2012. >> the optimist in me hopes, and i don't know this will happen, but hopes this will abe watershed to establish a new social covenant in this country because the one we have is broken. and i think we need to build a new one. that's my hope. nice to see you. >> you, too. >> that does i ratigan and "har" is up right now. let's get to the truth and let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews. in washington, leading off tonight, what really happened? we're now hearing two versions of what happened the night trayvon martin was killed. first george zimmerman's brother told cnn that george was nearly unconscious and in danger of brain damage when he shot trayvon. we're also told that brother hasn't spoken to george zimmerman in years and may not

have talked to him since the shooting, so we don't know the source of his information. then a new eyewitness came out here who has described a fight between the two men that night, one on top of the other, and a hispanic man seemingly uninjured walking away from the scene. we'll try to untangle this unfolding story at the top of the program tonight. also, those stand your ground laws like the one in florida that george zimmerman's attorney said may be applicable in this case, they're in force in roughly two dozen states now in this country. we have some compelling you'd y -- audio, by the way, of someone who had broken into a neighbor's house. the shooter used the stand your ground law in his defense. plus, there is an old saying in politics as well as in baseball, don't believe what you see in march, meaning don't get too excited about how well someone plays in spring training. well, it's only march now in politics, but we have another poll, this one in wisconsin, showing president obama pulling away in double digits from mitt

romney. but we also know the far more important month in -- well, in politics, is october, the eve of the election itself. and the dnc is having a great time bashing mitt romney on his new budget plan which democrats insists favors the rich. ♪ when old mitt collapse his hand for the plan that's amore ♪ >> that's amore and that's in the side show, and let me finish tonight with the predictable election coming our way this summer and fall. we begin with the trayvon martin shooting. chief investigative correspondent joins us from sanford, florida tonight. also david wilson, editor of greo.com. let's start with michael who is new on the case. michael, what can you tell us you've been able to uncover? >> reporter: chris, it's still murky about what happened that night between trayvon martin and

george zimmerman, but one new piece of evidence we did find today could raise some further questions is the original 2005 police report on the arrest of george zimmerman. zimmerman was arrested at a bar near the university of central florida by a state law enforcement officer and charged with battery and use of violence and obstructing justice. when you look at the underlying police report, what we find is zimmerman disobeyed the orders of a state law enforcement officer to back up. he was in the process of arresting some employees at the bar. they got into a scuffle. when the officer showed his badge, zimmerman shot back, i don't care who you are, and then f you. that's in the police report, zimmerman talking to the state police officer, and then it says they got into a short scuffle. so here we have a history of a physical altercation between

zimmerman and a law enforcement officer, zimmerman disobeying what the law enforcement officer told them to do, and he could have been charged with a felony. we spoke to the prosecutor on this case who said, this could have been a battery charge, a felony, but a junior prosecutor in the office did reduce the charges to misdemeanor. the court ordered it dismissed and under a court-ordered diversion program, and what could have led to a felony conviction of zimmerman was instead reduced and taken off his record. >> let's get it straight. apparently he was 21 years old at the time by my calculation, he's 28 now. 21 at the time he was involved in getting drinks or alcohol beverages for someone below age? is that what the issue began with? >> actually, it began with him interfering with the law -- with the state liquor control agent. the underlying case, the case that the liquor control officer

was investigating was sale of liquor to underage drinkers. zimmerman is friends with one of those who is being charged, one of the bar employees being charged. he interferes with the arrest. he's told to back off. he refuses to do so, and then they get into the scuffle. look, this doesn't resolve any of the questions about what happened that night between trayvon martin and george zimmerman, but in the larger battle and larger effort to understand both of the two principles in this case, this prior police report does shed some light. >> does it shed light on whether he should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon, a gun? >> actually, that -- i think some people will draw that as the most important lesson or point out of all this. florida is one of those states that has a concealed weapons law, permit law. it was that permit that allowed zimmerman to be carrying

that .9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun the night he shot trayvon martin. you can have one of those permits if you're arrested, but you cannot if you're convicted of a felony. it's only the felony conviction that is a bar to carrying a permit, and because the felony charges against zimmerman were reduced, the rest is history. he was able to get the permit. >> let's bring david wilson. greo in here. let's take a look at this. the brother of george zimmerman came to his defense last night on cnn, and although robert zimmerman, jr. did not specifically say he had spoken to his brother george since the shooting, he did describe the moments leading up to trayvon martin's death according to whatever source. we don't know what it is, but let's watch him. >> george was out of breath, he was barely conscious. his last thing he remembers doing was moving his head from the concrete to the grass so that if he was banged one more time, he wouldn't be, you know,

wearing diapers for the rest of his life and being spoon-fed by his brother. and there would have been george dead. >> well, subsequent to that, george zimmerman's lawyer, and that's the lawyer for zimmerman himself, told nbc the brothers, those two, robert and george, have not spoken in years and that the comments by the brother robert are totally irrelevant. that's according to the defense attorney or the attorney for george zimmerman. let me bring david in. how do you put this all together? we have people coming out of the woodwork on both sides. we don't know where his source of information -- i guess we could assume he talked to the father if he didn't talk to the brother. >> it appears he and his father have a similar story. what's interesting about their story is that it is sort of -- they're painting a life and death situation for george zimmerman, that this was something that he had to act, that he had to do something. i thought what was also interesting about both of their statements was the fact that they say that trayvon martin was reaching for the gun. this is new information that we

obviously didn't hear last week, and i think it's just creating this story that, look, he had to act. but when you look at the police tape, that video that came out, again, it creates some difficulty for the zimmerman camp because, again, he looks like someone who, you know, just walked off the street. it doesn't look like he's in my sort of physical distress. there isn't any sort of physical bruising that you can see clearly. >> what about the close-up done by another network that looked at the back of his head and you could see cuts in the back of his head as he described in his testimony? >> but, you know, again, his brother said he was beaten inches away from being unconscious. here you see this guy getting out of the police vehicle rather easily and walking of his own volition. so i think, again, this video creates a problem for the zimmerman side. >> let's take a look at orlando fox, channel 35. wednesday george zimmerman's father, robert, sr., described the fight between the two men on

the sidewalk, as he put it. let's watch that. >> after nearly a minute of being beaten, george was trying to get his head off the concrete, trying to move with trayvon on him into the grass. in doing so, his firearm was shown. trayvon martin said something to the effect of, you're going to die now or you're going to die tonight, something to that effect. >> then last night on cnn, an unidentified witness who did not wish to identify themselves, they didn't even make the gender clear, called that account into question by placing the fight between trayvon and zimmerman in the grass. they couldn't see which man was on top of the other but did recount what he or she saw immediately following the shooting. let's listen to this report.

>> then he was walking towards where i was walking, and i could see him a little bit clearer. i could see that it was a hispanic man. you know, he didn't appear hurt or anything else. >> michael, back to you, sir. this has become the battle of sourcing some of it secondhand, some of it perhaps derived from hearing someone on television or radio or somewhere else. this case, what can you figure out down there about the progress of the case itself? is it all in the hands of the state's attorney of brevard county, we understand. it's still a state matter, primarily. >> right. i talked to the justice department today. they're overseeing it, taking a look at it, but the investigation is being done by state investigators with a state prosecutor in charge. look, the evidence is as murky as it can get. clearly one witness -- one

crucial witness, trayvon martin, is dead. you have george zimmerman and, you know, there may or may not have been good eyewitnesses who can back up or dispute some of what he saw. it is worth pointing out that there are two sort of known facts that people are both sides could point to here. one is that we know that george zimmerman did disobey the instructions from the 911 officer to not keep following trayvon martin around, and that's perhaps why this police report from 2005 might be relevant. but we also know from the original police report on this incident in february that the police officer on the scene did report that zimmerman had a -- was bleeding from the nose and had blood on his body. so that's a contemporaneous account by a police officer that

suggests that there was -- that strongly suggests there was a physical struggle between martin and zimmerman. how it began and exactly what happened, we may never know. >> this stand your ground law down in florida and a number of other states, david, is going to be an issue. it seems to me we're stuck here now deciding what the law says. the moral issues here are complicated as hell, but it does seem to me we have a challenge on our hands now. what constitutes self-defense under this statute? >> it's very murky, right? you have two people, and oftentimes if you have one person who is going against the word of a dead man. >> that's the case in any murder case, let's be honest. >> that's true, but there are some other things you can sort of judge. i can easily say if someone came up to me and i decided to shoot them without any sort of -- and you don't have to take anything else into account, i think that's a problem. so you're starting to see this law being applied to some other cases. you know, we were just talking today in my newsroom about a

case in miami where one gang-related incident where a guy shot a car with other gang members in it because -- and he was protected under the stand your ground law. so i think we're going to have to take another look at this law. i know a lot of folks on the right, and particularly those who are for gun rights, are not going to be comfortable with this debate, but i think it's one we need to have. >> we're going to have it coming up in one minute, michael. that fight is coming up here. the trayvon case, the trayvon martin case has shined a spotlight on these so-called stand your ground laws. we have an incredible 911 tape by a man who left his house to kill and shoot two burglars at a neighbor's house and used the stand your ground law as a defense. this is "hardball." uh, trouble with a car insurance claim. ah, claim trouble. [ dennis ] you should just switch to allstate, and get their new claim satisfaction guarantee. hey, he's right man. [ dennis ] only allstate

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welcome back to "hardball." the trayvon martin shooting has put a bright light on florida's stand your ground law. it's raising questions about the origin of the law in florida, where it came from, and there are actually two dozen other states that have similar laws to it. a time magazine report in 2008 said these rights to defend

yourself laws were sweeping the country, and that was no coincidence. as our guests john nichols reports, a group called the legislative american exchange council, or alec, for short, uses it as a model for the legislation across the country. two dozen states have something like this, as i said. ben from the naacp. thanks for joining us, ben. they released a report in december that said alec is behind any anti-voter laws. he has written extensively on this organization called alec and the stand your ground law itself. gentlemen, i want you to listen to something right now. a variation of the stand your ground law passed in the state of texas after of florida law paved the way. it became a lynchpin argument for a man named joe horn. let's listen to a portion of a pretty scary 911 call from september 2007 in which he, mr. horn, describes two men breaking into a neighbor's home.

>> i want you to listen to me carefully, okay? >> yes. >> we got officers coming out there. i don't want you to go outside that house. and i don't want you to have that gun in your hand when those officers are poking around over there. >> i understand that. but i have a right to protect myself, too, sir, and you understand that. the laws have been changed in this country since september 1, you know it and i know it. i have a right to protect myself. he's coming out the window right now. i got to go, buddy. >> don't go out the door. mr. horn? mr. horn? >> they just stole something. i'm going out the window. i'm not letting them get away with it. they stole something. >> i don't want you going outside, mr. horn. >> here goes, buddy. you hear the shotgun clicking and i'm going. >> don't go outside. >> no! you're dead! [ gunshots ]

>> well, john nichols, that's pretty graphic. that's a live account on the 911 tape of two men who were caught burglarizing a house but killed and gunned down dead by a civilian who decided to use this law, and he was defended in court on the basis of this law. john? >> absolutely. necessary. you're going to find cases like this in places across the country. there was a case in wisconsin where -- >> how does he say he was defending himself? let's get back to the law and how it's used. stand your ground means if you're in danger of somebody beating you up or you're in danger of your life because somebody is coming at you, beating you up, threatening you with a gun and you're outside your home. how does this relate when he went after him? >> there are several variations on stand your ground laws. there is a castle doctrine law which suggests you can protect

your property and its environment right out to the sidewalk. stand your ground is more something that takes it out into the streets. the bottom line on this, chris, is that the interpretation kind of goes to the gunman. the person with the gun can say, i felt threatened. i felt that i was endangered. and prosecutors, police officers, judges who traditionally have been able to interpret statements like that really are robbed of the ability to do it by these laws which essentially say there is a bl k blanket immunity. if the shooter says they felt threatened or they felt endangered, they are protected by the prosecution. >> i don't want to go too far with your case until i get the facts. mr. nichols, how do you justify self-defense even in the broadest definition under this statute if you're shooting down, like you're pretending you're a lawman chasing an escaping felon? he was acting like a police officer. maybe an officer does have the right to shoot an escaped felon,

but in this case, describe how that is used as a self-defense motive. >> i don't think it's credible to use as a self-defense motive. it's an almost obscene protection of self-defense. unfortunately, this is what's happened in states across the country. we have had instances where people have shot in circumstances where just about by any reasonable measure you would say it's not necessary to use lethal force, and the person who did the shooting has been let off the hook on the argument that they felt threatened. all they have to do is say they felt threatened and that's what happens. >> let me go to my friend. thank you for being in the naacp. you have so many pans in the fire and you're concerned about this country. you are concerned about this exchange council that pushes these laws. tell me why you're concerned. >> this is a group that, frankly, when we took a look at them, we hoped it was maybe like the chamber of commerce.

it started out sort of mom and apple pie and then moved steadily further and further to the right. but actually, what we found is that, no, they were founded really for ill intent. this is a group whose founder has said our best interest is when the voting populace is constrained, when the number of people who can vote in this country goes down. in case after case, they're just on the wrong side -- they're super extreme, and this wild, wild west law that they passed, you know, frankly, chris, if someone made a 911 call from the frontier in 1880, that's what it would sound like. it sort of raises the question why are so many corporations supporting a group that is trying to shrink the number of people who can vote in this country and who is out there pushing these sort of super-powered laws that let people gun each other down in our streets. >> let me ask john again, do you

think our self-defense laws, as we've understood them through common law, suppose somebody runs a small business in a neighborhood and a couple guys come in with hoods on, they're standing there armed, he pulls out his gun and kills them both. most people would say he's in self-defense because these guys could shoot him. that is self-defense. aren't the self-defense laws enough that we have on the books. is that true? >> it's absolutely true. in fact, chris, in working on stories on this particular variation of the castle doctrine law and the stand your ground laws, i've looked at the states where they've been passed and tried to figure out whether there was any case or any public outcry that justified going beyond the traditional protections that are in common law that have existed since before the founding of the united states. in most cases there aren't any

reasons to go here. the reason that state after state has gone here is because the american legislative exchange council in 2005, after florida passed its law, developed model legislation that with the support of the nra and other groups, it has pushed in state after state across this country. not to respond to public outcry and not to respond to specific incidents but rather to dramatically extend what i think of as a fantasy of where gun rights ought to go. >> ben, i want to ask you, one last question. because you do represent such a revered organization. is there a sense on the part of minorities that this law is anti-minority, that these laws are meant to somehow be anti-minority, these stand your ground laws? >> well, certainly it seems that for many, the fear that they have is of black men. and really, that's what's at the heart of the trayvon case, is that this is a case that, you know, where a young black man

was staulked on the street, attacked on the street, shot in cold blood not by what he was doing but because of what he looked like. when you empower -- >> that's your argument. what you're putting together there, sir, are three or four things in dispute. he did track him because of the surveillance tape. we don't know what kind of confrontation occurred. you say in cold blood. that's a phrase you're using here. >> chris, he got out of his car with a gun. >> we know that. he had the gun, he had the gun, a concealed weapon, yes, he did. but you don't know what happened, do we? >> what we do know is what happened until about ten seconds before? we know the cops said stay in your car. and so -- we know he was following him in the car. so what i'm saying is right up until ten seconds before, and we know trayvon is calling his girlfriend and saying, there is a strange guy who is following

me. and when you read the law, the law seems to say, if you're followed, if you're stalked, if somebody attacks you, if they pull out a gun, you can use equal and opposite force. it doesn't seem to say that if you go out and attack somebody with a gun and then you get scared, you can shoot them and kill them, but what we're seeing as we dig into this is that we've seen like two drug dealers shoot out and get away with violence. >> we don't know what they've got on the young man before they killed him. we know in some kind of confrontation, the guy used his firearm lethally. there is a middle part we have to learn more about, ben. a lot of hell was obviously unleashed in that ten seconds. thank you for that great report. the "hardball" side show coming up next. you're watching it. "hardball" on msnbc. this is an rc robotic claw.

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back to "hardball," first from the gop. president obama's personal exchange with russian president dmitry medvedev earlier this week, they lost no time in mocking the president with a james bond trailer. let's watch. >> in a world where one man cannot lose, the fate of the world rests in one top secret mission. >> this is my last mission. after my election, i have more flexibility. >> your mission is simple, mr. obama. win one mass election to gain

some flexibility and weaken our defenses and transform the world. dmitry will transmit the information. >> starring barack obama as president flexible, dmitry medvedev as dr. transmakov, and vladimir putin as himself. >> well, that's a fallen one, i suppose. it won't be much of a long term problem for president obama. mitt romney got the endorsement of congressman paul ryan today, and the dnc had some fun linking ryan and his tax-cutting medicare threatening budget with mitt romney. ♪ when old mitt collaplaps his for the paul ryan plan, that's amore ♪ >> when his plan came out, i

applauded it. ♪ when paul ryan give us chops to mitt romney's tops, that's amore ♪ ♪ for the middle class, for the middle class, for the middle class, if they pass their budget ♪ ♪ but great care for the millionaire and the billionaire for their tax cuts ♪ ♪ when they need to prepare and change medicare, that's amore ♪ ♪ when old willard goes nuts for the congressman's cuts, they're in love ♪ >> paul ryan is one of the brilliant visionaries in our party. ♪ when you work hand in hand pushing parallel plans, oh senor ♪ ♪ but you see with ryan and romney, that's amore ♪ >> somewhere the great dean

martin is smiling, anyway. up next, president obama a big lead over mitt romney in wisconsin. it's only march, but things are looking good for team obama. you're watching "hardball." [ do] i hit a wall. and i thought "i can't do this, it's just too hard." then there was a moment. when i decided to find a way to keep going. go for olympic gold and go to college too. [ male announcer ] every day we help students earn their bachelor's or master's degree for tomorrow's careers. this is your moment. let nothing stand in your way. devry university, proud to support the education of our u.s. olympic team.

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internet giant will lay off thousands of workers starting next week. now back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball." back to politics. there are good news and bad news for mitt romney in the latest poll. it looks like mitt romney is heading for a win in next week's primary in wisconsin, but according to the poll, he'll lose badly to president obama in november. the president beat romney by 17 points. that's the biggest win he had against mccain in that state. romney's problems extend to other key battleground states. in florida, obama leads by 7. that's pretty healthy for a state many people thought he was going to lose. in ohio, the president up by 6, a must-win state for

republicans. a political reporter and a top one now for the "washington post." gentlemen and lady, thank you. i was just telling you yesterday, neal, you're all over this romney campaign. did romney suffer so much damage in the scuffle that never seemed to end there with these two guys, newt, and with rick santorum? did that hurt him vis-a-vis the press? >> i think it certainly hurt him. the polls reflect it certainly seems to be hurting him at this point. but remember what they said about this campaign, that they would be able to pivot in some ways. they used the unfortunate metaphor of an etch a sketch, but i think they're trying troe calibra -- to recalibrate at this point. they're going to try to focus on foreign policy. they can draw strong contrast with that and really get some

momentum behind this campaign. that has, in fact, been somewhat damaged by this elongated race that they didn't really anticipate. >> let me go to mark halpern on this. it seems to me this election could well be the kind of election so close that electoral votes don't count. they usually count, but you usually go by the popular vote. when you look at key states, i was appalled by the way pennsylvania looks now. democrats have to win that state by more than this little margin of 2 or 3. >> i think my overall view remains what it's been. the president is going to be the favorite until election day. he's a politically skilled incumbent that has no major scandaled that the country is focused on. we look at obama's numbers in these states. those are key battleground states. you have to ask the question, are the president's numbers his floor or his ceiling? normally for an incumbent you look at them for a ceiling. he's above 50%, the margin of

error, in wisconsin, but he's below 50 in all the other places. if mitt romney runs a competent campaign, he's in line to win this even though his actions alarm republicans. >> we just got into officially, spring temperaturewise came early this winter. we've got the entire spring ahead of us with two candidates, obama and mitt romney now. we've got the entire hot summer ahead of us at six months. then we've got the fall campaign and that's two months more. we've got eight months ahead of us of these two guys knowing who they're facing and trashing each other potentially on the air or in person when they talk about each other. who has got the durability now, and who is now at their peak? is the president at his peak now? he's got to hold onto it, or is he at his floor? or is it the other way around? >> i think he might be somewhere in the middle. we've got a lot of things coming up this summer, one of which is

his health care, a vote out of the supreme court. they'll have to figure out how to talk about that, whether it's held up or tossed out. i think there is a lot of room for these candidates to grow. mark said mitt romney will have to run a competent campaign. he'll probably have to run a much more than competent campaign and in many ways be a much, much stronger candidate than we've seen so far. he hasn't addressed some of these core problems that he has, and one of which, as we know, is connecting to voters. he hasn't talked about how rich he is and what that means for what kind of person he is and his ability to connect. >> let's turn the table for a time. i've always been very complimentary about the president, to say the least, but i want to look at this race pretty objectively. we're looking ahead at this thing. i think i see strengths for mr. romney. i look at him in the debates, not the conversations he has back and forth with the other

people. he's no good at small talk. in fact, i think it's dangerous for him. but when he is in a debate, he has a few days to get ready for it, he gets his game face on, and he's pretty good. i think he'll win at least one of three debates with the president. and he's had all this incredible practice. let me go to mark on this and you get back in here. >> i think there are three things he has to do to have a debate and make it matter. one, he has to be an incredible commander in chief and he's talking more about foreign policy that we've seen in the last couple days. two is he's got to be more likeable. he's never going to be as likeable as the president. in this television age, that's a positive. he has to show more of himself. >> will more help? >> yes. you know what? i've seen him on the plane, on the campaign plane in private matters, in if i nitly better. the last thing is nuts and bolts. tv service, campaign appearatus

getting people out there spending money on him, he needs all that. >> mark covering this post every day. thank you, mark. he became president in the darkest hours following the assassination of kennedy. he did some big things in the first months and first year. how johnson did it. and what president obama could learn from the master legislator who has ever been president. this is "hardball."

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the u.s. supreme court had their first vote on the fate of president obama's health care law today, but only those nine justices you're looking at and their law clerks know what happened in that vote. the rest of us will have to wait until the justices actually write their opinions and release their ruling in late june. it's all secrecy behind those robes. we'll be right back.

we're back. former president lyndon johnson was thrust into leadership in the middle of a tragedy. here he is just five days in

office after president kennedy's assassination. >> all i have i would have given gladl gladly not to be standing here today. no words are sad enough to express our sense of loss. no words are strong enough to express our determination to continue the trust of america that he began. >> in his new book, mark undergrove writes of him, quote, there are few who knew him who wouldn't describe lyndon johnson as a wonderful man. not good, great. he's also director of the lbj library down in austin. he joins us now. thank you very much for joining us, mark. you know what's always impressed

me is johnson's ability to get the civil rights act through. kennedy was working on it, and here aftermath of the assassination, and brought together the republicans and enough democrats to get the thing through. >> you're absolutely right, what is remark bt that is the political courage is took to get it done. he had to impose his friend and mentor, from georgia, on that bill. he called him to the white house and russell declared he could probably get the civil rights act of 64 passed, but he would do so at the risk of losing the southern states. johnson hears that and says very quietly "if that is the price for the bill, i will pay it." >> and the list of names, harry

bird, robert bird, holland, johnston, jordan, long, sparkman, therman, they were all against him, and they were the powerhouses of capitol hill and they were all segregationist. >> it's interesting. he had to reach across the aisle as you mentioned to get it done. and he did so with the senate minority leader at the time. and there was a great conversation in the book where he says to dirkson, and you are worthy. if you support this bill you will get proper credit. when he signed the bill into law, he gave the pen first to

him. medicare was another issue that they had been pushing for since the new deal, how did he get that through? which everybody lives on now that is over the age of 65. >> one of the ways was by outflanking the american medical association. they have a meeting with him, and they know he is opposed, and they ask if he is willing to send doctors to vietnam to attend to the population. immediately lyndon calls a press conference knowing they will ask if the ama will support medicare. and they do. and they say these boys are sending doctors to vietnam, they're patriots, they're going

to support the law of the land. and the head of the ama had no choice but to say of course, and 90% of doctors did in the days after that. >> he had many achievements, civil rights, voting rights, could he have done this if there wasn't this feeling over the country because of kennedy being killed? >> he used the martyrdom of kennedy. you're talking about a man who had a strong will and powers of persuasion. if you look at 1965 alone, it's remarkable. when he won the office in his own right, it's remarkable what what he pushed through in that single year. he knew how to work with the opposition and how to spend political capital.

>> thank you, what a great job you have done here. thank you mark indegrove. when we come back, let me finish with this election. you're watching "hardball." ♪ where the sun never goes out ♪ ♪ and the sky is deep and blue ♪ ♪ won't you take me american flight 280 to miami is now ready for boarding. ♪ there with you fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself. nonstop. american airlines.

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>> let me finish tonight with this. the trayvon martin case focused the country's attention these

days, but we'll be back on the presidential election full-time, and when we are, we will see a very hot, close race for the presidency. i'm convinced that the american people are in for a tight one. for one thing, they want it that way. they want to see these candidates duke it out and give it their absolute best. two, they see this race as a reasonable one. both president obama and former governor mitt romney will have considerations for this country's highest office. i have watched a couple factors that will confront the president is the candidate. he commands an organizational ability. this guy has the contacts, the reputation with other business people, and the basic competence to assemble and ramrod an organization that has bin disciplined enough to destroy all of the candidates getting in

his way. they have not wasted money, they have spent just enough to beat guys where they needed to win. the general election will not work the same way, the president will be well funded and have people working and thinks on his behalf. but you play your strengths in the political business, and romney has showed his. organizational skill, discipline, and the right kind of pals. other evidence that shows this will be a challenge for obama is the economy itself. it is not steaming ahead. the growth rate is well below 3%, and that is not strong enough to bring people back to work and the number that's will instill confidence that the country is headed back to business. we have a gasoline problem that will drain money from the economy as the summer grows hotter. we'll have a housing problem. it is difficult to expolice station and a devastating