debates that i'm looking forward to having, but today, i want to thank all the members of congress who came together and worked to get this done. it shows that when an idea is right, that we can still accomplish something on behalf of the american people and to make our government and our country stronger. so to the ladies and gentlemen and gentlemen who helped make this happen, thank you develop for your outstanding work. and with that, let me sign this bill.

>> that was president obama signing the stock act which will prevent members of congress from insider trading. the president said during this year's state of the union that he would sign such a bill and congress answered with a bipartisan legislation. joining me today, political analyst national affairs editor for new york magazine and the man who has forever altered the vice presidential nominating process john heilemann it, political analyst and columnist for the hill karen finney, formerly of the jon 2012 girls is, the delightful abby huntsman and mr. shouldn't morning hugo lindgren of "the new york times" magazine. mitt romney may spend an extras few minutes at the newsstand today. "the wall street journal's" headline reads romney rules up three wins. the "new york times" wins signals new stage of campaign. and romney sees more signs of coalescing. but apparently no one has yet told rick santorum that. today's "washington post" headline reads strum digs in

heels. and the boston globe says santorum to fight on. i had a really nice introduction written which i didn't get to say talking about the fat lady singing in three states. john heilemann, the republican party has their nominee. i'll put a period at the end of that sentence. >> very bold. >> thank you. >> good prediction. >> what i want to pay attention to is in wisconsin, romney won among conservatives, tea partiers, those making under $50,000 a year and those without a college degree, an impressive showing given how the electorate has turned out for him in previous races. >> it's true. look, it's parts of this thing that the way that the nomination processes work is through moment tum to some extent. you have demographics that really matter. as santorum has become a less viable potential nominee, even people in his own coalition start to think why waste my vote. i like him better but he's not going to be the nominee and people on the fence start to fall on the other side of the

fence from where they did back when they thought that the guy they liked better actually has a chance to win. >> but don't forget the power of the matching shirts that he and ron paul and paul ryan, you know, the other one. >> i think he and ron paul probably have some color coordinat coordinatedout fits, as well. >> he is a tea party darling. paul ryan being seen with him time and time again. paul ryan introduced him last night. knowing that could help him pick off some of that tea party support knowing he had to have a better showing in wisconsin among those groups so we would be having this conversation today. >> the bigger issue too last night, his speech was the tone was very much leading into the general election tone that he's going to have. it was very negative. it was all political rhetoric. i'm attacking the president. at a time when he needs to bring in the youth and the women and these groups that bhoem last time, i hope that's not the narrative he has in the general election. >> i think that's the narrative. he also towards the end of

his speech, he and obama have gone back and forth on this is american exceptionalism, who is more exceptionally loving of american exceptionalism i guess. he did try to say believe in america, we believe in america. we believe in ourselves. clearly that's also part of the general election message and him taking on obama. >> focus on mitt romney's message. hugo, i don't know if you're a sports fan. i think you are. floating there idea out there. >> a sports fan of mitt romney. >> >> i like cricket. >> the yips when you get spooked in maybe a game of baseball or golf and you can no longer catch the grounders or hit the ball the way you used to. >> does romney have that? >> i think mitt romney has a case of the yips. he's had great wins in florida and after illinois where he's come out and totally undercut himself by saying something like i don't care about the very poor in this country or an adviser says something about the etch a sketch.

noticeably absent today is mitt romney. he isn't speaking. they're trying to insulate against gaffes. >> i it guess that's one way of looking at it. i think mitt's calm about the whole thing. part of his problem is he doesn't -- i'm guessing is why he continues to make these sort of gaffes and stuff. part of it, i think he does have a kind of like long view, data driven just sort of meticulously sort of stay on the message and so he diverts himself a little bit because he's not that will worried about it. you know? >> well -- >> i should make clear, he is making a speech today at the american -- talking about sort of the open mic, the off the cuff comment that has gotten him in trouble in the past. they are trying to gird against that. he is the presumptive nominee and his availability is lessened. >> they know the curse of the day after. i'm sure they're trying to be

careful. the other problem that mitt romney has had with this and this is what the campaign is most concerned about, this was the same thing in the back and forth sometimes between hillary and obama. yes, we all go off for a couple days talking about etch a sketch. what that means is those are one or two or three days he's not talking about his message, not pushing his message. >> the etch a sketch competent was not mitt's. >> he still had to deal with it. the problem they've had is every time this happens, it only feeds into their biggest negative. that's been a big problem for them. >> i hate to be -- i'm afraid i'm going to get the yips. >> i got the yips. >> just watching me you got the yips. let's not try to be too overly complicated. he's giving a huge speech as we speak right now, and it's at the newspaper editors, the same place that obama spoke yesterday which is going to drive a ton of news coverage. he doesn't have another contest for three weeks. to go and do morning tv this morning when you have a big speech that you want to the dom

fate the news, whether you have the yips or not, it would been a waste of time for them to go on morning t vl this morning. >> he's not connecting. he needs to at least have substance and talk about a message that will connect. nothing else is really working for him at this point. >> let's talk about those who -- maybe helping in terms of engendering a case of the yips. here i must cite sarah palin, something that john heilemann has written about extensively. listen to what she said last night regarding her pick for vp. >> top of my list is alan west. i love that he has that is military experience. he is a public servant, willing to serve for the right reasons. when i talk about going rogue, what i want to do is encourage the gop nominee to not think that they have to go with somebody necessarily safe that conventional wisdom perhaps would lead somebody to believe that if. it's somebody, quote unquote, safe.

>> that sentence goes on at some length. you get the nugget there, which is basically i mean, the base, the tea party, arch conservative base of the party is still not with this guy. you have folks like sarah palin both on fox and earlier yesterday on the today show gave an incredibly weak throated semi -- could you call it an endorsement? i'm not sure. this could be a problem for mitt romney going forward. >> anytime you got sarah palin telling you you should go rogue, don't listen. just turn the channel. >> running mate advice from sarah palin, it boggles the mind. >> most republicans would admit they are so haunted by the ghost of sarah palin in that decision. so look, i think romney though is going to have to take a look at this and figure out, when you make these decisions, is there someone who you think can deliver a state or a particular demographic? is it someone who complements you and you know in terms of you know, with barack obama and joe biden, there was a little bit of both. or is it just someone that you

like, you think you can work with, get along with and they're not going to get in your way. >> on the one hand, if he gets a conservative you alienate the middle ground he needs badly. if you get more of an independent, the conservatives are going to go away. they won't go out to vote. >> new york magazine is pretty interesting. senator portman from ohio he talks about. it is a huge boring factor. you just look at a romney portman ticket and you just imagine some faded old poster from 100 years ago. >> it just doesn't matter. all that matters is, is the candidate both qualified to serve as president as commander in chief from day one and does he pass the bar with us of appearing to be immediately qualified. then it goes away. partman is a strong candidated in ohio. ohio matters a lot. romney gets that done. there are no surprises, no controversy. there's no goodnairetive for

game change 2. anyway, we'll talk more about this after the breaking. >> of palin could come back. that would be great. >> coming up, as he focuses on pennsylvania, rick santorum once again stresses it is halftime in this race. but just how long is the second half? we're going to ask the national communications director for the santorum campaign j. hogan gidley when he joins us next on "now." logy. arrival. with hertz gold plus rewards, you skip the counters, the lines, and the paperwork. zap. it's our fastest and easiest way to get you into your car. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz. i'm al ways like splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweeteners. this bowl of strawberries is loaded with vitamin c. and now, b vitamins to boot. coffee doesn't have fiber. unless you want it to. splenda® essentials™ are the first and only line of sweeteners with a small boost of fiber, or antioxidants, or b vitamins in every packet.

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this is the halfway point. we have a whole second half of football. >> we're at the halfway point. this is the halftime of this long process. >> it's like telling kansas you're down by 1 points before halftime. give up, it's over. we aren't even at halftime, folks. >> it's halftime.

half the delegates in this process have been selected. and who's ready to karch out of the locker room in pennsylvania for a strong second half? >> are we in the second half of the race? mitt romney seems to think it's game over. joining us now from washington is hogan gidley, national communications director of the rick santorum campaign. always a pleasure to have you, sir. >> dimples don't fool me, alex. i'm waiting for the attack. >> going right for the dimples off the top. let's play ball. so hogan, what quarter of the game are we in? the conservative scoreboard reads 573-212. >> right. >> we've been hearing halftime, halftime. do you still think we're in halftime? >> no, we just started the third quarter heading into a very pivotal point in this race and that's pennsylvania. we said for a long time pennsylvania is very important to our campaign, important in the primary, but it's vital in

the general. and we all know here that this pennsylvania primary is going to be very, very, very important to the rick santorum campaign but it's also very important to mitt romney because they know if we move into pennsylvania with a win, then we move into the may month which of course, is more suited for rick santorum. the states are there we can win and we'll have momentum heading into may. that's mitt romney's worst nightmare. he wanted it to be over a long time ago after iowa. but it's not. we've got a third quarter here to play, a fourth quarter still to go and we're going to charge on to pennsylvania. >> but hogan, what do you make of the fact that mitt romney is now convincing people making less than $50,000 a year, tea partiers, conservatives to vote for him, rick santorum is not. >> that's funny. in the last segment you mentioned conservatives were rallying behind him and later in the same segment you said he still can't rally the base. if the look at the polling, paul ryan comes out. ron johnson comes out. marco rubio comes out.

mitt romney outspends us five to one and only wins by basically four points in wisconsin? we have to show the people of this country we can going on forward and win pennsylvania. if we do that, it is a complete game change for this election because we move into the months that matter for rick santorum in the sense that he's ahead in the polling in places like texas, kentucky, arkansas, and if we can show that momentum moving forward, i think that's going to be very important to our campaign moving our delegate count up and keeping mitt romney at bay. >> i want to open this up to the panel and talk about pennsylvania. joel scarborough this morning had a very interesting piece of advice i guess. i don't know what to call it to the mitt romney team. listen to what he said. >> if i were mitt romney today, i would go up with millions of dollars of ads in pennsylvania today. i'm going to reduce you to rubble in your home state. and then just like rome, i'm going to go to carthage and salt

the earth to make sure nothingever grows back there again. i will kill you politically in your home state. >> i think he ended you want to play, big boy, come on, let's play. >> how is it different from any other state he's competed in. >> >> thank you, abby. >> it's obviously different in the sense that it's rick santorum's home state, and if rick santorum -- right now the race in that state, santorum is only ahead by single digits in some measures, about five points. if romney -- hogan is setting this thing up saying it's pretty close to a must win for santorum. if mitt romney invests the money, beats santorum, we all think mitt romney is going to win the nomination anyway. any remaining shred of a rationale for santorum to stay in the race is gone and though hogan says pinning pennsylvania would be a game change for me, it's winning your home state. he must win his home state. >> it's unclear will whether

mitt romney will be salting the earth and burning the houses down in pennsylvania. he is draeing news editors in washington and throwing some punches the way of 1600 pennsylvania avenue. let's take a quick listen. >> he says he wants to find ways to reduce them. as president, he delayed the development of our oil and coal and natural gas. now, as candidate, he says he favors an energy policy that an adopts an all of the above approach. nancy pelosi famously said we would have to pass obama care to find out what was in it. president obama has turned that advice into a campaign strategy. he wants us to re-elect him so we can find out what he'll actually do. with all the challenges the nation faces, this is not the time for president obama's hide and seek campaign. president obama has said he wants to transform america. i don't want to transform america. i want to restore to america the values of economic freedom and opportunity and small government

that have made this nation the leader it is. it is opportunity that has always driven america. and defined us as americans. my grandfather was in the construction business. and he never really made it himself. but he convinced my dad that he could accomplish anything he set his mind to. my dad didn't have the chance to finish a college degree. and he apprenticed as a lath and plaster carpenter. and based on that excellent experience, he went on to turn around a car company. and later became the governor of the state of michigan. my father made the most of the opportunities that came before him. by the time i came along, i was the fourth of four brothers and sisters, i had the chance to get the education my dad couldn't. i loved cars. and i was tempted to stay in michigan and go into the car business. but i always knew that i'd wonder if any success i might have was due to my dad.

so i went out and got out of business school, i stayed in massachusetts and got a job with the best company that would hire me. and perhaps more importantly, i was married and on the way to having five sons. over the next 25 years, my business career had ups and downs, great successes, definite failures, but each step of the way, i learned more and more about the power of the free enterprise system. now, i'm not naive enough to believe that free enterprise is the solution to all of our problems. nor am i naive enough to doubt that it is one of the greatest forces of good the world has ever known. free enterprise has done more to lift people out of poverty, to help build a strong middle class, to help educate our kids, and to make our lives better than all of the government's programs put together. if we become one of those

societies that attacks success, then out outcome is certain. there will be less success. that's not who we are. the promise of america has always been that if you worked hard and took some risks, that there was the opportunity to build a better life for your family and for the next generation. i'm offering a clear choice and a different path. and unlike the president, i have a record that i'm proud to run on. after my years in business, i used my experience there to help save an olympics and to help turn around a state. when i became governor of massachusetts, the state budget was out of control and the legislature was 85% democrat. we cut taxes 19 times. and balanced the budget. every one of our four years. we erased a $3 billion budget shortfall and left office with a $2 billion rainy day fund. i cast over 800 vetoes.

and cut entire programs. if there was a program or agency or department that needed cutting, we cut it. one tv commentator said that i didn't just go after the sacred cows. i went after the whole herd. and i cannot wait to get my hands on washington. unlike president obama, you don't have to wait until after the election to find out what i believe. or what my plans are. i have a pro growth agenda that will get our economy back on track and get americans back to work. this administration thinks our economy is struggling because the stimulus was too small. the truth is, we're struggling because our government has grown too big. as president, i'll get the government out of the way and unleash the power of american enterprise and the innovation of the american people. seven months ago, i presented a detailed plan for jobs and economic growth. it included 59 different proposals that would help

strengthen the economy. now i understand some people are amused that i have so many ideas. but i think the american people will prefer it to president obama's grand total of zero. i will cut marginal tax rates across the board for individuals and corporations and limit deductions and exclusions. i will repeal burdensome regulations and prevent the bureaucracy from running new ones. i'll unleash our domestic energy resources so that we can finally get the energy we need at a price we can afford. and keep those dollars in this country. instead of picking winners and losers with taxpayer dollars, i'll make sure that every entrepreneur gets a fair shot and that every business plays by the same rules. i'll create an environment where our businesses and workers can compete and win. i'll welcome the best and brightest to our shores. and ensure that we have labor and training policies that help american workers to be more

competitive. instead of growing the federal government, i will shrink it. i will repeal obama care. >> that is mitt romney speaking today on the heels of three wins last night. hogan gidley, you are the santorum campaign communications director. newt gingrich has said he's going to stay in this race largely to sort of help fashion a better more convincing conservative platform, probably for mitt romney. is rick santorum going to do the same? >> no, i mean look, we're still this to win it. we'd like for all the conservatives including newt gingrich to bow out of this race and get behind us obviously. polls show even last night with the percentage points that gingrich had, had he been out, we would have been able to beat romney in wisconsin. i want to go back to something romney said about all of his plans and he can't wait to get to washington. i'm terrified at that notion because he's caused so much damage in washington, d.c. and this country from boston. i don't know what he's talking about. remember last week, two weeks ago, we were debating before the

supreme court the constitutionality of obama care. we wouldn't even have had those hearings had it not been for romney care. just across the hill, obama's green czar who used to be romney's green czar was fighting for more cap in tax legislation. this whole thing is a well crafted speech but has no basis in fact and he's going to be a very difficult nominee to attack barack obama on because obama basically took all of his plans from massachusetts and policemened them at the federal level. >> it's abby. i want to know for certain if pennsylvania is the make or break state for santorum, will he get out if he loses pennsylvania and at that point, what is his plan going forward? does he want to get involved with the romney campaign? what does he hope to do at that point? >> that's a great question. for us, we're looking to pennsylvania and to texas as some serious contests for us. i think the person who wins pennsylvania will have momentum going into may and the person who wins texas will is also have a lot of momentum and can pull

off enough delegates to actually you know, move toward that 1144. >> even if he loses pennsylvania, he'll stay in through texas? >> yeah, right now that's the plan. i think pennsylvania -- i'm sorry? >> i was going to say, hogan, obviously in all due respect, i know you have to say that. communications flack to communications flack. you couldn't say if the plan is to get out after pennsylvania. >> no, but look -- >> right now that's the plan. >> everybody knows on this show rick santorum's an italian kid from a steeltown. he doesn't start every fight but he finishes a lot of them. his plan in his mind is let's gets till somebody gets 1144. this isn't a corefation, it's an election. for mitt romney to say well for me to get it, rick santorum has to get out. yeah, if romney got out, we'd get it. he that's silly. you have to win the elections and the dels in order to win the nominati

nomination. >>ings, if santorum and romney got out, newt gingrich would get it. >> hogan gidley, thank you as always for your time, patience and insize i be witt. coming up, we will hear from the obama re-election's campaign ben labolt joining us ahead on "now." ♪ ♪ why do you whisper, green grass? ♪ [ all ] shh! ♪ why tell the trees what ain't so? ♪ [ male announcer ] dow solutions use vibration reduction technology to help reduce track noise so trains move quieter through urban areas all over the world. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. [ all ] shh! [ male announcer ] solutionism. the new optimism.

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this hot dog cart and set it up someplace." so my parents went to bank of america. they met with the branch manager and they said, "look, we've got this little hot dog cart, and it's on a really good corner. let's see if we can buy the property." and the branch manager said, "all right, i will take a chance with the two of you." and we've been loyal to bank of america for the last 71 years. >> absolutely marvelous. ♪ >> marvelous. >> that was a new web video by a group supporting president obama's re-election bid, poking fun at mitt romney's interesting word choice to describe paul ryan's budget. now, obviously, there's a lot at stake for the democrats tying mitt romney to what they see as a draconian budget plan. but i also think the sub text

there, and we heard about this awhile back is the notion that the white house or the obama re-elect campaign wants to paint mitt romney as weird and out of touch using strange words like marvelous to describe the budget. >> he did meet with robert patinson yesterday who is edward on the twilight series. they were posing. that's probably not a good photo op for this conversation going on. >> blood suckers, no, i'm not insinuating anything. is it going to be a successful strategy? >> i think it's going to be a marvelous strategy, marvelous in every way. look, they're trying to make him look like thurston howell iii. romney does speak like he's from the '50s, gosh angie willikers. it is fair to say they did come up with three ininstances where barack obama has also used the word marvelous.

>> coming up, verbal jabs over the economy when the national press secretary for president obama's re-election campaign ben labolt joins us live. that's next. hi, i just switched jobs, and i want to roll over my old 401(k) into a fidelity ira. man: okay, no problem. it's easy to get started; i can help you with the paperwork. um...this green line just appeared on my floor. yeah, that's fidelity helping you reach your financial goals. could you hold on a second? it's your money. roll over your old 401(k) into a fidelity ira and take control of your personal economy. this is going to be helpful. call or come in today. fidelity investments. turn here.

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♪ the president came here yesterday and railed against arguments no one is making. and criticized policies no one is proposing. it's one of his favorite strategies, setting up strawmen to distract us from his record. and while i understand the president doesn't want to run on his record, he can't run from his record either. >> that was mitt romney attacking president obama just a few moments ago at the american association of news editors where the president also spoke yesterday. joining us now from chicago is national press secretary for president obama's re-election campaign ben labolt. ben, thank you for joining the program. >> thanks for having me, alex. >> so ben, you know, i think in many ways that was clearly a response frnls team romney to the president's opening salvo,

if you will, in the general election. i guess my question for you guys is, why yesterday? was not the obama re-election team better off having romney fend off arrows from his own party and sort of watch the republicans dither over social issues and alienate women? >> well, let me just take a second to respond to governor romney. i don't want that attack to stand. when he says that the president was attacking policies that no one has proposed, he's proposed a very similar budgeting to congressman ryan's budget. it's got the same $5 trillion tax cuts for the wealthiest americans. the similar types of policies that we pursued in 2001 and 2003 and drove up the deficit and did not unleash growth and did not create jobs. so he's referring to a very specific budget and it was the romney/ryan budget. >> what about the timing, ben? why yesterday? why did the president came out swinging yesterday and name checked governor romney and really tried to give him a bear hug on a lot of the paul ryan points in his budget. why did you guys pick yesterday

for that opening volley? >> well, the republicans have been out there for a year and they've had the opportunity to propose a plan to create jobs and restore economic security for the middle class. and they haven't done that. instead, they've doubled down on the same policies that led us into the economic crisis in the first place. not only have they proposed more tax us with the for millionaires and billionaires but they're going to make the middle class and seniors foot the bill for those. they've proposed repealing wall street reform and letting wall street write its own rules again. we're not going to sit on our hands here at the campaign. we will fact check the republicans. and be we'll fully engage when the i'm comes. there's no doubt that many republican operatives want to close this primary out. it's been very damaging for their party. you saw two polls this week that showed enthusiasm about voting in november on the democratic side, but speaker gingrich says he's going to the convention and the race in pennsylvania looks tight. so we'll let the republicans conclude their contest. >> john heilemann from new york

magazine has a question for you, ben. >> how you doing? >> hey, john, good. >> i want to know on a scale of 1 to 10 how happy you were in chicago to see paul ryan on stage with mitt romney last night. secondly, are we ever going to hear the words mitt romney without a connection to paul ryan over the next six months. >> we've said no matter republican you get, the economic policies they've proposed have been the same. they race to embrace paul ryan and the tea party's economic policies during this primary campaign. no matter what republican nominee you get, they're all going to end medicare as we know it, turn it into a voucher program and force seniors to pay thousands more out of pocket each year. they've proposes a carbon copy of the same plan. >> ben, not shocking perhaps but the sharpness of the president's rhetoric yesterday and i guess what qualifies as sharpness coming from romney today responding to him and then you

look at how this is playing out. "the wall street journal" today and the editorial page quote paul ryan's hunger games. if there's a laugher curve for presidential investigative, the white house political team must not think their boss has hit it. president obama's speech to the ap yesterday was a parody of the form. those are sharp words from the "wall street journal." what do you make of that line of attack, ben? >> i think the president was taking on what is a very radical proposal. that would transform the nature of what america is and i think you're going to see a very discontinuing choice in november. nobody can say that the president and whoever the republican nominee is are proposing two similar policies. this isn't just on budgetary matters. take a look at the auto industry, for example. all of the republicans in the race believed that we should not have granted the rescue loans to

detroit that saved a million jobs up and down the supply chain. governor romney actually said we should let detroit go the bankrupt. we've seen 32 straight months of growth in the manufacturing sector. for the first time since 1997 when we had a decline and years of decline in that sector. it didn't happen by mistake. that happened because of policies that this administration is pursuing, investing in the middle class, investing in worker training. >> ben, we have one quick last question from hugo lindgren from the "new york times." >> ben, regarding mitt romney's private sector record, is there a way for the campaign to attack it without antagonizing the entire financial industry? >> well, i certainly think that's possible. this is about governor romney's economic philosophy. in terms of the financial sector, the president pursued wall street reform so that we ensured there will never be a repeat of the financial crisis. you know what his policies are

on that front. but what's clear is that whether it was as governor of massachusetts or as a corporate buyout specialist, governor romney promoted outsourcing. he was comfortable with bankrupting companies to make a profit. in massachusetts, he vetoed legislation that would have prohibited outsourcing and so this is about his economic philosophy. >> i somehow, ben labolt, i think we're going to hear more about detroit and paul ryan over the course of this campaign. i didn't even get to ask you about the affordable care act. sir, you will have to join us on another program. thank you for your time. >> happy to do it. >> after the break, a major sweep raises new questions in the debate over immigration. how will both sides tack the issue heading into november? we're going to discuss that next. i should be arrested for crimes against potted plant-kind.

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and in terms of how to secure the border, it's really not that hard. you turn off the magnets and that's employers that hire people who they are here

illegally and number two, you turn off the magnets like tuition breaks or other breaks that draw people into this country illegally. the answer is self-deportation which is people decide they can do better by going home because they can't find work here. >> since last year, mitt romney has been staking out a far right stance on immigration. now it sounds like he's taking a new position. this is what he said about president obama on monday. >> let the immigrant community not forget that while he uses this as a political, as a political weapon, he does not take responsibility for fixing the problems we have. >> joining us now from austin is victoria de francesco soto. it's great to see you. >> thank you. >> let's talk a little bit about the republican problem with hispanics. we speem i think have all paid attention to what mitt romney has said in the leadup in this primary race about hispanics. he's in a lot of ways tried to

marginalize them, denny great a lot of the hispanic experience in america but he seems to be trying to soften that stance presumably going into the general election. what do you make of it, and do you think his panic voters, how do you think that plays out among latinos and hispanics notice u.s.? >> alex, he has gone too far to the right on the issue of immigration for him to start softening and makeny substantive change. really, this is something we've seen since 2010, the republican party take a very harsh stance against immigration. what's so interesting is that the republican party during the bush years was very open to reforming immigration, had a very compassionate view towards immigration reform. and what we've seen is a 180 over the past two years. now mitt romney is trying to figure out, okay, i've got to the court some latino voters. we have a lot of latinos in the key swing states of colorado, nevada, florida. how am i going to do this.

frankly, it's too little too late. >> too little too late. karen finney, there was a "rolling stone" piece out this week. jim messina is quoted as saying "i'm obsessed with latino voters. the white house has clearly been doing some outreach. a fox news poll shows the president 70% of hispanic voters go for him, 14% for romney. >> if you look at the dem graphic changes in a lot of states we're hoping to flip, the latino? >> population is critical to that effort. the shift from the latino population from voting for republicans and democrats actually started around 2005. remember in 2004, there was a huge dem graphicing that bush went after. but it was the nature and the tone and the tenor of the immigration debate. beat had hispanic evangelicals deregistering as republicans, registering as democrats because the nature of the debate got so disgusting. even republicans were speaking out against it. so one of the issues that romney

has to balance when he's been very hard line on his rhetoric and you've already heard from the latino community, it echoes a lot of what they were so disgusted about the last time. the challenge obama has though is he has been very tough with deportations and on the border. this is why they were emphasizing that yesterday though, it was about criminal deportations instead of grandmothers and splitting up families. >> that's of course, their federal officials that on monday they arrested 3100 undocumented immigrants who they say have serious criminal histories. victoria, how does the deportation question play out among the hispanic voting community? we have a pew poll out here. we talk about a monolithic latino voting bloc, that's not fair at all or accurate. on a lot of issues including abortion, 51% of hispanic voters think it should be illegal. they don't divide along the classic republican/democratic lines. >> alex, immigration is an

important issue but it's not the foish for latinos. there are many other issues of importance. this pew poll you just mentioned for example showed that latinos are very optimistic about their chances here in the u.s. they believe if you work hard, you can get ahead. but interestingly, that doesn't mean that they don't believe in a more active government. 75% of latinos prefer a more active, a larger government. so, the republican party isn't just alienating latinos in terms of immigration. they're also alienating latinos and saying we want to shrink the federal government till there's nothing left. latinos don't want that. in terms of social policy, latinos are actually less conservative than the general publicing. >> victoria, thank you for your time. i'm sure we'll be talking with you more about this issue in the coming months. coming up, a series of damaging tornadoes tear through texas and we officials try to assess the damage, scientists are linking the severe weather to climate change. we'll talk about that next in

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welcome back it time for what now? ! ? that were extraordinary pictures out of texas yesterday. if nearly a dozen tornadoes flattening homes and sweeping up trucks. can we make a clear connection between tornadoes and clixt change. abby, your father was one of the few folks in the republican party to say he believeds in science and maybe even climate change. worth noting, house republicans have cut $140 billion from the national osh graphic which monitors the climate for storms. the last budget slashed for more than $500 million for weather satellites. >> my family and dad were not on the party good list when we said we believed in science. as my dad says, if 99% of the scientists are telling us this they're the ones that spend day

in and day out studying these things. they would know best. >> the climbtologist dr. kevin threnberth said what we can say with confidence is hev he precipitation events often associated with thunderstorms have been linked to human changes in atmospheric composition. >> all i know is we had a really mild winter that seemed a little bit odd. >> it wasn't mild. >> climate change or not, the climate is changing. and it doesn't seem like it's a good thing. >> this is one of those things when we talk about immigration reform, we talk about climate change, energy reform that has died as far as expecting real change and i would say leadership from the white house on these issues. >> who is prepared to make a lifestyle change for this for americans in this economic climate? that's the real problem. it's not fronts and center in the political discussion till there's a better economy. >> it's fair to say you could say that about health care reform, too. the president chose to pursue a particular priority. >> that's gone.

>> performance connected to the economy. >> you could say energy is connected to the economy, too. the president had a very full plate and two of the things that got sidetracked were as environmentalists will tell you, any kind of a real leadership on climate even after the bp spill and real immigration -- you can say republicans would never let it happen and it's true, but you could have said the same thing about health care and the president pushed full forward on that. he made a choice. >> i won't even mention gun control. thanks to john, karen, abby and hugo. i will see you back here tomorrow at noon eastern. until then, you can finds us at facebook.com/now with alex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information.

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a farewell long awaited. goodnight, stuffy. goodnight, outdated. goodnight old luxury and all of your wares. goodnight bygones everywhere. [ engine turns over ] good morning, illumination. good morning, innovation. good morning unequaled inspiration. [ male announcer ] the audi a8, chosen by car & driver as the best luxury sedan in a recent comparison test. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," let the battle begin. today mitt romney fired back at president obama in front of the same influential group of newspaper editors the president addressed yesterday.

>> i looked at what the president said. there were just so many things that i found to be inaccuracies, it's hard to give a full list. >> and if it's going to be romney vr obama, not everyone's getting the message. >> he's ready to charge out of the locker room in pennsylvania for a strong second half. >> terrifying twisters, we watch live on tv as that wild scene unfolded in texas. today the clean-up. members only. why it's long pastime for a woman who wear the famous green jacket. and talk about girl power. the baylor lady bears, 40 wins, no losses, perfect season, a feat unparalleled in ncaa history. and good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. mitt romney just responded to the president in front of the same group of newspaper editors in washington. with us is managing editor