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morning, y'all. i got started right this morning with a business quit and cheesy grits. >> i have had grits before. if you don't understand grits, you don't understand the rest of the south. >> how important is it for you to pick up a southern state? >> i realize it's a bit of an away game. >> it would take an act of god for anyone else to become the nominee. >> if the governor thinks he's -- he's now ordained by god to win, then let's just have it out. >> i want to get some votes, i need some delegates. >> if we win mississippi, this would be a two-person race. >> some of his supporters thing gingrich should drop out of the race now. >> and we are staying in this race. >> if he wants to get out, i'm all for him getting out. i'm for everybody getting out. i wish president obama would just hand me the thing, but that's not going to happen. >> how do we understand this president and his time in office? do we look at the day's headlines or do we remember what we as a country have been through?

>> game on! ♪ >> i like cheese grits, i like grits with gravy, there's a number of ways you can have grits. >> i'm hungry. good morning. i'm chris jansing. it will be a big night for the republican base. tonight's primaries test the candidates strength in the south. you have heard them talk about their kin, eating barbecue and eating grits, but in mississippi and alabama where conservative evangelicals rule the candidates are trying to prove they are the most conservative. tonight could put another notch in mitt romney's belt or continue his questions to rally the republican faithful. nbc's mark murray is joining us now, and ari melbur writes for the nation. we have been saying for a couple weeks now if mitt romney wins it

will finally silence his critics. is tonight that important, ari? >> good morning to y'all as they say in the south. i think what's happened here is we know presidential politics are unfair and the goalposts are moving for rick santorum. there was a lot of attention on him making this argument. whether he does decent in southern states, which i'm give mitt romney some credit, it is a home game for santorum, not because of geography but because of social conservative issues, i don't think a strong showing is going to up-end the gop establishment that this is romney's. >> okay, so he's been eating grits and saying y'all. here's some reaction from regular folks in the south. >> when they start talking about grits and biscuits and gravy, it seems like they are kind of talking up to us. >> i don't think anyone is going to vote because they actually are hunters or they like cheese

grits, i don't think that really matters to most voters in the south. >> we need someone not to just say, you know, i came down here, i eight grits, i know what you need. >> so mark, what do you think, is romney just not conservative enough? is he not likable enough? do people not think he actually likes grits? >> i think this kind of goes with the problem mitt romney's had so far in the contest, and not just in the south, but places where he suffered with voters in the midwest or some of the caucus contests that we saw in colorado or minnesota. where mitt romney had his problems with evangelical voters, very conservative voters, sometimes tea party voters. the battleground is today in alabama and in mississippi. it is really the nerve center of today's republican party. and if mitt romney is able to close the deals, kind of be able to win one of the contests, you can prove to everyone that republicans, even the very conservative voters are beginning to rally around the

inevitable nominee. if he loses both, it will be a reminder yet again he does not done well with these types of voter who is really represent the base of today's republican party. >> i found one of the more interesting things said in the last couple of days, mitt romney was asked about being conservative enough and having to pick an uber conservative as his running mate, here's what he said. >> that would preclude rick santorum, because look at his record, i find it interesting that he continues to describe himself as the real conservative. rick santorum is not a person whose an economic conservative to my right. >> he thinks he's to the right of santorum. no romney/santorum ticket, ari? >> i don't think you are going to see that romney/santorum ticket. when asked about a general open-ended strong question, who is going to be potential your nominee, he's having to spend time pivoting back to taking santorum down. but look, mitt romney has been underestimated throughout this thing. if there's one attribute he has,

it's going negative effectively. he's had five different competitors who were supposed to be the alternative and each time he's come at them hard and negative. oh, he sounds awkward or uncomfortable, guess what? he doesn't sound as uncomfort able the person with the pile of negative advertising who keeps getting crushed. >> let's bring in ken blackwell for family empowerment at the family research institute. good morning. >> good morning, always good to be with you. >> i think you probably heard mitt romney say he's the far right economic conservative. do you buy that? >> well, look, here is the challenge, what voters are looking for are a solid, well-rounded portfolio conservative, and each of the candidates have their own individual weaknesses or soft areas. so what they are trying to do is harden up the soft areas right

now. romney's challenge is to distance himself from a big government agenda. in his case underscored by romney care that people are positioning as obama care in smaller form. >> is that the central part of the election for the republicans, and if so, it doesn't look like he's been able to do it yet, or do you think he has? >> well, i think that continues to be his challenge. and then on some social issues, he's been back and forth, back and forth. but look, rick santorum is not without his challenges, too. you know, if you listen to the romney camp, they outline, you know, issues of big government that rick santorum voted for where he said he took one for the team. but at the end of the day, both of these guys understand that whether you go back to bob dole or gerald ford or any middle of the road candidate, they have not fared well in the general

election. so they are both trying to sharpen up, harden up their conservative credentials across the board. >> well, a new poll shows rick santorum leads romney 2-is among evangelicals, but now 73%, 73% of republican primary voters think that romney will be the nominee regardless of whether you think he's the most conservative, is he going to win this on the electability issue? >> i think that's a strength he's going to play. look, this is a new game for the republican candidates with proportional delegation or allocation of delegates. so as a consequence, this is all about getting to that magic number of delegates. and they will, in fact, work their strengths all the way up. as long as there are more than two candidates in this race, that, i think, plays to a romney benefit. if any of the other candidates

could get into, gingrich or santorum, could get to a one-on-one race with romney, then i would think we would see this race tighten up and it probably wouldn't be over until at least may. >> well, that is interesting, ken blackwell, thank you for being with us. to his point, you know, we have been saying that this is a race that has been going on and on and on. and you just heard what rick santorum said, if we win mississippi, this will be a two-person race. is there any indication you see at all, mark murray, if newt gingrich goes 0-2 he goes away for good? >> he's been giving mixed signals. a few days ago he seemed to suggest he might go away and basically said we have to win alabama. we have to win mississippi. most recently he's kind of backed away from that comment saying he wants to do well in both states, but i think the consequence of what happens tonight is very portional on the

two-race front. if newt gingrich goes 0 for 2, he may not bow out immediately but the cries for him to do so among conservatives will be deafening. and i think you could end up seeing a situation in which he would leave, not immediately, but down the road. and, of course, a two-person race helps rick santorum tremendously, particularly as we look ahead to contests later this month in illinois. there was a recent "chicago tribune"/wgn poll showing a tight race in illinois between rick santorum and mitt romney. ahead mitt romney just slightly, but if rick santorum goes 2 for 2 tonight to give romney a run for his money, the perception battle would start tilting in santorum's direction. >> do you see newt getting out, arin the next week or two if he doesn't win either state tonight? >> i don't see it in the next week or two. my analysis of newt gingrich has a candidate is simple. i think he got in to make a

point then surprisingly ended up doing well, feeling like he was second and at one point called himself the front-runner. but i think he's back where he started. he's making a point. and the question for somebody like him unlike a rick santorum who really is an ideal candidate, for newt gingrich the question is, what is your relationship with the party, the nominee, fox news, all the places he may want to work again where he's worked before? i think this is a practical question for him. >> everybody insists they are staying in the race. here's the match-up between barack obama and there isn't that much difference between romney and obama and santorum and obama. look at that, they both get 44%. so statistically, insignificant. does that hurt the electability argument? >> i thought this was amazing, after all the attention that mitt romney had said and wanting

to live in the '50s and '40s with regards to women's rights that you would think would turn people off, but he does well nationally. at the end we are in the economic environment where people are looking strongly for alternatives to the president no matter what they may be. >> fascinating stuff. what is your prediction? >> i think romney will do okay. >> you think he'll win? >> i think he could win both. >> i don't we have an idea and it will be a fascinating election night. we shouldn't believe the polls at all. i'll be waiting until the results come in late tonight. >> that's a good tease, mark murray. thank you so much for coming on. ari melbur, thank you. militants hoped opened fire on a village where relatives were lost in sunday night's shooting spree. a u.s. army sergeant shot 16 villagers including children. the taliban is threatening to kill u.s. soldiers in retaliation.

and 2,000 students staged a protest. later in the program we'll have more on the 38-year-old suspect who reportedly suffered a traumatic brain injury in a previous deployment in iraq. wi! ♪ oh, my maltipoo's depressed. but my affordable prius c means i can pay for his acupuncture. whew. i love my pooch. oh no! my homemade sushi... turned p-ushi! use estimated 53 mpg to find a gluten-free alternative. look, this means i'm a chef. [ male announcer ] be a winner with the all-new prius c from toyota. ♪ like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate.

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millions of union workers are getting ready to mobilize for president obama. today he picks up the endorsement of the 12 million strong afl-cio, the nation's largest union. many union leaders are meeting in florida to prepare a turnout blitz pledging to spend $400 million to reelect the president and other democrats around the country. i'm joined now by mary cay henry, president of the seiu, which represents more than 2 million unionized workers nationwide. good to see you again. good morning. >> good morning, chris. >> i know you were in wisconsin this weekend at a rally.

we have tweet pics of it marking the end of the law that stripped unions of many of their rights. i know that's been a motivated factor for union members. tell me about seiu's plans to mobilize. >> our members think we need to stand with the 99% and unite across the labor union, across communities, students with our elders, to make the case that this election is about our vision for america. and whether we can be the 99% that stands for the 100%. make sure everybody pays their fair share. gets america back to work, gets our economy going again, and makes sure that everybody has an equal voice in our democracy. >> there's a new poll out this morning that is not very good for the president. his approval rating plummeted to an all-time low. and gas prices have a lot to do with that. i saw a statistic on your website. the average union member makesless than $50,000 a year. obviously, gas prices are very

important for them. do you think this is going to be a big problem for the president? is it going to hurt him among your union members? >> i don't think it's a problem for the president. i think it's a problem for the country. and that this president has been leading on how to as a nation get the economy going again and make the economy efficient and green. and so for us it's about educating our members, helping them understand who broke the economy, how the president has been part of the solution, not part of the problem. and getting the 1% in this country to pay their fair share through corporate taxes and through a tax system that works for everybody. >> there's another system that's been in the talk a lot, and that is super pacs, campaign financing. i know your union plans to join others in protesting against the companies that contribute to these super pacs in the effort to embarrass them. but i talked to republicans about this and here's what they say. they say, look, unions are planning to spend around $400 million in this election.

how is that different than what we're doing? we are advocating for positions we believe in. what would you say to them? >> i don't think this election should be about money. i think we need to get the sort of unfedered corporate money that has flooded this knack acy out of the system. and that we need to understand that this is about individual citizens of america being able to exercise their right to vote. and that's why these voting rights, laws that are being passed all across the country in state legislatures, go to the heart of whether we are going to be a democracy for everybody in this country or just people that are rich, wealthy or corporations that don't pay their fair share. >> let me pick up on that, if you'll hang with us, this fate of the voter id law in texas is going to be decided by a federal court after objections by the obama justice department. let me bring in justice correspondent pete williams, pete, tell us about the basis of the federal government's objection. >> first of all, hispanics as a group historically and by the

current numbers, traditionally and also currently, disproportionally don't have the right kind of documents, don't have photo ids. the state said they can go get one, but the justice department in its let tore the state yesterday said that 81 texas counties don't have a driver's license office where you grow to get fingerprinted. there's also the cost. finally the justice department said texas failed to supply evidence of a significant amount of in-person voter fraud that would justify the additional requirement to vote. now the proponents of this in the state of texas say you need photo ids to stop fraud. the state attorney general said he's prosecuted already 50 cases and that it's very hard to prove voter fraud without the photo ids. that's why they want them. texas is going to pursue it to true to get it out of federal court. >> let me go back to mary cay henry, who you concerned are you on the impact of these laws on your members? >> we are very concerned.

i think the thing to note here, chris, is that the billionaire corps brothers finance the exchange council to move these into 33 state legislatures in the past two years. so that 5 million voters have been purged for the roles in states where similar laws have been passed to the one in texas. and it isn't about the fraud. when you think about 50 voters out of the millions of people that vote in this country, this is a smoke screen for trying to suppress a vote that i think the coke brothers are concerned about, where the 99% is for the 100%. that's the real debate we should be having about the voter id laws, not this fraud question. but this question of whether we are going to allow each and every citizen to participate by exercising their right to vote, that people fought and died for in the 1960s in this country. >> mary kay henry, good to have

you on the program. >> thank you. just 136 days until the start of the summer olympics and the white house just announced michelle obama will lead the u.s. delegation to london. today mrs. obama is hosting a mini olympic competition for d.c. area kids at american university. britain's first lady who is visiting the u.s. with her husband is expected to join her. i recommend she not get into a push-up contest with michelle obama. progresso. it fits! fantastic! [ man ] pro-gresso they fit! okay-y... okay??? i've been eating progresso and now my favorite old jeans...fit. okay is there a woman i can talk to? [ male announcer ] progresso. 40 soups 100 calories or less. then don't get nickle and dimed by high cost investments and annoying account fees. at e-trade, our free easy-to-use online tools and experienced retirement specialists can help you build a personalized plan.

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championship for us. >> in other political sports news, president obama and british prime minister david cameron will head dayton, ohio, later today for the ncaa turn. they will watch mississippi valley state play western kentucky. interesting to note, they're skipping the second game between iona and byu, mitt rom northeast's alma mater. and a federal voice recorded a robo call for newt gingrich, chuck norris. >> hello, this is chuck norris. and my wife jean and i watched the gop debate and went to their website. we were trying to decide which of the candidates would be best to do head-to-head combat with president obama. i didn't say hand-to-hand combat, even though i think they would win there, too. jean and i decided newt gingrich would be the best man to beat president obama. and if you're checking your status update on facebook, maybe you're seeing many angry political posts from one

particular person. because a new study finds 18% of facebook users have blocked, unfriended or hidden someone because of politics. sound familiar? maybe not. well, you can vote on our facebook page. facebook/jansingco. the voters in two key southern states are voting today. can mitt romney finally win in the deep south? that's next. [ sniffs ] i have a cold. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesn't treat that. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ deep breath ] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. that's the cold truth!

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the polls are open in alabama and mississippi. and polls show a tighter than expected race. can mitt romney win in the deep south? and if rick santorum wins, does it force newt gingrich out? nbc's john yang has been talking to voters in helena, alabama, near birmingham. john, good morning, what are they telling you? >> reporter: good morning, chris. the polls have been open here for a couple hours now. a steady stream of voters coming

in and out of here. no long lines but a steady stream of voters. and we did talk to some of them to find out how they voted. >> i voted for rick santorum. >> why? >> i felt like i liked his record, i like his pro-life stance. i like his fiscal conservativism. i don't suppose i was completely sure until this morning who i was going to vote for. >> i voted for romney. >> can you tell me why? >> i just felt like he's a little bit more in touch with everybody and a little more open to issues for everyone. and not so dead-set in his conservative ways. >> when it came down to education, that was a real deciding factor to switch to newt. >> reporter: newt gingrich has a lot at stake here today. he hasn't won since south carolina and georgia. his home state next door. he's putting a lot of emphasis here. he says he's going to go on to the convention no matter what, but he's still campaigning here today. the only candidate who is. he's going to speak to the local

chamber of commerce. his wife, can police ta, is going to the university of alabama birmingham medical center. but a trip to the zoo, the birmingham zoo, one of his fate river favorite thing to do was to go to the zoo, has been canceled because of the rain. >> okay, no trips to the zoo today. thank you, john. more of our special tuesday coverage in a minute, but first some other stories people are talking about right now. we are watching atlanta's international airport this morning to see if there are any residual delays after a delta airline 737 rolled off the runway. no passengers were onboard and nobody was hurt. mechanics have been testing the plane's engines when they had a problem with the braking system to cause the plane to roll into an embankment. live pictures from new jersey where attorneys are giving closing arguments in the so-called rutgers web cam trial. daren rob biis accused of using a web cam to spy on his

roommate's romantic encounter with another man. he is facing up to ten years behind bars. how much is too much when it comes to steaks and burgers? people who ate a serving of red meat a day had a 13% higher risk of death than those who ate very little meat. processed meat increased the risk to 20%. but researchers say eating meat up to three times a meat should be okay. secretary of defense leon panetta says the american soldier suspected of killing 16 civilians in afghanistan could face the death penalty. and officials are now saying that the 38-year-old staff sergeant was treated for a traumatic brain injury in 2010. and he was medicated for some time. he had served three combat tours in iraq before arriving in afghanistan last december. his wife and two children are now in protective custody. nbc's atia abaw sirks joining me from kabul,

afghanistan where, the first protest against the tragedy happened today. good morning, what's the latest on the ground there? >> reporter: good morning, chris. we saw the first protest today in eastern afghanistan. it pretty much ended peacefully, although they did burn an effigy of president obama. it was primarily comprised of university students from the city. we did see some violence in kandahar province. in fact, the allegation that included two of hamid karzai's brothers. they were at a mosque in one of the villages that went under attack on sunday. they went to pray for the victims. the taliban started shooting in their directioning but in the end an afghan soldier and civilian were injured. >> we haven't seen the same reaction that we saw after the koran burnings, though. why do you think that is? >> reporter: well, what's interesting has been we have been waiting for the protests to begin, especially after we saw just a few weeks ago what happened with the koran

burnings. but when you think about afghanistan, afghanistan is comprised of rural villages throughout the whole country that don't have tvs, don't have computers, so they are not seeing the picture os of the victims. if you think about the last ten years, they have heard time and time again about civilian casualties whether done by nato or the taliban, so they have heard it before. but when you look at the koran burnings, we have not seen that in the last ten years. possibly some afghans see this as another incident where nato struck afghan civilians. >> atia, thank you for the update. i want to bring in washington democratic senator patty murray. good morning, senator, good to see you. >> good morning. >> "the new york times" is reporting that the obama administration is considering reducing the number of u.s. troops in afghanistan by an additional 20,000 or more by 2013. i know that you supported the earlier withdrawal. given what we are seeing in afghanistan over the last month, do you think there will be more movement to get out?

>> well, look what happened in afghanistan with this soldier is horrendous, tragic, and he needs to be brought to justice. i think that's extremely important. we don't know all the facts yet today, but i think that we all have to be asking serious questions. after ten years at war, are we dealing with mental health issues in the services as we should be? are people being sent back or sent home, out into communities without the proper treatment? is mental health the stigma of mental health really being taken seriously? have we been there ten years and have troops who are weary? we have to find out the answers to these questions. i for one have long called to bring our troops home sooner. and i certainly think that as the questions and answers come forward we'll know how many more people will agree with that. >> you know more about this than a lot of people because you share the senate committee on veterans affairs, and frankly after we learned that the soldier had been treated for

traumatic brain injury, there was a collective gasp, i heard, from a number of people with questions being raised on how this could happen. from what you know, what are we not doing that we should for the returning soldiers? >> again, we don't know specifically about this soldier, enough yet, to know the answer to him. but i do have, and i think we need to be asking the questions, about whether or not we are treating ptsd and mental health and tbi correctly. are we evaluating the soldiers correctly? are they being not treated because of a concern about cost, which is a very serious issue. we need to know the answer to that. again, ten years into a war, war weary, are we doing the right thing with soldiers on the ground getting the support and ability they need to do the job we've asked them to do? these are serious questions i'm going to keep pushing and we need answers to them. >> there's another topic important to you that's been very much in the news here at home.

and that is the contraception fight. you were one of 12 democratic women in the senate that sent a letter h abandon plans to continue the fight against contraception coverage in the house. and he refused. what's your next step? >> well, look, there are serious issues in this country. the economy, getting people back to work, what's happening in afghanistan, the need we have to focus on both here and at home and abroad for the speaker of the house to say he's going to bring up an amendment that goes after a core issue for women, and that's their ability to control their own decisions about contraception, to me is just the wrong way to go. we have asked him to just move off that issue, leave it alone, let america's women make their own health care decisions, i hope he does the right thing. >> it has been interesting to see how this is all playing out. and i think the most recent poll that i just saw this morning show there was something of a split, actually, in how women feel about mandatory health

coverage for religious organizations. but both sides, republicans and democrats, think this is a winning issue for them in november. how important do you think this will be in the election, and will it work in the democrats favor? >> i think women don't believe that their employer should decide whether or not they have access to contraceptives. and i think that's a very large majority of women in this country. that's the issue. that's what we're fighting back against. and we're going to continue to do that. >> senator patty murray, a pleasure to have you on the program. thank you so much. and i'm sure we'll keep up with you as you work with this issue with veterans returning. thank you so much. there is another report out today that's giving a boost to the president's re-election argument. it's a survey that finds optimism among the nation's employers is gaining momentum. cnbc's mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. give us the new takeaways from the survey. >> the survey just released by

manpower reveals that employers in all 50 states intend to increase payrolls during the three-month period ending in june. of the surveyed employers, 18% anticipate the increase in staffing levels in their second quarter hiring plans while only 6% expect a decrease. 72%, however, expect no change in their staffing, but obviously that's better than decreasing. and the final 4% of employers are basically uncertain. the bottom line here is, chris, these are the most positive hiring intentions that we have seen since 2008. where are the metropolitan areas for the best hiring outlooks this spring? south carolina and tennessee. >> okay. let me ask you about something that even among our staff, we think we have heard everything in the news business, it raised some eyebrows this morning, police around the nation are reporting a rash of thefts of tide laundry detergent? >> yes, it is totally bizarre.

a fifth of tide has become so rampant that cities are setting up special task forces to stop it. cvs are locking it down. apparently tide has become a form of currency on the streets. the retail price is roughly $10 to $20 a bottle. it can go for $5 to $10 a bottle on the black market. authorities say some thieves are reselling it to stores. so check out this surveillance video from a maryland supermarket. the suspect loads his cart with about 15 to 20 bottles of tide and then takes off out of the store to get into a waiting getaway car. his accomplice is seen on the security tape sell iing this to nail salon. >> mandy, thank you so much. a big move to the movie business for walmart this afternoon. the world's biggest retailer will join ultraviolate. a service to allow you to purchase store copies of tv

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[ chris ] quicken loans constantly kept us updated and got us through the process twice now. quicken loans is definitely engineered to amaze. they were just really there for us. he learned from a jeff foxworthy routine. if you have a car on your front lawn because your garage only holds five cars, if you go to the diner and order your eggs fat brouget, if you think clover field was a movie about your butler, you might be a romney. >> comedy central's jon stewart

talked to mitt romney about bringing up cheese grits and saying y'all while trying to connect with voters. romney has had a hard time connecting with the evangelicals. richard luis is here with more. >> good morning. mitt romney hopes he does not get a repeat. nbc news scientific polls show romney did not win in a primary with more than half the voters being evangelical. today's challenge, about 2/3 of alabama voters here are evangelicals. well into this red area where romney does not do well. mississippi is even more difficult. it has an estimated 3/4 evangelicals voting in today's contest. this is bad area here for romney. now, these five states are where evangelicals were a majority of the voters in this space.

and in these cases romney trailed santorum and gingrich by an average of 20 points. the same is true for votes in all states that we evaluated. romney trailed up to 30 points here. you can just see the difference we van gel calls. so who are these voters, these evangelicals? 2/3 are protestants, 1/7 are catholics. romney's strategy to offset this is to focus on his economic electability strengths. >> ultimately i believe i'm going to become the nominee and the reason is we want to have someone who can actually beat barack obama. >> also in his favor, newt gingrich and rick santorum could split the evangelical vote, leaving romney at the top. and romney spending triple or quadruple his opponents at the moment are usually smelling victory. romney is trying to offset what evangelical leaders say are a lack of relationships and plain old zing. >> we'll learn about this

tonight. thank you so much, richard. we talked about romney's challenge and now we'll talk about the president's challenge on the economy. just 20 minutes from now president obama will announce new efforts to enforce u.s. trade rights with china in a speech from the white house rose garden. that comes as the new poll shows president obama has taken a hit. his job approval rating now at 41%. a 9-point drop from just last month. an all-time low for the president in the cbs/new york times poll. cnbc chief washington correspondent john harwood is joining me now. >> good morning, chris. >> the president's approval rating was going up and up and in the blink of an eye a staggering 9-point drop. what turned things around so quickly, do we snow in. >> well, first of all, we don't know for sure he's really at 41%. one poll was an indication, you got to wait to see it affirmed by others. gallop has it at 49%. we had him in our nbc/wall street poll at 49%.

but assume as in the washington poll/abc news poll that showed him at 46% and going down, he's taken a hit in the last few days, and partly that's clearly a result of gas prices, which is very much in the news and very much in people's pocketbooks. and the president has got a vulnerability there and has a vulnerability on the economy broadly, that's one of the reasons he could be bringing this trade case against china. he's getting pressure from mitt romney on the republican side about getting tougher on china, which has been kind of a boogieman in u.s. politics, so the president is trying to step up to show the american people he's tough. yesterday he was on the defensive on gas prices. >> let me talk to you about that. the president said 54% of those in the new poll say the president can do more to control prices, but here's what he did have to say yesterday. >> i think the american people understand that we don't have a silver bullet when it comes to gas prices, but they are hurting right now. it's like a tax on your paycheck every time you fill up.

and so what i've instructed my team to do, we are looking at every single thing we can do from relieving bottlenecks to trying to see if we can impact internationally, how the markets are operating. >> in fact, his team is starting an all-out media blitz to contain the damage from high gas prices, but he has a tough road ahead. you talk to any oil analyst, you talk to economists, they say what he can do is pretty limited, right? at least in the short-term. >> exactly. we have heard every recent president make similar statements. i can remember hearing the same thing from george w. bush when gas prices were high in the latter part of his administration. you can't wave a wand to lower gas prices. newt gingrich is saying he'll produce $2.50 per gallon gas. i don't think anyone believes that is a realistic policy that a president could pursue. what this president's got to do is hope that the concerns that have rattled the oil markets about iran and instability in the middle east can somehow calm

down so that the gas price spikes, which you expect to happen in the summer anyway, aren't going to be so extreme, that they tank the economic recovery. >> i wouldn't be surprised, would you, if we start hearing about this more from the republicans on the campaign trail, given what we are seeing in the polls. >> no question about it, especially as the job market gets better. as overall economic conditions improve somewhat, the economy is growing, unemployment has been coming down, the employers added 200,000 jobs last month, republicans are looking for other points of vulnerability on the economy and gas prices are topic a right now. >> john harwood, thank you so much. we'll hear from the president in just about 15 minutes from now. and today's tweet of the day comes from the hotlines reed wilson with a fun fact. this weekend barbara mccull ski will spend her 12,558th day as senator backing longest serving woman in congress's history.

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