>> everybody, including these two teams are thinking maybe i'll be the cinderella this year. that's what makes it a great tournament. we start with what's on everyone's mind from teenagers to retired folk to even the president. who will win march madness? no, not that march madness. the other one with more gaffes and less inspired play. yes, that's the one. as they say in basketball, it's anybody's game. let's take a look at the top three. earning the third is newton leroy gingrich he's confident. he's a once in a lifetime shot away from upsetting the favorite. he's got a problem. the key assist from key super

pac benefactor is fading away. he's a ball hog with no shot, and needs to sit down and ride pine. of course, that's not how he sees it. >> the thing i find most disheartening about this campaign is the difficulty of talking about positive ideas on large scale because the news media can't cover it and my opponents can't comprehend it. >> the guy is a genius, just ask him. rick santorum, fresh off some impressive scc wins in alabama and mississippi. how did he win them? he's tebowing. >> every day when i talk to people all over this country, the first thing they almost always say to me, i prayed for you. it works. >> while watchers get excited about a small program with some big wins, there's a flip side. santorum has the problem a lot

of small programs he. he lacks the resources to attract big talent that wins these. a small staff has made it difficult to qualify for major number of delegates in several states. there's those mental errors that always kill you. these remarks. >> they'd have to speak english. that would be a requirement. it's a requirement that we put on other states and it's a condition for entering the union if you're going to participate as state in the united states. we are not doing anybody on this island a favor by not following the law, which is that this is a society that will speak english. >> that's a technical foul if many in the latino community. mitt romney leads the league in rebounds so far. everyone thinks he's the kentucky of the best with the best, clearest path to victory. he stumbled along the way and can't seem to win his

conference. hard-core conservatives don't trust him and he got a stern talking to from some say they are the fox news who questioned if his head was really in the game. >> you've been making soft gaffes. you talking about people ask you about football, you talk about how you know the nfl owners. you talk about nascar, you know some racing owners. people say he can't relate. he's so rich he can't relate to the rest of us. why you keep doing that? >> i made a lot of money. i've been very successful. i'm not going to apologize for that. >> the winner out of this will face the defending champb, president obama. his poll numbers are over the place. some believe his fan base is tired while others question his energy. from the sound of it so far, he could be a tougher opponent from four years ago. >> every time prices start to go

up, especially in an election year, politicians dust off their three-point plans for $2 gas. i have guess this year they decide we're going to make it $2.50. i don't know where -- why not $2.40. why not $2.10. that's the field so far. you got your brackets filled out? >> it's march madness of a different sort. president obama is taking north carolina. who are you taking? >> i'm not betti inting on this sorry. >> you're going to be sit this one out? >> i'm going to sit it out. >> you can't win unless you play and fill out those brackets along be way the joining us is krystal ball and jonathan capehart and david corn. good day to you all. we have a lot to talk about on

this thursday. when we look at romney, he may not want to see saturday. we're going to missouri. we're going to see a high evangelical vote again. struck out on two major states this week. >> didn't we already have missouri, which we did. they have a strange caucusing and voting process. we saw how this played before. rick santorum resonated in missouri and did well. march is a very tough month for mitt romney not just because of the basketball and people recognizing just how much he doesn't relate, but because this is a string of challenging states. i think going in to illinois next week, he has very little momentum and that's going to be a critical state. >> talk about string of difficult states. david, we have louisiana and texas. two other states over to see evangelical votes. so far this year, nbc news has

found he has not. romney has not won any state where evangelical votes have been above 50%. >> that would be because of the often, not discussed, mormon problem that he has. there are those that consider mormonism a cult and are afraid of it. i think march madness will lead to april absurdity. get through these next couple of ways. >> i was waiting for that. i was waiting for your big line of the day. >> there's these yankee states in pennsylvania on april 3rd. then tough 21 day, imagine that without a primary. that's going to be a long slog for the other candidates who won't have much money, no debates and be desperate to get attention. mitt romney has to just keep hobbling along like the end of marathon. get to april 3rd, and he may

have time off for a couple of weeks. >> he's upped the ante. what's your line going to be? we call him the kentucky, but does he have the right starting five. should he look back at his campaign team and say maybe we should change the bench up here. >> i'm glad you pulled out the sports metaphor and talked about something i could relate to. >> i was really nervous. >> the political team. all i've read, mitt romney likes his team. he trusts his team. this is now i need to go about taking the nomination delegate by delegate which is why he's so focused on the math equation of how he is going to there. to weave back into your march madness analogy or metaphor.

he's the number one team in the conservative league who plays in stadiums all over the country before fans that don't buy like him. can you imagine playing and you're the number one team and you have people booing you all over the place. that's the problem. the video you show justed of fox news of him getting cut off like that, you would expect him they could give him all the time in the world to talk about whatever he wanted to talk about. >> quickly. this is like a tournament where no team should win. >> you're saying they're not good enough? >> somebody has to win. like at the end of a 64-game tournament. one team is certain to win six or seven games in a row. somebody will have to win here. none of them deserve to win. >> he seems like he's playing down his competition. megan kelly is a tough

interviewer. if he thought he was going to get a pass with her, he was sorely mistaken. i would argue that they have done remarkably well given what they have to work with. he's not a great candidate. >> time-out just for a sekcond. let's move to puerto rico. romney might have a problem. he's got 14% of the latino vote. he's thought to be the leader there. >> this is not a problem in the primary because all of these candidates have moved very far to the right on immigration and done little to appeal to latino voters. you played the clip of rick santorum making sure that no latino voters would want him as their candidate. assuming romney is the nominee, that's deadly. it's not just deadly for him, his lack of support is deadly for candidates down the line.

it's deadly for the republican party moving forward. this is major issue. something that even jeb bush warned about. >> it seemed like the ebb turned for the republicans. speaking of the republicans, they've been complaining about the president's so called chicago style politics. let me play this new campaign video from rick santorum's super pac first. >> meet the real mitt romney. supported the wall street bailout putting america trillions in debt. raise job killing taxes and fees by $700 million. his health care take over, the blue print for obama care. mitt romney more debt and taxes, less jobs, more of the same. rick santorum, a bold plan for the middle class. create die ma'ynamic jobs. >> that's just like the wizard of oz.. it goes from black and white to

color as soon as you get to the land of santorum. >> who has the heart? who is the tin man? >> i don't know who has the heart in this one. or the brains or the courage. does he have enough money to go head to head with mitt romney in an ad battle in illinois or any other state? you can make the ads. you have a lot of suburban, outer urban and rural areas that may be good territory for santorum but media markets cost a lot. >> we've seen him out perform his polling. we have seen that he's done well when you have these one off primaries where he can be on the ground mingling with voerts and note having to rely on the ad buys. >> jonathan, last word to you.

>> you don't need a lot of money when you have television networks all over the place showing your ads basically or even piecings of your ads for free, which was newt gingrich's strategy earlier on. i don't have any actual money, but i'm going to use the free med ya to get my message out there. the key difference between gingrich and santorum is it could work for santorum. the messages that we have as we have seen through the other contests with him winning states, it's resonating more with conservative voters against mitt romney. it's almost as if newt gingrich is an afterthought at this point despite what he might think of himself. >> stick around. so much more to discuss. we'll have more in a bit. next, the special relationship between mitt romney and goldman sachs. is he a man or a muppet. >> i've ahead a lot of money. i've been very successful. i'm not going to apologize for

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mitt romney's special relationship with goldman sachs has come back into view. greg smith riding in his new york times op-ed saying i've seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as muppets the you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the junior analyst hearing about muppets doesn't turn into a model season. now they are pushing back. many have said that smith's op-ed did to goldman sachs what

it's been doing to clients for a decade now. it's highlighted the firm's strong and long ties to mitt romney and his family. back with us is david corn. just take a look at some of the things. bain capital did many deals with goldman. they were close, the not really preferred partners. how far would this guilt by association go? >> it goes pretty far because not only did his firm work with goldman sachs and put deals together, after that happened when goldman went public, it gave mitt romney the right to be 7,000 shares in the i.p.o., which you and i, at least i know about me, i don't know about you, richard, we don't get those deals handed to it. even for insiders, that amount of shares would seem to be really big amount.

he sold them a couple of years later. pocketed $750,000 or as rmitt romney would say, pocket change. i'm not shocked that goldman is out there looking after its own bottom line more than that of its clients. >> because they're a business. >> also it cares more about own managing directors and partners and how much money they're making than what they are doing for their clients, which is a change from the way this business used to run years ago. >> from the reports that we're raetding, the romneys have done well because of goldman. close to $10 million in 2010. this from what you remarked close relationships with the corner offices. >> back in january, we listed

all the goldman sachs properties and bonds and offers that he had interest in. i know if you can see on this page but there are three long pages of all these goldman sachs fund, and it comes about because he worked with them and they gave him a good deal. the big issue here is capitalism. when the 1 percenters capture and occupy the mind he's the poster boy for this issue. >> as we look at the damage that's already been done and this question of muppets, could romney, based on all of his investments, great portion going to goldman sachs, could he will be victim of what we're talking

about right now? >> i think this calls into question who he hangs out with. how he's made his money. he said on fox that i've made a lot of money. i'm not ashamed of that. once he did make money he got these generous offers that are not available to the rest of us. when you start getting these inside deals because you've already made money, that doesn't really strike at the american notion of fairness. i think barack obama is going to be talking about fairness a lot in the months to come particularly if mitt romney is the nominee of the republican party. >> ke got to get you back here. thank you so much. vrjts the president hits back on gas prices. >> i never use a teleprompter.

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koran some weeks ago. as that seemed to be calming down, there was the alleged slaughter of 16 afghan civilians over the weekend. since then there's been heightened calls here from some quarters as unusual or unexpected as newt gingrich saying it's time to get out of half but now from the afghan president himself who has a lot of domestic politics to worry about. karzai said nato should poult of rural areas immediately and speed up the transfer of responsibility from the nato forces to the afghan forces there in country. for him to call for it immediately, that's the surprise. talks with the taliban have been start and stop but trying to bring the taliban to the table, apparently they have walked away again. more setbacks as the obama administration try to draw down

that surge. the administration reminded us 30,000 troops will be withdrawn by the end of the year. they want to transfer capability of the afghan military. >> mike, that announcement giving u.s. officials a double take on that one. thapgs so much. when we come back, the day's top lines. stay with us. >> one of my opponents said it would take an act of god for me to win this primary. i agree with him. >> why do you mock me, oh, lord? ♪ wake up! that's good morning, veggie style.

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a cheese head, a muppet and ricky ricardo walk into a bar. these are the day's top lines. let's get started. >> republican voters are overwhelmly saying no.

>> you got ten seconds. >> thank you, sir. we'll be right back. >> it's delicious. >> he can raise money from billionaires. >> guess what, i made a lot of money. >> he writes over the last 12 months i've seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients as muppets. >> that's accurate. sochl them were muppets. ernie took a real bath. >> he's so rich he can't relate to the rest of us. why do you keep doing that? >> guess what, i made a lot of money. i'm not going to apologize for that. ♪ am i a man or am i a muppet >> i was called by some of my colleagues in the united states senate. >> what are you talking about? you what? >> i went out. >> let's bring in our political

panel this afternoon. gang, we want to start with the republican candidates trying to eat into president obama's domination among latino voters. let me show you what rick santorum told voters about their desire for statehood. >> they'd have to speak english. that would be a requirement. it's a requirement that we put on other states. it's a condition for entering the union if you're going to participate as a state in the united states. we're not doing anybody on this island a favor by not following the law, which is that this is a society that will speak english. >> let's talk about a big technicality here. a very big one here. it may not be the equivalent of thinking the queen is the head of the british government.

what does it say about a presidential candidate and former senator who travels there, displayed a lack of constitutional law on an issue that's so vital to the latino voting block. >> everyone is scratching their head. they are asking themselves a question whether any of the other 50 states have such a requirement. the answer is no. this is the latest in the long line of litny pr republicans. they have managed to offend african-american, catholic, women, latino. i'm trying to think of a demographic group they haven't offended. this is fine if you're writing for the archie bunker show. the number that george bush had in 2004 when he ran was 44%. the republicans are going to need to do a whole lot of making

up. i think the way they will try to do it at the end is being forced into a mark rubio vice presidential candidacy. they continue going down this train wreck. >> what was your first reaction? was it this technicality of it not being in the u.s. constitution or was it the ignorance on this to the latino community. >> there's no official language requirement in the united states but putting that aside what rick santorum was doing is he was not speaking to latino voters. they are speaking to a base that is so far to the right and wants to hear cues. the cues are offensive when we listen to them because we're not in the base. they want to hear push back of a

wave ov hispanics that are growing their numbers. they want to hear that. even when they go to puerto, they have to speak to base that's threat tennesseed by the rise of minorities. >> it's local. they are forgetting that as they move off into puerto. there's an issue of what was said. what was also said by newt gingrich. take you back to 2007 to this remark. >> we should replace by lingual with emersion in english so people learn the common language of the country. they learn the language of prosperity, not the language of living in a ghetto. can he walk that back? >> it's going to be really hard especially if that goes forward to a general election. it remind es me something they

keep going further and further to the right. if they go any further they will fall off the flat earth and be eaten by dragons. this is too much going on the try to appeal to the base. what the problem is for them is that people can't seem to get enough of this because it's all the lead changes that have happened in the gop primary. one area where people aren't really all that dissatisfied by hearing the gop candidates say that is in the white house. this puts them in a much stronger position to recruit the latino vote. it also might have some impact on the long stalled attempts to get the dream act going. this could be the silver lining for the democrats, if you see it that way, then it is for the republicans. >> and newt gingrich did apologize for that. we'll have you back in a second. next, the battle at the pump. stay with us. >> here is the tip. no one wins wisconsin primary without wearing a cheese head.

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president obama addressing the issue of energy today during a visit to maryland. he laughed at gop candidates promising $2 gasoline while wondering what century they're living in. >> they've been talking down new sources of energy. if some of these folks were around when columbus set sail, they must have been founding members of the flat earth society. they would not have believed that the world was round. >> julian, mitt romney

continuing to say the president is to blame for the higher gas prices. regardless of what the president said, if gas prices keep going up, he's got a problem, doesn't he? >> i don't know. i don't think it's a smart strategy on the part of the republicans. we've seen this movie before. gas prices go up as we hit summer. as we hit fall they dpo down. they almost never affect an election. as a political strategy, it seems dubious, not that smart. we have more production, fewer imports thanks to president obama. demand is as low as it's been since 1997. it's clear the problem on prices is international speculators and how they are driving up prices. republican is talk about gas and not the economy means they have conceded the argument that the stimulus has not worked. the primary point they were making last full and until recently was the economic policies have failed. the fact they are no longer making that argument mean they

know that can't win it because the stimulus is working. >> isn't what we're going to feel when we pull that lever, we're not going to be thinking about gas prices alone. it's jobs. what we're paying for our house or what we're renting. >> it is. part of what the gas issue does is frames the economy in another context. if gas prices continue to spike, if the economy continues to get dragged down because of that that's a danger we're going to have. a bit of evidence of that was the job numbers were kind of flat. some people are pointing to higher gas prices as a result. that's another matter entirely. when you get to the voting booth, you are going to be thinking more about whether or not the economy is on the rebound. so far the indicators seem to predict it will be. that bodes well for the white house. >> we look at what's been done by newt gingrich, $2.50.

that's indication it's not working. >> the president of the united states does not control gas prices. the federal government can raise or lower the gas tax. they can affect subsidied which republicans do thot want to get rid of. they don't want to get rid of the great taxes and subsidies. it's the oil companies that are gouging us. the oil that you got wouldn't go to the united states. it would go on the world market. even that wouldn't bring gas prices down. the republicans and conservati e conservatives argue the government doesn't control the economy that way. this is a silly thing for newt gingrich to be saying. we couldn't change gas prices. >> we have to watch india and china because that's where it's going. thank you. next, the vice president tears it up in ohio. we have a cnbc market wrap. >> richard, the rally continues.

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america is coming back. worker by worker, home by home, community by community. this country is coming back because of you. >> that was a fired up vice president joe biden there rallying auto workers in ohio and the first of four speeches he will be making as he takes his show on the road campaigning for the president. he was not shy about taking the

fight to the gop today adding stark contrast. >> simply stated, we're about promoting the private sector. they are about protecting the privileged sector. we're for a fair shot and a fair shake. they're about no rules, no risks and no accountability. i want to tell you what's real brupgs, the economic theories of gingrich, santorum and mitt romney. they are bankrupt. >> congressman, thanks for being here. the vice president taking off the gloves as we often say, name checking gingrich, santorum and romney. we won't see that from the president at this stage saying they are bankrupt. are you expecting more of this language as they go through oh for the democrats? >> i hope so. i think it's the right tone. it's our people in ohio are feeling. we just got out of the republican primary discussion

about women not being able to serve in the military and women not having contraception and here comes joe biden and barack obama talking about issues that matter to people. >> the stronger the rhetoric -- >> i think so. we got to take these guys on. i think people are looking for some strong leadership. joe, the vice president, has provided that. i think that's what people are looking for stepping into the void about the issues that really matter. >> republicans might label this as class division. we have 7.7% unemployment in your state. 8.7, indiana. 9% in michigan. they'll point to that this administration has done very little when it comes to those states and unemployment and jobs. >> well, i mean they got their head buried in the sand. they weren't here a couple of years ago when general motors

was a about to go belly up. now in my district there's workers out there. if you can't acknowledge, at least in in a sober way that th president, whether it was the stimulus package, the auto rescue package, you know, the tariffs on chinese tires coming into the united states, reducing health care costs for medicare recipients. if you can't acknowledge that, you're not dealing with the facts. but people in ohio, as i said, saw this extremism a couple weeks ago. now here comes the president saying remember where we were a few years ago because that was the tail end of the bush policies. now we're moving in the right direction. he will be rewarded in the fall. >> the vice president was speaking to a captive audience. but the key in ohio are the independents. when we talk about the auto bailout and what's happened, will this resinate with

independents when they go to the polls? >> absolutely. those voters work at the auto plants. they work for suppliers that supply the parts for some of the auto companies. the independent voter has felt what this administration has done. and again, a couple weeks ago, the independent voters going, really, with all the issues going on in the world and our country, you're talking about depriving women of birth control? you're talking about women not serving in the military? that's the fundamental issue inside the republican party? those voters are average people that are just trying to make their lot in life and they want someone in the government on their side. >> tim ryan, thank you for joinijoin ing us. next hope for the gop. stay with us. i'm walt gale,

i worked at the colorado springs mail processing plant for 22 years. we processed on a given day about a million pieces of mail. checks, newspapers, bills. a lot of people get their medications only through the mail. small businesses depend on this processing plant. they want to shut down 3000 post offices, cut 100,000 jobs. they're gonna be putting people out of work everywhere. the american people depend on the postal service.

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the gop battle may be narrowing, but there's new data that suggests that bruising primaries giving one man some real momentum along the way. that's president obama. data released wednesday showing the president steadily increasing his lead over republican front runner mitt romney in a hypothetical head to head matchup. now with a whopping 12-point advantage. charles, always good to see you. it's widening, but might we see that narrow? >> anything can happen between now and november. campaigns go through many cycle, but at this moment and for the last few months, you have seen a real widening in that gap as the republican campaign has worn on and they have attacked each other relentlessly. it seems they are not really

satisfied with their own candidates. obama, by comparison, starts to look really good to people. that's what we're seeing. >> is it because the gop field just looks more ugly as they get more ugly? or is it that the president is in a better light as we look at the economic indicators? unemployment for instance. >> both of those things are happening. the pacs are dumping tremendous amounts of money into negative ads. negative ads hurts the brand. no matter who is in the lead, romney is in the lead now, all the negativity hurts the brand. that hurts him. and obama does have some good news as of late. >> you were looking at the pew data for "the new york times." your notes on obama having momentum. >> romney does the best of all the republicans.

so that poor showing is the best showing. so yes, it's bad all across the board. >> you have also looked at segmentation. the president leading with mitt romney. 20 points among women. he leads in every geographic region and income level, but where is he strong? is there any place where romney is strong? >> i mean, there are not a lot. if you look at some tiny segments, men in general tend to go more republican. but even in this poll, they seem to be trending more towards the president. so it's more a matter of degrees than a matter of where romney is flat out winning in the pew data. there are other polls now. there's gallup. so you get some fluctuation, but gallup, reuters seem to agree

that obama seems strong at this moment. >> we have seen some up and downs. >> what you see though is -- a lot of people have looked at those two polls and said there were fewer democrats. and that's a fair point. but you'll have that sometimes. you'll have variation. 10% of democrats do not approve of the president. and that's millions of people. so you can get one of those. >> let's broaden this out as you have in your piece. you were looking at the democratic party overall. we're looking at the house races. this is where this might become relevant. >> the democratic brand has opened up the greatest margin since april of 2009. that's a significant change. when you went into the elections, they were about the same. with a little bit of enthusiasm

boost on the republican side, you saw a surge at the polls for them. if you get enough of a gap on the democratic side where people are leaning in that direction and plus some enthusiasm for the incumbent with a lot of money, you could have a real change. >> charles, great stuff. we'll see what happens after tampa. appreciate it. thanks for watching. martin will be back tomorrow. let's go to matt miller who is in for dylan. >> we have sharon brown here to talk about afghanistan and his fight for good jobs here at home. we have an exclusive talk with house. plus the surprising surge in vasectomies this month. you won't believe what's behind it. a hint is it has to do with basketball. show starts right now.