are lags in the real world in which case this happens. and at the moment there really is a lot of fear in the marketplace, the worry that

supply will be cut and this is what's driving prices up. >> i'm sure you heard about newt gingrich -- go ahead. >> i was going to say when the fear abates, that will drive prices down and stabilize them. >> i was mentioning newt gingrich who yesterday said he wants to be and would be the $2.50 a gallon president. and that president obama is the $10 a gallon president. what can the federal government do to actually bring down the high fuel prices? >> that's a good question. in the short run, you can't really change the course of the economy that you inherit, much as every president and candidate would like to have us believe that. there are things the government can do. if there is a supply disruption, the government has millions of barrels of oil in the strategic petroleum reserve. they can release some of this oil to help ease the supply situation and put downward pressure on prices. they have done this in the past when we've had issues with

supply. for instance, after hurricane katrina. >> so lacey, does it ever feel to you that the prices go up so quickly and it takes forever and a day, it feels like, to bring them back down? >> it certainly does have that sensation. i think part of that is we're watching when they go up quickly. that becomes major news very quickly and consumers are going to the pump and seeing the prices go up. consumers are aware -- i think there's less media attention when prices start going down. consumers are aware of that. we see that in the behavior by somers in terms of car buying. once prices stabilize at the pump or they start falling, we see the consumer interest in compact and more fuel efficient cars immediate starts to ebb. >> lacey plaque i can, many than. >> thank you. the gold rush is hours away. we'll size up the oscar

contenders up next on "weekends with alex witt." ok, guys-- what's next ? chocolate lemonade ? susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast speeds. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small businesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon. i wonder how she does it. that's why she's the boss. because the small business with the best technology rules. contact the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 1-800-974-6006. how about we make a big change for just a little money? let's start with a paint we know can do the job. new glidden duo paint plus primer available only at the home depot. one coat does double duty. and fits our budget perfectly. so there's a brand-new room... ...right where the old one used to be.

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to help you take care of the ones you love. go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. i'm the king of the world! >> you know what it is. a scene from "titanic" the 1997 box office smash hit which won a record-tieing amount of oscars. how does it stack up against other winners. "the titanic's" $1 billion hall takes in third. "sound of music is second with an inflation adjusted gross of $1.1 billion. the leader "gone with the wind." in today's dollars, it would have earned more than $1.5 billion. well, who is going to win the big prize in tinseltown

tonight? george clooney seems to be making the oscars an annual trip, doesn't he? >> dad, this is sid. >> hello, sid. >> what's up, bro. >> don't ever do that to me again. >> that was a great scene right there. kim sayer pin from "in touch weekly" joins us right now. hi, kim. >> hi. >> a big day for oscar fans. i hear the word on the street is you don't think clooney is going to take home best actor? >> no. unfortunately -- i love george clooney by the way, i have to say. but i think this is going to go to the french george clooney as they call him. john dejar din from the artist. he's gotten all the momentum. it seemed like this was george clooney's race and then dujardin

won yesterday at the independent spirit awards. it seems like he's got the momentum. if there's any race that's the close race, this is the race that nobody totally knows before. probably it will go to jean dujardin, but it could go to clooney. >> can't you say the same about the best actress, you meryl streep and viola davis. it seems to be neck and neck with those two. >> it does, except this seems to be leaning more towards viola davis. for the first reason, because "the help" got a best picture nomination. "the iron lady" did not. "the help" was much more liked than "the iron lady." viola davis has charmed everyone, won the screen actors guild award. she's won a lot of other awards leading up to this. that's a good predictor. it seems like she's the one that has the momentum. mirl streep is the record

holder, 17 nominations. >> michelle williams did an incredible job in "my week with marilyn." to supporting actor, a couple duking it out for this one. who do you think is going to take it away? >> i think it goes to christopher plumbmer who deserves an oscar. pretty amazing he has president gotten an oscar for all these years. how about supporting actress? >> this one i don't even think is a race. octavia spencer gets this. she's won evidence reaward leading up to this. really, she's so good in "the help." also, like viola davis has made great speeches when she's won, very emotional. people love mvp the help." that plays in her favor.

it's probably one of the movies that made the most money out of all the move vis nominated for best film. >> give me your best picture pick? >> "the artist." i think it's not even a competition. it's on a roll, won four awards yesterday at the independent spirit awards. it's really just been crushing everything. it's really such a beautiful film. it's a love letter to hollywood in a lot of ways. it would be the first silent film in 83 years to win the best film oscar since the first ceremony of the oscars. pretty amazing. such a love letter to hollywood. >> it's a beautiful fi film. we'll see you again. enjoy the oscars. >> i love the dog, too. that's also in its favor. >> the dog is great in "the artist." i agree. he dares to think he's the coolest guest yet on office politics. really donny deutsch?

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welcome back everyone to "weekends with alex witt" at the half hour. former south african president nelson mandela is out of the hospital today. the 93-year-old turned home following a laparoscopy spro pro seizure. we have more from johannesburg with more on that. we were all concerned about his condition. what can you tell us about things today? >> reporter: well, alex, it would be my best guess that he is back home surrounded by his daughters, his wife and maybe a few friends. it's how south africans do things. he's apparently resting very well. the president has issued a

statement saying he's in fairly good shape. i listened to doctors from here on the air tonight saying that clearly there was no anesthesia involved. it was a minimally invasive procedure. they're not even calling it surgery, just a look around the abdomen to see what was going on. one of the doctors said that anesthesia for a 93-year-old could be risky. fortunately there was apparently no risk involved. former president mandela is home with his family, and south africans are breathing a sigh of relief. >> i can bet. the god thing about a laparoscopic procedure, the anesthesia can be given locally. do you know what kind of a condition they're looking to diagnose? he suffered from stomach ailments reportedly for years. >> well, you know, he was in prison for 27 years, and he survived that with minimal damage to his eyes. you can't do flashes to his

eyes. he had tuberculosis. this spaerntly something only going on for a short while. intestinal pain. and apparently nothing that warrants anything major because, as i said, you notice he's out of the hospital very quickly. so hopefully maybe with antibiotics or whatever, i don't know, i'm not a doctor. parentally they've decided they can take care of him at home. >> okay. charlayne hunter-gault. thank you so much. it's good to see you. thanks for the live report. two politics now, the buildup to michigan's primary on tuesday has seen a attack ads. santorum accused romney and ron paul of forming an alliance and kol colluding against him. it's a question i asked campaign adviser doug weed when he joined us on the show over a month ago. >> here is an exchange between ron paul and mitt romney. >> if we want people who spent their life and career, most of

the time in washington. >> a lot of people interpreted that from romney as being extremely deferential to ron paul. what should we make of that? do you think he may be angling for ron paul supporters eventually? >> i think that all of the candidates ought to. there's no path to the white house without ron paul. >> and now doug is back. so doug, i asked you once again with a welcome, is there an alliance brewing here. >> well, there is no alliance. ron paul and mitt romney are exact opposites. maybe that's why they like each other so much. mitt romney is the biggest flip-flopper in modern mid cal history. ron paul is the most consistent. ann romney drives two cadillacs. carol paul drives a chevy. carol paul would like to drive a cadillac. if we can reform the monetary

policy the way paul wants and not be bailing out rich people, maybe we'll all get to drive cadillacs. but there is no deal. >> here is one thing that was speculated with a political analyst earlier on the broadcast saying that ron paul's aiming for number two here, he's just trying to get rid of rick santorum and newt gingrich. >> listen, rick santorum is actually leading in your pole that you just showed today. what are we supposed to do? we have a flip-flopper on one hand, a fake conservative on the other. ron paul looks at this, rick santorum raised the national debt five times, voted for that. ron paul goes around acting like he's a social conservative but votes for millions for planned parenthood. ron paul didn't do that. you have santorum saying in the national debate, i voted for no child left behind but i didn't believe it was the right thing, i did it for the team. well, his first loyalty is to the team.

ron paul's first loyalty is to the u.s. constitution. as bob dillon says, you've got to serve somebody: we don't like either one. we like ron paul. >> you make a point about rick santorum leading in the national polls, i believe it's 301% to 30%. there's certainly a trend there. who you think is the toughest form ron paul to beat among his colleagues in the gop campaign? >> we're in almost like a different campaign because we're in an educational as well as political campaign. you have to understand that when -- it's not which candidate is tougher, it's how quickly can we get our message out to the people in time because once the lights go on, once they understand what's at stake, our people stick with us. when ron paul came to congress, everybody was taking money from the lobbyists. it wasn't like some were and some weren't. all of them were. ron paul was like this

gandhi-like creature who wouldn't take bribes, wouldn't take money from the lobbyists, wouldn't go on a junket because he knew it was taxpayer paid vacation, wouldn't go into little rooms, pick stocks and decide the policy to dictate whether the stocks go up or down. he was pure. now he's in apartmental run and trying to reform the whole system. it's not an easy task, but we're pleased with what's happening. >> doug, ron paul essentially is not campaigning in the state of michigan which holds its primary on tuesday. he is running an attack ad against rick santorum. my question to you is why rick santorum? which not mitt romney? >> if you follow the money and you'll see our ads, most of our money was spent on the three of a kind ad. we had to get a rick santorum ad out. he was number one. the people in michigan know what we're doing. we want them to work hard. we're in for a marathon run.

this isn't going to be over very quickly, very easy. i can tell you this, if ron paul got the ring of power, he'd throw it in mount doom. it's not about glory and power for him. it's about reforming this government and bringing it back to the constitution and opening the free marketplace again for everybody. douse ron paul want prime time speaking to have his policies considered at the convention in tampa? >> listen, if 22 years of lobbyists' money and women and appeals to his ego and let's play the game and buy stocks an write the rules to determine whether those stocks go up, if he couldn't be corrupted by 22 years of what he's been through in washington, then there's no promise from mitt romney or a speech or anything else that will make him roll over on the principles he believes. >> doug weed, always good to talk with you. thanks for joining us. >> thanks, alex.

in this week's office politics we continue our conversation with advertising executive donny deutsch. i talked to him about the stability of gas prices. we begin about obama's prospects on election day. >> what he uses is 8.5% unemployment and going lower. that's what he uses. he fortunately right now -- he was in a very, very tough spot a year ago. the economy was going south. that's what people vote on. you know that. and all of a sudden the republicans hadn't shown their faces. now we have the three stooges show, the fact that this keeps going on and the fact they're going to keep hammering each other, we're not going to let it go away, that's number one. he has the republicans smacking each other. number two, he does have very, very, very -- what i'll call important touch points. number one, i put a bullet in osama bin laden's head. number two, i saved the auto industry, the backbone of america. number three, we're creating

more jobs since bush was in office. the unemployment numbers are going softer. housing starts are starting. that's a lot to work with. he's got a lot to work with. he really does. i wouldn't have said that a year ago. >> what about the president's proposal to lower the corporate tax rate? is that something that will benefit -- >> that's a great -- it's a smart move, a political move. it's not going to pass, but he gets kudos for it. the republicans have a very hard stance to say we don't want to tax corporations more to the average person and don't want to tax the 1% more. the classic republican platform is a very shaky one right now. it's very hard to argue with fairness. >> how much do you worry the price of gas can derail things? if these things go to the projections, $5.00 a gallon. >> that always has a way of self correcting. we have enough control. i'm not a guy who is behind the scenes and involved in these things. something tells me our government has the ability to get their arms around that a

little more than one would think. that's just a guess. >> so prediction for november? >> if it's today, obama wins, not even a question. not even a question. i think romney has an interesting choice as a vice presidential candidate. i think if he chooses somebody like rubio, all of a sudden florida becomes in play, hispanic vote comes more in play. he's got to make a very strategic. i he's got to make a turn and somehow loosen up. i don't know how you do it. the one thing i saw about him that told me everything i need to know about him as a candidate, an interviewer was asking him and saying to his wife -- they were interviewing him and said to his wife, what don't we know about governor romney? she said, he's actually very, very funny. really? yes, yes, i love comedy, i love laurel and hardy. laurel and hardy? my great grandfather wouldn't say that.

i understand you don't say chris rock. laurel and hardy? that's not somebody who is in any way in touch -- >> a great opportunity. >> who is next, abbott and costello? he better get his act together. >> so excited to be here. >> as i say to my children, home is all about what's inside it. >> number one priority. >> what's most important, the portraits of my girls here who are the cutest little things in the whole world. >> they are so cute. do they like posing for pictures? >> they're girls. >> you've got them all over the house. >> particularly my 8 1/2-year-old. you give her a microphone, it's all over. i don't know where she got that from. i know you've interviewed mort zooker man. you compare me to brian williams, tom brokaw, mort --

>> are you about to get me fired? >> i'm so much cooler than all of them. this is like a breath of fresh air for you guys, right. you were probably like this the whole time. >> my apologies, brian, tom, mort, all of you. he said it, so, what can you do? >> facts are facts. i'm a faux journalist. i'll say it like it is. >> any better way to end this "office politics." hi five. that was fun, thank you. >> thank you. >> he's the coolest. he said it. what can i say? would a floor fight be the best thing to happen at the republican convention? the big three straight ahead. bys and annoying account fees. at e-trade, our free easy-to-use online tools and experienced retirement specialists can help you build a personalized plan. and with our no annual fee iras and a wide range of low cost investments, you can execute the plan you want at a low cost. so meet with us, or go to etrade.com for a great retirement plan with low cost investments.

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my dad and grandfather spent their whole careers here. [ charlie ] we're the heartbeat of this place, the people on the line. we take pride in what we do. when that refrigerator ships out the door, it's us that work out here. [ michael ] we're on the forefront of revitalizing manufacturing. we're proving that it can be done here, and it can be done well. [ ilona ] i came to ge after the plant i was working at closed after 33 years. ge's giving me the chance to start back over. [ cindy ] there's construction workers everywhere. so what does that mean? it means work. it means work for more people. [ brian ] there's a bright future here, and there's a chance to get on the ground floor of something big, something that will bring us back. not only this company, but this country.

♪ [ speaking in japanese ] yeah, do you have anything for a headache... like excedrin, ohhh, bayer aspirin... ohh, no no no. i'm not having a heart attack, it's my head. no, bayer advanced aspirin, this is made for pain. [ male announcer ] bayer advanced aspirin has microparticles, enters the bloodstream fast, and safely rushes extra strength relief to the sight of your tough pain. feel better? yeah...thanks for the tip! [ male announcer ] for fast powerful pain relief, use bayer advanced aspirin. it is time for today's big three. we start with a new line of attack by rick santorum criticizing the president over college education. so what does he mean? we have a possible floor fight for the gop and then burning fallout. we'll bring in today's panel, erin mcpike is with mvp real clear politics." karen fear any is a columnist

for "the hill." robin train numb is an msnbc contributor. good to see my friends. i want to listen to what rick santorum said yesterday in troy, michigan, about the need to revive the manufacturing sector. >> president obama once said he wants everybody in america to go to college. what a snob. i understand why he wants you to go to college. he wants to remake you in his ima image. i want to create jobs so people can remake their children into their image, not his. >> just does not feel right to me, robert. do you think this is a republican trying to feed red meat to a certain segment of the gop and it's gone too far? >> i agree with you, alex. yes, it does go a little bit too far. part of the american dream is to go to college, part of the american dream is to have access to go to college.

however, understanding that not everyone is college material or quite frankly may not have the opportunity to go to college. that's what community colleges are all about. if you take a look at the president's budget proposal and take a look at what he's saying, he says if you can't go to a foush dr year school, at least go to a two-year school. a high school diploma doesn't get you as far as it used to. rick santorum is using inartful language and i think he would deeply regret it if he had to say it all over again. >> i don't think you have to go to a four-year college to promote trade schools and the like. karen, what do you think would be the obama camp response to something like this? >> i think the obama response ought to be that the president actually hasn't said what rick santorum says he said. the president consistently talked about the idea that, if you want to go to four-year college, you should be able to do that. he's also, as robert pointed

out, done a lot with regard to going to two-year institutions. obviously dr. jill biden has been a huge advocate on that. also the president talked a lot about creating multiple pathways to success for our young people, whether that is a trade school, whether that is a retraining program. so he hasn't been -- this plays into this narrative, this dog whistle politics we're hearing from rick santorum of, you know, barack obama and those elite democrats think they know best what's for you, rather thanks you know, letting everybody figure out what's right for them. again, it's disingenuous, frankly, on the part of rick santorum, because that's not what the president said. he has said let's have lots of choices for people. >> erin, i'll switch up here and talk about politico. we talked to republican governor paula page of maine and talked about the current gop nomination fight. let's listen to that. >> i'm pushing for a floor fight. >> you want a floor fight? >> i'd love toe see a good

old-fashioned convention and a dark horse come out and do it in the fall. i really believe -- i believe b that. i think the candidates in my mind, have injured themselves and i think it was just too messy. it's been too messy. and i just believe we ought to go to the convention and pick a fresh face. >> erin, do you hear others talking about these brokered convention? if so, who is the dark horse coming out of left field? >> oh, yeah. there are definitely republicans talking about that. they're trying to call it a contested convention not just a brokered convention. if you realize haley barbour and jeb bush and mitch daniels have not endorsed a candidate. that shows you they think this field is weak, as a lot of republicans do. but mitch daniels has been asked continuously by lots of republicans to reconsider his decision not to run, as has

chris christie. so lots of these republicans, bill crystal, a very prominent conservative commentator is talking about this too. this is not over and we're going to continue to hear these calls for a contested convention. >> okay. erin, karen, and robert, sit tight. on the other side of the break we're going to come back with this. should the president have apologized to afghanistan for the koran pwurpbgs a week ago? you're watching "weekends with alex whitt." here's a look at your sunday forecast. asweekend, we're wching a storm system in the northern plains many that's where the worst of the weather is today. heavy snow in north dakota, northern minnesota. wintry mix around minneapolis. not as windy on the eastern seaboard. highs in the 40s and 50s.

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we are back now with the big 3. number 3, the koran burning fallout. karen, should the president have apologized for the accidental burnings of the koran a week ago? do you think he will regret it? and should a lower level person have done the apology publicly? >> i think this is a tough call. i have to believe the president made this decision to have the apology come from him based on,

you know, the best advice from both military advisers and policy advisers. this is a very tense situation. as we have seen the last week or so it has got worse not better. so i'm sure the president did it thinking it would hopefully show a level of sincerity. obviously, it was a mistake. so i'm not going to second-guess the president on this one. because i think we don't yet know the answer to the question. a lot will depend on how things shake out the next several weeks. >> weigh in on this, robert, from a gop perspective. this is the president who got osama bin laden. he has had a certain amount of success in terms of going after the rogue elements in that area of the world? >> you know, alex, some of the belief politics should end at the water's edge. for republicans or democrats to criticize the commander in chief, second-guessing some of his decisions i think is wrong. i agree with karen.

i don't know all the answers in this complex program. i know republicans and democrats should keep their mouth shut to the commander in chief. we believe that the commander in chief has enough credibility to this issue to say, listen, this is what we need to do because this is in america's best interest. >> okay. i have had both sides weighing in. your must reads. what's yours this week? >> maureen dowd has a great column called "the ghastly outdated party." it's a good look in which some of the ways the republican party has not entirely modernize pltd. >> okay. karen, yours? >> mine was a great story from friday's huffington post. his wife refused sex after realizing how he voted on that vaginal insertion law in virginia. she was watching rachel maddow

and said no way, buddy. >> okay. i can't even hear anymore about that one. robert's is on the screen. i have two seconds to go bye so bye. see you next weekend. ok, guys-- what's next ? chocolate lemonade ? susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast speeds. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small businesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon.

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