circuit in boston. nbc is at the white house for us this morning. lay out the trip for us, athena. >> reporter: good morning, chuck. that's right. he's headed to portland, maine, today. they want to continue to sell this health care plan. it's now law, but they want to show the american people how it will benefit them. the president will be focusing on the immediate benefits small businesses will get from this plan. right away small businesses will be able to get a 35% tax credit to help them cover the cost of premiums for their employees. that number goes up to 50% in 2014. the white house says that up to 4 million businesses across the country will be eligible for these tax credits and that it will save them l billions of dollars, up to $40 billion, over the next ten years. the white house wants to get the word out. they're going to be sending postcards to these small businesses encouraging them to find out if they're eligible. stha ear going to be sending e-mails to tax preparers who help these businesses prepare these taxes to really get the word out and let everyone know they should check out and see if

they're eligible for this plan. they're all part of selling this plan to the people now that it's passed, it's law, showing the support is still lukewarm. they want to get out there and do the this. >> absolutely. the first of a two-day tripathon there at the white house. athena jones for us. number one, home to two republican senators who they thought were going to support health care reform and did not. and the boston event, a fund-raiser for deval patrick. the best race, no national implications, governor of massachusetts, but it's a crazy three-way race and the white house is very involved. why? because david axelrod and david plus are close. >> no national implications. wait till we get a hold of it. >> that's right. a federal judge has ruled the bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program was illegal. let's bring in nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, what is the significance of this, and what did the obama administration argue in this case? sh >> this will be a test for the obama administration to see if they'll appeal because they argued in the case not about the

merits but about whether sh should be even in court at all. they argued the whole issue was covered by the state secret privilege and they were quite insistent on that. we'll see if they maintain that position on appeal. the judge said the law that was in place at the time -- remember, this program has been changed, president obama voted for the change -- what they said was the program in place at the time was illegally used against two lawyers who were representing an islamic charity. they were on the phone in washington talking to their client in saudi arabia. they argued in court that the government listened in on them without getting a warrant, which is required by federal law. the judge said you're right, i agree, this was illegally used in your case. their lawyer says, the lawyer for the two lawyers, says this shows as a warning to the presidents, this president, any future president, that they can't in the name of national security violate federal law. now, this is the second time a judge has ruled against what was called a terrorist surveillance program. the first ruling was shot down on appeal. we'll see what happens next. >> you just said, though, that

the law has been changed. >> yes. >> this is about the old law, right? >> yes. >> it is absolutely about the old law. but to some extent it's about executive power. but a curious thing about this case is that there really never was in court a direct clash on the legal question about exactly what the posture of this program was, because the government never defended it. >> but that's what i was going to ask. i don't understand. the government said state secrets privileges, we can't discuss this at all because it reveals state secrets. but it sounds like the defense did attack it on the merits. >> well, they didn't, really. what happened is the judge said, you know, first of all, this whole case came as a fluke. these lawyers were accidentally mailed a classified document that seemed to indicate that they were the subject of surveillance. then the judge said, well you have to prove it by unclassified material. he said you've proved it, said the government sort of defaulted here so i'm ruling on your side. >> very interesting to see what legal position the obama administration takes now. >> right. >> whether it fights this on an

appeal. >> that will be another question. >> thanks so much. now to the vatican where the pope marked holy thursday with a mass and a top cardinal went after "the new york times" calling its treatment of the pope unfair. anne thompson is in rome this morning outside the vatican. anne, yesterday you hinted that we would hear something from the pope about this latest scandal. what are you hearing today? >> reporter: well, we haven't heard anything yet, chuck, but we have -- we will see and hear from pope benedict several times over the next few days. in fact, today, we will see and hear from him twice. this morning he celebrated mass at st. peter's, what's called a prism mass, where he blesses the oils for the entire year. at that mass, he did not mention the sexual abuse scandal raging here in europe. however, cardinal william laveda, who runs the office here at the vatican, used to be

archbishop of san francisco, he went after "the new york times" on the vatican website, accusing "the times" of unfairness in its reporting about the pope and its inference that the pope, as cardinal ratzinger, had some role in the transfer of two pedophile priests. the cardinal said, pointing to the one case in wisconsin where father lawrence murphy abused some 200 deaf children, he said that "the times" is wrong in its inference that then cardinal ratzinger tried to stop the defrocking of that priest. he said those decisions were made in the diocese. chuck, back to you. >> anne thompson reporting for us from rome. we'll see, by the way, if they go after some german newspapers who are also going after the catholic church and the pope big time. thanks very much. well, parts of new england it is the worst flooding in 200 years. rhode island is still more than waist deep in water in certain

areas. homeland security secretary janet napolitano is planning to travel to rhode island tomorrow to tour the damage there. the weather channel's julie martin is in coventry, rhode island, for us. what's the scene? >> reporter: well, good morning, savannah. you know, the waters are starting to recede, but the problems certainly remain in the state of rhode island. we have water-covered roads and also river flooding that is compromising structures. behind me, one of them. we're in coventry, and this is a bridge there that is -- they're thinking it could go at any time, basically. they're saying the water rushing toward it has already crumbled the foundation underneath. while it doesn't look that significant, the impact downstream could mean flooding to 200 or so homes as well as compromising two additional dams. they are doing everything they can to keep that water back, but they fully expect this bridge not to make it. widespread issues still throughout the region. the sewer system is quite a mess. a lot of the pumps have stopped working, and the main sewage treatment plant was flooded, so

that is now back up and running. and i-95, sections of that major thoroughfare still under water as we speak so, traffic around the state a real mess as well. savannah? >> julie martin from the weather channel in coventry, rhode island, this morning. thank you. >> awful day to be called the ocean state. it's april 1st, and while some of your friends may be cracking joke, the director of the census bureau is here with some important questions to ask you and it's not very funny. plus, wall street fat cats getting fatter while the rest of the nation struggles to break free from economic misery. what is going on? cnbc's john harwood joins us next. and some of the democratic party's most ardent supporters, environmentalists handling some of these recent decision base the president. we'll talk to one key leader and see how much more pressure can the base take. first a look ahead at the president's schedule. on the road again, to quote willie nelson. selling health care in portland, maine, then two funders in

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what happened in our country should never happen again. people were paid for taking enormous risks. if those risks turned out well, they made a lot of money. it was a crazy way to run the financial system. >> tim geithner says wall street needs to learn its lesson. it may have done so but not the way the government intended. >> hedge fund managers and top firms have made billions on bailouts and again posting multimillion-dollar salaries, this as friday's jobless figures expected to show the rest of the country still stuck in neutral. john harwood of cnbc and "the new york times."

kind of conflicting headlines. "the wall street journal" says ceo pay falls again and "the washington post" saying they're not learning the fundamental lesson. >> wall street, of course, the paper of wall street. >> the post is trying to say they haven't learned the lesson the obama administration was hoping they would learn, which is bay-pay on long-term performance, not short-term g e gain. >> what the administration is trying to do is shift the incentives, give shareholders a greater say and not have circumstances where people are rewarded for taking huge leverage and risk in the short term that might pay off in one quarter what caused big problems for the economy in the long run. and, look, people on wall street go to wall street for a reason -- they care about money. they want to make money. they're going to try to get around these things if they can. it's sort of like people get eternally surprised that journalists have a certain set of interests or people going into any sort of field have a certain set of interests. wall street wants to make money and the obama administration is going to try to regulate them

and they think they've got a good issue. >> speaking of folks that have gotten around regulation, hedge fund managers and people making a good deal, we had a story on the "today" show, we've seen these numbers, $4 billion for david teper, $3.3 billion for george soros. >> a couple guys below a billion. >> sad. >> what do they make? >> i guess that's the frustration, i think, that the public out there doesn't -- wouldn't mind if these guys were making all this money if they made something. >> right. >> i think the frustration about this these hedge funds is they don't make anything, do they? >> the larger argument that the obama administration is making, which is that we have seen a tremendous growth of talent, smart people going into the financial sector for the purpose of making money and -- >> genius, which maybes sense. >> exactly. they want to shrink the financial sector, they want a smaller financial sector and a larger elements of the economy that do things like make solar

panels or manufacture things. that's part of the challenge of what we think global leadership is. it's financial innovation, and that's created a huge financial sector, a tremendous amount of the corporate profits in the united states, business profits, have come from wall street and finance, and that is going to change in the long run the if the obama administration has its way. >> let's talk about unemployment. tomorrow we're expecting the unemployment report for the month. i think we're expecting the top-line number to remain steady, although we are adding jobs. >> we hope they're adding jobs. but the report earlier this week, which we had expected to see show growth actually fell. so it's a mystery what we'll see tomorrow. >> i just read i thought the consensus forecast was to add 200,000, which of course would be a drop in the bucket. we've lost 8.4 million jobs in this recession. >> as you guys know, the white house has been counting on the month when they can point to -- whatever happens with the overall rate, which is a function of how many people are

seeking jobs in the labor market, they want a plus sign next to the number of jobs and stop losing them. >> only had it one time. >> and it was small and it fell back. so if they get 200,000, if that forecast is right, it will be a good day for the obama administration. but we'll see. you know, tim gooit ergeithner unemployment is going to be unacceptably high for a very long time. that's the overhang of the recession, what they're pushing back against. the big numbers on wall street that you were talking about, a year ago those would have been a terrible embarrassment for the administration because they were the bailout administration and they were overseeing those. now they're trying to pin republicans on the issue of financial regulation reform. they can use those numbers in their favor. >> i was going to say. >> you're defending those guys. >> that hedge fund numbers today and this other stuff on ceo pay almost guarantees that regulatory reform will get through. the question is how strong. >> some breaks are getting -- are occurring for the obama white house which wasn't getting breaks far while.

look at the treasury's sale of the citicorp stake. they're going to make an $8 billion profit. all of a sudden the administration is accumulating some talking points in terms of the recovery of the financial system as represented by the profit they're making on t.a.r.p., but also their argument for this bill where republicans are trying to stop it, they're going to get rolled if they don't cut a deal, and that's what we're waiting to see in the next couple months. >> how much can you attribute policies of the government to how wall street has been able to be so profitable? i know a lot of the big banks have paid back their t.a.r.p. resources so it's not as direct an effect. but some of the lending practices, some of the cheap money, are these firms still benefiting from that? >> well, sure they are. everybody in the financial sector benefited from the bailout, whether they got money directly or not, because the system was on the verge of collapse. >> a safety net. it gave them a false -- >> for everybody. and to be fair, it was a safety net for the entire economy because we might have had a depression had that not

happened. but all of that fuels the argument for what the administration is making and you even hear republicans -- bob corker of tennessee said his party made a mistake by not cutting a deal. he wants to make a deal. he thinks it needs to be done and that's an indication of why it needs to be. >> cost of t.a.r.p., always an easy -- we say the bailout cost $700 billion. that's not true. how much is t.a.r.p. going to cost? >> well, the administration's estimate has been that in the long run it was going to cost about $125 billion in terms of the money that went to the auto companies and some of the money that won't be recovered. but of course with their bank tax, they are aiming, which republicans have resisted, they're aiming to get that money back and say they're going to collect it until the taxpayers -- >> we're talking the bailout cost a little over $100 billion. >> exactly. i remember talking to barack obama in the campaign in september of 2008 and asking him, you're about to write a $700 billion check. how are you going to pay for it?

he said at the time in the end it's not going to cost us $700 billion, and he was right about that. >> john harwood, cnbc, thanks so much. interesting discussion. coming up. oh, what a feeling. toyota. really. the automaker last month beat expectations. how did they do that? >> what expectations? >> they were very low. classic lesson. lower expectations. and up next , democrats and republicans locked in a battle over who's getting the biggest bounce with numbers. health care numbers. move over, scott brown. there's another scott sneaking into your spotlight. triangulation. 1990s era vintage washingtonspeak. the phrase was coined by dick morris during clinton's re-election campaign. >> it is now an obsession of the president. every time -- he never says the word but he always says, "some

say you have to do this" and some say on the right. like yesterday with oil drilling. he loves to use triangulation but he would never admit he uses the word. washington do, not washington speak. >> okay. >> fair enough. >> we'll be right back. i didn't get that. [ bottle two ] can we even clean a leather shoe? what do you mean? what is a shooee? he's cleaning things that we don't even know what they are. [ male announcer ] effortlessly removes more grime per swipe. with the mr. clean magic eraser extra power. i just want fewer pills and relief that lasts all day. take 2 extra strength tylenol every 4 to 6 hours?!? taking 8 pills a day... and if i take it for 10 days -- that's 80 pills. just 2 aleve can last all day. perfect. choose aleve and you can be taking four times... fewer pills than extra strength tylenol. just 2 aleve have the strength to relieve arthritis pain all day.

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9:23 on the east coast, 6:23 on the west. the atf and the u.s. postal service are offering a reward for whoever can help with tracking down who sent suspicious devices. everything ranging from pipe bombs to molotov cocktails have been discovered since march 9th. so far, none of the devices has detonated. deep discounts appear to be paying off for toyota. the embattled carmaker's sales surged in march. international donors have

pledged more than $5 billion to help rebuild haiti. the pledges were made during a donor's conference at the u.n. wednesday. the amount far exceeds the $4 billion haiti had asked for. >> and what a scare in australia. a qantas super jumbo jet, the biggest passenger jet in the world, blew two tires landing in sydney. the impact sent sparks around the plane but nobody was hurt. looks like somebody was shooting from the inside of the plane there. >> every time i hear qantas, i think of that stat in "rain man," safest airline in the world. >> i'm not getting any of your jokes today. >> they proved they were safe, able to land safely. >> right. moving on. which party has gotten a bounce post health care? republicans say they have, pointing to this new national poll from gallup. republicans have taken their first lead in months in gallup's weekly poll. 47% say they prefer voting for a republican congressional candidate, 40% prefer a

democrat. democrats believe they are seeing evidence of a bounce in states like ohio. take a look at this one. in the senate race, both democrats in the running are neck and neck with republican rob portman. in fact, they're ahead. lieutenant governor lee fisher has released his three-point deficit of a month ago and is now ahead of portland 40%, 37%. bruno is unlikely to win but is running. she closed the gap. she was down 40 to 35 a month ago, her numbers are come um three points and she's neck and neck. one explanation, the president's approval rating is also up in ohio. 47% approve of how he's doing, 48% disapprove. a month ago, 52% disapproved. this little battle between the two, the evidence in ohio shows some democratic numbers coming up a little bit, improving that enthusiasm gap there, but what you're seeing in the national numbers, there's been no depression of republican enthusiasm. moving on, republicans

trying to turn blue seats red are taking a close look at that massachusetts senate race, and scott brown's playbook. another scott, republican scott walker, running to replace democrat jim doyle as governor of wisconsin, is taking the imitation to a whole new level. remember the scott brown truck which brown used to illustrate his regular guyness here in a january ad? >> my name is scott brown, and i'm running for the united states senate. this is my truck. i put a lot of miles on it during this campaign. spending is out of control. government keeps getting bigger and bigger. it's time for a new direction. >> well, scott walker has a saturn. >> hi. i'm scott walker. this is my 1998 saturn. it's got over 100,000 miles on it. this is my lunch. i pack a brown bag each day so i can save some money to spend on, you know, the more important things in life. have you had it with big government like i have? join us at brownbagmovement.com. walker is trying to

emphasize his money-saving cred with ads making lunch in his kitchen, which also might look familiar. scott brown in a kitchen ad humanizing himself. walker has a potentially bruising republican primary ahead of him facing businessman mark newman. before he can take on any likely democratic candidate, most likely is milwaukee mayor tom barrett. saturn, an american car, which in its 20-year history, has never been profitable, is an odd choice. gm has announced it will be out of business by 2012. not sure where he's going to get that saturn fixed. >> i don't know, but i guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. >> scott walker is somebody a lot of republicans had been pinning their hopes on for years. they're hoping he's a national player someday. >> coming up, first an executive order on abortion. now offshore drilling. is president obama trying to break the collective heartings of his progressive base or is

this smart politics? plus, the great american head count. we're talking to the director of the census bureau about why this april fools' day is no joke. got to fill out that form. first, today's trivia question from the almanac of american politics. [ female announcer ] sometimes you need tomorrow to finish what you started today. for the aches and sleeplessness in between, there's new motrin pm. no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. new motrin pm.

bottom of the hour now, let's get you caught up on the stories driving the day. the u.s. navy engaged in a full-out battle with pirates in the indian ocean earlier today. the "uss nicholas" took fire

from a pirate ship. the navy frigate returned fire, captured three suspected pirates and sank their ship. the sailors then took control of a nearby mother ship and detained two more suspected pirates. president obama heads to portland, maine, this afternoon to rally support for the new health care law. the president will focus on how the overhaul will benefit small businesses. also not lost on the white house the fact that blue state maine is home to two republican senators who did not support the president on health care. and in half an hour, an anti-abortion activist will be sentenced to life in prison for killing a doctor who provided late-term abortions. the judge will decide today whether scott raider will be el jinl for parole after 25 years or 50 years. abortion activists and environmental activists have been key supporters of the democratic party for years, but we've seen the president sign an executive order reaffirming a ban on federal funding for abortion and potentially opening

coastline for oil drilling. >> how much pressure can the party base take before it begins to crumble? the president of planned parenthood joins us. cecile, thanks for joining us. >> sure. >> what is the level of groveling with some key democratic activists at this yos activists been part of the democratic base for decades -- do you or withwy that there could be some fraying of the coalition here with any more moves by this white house? >> actually, i think most of us are feeling certainly at planned parenthood very excited about the passage finally of health care. and this is a historic piece of legislation. we've been working with the white house hand in hand on this bill for more than a year. and i think that as women understand what's in this bill and what a historic advance this is for women's health care access, i think actually this is going to be a real benefit for the president and probably for the democratic party. >> so you don't mind the executive order? >> you know, i think the executive order was symbolic.

we didn't like it, absolutely. but i think if you look at the bigger substance of this bill, savannah, the important thing is this is going to expand health care coverage for millions of women and their families. it's going to finally eliminate discrimination against women, which we've faced for years in insurance coverage. and then i think for the basic kinds of health care, particularly that planned parenthood provides, cancer screenings, birth control, family planning, this is going to open up affordable health care for a lot of women. and, again, i think in the overall picture, this bill was a big win for women. >> what is the role that you feel planned parenthood should play in politics these days? what do you say is the agenda of planned parenthood? is it to continue to fight for -- to make sure that laws aren't rolled back when it comes to the issue of abortion? >> absolutely. >> what is the role of planned parenthood these days? >> sure. well, look, we have 4 million supporters around the country.

we're the largest women's health care provider, reproductive health care, and so on our political arm the action plan, we were involved in the 2008 elections, we mobilized more than a million women voters to elect not only a pro-choice president but add more than 26 pro-choice members to the house and senate. and i think that's going to be critical this november. one of the things about this health care bill, because obviously it isn't perfect and there was, you know, a big fight over mr. stupak's attempt to amend the bill, to prohibit abortion coverage, i think it was a real wake-up call for our supporters who realize that we don't have a pro-choice congress and that they need to be involved in really looking at not only what are folks' position on choice but also what are their position on health care access. i think folks that voted against this bill really tried to amend this bill to eliminate coverage, they're going to have to face women voters in november. and planned parenthood action fund will be there to educate them about their stand. >> you say we don't have a

pro-choice congress. where do you think the electorate is right now on abortion? >> actually, we poll of course all the time, and this is a pro-choice country and it's historically -- >> what do you base that on? there's different polling firms asking this in different ways. >> right. >> tell me specifically how do you ask it that says -- that tells you the country is a, quote, pro-choice country? >> and i'm not going to go through all the various polls because you're right, chuck, there's a million ways you can ask this question. when fundamentally people are asked whether they want government to eliminate the right of women to choose abortion if they so choose, the country is very clear. they feel like this is a settled issue. and frankly what voters really want the government to work on is reducing unintended pregnancy, reducing teen pregnancy, and making sure that birth control and other health care is affordable for women. so actually think that's where the country is focused. and when we find what voters are looking at, and particularly women voters, 10 million more

women voted in 2008 than men, they are the determinative voting bloc, and they absolutely care where candidates stand on allowing women to make all of their choices and to get the health care that they need. that's what i think is going to be in focus. >> are you comfortable with anti-abortion democrats being part of the party? i mean, we saw congressman stupak almost single handledly derail the health care bill over this issue. >> right. well, i think, savannah, that's an excellent point. obviously the party is a big tent. that's their business. i'm not responsible. the democratic party. i do think, though, when we saw one member of congress attempt to derail and basically determine for all -- for 60 million women in america what kind of health care coverage they can purchase with their own dollars, it's very -- it was very upsetting, and that's why we saw thousands of women get involved in this health care campaign, and i think these are women that then of course will be paying attention as voters in

november. i don't think -- i think that was distressing for folk, and i don't think they think that's how the democratic process should work. >> two quick political questions. >> yes. >> first of all, are you getting involved in the arkansas democratic primary between blanche lincoln and bill halter? >> we are not, and frankly senator lincoln was helpful to us, and we know the stupak amendment was defeated in the senate, not only senator lincoln but two republican senators from maine. i really applaud them for their stand in opposing this kind of restriction. >> i can't let you go without asking you about texas. you've had some familiarity with texas politics. >> yes. >> your late mother there, the former governor. >> right. >> what are the chances -- you know, when you hear democrats talk it up, bill white's chances against rick perry. >> right. >> do you raise an eyebrow, say, yeah, he's got a chance or do you believe it's real? >> hope springs eternal in texas. it's a state that's really changing demographically and you're beginning to see i think democrats do very well in that

state, so i think it's absolutely a competitive state. >> cecile richards with planned parenthood, thanks for joining us today. >> thanks, chuck. thanks, savannah. our trivia now. >> i missed this. i would have said john kittshopper out of oregon, a big, tall guy. but it turns out it's maryland former governor bob ehrlich. go figure. no idea. good for him. >> interesting fact. ahead of tomorrow's release of march employment numbers, tim geithner spoke to the "today" show. he said the obama administration is very worried that some of the 8 million jobs lost during the recession may never come back. >> the economy is growing now, that's the first step, but with growth, more jobs will come, but the unemployment rate is still terribly high and it's going to stay unacceptably high for a long period of time. it's going to take a long time to bring it down just because of the damaged caused by the --

>> republican senator bob corker plans to oppose senator dodd's plan to reform the banking system. last night on "countdown," congressman barney frank told republicans to bring it on. >> every single republican in the u.s. house of representatives voted to kill every single form of financial reform. they didn't say make it better. they didn't say better balance. they said nothing, nada, kill it all. i want someone to tell me an example in american history in the financial area where we overregulated on behalf of consumers. i can't think of one, unfortunately. >> just so you know, a little bit of a house/senate argument here. corker is against what's out of the bill right now, but he does want to work and try to support thing and make a deal. >> try to make a deal. former house speaker newt gingrich is backing president obama's plan to open portions of the east coast to offshore drilling. gingrich says he supports everything about the plan except the time line. he wants that start date moved up. >> it will help america

economically by having jobs here at home. it will help america by keeping the cost of energy down. and it will help america by taking us away from dependence on either venezuela or saudi arabia or iran. i think that's a win/win. >> that was pretty much sums up where republicans were yesterday. muted criticism. tried to find some way to criticize, maybe on timing or this or that, but it wasn't a full-bore anti-republican thing. >> deputy press secretary bill burton says that kind of luke-warm support passes for a ringing endorsement these days. it's april 1st. have you mailed your census form? >> we know one guy who's ahead of the game. we'll talk to the director of the census next. plus, an unbelievable moment in spring training. a foul ball hits the most unexpected target, the poor batter's mother. this was awful. >> but she was okay. but first the white house tip of the day. it's white chicken chili.

reopening the legendary debate over whether chili is, in fact, a soup. >> i'm sorry. i did an entire survey of the upper white house staff. not a single one of them believe chili is a soup. >> fine. white house chili of the day. what had happened in central harlem was failure became the norm. the schools were lousy... the healthcare was lousy... gangs were prevalent. violence was all over. families were falling apart. you can't raise children in a community like that. people had been talking about things, but not doing anything. hi, mr. canada... how are you? i'm doing great, how 'bout you? right here on 119th street. if we could fix this block, then we could fix the next block, then we could fix the next block... we promised parents, if your child stays with us, i guarantee you that child is going to graduate from college. failure is simply not an option. the sixty...the seventy... the eighty... the ninety-seven blocks which ends up being 10,000 children. we start with children from birth, and stay with those children until they graduate. if you really want to have an impact that is large,

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what cigarette to you smoke, doctor? >> 1970. this day, president richard nixon signed a measure banning cigarette advertising on radio and tv. i have to be honest with you, i always love looking at old footage of david brinkley doing coverage of conventions. one, he was always smoking, and it was always brought to you by camel or something. census day, final push to get people to get back their forms. over half the country has sent

them in. >> if you don't, don't be surprised if federal workers come to your door. robert grove is director of the u.s. census. no fooling, today is the day. but i want to get to, look, not everybody is going to fill out this form, so you don't get to count every single person. so how do you come up with a count if you don't get all the forms back? >> well, first of all, you're right. we've got about two more weeks to fill out this form. and we now know that 62 million households have already filled it out and mailed it back. so most of your friends and neighbors have done this in time. if you haven't gotten to it, it's time to fill it out and get it back. you have about two more weeks. your question is what happens if you don't fill it out? if you don't fill it out and mail it back, since by law we at the census bureau are required to count everyone, we have to hire someone who will go out to your home and call on your house

and interview you in person. this turns out to be pretty expensive to do so it's a lot better to fill it out and mail it back. >> just to clear something up, what happens if you don't fill it out? is it illegal? are they going to come break your kneecaps or -- >> if you don't fill it out and, indeed, we call on you and after repeated efforts you, indeed, choose not to fill it out, that is in violation of a law. let me tell you that in 1790 the first census act was passed, and at that time the founding fathers, many of whom were members of congress, had the first census act passed. and they specified a $20 fine for not participating in the 1790 census. if you think about it, $20 in 1790 was a lot of money. so why did they do this? they realized that to have a

useful census it had to count everyone. we're reapportioning the house of representatives based on these counts. we want everyone counted and that's why they did it. >> i want to ask you a question. i read that you had apologized over one of the check marks on ethnicity because you included the word "negro" on the mark. explain why you made the decision to include it in there and why you decided to apologize for the inclusion. >> yeah. i've been in my position since july, last july. this decision occurred way before. but let me tell you the story. >> okay. >> prior to the 2000 census, there was a lot of research done about how to best measure race. and some of the techniques used would be to talk to you -- get you thinking about racial classifications and then askñi u in an open-ended way what word would you use to describe your race? the findings there was there was an older cohort of african-americans who said in answer to that question i think of myself as a negro.

so in the 2000 census form, that check box had exactly those labels. it had black, african-american, or negro. and the surprise of the 2000 census was in addition to checking that box there were about 50,000 people who went down and wrote in the open-ended space the word "negro." they really wanted to, we inferred, to have that recorded. we analyzed the age distribution of those folks, and over half of them were less than 45 years of age. this was a surprise to us. now, the last decade there wasn't research done on this in the same way. i regret that. i think there should have been some research. my research. my apology is to those who are offended by that word, and it comes with the note that our intention was to have a set of words on the race classification that everyone -- such that every could see at least one word that applied to them.

so it was an attempt to be inclusive of all folks that we included. my speculation is in 2020 with the research dwee in the coming decade that word won't appear. i speculate other words are going to change. >> right. i was going to ask that. i want to go to this issue of multi-racial americans. how is the census form of the future going to handle folks that are not african-american, i'm white, i'm hispanic, i'm this. i'm a mixed race background, how do you handle that on future census forms? >> this is going to be one of the most interesting things out of this 2010 census. last decade we allowed for the first time people to mark multiple boxes on the race economy. this year we have too. remember, this is the year that follows a decade of tiger woods and barack obama and of people who are taking cheek swabs and

getting their own dna and discovering to their utter surprise they have african roots. my hunch is a lot of -- there's going to be a different pattern of behavior on checking multiple boxes. how the 2020 census looks on race will be the result of a lot of open discussion and research that we'll do in the coming years. >> all right. well, you have your work cut out for you for the next decade and the next couple weeks. thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. fill it out, mail it back. >> yes, sir. >> or they're coming after you. >> i'll do it. what's the big beef between l.l. cool jay and sarah palin. >> remember the mistakes spotted at the cincinnati airport by our intread pip producer? she's got a major update. >> you can follow us on twitter. we're always counting you. >> if you miss the show or once isn't enough, you can watch the entire show online starting at

noon. go to rundown.msnbc.com. >> that's not a.m. in the pacific in. >> it is indeed. >> fair enough. we'll see you again. when i was a kid, we -- we would just go to the -- the farm. [ cow moos ] [ laughter ] no, seriously, where are you guys going? ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! ni hao! [ female announcer ] the new classroom. see it. live it. share it. on the human network. cisco. i watched what i ate. i worked out. personally, i thought i was invincible. once it happened, i realized it's a different story. i'm on an aspirin regimen now because i never want to feel that helplessness again. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone. so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i was the guy who was doing everything right. i was wrong. talk to your doctor, and take care of what you have to take care of. [ male announcer ] learn more about protecting your heart

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before we go, the shallow end where we give ourselves kind of a pat on the back this morning. our producer anyway. remember that misspelled sign at the cincinnati airport, the one announced protection for the snowboarders and skateboarders? we're proud to announce that the sign has been fixed. behold the power of the shallow end. it says the a has been removed from u.s. customs border and protection. i can't even speak. we didn't know the influence was so vast. sarah palin has a special on fox news called "real american stories." among them were l.l. cool jay and toby keith.

neither star was actually interviewed for palin's shows and that is not sitting well with l.l. he tweeted that fox is misrepresenting him saying fox lifted an old interview i gave in 2008 to someone else. the network will remove the segment saying it appears he does not want to be associated with the program. we're cutting his interview from the special and wish him the best. always gracious. >> he was really good in that movie about the smart sharks that were all like attacking everything. sgroo i got to get one of your references today. what is it? >> really smart sharks. >> sounds great. >> he was the chef, and he knew how to make the perfect three-egg omelet. that's all i remember. let's turn to sports. minnesota's denar spann playing against the yankees check his swing and fouls off the line drive. the ball hit his own mother right in the chest. he ran to the stands to make sure she was okay.

thankfully she walked off on her own power. did he sign a ball for her? did he autograph a bat like these guys usually do for regular old fans? >> we'll investigate. coming up is david shoe ster and andrea mitchell. we'll see you tomorrow. theirs f. which makes it pretty clear whose standing out front. a consumers digest "best buy" two years running. chevy malibu. compare it to anyone and may the best car win. now, qualified lessees get a low mileage lease on this 2010 malibu ls for around $199 a month. call for details. see your local chevy dealer.

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it's really hard to save for the future and they've come to a point where it's overwhelming. [ advisor 2 ] oh gee, i'm scared to tell you i've got this amount of credit card debt or i've got a 15-year-old and we never got around to saving for their college.

that's when i go to work. we talk, we start planning. we can fix this. i know we can do it. when clients walk out of my office they feel confident about their retirement. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. the unemployment rate is still terribly high, and it's going to stay unacceptably high for a long period of time. >> ouch. and with all the money the government is spending, americans want to know why more jobs are not being created. president obama's top adviser on small business will join us with the answers. americans living near the mexican border are sick and tired of all the drug violence in their backyard. senator john mccain got an earful yesterday, and this morning i talk with new mexico governor bill richardson about possible solutions. the vatican claims immunity for pope benedict, bun shee nad

o'connor says the pope should be held responsible. she'll join us