>> good day to you and ought to be a good day for mitt romney as well with the gop candidates celebrating 43 years of marriage to his wife today. tweeting this wedding photo this morning with a float to his sweetheart ann and better half. that after voters in illinois showed clear skienz of falling in like with romney, handing him a big victory and furthering his delegate lead and romney picked up a key endorsement along the way from florida gov nr jeb bush. it was shaping up to be a perfect day until his communications chief went on cnn and made a comparison he wish he could erase. >> is there a concern that the pressure from santorum and gingrich might force the governor to tack so far to the right it would hurt him with moderate voters in the general election? >> i think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign and everything changes. it is almost like an

etch-a-sketch. you can shake it up and we start all over again. >> that's it right there, etch-a-sketch. the remark registered a 6.0 on twitter shaking off more puns than you can shake a stick at and who is plai dough and who is a shrinky, and it didn't take long to get in the game. releasing a photo of santorum playing with an aetch-a-sketch and saying this on the campaign trail. >> one of governor romney's aids today on the television said that governor romney, after he wins the primary, will be like an etch-a-sketch. that should be comforting to all of you who are voting in this primary that whoever you are going to vote for will be a completely new candidate. >> up next, newt gingrich, his turn with prop in hand. >> if we're dumb enough to nominate him, we should expect by the acceptance speech he will move back to the left. triggers everything people are worried about. >> team obama went big on the

sound bite as well and the pro obama super pac chief bill burton saying in a statement this mission of governor romney's general elections strategy to mislead the american people does at least have the benefit of truth. there is no doubt governor romney is going to try to mask his right wing antimiddle class agenda in order to win the election, and unfortunately for the romney camp, there are reflection in the polls that voters view him as the etch-a-sketch candidate. look at this, among voter who is say strong moral character matters most, 62% went for rick santorum. just 18 for romney. those values voters could matter even more heading to saturday's primary down the values state, louisiana. let's get right to the panel with karen finny, now columnist for the hill and goldy tai tore, managing editor of the gold i tailor project and julian epstein.

julian, start with you. did you get your etch-a-sketch yet? >> this is funny. you remember after the florida primary when mitt romney said he didn't care about the poor. this is the silver foot in the mouth syndrome. similarly after a big win in illinois the candidate staff comes out and says the positions can be like an etch-a-sketch, he can just erase them for the general election. you ask anybody that's been involved in presidential politics and they will tell you it takes two wings to fly. you have to motive at it independents on the one hand and the liberal base on the other. what he has done is alienate both bases. he has no love coming from the conservative base as many commented on he is 20 points behind on independents and this comment under scores the two worst narratives, one that he is inauthentic and not trust worthy.

>> if it were another candidate it might not be a major faux pass. >> right. people perceive him not to be awe ten thick and people now i think you have the narrative he is not particularly trust worthy. you have an inauthentic guy that takes more positions in a game of twister and who essentially lies to voters. >> work them all in. >> essentially lies to voters, and i think that's a recipe for disaster in a general election. >> move it over to another communications director. when we talk about this, karen, is this a gaf fe or did he really think talk about it this way but he handed it over to him. >> it is a big you know what. it is a huge mistake. it plays into the narrative they have been trying to counter the whole time, perhaps if there were conversations, you know, around the campaign headquarters. we used to say use your inside voice, not your outside voice.

you almost wonder did he realize he was saying that out loud on camera because it was such a major screw up. >> and so it is so easy use the word etch-a-sketch and we have teen two so far today and probably a run on them at toys "r" us but in reality will we see the issue of mitt romney changing stances once we hit general on important issues. for instance, women. 70 million women out there that will be voting, we guess, that have been watching some key issues like planned parent hood out there and why do we see him make a change here? >> i would say we have already seen it. if mitt romney has a middle name, it is ex paiden sigh. if you watch what he did as governor of massachusetts, if you watch what he did in the last presidential campaign and in this one, he seems to transform himself into whatever the voters seem to want that year so running further and further to the right is running further and further away to the

mitt america knew when he was governor. >> is it a matter of reality you have to address these two group as long the way and he is skating down the middle and shouldn't have brought it up out loud. >> i think everybody knows that once you get out of a primary campaign you have to take the opportunity to pivot. even in your pivot you have to maintain your core values you have to maintain a strong stance and get your base to the poll for you this fall. this is the very reason mitt romney hasn't wrapped this race up already because people just don't trust him. >> go ahead, karen. >> it is a huge swing to go from giving money to planned parent hood to we're going to do away with planned parent hood. come the general election, okay, where we going to be then? it is a fair question. the ads write themselves with this one. >> that is the point, richard the question is can this be aen etch-a-sketch. the republican primary has been like watching a sketch from the archie bunker show where they

managed to offend everyone on down the line. as we pointed out and karen pointed out before, mitt romney was asked to re pud ate the comments of people like rush limbaugh and refused to do that and now the question is can you square the circle in the general election. the party has gone so far right that it seems to me it is going to be very difficult to do that and a lot of people say it doesn't matter because he has to go to the center and he needs to win swing states like indiana and missouri and virginia, but the problem is he needs a lot of support from the evangelicals to win states like north carolina, virginia, florida, missouri, where he seems to be increasingly alienating voters >> good points and to you, karen, he has important races coming up as we look at the south texas a big one, louisiana we were talking about earlier in the day and how long can the other camps here play this etch-a-sketch side. >> weeks, months. i guarantee you will see this in

the general election. it is fodder for fund raising, radio ads, tv ads over and over and over. he switched so many times on these various issues >> moral character. >> moral character. >> absolutely. >> we saw in the exit polls, illinois, losing 3 to 1 for santorum who say moral character is the most important. >> going into louisiana where santorum is going to try again and i think he will appeal to the conservative, particularly the more religious voters and so he will get a little bit of bump and we'll see what happens in wisconsin. point being this adds to the narrative romney cannot seal the deal. >> last word to you, we look at low voter turnout in illinois and not being able to seal the deal, 24% of voters coming out and 70 year low. >> i have likened mitt romney to the ed haas kill of the race. he is the guy your mother really likes but doesn't know i am had like you do.

he may come in looking really good, but you know better. >> they'll try. >> excuse me, thank you so much, and try to shake up that etch-a-sketch for the next segment. start all over. >> start all over after the break. the calls for justice in the shooting death of trayvon martin just keep getting louder. ing whh goes through in a day. but what's even more surprising is that brushing alone isn't enough to keep it clean. fortunately, you've got listerine. unlike brushing which misses 75% of your mouth, listerine cleans virtually your entire mouth. so what are you waiting for? it's time to take your mouth to a whole new level of health. listerine... power to your mouth. also try listerine zero, for the clean feel of listerine with a less intense taste.

a rally this afternoon in sanford, florida, with another plan for tomorrow, yet still no justice for the family of 17-year-old trayvon martin. the neighborhood watch volunteer who pursued and shot trayvon despite 911 officials telling him to stand down walks free almost a month later on claims of self-defense. the authors of the stand your ground law protecting george zimmerman say the law is being

miss interpreted. even florida governor rick scott weighed in telling protesters the law need to be reexamined. back with us, goldy taylor and from sanford florida, joanne reed, managing editor and msnbc contributor as well. can you quickly get us up to speed since you're on the ground on the trayvon case? any indication from what you're hearing zimmerman might be arrested? >> we don't have any new information on that, richard. what we have is a very angry community. i just came from a town hall meeting called by the naacp, the local chapter as well as the national chapter and it was a meeting at which members of the community who had have past issues with police were airing their feelings and airing some really passionate feelings of miss trust when it comes to the sapp ford. you had people who had had one woman who said that her son

suffered a seizure while in a holding cell at the sanford police department and then was beaten up by three officers, and woman that said she herself was pulled over by officers who mist took her for someone else and the rough treatment and man handling and the disrespect they feel they receive. what's happening is the fact of the non-arrest is feeding an existing sense that the police don't respect african-americans. >> and what has the police department said in defense of itself? >> this is the thing. the police chief, bill lee, is not talking. every reporter that is down here from the u.s., we have had people from the bbc, everyone is trying to get mr. lee to talk. he isn't speaking to the media. what we're getting is the community's anger without a response from the police department. now what we're hearing at least from the mayor is that this is in the hands of the grand jury. there will be a grand jury impanelled and now they're putting it in their hands. we have seen federal investigators.

we went to the housing complex where the shooting took place and saw the florida department of law enforcement as well as indications that federal authorities are on the ground interviewing witnesses. >> let's go to goldy. there has been a big controversy over night about what was said, a racial ep that the reported in the 911 call about trayvon. it is too gashled that you don't understand what has been said there. this is generating a lot of feed bill walke back and anger. what do you make of it. >> i think there is a lot of anger around the entire incident. did enhance the tape and the it is clear. i heard the tape probably a couple of dozen times now, you know, it is absolutely clear what he says, and it is absolutely clear that he is pursuing trayvon and absolutely clear after he is asked to stand down he gets out of his car and so it is clear to me at least and i am not on a jury or an

investigator and i am just a person who is looking at this case, it is clear to me there is at least probable cause, you know, to that would say that an arrest is appropriate here, and then tell it to the judge. tell your story to a jury and let them settle this out. >> you have told me, goldie, many ways to look at this, to remove race altogether in this discussion. >> one of them is, and i think the most salient issue here and people talked a lot about black and white. i would say this is a human rights issue. even more than that, the race of the shooter, the assailant, in these cases is almost not the relevant or the salient factor. the real fak sore, the real predictor is the race of the victim. so if you look at it, when african-american males are murdered as opposed to when white males are murdered and the rate of investigation, trial, conviction, and then you compare the severity of the sentences,

there is such a lopsided situation there. >> the right of deaths as well. >> and the rate of death is something that really has to be examined. it doesn't matter so much who you are if you are a killer in this country. it matters more who you kill. in this case it happened to be a 17-year-old african-american child living in south florida and but for what happened on the social networks, but for the pressure that every day people put on this case, it would have been closed and no one would ever have heard trayvon's name. >> we'll get to joy in a second. i want to follow along. there is that clear stream of this story and then there is that can could be any young son. you have two sons and what anybody see this is story, they're horrified. >> there is the suggestion that a lot of people care about this story because they see their own sons in this situation, but i will tell you, if you look at the statistics, it is not happening to everybody's sons. it is happening to my sons. my sons are 21 and 28 years old.

every african-american mother and father can tell you that we have to give our boys counsel when we know that they're going to be out in the world without us for the first time and may confront authorities. we have certain rules that we immaterial part. keep your hands on the wheel, say yes, sir, no, sir, and do not run. it seems like trayvon obeyed all of those things and it turned out badly. >> a lot of good points. how is this issue of the epithat and all the layers being discussed in sanford? >> it is adding to the outrage. the irony is the current police chief was brought in to heal the wounds that had been caused by a previous shooting that happened in december of 2010 when a homeless man was beaten up by the son of a police lieutenant and in that case the young man was placed in the back of a parole car and never arrested. in this case at least zimmerman was detained and taken to the police department before being released. the previous case gave people the sense the police have preferential treatment obviously

toward the son of one of their own but just that the value of that african-american man's life was not seen in the proper context by police. i think that fueled it and two police chiefs later in two years we now have chief lee really brought in in a sense to start ov over. >> we have to go. any demonstrations? what's happening tonight quickly? >> well, i am actually here at city hall because there is going to be the regularly scheduled commission meeting at which we're expecting to see more anger erupting, more people making comment and potential protests. that's what we're looking at right now. >> and the parents also in union square and that's where goldie will be later tonight for the event. >> at union scare between 6 and 9 p.m., and people are asked to wear their favorite hoodie in honor of trayvon tonight. >> thank you very much, goldie and joy-ann for a great discussion. coming up, a debate over healthcare ignites in congress. this ought to be good.

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could create more than half a million jobs in the us alone. from the canadian border, through the mid west, to the gulf coast. benefiting hundreds of thousands of families throughout the country. this is just what our economy needs right now. two years after president obama signed healthcare reform into law the signature legislative achievement goes on trial with three days of arguments before the u.s. supreme court next week. the fight over what has become known as obama care began in earnest on the senate floor today. >> the whole object of this game was to reduce the cost of healthcare and preserve the quality of healthcare. does anybody think that was achieved with this lenllation? >> on the other side of the i'll, they want to take it away from americans and keep it for themselves. oh, no, they don't want to give it up. i think what's good for senators ought to be good for the

american people. >> luke joins us live and the question is why is the senate spending this time to debate a law the supreme court is about to rule on here? >> it is an interesting premise. the reason why they were on the senate floor today talking about healthcare is that on this day two years ago as you remember was that infamous vote in the house of representatives when the senate bill passed and the bill through reconciliation became law. it was an anniversary of sorts and that's why republicans went to the senate floor and democrats wanted to go back at them on what they were saying about healthcare. it puts this law going to be debated by the supreme court in a few weeks backs into the lexicon, where we have been moving to on capitol hill. you have democrats saying 17 million kids did not have coverage and could have been denied for preexisting coverage now have coverage. you have a lot of folks saying preventive screenings and republicans are saying not so fast, 67% of folks want to get

rid of the individual mandate and 52% are not in favor of this law. we're not very far where we are in terms of how the law is perceived by the american public than two years ago, richard, and a lot of hesitancy back then, poll numbers show it is still there and there are elements that are liked hence why both parties are happy to debate it. >> a little more time here. i want to ask you, are republicans confident the supreme court will rule that the law is unconstitutional and if they don't, and to the points and data you brought up here, are they willing to campaign on the platform of repealing it? >> it is an interesting premise because you have some folks on the right that are very confident that the supreme court with the recent plethora of 5-4 decisions seem to be tilting on conservative leaning causes will see that again on the supreme court. when it comes to justice, they look at the technical aspects of the la you and it really is up to anybody what will happen there and a lot of democrats are confident of this and not possibly overrule the individual

mandate or the entire bill on the way it was the case was presented. all of that being said, richard, you expect that republicans will continue to run against the healthcare law and too much of an over reach of government and democrats, a lot of them you speak to say that's a fight they like to have and have a better messaging system than two years ago by being able to point to real results and the folks that say their parents until they are 26. it is still a debate not in any way settled but for lack of a better words, richard, it is a debate that both sides now are more willing to have than i think two years ago where democrats felt like they were on the defensive. >> everybody is fired up during an election year to discuss something like this. thank you so much. >> good to see you. >> the day's top lines are coming up. >> tourists took a bic of rick santorum shirtless on the beach. they did. i don't want to say he looked chubby, but the new secret service code name is newt

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i get my cancer medications through the mail. now washington, they're looking at shutting down post offices coast to coast. closing plants is not the answer. they want to cut 100,000 jobs. it's gonna cost us more, and the service is gonna be less. we could lose clientele because of increased mailing times.

the ripple effect is going to be devastating. congress created the problem. and if our legislators get on the ball, they can make the right decisions. from mitt's happy an rersry to ron paul flipping a coin, here are the top lines in the toy story. >> we thank the people of illinois for this extraordinary victory. >> it was a tough night. >> tomorrow is our anniversary. we will have been married 43 years, so happy anniversary, sweetheart. >> we did what we had to do. it is very clear. it is a two-person race, and now we go need to get all the conservatives to line up. >> it is time to say these words, this word enough. we had enough. >> this will have a special place about it, alongside my birth certificate. >> all it boils down to one word, right behind me on that banner and that's the word freedom. >> they may take our lives.

they'll never take our freedom. >> we don't need a manager. we need someone who will pull up government by the roots and throw it out. >> for 25 years i lived and breathed business and the economy. >> something d-o-o economics. voodoo economics. >> you can't learn that teaching constitutional law at university of chicago, all right? >> just made it up on the site. >> join us to saddle up like reagan did in the cowboy movies. >> tourists in puerto rico took a picture of rick santorum shirtless on the beach. i don't want to say he looked chubby, but the new secret service code name is newt gingrich. >> governor romney had a good day today. i think he took a step towards clearly proving he was a front runner. senator santorum did not have a particularly good day. i think conservatives have to think through what's the right strategy if they hope to stop romney.

>> illinois is today. you didn't campaign much there. >> i had a choice campaigning there today or being on the jay leno show. >> i flipped a coin. >> you flipped a coin. >> lots to talk about. bring in our panel right now. with us from nashville, co-founder of tea party nation, judson phillips, and from the political offices in ashlg ton, virginia, ken vogel, chief investigative reporter and thanks for being here both of you. your man newt gingrich finishing behind ron paul, number four. when you think about this, why stay in this race at this point? what do you think? >> well, it is clear to stay in the race there is one good and compelling purpose, and that is to keep mr. etch-a-sketch from getting the nomination. that's why i hope newt stays in this race all the way through. i hope he gets more funds either from aide he will son or american people because he had almost 200,000 people contribute, and i hope they keep contributing and in some of these states he has more money

to do it. >> when you heard etch-a-sketch, what was your response? >> it is typical mitt romney. face it. mitt romney has all of the character consistency of a used car salesman who used to be a member of congress, and this is what we have been in the tea party saying for months now, as soon as he gets this thing locked up, i will revert to the real mitt romney who is not a moderate but a massachusetts liberal. >> ken, to you. is this what the strategy is right now, just keep mitt romney from the nomination and is that a good reason? >> well, that's one of the things that newt gingrich's supporters would like him to do in staying in the race. however, newt gingrich himself still continues to insist that his goal is to get to the convention and get into a broker convention where he could emerge with the nomination. he cites the 1920 convention where harding emerged with the nomination even though he wasn't among the top two candidates headed into the convention.

on your airways this morning the chairman of the republican national committee made the point in order to have your name placed into nomination you need to win plur lurl in five indicates. newt gingrich has only won two states. he has aways to go on that front. the campaign admits it is a rather steep hill to climb. >> and front and from is of course two major races in the south, texas, 155 delegates at stake here. perhaps those will add to the two states that you're talking about at the moment, ken, and back to you, judson, this morning newt gingrich said this. he said the president is defending radical islam. take a listen to what was said. >> you have this president who in the one hand is bent over backwards to appease radical islam while he attacks christianity. is there antireligious unless there is islam? this is the heart of the obama problem, the dilemma he has. >> the democrats are thinking

here, judson, here we go again. what do you think he is pointing to exactly? what are the examples that newt gingrich is talking about here? >> well, i am not 100% sure what he is talking about. it is always easy to grab one little sound bite out of a speech and i don't know the exact entire context of the speech. >> he was saying that the president was defending islamic extremists. >> that was the point he was making at that particular time in that particular sound bite. i don't know the whole context of the speech he was making. one thing that republicans do need to do, there are certain other issues outside of the economy that is perhaps important to touch on a little bit. >> we'll get to those. he has mentioned this story line before and some have to really push here, what is he talking about? >> well, you're going to have to ask newt gingrich specifically what he is talking about. i know from the folks ideal with dash. >> you agree with that statement necessarily is what you're saying.

>> again, i didn't hear the statement other than just the isolated sound bite you have given me, so it is hard to comment on a simple sound bite like that without a little bit greater context. i do know this, the tea party folks -- >> if i could throw a lifeline here on this. >> they're very concerned about the economy because what i like to refer to as real americans. we're looking at $5 a gallon gas, unemployment going up again, so these are the issues that are important to us. >> judson, ken has a lifeline. i am not sure if you heard him. what you got? >> just going to say -- >> i will take a lifeline from my buddy ken. >> sure. there has long been this team in republican politics that president obama has not been aggressive enough on israeli and the israeli palestinian issue and not supportive enough of israel and we have heard that kind of argument rear its head throughout the republican primary. it is interesting to note here that is among the top issues of sheldon adelson who judson mentioned has given upwards of

$15 million himself and his family supporting newt gingrich as well as foster freeze, the mega donor who basically floated the super pac supporting rick santorum. not saying it wouldn't necessarily be an issue which national security conservative would hang their hats and attack president obama, and it is interesting to know that some of the biggest donors to the race also want the issue front and center. >> what you say here, then, ken, that the president does appease radical islamic extremists here or saying there is also a question about what is he talking about here? >> well, i wouldn't necessarily put it in those terms but republicans have continued to make the case that president obama has not been sufficiently supportive of israel in its tensions with and negotiations with the palestinians and its arab neighbors and from that the extrapolation has been made by conservatives that he is somehow abetting islamic extremism. that's a little bit of a leap but nonetheless one that they continue to make. >> for you, judson, how long

does newt gingrich stick around and what is he waiting for before he makes such a decision? >> well, how long does he stick around? i hope he sticks around all the way to the convention. what i would like to see happen is gingrich and santorum unite to try to stop mitt romney from getting those 1,144 delegates. >> when is a key benchmark here? are we talking texas or about louisiana or what are we looking at here? >> i think gingrich is planning to take this all the way through to california. i know he has a couple of people out there, one of the guys who is running the california operation was the guy who was responsible for south carolina, and so i am pretty much sure that newt gingrich is going to stick this thing out all the way through. >> thank you so much and your lifeline, ken vogel. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> coming up, why republican budgets make the poor pay. we'll explain. >> join us to saddle up like reagan did in the cowboy movies.

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let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team. fast and furious reaction continues in the wake of the new gop budget unveiled by congressman paul ryan of wisconsin. a quick look at the deep cuts ryan calls for explains why. ryan would slash $1.5 trillion from the healthcare act, 800 billion from medicaid, 200 billion from education, and worker training, and another 800 billion from income security, and that just scratches the surface. ezra is an msnbc policy analyst and columnist for the washington post mongs in other tieltss and i was looking through your book this morning and you're saying republicans settled on four basic commitments is what you outlined. you painted them into a corner on the budget. this is what they include, cutting taxes, increasing defense spending, reforming

entitlements, those are just some and not for current retirees and cutting short-term deficits immediately. so when we look at that, you're saying there is one major key and that's the last bullet, number four, cut short-term deficits. >> right. there is this -- so the federal government, the best way to think about it is the federal government is a giant insurance company with a big army, right? if you have said we're not going to do anything about medicare and social security for ten years, which they have said. if you said we're going to increase spending on defense and if you said we're going to cut taxes which they have said, you now have most of the government either contributing to the deficit or can't help it. so now you want to create a very, very large cut to the deficit because that is what you promised the american people. what do you do? you cut programs from the poor deeply because it is basically the only other thing the government spends a very large amount of money on. the point and the point of the four commitments is republicans committed to a set of priorities in which if they're going to fulfill all of them

simultaneously, the only option they have is to continuously cut programs for the poor and that's why paul ryan's budget looks like mitt romney's budget, looks like newt gingrich's budget, looks like rick santorum's budget because they're working off a common set of premises. >> let me make sure i got this right as i was looking through the be ins, it is cost neutral and revenue negative and basically almost $5 trillion. is that right? >> on the tax side. the tax side is quite a cut. to get to where ryan says he will be, he will need to find $6.2 trillion of closing loopholes and deductions like the mortgage interest deduction, things like the deductibility of employer provided healthcare insurance, and going to mean going after the big stuff. he has named none of that. he has not named one tax break he would close. one thing about ryan's budget, when you hear the numbers, cuts the deficit by this much over 20 years, he is told the congressional budget score keepers, my budget will work. you have to score it as if it

works in exactly the way i tell you it works. whether or not ryan can find the money, whether or not he can get the taxes where they need to be and cut medicare by the amount he says he will, it is a complete jump ball. we have no real idea. it is going to be very difficult for him to get his tax numbers actually into line. 6.2 trillion is a lot more than i have ever seen anybody raise from closing loopholes and deductions before. >> big numbers. i want to jump off mitt romney and how his view of the plan is echoing what we have heard so far. first of all, listen to romney. >> this budget deals with title reform, tax policy, which as you know is very similar to the one i put out, and efforts to reign in excessive spending. i applaud it. it is an excellent piece of work and very much needed. >> she team to be walking lock step all going after the poor. i guess there is no other way to go about it. >> not if you take the promises they made. i will say ryan moved his medicare plan closer to romneys and otherwise not a whole lot of

difference between the two plans. >> great as gals and wonk book on the republican budget and what it means for the poor. thank you so much. >> baseball returns in two weeks. it is the nfl making headlines. just days after signing peyton manning, the denver broncos traded tim tebow to the new york jets for a fourth round draft pick and in an unprecedented ruling the league has suspended sean payton for one season without pay for his involvement in a team wade scandal where players were offered bounties for injuring opponents. we'll be right back. named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. not that we'd ever brag about it. turn right. come on, nine. turn left. hit the brakes. huh? how'd that get there? [ male announcer ] we can't hide how proud we are to have nine top safety picks like the passat and jetta. so we're celebrating with our "safety in numbers" event. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 jetta

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what are the eye-catching numbers along with those you have seen. >> once again, pretty dramatic examples about how in this new era of super pacs a tiny tiny handful of extremely wealthy donors are doing most of the heavy lifting, are at basically bank rolling the barrage of attack ads we seering in this republican presidential race. so you have, with restore our future, which is it the biggy of the super pams, the pro romney super pac, almost half of the 6.4 million it takes in, in the month of february, from one donor, bob perry, a very conservative texas home builder whose been a big financier of republican campaigns for many years. but tick a look at some of the others. red, white and blue fund, which

is the santorum super pac. two donors in foster freeze, the wyoming financier and the -- and energy executive from louisiana, william deer, counts for almost half of the money from that super pac. and then of course you get winning our future, the pro gingrich super pac and that's the most dramatic example of all. sheldon and his family, 95% of the money, more than 95% of the money coming from las vegas. and let's not forget, priorities usa action the obama super pac, about half of the $2 million it raised last month from comedian bill mar. >> $2 million, very much behind. we did a back of an envelope

calculation. you have estimated how much it cost each campaign per vote. and for mitt romney, what, 12 to $17. by calculations wlb we put that together here, that means he and his super pac would need to spend upwards of $170 million if he were to get the same number of votes at that 12 to $17 per vote, to get to the nomination. $170 million, and we're not even in the general election yet. >> right. now, of course, it's hard to draw a direct connection between the amount of money spent and the amount of votes you get. clearly, romney would get a lot more votes if there was a connection. >> right. but in the hypothesis. >> but clearly we know. and this is the important point that super pacs have been crucial in this presidential campaign. it was the super pac spending in

florida by the romney soup are pac that allowed him to come back from the defeat, to gingrich in south carolina. and of course, it was the romney super pac spending in iowa that took down gingrich in the first place. santorum has been able to stay in the game. you know, in large part because of the money that has been pouring in from these two wealthy donors to the -- to his super pac. so while the super pacs don't necessarily translate the votes there crucial to keeping you in the game and in this election, the really striking thing is they're out spending the presidential campaigns. most of the money in the presidential race so far has been coming from super pacs through these very small group of donors. >> and the mere point i was trying to make, is that based on figures you show us today, super pacs and campaigns will not be able to keep up. baz because as you saw in many cases, taking into consideration

the soup are pac money. thank you so much. >> thank you. >> president obama will speak in about the next half hour. we will have a live report in nevada. but first, new pictures of some very important guests at the white house. that's what mike is missing. take a look, you know it's spring when baby ducks make their appearance on the north lawn. stay with us. all right, let's decide what to do about medicare and social security... security. that's what matters to me... me? i've been paying in all these years... years washington's been talking at us, but they never really listen... listen...it's not just some line item on a budget; it's what i'll have to live on... i live on branson street, and i have something to say... [ male announcer ] aarp is bringing the conversation on medicare and social security out from behind closed doors in washington. because you've earned a say.

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president obama kicks off a a four state energy tour. here he is at one location where we believe our own mike is at. he had an address of his all of the above energy policy. the president is moving along as we watch the live pictures. you're getting a nice sun tan out there. >> yeah. >> what's the late et for the president on messaging amid a the there of criticism?

>> well, gas is 3.86 a gallon, richard. the white house is very sensitive to that. instead of going on defense, they are going on offense. the president plans this four-state two-day tour to talk about his energy policy. richard, elections are about the future, not about the past. that's why we are standing in this solar field. they have about a million solar panels, the largest solar field. they work on 17,000 homes. er with near the hoover dam right outside las vegas. the president has an effort to portray the republicans stuck in the past. it is all about the future. you will probably hear him use that term again, the flat-earth society. he will talk about what republican candidates, on the trail, say is their three-point plan. the president will hit those themes time and time again. tomorrow or later tonight i should say, in new mexico at an

oil field, some 70 oil rigs, another picturesque spot for the president. there's one thing the white house is announcing. he is going it cushing oak. remember the controversy about the keystone pipeline, they said they needed to start the environmental impact further. that was through a sensitive area known as sand hills of nebraska. well, the president says he want it build it from oklahoma. there's a bottle neck there in cushing, down to the gulf of mexico. announcing the steps it alleviate the permitting process for pipe lines like that when they are calling it the cushing pipeline and other pipelines around the country. this is a white house trying to get out ahead of gas prices, richard pz. >> all right, mike vicara. among a bunch of photo volteic -- >> yeah. >> you got it, i can't quite pronounce it myself. matt miller is in dylan ratigan. i don't imagine you are