tom roberts has ip spider-me to greatly expand my -- then we have another viewer that said thomas has inspeared me to go out and buy some burgers. those are his favorite. >> this is my favorite thanks, everyone, for a great show. "morning joe" starts right now. so how does this work? do you send ambassador rodman to n north korea? i read you'd be sending hulk hogan? or is that going to be tonya harding? >> what was it like to talk to the last president? >> it must stink you can't run three times. will it be hard when you're no

longer president and people won't let you win in basketball? >> have you heard of obamacare? >> why would you get a guy who created "zoom" to design your web site? >> health care is great now. you can get health care for what it costs for your cell phone bill. >> is that what it means by drones? >> the president's interview was designed to reach americans where they live. and they watch the show in huge numbers. gone are the day when your broadcast or yours or yours can reach everybody that we need to reach. >> you bring in zach and all of your problems are solved? >> i didn't say that. >> all our problems are solved.

we had a nationwide search. >> we brought sam champion in. that didn't work. >> but we finally found a replacement. >> amy! you did a weather cast for your school in haakc hackinsack, new jersey? >> hackettsack. >> see, she knows her geography. sam champion, sometimes you have it and sometimes you don't. >> it's wednesday, march 12th. with us is mark halpern. he's got a lot to talk about this morning as the presidency, politico and on capitol hill, we've got new york city reporter jeremy peters. >> is he sitting between two

ferns? i thought i saw some ferns between those -- oh, no, just his cheesy smile. >> fake books. love that look. >> fake smiles, fake books. fake tv. what did you think about the president? >> if you reach the kids, you reach the kids. did bill clinton have a problem when he -- come on. he played the saxophone on late night or whatever. this is what they need to do actually is find unusual ways to reach young people and to go on shows that young people watch and web sites that young people go to. and they're doing it. i don't know what -- do you have a criticism that you can reach deep and spit out on the table? >> willie geist, what do you think? >> i laughed a few times. it doesn't mean i'm a supporter of the president or supporter of

the affordable care act. it's okay to laugh, even if you don't agree with the laugh. >> hits to the web site went up after that. that's what they wanted. >> it's not the same as richard nixon going on "laugh in" but it's good for the president to show his casual, sarcastic side. >> they desperately need young people to sign up for this health care program. if they don't, the program won't work. i think he'll go on any program at any time. >> there are a lot of other big stories to get to as well, including a senate showdown between the cia and dianne feinstein. this all started yesterday. the senator accused the agency of illegally searching computers used by her committee. she said they not only broke the law but defied the constitution. >> and there's more mystery

about flight 370. malaysian officials say they tracked the plane as it changed course and now they're denying that story. >> we begin in florida. i don't know how can you not deny this doesn't have national implications. the anti-obamacare congressional candidate has won a key special election. the race has been viewed as a test case for the mid term psych toll come. david jolly narrowly defeated alex sink, even as a libertarian candidate ate away some of his lead. the clear water area is a swing district. as the new york city framed it, the law is a significant blow to morale. miss sink is a well-known party

figure and ran a well-organized campaign, awash in donations and buoyed by millions in -- but last night an enthusiastic crowd congratulated jolly. bob barker announced him by video. he called for unity after a hard-fought, often nasty race where committee and super pac ads, some true and some far from true saturated the airwaves. one. jokes he made when he got on stage, "the good news, no more commercials." >> folks, i got very good news tonight. no more commercials. [ cheers ]

>> i have believed from the very beginning that this is a county race. we have talked about it. for five months that has been a guiding principle for me. in race has always been personal for me, not political. >> this is one of those few swing districts. >> -- that everyone complains aren't swing districts. jolly, though i don't him, would appear a terrible candidate. republicans cringed on many things he was doing on the campaign trail and he still won. >> paul begala said you can't

spin it, this is bad news. he's a lobbyist, he's recently divorced, running around in pin striped suits with his 26-year-old girl friend and he won a tough district. this is very bad for democrats. and for republicans, if you think about it, what's happening in politics right now is republicans psych slightly less than democrats. that's where they're getting an advantage. if you look at his ads and his polls, they don't like president obama -- you found that in your poll -- they don't like obamacare and those two things alone sunk a candidate who raised more money and almost won the governorship. this is a real deal candidate. they put everything they could into recruiting top notch candidate. >> they could not have found a better candidate to run in this district and a lot of national republicans thought they could

not have found a worst candidate. >> an experienced centrist candidate, well funded, support from national figures. it's a good law, we need to fix it, are democrats now going to feel obligated to be more emphatically opposed to obamacare. and come in with a unified message, that's going to embolden donors in these races. >> sometimes you don't know what your message is. that's when candidate, that's when campaigns, that's when outside groups make fools of themselves. we run their ads and we laugh because it's so discordant and disconnected from where the people are. in this case it's not hard to coordinate your outside messages if everybody's against obamacare. and in this district, mark,

specifically there was one thing that really may have ended up hurting the democrats add the democratic candidates and it's something democrats in louisiana and arkansas across america are going to have to be concerned about. >> it's something reporters don't talk a lot about. it's a part of medicare, very popular in that district, but voters all around the country, the kind that vote in mid-term election, older voters who rely on their medicare, in that district it was a huge issue. the republican national committee's highlighting it. democrats are going to have to really be worried about this part of obamacare in a lot of these places, these voters vote, they voted in this case and clearly helped jolly. >> we're going to have this election all over again in eight months. this was a special election. the question is does alex sink run again or is she done?

this is $9 million of outside spending versus about three and change of candidate spending. this really was a local race. if you read the press, there was no discussion of the local issues in that district. this was all about obamacare and medicare advantage and things look that. what are the takeaway lessons if you're a national democrat or national republican, what do you do come november? >> i think this is no doubt this was an extremely disparaging blow to national democrats, no doubt. but if i can play the contrarian here for a little bit, i did some reporting on this and talked to a republican consultant working on the race who told me the obamacare issues moved the base on both sides. it was critically important forgetting republicans to the polls to vote for jolly and getting democrats to vote for sink. however, what moved people in the middle was this notion that alex sink was a bad manager, she

ran a bank that cut jobs and she took a raise while she did that. so i don't know that baobamacar is everything in this case. that's what a lot of republicans in florida think. >> that's what i think. i think it is. i think 2010, a off-year election, obamacare sunk democrats in 2010. i think we may have something historic here happening where you have one act actually causing grave damage to a political party two mid terms in a row. and, you know, mika, i personally believe alex sink's consultants that her her stand in front of the camera that said "fix the affordable care act," i think that's a horrible mistake.

you don't fight on enemy terrain. she tried to fight on enemy terrain, defending this act that no democrat has tried to defend over the last four years. they just don't do it because you can't do it on the campaign trail, unless you like losing. she did this against a candidate that, again, i can't state it enough, people inside florida and washington, d.c. said he was just a lousy, lousy candidate. >> well, there are reports that republican operatives were really frustrated with him. politico reporting that it was -- his campaign was reminiscent of keystone cops marked by inept fund-raising, and the poor optics of a just-divorced 41-year-old candidate accompanied on the cam trail by a girl friend 14 years his junior and running against a

woman. >> other issues are definitely in play. health care, it is profoundly reengineered politics as we know it. if you're the koch brothers, your fund-raising is going to be so much easier now, everyone thinks you have the silver bullet, you can take it to obama like you never could. >> in mid-term election, far different than '16, far different than '12, in mid-term elections, voters are older, wiser, more conservative, they're going to be impacted by the affordable care act less, unless it's negative. >> you say it was a mistake to put the affordable care act on the screen and maybe it was. what do you say in november when you're a democrat and your opponent comes out and says you

supported the affordable care act. they didn't have one with alex sink. >> do you ignore the affordable care act? >> you have to double down by the way mary landrieu has and said i took it to president obama and i'm upset with the affordable care act, too. i wrote a column for "the washington post" that said "save yourself, dump bush" and they were all offended and upset but it was just like he was coming off of four horrible years. that's what democrats are going to have to do. they're going to have to say, listen, when i voted for it, i thought they were going to be able to run a web site. i didn't know they were going to have all of these exemptions. didn't know this, i didn't know that, i'm really disappointed of it and if the president can't do

better, we need to scrap it and do it all over again. go over four years and look what they've done and now the white house has had another delay after another delay after another delay. the white house with the fern thing, go ahead, whatever works for the kids, that's fine. i'll tell what you, if i'm on the campaign trail, that's not the commander in chief that i want, you know, supporting this program that has been absolutely deadly. can't embrace it. that's why democrats haven't embraced it for four years. find me a democrat on the national staj that has gone out and aggressively supported this in a campaign. can you? they never do. >> and you have to believe that something would change fundamentally in the next four to six months that would change the popularity of obamacare. >> something could. >> it's almost implausible. you had enrollment numbers yesterday.

with each piece of news, nothing is fundamentally changing the public's perception of the law. that's why most democrats aren't running against obamacare in the swing state, they're just trying to stay away from it and stay away from the president. the president is not going to be there campaigning, he's not going to be in those states raising money. you have a poll out showing how unpopular the president is if you're attaching yourself. if you look at the florida race, all of the ads say i'm not for barack obama, i'm not for health care, she is. that was a death sentence. >> and we have this nbc/wall street journal poll that says almost by a 2-1 margin people are saying at least this week they would vote for a candidate that said they would oppose barack obama policies. >> that's the key part of this poll that i think is really damages. it's the approval rating of president obama that's dropped to a personal low of 41%. and more voters say their vote

will signal their opposition to the president rather than their support. 48% say a candidate's support of the president will have the opposite effect. overall president obama still has a higher favorability rating than either party, 45% of voters have an unfavorable view of the gop and 35% view democrats unfavorably. voters are split on who they want controlling congress with republicans holding a 1-point lead, 44 to 43. but you're right, that key number is impacting the mid terms in support of ting the president. >> i think they don't have any leaders that have defended the agenda in a positive way. the president's done a pretty

good job running down the republican brand. he's been good at that. >> jeremy, how do you explain some of those numbers we saw? >> i was going to say to joe's point, the republican numbers have come up a bit. they're right around where they were before the shutdown. i don't know that we can make entirely too much of that but it worth noting. nothing interesting in this poll are hillary clinton's negatives. when she was secretary of state, she was hugely popular, negatives barely registered but now that's changed. >> mark, don't you have a report on hillary? >> i do, in the issue of "time m "time"magazine. >> one of her long-time advisers says if she runs for president,

it will cost $1.4 billion. and michelle obama has really warmed to hillary clinton, in part because she's listening to the grass roots and michelle obama has great political sense and she's hearing what. >> around the president is hearing, which is if you want to protect this president's legacy and be replaced by a democrat, she's the one that the people want and michelle obama now sees that pretty clearly. on the other hand, the baims are quite concerned about the mid terms. and they don't want a lot of hillary activity right now because they're worried that donors and activists will on focus on 2016. >> that's quite a teaser. i hope you have something left for the story. coming up on "morning joe," david axelrod and chuck taud.

and susan patton, she's speaks the truth and she makes so many people mad just by telling the truth. up next, senator dianne feinstein publicly accuses the cia of breaking the law by spying on congress. we'll break down the law with richard haass. oh, amy's there, now we know we'll get it right. >> now that we know it's our last day. let's take everyone through the storm here. the white on the map shows you where it's snowing. amy is going to circle that. amy got it right. detroit is not a fun morning commute. they're calling it potentially one of the worst you're going to see all winter long. chicago, we already have 4 to 5 inches on the ground. that's looking at the chicago picture on your left. amy, where would you not want to be later on tonight with the heavy snow falling? boom, burlington, vermont. up to a foot and a half of snow

in the burlington area. we're going to continue watching northern new england going down hill tonight all the way into tomorrow. cleveland, ohio, you're going to get freezing rain and snow out of this. and let's leave people with a happy note. where would you like to spend your afternoon? a lot of us would. florida today about 80 to 85 degrees. didn't she do great? how awesome is amy? >> that's good. you always say that to someone who is about to stab you in the back. thank you, amy. bill karins, thanks. we'll be right back. ♪ [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans

that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪

my mom works at ge. ameriprise asked people a simple question: in retirement, will you outlive your money? uhhh. no, that can't happen. that's the thing, you don't know how long it has to last. everyone has retirement questions. so ameriprise created the exclusive.. confident retirement approach. now you and your ameripise advisor can get the real answers you need. well, knowing gives you confidence. start building your confident retirement today.

time to look at "morning papers." "the "dallas morning news," president obama will seek more overtime pay. the change would expand pay to fast food managers, loan officers and computer techs. meanwhile, the president made a surprise shopping trip to the gap in new york city yesterday. he praised the company, which recently announced plans to raise howley pay to $10 an hour next year. >> the "san francisco chronic chronicle," a massive five-alarm fire still not contained. the fire broke out about 5:00 in the mission bay section of the city, with reports of flames shooting 40 feet in the air. forced evacuations for several

hundred neighbors. only one person, thank goodness, was hurt. >> and a man is freed after 30 years for spending time behind bars for a crime he did not commit. new evidence hefd overturn his conviction. ford was one of the longest serving inmates on death row. >> "the houston cron tall," $600,000 in cash and check was stolen from joel osteen's church. they are working with authorities to investigate and to insurance companies to investigate. >> and "usa today," survey shows drug and alcohol use among teens may be declining.

alcohol and tobacco and marijuana use dropped by 25% but 4% of students say they used prescription drugs for recreational purposes. teens begin on averaging experimenting with illegal drugs at age 13. >> a couple of honeymooners never made it to their honeymoon. a fight got so heated, the flight was disverted to the cayman islands. his wife continued on to costa rica without her new husband. >> sounds like a good idea. okay, let's move on to more serious things. that's terrible. joining us on the set, the president of the council on foreign relation, richard haas, good to have you this morning. let's start with the cia and congress. >> it's a mess! >> it's a total mess.

>> this started a long time ago with dianne feinstein who was all in after september 11th with the cia and do whatever you need to do and she was one of these people briefed early on about waterboarding and enhanced interrogation techniques and she supported it until, well, until it was revealed in 2005 and then suddenly she was shocked, shocked, shocked. so there's a long history between the cia, who felt rightly betrayed by dianne feinstein for basically turning and running after supporting everything they did. and now this continues. so this is like act three or four. >> that's the back story. now there are allegations that the agency spied on senate computers. the california democrat, who has been one of the intelligence communities fiercest supporters

framed the alleged surveillance as an i front to the separation of powers. >> the cia did not ask the committee or its staff if the committee had access to the internal review or how we obtained it. instead, the cia just went and searched the committee's computers. i have asked for an apology and a recognition that this cia search of computers used by its oversight committee was inappropriate. i have received neither. how this will be resolved will show whether the intelligence committee can be effective in monitoring and investigating our nation's intelligence activities. or whether our work can be thwarted by those we oversee. >> just hours later cia director john brennan insisted to nbc's andrea mitchell that the agency did no such thing. >> as far as the allegations of

the cia hacking into senate computers, nothing can be further from the truth. we wouldn't do that. that's just beyond the scope of reason. when the facts come out on this, i think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tremendous spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong. >> the white house says it has confidence of the director of the cia. john mccain does not. but he's been on the other side of the hansen debate for some time. richard -- beforehand it's fascinating how these news reports cover what they said. they missed one part of the story yesterday, which is how the senate intelligence staffers went into the cia and the cia believes illegally seized documents without going through proper protocol. what happened there? >> let's take a step back. this is about oversight and

that's adversarial, particularly when it's a controversial activity. you have a controversial activity of the tension and interrogation techniques. >> so let's back up. there has been an ongoing senate investigation into enhanced interrogation techniques, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. what went on during the bush administration? it has been the belief of republicans, it has been so one-sided and so skewed and so slanted that they've just walked away from it. this is the intelligence committee believes, community believes and republicans believe an out and out slanted hit job on the cia. that's the background. >> the cia did its own internal study, now the intelligence oversight committee has gone in and done theirs. they've written a report, which is still in draft and yet to be made public. a lot of this is about the fight over what will be made public because what will be made public will ultimately be quite

critical, as you suggest. it almost a washington he said/she said. what makes this so surprising are the two people. these are two serious establishment people, dianne feinstein, senator from california, been around for decades and john brennan, a real career pro. these are not people, if will, from the end zones. these are serious people in a relationship that usually works. >> to put perspective on this, you really do have to go back to 2001 to understand feinstein, ally of the cia, supports interrogation techniques, briefed time and time again. have i it on firsthand evidence, briefed time and time again about these activities, she supported them. four years later, a "washington post" story exposes them. she runs as quickly away from them as possible and then you have what i believe and what the intelligence community believes is a total hit job that denies

evidence and classified documents that are in front of them on the interrogation techniques and whether they worked or not and then you now have that the cia is saying and they have evidence and admits it, that a senate intel officer runs into the cia, grabs documents, take them out illegally, certainly without following the proper protocol and now she says they're hacking computers. this is really ugly. >> yeah. this is not a senate facility. the cia created a facility with cia computers in order for senate staffers to have access to it. they're not even doing this on capitol hill. it's at another location. they've had access to all these documents. one of the questions is did they have access to documents they're not meant to have access to. among other things, the internal report of leon panetta.

and this goes on and on and on. moon while the justice department is looking at all this and brennan is basically saying when the justice department looks at this, you'll see that our searches were legal the interesting word yesterday that john brennan used when he spoke with the council on foreign relations in washington with andrea was the word tremendous. he didn't deny that they weren't doing searches. clearly the cia was looking at what these staffers were doing on the basis of what they were doing was too much. >> want to try to get another topic squeezed in here, hopefully to touch upon what's happening in ukraine. the u.s. is pushing for sanctions against russia but its allies in europe have significant business with moscow. a report says france is pushing ahead on its commitment to sell helicopter gunships and armored

vehicles to russia, despite the invasion of crimea. >> what a shock. >> thank you very much. >> you got chirac making millions and millions -- >> one of the biggest fault lines was between the american and european allies over how to handle the soviet union. >> how would you characterize france's behavior? >> it's so obvious. they're much more worried about where things go from here. their feeling is doesn't overreact to what happened in crimea. >> so don't -- wait, wait, wait. richard, they invaded crimea in violation of an international treaty that allowed us get nuclear weapons out of the hands -- >> you're not defending france? >> i'm explaining it. there's a difference between explaining and defending. >> i don't get it. explain again.

>> their view is it can get much more syria, that russia has a special place in crimea, and their view is raugs russia has historical links. >> are you going to fin, that freedom toast? >> i'm not touching that freedom toast. come on now. things may get more serious. if they do get more serious, they have more tanks sold by france. >> this is reminiscent of exactly what happened during the cold war. the whole question of what's the mix, if you will, of vinegar and honey towards the soviets. >> but selling weapons, i can tell you this, there are some people who are not going to put up with this. mika has said, willie, you'll be glad to know she is spending back from spending 26 weekends in the south of france to 23.

that is a personal weekend. she thinks those three weekends in the south of france -- of course she's going to monaco. >> for all the times you have made that tired, haggard joke, you should take me to the south of france, perhaps take me shopping. >> what? >> yeah. that's already happened by the way by the son of the president of lebanon 25 years ago, i was held hostage. >> you're held hostage one time in the south of france and you have to hear about it forever. >> held hostage, it and to porn flicks and then bought bikinis with only one piece. >> you don't have to. >> really? thank you so much for my summer in france, mom and dad. >> you don't have your filter on this morning. >> i don't? >> t.j., t.j., let's go to break. >> who gets sent to france with no parents and no children? >> you have to provide some context. >> context of this really bizarre story coming up next.

what's sneks. >> major league baseball, one of their biggest questions, should pete rose be in the hall of fame? there's a great new book out. the author and barnicle join us next. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, like me, and you're talking to your rheumatologist about a biologic... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain. this is humira helping me lay the groundwork. this is humira helping to protect my joints from further damage. doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. humira works by targeting and helping to block

a specific source of inflammation that contributes to ra symptoms. humira is proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage in many adults. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. take the next step. talk to your doctor. this is humira at work. is really what makes it slike two deals in one.he $1,000 fuel reward card salesperson #2: actually, getting a great car with 42 highway miles per gallon makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #1: point is there's never been a better time to buy a jetta tdi clean diesel.

avo: during the first ever volkswagen tdi clean diesel event get a great deal on a jetta tdi. it gets 42 highway miles per gallon. and get a $1,000 fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. volkswagen has the most tdi clean diesel models of any brand. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models. what is this place? where are we? this is where we bring together the fastest internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system.

it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before.

. welcome back. the assistant editor of "sports illustrated" joins us, kostya kennedy, joins us. what's the case that pete rose should be in the hall of fame in 2014? >> the "boston globe" said that. i didn't say that. i'm going to remain agnostic on whether pete should or should not be in the hall of fame. the thing that pete rose is a spot on the ballot or a chance to be voted on. he's the only player in the long history of baseball who is hall of fame worthy in terms of statistics and all that, who has not had a chance. even shoeless joe jackson could have been elected for 50-plus years, shoeless joe, who threw the 1world series.

>> allegedly. >> allegedly. maybe pete would get in or not get in but nobody had the chance to vote on him. whether or not he gets in, that's for the voters to decide. >> mike, i grew up thank god late 60, early 70s and you had people like clemente, aaron, mays was still in his prize. never really liked pete rose because the braves were in the national league west and the reds were, too. so just didn't like him at all. but you look back, come on. from that era, from that great era, who was more worthy other than hank aaron to be in the hall of fame than pete rose? >> just look at the records pete rose holds today, he especially

deserves a place on the ballot. and especially today given the issues with performance-enhancing drugs. >> why isn't he on? >> because initially he refused to cop to the fact that he gambled on baseball. he eventually has. he's a degenerate gambler. >> he was banned in 2009 and the hall of fame board is getting nervous because pete is going to be eligible. they passed a rule anybody on the permanent ineligible list of baseball, they're not not eligible for the hall of fame. they could change their mind. >> why won't they? >> because he bet on his on team

that, really compromises the game or can compromise the team. >> so don't put him in as a coach. >> put it on the plaque. one of the big things i've always felt is when he was gambling, when he admits to having been cgambling, he was managing a team. which is like really scary to a lot of -- >> a lot of great athletes after they get out lose their ahead because got this day in-day out competition on the field and they act out very differently. i'm not saying what pete rose did was right but, come on. to keep one of the great hitters in the history of baseball out seems insane to me. >> so can you make the same argument for barry bonds? before steroid, he was one of the greatest players who ever lived.

how does the pete rose claim compare with all of the ped guys? >> in some ways it's different. if the game is compromised in any way by gambling, that's even more serious than steroids. they'll pay to see a game where people are juiced up but that being said, both of these were betrayals of kinds to the game and to fans. and again, bonds and clemens and other people, they're on the ballot. there's more than 500 voters and it's like an election. right now bonds is not getting in but he's getting some support. maybe that would have happened with pete. we'll never know. >> bonds, though, is not sammy sosa. bonds presteroids was one of the

ten best. >> that's another guy who i don't like but he should have an asterisk in there because even off the juice, he was one of the best, right? >> i agree. >> yes/no answer, will pete rose get in someday? >> i think it will be after he's passed away. i think there is a chance there will be a movement to get him on the ballot. i think there's no question we could see that in the next few years. >> he's betting on it. >> the book is great. >> he told me 3-1 odds. >> the book is "pete rose, an american dilemma." you got to pick it up. it's a great read by a great editor. >> thanks for having me on the show. >> coming up, we'll go live with an update on flight 370. still no trace on day five. we'll be right back with "morning joe."

just take a closer look. it works how you want to work. with a fidelity investment professional... or managing your investments on your own. helping you find new ways to plan for retirement. and save on taxes where you can. so you can invest in the life that you want today. tap into the full power of your fidelity greenline. call or come in today for a free one-on-one review. this is the first power plant in the country to combine solar and natural gas at the same location. during the day, we generate as much electricity as we can using solar.

at night and when it's cloudy, we use more natural gas. this ensures we can produce clean electricity whenever our customers need it. ♪ glass on floors. daily chores. for the little mishaps you feel use neosporin to help you heal. it kills germs so you heal four days faster. neosporin. use with band-aid brand bandages.

neosporin. you want a loan to build you can't do that.ica? nobody builds factories in the us anymore... you can't do that. using american raw materials makes no sense... you can't do that. you want to hire workers here in the states? they're too expensive, you can't do that. fortunately we didn't listen to the experts. at weathertech we built american factories, we use american raw materials and we hire american workers. weathertech.com, proudly made in america. quality like this...you can't do that. welcome back to "morning

joe." the search for flight 370 enters day five as they appear no closer to finding the flight or passengers. keir simmons joins us. >> reporter: i guess there was some clarity brought by a news conference they just held here. that was fairly a lly chaotic. what they explained was that the flight's communications switched off somewhere over the south china sea. we don't know why it stopped communicating but that the military then picked up a secondary radar signal west of here over the malaka straits and they fear the plane may have for some reason made a serious turn and headed hundreds of miles in the other direction.

that is why for some days they say they have been searching east and west of malar lmalaysi. a huge area they are having to search. a really difficult job when you don't know exactly where this plane was going. as can you imagine at the news conference there were lots of questions about whether or not the military told the civilian authorities quickly enough and whether or not they should be looking in more detail at this information. but that's what we know and we think what they know for now. >> keir simmons there inside the room he described as chaotic. it certainly sounds like it. there's no one stream of information. we don't know what's happening at any given moment. the hard left turn is confounding. and the fact that the transponders were turned off,

there's no explanation for -- >> it sounds like a hijacking, doesn't it? >> with the transponders shut off, it sure does. >> they pick up the radar signal and the malaysian officials don't speak to that until yesterday? >> malaysia is not crowning itself in glory here. >> we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." from the classic lines to the elegant trim in each and every piece, ♪ kohler will make your reality a dream.

[ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees.

♪ my mom works at ge. ♪ and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. ♪ ♪ [ female announcer ] with five perfectly sweetened whole grains... you can't help but see the good. what is this place?

where are we? this is where we bring together the fastest internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system. it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before.

coming up at the top of the hour, florida special elections and what that means for democrats across the nation. we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." ♪

♪ make every day, her day with a full menu of appetizers and entrées crafted with care and designed to delight. fancy feast. love served daily. a seven day cruise to alaska or the caribbean from just $549. that's seven days to either marvel at mayan ruins... savor the very best local flavors... or sail in glistening glacier bay. with a cruise line voted best in alaska. a seven day cruise to alaska or the caribbean from just $549. call your travel agent or 1.888.book.now

for this limited time offer. princess cruises, come back new. for this limited time offer. ameriprise asked people a simple question: can you keep your lifestyle in retirement?

i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today.

we here at "late night" were able to get our hands on the original, unedited tampe. >> how do you pronounce your name. is it justin bloouber? >> no. >> can i keep calling you that? >> do you think you're too cute for rules? can you wink one more time, justin, we can't get it? >> do you remember who the guy was in "home improvement"? >> guess what, i can't recall. >> wow. >> chicago. look at that. >> what time of year is it? it's not spring, is it? welcome back to "morning joe."

mark halperin and mike barnicle are still with us. >> a complete loser! >> look at the weather like that. t.j., please, could you put him up? i'm not talking about the good people of chicago. this was just a slight at that man. good lord. way to go, t.j. he goes for the coffee slurp. from chicago's institute of politics, which i want to go see -- >> any time, we'd love to have you. >> the kids would love you there. >> msnbc contributor, david axelrod. and chief white house correspondent and political director and host of "the daily rundown," chuck todd. >> chuck, a lot to talk about.

the nbc/wall street journal poll, not great news for democrats. let's talk about the special election last night. on the republican side going up against the best the democrats had, it was some would say -- republicans say a referendum on obamacare. the republican won. break it down for us. >> was it? >> the basic question was going to be can a campaign overcome a troubled atmosphere? i think in this test, in this one place, atmosphere trumped the campaign. if you just take it campaign to campaign, candidate to candidate, you had the democratic campaign and candidate outspend the democratic campaign and candidate 4-1. then you had outside groups particularly candidate health

care. it proved to be very, very effective nationally. and so atmosphere trumped campaign. welcome to the mid terms. the mid terms are a giant special election that aren't going to look like the presidential and all of the senate battles are going to be in places that democrats are going to wish looked like florida '13, that were a lot more competitive like florida '13. and alex is saying she lost to a guy convicted of medicare fraud and she lost to a guy whose first name is lobbyist. on paper she looks great, on paper she did all the right things but i talked to florida democrats who thought she ran too cautious a campaign, was

afraid of her own shadow and wasn't effective on the campaign. >> republicans didn't love the guy. he won, though. >> you can overstate this notion that she's a great candidate. she didn't live in the district and there was some backlash about that. she moved in to run. she was well funded, she's more of a centrist. the one lesson that doesn't transfer is a lot of these democratic seats are incumbents. she was not an incumbent. so people like mark pryor and mary landrieu. while this is not necessarily a great year for incumbents, incumbency still has benefits. the outside group thing that chuck mentioned is just huge, just huge. >> this is a swing district, though, chuck. you go to arkansas, arkansas ain't a swing state. louisiana not a swing state. north carolina in an off-year election, not a swing state. i mean, this is one of those

rare swing districts that democrats should have won. they lost. then you start looking at the senate battlegrounds in the six or seven races coming up in 2014. that is in red state america where barack obama's numbers are far lower than even the 41% where he is nationwide on your poll. >> joe, that's right. it's not that democrats lost this district, it's how they lost it. right? it's that essentially the republicans were able to -- they didn't do anything sneaky here. they said we're going to run against the president, we're going to run against health care and we're going to use medicare advantage cuts as part of that and that's going to be the message and that's what the chamber ads were and that's what all the outside group ads were. it wasn't rocket science what the republicans were going to do. democrats are going to have, you know, they couldn't -- they couldn't get their people out, they couldn't make this more of a swing district during this special election electorate that it could have been or should

have been in an election year or maybe in november. and that they couldn't do it here is one of the big challenges democrats are going to have. they have to maximize turnout in louisiana, in arkansas to give themselves a boxer's chance. >> david axelrod, you're one of the best strategic minds in the democratic party. if you're working for kay hagan or mary landrieu or mark pryor, what lesson do you take away from this? >> the lesson i take away is we have to figure out a way to motivate our base voters in mid-term elections. joe keeps referring to this as a swing district, but in all the polling it was plus 10, plus 11, plus 13 republican. >> barack obama won there in 2008 and 2012. he won by 5, 6, 7 points on

average. >> i agree, joe. if it were a presidential year, this would be a swing district. it's not a swing district. how do you get the voters who come out in presidential years to come out in these mid-term elections? we didn't do it in 2010. if we don't do it in 2014, it's going to be a very difficult year. that's where we have to focus. that's the lesson i take away from this. on the baim issue, i think jeremy peters had it right. independent voters by 25 points or more supported alex sink's position on mending it and not ending it. i think the notion that democrats can just walk away from that position is -- that never, ever works. so we're going to have to fight it out on that issue. but the real challenge is how do we get base voters, young people, minorities out in a

general election. in a mid-term election. >> it begs the question, david, what are the elements of that? is it presidential visits, is it in congress, is it texting and facebook? how do you change the electorate given what you couldn't do in this district. >> i think it's a combination of those things. i do think we have to bring some of the techniques we used in battleground states in 2012 into the mid-term elections in 2014. the president and the first lady can be useful in terms of motivating to minority communities. in some of these red states, that's going to be very, very important. louisiana, north carolina, it going to be very, very important to get those voters out. so using them surgically to do that is very important. this is the big challenge for us in 2014. >> one election in florida the

democrats get their lunch handed to them so that's over. but going forward there was one common theme i thought that emerged in that special election among democrats. it's been prevalent for a long time. and it is that when they talk about the health care stuff, they turn explanations into excuses. it sounds like an excuse for the health care. in terms of campaigning, does the white house have a plan that the president and on down, every democratic candidate on the ballot would explain the health care legislation to people in specific terms, that here's what you have, you have portability, you have catastrophic coverage, you have your kid at 25 on your payroll. they want to take it all away from you. you don't hear that from democrats. >> it's how do they not sound defensive. that's what i think you're getting at. >> right. >> that's what alex sink sounded defensive in those ads. you could argue, though, those were effective ads. david's right about the polling.

a generic democratic candidate that says it wanted to appeal it, contrasted with a republican candidate. how do they do it without sounding defensive and do it as almost something to be proud of? in the ideal world that david described in talking about trying to get democrats motivated to the polls, you wouldn't have the candidates themselves be afraid of president obama. i kind of think all of those dances, predictable dances, we saw it with republicans in '06, with bush and with clinton in '98. i happen to think it's a mistake. if you're a democrat and you go out there and say, oh, man, health care it scares me.

i don't want want policeman a around. the democrats will know you're full of it. >> whuk, here's the back drop of what you're saying. president obama as approval -- and more voters say their vote will signal their opposition than their support. just 26% say they're likely to back candidate who is support barack obama. 46% say candidate support of the president will affect the vote. 38% viewed democrats unfavorably. voters are split on who they want controlling congress with republicans holding a one-point lead, 44% to 33%. chuck stand by.

david axelrod, first of all, that one number in there pertaining to the mid terms has to be alarming. >> well, as i said, i think the president is go to have to do targeted campaigning. there are places in which he can help and where he's going to be needed. but there's no doubt that it is a difficult environment for democrats. and it's structurally difficult in terms of the states that are up in the senate races and the atmosphere is difficult for democrats. so, you know, there's no surprise in this poll. i'd say a couple of things about the poll and the president's approval rating. one thing i felt when we were in the white house was any time foreign affairs took hold and that's where the, we took a little bit of a hit because that's not where the american people want his attention to be. and the second is the and my --

it puts him in a more partisan role which only alienates voters more. it's a tricky pass for him right now. >> it is. whek, we take a look at florida and what just happened and there's a mirror effect here. >> 26% they're more likely to support a candidate that supports president obama's policy. 48% say a candidate's support of the president will have the opposite effect. chuck, whether you're looking at 1994, 2006, 2010, these are the type of questions you dig into to see whether there is go. >> this is sort of the

beginning. right now the ingredients are all there for republicans to have the year that they're looking for, which is win snuff senate seats to get control. the question is can -- i'm looking at four levels that explain the coordination. how does he pull out of the funk? you have 71% that say the country is stagnant, 57 says the country is still in a recession. and 49% believe that the health care law is a bad idea as opposed to 35% it's this perception that in one way

he's -- the destruction hits him more or first before it hits everybody else. is there anything he can do to just moves his approval rating to 45%. and if you look the question is how does he do that? -- >> it's not going on between two ferns. i want to get one more story in here. >> before you do, can i just say within more thing about the mid-term elections? >> yeah. >> the number one quality people were looking for were candidates who would compromise to get things done. one of the least appealing qualities was an association with the tea party, which i think is identified in people's mind as a source of obstructionism and unyielding pop signatures.

think think they have to look at the election in those terms. >> one more story. mike huckabee thinks he knows how republicans can win in 2016 if the democratic candidate is hillary clinton. he tells "the new republic" in part this: "i've won twice against women opponents and it a very different kind of approach. for those of us who have some chivalry left, there's a level of respect. a male opponent is common. a woman requires a sense of pedestal. huckabee who faced criticism said women can't control their

libid libidos. he said "i believe in equality and i have a record of transforming that belief into action. >> so what do you think about that? >> the comment itself annoys me. >> why does it annoy you? >> because we don't need the pedestal. >> who is running against a female candidate on this set? >> let's see, no, no, no -- >> and i actually -- >> i'm gearing up. >> i actually found that your account of the challenges you faced to actually match -- >> mike huckabee, by the way, anybody can be pissed off that wants to be but what mike huckabee said, he's exactly right. if i'm running against mark halperin and i take something to the bates for him to sign -- if

somebody does it to hillary in the debate, they're a bully. the best debate i ever had, i just did everything i wanted to do and actually in this one debate, the woman i was running against had her worst performance. it was a draw most of the time. everybody felt so sorry for her. it blew up that was a bully. can you go back and look at it 20 times. he's exactly right. women have to be treated -- if you want to win elections. i'm not talking about being chivalrous. if you want to win elections, you have to treat a woman differently than you treat a man. or voters, it will blow up in your face. if people don't like it out there, all they have to do is look at what barack obama in new hampshire said he liked hillary --

>> no, likable -- >> likable enough. it was a comment barack obama would have made to a man, everyone would have laughed. but it was to a woman. whoever wants to be upset can be upset. you run, david axelrod, do you not, against a woman differently stylistically than you would against a man? >> let say this, having been involved in a race against hillary clinton with barack obama, she's a very tough customer and she can handle herse herself. >> it's not about that. >> it's not about that. the woman i ran against was a tough customer, too. it's not about toughness. it's about perception among voters. i'm not saying hillary clinton or any other woman is not as tough as man is. >> it's a more complicated question than you think. >> i'm sure it is. because i'm a simple guy. i have trouble even finding "30

rock" here. >> when running for president -- >> don't they drive you there? >> i have trouble finding my driver. >> running for president is different than running for any other office. you're right, new hampshire, that was a disastrous moment for obama. but it was disastrous because he seemed rude. she was asked a question by the moderator -- >> are you saying stylistically you guys never once said behind the scenes when the cameras were off and nobody was watching, hey, barack, or hey, senator, you can't handle hillary the same wave you handle let's say your candidate in a state senate race? >> you know, the dynamics of our race were such that we put a premium on not being confrontational, on not being rude, on not being -- >> arrogant. >> you know, that was all -- that was part of the message of

our campaign was we had to change the tone of our politics so we never had a big discussion about how are we going to treat her because she's a woman. we always treated her -- >> you didn't treat mitt romney when people were out there running ads saying mitt romney killed somebody's wife. i mean, come on. >> okay. >> no. >> i don't want to hear this talk. >> we can rehearse that discussion. >> we can talk about a kinder, gentler campaign you wanted to run, you had to run a different campaign against hillary clinton than they ran against mitt romney where they accused him of killing a man's wife. you would never do that if you were running against a woman. >> you're rehearsing an old argument as to who ran that ad. >> bill burton did. >> there's no doubt in 2012 when he was running for president for reelection was different than the race we ran in 2008. there's no question about that. i'm just telling you hillary

clinton can handle herself. she's tough and anybody who thinks they have to be deferential because she's a woman misreads her. >> and she's likable enough. >> i'm not saying that and anybody watching the show knows i'm not saying that. i've always said hillary was one of the toughest candidates i've ever seen in my life. i'm not saying that. i'm saying stylistically i will treat a man who is 5'6" different from a man who is 6'5". i will treat every candidate differently and if you don't, you're making a mistake. >> let me ask you this way. if then senator obama had said you're likable enough, john, to john edwards, would it have had the same impact? >> no. >> if the sequence of events were such and if he said it the way he said it, it may not have had the same exact impact, but it wouldn't have been good. that whole sequence was not a good sequence. but, look, i'm not completely dismissing the point. i'm just saying it's moricale y

complicated because of who hillary is and because people demand a certain toughness and resilience and they're not going to want too much deference. >> david, i always give you deference. good luck out there in the snow. >> thank you. i have my sled waiting outside. >> say high to susan. >> say hi to susan. do you treat me with deference? or am i on a pedestal? >> if you were a man, think of how i'd be. i'd be clicking my fingers at you, i'd be interrupting you every three seconds. it would be awful. >> this is a rabbit hole. i don't know how you're getting out of it. >> mike huckabee said something a couple weeks ago that was kind of dumb. this one i'm telling you, there will be people out there that say i'm so shocked, i'm so stunned. no, you treat every opponent

differently and if you're a man and you're running against a woman -- this is only for people who want to win elections by the way. if this is offending you, you can ignore it and go out and treat a female candidate the same way you'll treat a man. >> no, i hear. come on, david's kidding himself. >> he's fantastic. >> look at chuck, he's not saying a word. down the rabbit hole. >> i'm not going down the rabbit hole. i'm just standing next to it and waving to you, joe. good luck there. >> miami dolphins had a big trade there yesterday, didn't they? >> he's back to his old coach. it's good for everybody. >> okay, be quiet now. thank you. see you at 9:30. >> up next, we're talking to chris ruddy, the man behind one of the largest conservative

media organizations in america. >> see you can't even say it, can you? >> i just -- i stumble on the word conservative. but first let's go to dylan dreyer. dylan? >> just when you think you've run out of snow, we've been sent 75 pizza boxes to represent the 75 1/2 inches of snow chicago has picked thup winter. out of this storm we're in now, we should walk away from 3 to 4 inches of snow. it should put us in the top three snowiest winters of all-time. although the snow is winding down right now, it actually started as rain yesterday. it was 50 degrees here in chicago. but around midnight it switched over to snow.

we have a ground delay program at chicago's o'hare right now with arriving flights coming in about two hours delayed. we are looking at the end of the snow fairly soon, though winter weather warnings are in effect until 11:00 this morning. cup see these flakes just sort of floating in the sky. this is going to turn into a major northern new england storm with at least a foot of snow possible and then it is brutally cold. we could drop by about 40 degrees from where we were yesterday in new york city down into the 20s for a high on thursday afternoon. >> oh, come on! >> mika? >> i have seasonal whatever disorder. barnicle wants a pizza. dylan, thank you so much. >> thank you, dylan. >> you're watching "morning joe." we will be right back. >> oh, look at that traffic. dear lord. ♪ still can tell stories his own way ♪ ♪ listen children, all is not lost, oh, no, no ♪

of confusion out there when it comes to grass seed. "what if i forget to water it, scott? will it still grow?" roll the clip, jimmy. scotts wraps each seed in a brilliant coating that feeds, protects, and holds in moisture. so growing thicker, healthier grass is easier - even if you miss a day of watering. now let's spread your newfound knowledge! get scotts turf builder grass seed with water smart plus. it's guaranteed. seed your lawn. seed it! anncr: to keep your new grass growing strong, feed it with scotts starter food for new grass. (voseeker of the sublime.ro. you can separate runway ridiculousness... from fashion that flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (natalie) ooooh, i like your style. (vo) so do we, business pro. so do we.

go national. go like a pro. so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 a month? yup. all 5 of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line, anytime, for $15 a month. low dues, great terms. let's close! new at&t mobile share value plans our best value plans ever for business.

tonight we are a country awakened to danger and called to defend freedom. >> mr. gorbachev, tear down this wall. >> one day in our nation we will be judged not by the color of our skin but by the content of our character. >> ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country. >> that was a sneak preview of news max media. joining us the founder of news max media, christopher ruddy. welcome to the set. >> i'm honored to be here. i'm a fan of your show. it's actually an addiction. i get up in the morning looking

for that -- >> i heard that. >> it's such a great program because it's so unpredictable, there's so many points of view expressed and it almost is like a learning experience between everybody at the table because i think people's views evolve and change. >> absolutely. joe has evolved so much. >> not really. >> you've won him over. >> no, not really. >> well, thank you. >> it's a great template for newsmax. i want newsmax to be a great conversation. >> you see a business model, opportunity here for sure. what makes you kind of go all in on this concept? >> well, a lot of people strangely enough in new york and l.a., they don't know about newsmax but we are one of the largest news sites in the united states. comescore, which tracks news politics says 70 million americans go online every month

for politics. we're typically one, two or three. last month, for instance, we had close to 12 million unique visitors. fox news had 10 million. we had 49 million people according to comscore through our 2,000 partner web sites that read our news headlines across the web. 49 million people, 1 billion page views. it is, mark, one of the big sort of -- one of the kings out there as far as political web sites go, especially in conservative networks. >> there are some views who don't understand in the conservative world, it's a massive form of communication. >> now you're trying to transform that into a 24 hour a day network. >> the story is huge. the internet is becoming tv

everywhere. we just heard cbs is thinking of pulling off broadcast and just going over the top and online. dish just did a deal with disney for more offerings. netflix. you guys talk about "house of cards." 31 million subscribers. we've had an on demand channel. you guys have used our clips where people have interviewed major political figures throughout the years. that worked really well. we felt the time was right. we have the infrastructure, i have a fairly big company, offices in four city, 260 employees, we have the reach, we have the technology and we also have the money, frankly, to make a 24/7 programming show. >> what would you say differentiates newsmax from the other top three or four news web sites? what differentiates? >> i think there's a feeling, present company included, that in the cable news business, i'll be careful here what i say, but

that -- >> don't be. no need to be careful. >> what we get in cable news is either an america sort of dull and boring on one hand and on the other hand strident and shrill. there's not a lot of in between. i went to school in england and i have -- i'm a huge fan, you go over there a lot i think. sky news, rupert murdoch's brain child, it's the number one rated network. if you watch it, great television, great conversation, interesting debates, great feature programming but it doesn't have any of the polarizing politics. >> it's also not predictable. so many people come up to us and say david axelrod's a good friend of mine and david and susan. we've been good friends for a while. we went after each other pretty hard, like we would around the breakfast table. dave will come on tomorrow and

it's not -- nobody plays tv. like you said, those are the type of shows that aren't predictable and strident that i think people like watching. >> and this newsmax -- i had a history as a journalist at being a pretty hard core, tough journalists, i was one of the anti-clinton journalists in the 90s. i've openly said we made a mistake, we were wrong in hitting president clinton too hard. we want a fair balance. today we have alan dershowitz. alan dershowitz as his home page. did our viewers all agree with alan dershowitz? no, but he's controversial. the average age of a fox viewer is 64 years of age. our average age is 47 years of

age. that's a huge difference. >> when are you going to be on the air? and are you hiring? >> i'm taking applications right now. >> when are you going to be on? >> we're already on the air. if you go on to newsmax tv and hit the button, you'll see us. we have six hours of live programming from 12 to 6. we're going to have 15. the launch will be in late june or early summer. we don't have a fixed date but there will be 15 hours of live programming at that point and we're really looking forward to being a sort of a power house in getting news, just as we have been online. >> well, christopher ruddy, thank you so much. >> coming up, a question for you all. >> yes. >> what do women really want? >> a newsmax 24-hour tv. >> we have a really controversial subject and i'm kicking all men off the set. you all are dismissed.

susan patton, author of "marry smart" standing by. we'll be right back. ♪ ♪ no two people have the same financial goals. pnc works with you to understand yours and help plan for your retirement. visit a branch or call now for your personal retirement review. [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer.

[ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪ is really what makes it slike two deals in one.he $1,000 fuel reward card my mom works at ge. salesperson #2: actually, getting a great car with 42 highway miles per gallon makes it like two deals in one. salesperson #1: point is there's never been a better time to buy a jetta tdi clean diesel. avo: during the first ever volkswagen tdi clean diesel event get a great deal on a jetta tdi. it gets 42 highway miles per gallon. and get a $1,000 fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. volkswagen has the most tdi clean diesel models of any brand. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models. glass on floors. daily chores. for the little mishaps you feel use neosporin to help you heal. it kills germs so you heal four days faster. neosporin. use with band-aid brand bandages.

neosporin. tthe will..., mobilizing to take on the world? you don't know "aarp." aarp and its foundation are taking on hunger with 29 million meals donated. drive to end hunger teams with local agencies to reach the hungriest among us. if you don't think feed the hungry when you think aarp, then you don't know "aarp." find more surprising possibilities and get to know us at aarp.org/possibilities.

what is this place? where are we? this is where we bring together the fastest internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system. it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before.

i'm too structured and i'm completely closed off. and i'm going to be 40! >> when? >> in eight years. but it's there. it's just sitting there like a big dead end. it's not the same for men. charlie chaplain had babies when he was 73. >> yeah, but he was too old to pick 'em up. >> remember that scene from "when harry met sally" about getting married and having children before it's too late. up next, author susan patton is here with her new book on how to snag the men of your dreams by taking advantage of the opportunities right before your eyes. she goes there. "morning joe" will be right there.

nascar is ab.out excitement but tracking all the action and hearing everything from our marketing partners, the media and millions of fans on social media can be a challenge. that's why we partnered with hp to build the new nascar

fan and media engagement center. hp's technology helps us turn millions of tweets, posts and stories into real-time business insights that help nascar win with our fans.

all right, author susan patton, also known as the princeton mom, sparked quite a conversation with her recent letter urging women to find a mate at college. let's take a closer look. >> i feel like i'd gotten in that car from "back to the future" and we're back in 1952. >> there's elittism oozing from their pore of that letter. >> that letter was from susan patton. the mother of two sons decided to write a letter to the daughters she never had. printed in the princeton student newspaper, it read in part this: "here's what nobody is telling you -- find a husband on campus before you graduate. and for most of you, the

cornerstone of your future inhappiness will be inextricably linked to the man you marry." her controversial advice quickly went viral. her critics called her anti-feminist and aggressive. >> you're asking them to lean back and think of ward cleaver. >> it's important i don't think women learn to be self-sufficient in college, find out who they are, unrelated to a spouse or to their future. >> others came to the princeton mom's defense. >> being a feminist is not saying you can't do this. it's allowing to you do it all and choose what works for you. >> reporter: patton says her words of wisdom were intended solely for the women on princeton's campus who were looking for a traditional

family, and, yes, she says, "i went there." >> the bottom line is you say 75% of a woman's time when she's in college or starting out her career should be placed on looking for a man. >> should be placed on planning for her personal happiness. work can wait. can you regain lost time at work but if you miss your opportunity to have your own children, if that's something you want, that's gone. you don't get that back. irretrievable. >> i give speeches to young women and i tell them don't forget to get married. i have a similar message. there are other pieces of advice within your advice that have gotten a very harsh reaction. not sure all of it is fair. here's the criticism on twitter from now young femmes. "this is all sorts of stupid."

"cla "classism, sexism, your future is yours." and "say what?" what is it that you're trying to say? what's the truth? >> the truth absolutely need to plan for their personal happiness. it doesn't just happen. where women say to me, oh, well, love just happened. it doesn't. nothing just happens. if it's important to you in your life, you have to plan for it. and the criticism that i'm privileged, furtherest thing from it. i'm a first generation american. i'm the first person in my family to go away from college. far from being of a privileged class. far from it. i totally know, as you do, what it takes for a woman to succeed in this world and find happiness. >> of course, i went to, like the experts, i'm 46 years old, but i did what you advise people to do, i was always looking for the right man. >> right. >> i wanted to have children. it was something i wanted to do. i've got working on our staff

daniellea, dom, emma, ladies turn around. what did you think of the advice? 75%, daniella, of your brain should be looking for a man. what did you do? >> i kind of agree with what you're saying, susan. it's a really big conflict i've had, because, you know, for the longest time i've been very career-oriented and society is really pushing us to focus on that, focus on our career. at the same time, i can't help but feel that, you know, a year out of college, i've sort of missed the boat to my best pool of options. i think you bring up a point, the lingering fear i have now. dom? >> i think 75% of my time was spent on work. i've never been happier in my career. and i don't think i could have gotten there if i -- >> do you want to have a family? >> i'd love to have a family. i'm going to. but my parents put me through four years of really expensive college to be able to have a future. >> that's the focus

twentysomething. emma, what do you think? >> i'm a student at barnard, which is a women's college, part of columbia university. and emphasis is really placed on, you know, achieving a great education and getting the leadership and career that you want. and certainly i would like marriage eventually, but that's not -- >> see, that's it right there. >> so here's the problem, ladies. if you're going to delay looking for a husband and having your children until after you've spent the first 10, 12 years developing your career, you're now going to be in your mid-30s and you'll first start thinking having a baby, that's a problem, number one. in terms of simply from a biological perspective, your fertility has limitations, number one. number two, you're going to start looking for a husband in your mid-30s? you'll be competing with girls who are 10 years younger than you. not only can you not compete for men with women 10 years younger than you, because they are 10 years younger than you, they're dewey-eyed, fresh, adorable --

>> hard to hear, but does it make any sense? >> no. >> no, it really -- i have to be honest, it doesn't. >> the other part of it is if you're going to try -- you can't compete with a girl in her early 20s for men who are interested in having children themselves. >> but when i'm -- >> a man is 45 when he starts looking for a wife, won't look for a woman in her 30s -- >> i want to be with someone -- i can't wait to be with someone who's happy because not my age, because where i got my career, because i'm motivated, because i spent my early 20s -- i'm only 22. i don't need to have a timeline. i'm having the best time of my life, and i'm working, which you look at most people my age, aren't right now. >> that's absolutely true. you don't understand how quickly you're going to go from 22 to 35. >> it goes. >> ask mika. it goes so quickly. you cannot imagine. >> i really -- >> listening to dom, and it's

fascinating, they have a point, but they don't like what they're hearing. >> it's the truth, it hurts. >> the bottom line is, if you start looking for a guy, maybe the most important decision you're going to make in your life, if you're married at 35, your chances are -- >> way less than when you were 25 or 22. so i'm telling young women, be smart for yourself. take care of yourself. plan for your personal happin s happiness, because you won't be able to make up that lost time. >> susan, i would like everybody to e-mail us and we'll have her back. i want to know exactly what you think. you can keep the vitriol to the side, but bring good arguments to the table. >> absolutely. >> and we'll take this on with a bigger segment. >> this is an important topic. it's a broad topic. it can support a plurality of opinions. there's no need for vitriol on any side. we all want the same thing, for women to have what they want. >> the book is "marry smart." we'll be right back. (vo) you are a business pro.

seeker of the sublime. you can separate runway ridiculousness... from fashion that flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (natalie) ooooh, i like your style. (vo) so do we, business pro. so do we. go national. go like a pro.

became big business overnight? ♪ like, really big... then expanded? ♪ or their new product tanked? ♪ or not? what if they embrace new technology instead? ♪ imagine a company's future with the future of trading. company profile. a research tool on thinkorswim. from td ameritrade. but when we put something in the ground, feed it, and care for it, don't we grow something more? we grow big celebrations, and personal victories. we grow new beginnings, and better endings. grand gestures, and perfect quiet. we grow escape, bragging rights, happier happy hours. so let's gro something greater with miracle-gro. what will you grow? share your story at miraclegro.com.

what will you grow? ...return on investment wall isn't a street... isn't the only return i'm looking forward to... for some, every dollar is earned with sweat, sacrifice, courage. which is why usaa is honored to help our members with everything from investing for retirement to saving for college. our commitment to current and former military members and their families is without equal.

so she's saying that by the time you're my age -- >> yeah. you got no prospects. >> over the hill. that explains a lot. >> yep. >> all the smart guys are in college. that explains a lot. >> we have lewis. >> lewis, and we'll always have paris. >> no, pensacola and that parasite you both got.

it's only a single congressional race in florida, but the republican win might be a bad omen for the democrats in the midterm elections. "morning joe" will be right back. account is already paid in full. oh, well in that case, back to vacation mode. ♪boots and pants and boots and pants♪ ♪and boots and pants and boots and pants♪ ♪and boots and pants... voice-enabled bill pay. just a tap away on the geico app. ♪ huh, 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. yup, everybody knows that. well, did you know that some owls aren't that wise. don't forget about i'm having brunch with meagan tomorrow. who? seriously, you met her like three times. who? geico.

[ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪ thoughtful combinations, artfully prepared. fancy feast elegant medleys. inspired dishes like primavera,

florentine and tuscany. fancy feast. a medley of love, served daily. i'm tto guard their manhood with train depend shields and guards. the discreet protection that's just for guys. now, it's your turn. get my training tips at guardyourmanhood.com

♪ so how does this work? do you send ambassador rodman to north korea on your behalf? i'd read somewhere you'd be sending hulk hogan to syria, or is that a job for tonya harding? what's it like to be the last black president? >> seriously? what's it like to talk to a

president? >> it must stink you can't run three times. >> it would be like doing a third "hangover" movie. >> will it be hard in two years when people stop letting you win at basketball? >> have you heard of the affordable care act? >> i heard about that. that's the thing that doesn't work. why would you get the guy that created the zun to make your website? >> healthcare.gov works great. they can get coverage all for what it costs you to pay your cell phone bill. >> is this what they mean by drones? good morning, it's 8:00 on the east coast, 5:00 a.m. on the west coast, as you take a live look at new york city. back with us on set, we have mark halperin, jim vandehei, he parties all night. >> he does. >> and on capitol hill, jeremy peters. >> so what do you think about the president, a lot of people writing about -- >> come on. >> -- with bob -- >> i think you reach the kids. did bill clinton have a problem when he -- i mean, come on. this is fine.

i don't know, he played the saxophone on "late night" or whatever. >> yeah. >> this is what they need to do, actually, is find unusual ways to reach young people and to go on shows that young people watch and websites that young people go to. and they're doing it. i don't know what -- do you have a criticism you can reach deep and spit out on the table? >> guieist, what do you think? >> i laughed a few times. it doesn't mean i'm a supporter of. it's okay. >> the website went up after this, so maybe it's not ours to judge. >> mark halperin? >> not as dignified as richard nixon going on "laugh in," but close. no, it's good. it's good for the president to show his casual, sarcastic side. >> jim vandehei? >> it goes to your point, something very specific, they

need young people to sign up for the health care program. if they don't, the program won't work. i think he'll go on any program at any time. a lot of big problems today, a senate showdown between the cia and dianne feinstein. this all started yesterday. the senator accused the agency of illegally searching computers used by her committee. she says they not only broke the law but defied the constitution. richard haas will join us on this in just a moment. and there is more uncertainty about the mysterious disappearance of flight 370. it's incredible. day three. malaysian military officials were tracking the flight and reportedly confirmed it changed course before losing contact with ground control. now, officials are denying that story. we're going to have a live report from malaysia coming up. we begin in florida. big story there. >> wow. >> i don't know how you could not deny this doesn't have national implications. the anti-obamacare republican congressional candidate has won

a key special election. the race has been viewed as a test case for the midterm cycle to come. david jolly narrowly defeated democrat alex sink, even as a libertarian candidate ate away some of his lead. the clearwater-st. petersburg area is a swing district with nearly as many registered democrat voters as republicans. as "the new york times" framed it, the loss is a significant blow to morale, to democrats. ms. sink, a moderate, who lost her race for governor in 2010, is a well-known party figure and ran a well-organized campaign. awash in donations and buoyed by millions of dollars of outside spending. in fact, the race is being called one of the most expensive this cycle. outside spending more than doubled candidates' spending and the outside interests often overshadowed the candidates themselves. but last night, an enthusiastic crowd congratulated jolly. bob barker even announced him by

video. jolly, who was a former lobbyist called for unity after a hard-fought and nasty cases where some ads saturated the airwaves. in fact, one of the jokes he made when he got up on stage was, here's the good news, no more commercials, because, apparently, they've been inundated. here he is in his victory speech. >> folks, i have very good news tonight. no more commercials. [ applause ] i have believed from the very beginning that this is a pinellas county race. we have talked about it. for five months, that's been a guiding principle for me. this race has always been personal to me. not political. >> jim vandehei, this is one of those few swing districts everybody complains aren't swing districts. this is a district barack obama

won in 2008 and 2012, i think by at least five opponepointless b times. alex sink, top-notch democrat candidate, and jolly, they don't know him. what i know is what i heard from florida. a terrible candidate in many ways. the republicans cringed by many things he was doing on the campaign trail and he still won. >> it's really hard -- >> he won twice. >> you saw paul come out and said democratic consultant saying this is bad news for the democratic -- he was recently divorced, went around the campaign trail in pin stripe suits with his 26-year-old girlfriend. republicans in washington thought he was a bad candidate. and he won a tough district. and this is bad -- very bad for democrats. and for republicans, if you think about what's happening in politics right now, is republicans suck slightly less than democrats, and that's where they're getting an advantage. >> that's one way of putting it.

>> they didn't like him as a candidate or they liked his policies. if you look at his ads and the polls, they don't like president obama. you found that in your poll. they don't like obamacare. and those two things alone sunk a candidate who raised more money, who almost won the governorship. she's not -- this is a real deal candidate. >> i was going to say -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> -- the democrats in florida could not have found a better candidate to run in this district. and a lot of national republicans thought they could not have found a worse candidate. >> an experienced centrist candidate who was well funded, had support from national figures. democrats now have to do a gut check on, can they run the way sink ran, which is on obamacare, which is the way they all plan to run, which is it's a good law, we need to fix it. are democrats now going to feel obligated to be more emphatically opposed to obamacare? on the republican side, what's great for them, they showed the outside groups succeed.

come in with a unified message, a pretty well coordinated message. that will embolden donors to the outside group. >> sometimes you don't know what your message is. and that's when candidates -- that's when campaigns -- that's when outside groups make fools of themselves. we run their ads and we laugh, because it's so discordant and disconnected from where the people are. but in this case, it's not hard to coordinate your outside messages if everybody's against obamacare. and in this discorrect, mark, specifically, there was one thing that really may have ended up hurting the democrats and the democratic candidates, and it's something that democrats in louisiana, in arkansas, across america are going to have to -- >> it's a sleeper issue, part of obamacare. medicare advantage, something reporters don't talk about, because not too many reporters are on medicare advantage. very popular in that district. but voters all around the country, the kinds that vote in

midterm elections, older americans, medicare advantage is being scaled back for a lot of people in terms of the issues we heard about, increased costs, loss of doctor choice. in that district, it was a huge issue. the republican national committee is highlighting it. democrats will have to be worried about this part of obamacare in a lot of these places. these voters vote. they voted in this race, and clearly helped jolly. >> one of the then to remind people, we'll have this election again in eight months. this was a special election. the question is, does alex sink republican again, or is she done? jeremy peters, i would put it to you. this was $9 million of outside spending versus three and change of candidate spending. so this really wasn't a local race. if you read the press accounts, internal from tampa and st. pete, there's no discussion of the local issues in that district. this was about obamacare, medicare advantage, things like that. what are the big takeaway les n lessons if you're a national republican or democrat? what do you do come november? >> i think there's no doubt this was an extremely disparaging

blow to national democrats, no doubt. but if i could play the contrarian here for a little bit, i did some reporting on this, and i talked to a republican consultant working on the race who told me that the obamacare issue moved the base on both sides. it was critically important in getting republicans to the polls to vote for -- to vote for jolly and it was important in getting democrats to the polls to vote for sink. however, what moved people in the middle was this notion that alex sink was a bad manager, that she had cut -- overseen a bank that cut jobs, she took a bonus for herself while she did that, and that she oversaw the pension fund in florida while it lost money. and that was the motivating issue for people that turned them out in a very close election and swung it her way. so i don't know that obamacare is the -- is everything in this case. and that's what -- that's what a lot of republicans in florida think. >> i was going to say, it's what i think. i think it is. i think 2010, an off-year

election history shows obamacare sunk democrats in 2010, i think we may have something historic here happening where you have one act actually causing grave damage to a political party, two midterms in a row. you know, mika, i personally believe alex sink's consultants and had her stand in front of the camera that says fix the affordable care act, i think that's a horrible mistake. i said it yesterday. you don't fight on enemy terrain. and she tried to fight on enemy terrain, defending this act that no democrats have tried to defend over the past four years. they just don't do it, because you can't do it on the campaign trail. unless you like losing. and she did this against a candidate that again i can't state it enough, people inside florida and washington, d.c., said he was just a lousy, lousy candidate. >> there are reports that

republican operatives were really frustrated with him, and politico reporting that it was his -- his campaign was reminiscent of "keystone kops" with advisors stationed hundreds of miles away from the district in the state capitol, and the poor optics of a just-divorced 41-year-old candidate accompanied on the campaign trail by a girlfriend of 14 years his junior, and let me hit the dynamic of that, running against a woman. >> well, i can't put -- jeremy is right, other issues are in play. health care, it's re-engineered politics as we know it. if you're koch brothers, your fund-raising will be easier, because everyone will believe you have the silver bullet, you have the way to take it to obama in a way nobody thought possible, that they now think, listen, the house was never really in play. it's important to say -- it's important in the senate. >> in midterm elections, far

different than '16, far different than what it was in '12, but in midterm elections, voters are older, they're whiter, they're more conservative, they're going to be impacted by the affordable care act less, unless it's negative. >> so what i was going to ask you, joe, if it was a mistake for them to put the affordable care act on the screen, and maybe it was, what do you say in november if you're a democrat, and your republican opponent comes out, you supported the affordable care act. in some case i have a vote that shows you support it. we didn't have one with alex sink. so how do you respond? do you ignore the affordable care act, because you at some point have to address it. >> i think you have to double down where mary landrieu has, i took it to president obama and i told him he needed to exempt this thing, and, yeah, i'm upset with the affordable care act, too. and barack obama would say the same thing. there's one thing bush people couldn't do in '06. you know, i wrote a column for

the "washington post" that said, save yourself, don't bush. you know, they were all offended and upset. but it was just like he was coming off of four horrible years. it's why democrats will have to do -- they'll have to say, listen, when i voted for it, i thought they'd be able to run a website. i didn't know they were going to have all of the exemptions. i didn't know this. i didn't know that. i'm really disappointed with it. if the president can't do anything better, we need to scrap it and start all over again. i'm sorry. you may not like that. this thing, though, go back four years and look at what this did to democrats right after they passed it. and now the white house has had one delay after another delay after another delay after another delay. the website -- i understand, i don't care about the fern thing. whatever works for the kids. but i tell you what, if i'm on the campaign trail, that's not the commander in chief that i want, you know, you know,

supporting this program that has just been absolutely deadly. you can't embrace it. that's why democrats haven't embraced it for four years. find me a democrat on the national stage that has gone out and aggressively supported this. in a campaign. can you? can any. >> in a tough race -- >> the approval rating for president obama has dropped to a low of 41%. it's the "wall street journal"/nbc news poll saying their vote this november will signal the opposition to the president rather than support. just 26% say they are more likely to embrace candidates who back president obama, 48% say a candidate's support of the president will have the opposite effect. >> that's the number right there. >> overall, president obama still has a higher favorable -- favorability rating -- than either party, 45% of voters have an unfavorable view of the gop, and 35% view democrats unfavorably. voters are split on who they

want controlling congress, with republicans holding a one-point lead, 44-43. you're right, that key number is impacting the midterms in terms of the support or lack thereof for the president. >> guys, explain, mark halperin, explain, democrats still 10 points higher on the branding. republican branding still devastating. >> it is. i don't think they have any leaders who have brought the party more back to the center, have defined the agenda in a positive way. and the president's done a pretty good job for the last couple of year, including running for election, running down the republican brand. he's been good at that. >> jeremy, how do you explain some of the numbers we saw? >> i was going to say to joe's point, the republican numbers have actually come up a bit. and they're right around where they were before the shutdown, which, i don't know we can make entirely too much of that. but it's worth noting. and another then that was interesting in this poll are hillary clinton's negatives. if you look at them, they have come up quite a bit. i mean, when she was secretary of state, she had -- she was

hugely popular. her negatives were barely registered. but now, that's changed. >> all right. >> don't you have reporting on hillary? >> i do. in the new issue of "time" magazine. >> give us a tease. >> well, the contours of this operation are coming into view. one of the super pacs working for her, signing up volunteers. one of the longtime advisors says he thinks the campaign will cost $1.7 billion for the super pac and the campaigns. we've got reporting about what the obamas think of hillary clinton running, including michelle obama who has really warmed to her in part because she's listening to the grassroots, and michelle obama has great political sense, and she's hearing what everyone around the president is hearing, if you want to protect this president's legacy, if you want him to be replaced by a democrat, she's the one that people want. and michelle obama now sees that pretty clearly. on the other hand, the obamas are quite concerned about the midterms, and michelle obama does not want, and the president

doesn't want, and they both expressed this to their aides, they don't want a lot of hillary activity right now, because they're worried that donors and activists will focus on 2016 rather than saving the party in the midterms. coming up on "morning joe" -- >> i have grave concerns that the cia's search may well have violated the separation of powers, principles embodied in the united states constitution. >> she call it is a defining moment for the cia, and the senate will discuss what senator feinstein's public condemnation of the nation's top spy agency really means next. and later, a rare look at life in the minor leagues of baseball. author john feinstein joins us on set. first, bill -- bill -- bill karins with a check on the forecast. >> good morning, mika. we're in the midst of the winter stop. chicago, 4 inches on the ground. snowing right through detroit. just when we thought winter was

giving us a break. the heavy snow is set up in the area i've circled. it will be up in canada, along the u.s. border. the worst of it probably from buffalo to rochester to syracuse this afternoon. temperature now is 29 in toledo with snow. 30 in detroit. so not only is it snowing, but it will get cold and windy on the back side of the storm, too. how much snow are we talking about? we have the potential for one of the biggest winter storms, new york, new hampshire, vermont, much of the state of maine. burlington could get a foot and a half. and everyone gets colder. cleveland, you could get 6 inches with a little bit of ice mixed in. same for albany, new york. enjoy the 72 today on the east coast, because tomorrow it is cold and windy. march can be a very, very cruel month. we leave you with a shot of detroit where the snow is coming down and old glory is blowing in that cold wind. you're watching "morning joe." [ male announcer ] staples has everything you need

to keep a germ-free office. from latex gloves and antibacterial wipes to steam cleaners, keyboard vacuums and microfiber cloths. yes, staples has everything you need for a germaphobe-friendly office... [ sneezes, coughs ] except germ-free coworkers. [ retches ] thousands of products added online every day... [ click ] even protective suits. [ sneezes ] now get 15% off your cleaning supply purchase. staples. make more happen.

and his new boss told him two things -- cook what you love, and save your money. joe doesn't know it yet, but he'll work his way up from busser to waiter to chef before opening a restaurant specializing in fish and game from the great northwest. he'll start investing early, he'll find some good people to help guide him, and he'll set money aside from his first day of work to his last, which isn't rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade. salegets up to 795 highwayeal's the passamiles per tank.sel salesperson #2: actually, we're throwing in a $1,000 fuel reward card. we've never done that. that's why there's never been a better time to buy a passat tdi clean diesel. husband: so it's like two deals in one? avo: during the salesperson #2: first ever exactly. volkswagen tdi clean diesel event, get a great deal on a passat tdi, that gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. and get a $1000 dollar fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models.

we'll be here at lifelock doing our thing: you do your swipe from anywhere thing, watching out for your identity, data breach or not. get lifelock protection and live life free.

♪ time now to look at the morning papers, from our parade of papers. "the dallas morning news" president obama will direct the department of labor to require overtime pay to millions of workers. current rules prevent overtime pay to employees considered executive or professional. the change would expand pay to fast-food managers, loan officers, and computer techs.

meanwhile, the president made a surprise shopping trip to the gap in new york city yesterday. he praised the company, which recently announced plans to raise hourly pay to $10 an hour next year. >> "the san francisco chronicle," massive five-alarm fire not contained after tearing through a construction site, sending black smoke into the skies. the fire broke out about 5:00 in mission bay with flames reporting 40 feet in the air. forced evacuations for several makes. 150 firefighters battling the fire. only one person hurt. >> "the times picayune" an inmate is free after 30 years in jail for a crime he did not commit. a court vacated the sentence for glenn ford who was wrongfully convicted of murder in 1983. new evidence helped to overturn his conviction. ford was one of the longest serving inmates on death row.

>> "the houston chronicle," $600,000 worth of cash and checks were stolen from celebrity pastor joel osteen's church in houston. someone stole the money out of the safe sunday or monday. the church is working with local authorities to investigate, and with its insurance company to restore the funds. >> "usa today," a study out of cincinnati suggests drug and alcohol use among teens may be declining. since 2000, the coalition for a drug-free greater cincinnati says alcohol and tobacco and marijuana use dropped by 25%, but 4% of students surveyed say they use prescription drugs for recreational purposes. on average, teens begin experimenting with illegal drugs at age 13. >> "usa today," a couple of newlyweds never made it to their honeymoon after their argument caused their plane to make an emergency landing. >> oh, my lord. >> the groom was drunk, apparently, fighting with his wife. had got so heated that the flight was diverted to the

cayman islands. the man was taken into custody and charged with drunk and disorderly conduct. his wife continued on to costa rica without her new husband. >> sounds like a good idea. okay. let's move on to more serious things. that's terrible. joining us on the set, the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haas. good to have you this morning. let's start with the cia story, because there's this very public feud brewing in congress. >> this is a mess! >> and the cia. a total mess. >> by the way, this started a long time ago with dianne feinstein who was all in after september 11th with the cia and do whatever you need to do, and she was one of these people briefed early on about waterboarding about enhanced interrogation techniques, and she supported it until -- well, until it was revealed in 2005, and then suddenly she was shocked, shocked, shocked. so there's a long history between the cia -- who felt rightly betrayed by dianne

feinstein for basically turning and running after supporting everything they did. and now this continues. so this is like act three or four. >> that's the backstory. now, there are allegations that the agency spied on senate computers. senate intelligence committee chairwoman feinstein says classified documents were taken during an investigation into interrogation policies. the california democrat, who's been one of the intelligence community's fiercest supporters, framed the alleged surveillance as an affront to the separation of powers. >> the cia did not ask the committee or staff if the committee had access to the internal review or how we obtained it. instead, the cia just went and searched the committee's computers. i have asked for an apology and a recognition that this cia search of computers used by its

oversight committee was inappropriate. i have received neither. and how this will be resolved will show whether the intelligence committee can be effective in monitoring and investigating our nation's intelligence activities, or whether our work can be thwarted by those we oversee. >> just hours later, cia director john brennan insisted to nbc's andrea mitchell that the agency did no such thing. >> as far as the allegations of, you know, cia hacking into, you know, senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth. we wouldn't do that. i mean, that's -- that's just beyond, you know, the scope of reason. when the facts come out on this, i think a lot of people who are claiming that there has been this tremendous sort of spying and monitoring and hacking will be proved wrong. >> and the white house says it has confidence in the director of the cia. john mccain, on the other side, does not. >> no. >> he's been on the other side again in the enhanced int

interrogation debate for sometime. richard, i want your take on this. beforehand, it's fascinating how these news reports cover what she said. they missed one part of the story yesterday, which is how the senate intelligence staffers went into the cia and the cia believes illegally seized documents without going through proper protocol. >> what happened there? >> take a step back. what this is about is oversight, and oversight is adversarial, particularly when it's a controversial activity. so you have this controversial activity of detention and intensive interrogation techniques. >> so let's back up and let everybody know. so there has been an ongoing senate investigation into enhanced interrogation techniques, et cetera, et cetera. what went on during the bush administration. it has been the belief of republicans -- it has been so one-sided and so skewed and so

slanted -- they've just walked away from it. the intelligence committee believes -- community believes and republicans believe just an out-and-out slanted hit job on the cia. that's the background. >> the cia did its own internal study. now, the intelligence oversight committee has gone in and done theirs. they've written the report, which is still in draft and is yet to be made public. a lot of this is about the fight over what will be made public, because what will be made public will ultimately be quite critical, as you suggest. then you get into all the -- it's almost like a washington she said-he said, and what make this is so surprising is the two people. these are two serious, if you will, establishment people -- dianne feinstein, senator from california, been around for decades, and john brennan, a real career pro. >> right. >> so the idea these two people are going at it, they're not two people from the end zones. they are serious people in a relationship -- >> to put perspective to this, and i hate going back to it, you

have to go back to 2001 to understand, feinstein, an ally of the cia, supports interrogation techniques, briefed time and time again, and i have it on firsthand evidence briefed time and time again about these activities. she supported them. four years later, a "washington post" story exposes them, she runs as quickly as possible away from them, and then you have, what i believe, and what the intelligence community believes, is a total hit job that denies evidence and classified documents that are in front of them on the interrogation techniques and whether they worked or not -- that's the big debate -- and then from that, you now have this where the cia is saying, and there's evidence, and she even admits it, that a senate intel staffer runs into the cia, grabs documents, takes them out illegally -- certainly without following the proper protocol -- and then this fight comes back, and now she's saying they're hacking computers.

this is really ugly. >> the interesting word yesterday that john brennan used when he spoke at the council on foreign relations with andrea was the word tremendous. he didn't deny they weren't doing searches. he said we're not doing a tremendous amount of hacking. so clearly the cia was looking at what the staffers were doing. on the basis of what they were doing was too much. >> coming up next, for some, it's a launching pad for a career in the majors. for others, it's a life in the obscurity. minor league baseball with author john feinstein. keep it here. ameriprise asked people a simple question:

can you keep your lifestyle in retirement? i don't want to think about the alternative. i don't even know how to answer that. i mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. i try not to worry, but you worry. what happens when your paychecks stop? because everyone has retirement questions. ameriprise created the exclusive confident retirement approach. to get the real answers you need. start building your confident retirement today. if it doesn't work fast...

you're on to the next thing. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair has the fastest retinol formula to visibly reduce fine lines and wrinkles in just one week. neutrogena®. [ girl ] my mom, she makes underwater fans that are powered by the moon. ♪ she can print amazing things, right from her computer. [ whirring ] [ train whistle blows ] she makes trains that are friends with trees. ♪ my mom works at ge. ♪

♪ joining us now, columnist for the "washington post," "golf world" and "golf digest" author of "where nobody knows your name." john, welcome. an interesting look at what it's like to play in the minors. >> thank you. >> i have to tell you, it's a terrific book. it's a terrific read. it's insightful and interesting, because it gets to a point where if you're in aaa, you're already one of the greatest baseball players in the world, okay? and you're that far from the major leagues. it's sort of like us sitting around here -- they do "nightly news" in the same building. we can sense it. you know? >> yeah, you guys are closer in

terms of salary to the "nightly news" guys than the minor league baseball players are. that's the huge gap. because you're right, mike, you're that close and you're that close to being good enough, because a lot of the guys have been in the major leagues. but if you're playing major league baseball, the minimum salary for 2014 is up to $500,000 a year. it was $482 when i was reaching the book. in the minor leagues, almost no one makes $100,000. a lot of them make $50,000, $40,000, even less than that. the story that defines that for me, a guy named doug benear, who got called up from the colorado rockies for three days. making $2,100 a month, but in the majors, $2,400 a day. the cool thing, when he got send back to colorado springs, when the next paycheck, it was the first time his paycheck had a comma in it. >> there's also, and you indicate this in the book, major

league ballplayers go on rehab, sometimes aaa, and get down to durham, and it becomes glaringly apparent. >> yeah, they cannot only afford to stay in the best hotels as opposed to the hampton inn. when michael jordan played baseball, he bought a bus. >> exactly right. a good friend i grew up with, that got drafted by toronto, ended up in fayetteville, in florida, left-handed pitcher, we thought, he will make bank, and he didn't. it was a struggle for a long time. you're playing at the highest point of your athletic career. but injury can happen, and pretty easily, and then sideline you overnight. >> the other thing that happens is your friend was probably a superstar when you knew him in high school, because every one of these guys was the guy. he was hitting .650 or

pitching .022. but it doesn't mean you get to the major leagues. the guys who make it to the majors and stay there -- that's the big thing. a lot of guys will make it to the majors and go back. one guy, danny worth, had been up and down between detroit and toledo 11 times in two years. so you're absolutely right about that. >> so, like, the biggest misconception, it sounds like, is the salary. people don't understand the difference. what percentage of those minor leaguers drafted actually make it to the pros? >> well, that get drafted is tiny, because there's 50 rounds in the major league draft. so it's probably 3%, 4% of players who get drafted. once you get to aaa, the odds have gone way up that you may get there. if you go to a aaa ballpark on a given night, you may see 10, 15 guys who have already played in the major leagues. you can see stars, too. when i was researching this book, mark pryor, who finished third in the cy young voting when he was 21 with the cubs.

miguel tejada, an mvp, playing in norfolk. jamie moyer was in the minor. the title comes from watching mark pryor jog in from the bull pen in allentown, pennsylvania, and in minor league parks they have a promotion between every half inning, and the promotion at that moment was, don't laugh, whack an intern, which isn't what you think. it's a box they bring out to the third baseline, four interns climb into the box, pop their heads up, and two fans take plastic bats and whack 'em. >> whack a mole. >> just bigger. >> a better name. mark pryor comes jogs in from the bull pen, and as ease -- nobody in the ballpark even noticed him. this guy was going -- he was steven strasbourg 10 years ago, and nobody notices that pryor is coming in. >> for parents out there who think they have a rising star, is this book a cautionary tale, or is it more an incentive for them to know what they're getting into, what they're

dedicating their kid's life to? >> that's a good question. my answer is, both. the cautionary tale is the chances are your son's not going to play in the major leagues, but he may do something he loves for a long time. the thing that i found in this book that amazed me was the hope, that guys who haven't been close to the major leagues, still love to play, love to go to the ballpark and believe they'll get there. the best story was j.c. boskin who played 14 years in the braves' farm system. on august 31st, 2010, he thought, this is my last chance to get called up, because they call up extra players in september. if i don't get called up, because he'd had his best season, it will never happen. sure enough, four guys get called into the manager's office. they're all going up to the braves. one freddie freeman, now a star, and he thinks, it's over. i'm not going. at the last second, the hitting coach comes over, skip wants to see you. he looks grim. he goes into the manager's office and dave looks at him, how long you played baseball,

j.c.? and he thinks, oh, god, i'm getting released. and he breaks into a grin, i can't mess with you, you're going up. he burst into tears. the whole team was in on it. when he went back into the clubhouse, they were all waiting with champagne and hugs, and it was like the last scene of "the rookie" if you remember that. >> can i ask? the great cinematic depiction of the minor leagues is probably "bull durham." in it, kevin costner sets a record for home runs. so for someone who has chronicled minor league baseball, who is the greatest strictly minor league baseball player of all time? >> wow, that's a good question, because most of the guys would have gotten up to the majors -- >> i'm talking about someone who never got there and set some sort of records. >> crash davis, the character kevin costner, is a real person. >> okay. >> and played in durham in the minor leagues but was a major leaguer, too, that's the scene where kevin costner talks about going to the show, and that part is all real.

but i'm honestly not sure who i would say -- there were a bunch of guys in the pacific coast league in the '50s who never made it up there, who were legendary pacific coast league players. but again, i think about a guy like rhine durhan, because he could throw 100 miles an hour, but when he got to the majors, the pitches went to the backstop. >> john, thank you. more "morning joe" coming up.

so our business can be on at&t's network for $175 a month? yup. all 5 of you for $175. our clients need a lot of attention. there's unlimited talk and text. we're working deals all day. you get 10 gigabytes of data to share. what about expansion potential? add a line, anytime, for $15 a month. low dues, great terms. let's close! new at&t mobile share value plans our best value plans ever for business. and you'll see just how much it has to offer, especially if you're thinking of moving an old 401(k) to a fidelity ira. it gives you a wide range of investment options... and the free help you need to make sure your investments fit your goals -- and what you're really investing for. tap into the full power of your fidelity green line. call today and we'll make it easy to move that old 401(k) to a fidelity rollover ira.

it's been that way since the day you met. but your erectile dysfunction - it could be a question of blood flow. cialis tadalafil for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment's right. you can be more confident in your ability to be ready. and the same cialis is the only daily ed tablet approved to treat ed and symptoms of bph like needing to go frequently or urgently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medications, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sexual activity. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long-term injury, seek immediate medical help for an erection lasting more than 4 hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or if you have any allergic reactions such as rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a 30-tablet free trial.

♪ all righty. it's time for "business before the bell" with sarah eisen. sarah, the question of the day, why is new jersey banning tesla sales? >> that's the question of the day. we'll be watching tesla stock down here at the stock exchange. new jersey becomes the third state to become tesla's model of

direct selling of cars to consumers. so every other car company goes through dealerships, but now, arizona, texas, and new jersey, backed by very powerful dealership lobbies, saying, nope, you can't sell directly. if you live in new jersey, you'll have to buy a tesla in pennsylvania or a neighboring state. you can bet, ilan musk is very upset about it, tweeting it out. elon musk versus chris christie. >> that's weird. now i'll have to find a tesla dealership in wyoming. terrible. sarah, thanks very much. we appreciate it. up next, malaysian officials are trying to bring clarity to the confusion surrounding the missing flight and its passen r passengers. the latest is next on "morning joe." e skin look pretty. but there's one that's so clever, it makes your skin look better even after you take it off. neutrogena healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% of women saw improvement

in their skins' natural texture, tone, or clarity. does your makeup do that? neutrogena® cosmetics. recommended most by dermatologists.

bob will retire when he's 153, which would be fine if bob were a vampire. but he's not. ♪ he's an architect with two kids and a mortgage. luckily, he found someone

who gave him a fresh perspective on his portfolio. and with some planning and effort, hopefully bob can retire at a more appropriate age. it's not rocket science. it's just common sense. from td ameritrade.

all right. welcome back to "morning joe." the search for flight 370 enters day five as officials appear no closer to determining the fate of the missing passengers and crew members. joining us from malaysia, nbc's kier simmons with the latest. kier? >> reporter: there is a growing sense of confusion and disaway. i guess there was clarity brought by a news conference they just held, although that was fairly chaotic. what they managed to explain at this news conference was that the flight switched off, or that its communications switched off somewhere over the south china sea. we don't know why it stopped

communicating. but that the military then picked up a secondary radar signal west of here over the malacca straits, and that's why they fear that the plane may have, for some reason, made a serious turn and headed hundreds of miles in the other direction. and that is why, they say, for some days now, they have been searching both east and west of malaysia. so a huge search area that they are having to comb. i actually flew out with one of the searches, and that took eight hours, just to look across ocean stretching about 30 square miles. so a really difficult job when you don't know exactly where this plane was going. as you can imagine, at the news conference, they'll have lots of questions about whether or not the military told the civilian authorities quickly enough, and whether or not they should be looking more detailed at this information. but that's what we know, and we think what they know for now. >> keir simmons inside the room,

where it sounds chaotic. we don't know what's happening at any given moment. thank you very much. the hard left turn is confounding and the fact the transponders were turned off. pilots don't turn off the transponders. >> more strange things about this -- in this day and age, the idea that we know so little about something, in and of itself, just wildly stunning. >> it certainly, what, sounds like a hijacking, doesn't it, or one of the pilots -- >> with the transponder shut off, it sure does. what's also mystifying is they pick up the radar signal on a website, flightradar24 in northern malaysia, and the malaysian government or officials don't speak to that until yesterday? >> yeah. >> malaysia is shot shining itself in glory here. >> we'll be back with much more "morning joe." well, i'm meteorologist bill

karins. we're dealing with another major winter storm. travel today, chicago, detroit, the airports will be a mess. a lot of cancellations already. in buffalo, the weather will go downhill during the day today, along with syracuse, rochester, and the new york throughway, all through northern new england later tonight. so the warm air ahead of it and the big snowstorm for northern new england. travel safe. so i deserve a small business credit card with amazing rewards. with the spark cash card from capital one, i get 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. i break my back around here. finally someone's recognizing me with unlimited rewards! meetings start at 11, cindy. [ male announcer ] get the spark business card from capital one. choose 2% cash back or double miles on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? i need your timesheets, larry! ♪

♪ ♪ only famous. and older. and gorgeous. and not like ours at all. go and smell the roses! if yand you're talking toevere rheuyour rheumatologistike me, about a biologic... this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain. this is humira helping me lay the groundwork. this is humira helping to protect my joints from further damage. doctors have been prescribing humira for ten years. humira works by targeting and helping to block a specific source of inflammation

that contributes to ra symptoms. humira is proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage in many adults. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal events, such as infections, lymphoma, or other types of cancer, have happened. blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure have occurred. before starting humira, your doctor should test you for tb. ask your doctor if you live in or have been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. tell your doctor if you have had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have symptoms such as fever, fatigue, cough, or sores. you should not start humira if you have any kind of infection. take the next step. talk to your doctor. this is humira at work. salegets up to 795 highwayeal's the passamiles per tank.sel salesperson #2: actually, we're throwing in a $1,000 fuel reward card. we've never done that. that's why there's never been a better time to buy a passat tdi clean diesel. husband: so it's like two deals in one? avo: during the salesperson #2: first ever exactly. volkswagen tdi

clean diesel event, get a great deal on a passat tdi, that gets up to 795 highway miles per tank. and get a $1000 dollar fuel reward card. it's like two deals in one. hurry in and get a $1,000 fuel reward card and 0.9% apr for 60 months on tdi models. welcome back to "morning joe." time to talk about what we learned today. mika? >> marry smart. >> marry smart, marry young, marry often. mike? >> go see minor league baseball. a great buy. >> isn't that something? >> quality is not the same at sameness. >> no, it's not. and we learned something about rough time mika had in the south of france with some of the -- >> oh, yeah. >> thanks, mom and dad. for a summer to remember. >> thank you for one of the most bizarre kidnapping stories any of us have heard in morning television and -- >> it's bad when you're an oau

pair and no children. stick around, here comes chuck todd with "the daily rundown." well, it's a jolly republican win that gives democrats a sinking feeling about the midterms. a brand-new nbc news/"wall street journal" poll has more warnings for democrats in a less friendly environment than that house race in florida. also this morning, a major trust deficit puts the cia director in the hot seat with top senate democrats. but the roots of this rift stretch back far longer than just the beginning of the obama administration. plus, in today's tdr 50, our colorado focus this week, what does a still-simmers secession sentiment in rock-hard red parts of the state tell us about the unfolding urban-rural divide across the country? good morning from washington. it's wednesday, march 12th, 2014.