cents over jon meacham's french and indsiddian war. >> you asked him, he got up and left. it was weird. >> yeah. >> wow. >> you mentioned a tree, though, on his way. >> i know. sort of just mumbling about, walking endlessly around the studio. all right, that's it for today. willie, if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's "morning joe." we'll see you back here, stick around for chuck. 9:00 tonight, "rock center." we didn't win by a lot, but we won, that's enough. >> mitt romney, a win in the must-win michigan contest and he's breathing a sigh of relief and he's quieted the talk about searching for another candidate. but romney asked for funds for the first time in last night's victory speech, of course, ohio looms large. >> a month ago they didn't know who we are, but they do now!

>> but rick santorum, that may have been the problem. he falls short by three percentage points in michigan, the only moral victory he may end up with more delegates there putting a positive spin on the results but will he recalibrate his message in time after a very rough week. and republican senator olympia snowe hands the gop a head caache not only because sh puts the seat in jeopardy but it's what she said, could the obama re-election team written her retirement statement any better. it's wednesday, leap day, february 29th. let's get to the first reads of the morning. mitt romney survived his near death experience quieting talks for the search for a new weakn with 41% of the vote beating santorum by just over 30,000 votes.

ron paul 12% and gingrich in single digits by the way at 7%. arizona, romney picked up a decisive win, 47-27. but in many ways romney's michigan victory was simply another snapshot of the story of the season for him. his strength is with moderates, less conservative voters and he still struggles with the base of the party. romney ran strong e among older more affluent and better educated republicans. he captured almost half of those with household incomes over $100,000 and those 65 and older as well as college graduates. overall, 61% of voters said romney was most likely to beat obama, only 24% said santorum was more electable, but even though romney crushed him on that score, he hasn't closed the deal with the base of the party. voters who identify themselves as very conservative, they chose santorum over romney by 14 points, 50-36, and santorum won strong supporters of the tea party, 45-37. we've seen this story before with a different anti-romney

candidate, it was florida, it was newt gingrich who beat romney by double digits among the conservative voters and strong tea party supporters. can romney win a general election without passion in the base? even those who supported romney last night were luke warm. 41% of voters who picked romney said they liked him with reservation. again, this is part of the retooling process romney still has to do. now, romney made programs the most honest statement we'll hear from any candidate this year when he said, i won by enough. a win is a win. but though he tried to rio fuss his attention by the president and the economy he did it with not a lot of optimism. >> four years ago we warned that the presidency was no place for on-the-job training. well, today we have the economy to prove it, all right? you think he deserves a second term, he says we can't wait, to which i say, oh, yes we can. >> romney's caution has been a problem. rush limbaugh is one conservative who has already picked up on romney's comment

yesterday that he's not willing to, quote, light his hair on fire to win votes. >> so, romney's not willing to say incendiary things to obama to incite the base. well, what does he say? nice guy just in over his head. what does this tell you that romney thinks of the base? that it takes incendiary comments to turn you on. >> tough language there. rick santorum lost last night as much as romney run, and though he tried to put the best spin on defeat. >> a month ago, they didn't know who we are. but they do now! we came into the back-year-old of one of backyard of one of my opponents, ignore and you really have no chance here, and the people of michigan looked into the hearts of the candidates and all i have

to say is i love you back. >> in his speech, santorum seemed to acknowledge everything that's gone wrong in the last few days with his focus on social issues. he made a point of mentioning all the strong women in his life and he did so at length. >> i grew up with a very strong mom, someone who was a professional person, who taught me a lot of things about how to balance work and family, you know, that's probably one of the reasons that i ended up marrying the person i married here, karen. >> the biggest impact of romney's narrow victory in michigan, the silenced the talk of the white knight riding to the rescue of the republican party. it was pretty clear from the speeches last night. >> we know our future is better and brighter than these troubled times and it's the message we'll take to every corner of the country from iowa and idaho to georgia and tennessee. >> today the republican candidates fan out over those states. romney stumps in ohio, gingrich,

georgia, santorum, tennessee, money is pouring into the super tuesday states, romney alone has spent $6.5 million in the states that vote next week. last night romney did a little fund raising, first time he's done it. >> i'm asking for you, by the way, to go up on mittromney.com and place your support in every way possible. >> he was striking because he hadn't done that in any other primary victory speech and what's interesting here is that when the next reports come out, it's probably likely that not just ron paul has more individual donors than romney, but so does rick santorum, there's been a grassroots money problem, they never even built it in team romney. i think they now wish that they had. finally a romney win put the establishment gop off the ledges. had he lost, senator olympia snowe's announcement that she was going to retire after this session would have put them into a full-on tailspin. the atmosphere of polarization and my way or the highway has

become pervasive in our governing institutions, what i have had to consider is how productive an additional term to be, i do not expect the partisanship in the senate to change. it was a testimonial that white house and national democrats couldn't have scrismt edscripte reinforcing the president's statement that there's no more center in the republican party. senator snowe's career shows how much can be accomplished when leaders come together to do the right thing for the american people. snowe's retirement takes better than 50/50 odds of the republicans winning control to probably under 50%. democrats currently hold a 53-43 majority in the senate including the two independents that caucus with the democrats, so republicans need to win the three seats and the presidency or four seats and elizabeth warren's decision to run in massachusetts made that a little harder so the democratic reyutment of candidates in places like north dakota and nebraska making it a much longer shot for republicans to regain

control particularly if they don't win the presidency. but back to the presidency. as mitt romney said he didn't win michigan by much, but it was enough, and it was enough not to just stave off rick santorum for another week, it also staved off the republican vultures in washington. how did he do it, steve schmidt, republican strategist who served as john mccain's chief strategist and he's a contributor to msnbc. good morning. >> good morning. >> so, mitt romney, most honest statement of the night. he won not by a lot, but enough, and that enough means, okay, the nominee is probably going to be mitt romney, but now how long's it going to take for him to finish it off? >> he had to win michigan. he said he had to win michigan and he did it. it's no small thing. i am struck by the results when you look at how close that contest was, really rick santorum with all of the statements that he's made over the last couple of weeks, i think it was a state he could have won, but he gave it away. and i do think if you look ahead to super tuesday, santorum is

going to have to win in the future, not sure where he's going to win. if he doesn't win, i think mitt romney's velocity as the presumptive nominee will pick up pretty dramatically. >> qwhat was fascinating yesterday, 24 hours ago it was clear that mitt romney was going to win michigan. and then there was panic that start to set in the republican establishme establishment, maybe even inside romney's world that they were going to lose it and it would have led to wholesale changes. is this campaign ready for the general? are they ready, or do they need a little bit more work? >> well, the campaign if it will be successful in the general, and one of the things they have going for them is this we've had a really bad run on the republican side over the last couple of months. the campaign has had the effect of costing support for the republican candidates in the middle of the electorate. the president's numbers have rebounded. but in order to win, and i think this race starts out somewhere

about 47% to 48% on both sides. so, you have a very narrow group in the middle that's going to be determining the outcome. in order to twin that growin th need to articulate a positive hopeful vision. >> that was my next question to you. you say a positive, hopeful vision. i want to play mitt romney last night and ask you if this was a positive, hopeful thing. here's what he said. >> today we're $15 trillion in debt and real unemployment stands at 15%. you've heard that old saying about i need a vacation from my vacation, well, we need to have a recovery from this so-called recovery. >> by the way, a vacation from the vacation, that's not the best thing for the rich guy in the race to be talking about, not a lot of working class people get these vacations very often. >> right. >> but is that the hopeful? >> well, look, if you compare that speech to the president's speech that he gave to the uaw

yesterday, and i think if you were the romney campaign, you sat and you watched those speeches back to back which in the middle of a primary they're not going to have time to do, it's self-evident that there's a lot of work to do, that there has to be an articulation for the future. when the president stands up there and he says, i believe in you. it is affirmative. it's optimistic. that's the type of stuff that people respond to in a general election. you have to be able to do that in order to win the election. >> what does romney -- how does romney sell himself to this conservative base of the party? clearly rationally buys the argument he's more electable, can you see, he's at 60 plus percent, they buy it, and yet half the folks still say i won't support him. >> if you were to grade down a list, you want the electorate, your base, your party, to have enthusiasm about you. absent that, you want them to have enthusiasm about beating the other guy, and i think that's the best we're going to

get in this election cycle with the conservative base of the republican party. i think both parties bases are going to be united around their candidates. you know, and i think when you look at the romney campaign, you know, one thing that unites republicans is the desire to see president obama be a one-term president. >> how often do you look at campaigns, every challenger campaign always says we want to make it a referendum on the economy. but it's actually much harder to do. i look at this primary, it hasn't been -- if it was a referendum, they would have won. romney has won because he's said, whoa, whoa, whoa, do you want those guys offer do you want me, he's making it a choice. isn't that a prelude to what we can see in the fall? >> it already is to a certain degree. you pull aside the gallup poll, it's an outlier against the averages right now, he's had a solid recovery out over the last couple of months because the

dynamic of the race has shifted from a referendum on how is the president doing to a choice when president obama and one of the republican candidates and as the choice has begun to play out in the middle of the electorate, the voters have swung to the president, and that's not a good sign. although it's still very early in the process and there's a lot of time to fix it. not a great sign for republicans. >> before i let you go, olympia snowe, what was worse the retirement or what she said? >> i think it's what she said, and there's a lot of truth to it. we've had this debate in the republican party, you know, for a long time now. the republican party i think is inarguably stronger with its moderates in the party. is the republican party a stronger party with olympia snowe, a member of the united states senate? i think the answer is yes. but we've heard so much talk over the last couple of years of purging the party of its rhinos, purging the party of its moderate members. you know, there's two types of

churches. one that tries to go out and bring in converts and one that goes out and hunt s heretics an we've been a party that's done a lot of heretic hunting over the past couple of years. ronald reagan talked about the fact that someone that agrees with me 80% of the time is not my political opponent, they are my ally. it was a stronger party with olympia snowe in it, it will be harder for the republicans to get the majority in the u.s. senate and almost impossible for a republican to serve the state of maine in the united states senate. >> steve schmidt, chief strategist for mccain in 2008, contributor right here. thank you, sir. >> you bet you. the odds of the democrats hanging on to the senate got a whole lot better as you heard, the retirement of olympia snowe is part of the polarization of the republican party. and not all primary wins are created equal. this year it's about the delegate race and it's a long way from the magic number of

1144. we're breaking it down today. but first a look ahead at the president's schedule. the big event, of course, is the state dinner of sorts honoring iraq war veterans. at the white house tonight. it will be a very heroic celebration of those veterans. you're watching the "daily rundown" only on msnbc. sweet, nutty crunchy nut... can't wait 'til morning. wait. ♪ it's morning in the himalayas... [ male announcer ] it's sweet. it's nutty. it's absolutely delicious. kellogg's crunchy nut. it's morning somewhere.

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we're going to have less debt and smaller government and i'm going to deliver on more jobs, less debt, and smaller government. we got to hear that day in, day out. >> we believe in the smart and elite in this country to manage us, or do you believe in free people and a free economy and building a great america from

the bottom up? what do you think? >> mitt romney and rick santorum taking their campaign messages on the road as they gear up for the super tuesday primaries. reince priebus is the republi n republican, and i want to talk to you by olympia snowe, what i have had to consider is how productive an additional term will be, i do not expect the partisanship in recent years to change over the short term. mr. chairman, she had a possibility of becoming -- by staying, she would have won re-election. she'd have ended up in the majority. she chose to leave and rebuked the leadership of both parties, including yours. how do you respond? >> well, i mean, i haven't

talked to her about it. i don't know if she's rebuking the leadership of her party. i think what she's frustrated with is the fact that, you know, the senate's in the minority, and i think quite frankly, i've been in conference meetings many times with her there and she's a big -- she has a big voice there, and quite frankly my view is i think she's frustrated with the fact that the republicans on the congressional side are sending over, you know, 20, 30 jobs bills, paul ryan's budget, you know, the debt commission that the president went forward with, none of that has seen the light of day in the senate. i mean, i honestly think that's what she's more frustrated with. i'm not saying that because i'm just the chairman of the party, i really think she's frustrated with it. >> but, wait a minute, had she run, i would make the case you had a better 50/50 chance of getting control of the senate. this decision by her sets back those chances. basically she's saying being in the majority even with the chance of a republican president

wasn't worth it. that's what seems to be so strike -- that she's rebuking your chances that things won't get any better even if she's in the majority, even if there's a republican president. >> well, i mean, that's your take on it, chuck, but the reality is that the people aren't, you know -- people don't have to serve in perpetuity in congress. i'm sure she wants to enjoy her retirement. i don't think she wants to spend the rest of her life in the capital, and i think that's a good thing. i think that, you know, people around this country want to see new faces and new people in congress. that's her choice. i think, you know, i'd much rather have a majority with olympia snowe than a minority without her. but, you know, the reality is it's her choice. it's her life, and we've got candidates up there that john cornyn's working very hard with, and making sure we are competitive. i come from a generally light blue to blue state and we can

win in states like wisconsin and in maine. and, in fact, maine had a very big year in 2010, and it's because they stuck with a very good fiscal message that team, no matter whether you're republican or democrat, can agree with. and so i think that, you know, we'll be competitive up there. we have plenty of opportunities in the senate to make sure that we win the majority. >> all right. let me move to the presidential race. it is not hard to find a republican leader in your party lamenting the length and the negativity of this primary campaign. it's a conversation you've not had before. i know what you're going to say. but it is worth talking about, what john mccain called it, it's like watching a greek tragedy. it's the negative campaigning and the increasingly personal attacks, it should have stopped long ago, and the utility from the debates has been exhausted and now it's just exchanging cheap shots and personal shots polled by super pac attacks. that was a mccain interview with "the boston herald." are you exhausted from this process yet? >> well, it's only february.

if i'm exhausted, boy, i've got a long way to go, chuck. first of all, you know, on a couple of fronts, i think people have pretty short memories. and i love senator mccain a whole lot. i was actually one of the first chairmen to endorse him when he ran. but the reality is we've had almost the exact same amount of debates this cycle as we had in '08. in fact, i think we had one more in '08 than we had in this cycle, so i put that aside. and the reality is it's just february. mccain wasn't the presumptive nominee until the middle of march. bush 41 wasn't the nominee until april 19th and how short a memory that we have that hillary clinton actually won ohio on super tuesday. she won pennsylvania at the end of april. i just -- i just happen to believe that putting our base to sleep isn't the best strategy. i think it's better for us to have a debate. it's better for you every morning to be talking about us instead of barack obama's fake speeches that he's giving around the country.

i just think it's a better place. look, we have beaten incumbent presidents in the history of america five times. that includes, you know, gerald ford who was never elected in the first place. so, beating an incumbent is very tough. and we have to make choices. and i think the choice of having a rigorous debate as opposed to putting everyone to sleep and marching along is a better choice for our party, and i think in the end we'll find out who's right or wrong on november 6th, but i like our chances. the president's been a disaster, and i think the american people are ready to move on. >> are you confident that any of this talk about bringing somebody else in this race is now dead? >> well, i've thought it was dead, you know, last week and the week before, so i still think it's dead. >> and are you confident that mitt romney is going to be able to fire up conservatives? >> well, i mean, i think if you look at the polling, it shows that conservatives

self-identified tea party members, i think it's been pretty well split. i mean, obviously different states are producing different results and, you know, one week seems like a month and a day seems like a week. so, i mean, this thing is moving. but i think in the end, people in this country, conservative, moderate, wherever you're at, believe that this president has been a disaster to america and that he needs to be defeated. i think people will come together and it will be a referendum on barack obama. >> all right. reince priebus, chairman of the republican national committee, thanks for coming on this morning. >> thank you, chuck. all right, the dow closed above the landmark 13,000 mark or at least the landmark that we all decided was one, but could leap day ruin the fun? the market rundown is next. and we're taking a deep dive in the delegate battle royale with one of the stars of the delegate counting from four years ago. if you are starting to get flashbacks to the 2008 democratic race, you are not alone. but first, today's trivia

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the economy grew at a slightly faster pace than the final three months of last year. so we found out, it's time for the market rundown. becky quick, will that help the leap day holiday for the market to leap ahead? >> it might just. we've been watching the futures this morning and we are looking at the opening maybe being up 14, 15 points. the number you pointed out was better than expected, chuck, we came in looking at the fourth quarter gdp. this is the second time we've looked at the number, the initial read was 2.8%, this time we saw 3% growth better than economists had been expecting

and that did give us a little bit of help with the futures. it came because consumer spending and business spending were both stronger than expected and that's good news. you point out it's leap day today, and the last time we saw leap day it was not a very positive one for the markets. in fact, we saw the s&p close down by 2.7%, not a great day, not one we're hoping to repeat here today. the weird thing is if you look at the s&p and where it closed on leap day, it closed at something like 13,068 on this day four years ago. and yesterday we closed at 13,072. you are looking at an s&p close of within four points of where we were. that's the part that's okay. we don't want to repeat the rest of it. we've got ben bernanke heading to capitol hill, chuck, he's going to talk about the economic outlook and maybe he'll comment on the gdp and the numbers we saw today and he'll be talking about monetary policy and that's something the street is watching is closely as well. >> the gdp revision something about 3%, that's still psychologically more positive

for some reason. >> it is. >> you figure that is really good growth, it's something we can deal with in the economy. when it's below that, that's when wall street starts to freak out a little bit. >> there it is, right on the line. thank you, becky. the deep dive into the delegate race begins in 30 seconds. well, remember, it's still about delegates, the race for gathering them is on winning primaries and caucuses matter, but at the end of the day it's how many delegates you have that counts. mitt romney has six states in his win column, rick santorum,

four, newt gingrich has one, ul hasn't won a single event. but let' look at the all-important delegate race, 2,286 delegates available and a candidate needs 1,144 to win. romney has 126, rick santorum, 27, and ron paul despite not winning a single primary or caucus has 11. how is that possible? because delegates aren't always awarded immediately and when they are they are often rewarded proporti proportionally, south carolina gave gingrich 23 of its 29 delegates. there are four races left that are 100% winner take all, that's it is, for the total of 123 delegates available so it's still a long way to go to the magic number of 1,144. the biggest haul comes next week on super tuesday, 424 delegates at stake. and as you can see, there's some big ones. it's going to be fascinating, for instance, you watch in ohio where you have to do it by

congressional district. rick santorum doesn't have delegate slates in three of ohio's congressional districts so he can win the state and he's almost guaranteed to lose the delegate battle there. after super tuesday there are four other key days we're keeping an eye on with big delegate numbers attached to them. days when a large number of them up for grabs, april 3rd when 92 are available, d.c., maryland, wisconsin, april 24th, 150 delegates, connecticut, delaware, new york, pennsylvania, and rhode island. may 8th, 107 delegates with races in indiana, north carolina, and west virginia. the biggest stay after supertoips's june 5th when a chopping 264 delegates are available including 169 in california, and i didn't even talk whenever texas is and we're still wondering when their states could be. other dates on the calendar that we do care about, 47 delegates, march 10th, 84 on march 13th, 25 may 15th, 75 on may 22nd. in recent years the republican front runner could usually score a quick knockout because the majority of primary and caucuses took place in the opening weeks

of the election year, but this year the calendar is very different. it's spread out a little more than usual. fewer states participating on super tuesday, just ten, and this one could actually take until june until we actually mathematically get there. with me now, the man that did all the counting for president obama in 2008, and he's author of a book, i can't wait to finish reading, i have started it "the magic number, inside obama's chase for the presidential nomination." jeff berman, i've outed you publicly as one of our great sources for the delegate battle of 2008 of obama and clinton. by the way, i want to update folks, and you'll love this, jeff, in michigan, right now we have two congressional districts uncomaw uncalled there are 30 delegates at stake, they split statewide of 2, the other 28 divide up by congressional district. of the 14, 12 we've called, six for santorum, six for romney, two uncalled. romney leads by 60 votes in one. santorum leads by 40 votes in

the other. it's still possible that santorum gets more delegates. jeff, you look at what the republicans have done this year and it looks an awful lot like what you guys had to do four years ago. >> that's right. that's right. it's interesting that you mentioned this close race in the delegates in michigan, that reminds me of nevada, chuck. you probably remember nevada four years ago, where hillary did win in the local precinct delegates in the caucuses, but president obama won in terms of the delegates to the national convention, producing a split decision. and so we may yet see a split decision in michigan. >> let me ask you this, when you went through this, and there's certain things about the republican race that's actually different. so, for instance, on pockets nights you guys knew how many delegates you had won. on these caucus nights, only the way the republicans -- they don't allocate anything that could even be attributed to a delegate. they seem to do it a little -- explain the differences as you understand them. >> sure.

sure. in the democratic system, delegates are allocated to presidential candidates, any candidate receiving more than 15% of the vote would get a proportional share. in the republican contest, the rules are much looser. and basically in many of these states, the voters don't know it, but when they go to caucus night, a lot of times the delegates that are elected to the next round of caucusing, programs the county c perhaps the county conventions, may not reflect the references at the first tier. when they get to the state convention, they can decide are we going to be winner take all or proportional or something in between. different states do it differently. >> you know, one of the other things that when we were going through this and when there was all this hand wringing about a white knight for the republicans that might jump in, it struck me that, boy, there is a -- the republicans have a lot of what they call unbound delegates. meaning, that even when you

win -- so, for instance, in iowa, the delegates that you win -- and you don't actually get them until the state convention -- they're never bound even on the first ballot at the convention which seemed to me a potentially scary prospect if you are one of the actual candidates running if somebody else jumped in. how do the democrats bound? what is it that makes it more legally bound than what you guys did four years ago? >> well, it's actually a little-known secret that no democratic delegate is ever bound to vote by law or against their conscience. so, any democratic delegate at the national convention is technically free under the rules to vote as they see fit. of course, the way we do it, we select our delegates and the presidential candidates have input, and we make sure those delegates that go to the national convention are loyal to the candidate. >> when you -- how did you -- when you did that loyalty oath or what did you do? did you guys have a process?

did you interview these folks, what is it that made you say, okay, do you know what, they'll be there, there's no way that the clintons are going to be able to pry this person away from us? >> typically the way we did the slating in the states is we would work with our local supporters in the states to select the delegates, but i reviewed every list for every state to make sure that i was comfortable with the folks who were going. i might not have known them, but i asked the right questions to make sure. >> you know, this fight for delegates to get to a convention, i have to ask, it does make the electoral college seem sane. and actually more so. is this any way to nom -- is this any way for a political party to nominate its presidential candidate? >> well, i'll tell you, the presidential nomination system we have is one that has evolved over time. it is somewhat chaotic at times. i would say that both of the national parties try to make improvements for 2012.

we still have some issues. when florida moved up and jumped ahead of all of the other states to go early, that led, of course, michigan and arizona to go early. and we also have four caucus states who moved ahead of the voting which is supposed to start on super tuesday. so, we still have some issues in maintaining the order of the process. but it's the only process we have, and really we should be focused both of the parties on improving what we have. because really at this point there is no other alternative. >> all right, jeff berman, the author of the book "the magic number" if you're a junkie, it's a fun read. it was quite the boiler room. what was amazing, of course, was that your opponent didn't have an equal to you. jeff berman, nice to see you, sir. >> thanks, chuck. our hump day, leap day political panel will be here next. what happens when leap day and

hump d hu hump day collides. but first the soup of the day, cream of broccoli. come on. we are honoring the iraq war veterans, we are feeding them broccoli? hopefully we can feed them something better than cream of broccoli. you're watching the "daily rundown" only on msnbc. you think you take off all your make-up before bed. but do you really? [ female announcer ] neutrogena® makeup remover erases 99% of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. can your makeup remover do that? [ female announcer ] neutrogena® makeup remover.

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eisenhower said he would seek a second term. eisenhower suffered a heart attack that led to speculation he would not run again. he beat adlai stevenson by more than 9 million votes and one could argue dwight eisenhower is america's least ideological president in the 20th senn ture century, but we'll discuss that at a later date. both candidates arrive on super tuesday states with the political imprint from last night's results. alex wagner host of "now with alex wagner" on msnbc at noon, 9:00 pacific, and errol louis is host of inside city hall on new york one. welcome, one and all. mitt romney win or rick santorum win last night? >> mitt romney won it, and he revealed his just immense flaws as a candidate, that he just reeled from gaffe to gaffe,

couldn't deliver anything resembling a message. it was all his fault, he could have talked about the economy and he would have won the state. >> i want to stay with you for a minute because you retweeted something, and, you know, you like when sometimes tweets get a little bit off the reservation. so, ben retweets last night, i can't fully say it here, ben, on tv, because you can't say these words on tv. fru frustrated gop operative e-mails all santorum had to do was turn his iowa speech into a [ bleep ] tv ad and stick to it on the stump. it was as good a speech as any of the candidates had given. >> he can appeal to working class voters, he has an authentic message and ride the economy and got bogged down in the president crushing the judeo-christian faith. i saw a clear pivot last night,

he realizes the formula didn't work. he pulled out his shale rock concession speech, i don't know if it will give him the bum of in the polls. >> and they love to frac. it was all about fracking. >> errol, i want to play a couple of clips, mitt romney last night in a victory speech that i thought wasn't as victorious as you would expect it to be. here's what he said -- >> i stand ready to lead our party to victory and our nation back to prosperity. this election comes down to two very different visions of america. it's a choice between becoming a nation of and by washington or remaining a nation of and by a free people. >> all right. that was mitt romney. i want to play president obama earlier in the day in front of the uaw in washington, d.c., and according to jay carney, it was not a campaign speech, but anyway, listen to the president and i want to do a little side-by-side comparison. >> the other option was to do absolutely nothing.

and let these companies fail. and you will recall there were some politicians who said we should do that. some even said we should let detroit go bankrupt. you remember that. >> it's interesting those two bites show you that's the debate, one says use washington to help business, one says washington's getting in the way. it's a legitimate -- frankly, it's a debate that does make the two parties what they are today. >> well, it's true. in fact, it's a debate that's been going on for three quarters of a century now. what do you do when you've got radical economic disaster of depression-era dimensions, what do you do? does the government stand aside? does the government tweak? does the government jump in with both feet and that does, in fact, define the difference between these two candidates and parties. stylistic, of course, mitt romney is there as the guy that says give me the contract, i'll

fix this. but he doesn't say how and that's where he's at a real disadvantage. >> it's not just that, much of the speech felt pessimistic, ben, and, again, when you are making a case to fire somebody, there is a pessimistic argument you have to make, so there's part of you, you have to sell some pessimism, but it is harder to sell pessimism, there's a reason only five incumbent sitting presidents have gotten ousted, because the country doesn't necessarily like to embrace pessimism. >> right. and i think you saw there was sort of a missing piece of romney's speech. at some point he referred to the cause -- >> what is it? >> yeah, my reaction is, yeah, what's the cause? i think that's kind of what they're figuring out. >> with conservatives he doesn't seem -- he's basically decided i can't agree with you on so many things, but, hey, i have negative one-liners against the president, will you embrace me for that? >> chuck, it's, like, ann romney is better on the stump than mitt romney, and the things we're not talking about in terms of president obama, is that crowd was loving it. and you could see the wind in

his sails. you see the beginning of a campaign message, we are all in it together. that's a powerful message to take to the country. all right, after the break, i'm going to discuss the first snowfall we've had, significant snowfall in washington, d.c., and it has nothing to do with the weather. leap day got the jay leno treatment last night, by the way. >> and tomorrow's leap day, did you know that, it's leap day tomorrow. this is god's way of punishing us by making the election year even longer. >> which brings us to the trivia question, when was the last time the presidential contest was held in a nonleap year? 1900, of course, it comes when years are divisible not by 400. even the mathematicians, calendar makers got crazy with math. they ought to set the rules for nominating presidents. we'll be back. vestments and annoying account fees. at e-trade, our free easy-to-use online tools

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it used to upset me to see troops used as a political pawn, because i know growing up in a military family the sacrifice made on a daily basis. the troops are not blue and red, they are red, white, and blue and when they put on the uniforms, they are americans, and that is a fact. bring back the panel, ben

smith, and alex wagner and errol louis. the biggest winner was olympia snowe and that was reflected in the statement. >> she didn't even tell the staff. and they have to get all of the petitions in, and a couple of thousands which is difficult in maine by the 15th. >> and they could be stuck, alex wagner, and she would get a tea party challenge or whatever, but she had a serious, semi serious challenger, and she had the support of even the conservative status, and governor paula page who won with the tea party support was going to help her out and plow the field, so nomination was not going to bes a difficult as dick lugar, but she sent a message that could not be worded better. >> i am done here, and boom goes the dynamite. the message here and thomas mann and dave ornstein have a book

coming out about how the republican party are moving right proportionate, but i don't believe she is off of the stage. >> and the roll call votes that was the s-chip and children's health care and there were nine republican senators who crossed over. judd gregg, and he has left, and mel martinez has left and olympia snowe is leaving and arlen specter not only switched parties, but left, and john warner, and you look at the s-chip over the years and you see the guys over the four or five year cans you have to go back, but the guys who regularly, you could appeal to the crossover, gone. >> i think that the story of the year to some degree is the republican party reckoning with the tea party, and clearly reaction against it, and mitt romney's nomination is a reaction against the tea party

and clearly some romney supporters who believe they are insane and trying to get the party back, but at the same time they are losing that frail moderate republican group is losing the leaders. >> and romney does not finish this, it is because he can't appeal to the folks and the senate majority leader more likely than democrats senate majority leader harry reid and chuck schumer than mitch mcconnell. and shameless plugs. and sorry, you come prepared. mine is to make the shuttle before i am rained out. >> and talking national online politics with the viewers and hash tag is ask aerial, a nd d and ---er roll, and we will talk about it. >> and we will talk to jane hogan and get the spokesperson this afternoon to talk about the questions after the pivot. >> and single best southern ak

sent. >> ben? >> and moving into the american motors headquarters and once george romney's headquarters, and check them out. >> there was the horrible pacer, remember? >> well, sorry, chuck. >> that is when i feel like we were at the beginning of the end, but they still had jeep. that is the edition for "the daily rundown." and of course, chris jansing coming back with the day after super tuesday coverage, and of course, my friend alex wagner. have a great leap day. open up. we have come for the foul, unholy beast. the one with the red markings. the miracle whip? stand aside that we may burn it. [ indistinct shouting ] have you ever tried it? it's actually quite sweet... and tangy. ♪

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to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. good morning, i'm chris jansing and it was not pretty, but mitt romney is the front-runner. he beat rick santorum by 20 points, and that was not unexpected, but the contest in michigan is the one we were watching. he squeaked it out by three, but it was still a win. >> in is a big win, michigan. thank you, guys. we didn't win by a lot, but we won, and that is all that counts. >> and the romney campaign