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get ready for spring with this ryobi 18-volt trimmer, just ninety-nine bucks. >> it is a beautiful day as long as you don't have to go outside. the winter storm that slammed the midwest marched east and is turning our nation's capital into more of a mess than unusual. it will bring more snow to washington and here in new york the storm is just getting started and will be in the thick of things until friday morning. danielle lee is out ahead of all of that in washington. danielle, can you give us the latest? we have been getting hit with

the rain-snow mix. wet and cold. not a lot of snow sticking on the ground. it's pretty quiet. federal employees were told to stay home and congress is with respecting it up early to avoid the worst of things. not too many miles outside the city. parts of virginia are seeing more than a foot of snow. the governor declared a state of emergency. tens of thousands of people do not have power right now. this storm is nowhere near finished. it is expected to get worse as we get into the evening. about 4,000 flights have been canceled and the storm has been making its way east. the flights are getting canceled and most in the washington area. as this storm moves towards new york towards the northeast and new england, you see the effects there as well. in chicago where they are climbing out of this storm, nine inches and record snowfall. it caused a school bus driver to lose control. the bus crashes into apartments.

as you get along the jersey shore where people are digging out, they are bracing for the potential for floods as they experienced this snow. this storm is going to continue into tomorrow as it reaches up into new england. there thousands of snow plows and also salt crews working around the clock to make sure they can keep these roads as clear as possible. live in washington, steve, back to you. >> nbc's danielle lee, thanks for that. the markets are still on the climb after the dow had a record-breaking day yesterday. if you look at wall street, you would think the economy is in full recovery. the dow pierced 14,300 for the first time ever. the s&p is within striking range because among major drive drivers, they rely on corporate profits. at the same time wages are at record lows and you compare them to gdp. here's how jim cramer explains it.

>> you would be surprised to see how in many of these companies they have far fewer employees so don't expect them to be thes who take up the employment stock. the vast majority have not hired a person in this run off. that's why they feel badly and the stock markets are good. >> that was calm actually. the $85 billion of sequester cuts. more are not feeling the impacts and they won't help things like fining a job and taking home more money at the end of the day. what the cuts could help are the markets because they show that d.c. is doing something to address the deficit. a financial reporter for "the washington post" who writes about the disconnect in the post. i guess that is sort of the interesting thing to me about the last few days. the sequester went into effect last friday and you would never know it. looking at the markets right now, you look at the impact and the consensus is this is going

to eat into gdp and not going to grow the way it would have. this will affect poor people significantly. wall street will not feel any of the pain. is that right? >> right now wall street is trying to make sense of what's going on in washington like a lot of the rest of the country. the day the sequester went into effect, the dow went up that day. it's like they view a lot of what's happening here in washington, a lot of political drama and the same with the fiscal cliff. i think they are used to seeing the same movie over and over again. not paying attention as much. >> exactly where i'm thinking of going with this, wall street is really just ignoring washington through all of the hysteria with the fiscal cliff and the debt default and the sequester. have they decided to plug their ears and go along with business as usual? if so, how do they do that. how do they ignore and how can i

do that? >> tips for us. >> how can i ignore washington. >> they are starting to figure out the answer question. what on earth is going on in washington. with the dow and the stock markets, they are looking for the bottom line. the u.s. firms, ge, ibm and they are doing great. turning in record profits. last year we saw corporate profits as a result of gdp hitting an all time record. for them, whatever happens in washington doesn't have much effect on the sales in china or brazil or overseas. that's where they are getting more money. you are seeing this growing vast disconnect between corporate america and the rest of the country that includes washington. >> the point you made is important. globalization is sort of the internationalization of the corporations and economies. that means they don't have to

care about what happens in the u.s. economy. they can thrive even if we struggle. >> the dow went up to the record on overnight news from china. they are saying we are looking for 7.5% growth and we are willing to put more money into our economy to get there. that was enough for the dow. let's look at china. they are going great and doesn't matter as much in super and the u.s. >> you mentioned ge, ibm and hewlett packard doing really well. is that sort of growth and p prosperity just at the top tier? >> tech in particular has done really, really well since the recession. you are seeing it pretty much across the dow. they are a cross section of big companies. s&p 500, you have a bigger group. fairly large companies that are a pretty huge slice of the economy doing really well. as if it never happened in the

first place. >> looking at the bigger picture, the numbers right now are astonishing. it's part of a larger trend we have seen over the years. profits becoming a larger share of gdp and wages becoming a lower and lower share of gdp. they are at all time lows. what led to that disconnect and is there something that our government can do that we can deal with at a policy level to get those back into line. >> i think the government is at a loss. you hear if you cut our taxes and regulations, it will stifle the economy. that lever if you keep pushing on it has not quite worked in receipt years. you have this issue where coming out of the recession, a lot of companies cut back in the workforce the layoffs we heard and they discovered the workers

we have left can be more productive and you don't have to hire back to the levels and you can make a lot of money. >> i'm struck by what you were talking about with china. the chinese government set this growth target of 7 1/2% that would be astronomical by our terms over here. that is giving the markets confidence and one of the reasons why they are coming along right now. they are doing this by investing a lot of money into the economy. over here the conversation say lot more along the lines of austerity. is there an example in can china and something we should be learning? >> the chinese are obviously a lot less hesitant about spending on infrastructure, something that a lot of people say we should have political push back against that kind of thing. the chinese are spending a lot of money in their economy and it worked so far. the lessons are limited because they are spending a ton on all kinds of airports and highways and the leaders this week are

saying we are spending a lot of money and depending on construction, we need to move towards having more consumption and having the consumers buy more stuff. in a way they want to look more like the u.s. and the u.s. thinks it should look more like china. >> thank you for that. not conservative enough. the latest governor getting the cpac snub. the donald will still be there. that is next as the cycle rolls on for wednesday, the 6th of march. max and penny kept our bookstore exciting and would always come to my rescue. but as time passed, i started to notice max just wasn't himself. and i knew he'd feel better if he lost a little weight. so i switched to purina cat chow healthy weight formula. i just fed the recommended amount... and they both loved the taste. after a few months max's "special powers" returned... and i got my hero back.

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not the only conservative you will not be seeing at cpac next weekend. first chris christie and now bob mcdonald got the cpac snub. either invited to the conservative political action conference. instead the conference is leaning on party up and comers like mitt romney, sarah palin and of course, the donald. wait, what? apparently they represent where the party should rebuild their brand. i'm from virginia and i have to say bob donald is quite conservative. you might remember the transvaginal probes and all of that last year. even that is not conservative enough for cpac. i want to start with al who is the chairman of the american conservative union and how the slate of speakers was supposen. he said c spak is like the all-star game for profoegzal

athletes. you have been invited when you have an outstanding year. hopefully he will have another all-star year in the future at which time we will be happy to extend an invitation. the all stars are sarah palin, the donald? i don't know. for bob donald and chris christie, it's no loss. it elevates both of them in a way. this is not the year to be associated with cpac or with the national conservative movement if that's what it represents. cpac seems to be doing everything it can to make it seem like an out of touch relic of the past. the only thing is they both committed two cardinal sins against conservatism. kristi by embracing the president and donald by funning infrastructure in the states.

that explains the snub. >> clinging to vestages, that sounds like the gop in general. let's move forward and let's cling to the old messengers who will perport the messages and move us forward. let's go to this focus group that are saying the republicans are extreme, old, out of date while the democrats are mainstream, young, and current. if you are not going to get past those ideas which are decades old, by the way, those values, how do you bring in a new coalition and bring in that which democrats are dealing with. they pointed out a great essay and the problem is not gop messaging. the message was understood quite clearly. we understood what they were for. if anything, the problem is the people and the message that they are sending. if you are not going to send you

people with a new idea, a new message, you continue to have a problem. it's not the box. it's the pizza. >> to build on that, if you are not willing to be open to new messages, you are in trouble. >> it's easy to look at this and say chris cristy is not about their and donald is note there and the movement has not learned anything. the potential flaw in the reasoning is i'm not sure that cpac right now in the year 2013 equals conservative movement as opposed to a few decision makers. i'm not sure who would be deciding for reasons we may not understand. i have an issue with chris christie. >> trump and palin? >> i have a feeling if chris christie, this idea of cpac representing the conservative movement, the less i remember, there were boos in the hall as the winner was announced.

that's this funky umbrella for the wide array of groups. i'm not sure it means a conservative movement. these things get out of date. the straw poll in iowa was the great barometer. national media would come out every four years and it meant something when pat robertson came out and george bush didn't. he got third place in the caucuses. it means nothing anymore. michele bachmann won last year. if means nothing when pat robertson would endorse a candidate. he endorsed rudy giuliani. i think we may be at the point with cpac where we say yeah, it will get a lot of attention and there will be a lot of people. it means something, but it's a sml to me that cpac doesn't mean. >> i'm not going to pile on cpac and join the chorus of mocking the conference. it's an important conference and i was looking over the program

and there were really great young up and coming conservatives on the program and going to be speaking. voices that need to be heard and diverse groups of people and a lot of women. there is still a usefulness and a purpose to cpac. i still have hope that cpac will become what it needs to be. especially for young conservatives. it's invaluable. i will say that i think what conservatives and cpac need to do in the future is really highlight the good works being done at the state level. in the governor's offices. republicans have 30 governors across the country right now. many of whom are incredibly popular. twice or three times as popular as republicans in congress. they are balancing budgets and doing good things. these are the people that need to be focusing on. that includes chris christie. in terms of messaging, i was reminded by ronald reagan's speech to cpac.

which i revisited in the past few months. i wrote about it this month. it strikes such a useful cord that i really think we could all as conservatives be learning for this year as we go forward. let's play a clip. >> i am not talking about a vague notion of an abstract american mainstream. i am talking about main street americans in their millions. they come in all sizes, shapes and colors. blue collar workers, black, hispanic and shoe keepers, housewives and professional men and women. they are the backbone of america and we can't move america without moving their hearts and mines as well. . >> to me, that sounds very much to today's gop. that saddens me because it's possible to have that message. if it was relevant then, it's more relevant now. if it's possible then, it's

possible now. i hope that everyone going to cpac and speaking and taking a page from that and i encourage people to listen to the whole speech. it's good. >> we should be looking for interesting young voices. >> a lot of them. katie from town hall and daily collar has done a book on that. a bunch of really good young voices who will be on panels and speaking at luncheons. i was looking at the panel discussions and they are good ones. meaty ones that are forward looking. that doesn't mean they are doing everything right. obviously i don't think they are. there is still a lot of good to be gained at cpac. this harsh lesson will agitate maybe change. >> the good young voices if we with that characterization, they are overshadowed by the palins and the trumps who will pick up the media and not be heard. >> they will make their

selection decisions more carefully. >> i don't know. we will see. >> mixed reactions to the death of venezuelan president hugo chavez. he died tuesday of cancer. allies call him a hero and they compared chavez to a saint. here in the states, others are celebrating the possibility of a new chapter in u.s. relations since venezuela is the fourth largest flyer of oil to the u.s. our facebook fans are weighing in on how his death could impact relations. i'm not sure relations will improve. chavez's successor is stepping in without much a do. that pretends not much will change. that's the serious side. now here is colbert's take with another headline that is much more alarming. >> hugo chavez, venezuelan

strong man and friend of the show is dead. repeat, hugo chavez is dead. obviously -- i know. obviously this leaves a huge hole in south american politics and an even bigger collection of fr flag track suits. jon stewart announced he will be taking the summer off from the daily show. yes, we wish him all the best in his new project, ruling the country of venezuela. at optionsxpress we're all about options trading.

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standard that leaves out anything imminent -- in other words, it's not just peanut butter without the jelly; it's peanut butter without the >> sudden developing news this afternoon. an old school filibuster on the senate floor. joining rand paul to lead the cia. they have been filling the time by going after the drone policy

of the obama administration. senator paul started before noon eastern meaning they have been filibustering for about 3 1/2 hours now. we will keep an eye on what they have done to harsh tag fill blizzard. this is not the first time we have seen the division. flash back to 1995 when tlc's smash hit water falls dominated. the rockets were celebrating the back to back titles and the newt gingrich and bill clinton were clashing over balancing the budget. a big fan of the learning channel. seems like nothing changed in the span. that went over really well. didn't really laugh anyway. he listens to the radio anymore. that was another joke. anyway, friend of the show matt miller said 2013 is the new 1995. he said paul ryan's new plan set

to be unveiled next week could mean big trouble for president obama's second term. he authored an op ed entitled on the budget. it's 1995 all over again. "washington post" columnist matt miller. one thing that strikes me, the premises of your column is on the idea of balancing the budget. once the debate is defined by how fast you get it balanced, democrats might be in a little bit of trouble here. it brings me back a couple of years ago. it reminds me of a column b that dean baker wrote where he said the sequester mess and all the deadlines in washington are obama's fault because of the original sin because of at the start of his presidency buying into the idea that the biggest threat is deficits and not having a conversation where he said look, i know it's a big scary number and know it's counter intuitive, but we need to be spending to get the economy going to get the deficit

down. do you think it would have made a difference if he started talking that way? >> yes. the fact that the republicans can say that in five years obama added five trillion to the national debt, that is an eye popping number, but that's because of the mess he inherited. i wrote a column saying how i learned to start loving trillion dollar deficits. it was the only way get us out of the hole with the collapse in demand that obama walked into. what's important about what ryan is doing and i criticized ryan before from the right. he has been falsely pedalling the idea that he is a fiscal conservative, but they don't balance in 30 or 40 years. if he lays down a budget, even with phony assumptions, he achieved balance on paper, i do think that will transform the debate and put obama on defense. >> you said that the reason for that is because it will put

democrats in the awkward position of having to say why they oppose balancing the budget. i agree with you that that would seem to put them in a tough spot, but senate democrats haven't passed a budget in years and the amendment has been floating around d.c. for years and years without much support from democrats. 49 states have some kind of balanced budget. they have a requirement and federally this doesn't seem to go anywhere. why now are democrats going to sort of be afraid or chased or nervous about having to answer to the idea of balancing the budget? >> i think the answer is because once you put out a path to balance and you have a blueprint that said you will get to balance, this is what happened in 1995 when newt gingrich did the same. they viewed it as a values issue. today the debate is this really elite abstraction about doing it

$4 trillion in debt reduction over 10 or 12 years. nobody know what is it means. when ryan is the republicans say this, this is smart politics. when they say next week, we think we need to get to balance in ten years, what's your response? that's going to expose a rift in the democratic caucus as it did for bill clinton in 1995. i think it won't be sustainable politically for a president to not commit himself to some kind of balance by some date certain that is close to that. the problem is again, this is playing on the republicans's turf in ways that dean baker is right. the focus obama has not stressed enough is that the real priority has to be jobs and growth. then you worry about the deficit in the out years. he may be in a position where he will be further on defense. once ryan does this next week. >> i appreciate the word that you have also making the same

point that one of the real points for republicans is to suck away the president's finite time and energy and will and political capital. he can't go and do the other things that are important like immigration and like guns and climate change. creating these fake emergencies, killing the president's time, eating it up. isn't that what's going on here? >> i think at the post they had a great column where he said they are running out the clock. the year or so that is really the affirmative portion of obama's second term and whether that was by a master plan or as happens in politics, the out come of the series of add hock decisions, that proved to be very smart if you are from the republican point of view. it's all speaking to obama is not framing the debate and dominating the national conversation. he gave in and extended 82% of the push tax cuts. i think for a party that is

retro grade, they have been playing pretty well. >> there is some potential movement towards the grand bargain and reaching out to senate and congress and encouraging signs from republicans. john boehner waited in an interview that will air about the possibilities for a grand bargain. take a listen. >> call adjustments for social security and benefit adjustments means testing for medicare. could those two points serve as the basis for a larger deal? >> absolutely. they are going to be on the table. they should be part of the agreement. there is a lot more that needs to be done. >> do you think that we could be at a moment where a grand bargain is possible because both democrats maybe fear losing the moral high ground and republicans are nervous about the defense cuts and the way they will impact their districts? >> i think there is a chance.

especially because the debt ceiling is coming up again. there is another in the forcing devices where it will force some kind of conversation. it would be great if there was a grand bargain struck that included near term measures to boost infrastructure and job creation and deal with the deficit stuff on a longer term starting a couple of years from now. i think there will be a chance for that bite of the apple whether the republicans will want to go along with the stuff obama will want, i don't know. >> matt miller, thanks for joining us. up next, we talked to you about the modern feminine mystique. we can be a mystery too. what it means to be a dude. that is next. [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego.

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>> you never say thank you. >> that's what the money is for. you are young. you will get your recognition. honestly it is ridiculous to be two years into your career and counting your ideas. everything to you is an opportunity. you should be thanking me every morning when you wake up along with jesus for giving you another day. oh, come on. >> it can be a bit confusing to be a man in today's world. we are no longer a mad men society. most of us are not quite as soft as men of modern family where we are somewhere in between. we talked about the feminine mystique. is there a masculine mystique of sorts that is holding us back from potential? our next guest said a masculine mystique pressured them to conform to a gender stereotype and prevents us from reaching our full capabilities.

i'm not sure i agree. let's talk it out. author of the feminine mystique and the dawn of the 1960s. welcome back. stephanie? >> thank you. >> i feel like men of my generation have a lot more freedom and imperative to push the boundaries of masculinity versus the masculinity that was introduced to me by my father and grandfather. we have to be softer and more emotion emotional. the women demand it from us. this idea of a mystique that functions as a prison and keeps us from getting to full potential, i don't see that happening in men of my generation at all. >> i think it's changing. the men are really, really moving very rapidly. i do think it kicks in in a couple of places. for example, it used to be the feminine mystique said you must not like to do anything

masculine if you are good at sports. you are not being a woman. young boys are pressured like this. young girls don't feel like they have to play dumb, but young boys are not allowed the same freedom in liking to do things we associate with girls. they get bullied and tease and we thought one of the things that is interesting is although there is a lot of prejudice against women as mothers, when dads ask for flex time, they are often bully and harassed on the job. there is a ways to go. >> stephanie, when the feminine mystique came out that, did not blame women for holding on to the outdated ideals of what a woman should be. if we are looking at masculine mystique, who is to blame or what is keeping men in these traditional gender roles? >> i don't think blame is -- i don't think we should be going around blaming men. i think they are working really,

really hard and sometimes against these tremendous stereotypes about what it is to be a man. man up, you know? as young kids, girls are left off the hook. oh, honey, don't do that. i will give you a hand. man up and do it. there is all that pressure and i think we women give mixed messages. we want our guys to help with the house work and we want them to be gentle and listen to us, be but we want them to get rid of the mouse and some of us are caught in wanting to be the experts about child care. we want our guys to help, but we want to be the real experts there, unskilled assistants. i know my husband got me day repacking the dishwasher and he said if you don't trust me enough to pack the dishwasher, i will stop doing it. i had to say okay. >> i read through your piece and it struck me that i lived

through this moment maybe years ago that is in some ways ended. this moment where the so-called metro sexual emerged into popular culture. some called it the woosification of the american man. that moment was very much a real moment. i am wondering how that squares with your assessment that men are conforming too much to masculinity norms. how does that jive against that popular culture moment that we experience. >> there has been a tremendous change. when you go back to the men and women i interviewed in the 50s and 60s, often men i interviewed from that president, older men would start to cry through the interview talking about how they were brought up to think their only identity is to be the breadwinner and they got the reward when they came home and their wife and kids could be

grateful and they found they were strangers to their wife and children. this is not happening anymore, but we still do find that guys report they are afraid to ask for flex time at work and say i have a doctor appointment rather than say it's mine turn to say i have to pick up the child. they get tease and guys feel more pressure to be breadwinners. reason guys dropout of college more than girls is they are nervous about taking on the debt loads. they think they have to start supporting the family right away. >> i wonder if there is room for just saying there real differences between men and women. >> we are not sure what those are. we have been so socialized. from the day you are born, women tend to hold their baby fist they are a boy facing out and if they are a girl facing in.

we don't know how much of this is biological and how much is conditioned. there more differences among boys and men and among girls and women than between them. what we should be working for is to allow everyone to be an awe thend authentic human being. we'll figure this out for ourselves and we need to step back from 200 years of conditioning that these things are appropriate for men and not women and vice-versa. >> thank you very much. >> my pleasure. thank you. >> up next, what makes a video like this one go viral? [ female announcer ] from tracking the bus.

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what would you do if you went to take the elevator and walked into what looked like a murder in progress?

>> that's not real. it's a viral video being used to promote the upcoming collin ferrell movie, dead man down. you may be one of the 1.3 million people who have seen it in a span of three days. all these beg the question what makes some things catch on and others fall flat. we are not just talking viral videos. catch phrases like the big ax of 2015. >> that are did not catch on at all. >> not a thing. >> yeah. also apply. our next guest said it's all about the messaging. jonah berger is the university of pennsylvania marking professor. that was an inside joke and the author of contagious, why things catch on. welcome.

people share things that make them look good. this made me think of twitter. when i retweet something or share something on twitter that i think is funny or clever or interesting, part of me is thinking this is going to make me look clever and funny and interesting by retweeting it. a lot of us have that motion as we spread stuff around. explain how this helps going into making products popular and ideas catch o. >> sure. like the clothes way wear or the car we drive, what we say influences how people see us. you want to create an online persona. the same thing with off line word of mouth. with restaurants, people assume we are a foodie. we pick and choose what we say rather than to look bad g good or bad or easy ways to apply

this. you want to help make them talk about your product in a way that reflects positive on them. things like google when they came out with gmail, it was hard to get. the people that had access to it wanted to show they were an insider. that they had something not everyone else had. so things like making people feel like insiders, using scarcity or other velvet rope tactics is one way to help people share. >> facebook comes to mind there too. >> sure. >> when i look at facebook or twitter, really one way for things to go viral on twitter is for a well known person who has an army of a million or two to draw attention to it on twitter. i'm thinking of what happened with the kony 2012. it did catch fire among celebrities and we want from there. it was a grassroots attempt to get attention. are there strategies there for

getting sort of, you know, opinion shapers on twitter? or just opinion shapers in general interested on things? >> i think that's actually the wrong focus. it's sort of thinking of a forest fire saying the size depends on the initial spark that caught the forest fire. it's not really just about the initial spark. it's about are these other people, these other trees in the forest going to continue to spread the fire. rather than focus on the messenger like the person is special or has a lot of followers. what about the others that don't have a lot of followers? how can we build things that everyday joes and janes are going to share? we've done a lot of research to understand why anyone might talk about and share something whether they have ten friends or 10,000. >> jonah, one of the things you talk about is generally things that go viral have practical value. but so much of the internet is a time suck and if you put a kitten in it whether it's in a taco or in the stock market, it's going to go much more viral. so many of the things that blow up on the internet are pointless

instead of practical. so why do you say that practical value is part of this? >> you know, they seem pointless in one way or another. but it's not random. there's a science behind it. i agree with you, not everything has practical value. some of those things have humor, for example. we find high arousal emotions like humor or negative like anger and anxiety cause people to talk and share. kittens don't have a lot of practical value. that said, when people share sun screen we should use or the top ten superfoods, that's about useful information. >> we studied your principles and we took a crack at creating our own viral video. let's take a look. >> forget about the murder. forget about the human rights abuses. away from all that, he's fine. he's cool. and it's totally ridiculous. and rodman's assertion to george stephanopoul stephanopoulos. can we have that? where he says we are just like them. ♪

>> what is happening? >> how'd we do? >> it had a cat in it. it must be true, right? why not? >> all right. >> what was that? >> jonah berger, thank you for coming. >> thank you for having me. up next, steve speaks on why obama's let's win in 2014 plan is doomed. are you sure that's not my monologue? zap technology. 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. because all these whole grains aren't healthy unless you actually eat them ♪ multigrain cheerios. also available in delicious peanut butter. healthy never tasted so sweet.

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president obama desperately wants his party to win back the

white house next year. and if you wonder why, the sequester should give you trillions of reasons why. with the two parties sorted out idea logically and philosophically. that polarization can be paralyzing. think of the feats that he racked up first two years in office. think of the stimulus, health care, ending don't ask don't tell. with how little has happened since then. so obama has figured out if he's ever going to regain the legislative momentum in 2009 and 2010 and really tackle the biggest items on his party's which list, he's going to need unified government again. which means winning back the house in 2014. which means a full fledged coordinated push by the white house and democrats on capitol hill to pick up 17 seats two novembers from now. obviously there is nothing wrong with trying to