live long and prosper. president obama boldly goes where no president has gone before. good day. i'm andrea mitchell live in washington. in our daily fix, republicans are facing an 18-point gender gap. now in an interview on bloomberg tv with al hunt street air this weekend, the top spokesman appears to compare the war on women to an insect problem. >> the democrats said we had a war on caterpillars and talk about a war on caterpillars we would have problems with caterpillars. the fact of the matter it's a ficti fiction. >> alice stuart is press secretary to the santorum campaign. a lot to talk about with rick santorum. you're seeing this al hunt's interview to air this weekend on bloomberg with reince priebus. if you are trying to tamp down

the gender war why compare to the an insect? >> i'm not exactly certain why he picked that insect for that matter but it might not have been the best analogy. the truth is there is not a gender problem at the republican party. women, conservatives and liberals for that matter, they are multi-issue candidates, they are concerned about jobs, concerned about the economy, so you know, republicans are embracing men, women and all folks. the main thing is women are just like men. they want jobs, they want the economy to turn around, they want to be able to provide for their families just like the men do. >> we know that, you and i know that, but the exit polls certainly reflects a different reality that there is an 18-point gender gap now between republicans and democrats, at least in the usa gallop poll this week. that shows the conversation over the last six weeks about contraception, about social issues, has not helped republicans, in fact it has opened up what has been a

traditional gender gap to what would be d not healed to try too-he with b. >> well, there's a lot of talk about contraception and the social issues in the media but as i said, the truth of the matter is women are multi-issue voters. it's not just about the social issues. women are very concerned about the economic issues. they want to make sure their jobs out there that they can provide for their families and the republican party it's incumbent on the party to put up a candidate like rick santorum who has the answers and solutions to create jobs and turn the economy around. that right there putting the candidate forward that will be able to show the contrast with president obama is the rate way. with that women and men are going to line up behind that person. >> mitt romney is in pennsylvania which is rick santorum's home state. rick santorum is taking a five-day holiday break. but we understand that he's meeting in suburban virginia right now with conservative leaders. is this a case where

conservatives and the party are now making a decision, reaching a decision point as to whether to drop out? >> well, what i can say is that we were approached by conservative leader, a group of conservative leaders who say now is the time for conservatives to rally together, get behind the right person that is going to be able to stop mitt romney. that's what the conservatives need to do. there is a meeting going on and talk about the best way to go about doing that. >> did they come to you or the santorum campaign come to them. >> a group of conservative leaders came to the campaign and wanted to meet with rick to talk about what conservatives do to rally behind the right person and what's the best way to go about doing it because as conservatives we're talking social and fiscal conservatives but the true core conservatives of the party they want to do what they can to get the right person up there that's going to be able to stop first mitt romney but then ultimately president obama. >> alice, there is a sense, certainly among the republican establishment that mitt romney

is the likely nominee. people are rallying behind him. ed gillespie joined his campaign. we're seeing signals from the hill that they are now throwing support, not only the endorsements but you hear from the leadership that they are organizing around mitt romney. is this now a self-defeating effort by rick santorum and could he bring the party down with him? >> no, because what we've seen andrea, we just saw this week we saw in wisconsin mitt romney had the endorsement of two key people in wisconsin, ron johnson and congressman ryan and he only was able to come out ahead of rick by 5 points. these are key people in wisconsin. that goes to show he had the money advantage, the name, strong endorsements from party leaders and still is only able to come out front 5 points, that goes to show he's not rallying the base, he's not rallying conservatives, people that have come forward and said what can we do. he's not energizing the base, not bringing people out despite

these big name endorsements. >> the first time since massachusetts and new hampshire he won the support, he defeated rick santorum in the exit polls, among people who identified themselves as strongly conservative, as tea party supporters, as fiscal conservatives and as white evangelicals. >> you look at those numbers a lot of them came in ron johnson and ryan's districts. they helped to throw him across the finish line. and what we're seeing ultimately despite his financial advantage, his name i.d. and has been running for president for so long he's not able to seal the deal. and rick has been tremendously outspent. he doesn't have the advantage of the infrastructure that mitt romney has and he is still doing well. this should be a clear sign to folks that mitt romney is not energizing the base. people realize he's not the person for us to put forward against barack obama. we can't show the contrath trast like obama care and wall street and conservatives wants someone that can good head-to-heads with barack obama. they don't see that in mitt

romney despite all of the money and endorsements they want someone that is the true conservative to do that. >> there is speculation that if the polls really show that romney is narrowing rick santorum's advantage in his home state and that romney could despeet rick santorum in pennsylvania, that it might be better for rick santorum to preserve his options, he is young, for 2016 and to drop out before april 24 it is so he does not lose his home state. is there any circumstance that you believe he would pull out of this campaign before the key stone state? >> you look at the polls, we have today just today rasmussen poll has rick ahead 4 points in pennsylvania. we're taking time off for the holidays. he has been working hard for the past several months, taken little time off for the holidays. we're going to hit the ground running tuesday and we expect to do well. this is his home state. we spent yesterday traveling around the state. he had great reception. everyone knows him and remember what is he has done for the state and he is going to travel

the state to the 24 it is and we expect to do well. more than anything what mitt romney fears more than anything is rick doing well in pennsylvania which we expect to do, heading into may which is a great primary calendar for rick, and very conservative states. >> indiana, west virginia and those states. >> absolutely and arkansas and texas. and he's going to do well in those states and keep an eye on texas. that's going to be critical. in terms of how the votes play out there whether it's win are take all or proportional texas will be critical in the primary election and everyone needs to pay attention to that. but what we're going to see we expect him to do well in pennsylvania and continue that momentum down the primary calendar. >> is this meeting today to try to persuade newt gingrich to get out? >> the details of the meeting obviously we'll know after they get done. in terms of what the conservative leaders want out of this meeting we'll see. >> you say it's to organize so that there is a stop romney movement. wouldn't it be better if newt gingrich even though he's not

really campaigning but doing better than rick santorum in some ways, wouldn't it be better for him to get out? >> what comes out of this meeting we'll find out soon. but one factor is certainly what rick's role will be in that, certainly as the next leader of the party right behind mitt romney he would be certainly one to lead the effort. their discussion as to what speaker gingrich's role would be but all of that will be determined. anxious to hear myself what the plan is. ultimately, the key is conservative leaders, social, fiscal conservative leaders across the board realize that it's incumbent on them to get together, find the person or the group of people that can do what needs to be done which is stop mitt romney and ultimately president obama. >> and in the comparison finally the comparison that he made in pittsburgh the other night where he compared himself to ronald reagan among other people and said in 1976, reagan didn't give up, he kept going and in 1976, ronald reagan's entrance into

the primary fights many people believe contributed to the defeat of gerald ford and to the party. does rick santorum want to be responsible if it were to be the case that romney's the nominee as most think is most likely, that santorum staying in the race too long contributed to the republicans losing against barack obama in a year when they should have had a better than even chance against the incumbent president. >> the worst thing we can do for the party is to nominate the first person to get that most number of delegates. we need to nominate the best person and the best person that has the contrast with barack obama is rick. he can debate on as i said the key issues, obama care, cap and trade, wall street bailouts. just because romney jumped out ahead doesn't mean he is the person we need. this is a marathon, not a sprint. if you have to take it to convention we'll do that. taking to the convention would bode well for rick that we have more conservatives on the convention floor. it's not about just because someone is ahead at halftime. doesn't mean they need to be the

anointed nominee. we need to pick the best candidate and that's the importance of seeing this thing through. >> alice stewart, you never give up. thanks very much. thanks for joining us. and mitt romney's next step, joe klein joining us. she is a smash, katharine mcphee on her mission to stamp out malaria. ♪

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>> back to our daily fix and these caterpillar comments from reince priebus. in an interview set to air this weekend the party's top spokesman appears to compare the war on women to an insect problem. >> the democrats said we had a

war on cater pillers then every main stream media outlet talked about the fact, then we'd have problems with caterpillars. the fact of the matter is it's a fiction. >> so, is this the time for a call for the orkin man? i don't know what you would say, mark murray. nbc's senior political editor, thanks for joining us. this does seem an inartful way of comparing the controversy over women to an insect problem. >> it probably wasn't the best thing for republicans in the biggest indication here is how democrats are just going 100 miles an hour on this. this was not mitt romney who said this. this was not even an official from the romney campaign, it was the chairman of the republican national committee and they are trying to make thissen a issue saying republicans and specifically mitt romney are out of touch with women. now the earlier comparison was that reince priebus was

comparing women to caterpillars. the biggest take away is democrats want to make the gender gap a very big issue for november. >> speaking of women, jay carney has spoken out on the question of whether women should be members of augusta, the augusta national golf course and of course we heard from augusta yesterday that they will not discuss the membership issue and here you have the ibm ceo, the sponsor of the match, who is the new ceo is a woman and her predecessors have all been members but they won't say if she should be a member. this was jay carney today. >> should the augusta nationals club permit women to be members now you have the ceo of the sponsor ibm is a woman and her press saiders have all been admitted. >> the president's answer to this question is yes. he believes his personal opinion is that women should be

admitted. >> so, the white house is coming out firmly on the side. we don't know whether or not virginia rometty decided to accept or not accept an invitation or if she is not -- has not been invited but is planning to be at the tournament this weekend entertaining clients as the sponsor. certainly an opportunity for the president to come down squarely on the side that women should be invited to this highly -- elite club, to put it mildly. >> andrea, what's interesting is president obama seems to be picking up the banner for women. he did that when he called sandra fluke, the georgetown law student who was in that dust up over contraception. it's an interesting transformation, you know when you were covering that hillary clinton campaign she was carrying the banner for women, a historical campaign, the first female to win the presidency, of course she was running against

barack obama in that primary. now it's barack obama running for re-election, very competitive race and they want to make sure that women think that women are on president obama's side. >> the republicans have given him a lot of help in that in trying to define the gender war as a democratic versus republican issue. simply because of as we have seen today, the inartful way they handled it and there is a growing gender gap. thanks very much. as the republican primary reaches its final stretch there have been a lot of infamous moments, controversial moments on the campaign trail. here are a few. >> and when asked me who is the president of you beckistan you know, i don't know. do you know. >> i would do away with education, the -- commerce, and let's see. i can't. the third one i can't. sorry. oops. >> i like being able to fire

people that provide services to me. >> as joe klein writes in the latest issue of "time" magazine those moments didn't just hurt the candidates, they damaged the party's brand as a whole. joe as we go on the air we learn there is this meeting and we have the first comments from the santorum campaign, a meeting that she, alice stewart says is a stop romney meeting in suburban virginia here, the conservative movement trying to figure out most likely how to get newt gingrich out and how to rally around santorum rather than what many had thought was going on now which was the soul searching of rick santorum and whether it's time to drop out. >> well, that's one point of view, one point of spin i might even say. who knows what's going on in that meeting. they may be trying to convince santorum to leave. but this thing is over. and you know, santorum i suspect especially with the polls really tightening in pennsylvania will

not want to risk the embarrassment of losing his home state. he'll pack it in before then, i suspect. >> what about the widening gender gap that romney has to deal with. 18 points in at least one point. the u.s. today. this one looks like a canyon. >> well, you could fit a lot of c caterpillars in that. why do they do this sort of thing. i mean, if you have -- caterpillers become butterflies. that would be a more pleasant image. they have been screwing up on a variety of fronts throughout the year. and this race you know, romney is the most plausible president among the group, so it was a good result for the country. but in the process, the republicans really embarrassed themselves and they insulted the intelligence of the american people on a lot of issues with a lot of the candidates. what does it say that a party

would lift someone like herman cain whose comprehensive ignorance of foreign policy and much of domestic policy was evident. what does it say that the party would lift him to front-runner status for even one day. and you get example after example. they knock down rick perry because he expresses compassion for the children of illegal immigrants. that doesn't fit well with hispanics or for that matter the rest -- the rest of right thinking people i would imagine. it's been a very destructive campaign, it's put romney in a very deep hole and he's got real problems extricating himself from that situation, i think. >> joe klein, the column is in the latest issue of "time" magazine on line now. thank you very much, joe. >> with romney on the verge of locking up this nomination, is it too early to be talking about who he might pick as his running mate? insiders say not, and who better

to ask than new york magazine's john heilman. he helped immortalize the 2008 sweepstakes, veep stakes. thanks for joining us. >> great to be here. it's never too early to talk about the veep stakes. >> we always have fun with this. for those who say nobody vote forward someone because of a vice president, there are people in game change who most likely voted against someone because of who had been picked for the ticket. so it matters. >> well, it clearly matters. i think it matters in one way which voters do vote for the top and they look at this decision as a prism through which they can judge the judgment of the nominee. it's a big decision so the question is, i think voters look, is this person qualified to be commander in chief from day one. that's the most important hurd that will the nominee has to clear in their choice, he has to pick someone who is qualified and appears qualified out of the gate. >> as we learned in game change

the movie, nicolle wallace, the top aide, didn't even vote in the campaign on election day because she had been exposed to sarah palin and had been so disillusioned. >> it's a powerful scene, not one in the book but that nicole has confirmed and you know, it says a lot. she is a life long republican and she was as you said, so dismayed by the palin choice that she ended up not being able to pull the lever for john mccain who she admired a lot. >> john mccain was joking about it when asked about the possible running mate choice. let's watch. >> sarah palin has said that she thinks the nominee, if it is in fact mitt romney, should, quote, go rogue. what's your advice? >> i think it should be sarah palin. we have a wealth of talent out there and i'm sure that mitt will make the right choice. obviously it's a tough decision. i think that i would obviously tell him that not to rush to

judgment for one thing. >> rush to judgment which of course is what happened. it was a five-day vet of sarah palin. we know the rest is history. but you argue in your piece in new york magazine that romney's choice really is to basically decide whether to win over the base or key constituencies. you come down on the side i think of ron portman, bottom line. >> sorry, andrea. joe klein pointed toult various holes that romney put himself in. he has done damage with hispanics, with women, with independent voters, with working class whites. the base, their theory is that the base will turn out because the base doesn't like barack obama and they are going to be for whoever. mitt romney at the top and whoever is in the second slot so the question is do you try to have a game changing pick. do you think about susana martinez of new mexico, hispanic woman, rising star, the governor of nevada, another hispanic.

do you try to solve the problem in that way. you think about marco rubio from florida, all names you'll hear a lot of. but i do think that all -- some of them like suzannea and brian, they are not well known on the national stage and the spector of sarah palin will hover over those kind of nom nangss as it could over marco rubio who has issues around what his background is, might not be able to be fully vetted. >> what does rob portman bring to the table, the fact he was in the white house, has that experience also on capitol hill. >> yes. look, former congressman, former u.s. trade representative, and now a senator someone who as i said before, meets the paramount test, qualified from day one. also has an amplifying effect on romney. not an exciting guy but if your argument is going to be we're the ones who can manage the economy, who can fix washington, who can do all of those things better than barack obama, rob portman has the same pragmatic

managerial affect that mitt romney has and he won ohio which is the most important swing state in the country, he won that state with 57% of the vote, 82 out of 88 counties in a close race might be able to help mitt romney win ohio. that would be if he could pass and just do that that would be a success for a vice presidential pick. >> and let me point out that if you really wanted to also embrace the tea party, fiscal conservatives and fire up the base, you could also go with wisconsin's favorite son, paul ryan. >> you certainly could do that. and it's a name i think you'll hear mentioned a lot. it's not clear that paul ryan would even help mitt romney win wisconsin, and to be honest the way the obama campaign is going to portray it mitt romney is running with paul ryan anyway, talking about romney/ryan. there might not be that much benefit to doing that. >> john heilman, the game changer himself, thank you. >> up next in our briefing,

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nobody protects you like allstate. >> in today's political briefing president obama took on the supreme court's conservative majority getting backlash about his comments. joining me is josh gerstine. let's go back to this issue, the judge jerry smith in texas, raised questions about what the president had said this week in attacking the right, it seemed to be attacking the right of an unelected group of supreme court justices who are of course by definition unelected to rule on something that had been passed by a majority of congress. and now the justice department has demanded by the judge has issued its response. first judge jerry smith in a court case in texas two days ago. >> i'm referring to statements by the president in the past few days to the effect, and i'm sure

you heard about them, that it is somehow inappropriate for what he termed unelected judges to strike acts of congress. >> so now the justice department has issued its response. the attorney general, holder, has responded. responded basically saying that i understand the court to have requested the views of the department of justice regarding judicial review of the constitutionality of acts of congress. and he goes on to say that the inquiry was prompt bid recent statements by the president and that the statements were fully consistent with the principles described herein. from eric holder. what is he basically saying, that the president was not in any way questioning the right of the court? >> right. they were just setting forth holder setting forth the very straight forward position that pretty much every president and justice department has

acknowledged for the last almost 200 years i think that the courts have the right ultimately to say what the law is and whether laws are constitutional. if we look at the letter you know, i wouldn't say holder gives the back of his hand to this judge, but it certainly kind of brusque in its tone, says that the judge's question was irrelevant to the case that was before that court. the judge made this kind of a homework assignment said this needed to abminimum of three pages single spaced and the attorney general brought it in at 2 1/2 pages i think probably intentionally. >> it does seem a little bit rude to say the least. let's look at what the president said initially. he did pull it back somewhat the next day. initially what he said in the rose garden, which did raise a number of eyebrows not only among conservative court watchers but many liberals. >> for years what we've heard is the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack

of judicial restraint. that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a dually constituted and passed law. well, a good example. >> so josh, it did seem as though the president was almost prebutting and preparing to campaign against the supreme court. >> it did seem that way. he's somewhat misstated the history of the court. the court has struck down laws of this sort in the economics sphere but it did so perhaps recently about 70 years ago during the new deal fight with president roosevelt. that latter part of the comment where he talked about with unelected officials striking down laws, it seemed a little unusual because usually they won't get into that kind after political discussion until the case is decided like with

citizens united he did go after the court directly but that case had been resolved. this one is pending and the justice department and the supporters of this law including the white house are trying to win over the votes of the key swing justices. an it's not entirely clear that the president making this a bigger public political issue right now would be helping that case if indeed it has a chance of prevailing in the court. >> indeed. josh, thank you very much. and up next, "smash" star katharine mcphee fighting for the people of africa. an insider's account as the new leader prepares for a controversial missile launch. i love that my daughter's part fish.

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♪ no downward spiral ♪ i'm feeling cool tonight ♪ ♪ don't anybody start a fight >> but she is also an ambassador for a group trying to eradicate malaria by 2015. that's where she spent last week. ♪ >> and joining us now is katharine mcphee, ambassador for the group called malaria no more. the star of nbc's "smash," just back -- you're the one who

should be jetlagged. we're pleased to have you. i'm a huge fan. >> thanks for having me. >> such a fan for you for doing this. tell us what you encountered and what the challenge is because for pennies, for 10 cents a net we can solve this problem. >> right. >> how do we make people more aware for how easy it would be to get rid of this disease. >> well, we had an amazing trip. we saw amazing things, one of our goals coming back and being able to talk to you and get the subject a little more conversation going. basically it seem like such a huge struggle for us to how do we eradicate a disease like this but it can be easily simplified like you said it's a $10 net. these nets seem like well, how could they really save a life

but it truly is one of the major tools to kind of help eradicate the disease. it's just when you go there you see so many things you don't see in the states. and how much malaria affects their livings in so many ways. i personally wanted to be part of it because i had a personal connection in west africa which you mentioned, so that's why it's important to me to get involved with this charity. >> i know we're talking about bed nets which are so inexpensive. but need to be distributed. what is your personal connection in >> the personal connection is a family, a couple of family members were posted in west africa a couple years ago and i had the opportunity to build a preschool on this big compound, this amazing woman, patricia,

who is the school master, runs this huge amazing facility, she run as preschool and secondary school, primary school. there is an orphanage in this compound, maternity clinic, and she in fact had come down with malaria and so i wasn't able to contact her for a couple of months and found out it was because she had been strict within malaria. that's another reason why. it's not just about people getting sick but it affects so much of their lives. people who have the job that they have and get paid as little as they do can't feed their children, can't go to work because they have malaria. it affects things economically, affects the children with their education. they can't go with to school. that's how i got connected because i was so sort of disturbed by the fact that this woman who does so many amazing things in that country, couldn't really do her job as properly because she had malaria.

and so malaria no more and myself got together and said let's go there, what can we do. so one of the major things we did was distributing nets and people, the women there with their children at the maternity clinic were really -- they really wanted those nets. they made it clear, we had to sort of organize it properly so we didn't have much chaos in getting the nets distributed. >> i can imagine. the demand and the need is so great. >> it is. >> the supply so small. americans can really help. our government can help but really it's the non-governmental organizations. the ngos and groups such as yours that can make a difference. and you have celebrity now. you've got fame, you have success, you worked very, very hard for it. >> thanks. >> the fact is you can use this to make a big difference. it's really a wonderful thing you're doing. >> that's the goal. and you know, the u.s. government is the leader in the

fight for curing this disease or ending this disease in africa along side groups like malaria no more. we can give credit to our country but there is more to be done. that's where i'm trying to come in. >> is it hard for you to sort of rationalize the two worlds you live, the world of the theater and of "smash" the tv show and i don't know how you get the time off with your shooting schedule is, but to come back to this world in new york compared to what you've just experienced. >> it's definitely, i mean, i wrapped season one two weeks ago and three days later i was on a plane to ghana and i have just come back, landed at 6:30 last night. so, i'm still a little bit in a culture shock. i think you know, people say it's sort of cliche to say i have perspective now. i feel i've had a perspective on

life per se, but you know, you just see things differently when you go there. if everyone had an opportunity to go i would say go because you see the way we live our life here and this amazing country so differently. the problems that we're faced with are just not even close to the issues that other people are dealing with and the rest of the world. >> well, katharine mcphee, thank you for lending your voice to this very important issue. thank you for all that you're doing. and distinguish luck with "smash." >> you can go to malaria no more.org to help. >> we'll post that. thank you very much. elsewhere in africa, regional instability, droughts 18 western and central africa are putting one million children at risk of starvation. this region touches on eight countries where unicef is setting up hundreds of feeding centers. joining us now via skype from the capital city is anthony lake

t chief executive of unicef. he was of course national security adviser during president clinton's first term. good to see you again, tony. what is unicef trying to do to try to fight starvation against this disastrous drought? >> we're trying to fight it by setting up as you mentioned andrea, good to talk to you, nutrition centers throughout the region, working on water supplies, working on vaccination programs for the children because as all of the nutritional crisis emerges, children are also dying of measl measles, meningitis and other diseases as well. it's going to take an effort to deal with an emergency that is in many ways like the emergency previously in somalia, it still goes on but in larger scale. >> as far as i can understand it, the unicef has received only

half of the initial $120 million that you need to save the lives of all of these children and the women suffering from the impact of poor harvests, high food price, the insecurity, the regional conflicts and the successive droughts. what can be done given the lack of money? well, we raised about half of what we need or almost. and we've been ramping up since last november or october as alarm bells. so we're well engaged in ramping up our efforts but we have to accelerate them now. so, we're continuing to appeal for more resources. it's just -- i was at a nutrition center in the center of chad visiting the workers there trying to save the lives of children who are already in desperate shape, and beginning to die. the season is just beginning and families were stressed from the

drought of two years ago, and now they are getting hammered by the leading edge of another crisis. so we're going to continue to work, and we're going to continue to need the resources to help address this terrible problem. >> tony lake from unicef, please come visit us when you come back and come in person and we can talk more about what is going on there and the unicef efforts. thank you very much. and coming up next, the impossible state and a new missile threat inside north korea.

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>> nuclear securitiableleys are carefully watching develop. s on a rocket launch site. images show a radar trailer and rows of what appear to be empty fuel tanks. this is raising concerns that the north is about to launch a long range missile test as well as planning to launch a satellite into orbit. with me is a korea expert victor

cha, and he's also the author of a new book, "the impossible state."impossible state." north korea, past and future. i've been to pyongyang with you. let's take a look first of all at what is happening there right now with this missile test. the north claims this is simply a space program. but as a result of this test, the obama white house has canceled an agreement for food deliveries. >> that's right. >> saying this is a threatening test. this is not as far as the obama white house is concerned, just a space program. >> right. and i think they're right in that sense. because the technology that they would use to launch a satellite into orbit is basically ballistic missile technology. and every standing u.n. resolution has said you can't launch anything that use ballistic missile technology. in that sense i think the united

states and this administration consistent with past administrations is basically saying, this somrt of satellite does not comport with the resolutions. >> this is an unusual picture of the new leader. we see him, the picture of him standing and out over the horizon without the other leaders there. >> right. >> who had before been with him. these are not the newest pictures i'm about. it is something i'm hoping we will pull up here. but -- in any case, what is the significance of the picture that we see today? >> well, i think the main thing is that they are trying to ensure that they are delivering images of this young fellow being securely in control. so he may have other generals around him, or twice his age. but they're all being very

deferential to him. it is all part of a process to secure his image in front of the domestic audience as well as the international audience. that he is the sole person in charge. >> and do we think that the uncle is really the person in charge? or is it really this new young man? >> the guy is only 28 years old. so undeniably he has people around him that are helping him, including his uncle, his aunt. >> but he's stepping into a higher and higher leadership role. >> absolutely. i think the political culture of this country is such that only one person really makes decisions of national significance. that's the leader from the kim family which is this 28-year-old. >> fascinating stuff. victor cha, congratulations on the new book. >> thanks. >> and we'll be right back. americans are always ready to work hard for a better future.

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chris cillizza joins us now from the "washington post." what do we know about this santorum meeting, chris? >> it was a meeting with fiscal and social conservatives that the santorum folks say was

called by that group to have rick santorum talk. what i can tell you is it is not, it was not discussed, the prospect of rick santorum either scaling back, scaling down, getting out of the race. the vast majority of the conversation was about newt gingrich and what he will do. these people want to stop mitt romney from winning the nomination. i think that's very unlikely. what i know from my reporting is that this is not about rick santorum pulling back or deciding not to run. >> which is exactly what alice stewart told us at the top of the show. thank you for that confirmation. that does it for us for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." my colleague tamron hall has a look at what's next. >> a lot going on. the white house says president obama believes women should be admitted to the all male augusta national golf club. those comments made just today. this of course as golfers swing away at the masters. right now, the heat outside, the ground is not dying down. we'll have the very latest on this ongoing controversy and why

it is flared up again. plus, weekly unemployment claims fall to a four-year low. cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood will join me with the positive numbers and what they mean for the president. from the damage of cocaine use for many years, plus, burn marks on her body. we'll have the very latest details on the tragic end to whitney houston's life. it is the final official medical report. [ fabric flapping in wind ] ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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