north dakota, giving his campaign just enough juice to keep going. newt gingrich, the self-described tortoise in the race, as you heard off the top of the hour, swept his home state of georgia, the only super tuesday prize where the former house speaker finished in the top two. mitt romney talked about this fierce fight ahead. and he did that on cnbc "squawk box." take a listen. >> we've got the time and the resources and a plan to get all the delegates. we think that will get done before the convention, but one thing i can tell you for sure is, there's not going to be a brokered convention where some new person comes in and becomes a nominee. it's going to be one of the four people that are still running. >> so let's bring in our panel, liz, editor for associated press, nbc senior political editor mark murray, bob schrum, adviser to bob kerrey, and it is great to have you all here as we

have our super tuesday hangovers together. liz, let's talk to you first. mitt romney pulls off the upset in ohio. "the cincinnati enquirer" nailed it saying "romney takes ohio barely," it's like the fight of the century, but if we take a look at this map, santorum taking nearly every ohio county, what does this do to the perception that he can't close the deal? >> well, i think what's happened is that rick santorum has solidified his standing as chief alternative to romney. in doing so highlighted the main issue romney has had throughout the past year which is he just can't seem to consolidate the conservative base. as we move forward, this is romney's big challenge. he can't win in the south, can't consolidate the conservative base. when was the last time there was a gop nominee who couldn't win in the geographical base of his own party? that's his challenge going forward. how does he overcome that? >> bob, let's look at exit polls

together. mitt romney continuing to struggle with core conservatives. 38% of ohio republicans, 49% of tennessee republicans say he's not conservative enough for them. blue collar conservatives having their doubts as well, only 33% of republicans making less than $100,000 a year picked mitt at their man. what do these numbers say about him in those states and his campaign in general? >> well, he's going to be nominated by rekals trant republican party. they don't want him. on that "squawk box" interview he said he carried states across the country from alaska to vermont. he carried idaho, very heavily mormon dominated caucuses. he carried new england, which is surely going to be a loss to him in the fall. he has yet to convince the core of the republican party, the heart of the republican party, that they can trust him. that's why i think this process will be prolonged. i think santorum will keep going. and i think to romney's benefit, gingrich is going to keep going.

if gingrich got out, i think-m would be in real trouble. >> the dynamic would shift. let's look at total delegates. romney picked up 212 delegates, half of the total number at stake. nbc news projects he'll walk away with 219 once have been allocated. that's a long way from that big number. how big is the toll taking on romney as he tries to limp along to get to the convention in florida? >> well, we're still only in the first week of march. from yesterday it is exactly eight months until november, so i think we've got a lot way to go. i know republicans have been saying, this makes these candidates stronger. romney has been running for 5 1/2 years. this is as good as he's going to get at being a solid. he can -- you can put him in the five-hole all day and be great. but what i think it means, i'll be interested to hear what my colleagues have to say about

this. if romney had won straight through from new hampshire through nevada, and wrapped the thing up, conservatives would have had a legitimate claim to the fact that the eastern establishment picked their candidate, funded their candidate and conservatives never got a shot. i think it may well be after this process is over, after perry, cain, bachmann, conservatives will say, our guy had their chance. romney beat us. we'll get behind him. romney may not have been our first choice but obama is our last choice. >> i was asking someone about super tuesday. she asked about romney and she said, that's the guy with the good hair and all those problems. >> that's what people say about me. >> i resemble that remark. >> we talk about rick santorum. he really did have a strong night. so, you know, obviously in ohio, he's really -- we talk about barely coming in second there. but if he has this big problem

with newt gingrich staying in the race, he's trying to elbow him out, let's talk about that dynamic shift, though. if newt were to leave this race, how does it change? >> if newt left the race, you look at every piece of data and they all tell you most of his voters, vast majority of his voters go to santorum would really complicate this from romney. i don't think there's a chance newt's going to leave in the immediate future. i think he listens to his own mousse, his own mousse tells him to keep going. he's the same kind of both brilliant and erratic guy he was when he was speaker of the house. he sees this as his last chance at the national spotlight. so i think he's going to stay there. you know, maybe romney ought to run with him because he may be the person that helps romney get this nomination. >> mark, let's get you in now because we set you up perfectly to talk about the numbers in all of this and the delegate count. what happens if newt gingrich continues to stay in this? does he really have a chance, or is this just basically his ego in the way of wanting to bloody up romney before he gets to

florida? >> everyone right now has a mathematical chance. the thing is that mitt romney has the overwhelming chance of getting the 1144 delegates needed to capture the republican nomination. if you're rick santorum, if you're newt gingrich, the thing is, you can stay in. we've actually projected, if you win 60% of the remaining delegates, you can get that 1144 number. the hard thing is actually getting those -- all those remaining delegates. a lot are divided up proportionally. if you assumed mitt romney is going to win in some states he's going to benefit again more contests than new england, in the northeast, then you bump up that number to about 70%. so, the math is very -- it's not impossible but it's very difficult. >> at what point does this go from being strictly business to strictly personal, though? >> but it's already been very personal. that's the damaging thing for mitt romney and the republican party right now. we had our recent nbc/wall street journal poll. the last month and a half has taken a toll on the republican party. even if mitt romney, everything breaks his way, he's probably not going to wrap up that 1144 magic number until may. so, we have potentially another

month and a half, two months of this. >> liz, let's go back to ohio. women voters helping out mitt romney there. he won having a strong lead with unmarried working women, way ahead with female voters who believe abortion should be legal. in your estimation, can romney repair the damage going forward, the women that have been kind of repelled from underneath the republican party tent through all this social talk on the campaign trail, contraception, other issues? >> yeah, this is going to be his challenge in a general election. you saw president obama weigh into this yesterday, where he said, he believes that the democrats have a better story to tell on women, to tell female voters than republicans do. you know, romney has got a significant number of challenges coming out. what's clear, focusing on independents and focusing on the women vote, female vote, this focus of social issues by gop has only played into president obama's hands. when you look at what happened

yesterday, he stood up at the white house and he was showing, you know, i'm president. look, i've made all these decisions. i have the experience. he was confident in showing the classic case of an incumbent president versus a gop challenger and one who still has a long -- a long way to go before he clinches the nomination. so, you're seeing in a matter of one day the contours of the general election starting to play out and why it's so difficult to beat an incumbent president. >> when the obama team looks at how women radar romney and the soft spots, what does it mean for them? as liz points out the key points the president made yesterday, bringing up the sandra fluke stuff and talking about his own daughters, how he wants them to grow up to have a mind of their own, speak out where they feel it's necessary and to be respected at the same time. >> i thought the president was politically very smart yesterday. and i think mark's absolutely right. romney's taken on a huge amount of water in the last month,

month and a half, partly because he's had to compete with this argument on social conservatives. he can't even bring himself to reprove rush limbaugh's remarks about sandra fluke in really vivid terms. he has a problem with women and social issues. secondly, he has a problem because the economy appears to be getting better. if it keeps getting better, if there's a decent jobs report on friday, the rationale for his candidacy begins to fray. right now, i think it's 95 or 97% of the ads the romney people ran in ohio were negative ads. he's trying to win this nomination by knocking out the other guys. in the process he's going to leave himself without much of a message for the general. he can't be the ceo to fix the economy if the economy is on its way to being fixed. >> rick santorum get women back under the tent, at least his? >> well, his women, yeah, sure, because they agreed with him in the first place. i don't think independent women, the kind -- the women that we're talking about today, i don't think he was ever part of the their -- they ever were ever

part of his calculation and they're never going to be which is one of the issues i think most republicans are are concerned about. but to bob's point, i think that's exactly right. you know, if the economy continues to do well, and who doesn't want that, we all have 401(k)s, then it does make it harder. that's why incumbent presidents have such an advantage. they can hold a press conference whenever they want. >> right. and remind everybody's who's president while everybody is trying to be president. thanks to my super wednesday panelists. thanks to all of you. appreciate it. a day after giving his first news conference of the year, president obama hits the road, heading to the critical battleground state of north carolina. can you guess how many times he's visited the tar heel state in the last six months? we've got that answer, a bunch more for you next. and west wing babies. how the popular tv show inspired a whole new generation of political operatives that are still having a huge impact today. carfirmation.

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the only way we're going to solve this problem over the medium and long term is with an all of the above strategy that says, we're going to increase production. we doubled fuel efficiency standards on cars, which will save consumers about $1.7 trillion. >> president obama there talking about gas prices in his first news conference of the year. right now he's on his way to the politically key state of north carolina where he's going to touchdown within the hour to deliver remarks about his economy. north carolina is the site of this summer's democratic convention and a state the president narrowly carried back in 2008. nbc news correspondent mike v joins me live from the white house. i went to break, left everybody hanging with the big question, how many visits has the

president had to the tar heel state. i start with you, how many in the recent months? >> reporter: you have given me a wonderful opportunity to give me a hat tip to the producer who went through the logs and found out that the number is ten visits to north carolina since the president came to the white house three years ago. four in the last six months alone. he was the first president to win north carolina, first democratic president since jeimy carter did it in 1976. a key part of his electoral strategy in the fall. look no further than the numbers we recited there. the first lady, vice president, vice president biden and michele obama have been there in the last ten days alone. the charlotte convention there. of course, the president chose car let to have the convention, democratic convention there this summer. it is not a given by any means that the president can win it again. thomas, a new local poll it is his handling of the economy, only 43% approve. 53% disapprove.

the president is going to be in mt. holly, north carolina, today visiting a daimler truck plant. he'll be talking about the resurgence of manufacturing in this country, a bright spot in the economy. he'll be talking about a surge in foreign investment in this country, another bright spot. and more incentives for americans to go ahead and buy some electric vehicles. as you know, the chevy volt, the president actually test drove one of those. sales lagging far behind. the president will double down on that, try to expand a tax credit, get more people into those cars, thomas. >> thank you, sir. just a programming note, the president expected to speak at 12:45 eastern. we'll have live coverage right here on msnbc. sir, we're not prejudice toward homosexuals. >> you just don't to want see them serve in the armed forces? >> no, i don't. >> that's what i think, too. i also think the military wasn't

designed to be an instrument of social chak. >> yes, sir. >> probably with that, is that's what they were saying about me 50 years ago. blacks shouldn't serve with whites, it would disrupt the unit. you know what, it did disrupt the unit. the unit got over it. the unit changed. i'm an admiral in the u.s. navy and chairman of the joints chief of staffs. beat that with a stick. >> you remember that, the episode of "the west wing" airing on nbc in 2000. a decade later president obama repealing don't ask, don't tell, and lbgt men and women openly serve in the military. the latest issue of "vanity fair," the writer talks about how the show sparked a new generation of political idealism. it's great to have you on set. >> it's great to be here. >> this is really interesting. you were a fan of this show. >> definitely, yes. >> now we talk about "the west wing" and this went off the air six years ago but hugely popular with viewers when it was on the air and set the tone for having these great, smart characters

men and women working together, witty banter back and forth trying to solve the world's problems. you talk about in this piece that people have been attracted to washington, d.c. because of watching that show. how does the reality match up with the fiction? >> the reality really doesn't match up with fiction. a lot of people i talk to who work in political journalism or the white house says the show was a sexier, more juicy version of real life in washington. but a lot of the characters' passion and commitment to their causes and beliefs demonstrated in the show is something people moved to washington really felt in a real way. there was a misconception that washington is very dry and people are cynical, but "the west wing" was revolutionary in that it showed people caring. >> you talk about the key to the success of the show being with aaron sorkin and the organization of what's taken place in washington, d.c. now in modern politics, he wrote the first four seasons, the show going off the air in '06, but

what do you mean the sorkinization of politics? >> it's just, i think, people growing up from a really young age, watching the show, learning how characters talk and basing their expectations on washington about sorkin's characters. and there was an interesting article in "the new york times," the star of harold and coupkume thinking he could order food very late at night because people on "the west wing" did. and things to the legislative process. people in high school and college when it was on -- >> a rude awakening, you can't get late night chinese at the white house in. >> allegedly. >> i got a tweet saying this show inspired him, sent me a picture of him with martin sheen. the show and the administration of the fictitious bartlett

administration. lbgt writes what was taking place in the modern world but when we think about the parallels between that you know, scripted administration, what we see in parallels of modern administration, are there some that can be linked together? >> so many. one of the most interesting and res nant once is first lady abby bartlett volunteered at a medical clinic in washington, d.c. and this made a lot of right wing republicans very angry. she shouldn't be volunteering in a medical clinic if her medical license is suspended, which was suspended because she had prescribed president barle ette drugs for his ms. in same way first lady obama's activism about fitness and healthy eating, people say that's an infringement on their civil rights. they should be able to eat what they want. it's really very similar. >> you can read all about this vanityfair.com blogger, fascinating read. you can check out the piece, the

influence of the next generation in stores or online. thanks again. coming up, the national urban league's plan to target the new voter i.d. laws in many stays. plus, apple is hours away of unveiling the next generation ipad. what the new version is expected to have. and then prince harry is jamaican the ladies crazy. well, the guys, too in some places.

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joining me is political analyst and author, earl hutchins. it's nice to see you today. as we know from reverend al's march and his reporting this week and today being the anniversary, minority voting rights remains a huge issue this campaign season. it's also, as i mentioned in the national urban league's latest report, as we take a peek at this, 31 states require all voters to show i.d. before voting. the report says the justice department now on this case. earl, now that congress hasn't done enough to protect voter rights in certain people's estimation, why has that not happened? what sort of political fallout could result from the inaction come november? >> well, i think several thing. as we well know, voting rights in many cases is under attack. we have three state attorney generals at this count and there may even be more in the future, that have actually signed on to a court challenge. shelby county, alabama, saying preclearance. justice department requiring all

states, that they change any voting requirements, they must get justice department preclearance. states attorney generals have signed onto that. there's a real possibility it could go up to the supreme court. that would jeopardize even more, if there was an adverse decision in federal appeals court and/or the supreme court essentially striking down some of the provisions of the 1965 voting rights act. the repercussions would be awesome. number one, congress at that point would be directly challenged to step in. some congress persons already are already beginning to call this whole assault on minority voting and voter suppression the war on voting. we're hearing that term. i think the second thing is that we would really begin to see, is that there would be a concerted effort, we're already seeing that on the part of the urban league, naacp and al sharpton, a converted effort of many in the democratic party, many civil rights activists and many of those that are concerned about

voting and voting rights expansion. i think you'll begin to see more challenges. not only in the court but also certainly congressional legislation and i think you'll see the obama administration get involved. >> earl, let's talk about the report also hammering home national urban league 12-point jobs plan to put america back to work. president obama has been hammering home the point that he sees higher education and jobs as a priority for all. what's the greatest obstacle for african-americans in items of both this being made a reality right now? >> well, i think the greatest obstacle is the -- the biggest thing that's been there all along, namely, the obstructionism on the part of many in the gop and the house of representatives. as we well known, the president and many democrats have consistently said, look, we have got to get the economy going. we have got to make jobs a priority. we have got to spend money to do that. there have been a number of initiatives from the obama administration and the democratic party leadership that has been proposed in congress time and time again.

and there's been certainly a great reluctance on the part of the gop house leadership and, in fact, many democrats, too, that are very conservative to essentially put those obstacles there. i think it's going to be the major issue, bar none, during this election cycle, jobs and the economy. if the obama administration continues to press their initiatives, education, too, but especially jobs, if they continue to press their initiatives and put congress on the defensive, i think that they're going to continue to try to use that to score political points. quite frankly, i think it would resonate well with the public. >> earl hutchinson, great to have you on. thank you. as santorum -- or a santorum super pac is calling on newt gingrich to quit, to get out of this race so that santorum can have a better chance at beating mitt romney. could he be persuaded? i'm going to ask somebody from the gingrich camp coming up. the end of an era in indianapolis. why the colts are getting rid of

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♪ fiber one 90 calorie brownies. in the granola bar aisle. we can add to iowa, missouri, minnesota, colorado, now oklahoma and tennessee. we have won in the west the midwest and the south and we're ready to win across this country. >> you know it's a big morning and rick santorum isn't sitting back and enjoying his super tuesday victories. the conservative candidate ramping up the pressure on newt gingrich to get out. nbc campaign andrew rafferty joins me to talk about this. what are you hearing behind the scenes, is this active campaign, conversations between those supporting the two candidates, talking about gingrich to leave? >> reporter: well, we can't say that for sure but we do know that last night the santorum campaign did not directly call

for gingrich to leave but they certainly did so indirectly. moments after santorum took off the stage at steubenville high school last night when a senior adviser came into the gym and talked to reporters saying, listen, the key for us going forward is that one-on-one match-up. it is very odd that really the biggest problem for the santorum campaign going forward is the guy they keep beating, newt gingrich, because in their mind they keep splitting the vote and they can't pose a real challenge for romney until gingrich gets out of the race. newt gingrich says he's not going anywhere one day after his home state win. the former house speaker is setting his sights on alabama. alabama, one of two southern states voting next week, and this morning gingrich is holding a rally at a hotel in montgomery after this interesting analogy last night. take a look. >> remember when it was tim pawlenty who was going to crowd me out? and remember then when it was

michele bachmann? now it's santorum. you just can't quite get across to them, it's all right. there are lots of bunny rabbits that run through. i'm the tortoise. i just take one step at a time. >> this morning is former ohio congressman bob mckeown. newt being the tortoise, describing himself as such in this race. evoking the idea of steady, consistent, but he's been anything but consistent when we see voters go to the poll. that means in items of a win. he won big in georgia. he has won in south carolina. not won anywhere else. how does newt gingrich consider himself so viable to keep going? >> well, as you know, in a four quarters, we're in the middle of the second quarter, much yet to be done. the next couple states coming up look very, very good for him. when you talk to people over the water fountain and you ask them, who do you think is best prepared to be president of the united states, everyone seems to

concede they know that it's newt. so whether you look at what's happening in north africa, if you look at 70% of the people feel we're on the wrong track, when you look at the president shut down 30% of the oil production in the gulf, 70% in the rest of the country, when you look at what newt has prepared to the longest serving professor in the history of defense university, how to create wealth, how to produce energy, how to -- >> but, bob, are those republican elites that think he's the best at doing this because the republican voters showing up aren't saying that? >> well, he's consistently going along. i'm not a pundit adviser to mr. romney, but i think if mr. romney were to run for president instead of attack all these folks that we wouldn't be where we are today. that people could understand what they stand for and what they do. newt is the only one that's balanced the budget, the only one that's had welfare

entitlement reform and the only one that has an energy policy. >> sir, just a few minutes ago we talked on the talk that santorum is trying to urge newt gingrich to drop out. we have results in oklahoma, in tennessee, showing gingrich taking nearly a third of the votes in those states. so, the longer he stays in, doesn't it just help mitt romney because you're splitting the vote there? >> well, i look at it this way -- you can quit in any ball game at any time. but the point is to finish the game and see who wins. we have much to go. we've only -- this is the first week of march. the election is at thanksgiving. so, let the people decide. the goal was to not do what we did four years ago, where by this time four years ago, mr. mccain was the nominee and then we had the rest of the year with nothing going on. california and these other states said, you know, we want to be a part of this, too. let texas decide, let the rest of the states. we're going to go to other states. as you know, it's significantly different than three weeks ago and it might be a lot different

three weeks from now. >> this is just in to us. romney brought in $11.5 million in february, second only to december in the campaign cash department. newt gingrich, he doesn't have that kind of cash, doesn't have that kind of chance to catch up cashwise at all, also doesn't have the chance to catch up delegatewise. what is the path to the nomination for a candidate like newt gingrich? >> it's simply ideas. there are those that run campaigns on money. those that run campaigns only on organization. this are others that run campaigns on ideas. you need all three. but the person that has the solution -- this is one of the few countries on earth that could be energy independent. and newt gingrich is committed to doing that. the why this keep him alive. others can rely more on finances. >> former congressman bob mcewen. thank you for your time. other stories topping the news now.

we want to you take a look at these flames. that's what's happening after a train and a fuel truck collided. this new video in from polk county, florida. the fuel truck reportedly drove into the path of a freight train. reports of one death. labor department officials are observing clean-up efforts across tornado-ravaged parts of the midwest and south. they're on site to make sure recovery workers and residents affected by the storms are mindful of potential safety hazards now. meantime an ohio woman found this wedding day photo of a couple she believes is from indiana. the photo landed in her backyard. during last week's storm. so, after 14 years of record league -- record for league mvp awards, peyton manning is parting ways with the indianapolis colts, who's expected to release him today after an agonizing and a lengthy recovery from neck surgery. he was sidelined for the entire 20 11 season because of that surgery. this move is going to free up

salary cap space for the colts while making manning arguably the most coveted free agent in nfl history. where will he go? prince harry shows off his dance moves during a visit to kingston, jamaica. the prince was visiting children and volunteer workers for at-risk youth when he was invited to dance to a republican addition of bob marley's "one love." looking pretty good, right? this isn't the first time we've seen one of the royals in action. prince harry's dad, prince charleses, busting a move with teens in this video back in 1980. earlier prince harry challenged jamaican sprinter usain bolt to a race and took off when bolt wasn't looking. ahead of friday's february jobs report, economists are predicting reasonably good numbers with new bloomberg survey projecting a growth of about 204,000 new jobs. meantime, the unemployment rate has dropped more rapidly than many expected, down to 8.3% in january from 9.1% in august. all good news, no doubt, for president obama. who's trying to bring that

number below the psychologically important barrier of 8% before election day. how can he hit that magic number? i'm joined by jarod bernstein, nbc and cnbc contributor. why is 8% so important and why is it that number really the make or break number when it comes to the president's re-election campaign? >> well, i don't think it is a make or break number. let me say it this way. any time you cross a barrier, whether it's the dow jones average crossing 13,000 or the unemployment rate hitting that 8.0%, a number with a zero after the decimal point, people make a big deal out of it. it means something. what really matters mostly for the president, though, is less a particular level of unemployment and more the direction that that rate is going in. if the unemployment rate, 8.3% last month -- i'm sorry, 8.3%

the month before, we'll learn about last month on friday, is 8.2%, 8.1%, i think he'll be able to make a case based on momentum. as you just said, it was 9% a few months ago. it peaked at 10%. it's really about momentum more than anytic level. >> but didn't the president agree with that number? doesn't he agree the number needs to be there? >> not really. i mean, the president did have -- and i was partly responsible for this, i should admit. when i was a member of the administration, we took the consensus forecast at the time -- now, this was in the fourth quarter of 2008. we looked at what we thought the unemployment rate would be well before we knew how bad the unemployment rate was going off the cliff. that's what gave you the 8% number. the administration has taken a ton of flack for that. in fact, it was clearly far too optimistic a forecast. once it became a reality, how deep the great recession was,

everybody -- the consensus among economist took that unemployment rate way up. again, it would be great for him to have 8%, no question about it, thomas, but if he's headed in the right direction, he has a strong argument. >> jared bernstein, great to see you today. thank you. so, this long, drawn out republican battle is taking an obvious toll on the republican party as a whole. last night's super tuesday split shows this continuing forecast tour within the party. each hopeful earning at least one delegate. what will it take for the gop to reach a consensus? that is the big question posed in an article in the latest edition of "the new yorker," can the gop save itself? joining is the writer of that piece, ryan. it's good to have you here this morning. you compared mitt romney to john mccain, a candidate who couldn't unite, inspire the gop as a whole. do you see any way romney can bring republicans together, almost re-gop the brand itself, seal the deal? >> well, he's actually on track to do a little bit worse than

mccain did in 2008. in 2008 john mccain was the first republican nominee to win his party's nomination without winning a majority of the voters in that process. mccain won 40% -- 47% of the voters, lost 53% of the voters to other candidates in 2008. and mitt romney right now, he's down to 40% out of about, you know, 8 million votes cast so far, he's won about 3 million roughly. so, he is a -- he's the 40% candidate in this race and has not been able to cobble together a majority this primary season so the republican party is on track to nominate for only the second time since we've moved to the primary system someone who did not win a majority of the primary and caucus voters. that's historically unique. >> it's important to bring up the tea party because you're talking about that as well, the

movement of the republican party to the more extreme right. how has that impacted the current primary process? and can they even look at mitt romney and think of him as a viable candidate if need be? >> well, there's some great irony in the -- in this party right now. the last ten years, the republican party has moved far to the right. in the last four years, or at least the three years of the obama administration, that process has accelerated. ten years ago self-described conservatives made up about 60% of the republican party. now it's over 70%. so, on the one hand you have a lurch to the right by the party and on the other hand you have the party nominating the most moderate of the candidates left. there's a lot of angst amongst conservative grass roots. we see that in xilt poll after exit poll with evangelical and very conservative voters. two self-described groups that romney has not been able to win

in primary after primary. so, you know, rick santorum is a factional candidate, right? obviously, he hasn't been able to build a broader coalition. and that's probably going to stay that way. but what we're watching and what we saw with super tuesday is mitt romney's inability to expand his coalition. he could still win anyway, but the question is, at the end of that process, having been unable to solidify the most conservative, most intense part of the republican party, the place where all the energy and excitement's been over the last few years, what does he do to bring those folks back into the fold? maybe it's a very conservative vice presidential running mate? >> right. >> but that's the question at the end of this process for romney, is after you go through a divisive primary like this, how do you bring those people back in? >> they're looking for something to get them from limping to leaping along. ryan, thank you. appreciate it. so, will it be the ipad 3 or

the ipad hd? what are they going to call this thing? apple soon unveiling it's new i product, whatever it's called we are taking bets all of you are probably out there waiting for this with baited breath and the future possibilities of you having that in your han. we'll talk about how soon this product is going to be out there in the marketplace. ♪ [ kareem ] i was fascinated by balsa wood airplanes since i was a kid. [ mike ] i always wondered how did an airplane get in the air. at ge aviation, we build jet engines. we lift people up off the ground to 35 thousand feet. these engines are built by hand with very precise assembly techniques. [ mike ] it's gonna fly people around the world.

safely and better than it's ever done before. it would be a real treat to hear this monster fire up. [ jaronda ] i think a lot of people, when they look at a jet engine, they see a big hunk of metal. but when i look at it, i see seth, mark, tom, and people like that who work on engines every day. [ tom ] i would love to see this thing fly. [ kareem ] it's a dream, honestly. there it is. oh, wow. that's so cool! yeah, that was awesome! [ cheering ] [ tom ] i wanna see that again. ♪ so how much do we owe you? that'll be $973.42. ya know, your rates and fees aren't exactly competitive. who do you think i am, quicken loans? [ spokesman ] when you refinance your mortgage with quicken loans, you'll find that our rates and fees are extremely competitive.

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get your swipe fingers ready ipad junkies because you're about to get an upgrade. the tech gurus at apple are expected to make a big splash when they unveil their new ipad. joining me now to talk about this is cnet.com executive, david conroy. it's great to have you here as we wait to find out exactly what this thing is going to give to the masses that want to see it. explain to all of us, steve jobs, he had involvement with this. obviously, he's not here to talk

about all the things that are going to come with this, but how much of his fingerprints are going to be all over this? >> they said they'd sort of planned out for the next four or five years the product road map for apple, so presumably they had a pretty good idea going out what this would be. apple. so presume ably they a had a good idea. it will be nice to see the presentation without jobs. >> what are we calling it? >> i've bet on ipad 3 and i have herd ipad hd, they may leave the ipad two on the market as a cheaper price. when we talk about apple having sold 55 million ipads so far. what are you doing? you have trying to hit me up from christmas from the control room, they are saying that is right. when are ipad lovers going to be able to get their hands on this?

>> that's a rumor that it's march 16th, hopefully there's a preorder option, might be easier to get it online. you'll have people that are both upgrading and also people who are getting rid of their ipad 2. >> do we know price point? >> starting at $499 for 16 gb, we will know in an hour what we are all waiting for. david, thanks again. that announcement coming up at 1:00. so joe the plumbar the congressman? yes. doming your way. i'm a marathon runner,

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bites the dust. 29 companies have punished ads from rush limbaugh's radio show. still fallout from the comments made about sandra fluke of course the rush controversy still stirring debate on the house floor. >> the truth is, what a radio talk show host thinks about sandra fluke thinks does not matter except for one point, the republican party is afraid of a man sitting behind his mike tonight. >> looking like dennis kucinich's career is over. he lost his re-election bid to ma ms. kupt and guess who she will

face off against? remember this guy? joe the plumber. his real name, wurzelbacher has become a national name. that will wrap it up for me. thank you for your time, "now" is coming up next. super tuesday hang over, alex? >> i never talk about hangovers on the air, super tuesday has come and gone, who is on first in the baseball game that and the republican primary. no one is hitting it out of the park and we are going to extra innings, we will talk with the in no way connect to the newt gingrich campaign, newt's super pac adviser. and president obama makes s -- [ male announcer ] we got a real mom

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