here's what's happening. president obama, the million dollar man back in campaign mode. >> they have a very specific idea of where they want to take this country. it's time to reduce the deficit by asking the wealthiest people in our society to pay their fair share. >> millionaire mitt is ready for a fair fight. >> he said i can promise you the kma change is coming, and he's right. the name is mitt romney. >> his big opponent is not barack obama. >> ain't that rich. we begin with president obama fired up, ready to go honing his re-election message with a formidable war chest to fight the republican machine. new figures showing the president raked in $68 million in the last three months of the

year. $42 million for his campaign. $24 million for the dnc and another cool mill for the swing state victory fund that targets battleground states. the president's closest rival, mitt romney raised just $24 million in the close quarter. the president raised about a tenth of that just last night. president obama hit up chicago for little hometown love last night reminding his supporters of the what the country faces from his republican challengers. >> they have a very specific idea of where they want to take this country. they say they want to reduce the deficit, but they're going to do it by gutting our investments in education and research and technology and infrastructure. it's time to reduce the deficit by asking the wealthiest people in our society to pay their fair share. there's nothing wrong with that. >> nothing wrong with that.

not if you ask mitt romney. that's what he calls the politics of envy and resentment. take a look what the he said when pressed about those remarks on the "today show ". >> areç there no fair question about the distribution of wealth without it being seen as envy? >> i think it's fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms and discussions about tax policy and the like. >> sorry, could you play that one more time. >> i think it's fine to talk about those things in quiet rooms. >> yes, wealth disparity only to be discussed in hushed quarters over a cigar. how dare this president bring out in the open. how dare hi bring his fight to the middle class. how dare he use it as rallying cry. >> this is the election to send a message that you refuse to

back down. you will not give up. you intend to keep hoping. this election may be harder than the last one, but i promise you we will finish what we started in 2008. we're going to keep up. >> now, that's the kind of fire that romney will face if he does become the nominee. here is mitt this morning with his idea of a handy retort. >> the president last night was speaking at a fundraiser in chicago. he said i can promise you that change is coming. he's right. and the name of that change is mitt romney. >> oh, yeah. nice one, mitt. for all this charisma, cash and conviction that the president will bring, right now mitt romney has another problem, his republican rival who is are doing the democrats work for them.

let's get right to our panel now. davidç corn and goldie taylor. david, i want to start with you. the president has largely stayed above the fray. called the greatest food stamps president op all times by newt gingrich. is it fair to say that very soon all of this is going to be con fronted by perhaps one of the best political campaigners that this country has ever seen? >> i wouldn't say all of this lot because this lot is going to be very little come very soon. eventually, we're going to get to one candidate and that be will be mitt romney. i think the president is right not to gauge too directly with him at this point in time. as you saw in this clip, if you remember think back to 2008, the president is really a

competitor. he's fierce. people think of that campaign set of a new agey feel good time of change, but he was fierce and strong and going up against the hillary clinton machine. he's like an athlete. he's very competitive. their doing good in fund-raising. i think overall this will be a tough, up hhill battle for the president. i think a carrot stick would have a 50/50 shot at winning this election. >> that's no way to describe newt or romney. it's going to be a very vigorous campaign. >> goldie, no sitting president as david has mentioned has been

reelected with unemployment at it current rate of 8.5%. today, we saw a jump in the number of unemployment claims to almost 400,000. this is still a mountain to climb for the incumbent, isn't it? >> there's still quite a mountain to climb for president obama. as you pointed out with this n fund-raising figurers, 200,000 donors. that's saying something. to say he's able to get people truly invested in this campaign, you have to remember the most organized campaign out there on the trail today is not one of the gop primary candidates. it's president barack obama. he's most organized in california. he's most organized in florida. that's going to make real difference when it comes to

turning out the vote which is whoo this comes down to. who shows up on election day. i don't think for the life of me that mitt romney can bring together the very fractured gop to come behind him come november. i don't think he can do it. >> we have heard of newt crying about the super pac money. now he's got his on sugar daddy. do you sense with citizens united and that ruling that character and content is secondary to çcash? >> money has always had a big role to play in american politics. the role has gotten even bigger. now billionaires and there's a handful who are doing this at the moment, but there will be more, can come in and drop 5, 10, 15, $20 million, they won't really miss it and try to impact

elections. the place to look more for this is in house races, senate races where coming in a million dollars in the last weekend can blow away any regular candidate. >> are we talking about buying the political process now? has the american process in the form of congress and the senate and the presidency, are these now being purchased? >> they're certainly up for sale. we used to say you could rent a member of congress but now you can buy them. i think the president and mitt romney too, regardless of supersupe superpacs will have enough money to run the campaign. we may not see super pac money have a huge impact but throughout the political system it will put a big thumb on the scale. that's going to be if the favor of republicans. pro-business republicans don't like regulations, don't do

anything on climate change or blu pollution. >> goldie, when it comes to catch, the president is match for any of these candidates and wasn't it a bit disingenuous of joe biden top say the president isç not going to use cash from his own super pac. >> i don't know if that's true or not true, but i know this president will have the cash and the organization it takes to run a highly competitive race come this november. i think it's also not just what you can buy. it's what you can inspire. there's none of that coming from this current gop feel and president obama has that coming and going. i think that's going to make a real difference when it comes to firing people up about the issues that are most important. the american people aren't going to let republicans get away with the cash warfare they that have

been playing while not letting them pay their fair share. those kind of things that republicans really stoods in the way of, the american people aren't going to let them get away with that. i'm sure of that. >> thank you very much indeed for joining us. coming up, a dark day for the u.s. marines. how one viral video may undercut a complicated fight with terrorists. stay with us. imagine zero pollutants in our environment. or zero dependency on foreign oil. ♪ this is why we at nissan built a car inspired by zero. because zero is worth everything. the zero gas, 100% electric nissan leaf. innovation for the planet. innovation for all.

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there's wide spread international condemnation after

a video went viral showing u.s. troops in afghanistan urinating on the body of dead taliban insurgents. they are said to be part of a sniper team. a full escape investigation has been launched. that hasn't calmed tempers within the united states military. defense secretary is one of several officials to condemn the video issuing a statement saying i find the behavior depicted in it ulterly deplorable. i condemn it.ç this act by american soldiers is inhuman we ask them to supply the punishment to anyone convicted in this crime. for more on this we're joined by

u.s. retired army colonel jack jacobs. good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> this is a disturbing video, but it comes at a critical moment when taentative discussions were about to begin with the taliban. what is the impact? >> it's not going to be any good. it comes at the worst possible time. we are starting talks. we're engineering talks with the taliban. there's a taliban spokeman said there's no impact, but trust me, it's going to have an impact. it's unfortunate that very snmal things, and it's small occurring in a small period of time have an impact on things that are important. >> i recall your condemnation that happened when those

appalling pictures were released of military personnel abusing inmates. one recuring question that mr. of us have is why is it that people feel in some way compelled to engage in this kind of thing to photograph it? why do they do that? >> i don't know. a psychiatrist could probably give you a proper answer. >> is it stress? >> everybody is stressed out. that may be a reason but it's not an excuse. they got lots and lots of instruction before they left the united states, while they were in the down range in the area of operations. they are given plenty instruction on how to act. this is not something a reasonable person would do. there's no excuse. there's two easy explanations for why it happened. one is stupidity and the second

is a lack of proper supervision and training. >> you mean up the chain of command? >> the commander is responsible for everything that happens or failed to happen. absolutely right. he is responsible. don't forget that these four marines reported to a noncommissioned officer fairly close to them who reported to a lieutenant fairly close to him to htoo. >> some people might look at them and say soldiers of the u.s. forces were sent to do a job. these were insurgents. what's the big deal here? they killed the individuals otherwise the soldiers would have been killed. okay, they had a bit of fun afterwards. >> you're okay until you suggested the bit of fun afterwards. the mission stops when the enemy is killed in in combat, and i've

been in plenty of it, the mission stops when you kill or capture the enemy. once the enny is under your control. >> you mean under the çgeneva conventions. >> not only that. they have other things to do than urinate on corpses. we go after the enemy. the enemy tries to kill us, we kill them. we win. that's the end then. move on. trying to do something afterwards is the height of stupidity and it comes at a bad time for our opportunity to have meaningf meaningful negotiations in the area. >> thank you so much. coming up, we change gears and head to the white house. ♪ rain drops falling on my head ♪ [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition?

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. the president is back at the white house after a whirlwinds trip to chicago. joining us now is nbc's mike vacara at the white house. we have just learned the president has formal lly requesd an increase in the debt ceiling. not another fight. >> reporter: this is something of a formality. this is a flexion of the agreement that the president made in august. it's hard to keep them straight. let's cast our mind back to august. this is about the debt ceiling and precipitated all that back and forth.

it precipitated the super committee and all those fancy words that haven't mounted to much. the republicans said if you want to raise the debt ceiling, you'll have to do it in three steps. this is the final step. the united states is down to it's last $100 billion. that will precipitate the presidentç asking congress to raise the debt ceiling by another $1.2 trillion. if they agree to raise it and the mechanism is they would have to vote down raising the debt ceiling. it's unlikely to happen. it's likely this would not have to happen until after the election. >> thank heavens for that. the president raked in about two million last night in fiery speech in chicago. you follow the president whether ever he goes, you know everything that he's up to. is this him now really fully

engaging in the came paipaign? >> reporter: not fully. he's ringing it up on the fund raising trail. we've seen him repeatedly not only over the course of the last six months or so but during midterm elections in 2010 going out and raising money. he's hitting the themes talking about what we know well. one of the things that was interesting about the president's rhetoric last night is he was lumping together gop candidates and the congressional leadership and trying to cast a catastrophic result. >> one of things our viewers don't know about you is before you come on air, you issue notes within the company and you wrote this yesterday. you probably won't care about this, but brad pitt and angelina

jolie were spotted in the oval office a few minutes ago. not care? >> reporter: i know our audience, i knew our audience would careç deeply. it was something of a surprise. the president had a routine departu departure. the helicopter land on the south lawn. the president walks out. he was on his way to chicago to attend this fundraiser as we were talking about. often times from where we are, we with peer inside the oval office windows and you'll see the president meeting with staff. yesterday it wasn't staff but angelina jolie and brad pitit. she was screening the new film she directed. >> finally, the first lady launched her twitter account

today. immediately picked up more than 100,000 followers. i checked your twitter account. you've been on for some time and you have about 2,000. >> reporter: i'm something of a slacker. let me correct your figure here. as of ten minutes it was 138, 1 138,241. this was launched by the obama campaign. and her staff openly admitted they will be doing most of the tweeting. when she tweets, she'll billion signing it, m.o. >> fantastic. thanks so much for joining us. stay with us. today's top lines are coming up. we thought he was a bear. >> if you could be any animal, which one would you be? >> probably an elephant. >> why?

s

s. here are today's top lines. just another day in south carolina. >> there's some businesses that have to be cut back in order to survive. >> greed for lack of a better word is?z# good. >> it's about values, character and judgment. >> what were you thinking? >> this is a completely airtight kettle. >> i'm not a perfect president. i've kept this promise, i will always tell you what i believe. i will always tell you where i stand. >> he said i can promise you that that i think can coming, and he's right. the name of that change is mitt romney. >> you're not going beat a

billion dollar machine of dishonesty or somebody who is inarticulate or confused. >> there's a point in time that we have to say what's going on here. >> what do you think of him as a man? >> i don't. >> you have no view? >> i have no view. >> if you could be animal, which would you be. >> an elephant. >> i have to say this is an attack that's probably not warranted. >> the obama people would come after free enterprise. really surprised to see newt gingrich as the first witness for the prosecution. >> make sure it's open. >> some of you seen this movie forest gump. that's what it seems like every week, a box of chocolates. you don't know what you're going

to get. >> let's get right to our panel now. joining us is anna marie from the guardian and jonathan capehart. good day to both you. john, how far are the gópç goin let newt go on in this quest of his versus mitt, bain and the super pac ads against him? i'm beginning to wonder if the republican establishment will come with a straitjacket and haul him off. >> they would have to catch him first. >> he's not that fast? >> no. me marches to the beat of his own drum. unless they get him until less public ways, talking about his business venture and things like that, newt gingrich is something that is very angry.

he's maybe resentful of mitt romney and what happened to newt in iowa by the romney super pac. he's made it clear, he's gunning for mitt romney and couldn't care less what anybody thinks. >> do you think this is not about the election but about vengeance against mr. romney? >> he didn't do well until iowa. he didn't do well in new hampshire. he's on his way to south carolina where hopes he'll do well. right now the prospects aren't good. what other purpose could he have other than to tear down mitt romney. >> indeed. we talk about newt making obama's arguments for him regarding mitt, but come the general election, isn't the gop as a whole, really making an argument for campaign finance reform because of what's happening with citizens unite and the vast amounts of money that's being spent in this gop primary season? >> obviously, the conduct of the

gop andç what newt is complaing about would point to criticism of the citizens united decision, but i doubt if we'll hear any out right calls from campaign finance reform. hopefully, this will bring the issue to light for americans in general who don't pay attention to how campaigns get financed. this is going to get really ugly. perhaps americans will start to pay attention and wonder what the alternatives are for campaign. >>on, let me show you a clip from today. it's newt and how he characterizes his continue drum beat about bain and mitt romney. >> are you attacking bain or just asking questions? >> i'm just asking questions and i'm shocked at how defensive they are. >> they're just questions.

the president team may be asking too when the general election comes. >> right. these are questions, it's as if newt gingrich is the research head of the obama/biden 2012 campaign. these are serious questions, serious charges. when you watch that movie that the super pac has done about when mitt comes to town, there's some serious charges in there. there's some question as to whether all this is coming a little too soon. it might be helpful to newt gingrich to soften up mitt romney and maybe bring it down a peg or two in south carolina as happens the lots of gop candidates in south carolina. on the one hand it gives mitt romney the opportunity to get his storyç straight for if and when he becomes a nominee and faces the same questions against president obama, but it could also lay the ground work for future attacks and claims that the obama campaign might already have that haven't been made

public yet. >> ana marie, i read a piece that you were haggling with him of being the favorite. we still have rick perry, rick santorum. >> i think that ron paul has a lot of stake. i think it's his campaign that could make a lasting difference for the gop should he continue on right up until the convention or close to it. i think the loud voice of the libertarian wing wants to make itself heard and ron paul is the standard bear. i think he had somebody with similar name ready to hand the banner off to. i think that's probably the lasting change. i think newt is out there for

pure ego. there's no other way to put it. i imagine that huntsman is changing his letterhead to 2016. >> thank you. coming up, sarah palin picks a fight with the first lady. a california congresswoman responds. >> are we just a bunch of numb skulls out here in the heart land of america. just a bunch ofç numb skulls. ♪ respect 'cause i know a thing or two about eatin'. if you're one of those folks who gets heartburn and then treats day after day... well that's like checking on your burgers after they're burnt! [ male announcer ] treat your frequent heartburn by blocking the acid with prilosec otc. and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

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country and failing to create jobs. wednesday night the president had some choice wordsç of his n for his republican opponents. >> republicans in congress, the presidential candidates who are running, they've got a very specific idea about where they want to take that country. they've said it. they said they want to reduce the deficit by gutting our investments in education and gutting our investments in research and technology, letting our infrastructure further deteriorate. >> the president's confidence may reflect his recent fund-raising numbers. in the fourth quarter alone he pulled in $68 million. his total for 2011, $222 million. so mr. romney, who is full of envy now. good afternoon. >> good afternoon. happy to be with you. >> thank you.

i guess with the congress gridlocked, the president may get into full campaign mode because domestically there's not much more he can do. >> the president is really explaining to the american people his record. the republicans and congress, the republican candidates continue to distort his agenda, what he has done and continue to misrepresent how he's worked with them in a bipartisan way. they have put up obstacles. i'm glad the president has been clarifying what he's doing and the progress that's been made by his administration. >> now you say that the president has been attacked, but first lady michelle obama has become a target after she responded to some of the charges made in a new book suggesting that some americans may notç b clear about her husband's achievement and guess who responded to that.

listen to this. >> $5 trillion in new debt later under her husband, president obama and we still have fewer jobs today. we're numb skulls out here and we don't understand what these numbers mean. what they represent. >> some might say that miss may lynn has accurately described herself in that retort but do you sympathize with the first lady who has been accused of being an angry black woman? >> let me first say this is a distraction. these are ridiculous comments, the personal attacks and the first lady has appropriately responded with grace and dignity. she is handling her job magnificently. when you look at what she has done with childhood obesity and military families and our

veterans. it speaks volumes. he's handling her job in a way that makes everyone proud. >> given that her husband is still liked by large proportion nate americans, why do people find it difficult to express an equal amount of affection for her? >> i have no idea. she handles this job with grace and dignity. she's committed to our country. she's committed to our young people and our veterans. people really support the first lady andç those nay sayers and those that come up with these ridiculous comments and personal attacks, the first lady knows how to handle that and she's continuing with her work. we're proud of the work. >> going back to the president for a comment, what did you

think of mitt romney's attempt to accuse the president of being all about the politics of envy this week. he was talking about the president creating an argument of resentiment within america, but the fact is, as i look at it, poverty has never been higher since 1953. the disparity of wealth in this country is enormous. who will win this argument? >> the president will win this argument. 99% of the american people get it in terms of income and equali equality. they understand the president along with our leader pelosi and democrats have been working to create jobs because we know that's the only way to turn the economy around. when you look at what the republicans have done in terms of putting up obstacles to the american jobs act and ob sta. >> caller:s for unemploymecompe.

it's out rageous. i think the american people really see this. they see it clearly and i believe the elections will show that the american people understand that we have to create jobs and we have to ensure that the majority of the american people begin to achieve the american dream. we're talking about removing these obstacles and barriers.ç we'regoing to win in november. no one said it's going to be easy. i think the country is ready for us to move forward and create jobs and turn the economy around. >> thank you very much for joining us. >> thank you. are the super pacs bad for democracy? we're on the money trail. jane, over to you. speaking on the money trail, here is a look at how stocks are doing. they're in positive territory. they were down most of the day on higher jobless claims.

you can see the dow is up over 29 points. the nasdaq up about 14 points. we'll have more news after the break. çñ

newt gingrich isn't giving up without a fight or threat. he now says he will sue any tv station that airs a pro-romney ad, which he says, distorts his political record. the ad claims gingrich was fined $300,000 as speaker for ethics violations. but his lawyers say it wasn't a fine, it was more of a reimbursement. meanwhile, sheldon atherson says all he's trying to do is achieve some balance in the fight for the nomination. >> if he wants to counterbalance romney's million nars. >> joining us now is michael

issacough. is newt whistling dixie? >> i spoke to the head of the romney super pack yesterday who made it clear they have no intention of backing down on this. in fact, they are going to run more ads in south carolina and florida repeating the same charge. the particular complaint that the gingrich campaign has raised is that in the house ethics committee report that led to this $300,000 penalty and did find that gingrich violated ethics rules, they didn't specifically refer to the $300,000 payment as aç fine. they said gingrich had agreed to pay back the cost of the investigation of $300,000. but it was widely reported as a penalty and a fine at the time.

and i don't think that the gingrich campaign is going to get much traction by focusing on the narrow question of whether it was a fine, penalty, or reimbursement. the ethics committee found he violated ethics rules and the house by an overwhelming bipartisan margin, adopted that report. >> indeed. newt gingrich, rick santorum, and jon huntsman each have a billionaire indirectly backing them. hasn't the citizens united ruling ushered in these wealthy puppet masters? >> i will leave that phrase to you, but it has ushered in an era when wealthy billionaires can play an outsized role in the process and we're seeing that playing out in south carolina right now. a handful of very wealthy individuals are backing one or the other super packs,

bankrolling these ads. the case of the gingrich super pack. the romney super pack has quite a few billionaires. million-dollar donors. others have kicked in a lot of money. the huntsman super pack is being financed by his father, a chemical executive baron. the santorum super pack is backed by foster frees of wyoming.ç so yes, it's ushered in an era where very wealthy individuals can make a big impact and bankroll these ads. >> absolutely. bought and sold. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back to clear the air. ♪

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it's time to clear the air. mitt romney is taking a battering for his clear as an investment banker. this from his republican friends, who are also seeming the nomination. he's been called a vulture capitalist, a destructive investor, an extractionist, and a corporate raider. but we may be in danger for missing the forest for the trees here, or to be precise, missing the bush for all the bain talk. because while mitt romney's past may be cursed by his role at bain capital, his future if he wins the election will be marked by the policies of george bush. in mitt romney's own words, he would like to extend the bush tax cuts in perpetuity. he'd like to remove almost all the financial regulations that have been put in place since the crash of 2008, and if mitt

romney were allowed to impose his tax plan on the american people, then we'll all be in for the shock of our lives. according to the nonpartisan tax policy center, this is how romney's proposed tax plan will affect the american people. those households making more than a million dollars a year would receive an average tax cut of $300,000. great news for them. people making between $50,000 and $75,000 would their taxes cut by $1,800. again, good news. but americans making between $40,000 and $50,000 a year would see their taxes go up by $800 aç year. and for those households making between $10,000 and $20,000 a year, they would get hit with a demand for an additional $1,000 in taxes because romney would return the value of the

refundable child and earned income credits to preobama levels. it's no surprise then that howard glekman, a fellow at the tax policy center, says a romney administration's agenda would look a lot like president bush's, just more so. so while romney's gop opponents are focused on bain capital, the rest of us would be wise to focus on his bush-based tax plan. because while we can't do anything about the past, we should certainly do something about the future. thanks so much for watching. dylan ratigan is here to take us forward. >> i am sensational. and yourself? >> you look about ten times more air diet in spectacles. it is a tactic you should have used previously. i have used it myself. >> are you suggesting that in some ways the words coming