>> what did you learn? >> i defer to you. we don't have a lot of time. >> some political news. donald trump has been asked by mitt romney to go out to ohio and campaign for him. >> is that right? >> yeah. he did some work, made some calls in michigan. >> i love donald, but i think it's a bad move. it shows weakness and you're bringing the carnival. wrong move. bad move. >> what are you talking about? >> bad move. >> what's the carnival? >> i love donald, but if you're a serious political guy, shouldn't have to need donald trump. >> i don't understand. >> willie geist, the latter day abraham lincoln. >> i'm out of here. >> tomorrow, a big show on education tomorrow. stick around for chuck right now. politics, the senate sinks into good old-fashioned take that mode. fights over birth control coverage, precisely why

moderates like o liolympia snow feel there's no room for them anymore. romney's campaign says he didn't understand the question. what's this pattern of romney roiling over some remark within hours of a big primary win. and a look back at how rick santorum rocketed through the ranks of pennsylvania politics. and how did he go from winning four in a row to getting clobbered by double digits? good morning, it's thursday, march 1st. let's get right to my first read of the morning. ten states vote on tuesday with the big prize being ohio. but this morning, we do have new results to report from wyoming. the 11th state that hands out a couple of delegates on super tuesday. romney won wyoming non-binding precinct straw poll. 39% of the voter over rick santorum, only about 2,100 republicans participated. smaller than the average cpac straw poll. it is simply an indicator of how

the state may vote in its upcoming townee and state conventions, where 26 of the 29 delegates will be bound. we also have our final results from michigan. and it is a romney/santorum split. 15 each. wednesday morning, santorum declared michigan a tie. by mid afternoon, he challenged reporters about his "underperformance with catholics." and he said, hey, it was a win. >> we won michigan last night by coming out of michigan with 15 delegates out of 30 delegates in mitt romney's home state. being outspent 6 to 1, and you want to talk about one segment of the population. this was a huge win for us. let's play it the way it is. don't give romney all the spin. >> santorum's whose campaign announced he raised $9 million in the month of february telegraph will he will focus ahead of super tuesday.

>> we're going to win tennessee, we're going to win oklahoma. we're coming into ohio feeling very good. it's going to be competitive, a tough state. an opportunity to win or finish very, very well in washington. same thing with north dakota. if you look at where governor romney is. he's winning massachusetts, vermont, and maybe idaho. i mean, aside from virginia where he's the only one on the ballot. >> meanwhile, romney is taking cues from supporters a bit, trying to connect with voters more personally and try to emphasize some strength. his ability to be mr. fix it. >> it's a bit like if i were a doctor and i saw somebody who was suffering from some condition, i'd want to do something to help. my experience is not a medicine, my experience is in business. there are some other guys who spent their life in washington lobbying, but that's not what america needs right now. >> quick reminder on the delegate front. santorum may be saying it's all about the delegates after michigan, but with ohio, he's got a bit of a problem there. because it could also be about

the delegates. he could win ohio and lose the delegate fight there. why? he doesn't have delegate slates in three congressional districts almost guaranteeing he cannot get a plurality even of the delegates coming out of ohio. at about 11:00 this morning, the senate will vote on the amendment on contraception. both parties seem to be licking their political chops. we've seen the senate and it's cynically worse. it would allow them to be exempted if they have personal religious objections, applying to any employer, not just those with religious affiliations. and both parties are rolling out the rhetoric doing their best to make this a wedge issue in senate races in 2012. >> the word contraception's not in there because it's not about a specific procedure, it's about a faith principle that the first amendment guarantees. >> we're not going to let them take away medicine from women.

oh, no, they're not, they won't. and the women of this country won't have it. >> now, this amendment to the highway bill, of course, both democrats and republicans love the opportunity to damage some incumbents in senate races. democrats think this vote could hurt. hellor hasn't said how he'll vote, maybe even jon tester in montana. and pennsylvania, that's what's going on here, folks. both sides seem so eager to get this roll call vote on there with things, 30-second ads, direct mail dancing in their heads. the administration weighed in last night and kathleen sebelius said in a statement, "we encourage the senate to reject this cynical attempt to roll back decades of progress in women's health." finally, has romney ever followed a win with a good news

day? it was when he uttered the words "i like being able to fire people." and that led into the south carolina debacle. yesterday he stepped in it again in an interview with the ohio news network he came out against the blunt bill. >> blunt/rubio is being debated, i believe, later this week that deals with banning or allowing employers to ban providing female contraception. have you taken a position on that? he said he was for that. and i'll talk about personhood in a second. >> i'm not for the bill. but look, the idea of presidential candidates getting into questions about contraception within a relationship between a man and a woman, husband and wife, i'm not going there. >> well, after conservatives exploded over that, the romney campaign did their best to try to make this a one-day story saying he misunderstood the question which romney explained in a local radio appearance in boston, called up his old conservative buddy howie carr.

>> i didn't understand his question. of course i support the blunt amendment. i thought they were talking about some state law that prevented people from getting contraception. i thought it was some ohio legislation where employers were prevented from providing contraceptives. so i talked about contraceptives and so forth. i misunderstood the question. >> romney's rivals quick to jump on the mistake, first the santorum campaign which said, you can take the guy out of massachusetts, but you can't take the massachusetts out of the guy. democrats also hit romney. >> mr. romney said we should not be doing this amendment and he didn't support it. >> even as an attempt to shore up support on the right, mentioning he's a gun owner now, romney took heed. >> i believe in the second amendment. i'll protect the second amendment. i have guns myself. i'm not going to tell you where

they are. i don't have them on myself either. but we have the right in this country to bear arms. >> this raised the question whether romney purchased a we in the past five years or if he was retelling a story that turned out not to be true in 2007 when he told the "boston globe" he had guns. romney's comments the last time he ran for president. >> i'm not a big game hunter. i've made it very clear. i've always been, if you will, a rodent and rabbit hunter. small varmints, if you will. and i began when i was 15 or so. and have hunted those kinds of varmints. since then, more than two times. >> campaign does say he now owns two shotguns. by the way, remember, it was also after florida you had mitt romney talk about the very poor comment day after the florida primary and that, of course, rolled into what was a bad media day then for the next couple of days.

11 states dish out delegates on super tuesday leaving the candidates with just about 120 hours. david gregory is the moderator of "meet the press" joins me now. this pattern steps in. talked about new hampshire, florida, and then this one. it's hard to -- i understand candidates get tired. >> and, you know, you can be cynical and say what he forgot is that he was still on the primary and not in the general election. because i keep saying that there's this inner culturally moderate candidate that's waiting to break out. >> you mean as santorum said. but i think that, you know, romney wants to run as a fiscal conservative, not a cultural conservative. he wants to be the fix-it guy for the economy, that part of

the biography. and i think one of the reasons he does so few press, why he hasn't been on programs like "meet the press" is those kinds of errors. and it feeds a narrative about him. it feeds an authenticity problem that he has. >> there's another part of this, watching how quickly. the news travels so fast in the conservative world about what romney said in ohio. and they had called up howie carr. he used to use howie carr when he was governor of massachusetts. conservatives, you get the sense they almost relish the idea of stopping romney. >> well, they do, but they haven't done it yet. not yet, but haven't done it yet. and i think the reality is that give romney his due. he's making a decision. i'm not going to play on that turf because aisi'll make mista. someone suggested to me yesterday. you know, he ought to praise santorum as the social conservative and clear out that

ground and say, but, you know, what the country needs right now is a fiscal conservative. that's what we need. he can't go after santorum in the way he should which is to say that santorum has some appeal that he doesn't have a broad enough base to win the call. >> let's look at super tuesday. you heard the way santorum is trying to frame it. and ohio -- that does seem to be a fair point. look, ohio is going to be this proven ground for the two of them in ohio has always had this -- there's a social conservative side to ohio. there's that economic anxiety side to it. >> look, santorum's reality is that if you're going to shoot for the kill, you better kill him. he didn't do that. he came close politically in michigan because the great story line. he had momentum coming into that. he had an opportunity, really inflict a blow on romney, and romney survived. he doesn't come out beloved, but he survived. where santorum is lucky, he gets to go into a big general election one more time and

basically run the same campaign. but the closed primary, different factors at work and, you know, maybe romney can improve upon how he campaigned and, you know, santorum's got to improve upon how he campaigned. i heard one republican pollster said he ended up campaigning against sex when he came in and against college on the way out. and that's ultimately what got in his way. >> in an interview, he says this seems to be an ideological divide wean santorum and the rest of the country. so biden's comfortable going there, romney seems so afraid. >> i don't get that, except that you go back to republicanromney got a certain square to play in as an effective candidate and that's where he wants to stay. >> i want to play one more thing for you. last night, john mccain was on the "tonight show" and lamenting this process. here's what he says. >> these super pacs now are

funding these negative ad campaigns that are becoming more and more personal. when i see this go on and on and the president be able to sit back, you know, and watch this go on, our chances decrease. and it is the independent voter that wins elections in america. and it's the independent voter we see moving further and further away as the unfavorables of these candidates go up. >> this is the name of the game. i think what he was concerned about was the erosion of support of among independents. you can't do it without the independent vote. if romney can hang on here without social conservatives, he's in a much better position. but the longer this goes on, the farther to the right he has to go, the more problematic it is. >> president obama had a state dinner for iraq veterans doing interviews with espn. mitt romney sitting there having to fight off. >> one more problem about

santorum, we're going to start to say, well, where is there a realistic path for him to get the number of delegates? at a certain point, it's no longer a momentum game. it is, okay, just like in 2008. show me what the path is. >> and that's one thing, romney is almost guaranteed because of virginia to win the night on delegates. thank you, sir. newt gingrich and you on sunday. on "meet the press." >> we're going to have the ohio poll debuting on sunday. all right. thank you, sir. >> thank you. the centrists on capitol hill are hanging up their hats and heading home. largest number leaving since '96 in the u.s. senate. up next, we'll ask two veterans on capitol hill whether being a deal maker means you can't be a lawmaker anymore. from his first big win to his landslide loss in 2006 and all the controversies in between, what it all says about santorum as a candidate today. but first, a look ahead at the president's schedule. he's eddi iheading up to new

hampshire. it's a swing state and fundraisers later in the evening. you're watching the "daily rundown" only on msnbc.

i made a decision not to run for reelection in the united states senate and pursue other opportunities outside the senate. the frustrations that, yes, there is a political system here in washington where it's dysfunctional and the political paralysis has overtaken the environment to the detriment of this country. >> senator snowe is the latest in a string of moderates who

have either been forced out of congress or chosen to leave over the last 2 1/2 cycles. and she's not the first to issue a call for cooperation on her way out the door. >> taking advantage of political gusts or whims, is not what our constituents expect of us, nor is it what they deserve. we must have courage to come out of the fox holes, the fox holes we dig into, to the middle to where the rest of america is. >> that was from democratic senator blanche lincoln delivering her farewell address in 2010. she joins me now. thank you, both. >> thank you. >> both of you, you didn't choose to leave. you both got booted out arguably by -- you had problems because of the ideological left, in your case, ideological right in your case. you watched senator snowe leave and the way she's leaving and how do you react?

>> well, first, i'm very sad. i believe that she was truly one of the last centrists middle of the road senators a person willing to work with both sides with anybody to get things done. blanche and i have talked about this and she confirms all of that. and i just think she was a very competent senator. i think she was going to be reelected rather easily, and i believe her reasons are she's just frustrated by the inability to get things done, and that's a problem for this country. i believe the senators need to work together to achieve a greater good for people once they are elected. >> to me it was almost more impactful, senator lincoln, because arguably the republicans have a better shot at getting the majority in the u.s. senate. so she was going to be committee chairwoman. 50/50 chance. everything was going to go her way and she walked away. that to me was almost more --

made her statement more impactful. >> well, it does because she realizes, unfortunately, until people's mind sets really change. until people really look at what has to be done in washington as public servants and not as politicians, we're not going to put the economy back on track the way it should. we're not going to solve the problems we need to solve in this country. i worked with mike castle when we were in the house, what an incredible guy who was really working to solve problems. and olympia's the same way. as chairman of the small business committee. she understood what small businesses out there were all about. she's one of my best friends from the senate. so i applaud her for being courageous to do those things, but we're going to miss her. >> something about the blunt amendment today that to me -- and it's the cynical side of me, democratic leadership, they're excited because they threw a wedge issue that they think that they're going to be able to use.

which reminds people, it's an amendment to the highway bill. >> yes, exactly. >> and that happens in the senate. the senator can discuss that better than i, but that happens. >> it's not the rules committee, it's a little more limited. and you're right, it's something that's unrelated, it's become a political issue, and i'm not that familiar with all the details of it. but it is a social issue, which is being raised, which is very divisive, you know, particularly among women perhaps in this country. and that's a problem, i think, for the republican party. it's a problem in the republican primary that's going on right now. it could be a problem in the general election. so i think regardless of where you are on it, it's problematic politically. >> i think as you see olympia snowe leave in the northeast, scott brown may lose, there might not be any republicans in new england anymore. it's hard to be a republican and get elected in the state of delaware, in the south, it's hard to be a democrat and get

elected. if we have these self-isolation, what does that do to the average american that lives in those places if they're only representative of one party? >> well, it weakens their ability to have a say in cha has to happen in washington. because they become so segregated in a way that it's not representative of who we are as a nation and what needs to happen to strengthen our nation in the global economy and, you know, in politics. we are strong as a nation because we because of our diversify and because of all of the differences that the states bring to the debate in the senate and the house. the congressional districts that make it up. this is -- we're a part of a world political system and a world economy now. and we need to strengthen ourself, not cause that -- >> why isn't there -- there's always talk of an independent running for president. why aren't there more independents that run. there are a lot of people that

want you to do that. why aren't there more independents that run for the u.s. senate? seems to me a place you could get away with it. >> perhaps. political parties have a lot of ammunition, they have a lot of money, they have a lot of powers one way or the other. if you're not within one or the other, it's not difficult to do. i perhaps could've done it, lisa murkowski did do it. the only thing i can take credit for in this last election was the fact that lisa told me that my defeat is what finally triggered it for her. she said i'm going to do it. i decided not to do it. and that's the way it is. it's very, very difficult. and politics is difficult. i mean, virtually everything you do in congress now is looked at by the political parties as usually something negative. and the legislation you may have thought was good for one reason or the other and the other party will attack you on that. it happens on a routine basis. happens with a lot of the cable television, a lot of talk radio, if you will.

all that's become much more ideological than it used to be. there's not a balance as far as a lot of the news is concerned to say nothing of the websites and the various, you know, individual people out there who are making comments. >> and people go to where they can hear what they want to hear. >> exactly. >> i've got to leave it there before i get in trouble. thank you, both, for bringing reasonable discussion this morning. we're going to get a preview of the day on the market next. plus, a nuclear deal. new signs today that north korea really is under new management. and burning rage, more americans killed as the fury continues in afghanistan. it's really getting bad out there. but today's trivia question. only eight women in history have served in both houses of congress. six of them are still serving today. name them. tweet me the answer. the first correct answer -- the

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two american troops were shot dead in afghanistan today by two men, one believed to be an afghan soldier. that's not a repeat of a story we reported a couple days ago, another set of soldiers. this came after hours foreign advisers returning to government ministries there. six nato service members killed after less than two weeks. north korea is really sending a senior negotiator to new york next week to discuss the details of a possible breakthrough agreement that would supply u.s. food aid in exchange for suspension of all uranium enrichment and nuclear missile tests.

and residents across the midwest are returning to communities devastated by wednesday tornadoes and powerful storms. there's still severe weather warnings in effect for tennessee and mississippi and another storm front is coming. springtime can be very violent out there in the plains. well, we're minutes away from the opening bell. time for the market rundown. becky quick is here. becky, weekly jobs claims. what did we get? >> we got a pretty decent number. a surprisingly strong number. economists had been expecting 351, that's what it came in at. and i guess the surprise here is that number continues to confound people like ben bernanke who say that the jobs picture has been much better than the fed had been anticipating. this morning, looks like the futures are opening up. looks like we're up about 40 points on the dow. the numbers that came in, very positive from wall street's perspective. you continue to see some improvement coming into the jobless picture. not only are the jobless claims at the lowest level, be uh the

new jobless claims, new claims that have never been reported before are sitting at a very low four-week moving average, as well. it's the best rate we've seen in four years on that number, as well. ben bernanke going back to the hill today, he'll be talking more about that and the street's going to be watching his testimony very closely. chuck? >> and it's 24 hours away from the big -- >> no, we've got a week left, it throws you off. >> throws us off? >> i thought it was leap day, i looked into it, it's actually a week they compile it, it happens twice a year, the week they compile the data has to include the 12th. that threw the whole thing off and so next friday is when we get the big number. >> you and your weird fridays. you're messing up everyone. let me know when that is.

having the fortitude to stand up to the tough abuse that you're going to get. stand up and stay strong. and have a record of showing you can stand for your convictions. you're looking at someone here who happens to be in dalton, georgia, today that can do just that. >> how about that? that was rick santorum at a rally in newt gingrich's home state of georgia. anyway, in today's beatdown we're taking a look at rick santorum's past in pennsylvania politics. during his 16 years on capitol hill, he was a strong social conservative. he still knows how to play to his base.

>> president obama once said he wants everybody in america to go to college. what a snob. >> i do have concerns about women in front-line combat. i think that can be a very compromising situation. >> you say that people of faith have no role in the public square. you bet that makes you throw up. and there are people who were gay and lived a gay lifestyle and aren't anymore. >> in fact, when he lost the 2006 senate reelection bid by that whopping 18 points, he stood by his principles and blamed on his loss on sticking to his guns on national security in iraq war at a time when it was very unpopular for republicans to do so. >> i'm very proud. i do not rescind a word because those words are words that this country was not receptive to hear tonight. they are continuing to hear them from me. >> a meet the press debate put santorum in the hot seat over his family's residency, which

was the same attack santorum used against his opponent way back in 1990 in his first run for congress. >> in 1990 when you ran for the house, you ran against the incumbent doug walgren and ran this commercial repeatedly, let's watch. >> instead of living in his home congressional district, he lives in this house. >> and now the state education department, state taxpayers are going to have to agree to give the penn hill school district $55,000 to compensate for your children's tuition while they were in virginia taking a cyber course. and based on that commercial, isn't it rather hypocritical of you? >> no. not at all. >> since you've owned your home 111 stevens lane, how many nights have you spent there? >> i'm not going to tell you how many nights i've spent there. i don't know. what i spend -- >> a handful? >> he would go on to lose the

2006 pennsylvania race by a whopping 18 points. now santorum is hoping for a second act in washington. he says he's beaten incumbent democrats three times, but if you take a closer look at the wins, the devil's in the details. in 1990 he barely beat that incumbent, two years later he ran for reelection, in 1994, the first race for the senate, he narrowly beat an incumbent, harris walker by two points, but that was the year when republicans took control of both the house and the senate. so he kind of ran behind where other republicans ran in pennsylvania. six years later, maybe santorum's most impressive win. he upset a weak democratic candidate, that's about $10.6 million to $2.4 million and won by six points. and now as he becomes a rival for romney, voters are taking a closer look at his long record in washington. and last week's debate hammered

home the idea that santorum will have a lot of explaining to do about his 16 years in washington. >> sometimes you take one for the team for the leader and i made a mistake. you know, politics is a team support, folks. and sometimes you've got to rally together and do something. >> joining me now is professor of franklin and marshall colleges, center for politics and public affairs. he's also director of the polling center there and has tracked rick santorum's career in pennsylvania for many years. terry, nice to see you. let me start with rick santorum the politician, the early years a little bit. we've been talking about it earlier. i want to get to that and then we'll get to where he stands today. but rick santorum's been a guy early on in his career it seems that nobody took seriously inside the republican party and he sort of had to knock down the door. is that fair to say? >> yeah, i think that's correct. even more importantly in some respects is the general

electorate didn't take him all that seriously. he challenged a long-term democratic incumbent in 1990 in his first congressional race. and a heavily democratic district. a conservative district that went for bush in 1988, but nonetheless, the hundreds of volunteers, pro-lifers that went out into the district and upset this long-term democratic incumbent and then in 1994 he ran for the senate against harris walker who had won a special election after the tragic death of john heinz, the heir to the ketch-up fortune. and no one thought he could win at the beginning of that race. he makes the argument out on the stump that i've always been the down candidate, i've always had to come from behind, i've always been scratching and crawling. and to some extent, there's a good bit of truth to that. >> let me take it the other way, though. i look at the four opponents and

including bob casey jr. ron klink in 2000, and i think, you know, he really only faced one decent -- one truly front-line campaigner. harris waford, and ron klink was underfunded. >> you're right about that. remember, 1994 was also the republican's year in which the gingrich revolution of the republicans swept back into the house for the first time since the '50s. regained the senate for the first time since 1986. and he had spent a good bit of his three years in washington. there's no doubt about it, and ron klink as you point out, not just underfunded, he was -- he was outraised by santorum about 3 1/2 to 1 as you accurately

point out. and then he ran into a juggernaut. and the state in 2006 when he ran against bob casey jr. with the brand name. you're right about that. but he also, you know, in a democratic state had to claw his way around. and he does -- look, no one will outwork him. no one will get in the fray more quickly and more deeply than he does. and no one provocative as we've seen in the last three weeks. >> all right. i'm looking at your polling right now. you show santorum winning -- win the republican primary big and you would think that would be the case. looking at the general election match-ups, you even have santorum doing better than romney. in your heart of hearts, though, you've been polling this state for decades. do you really believe santorum and not mitt romney gives republicans the best chance to carry pennsylvania? >> no. i don't.

i think if you go back and you look at his history in the state, we're talking about santorum here, he has serious trouble winning the parts of the state, chuck, you have to win which are the philadelphia suburbs and the lehigh valley. so the lehigh valley for your viewers, that would be bethlehem and allentown, that's where the largest pool of independent swing voters live. when casey beat -- when casey beat santorum in '06, the republican suburbs in philadelphia were lost by santorum only got about the vo. and just won't win pennsylvania without winning those suburbs. you're right about that. in a general election, i think santorum will have a lot of difficulty, mainly because i don't think he will do well in the philadelphia suburbs and the lehigh valley. >> and you think mitt romney's a stronger candidate ultimately? >> i think in -- yes. remember what's going on now? in the last couple of months, the santorum surge, he was up to

30 to 35, well, the same is true in a sense in pennsylvania. and you were accurate when you said it doesn't surprise anybody in his home state that he would rise. and remember, we're polling in a closed primary in pennsylvania, republican voters, so you would expect him to come up. but overall, given pennsylvania's sort of centrist tilt over the decades, my judgment, i think romney would be a stronger general election candidate than santorum, you know, depending on how obviously the election goes. >> all right. terry, good to talk to you, sir. >> thank you very much, chuck. >> all right. sad news to report. we learned that conservative publisher andrew breitbart died. he passed away unexpectedly after midnight in los angeles. we have lost a husband, father, son, dear brother, a patriot, and a happy warrior. our condolences to andrew, his

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♪ you can spell. [ male announcer ] the capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? ha ha. ♪ you're looking at live pictures here. it's the mitt romney event in fargo, north dakota. welcome to super tuesday week. you never know where everybody's going to be. romney's making the rounds on the campaign trail and those familiar concerns about his inability to connect with voters seem to be following them along the way. let's bring in karen finney. and national political editor for the associated press ana finefield, welcome all. what's interesting is romney and santorum are finding themselves on the defensive on very things they said, how they connect. i'll play you a clip of romney yesterday was asked why he's somewhat mechanical during the

debate. here's romney's response. >> it seems like the media portrays you you don't have a heart. show the american people you have a lot of heart and you love americans. >> we stand there all in our suits, you know, and all wearing white shirts, blue suits and black shoes and either a red or a blue tie. we all stand there looking somewhat alike and get 60 seconds to answer questions like how would you bring peace to the world, all right. and, and settings like that, people don't get to know you very well. >> and i'm going to start with you. he has had more trouble with this than most. my theory is he's running uncomfortably in an ideological primary. and maybe that's it. but everybody's got a theory. >> right, i think he's trying too hard. he doesn't have the common touch. this is what he keeps making is the mistakes because he's trying to seem like the natural guy, man of the people.

and he doesn't have it. i've been talking to a lot of his friends and classmates and former colleagues. they all tell me, mitt's a great guy, a joker in person. if only you'd got to know him, but the problem here most american voters don't get to know him. >> i heard the same thing about al gore. and i've heard this, man, let me tell you, he tells a mean joke. and i've heard this about romney. >> either you have it or you don't when it comes to being in a crowd of people. let's say about everyone. it's hard to see us in a crowd of people and really be yourself. not everyone is bill clinton, right? but i think what is striking here is this came from a voter. so this notion that -- >> yeah. it wasn't media driven. >> no, it wasn't at all. the notion that he's a caricature almost of himself. and it was baked into -- >> right. >> with al gore, his staff figured out, okay, you know what? we're not going to try to do the

big bill clinton speech, let's do smaller environments where he shines and can do better. please don't talk about sports or cars, please don't talk about anything. please just -- >> now, of course, his opponent has the exact opposite problem. it's all out there. santorum in some ways asked about that yesterday. >> you're going to say things that, you know, you look and say, well, maybe i should have used a different term. yes, do i get fired up? sometimes i say things that are a little strong, but you know what? people out here as you were talking about, people are upset, they know this country is in trouble and want somebody who is going to go out there and fight against obama. >> is that santorum's biggest advantage? he is who he is? >> wow. >> no, but that's what voters are seeing. certainly we've been talking about the swing voter thing, but maybe that is why oddly enough he's got his connective tissue. >> you know, here's the thing, i think at the end of the day, he's so angry.

and i think that does -- independent voters, but even my folks, the catholics didn't go for it in michigan. it's the anger and at some point democrats learned this in 2004, it's not enough to just be angry and i'm not that guy, you've got to offer some kind of positive vision. and at the same time, these guys are running against barack obama who look at how he was at the uaw, he is comfortable in the role, he can connect with people. he's far better at this point at i think articulating what people are thinking and feeling. i mean, puking at john f. kennedy's speech? >> and you do wonder if they did play -- if you wonder how older voters voted. you don't know how. it is smack in between. santorum's home state and romney's childhood home state. >> right. >> what's it better to be in ohio? a michigander or a pennsylvanian? >> that's tough. that depends on who you ask, but the point here is, i think, the race in ohio is very much like the race in michigan and like

the race in pennsylvania would be. >> and ann, when you see santorum just simply be who he is. is that his advantage? >> yeah, i think it it s. i th what we are seeing with santorum is that really is who he is. he is not like romney trying to be like someone else. he is who he is. we are going to talk about who tla. an interesting interview the president did. trivia time. only eight women in history have served in both houses of congress. six of them are still suvg. we asked you to name them. the answers. senator barbara boxer, cantwell, debbie stabenow. why aren't we giving you the other one? i'm blanking on it, too. i'll give it to you. we'll be right back.

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over the last five years how many times have you envisioned welcoming the world champion chicago bulls to the white house? >> every year and it hasn't happened yet but it will happen. >> it will happen. you are guaranteeing it. >> well, you know, i have another five years here. somewhere along the line my bulls are going to come through here. absolutely. >> five years. how about that. let's bring back our panel. i throw this out there. the president feeling his oats a little bit. he is doing all of these little interviews while romney is sitting there. this picture right now of what romney is having to deal with and what the president gets to do from the formal state dinner honoring iraq, that, sports interviews and this. >> that is the stage of being

presidential. absolutely. you get the music coming in and the flags and the plane, absolutely. president obama actually seems more comfortable in the role than i think he did before. >> you would hope, thankly. >> and that's the thing, three years in they are always a little bit, that's an advantage. romney is not getting better as a candidate. >> i'm going to play a clip and i want you to ask yourself, could mitt romney have had this conversation with espn. >> my crossover is solid. >> have you noticed that there is a notable difference in the way people defend you since you have become president? >> i'm always getting knocked around. reggie love, my former aid who played at duke. he is now getting his mba. he answered anybody who said that people took it seizeasy on.

he said nobody takes it easy on obama because if he beats them they won't hear the end of it. >> romney talks about sports. this is an advantage bush had over kerry and gore. >> when mitt romney talks about sport it makes me think of polo anduating. -- yacht. >> there it is. >> i am going to be joining john louis and others for the civil rights pilgrimage in alabama this weekend. so props to john louis and all of those who will be there with reverend al. >> house of stone, the memoir

came out this week. i'm half way through it. it's amazing. coming up next chris jansing. have a great day. the employee of the month is...

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