we asked you at the top of the show what you were doing up at this hour. our producer john tower has answers. >> we've got janet. she writes, we're awake because we're being mid wives. our mom lab started having puppies at 5:30 a.m. >> you're still working. like i said, tower, we are the petosin of cable news. >> my girlfriend got up in my grill, had to couch it and never got to sleep. >> that's bad news. we get that a lot, actually, tower. guys thrown out of their bedrooms sleeping on the couch, can't get any rest. there's nothing else on, and they watch us. we're grateful for your

viewership. "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ for the first time in two decades, osama bin laden is not a threat to this country. >> you open with i killed bin laden? you opened with that? hey, everybody, how you doing, are you having a nice night? i [ bleep ] killed bin laden. what are you doing? does rick springfield open with "jessie's girl?" no. he slows it down a bit and hits you with something off the new album, and when you think it can't get any more beautiful, "jessie's girl" and the place goes nuts, it goes nuts!

welcome to "morning joe." a beautiful look at time square this morning. a lot to talk about today. of course, we're going to be still talking about the president's state of the union address. some new approval numbers that have come out that show the president sitting very well. not only in the latest nbc poll, but also abc news poll. also the fed has an announcement yesterday. keeping interest rates near zero at least through 2014, showing this economy's not going to be recovering for quite some time. and, of course, the war between mitt romney and newt gingrich continues to rage in the sunshine state polls. very close there and it looks like, i think, actually, this is going to go downright to the very end. welcome to "morning joe" in new york. we've got willie geist and an entire panel to break things down. and also we have howard dean

there. so hopefully howard and i can scrap one or two times before the hour's out. i'm confident we can. yeah, willie, i saw at the end of "way too early," the president's still getting grief for the spilled milk joke. >> he is. we'll show you that later. stephen colbert and john stewart not pleased with the joke. your friend newt gingrich having a little trouble with ronald reagan. we'll get to that in a second. we've also got the great wes moore joining us this morning, the star of the new show "beyond belief" on the own network premiered on tuesday. and your name again? >> jorge -- >> mike barnicle also with us. let's start with president obama starting his day in nevada. starting a battleground tour for the 2012 election. he'll start in vegas where he'll lay out his policy. the president visited a plant in iowa yesterday where he called

on congress to provide tax breaks to companies that hire american workers rather than sending jobs overseas. according to the latest nbc news "wall street journal" poll, there are new signs, as joe said, the president's message may be connecting with voters. the poll shows now 48% of americans approve of the way president obama is handling his job, his first positive rating in that poll in seven months where he hasn't been upside down. 48% approve, 46% disapprove. on the economy, 45% approve, that's up six points just from december. the poll also shows that 30% say the country is headed in the right direction, that's an eight-point improvement from december. 60% still say, though, the country is headed on the wrong track. joe, what do you read into those numbers? >> willie, again, this is pretty basic stuff. over the past three years, we've been talking about how this president was hurt because he wasn't focusing enough on the economy, distractions with whether it was cap and trade or

whether it was a health care bill, we listed it time and time again, and his numbers went down. now you have a contrast that this white house has to love. you've got the president talking about the economy in the state of the union, running across america, going into factories, talking about how he's going to create new jobs, how he's going to stimulate growth and build a manufacturing sector. and what are his competitors doing? deboning themselves in florida, talking about lobbying for freddie mac, talking about paying 15% tax rates, talking about how newt gingrich compared ronald reagan to neville chamberlain. the contrast is striking. this is inevitable. it happens in messy primaries when you run against incumbents, you can say the same thing about what happened in 1980 with ronald reagan and george h.w. bush, the same thing that happened in 2000 between george mccain and george w. bush.

but at the same time, it's not good for republicans, and it is very good right now for the obama white house. of course, there are a lot of ups and downs in every campaign. howard dean, of course, can tell us about that since he's been inside of a campaign and knows it very well. but right now, you've got to say the optics really favor the president, at least for the next two or three months until republicans sort things out on their side. >> i think that's right. i think they do favor the president. but the right track, wrong track numbers need serious improvement. president's come a long way, but there's a long way to go. i do think, though, they are damaging each other in the republican primary. i have never seen a republican primary like this. i don't think it was this is like the reagan/bush primary in 1980. this is just kind of rhetoric. first of all, newt's got a flame thrower everywhere he goes. he's been like that. the rhetoric is a whole lot different. and secondly, in all due respect, governor romney is not governor reagan in terms of his ability to take a punch and all

that stuff. it demeans them both. and i don't think it's going to go away until they settle this. >> mike barnicle, 48% given all the economic data we have working against the president right now. that's a pretty good number. >> oh, i bet, they've got the balloons out in the white house after they saw those poll numbers. look, these polls are snapshots of the instant. so the snapshot that this poll represents is clearly president obama as joe indicates, you know, basically campaigning now most of the week when he goes on these tours, factories, he's got a campaign stump speech he's giving as president of the united states as you'd expect them to do. but the backdrop of the picture is as governor dean just referred to, mitt romney and newt gingrich. and my view, it's not just my view, but the view you pick up from anecdotally talking to people, there's no way to measure the damage that newt gingrich, specifically newt gingrich has done to the republican brand in the course of these primaries. >> joe, do you think this is

unusually ugly? or is this what we see every four years in these presidential primaries? >> i think this is what we see every four years in these presidential primaries, and we're talking about things getting ugly with newt gingrich. we also have to remember, newt gingrich has taken a torrent of negative ads. it's been very ugly going toward gingrich and from gingrich's campaign. i look at these numbers, though. and i want to put up again the president's approval rating for the nbc news "wall street journal" poll. he's sitting at 48%. now, in past elections, we would usually say, well, the president needs 3 percentage points more to get to 51%. i suspect that's just not the case anymore. this president won with 53% last time, probably will win and get reelected if he wins, whoever wins will win with less than 50%. you're going to have america's elect coming in regardless of what side they take from. i think they're going to take, 3%, 4%, 5% points at the very

least. and what that means is that a president that won with 53% last time may only need 47%, 48% of americans supporting him this time to get reelected. i think the days of a two-person race between a republican and democrat are gone. i think you're going to have to go back to what happened in 1992 with clinton, bush, and perot to see what elections are going to be looking like for the rest of our lifetimes. >> and wes, what about the optics this morning? the president gives a soaring speech inside that chamber on tuesday. talking about creating jobs, bringing manufacturing back, and in the state of florida, you have them going at it over ronald reagan immigration, nitpicking at each other about these issues. good for now for the president. >> what the president also is trying to do is reinforce the messages that happened from the state of the union where he's talking about manufacturing or

american energy. also with the approval rating numbers and going back to something that barnicle was talking about is before when people asked about the president's favorability ratings, a lot of it was on this objective comparison where it's like looking at -- looking at where i am, how do i think about where the president is? now that we've started to see the republican party and the republican field start to come together and looks like these two leading candidates, now it's not simply looking at it from an abstract perspective, they're looking at him versus the alternative. and that's why all of these long drawn out republican arguments and debates and as we're watching mitt romney and newt gingrich every day kind of putting together these various guys, saying he's doing better than i thought. and that's one of the reasons why you're seeing the numbers start to crawl. >> let's look at florida, mitt romney and newt gingrich, they get one last chance tonight, they're going to debate one more time before tuesday's florida primary. the poll shows the two in a statistical tie in florida.

cnn time poll. romney is down seven points from last week, gingrich up 16 points, rick santorum and ron paul back by more than 20 points. when it comes to head-to-head match-ups in a general, this is a new poll inside the state of florida shows mitt romney with a five-point lead over president obama, but when you flip that and put in newt gingrich, president obama leads by 9 percentage points, joe. and that tells you a lot. >> that certainly does. and -- look at polls taken in 1995, and newt gingrich had a 27% approval rating nationwide, a 60% disapproval rating nationwide. on the eve of the south carolina primary, the ppp polls and the nbc news "wall street journal" polls that were all out that week showed newt gingrich around the same. 27%, 28% approval rating nationwide in 2012, 60% disapproval rating nationwide.

he is a guy that that lot of people in the base love because of what he did in 1994, because he took a party from minority status to majority status for the first time in a generation. and so there are people that feel good about him. he still can't move middle america, but you know, willie, i look at those florida numbers and we see actually a self-correction here. mitt romney actually has stopped the bleeding. looks like that race is tied up. and i'm just saying as a floridian, it seems like a romney state to me. as far as the republican party goes, it's not as conservative as south carolina, it is a massive state. it's more like a nation than a state. and i think it's -- i think florida may just be the fire wall that romney needs. if he loses in florida, that says a lot. that shows that gingrich is continuing to beat against the tide. and certainly the $5 million, $6 million that he's just gotten

into his super pac is going to help him possibly do that. but i still -- i still have to give the slight edge to romney moving forward. >> the core of mitt romney's argument is that he's the more electable of the candidates. is he right? can newt gingrich win a general election? >> i think it's very tough for newt gingrich to win a general election. and electability does matter. it doesn't matter in the very conservative ideologically based states like south carolina, but it does matter in florida. joe's right about this. these numbers are good for romney. he really got his clock cleaned in south carolina numbers wise and momentum wise. but he appears to be coming back. anything can happen. four days until this thing so anything can happen. >> and that's coming from howard dean. >> yes, i know anything can happen. a pro-romney super pac out with a new ad that attacks newt gingrich for connecting himself constantly to ronald reagan. >> from debates, you'd think newt gingrich was ronald reagan's vice president. >> i worked with president

ronald reagan. >> ronald reagan. reagan, reagan -- >> gingrich exaggerates dropping reagan's name 50 times, but in his diaries, reagan mentioned gingrich once. reagan rejected newt's idea on leadership and character, gingrich is no ronald reagan. restore our future's responsible for the content of this message. >> gingrich hit back against that super pac ad last night arguing he is more like reagan that is mitt romney. >> governor romney cannot defend his record. he can't defend his past. he can't defend what he's done. and so his goal is to somehow throw enough mud at me -- and i think it's all going to wash off because the american people are smart enough. i first met with ronald reagan in 1974, i campaigned with him in 1980, helped him for eight years while he was president. i've made a movie about him, written a book about him. to suggest that governor romney

is more reagan like than i am is an act of total fantasy. >> and fuel to this fire, pointing to specific times where gingrich criticized pretty harshly president reagan. the conservative-leaning publication cites a conversation about the 1985 meeting with mikhail gorbachev, something gingrich called "the most dangerous summit for the west since adolf hitler met with chamberlain in 1938, munich." and the congressional record for march of 1986 shows gingrich attacked reagan's approach. saying president reagan personally knows there's a soviet empire and it's a global transnational threat. trying to focus attention on the soviet empire than trying to protect freedom. president reagan is clearly failing. joe, should i go on? 1983, one more, gingrich slammed president reagan's domestic policy saying beyond the obvious

social indicators of decay, the fact is president reagan has lost control of the national agenda. that is the guy gingrich has been comparing himself to on the trail to president reagan. >> well, and willie, you can sort through all of these quotes. you have quotes where newt gingrich while reagan was president, while he was fighting tip o'neill, while he was pushing his agenda in 1983, you have newt gingrich calling reagan and reaganomics an utter failure and did it repeatedly. he also attacked his foreign policy. the man who we conservatives believe was more responsible than anybody else in liberating eastern europe was constantly being attacked by newt gingrich. who actually called reagan's policies toward the soviet union pathetic. and said that his foreign policy

was an abysmal failure. i think all this really tells us about newt gingrich is what most people already know, and that is that he is just ideologically unmoored. he will say whatever he thinks will gain him an advantage that day, and when the tide turns, he too will turn with that tide. but, yeah, willie, the pretty shocking quotes -- when i read them in the national review, i was pretty stunned. >> yeah, mike. this is the same guy, remember, who said he worked with president reagan, presumably the pope and gorbachev and others, to take down communism. >> a couple of things. this whole back and forth between governor romney and newt gingrich about, you know, who's more like reagan. if you're living in lee county or collier county down the west coast of florida, you've lost your house, your job, you don't care who is more reagan-like of these two guys. you just want stability back in your life. the other thing is -- >> amen. >> we tend to forget and really

underestimate those of us around this table and others in this business that today in elections, especially in the huge nation state like florida as joe indicated, it's a huge, very diverse place. the television is your handshake. the television is your how you doing? the television is your how's it going, big guy? slap on the back to voters. and what they see in newt gingrich more and more is this preposterous, egomaniacal, hypocritical fool -- >> tell us what you think, mike. >> here it comes. here it comes. >> tell us what you think. come on, mike, i'm going to have to ask you to -- >> i'm holding back, joe. i'm holding back. >> you've got to hold back. you know, willie, the fact is, we're talking about newt here. if i were mitt romney, i'd be very, very careful comparing myself to ronald reagan. this is a man, after all, who was ashamed of ronald reagan when he ran for governor. a man who said he had nothing to do with reaganomics, that he

was, in fact, an independent during that time. neither newt gingrich nor mitt romney should compare themselves to ronald reagan. the only people that could compare themselves to ronald reagan maybe would be margaret thatcher and pope john paul ii, everybody else should just be quiet. >> and yet, wes, we look at the polls, let's pause for a second, newt gingrich is up 16 points in the state of florida just in the last week or so. a lot of that, of course, comes off the south carolina bounce. but before we write him off too quickly, this is going to be tight in florida. >> tight in florida. fact is, mitt romney is still continuing to have these unforced errors. when mitt romney is standing in front of a foreclosed home in florida talking about how we shouldn't be out there blaming the banks and it's not the banks' fault. these are things that are actually feeding into it. coming up, we'll bring in andrew ross sorkin and ask him about the hat he was wearing. do we have a picture of the hat?

also, nbc news political director chuck todd. plus, the fallout of a failed presidential campaign. this morning, new problems for texas governor rick perry. his job approval back in texas and his impact on that state's image ahead. but first, bill karins with a look at the forecast. hey, bill. >> good morning to you, willie. starting off once again this morning with a tornado watch. third time this week in early morning hours, middle of winter january, we're talking about the potential for tornadoes. this time we're focusing on the new orleans area, southern mississippi, all the way into the greater mobile area. this is not much of a threat as we had earlier this week, but we still could see isolated tornadoes. we'll keep an eye on that for you. overnight, sleet reported in many areas outside of new jersey. there could be a little coating of ice. we definitely have ice on the ground south of cleveland, outside of columbus and pittsburgh. that's one of the areas we could have school delays. forecast today, rain moves into the forecast in the mid-atlantic and new england areas later

today. as of now, the heavy rain heading for tennessee and kentucky. you're watching "morning joe." we're brewed by starbucks. i wouldn't do that. pay the check? no, i wouldn't use that single miles credit card. hey, aren't you... shhh. i'm researching a role. today's special... the capital one venture card. you earn double miles on every purchase. impressive. chalk is a lost medium. if you're not earning double miles... you're settling for half. was that really necessary? [ male announcer ] get the venture card at capitalone.com and earn double miles on every purchase every day. what's in your wallet? cover for me. i have an audition. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice...

and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare.

last night the current president strode to the podium to deliver a message to the citizens of this great nation. and obviously for a speech like this, joint session, you want to ease in, you want to warm up the crowd gradually. ♪ i'm so in love with you >> he's good. the president was good. at the apollo last week. let's take a look at the morning papers. "wall street journal" says leon

panetta will unveil details of the ten-year budget plan today. among the biggest changes, reduction in the size of the army by about 80,000 soldiers. they also plan to expand the fleet of unmanned drones by 30% in the coming years. okay. from our parade of papers, the "dallas morning news," this is not good. says rick perry's failed presidential bid is taking its toll. a new poll by the newspaper shows his job approval in his home state has dropped to, oh, no, 40%, lower than president obama's 43% approval by texas voters. 53% of those polled said rick perry should not run for reelection in 2014 compared to 34% who think he should. one more, 45% said perry running for president has tarnished the state's image. 17% said it improved it. >> turns out, citizens of texas also got the debates beamed into their homes. >> yeah, they saw the debates. >> this is something nobody understands about texas.

had we not had this recession, texas was going to vote democratic in 2012. after the president was elected, he sent 20 organizers to texas. i think it's going to be tough task today, but it is not a deep red state. >> as rick perry would say, oops. >> he's been very lucky, rick perry, his toughest election when he was under water, his polls were upside down too eight years ago or seven years ago when he ran for his third term. and then the economy went south, he's a good campaigner. and a terrific opponent didn't run a good campaign. >> joe's got something for you. joe? >> hey, howard? >> yes. >> i'm putting odds right now on texas. and i'll give you whatever odds you want. if you want to suggest that barack obama will beat the republican nominee in '12. >> i did not say that. >> i'll give you whatever odds you want. >> yeah. i think i won't take that one. >> he backed off that one

quickly. >> how about points, joe, then we're talking. >> okay. i'll give you five points, actually. easily. 5 percentage points easily. >> over the next couple of shows, i'll wind you down to about eight and then we've got a bet. >> the president should just focus on winning florida. he's got enough trouble in florida. but no, texas, i hear democrats saying this all the time. lots of luck there. >> it's true, it's going to happen. >> let's go down to politico with jim vandehei with a look at the playbook. >> good morning, guys. i want to meet the 17% of texans that think perry enhanced the state's image. you're looking at the donut, look at the hole. >> that's what i wanted to say. >> those are the die hard guys. >> comedy central. >> family members. >> your lead story this morning up there on politico, the great divide between the voters backing romney and gingrich inside the state of florida.

what do you find? >> el with, the divide is in the audience. one of the neat things about having reporters with these candidates all the time is you get to see them in action and see the type of supporters that come out. and there's a dramatic difference between a romney event and a gingrich event. the romney event is a fluent, largely moderate, older, definitely wealthier than the gingrich events. a wilder group, much more working class, younger, and dramatically different than what romney's attracting. and you see that in the exit polls, romney is doing better the older the voter is, the richer a voter is, and the more moderate the voter is. there's a big divide between the base of the two in florida. we saw that play out in the previous three states. >> you mentioned jeb bush, wrote the washington post op-ed. do you think he sits there now over the next week or so

watching these two candidates thinking, man, i should have got in this thing. >> his point is an extremely important point. that republicans have to do better with the hispanic vote. they can't be a mostly white republican party forever. and he points out that the 15 swing states in every one of those hispanics are potentially the most important swing vote in all 15 of those states. and someone like mitt romney who has been taken a real hard line on immigration could really hurt republicans in that category. if you look at national polling that we've seen about four or five that have asked this question now, romney only gets about 20% to 25% of the hispanic vote in a head-to-head match-up. that's way short of what george bush was able to do in 2000 and what john mccain did in 2008. given that the population is increasing, that only hurts the republican party which at this point is about 87% white, if you look at votes from the 2008 election. and so jeb bush's point is the same one shared by carl rove and many others in private.

they're very worried about the fact that the party is monoli monolithic and need to get beyond that. >> joe, jeb publicly hasn't taken a side in this. but what are you hearing behind the scenes? how much push and impact can he have in the state of florida? >> well, the bush family generally likes mitt romney. there's been a close friendship for some time. but jeb's not going to get out supporting mitt romney, i think for a number of political reasons. i think one of the more interesting developments over the past 24 hours has been the fact that marco rubio has inj t injected himself into this race telling newt gingrich that his attack ad against mitt romney regarding immigration and regarding the hispanic vote is not accurate. and so newt gingrich actually took the ad down after marco rubio's criticism. but it does show, though, it's certainly something that gingrich is thinking about. this hispanic vote. >> i guarantee -- >> republicans have done poorly

against. >> the obama people are really smart. i guarantee you -- and if they don't this, they made a huge mistake. that clip of mitt romney saying in the debate, i will veto the dream act if it gets to my desk. that'll be on every station in america, not just spanish-speaking stations. because the truth is spanish-speaking stations are great, but most latinos watch english-speaking television. that will kill them. and if they don't get to 40%, they cannot win this race. and i believe every one of the candidates has crippled themselves with the exception of rick perry who is no longer in the race. gingrich has been making moderate noises about immigration. but that one statement by romney, hoe's going to live to regret. >> the fact that neither candidate has spent any time -- the education system. >> right. that's right. >> you cannot have an honest conversation about the future of this country without addressing that.

when the fact you have 1.3 million high school dropouts every single year. if you take half of them and keep them in school to finish up, it's a $7.6 billion boom to the american economy. if you want to have a conversation with the latino community, with the african-american community, talk about education reform and talk about how we're going to educate our kids. >> well, that was actually kind of surprising to me the other night in the state of the union address. i realize you pack a lot of things in state of the union. when it comes to economic growth, comes to leveling the playing field, early childhood education. >> right. >> everyone -- >> that's the key. >> nobody in washington gets early childhood, it's 0 to 3, there are few people in washington in any position to do anything about this that are talking about this. i hear very little about this in the education department. >> joe? >> that's the deal. >> well, the thing is, though, when it comes to education. republicans love talking about education reform. it's the democrats. it's the president, it's the defenders of the unions, the

defenders of the status quo that don't want to talk about education reform because we as a nation are spending more money per child than any nation on the planet, and there's not a close second when you get in -- when you want to talk about funding k-12. the fact of the matter is, the system is broken and it has been the democratic establishment over the past generation that's been defending that broken status quo. >> that's ridiculous, joe. >> oh, come on. >> preposterous, foolish to say something like that. >> howard dean, democrats -- >> started by young kids who have probably voted for barack obama. joe, that is the most ridiculous statement you've said when i've been on the show the past two or three years. >> you know what? howard dean, you can say all you want to say. the democratic party in washington, d.c. has been the defender of teachers unions that for a generation have stood in the way of reform, just like they're doing right now in new york city. >> joe, excuse me, i work for a

charter school run by the american federation of teachers, joe. knock it off, this is ridiculous conversation. >> howard, howard, you can say this all you want. you know you're not telling the truth. >> i am telling the truth. teachers unions -- i'll take you to the school. maybe we should go to the school some day together. >> i'm not talking about that one thing. i'm talking -- >> the last time i looked, the teachers union. >> and let me say, we now know why they started a charter school, just like i knew when they opened it up so you could have that talking point of a generation of teachers unions standing in the way of real reform that democrats want, that republicans want, that independents want. the fact of the matter is, the establishment, democratic party in washington, d.c. has been defending the status quo for years and you know it. >> well, we'll go out to take the "c" train out to east new york and do one of the live shows out there. >> i would love to do it. and i just hope that more than

just opening up a charter school for a pr -- for a nice little pr talking point, i hope the teachers unions will actually start talking about real reform nationwide and maybe, maybe they'll stop standing in the way of the plan to reward great teachers in new york city. right now, they don't want great teachers to be rewarded. >> joe, this is a ridiculous conversation. they have the contract you want. in washington, d.c., that contract exists today. >> in washington, d.c., in washington, d.c., the teachers union rejected a plan. and we saw it at the end of waiting for superman. they rejected a plan that would allow all teachers to keep their salary and just have the washington, d.c. district reward great teachers, not punish bad teachers, just reward great teachers. >> what you said is in place today. >> -- washington, d.c. >> yeah, exactly.

the teachers are getting $25,000 raises when they do a good job. >> howard, howard, really, seriously. i am asking you if you really want to defend the indefensible, is that what you want to do here today? with everybody watching knowing, knowing -- >> that's not true. >> that you are not telling the truth about teachers unions reform. >> we may disagree, but i don't think we ought to be calling each others like not telling the truth. >> you've got one charter school -- >> all over this country -- >> as a plan -- >> that's not true. >> just so you could have that talking point and fight real reform. >> every bad city in this country with a bad education system, there are charter schools, young people opening them up, and the american federation of teachers is very much involved in all of this. do i think they're perfect? no. i need to have you led on a tour of schools, that's what i need to do. >> i've been fighting for education reform for the past 15 years, since i was in congress,

and every time we tried to reform schools in washington, d.c., in the anacostia area, where the students were in the worst public schools in america, it was the democratic party on the house floor and on the senate floor and in the white house that stood in the way. i do not need lectures from you on education reform -- >> you don't reform -- you do not reform -- >> in washington, d.c. that has been standing -- >> you do not reform by attacking teachers. you can't do that. >> i know. i love teachers. in fact, i love teachers so much, you know what i want to do? i want to go along with all of these great reformers that want to pay great teachers more. what do i say on this show, howard dean? that all of the studies that we've had, all the billions of dollars that the gates foundation has put forward. all of the billions of dollars in education studies over the past five years has shown one thing, one thing, it starts and ends with great teachers. a great teacher cannot only --

>> finish on something we can agree on. >> a great teacher can change the world. what do we need to do? we need to fill public schools with great teachers, not average teachers, great teachers. so let's talk about how to do that. >> well, that's the deal. great teachers, early childhood education, get more young people coming out of college funnel them right into teaching. if you get college loans, we're going to forgive you your college loan if you commit to teaching for five years in a city school, charter school, wherever. >> unfortunately, mike, you can't do that. because as we've seen over the past five years, teachers union rules require that the first in, the great young kids are the first out. that's sad. >> and that's got to change. >> and pay them. jim vandehei, thanks for a look at the playbook. it was a long time ago, but we did have a look at the playbook. [ female announcer ] the best things in life are the real things.

nature valley trail mix bars are made with real ingredients you can see. like whole roasted nuts, chewy granola, and real fruit. nature valley trail mix bars. 100% natural. 100% delicious. it's this... the etrade pro platform. fast. beautiful. totally customizable. finds top performing stocks -- in three clicks.

quickly scans the market for new trading ideas. it can even match options strategies to your goals and lets you see the potential risk and reward. and, it also comes with a dedicated elite service team. got it? get it. good. introducing new etrade pro elite. ♪

welcome back to "morning joe." hundreds of students and faculty line the streets on the campus of penn state university yesterday to pay their respects and watch the funeral procession for coach joe paterno who died on sunday of lung cancer. the hearse made its way past the stadium where paterno was the head coach for 46 years. last fall, paterno was fired, of course, after he was criticized

for his handling of the sexual abuse allegations that involved his former assistant coach and good friend jerry sandusky. earlier in the day, thousands lined up to say good-bye to the iconic coach at the public viewing, his casket was flanked by one former and current player at all times. students, alumni, and former players spoke about joe paterno. >> i've been here for about an hour. pay our respects to a great man. >> just saying my good-byes, my respects. he was a big part of our family. >> he is probably the icon of what an outstanding coach is. >> joe schooled us in the game of life. he was grooming us to be men and productive citizens and good fathers and good family members. and bigger than football players. >> today, thousands are expected at a public memorial for paterno. it'll be held at the penn state basketball arena. tickets were made available on tuesday and gone within hours. the arena holds 16,000 people.

all right. we turn to some much, much lighter sports. twitter connecting strangers. in this case, chad ochocinco of the patriots and the speaker of the house, mr. john boehner, the two as we told you yesterday had an online conversation a couple days ago after ochocinco live tweeted the president's state of the union address where he publicly wondered, a, who that guy over the president's left shoulder was, it was speaker boehner, and then wondered why boehner wasn't clapping along with the speech. yesterday ochocinco tweeted, hello, mr. boehner, hope you're in better spirits today. remember, i love you, kind sir. the speaker responded, thanks, and good luck in the super bowl, we'll see you in the playoffs next year, go bengals. just another day on twitter talking jobs and football with ochocinco. showing him in his office with a

bengals helmet on his desk. we can only hope this continues. ochocinco asking who is that guy over the president's left shoulder? >> it was a match made in cincinnati. by the way, the australian open semifinals being played right now between federer and nadal, lost the next two 6-2, 7-6, and federer now leading. the winner gets andy murray and jokovich. >> is that out of the who cares file? >> it's as good as it gets, my man. >> we haven't seen this kind of tennis for about 40 years. >> if it doesn't happen inside fenway park, barnicle doesn't get it. >> peter yesterday corrected me because he actually thinks -- and i would go along with anything peter says about

baseball that jorge has a shot of hall of fame. >> if you look at the numbers -- >> the numbers are tough. >> peter says he's on the edge. >> catchers get a break because they're so much bigger than their numbers. >> but remember, gary carter had way better numbers and took him forever to get in. >> that's true. i hope he gets in. did you see this between jan brewer and the president of the united states getting all up in the president's grill on the tarmac in phoenix yesterday. we'll talk about it on "morning joe." the employee of the month is...

spark card from capital one. spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? this guy's amazing. gomery and hat's in your wallet? abigail higgins had... ...a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit. which provided for their every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last.

but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you.

♪ ♪ ♪ one too many... [ male announcer ] it's time to reclaim your garage. the all-new passat. the 2012 motor trend car of the year. ♪ seek your way and go hey, welcome back to "morning joe." a live shot of the capitol where

i wish the guys and the women inside that chamber could get along and have a decent calm conversation like howard dean and i just had. if people could just learn to disagree without being -- i'm sorry, i'm on flu medication if i was a little more hostile than usual. this is obviously something i feel very strongly about, and i have felt strongly about for 15 years. >> i was just saying -- >> i know you do, as well. and what i -- what i would love for you to do is you need to come to us -- come with us, we're going to be going to new jersey. we're going to be doing a show from new jersey on education reform, and we'd love to have you there talking about it. >> thad be great. and let's do one in east new york. >> i love that. we do a lot of shows -- harlem village academies, we love that. willie, your mom also has been involved in charter schools in harlem for some time, hasn't she? >> yeah, absolutely. there's a great school up there, we visited the bronx charter school for excellence. is a good one. >> yes, a good one. >> you'll be on our next stop in

new jersey. >> sounds great. >> we'll be right back on "morning joe."

don't our dogs deserve to eat fresher less processed foods just like we do introducing freshpet healthy recipes of fresh meat and fresh veggies so fresh the only preservative we use is the fridge freshpet fresh food for fido

and it hasn't been going exactly as planned. cut. cut! [ monica ] i thought we'd be on location for 3 days -- it's been 3 weeks. so i had to pick up some more things. good thing i've got the citi simplicity card. i don't get hit with a fee if i'm late with a payment... which is good because on this job, no! bigger! [ monica ] i may not be home for a while. [ male announcer ] the new citi simplicity card. no late fees. no penalty rate. no worries.

oh, yes. is it time? >> it is time, prerecorded mika. time for news you can't use. republican candidates battle down in florida the issue of cuba. both mitt romney and newt gingrich were asked about the

country's former leader fidel castro during this week's nbc debate. >> a president romney gets that phone call and it is to say that fidel castro has died. >> well, first of all, you thank heavens that fidel castro has returned to his maker and will be sent to another land. >> first of all, i guess the only thing i would suggest is i don't think that fidel's going to meet his maker. i think he's going to go to another place. >> romney doubled down on his castro comment yesterday in miami. >> if i'm fortunate enough to become the next president of the united states, it is my expectation that fidel castro will finally be taken off this planet. i doubt he'll take any time in the sky. he'll find another region to be more to his comfort.

>> ow. that was very -- why did we show you all this? because the former cuban leader has responded. he's had enough of this republican field. he wrote a piece in cuba's state-run newspaper where he wrote the selection of republican candidate for the presidency in this globalized and expansive empire is and i mean this seriously, the greatest competition of idiocy and ignorance that has ever been. that the word of fidel castro. >> i think he may have lifted that from a "times" editorial. >> put on another planet that's more to his liking. a different planet. still ahead, andrew ross sorkin live from davos. you cannot be serious as a great man once said. also, major garrett joins us here in new york. we'll be right back.

♪[music plays] ♪[music plays] when you're responsible for this much of the team... you need a car you can count on. ♪[music plays] that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪

m gd we, for your future. took this last minute trip! you booked our room right? not yet, thanks for reminding me. wait, what? i have the hotels.com app so we can get a great deal even at the last minute. ah, well played sir. get the app. hotels.com. is another way to look at the bean. another way that reveals the lighter, mellower side of our roast. being blonde is nothing new but blonde roast is something new. something subtle. something soft. something with 40 years of roasting experience on its side. introducing delicious new starbucks blonde roast. the lighter roast perfected. ♪ it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk.

this is mary. who has a million things to pick up each month on top of her prescriptions. thankfully, her walgreens pharmacist recommended a 3-month supply. now, mary gets 3 refills in one and for 3 months she's done. ask your pharmacist about a 90 day supply and how to save with the prescription savings club. individual memberships are just 5 dollars. enroll today. walgreens. there's a way to stay well.

♪ i thought the president was very direct with the american people. >> mr. speaker, mr. vice president, members of congress, distinguished guests, and fellow americans, the state of our union is inexcusable. we've got crumbling roads and

bridges, nothing will get done in washington this year while a growing number of americans barely get by. but that doesn't matter because i killed osama bin laden -- >> welcome back to "morning joe." a live shot of the white house. i don't know, i think -- i think that may have been edited as much as saturday night live used to edit the tim russert interviews with hillary clinton. anyway, willie geist, a lot going on. the man who is sitting inside that white house this morning has to be pretty darn easy. new polls out -- pretty good. new polls out showing barack obama in good shape, not only with the approval rating, but also on how people think he's handling the economy. when you consider all the bad news in this country economically, i mean the president's sitting pretty right now i would say.

>> yeah, 48% approval rating in our nbc "wall street journal" poll. that's the first time he's been right side up on that number in seven months. also on the economic question, it's still not great, but it's a lot better than it was about a month ago. mike barnicle still with us. howard dean back with us for more fun. wes moore, and joining us now congressional correspondent and white house correspondent. you have to update that. >> got the promotion last week. >> back on the beat. >> that's a promotion? >> of a fashion. >> are you happy to be back? >> sure. congress is a great place, but the white house is a tremendously important institution in america generally and the campaign is going to be not only historic as everyone agrees, but a great thing to cover. and i've talked presidential campaigns on television. it's a long time since i've written a presidential campaign, i look forward to that very much. >> you'll be back with some of your old buddies at the white house. let's talk about president obama. he starts his day in nevada, part of a five-state tour for

battleground. he'll speak in las vegas this afternoon where he'll lay out plans for energy policy and job creation. yesterday, the pd president visited a plant in iowa where he called on congress to provide tax breaks to companies that hire american workers rather than sending jobs overseas. these are the numbers we were just talking about, his economic message may be starting to ring with some people. the poll shows 48% of americans approve of the way he's handling his job as president, the first positive rating in seven months. 45% approve of the way he's dealing with the economy, up six points from december. the poll also shows 30% say the country headed in the right direction. it's not great, but it's an eight-point jump from december. 60% say the country is on the wrong track. let's pause and get you in on these -- >> what happened in december? there was a tussle in washington over what? the payroll tax extension. a middle class tax cut said the

president was necessary, important, and should be extended for one more year. and republicans said, yes, but we want to offset it with tarks, spending cuts, and they said historically you don't ever have to offset the cost of tax cuts because they generate their own revenue, and republicans got wrapped around an axle in a politically difficult, in some cases indefensible position. and i think the polling data reflects the country absorbed that in a way saying on balance i'm happier with the president's position on that issue than i am with the republican congressional opposition. and i think you can look at that polling data and almost draw -- it's always difficult, and you should be cautious about this, but a straight line projection. from that debate in december to these better numbers for the president. >> and by the way, joe, a two-month extension. >> and republicans -- i was up on capitol hill for the state of the union, the feeling you get from republicans is they want to get that debate over sooner rather than later because they have internalized what happened in december and it wasn't good.

>> i'll tell you what, major's exactly right. you look at what's happened since christmas of last year, and it's a couple of things. first of all, you of course had the republicans in the house of representatives allowing the president of the united states to paint them as being against middle class tax cuts for workers. that's devastating. not only for democrats and independents, but even to their own base. and then you have the messiness of the republican primary. i don't think it's that unusual what's happened in iowa and new hampshire, south carolina, now in florida. it does happen every four years. but there is no really strong republican candidate that offers a counter right now to barack obama. so this president's doing much better, and he's doing much better not only because what happened in december, but also because americans are contrasting this guy that they're seeing right now on tv with newt gingrich, mitt romney, rick santorum, and ron paul. and right now, they believe he looks more presidential.

>> that plus governor dean as joe just pointed out. that picture of the republican candidate on stage arguing with one another and the president going off in another direction, seemingly from where the republican candidates are, that's pretty much the whole ball game in these -- >> the good news is, most meaningful number other than being not upside down anymore in approval is his improvement on how the president's handling the economy. that's a big improvement. i think that we have to understand this is going to pass. at some point, there's going to be a republican nominee, they're going to get a boost, especially after their convention, they always do, then they get to appear on the stage with the president of the united states. so while we're on my side of the aisle, chortling with this campaign stuff, it's -- they're going to have a nominee and the nominee's going to be a serious nominee and it's going to be a close race. >> wes, there was another side of the payroll tax cut in december which congress also wouldn't go for raising taxes on millionaires. so the white house is now

building this narrative and you heard it in the state of the union address that he's fighting for the middle class and that republicans are against it. >> and they'll continue that narrative, as well. particularly if you look at someone like mitt romney who ends up becoming the nominee. interesting also i think one of the big take aways from december wasn't just what happened with the american populous but the approach the president was going to take. if you listen to the state of the union, the president didn't spend a whole lot of time talking about bills he didn't want to pass. he spent time on a trade enforcement unit and a mortgage defense agency, all of these things that are executive orders that the president can put in place and stimulate the economy that has absolutely nothing to do with congress. i think that's the approach he'll take this year. >> howard, a lot of times when we look at politics, we're like sports guys on espn that are only looking at the game that was played last night and trying to project forward through the entire season. you nailed it when you talked about how a republican is going

to win this nomination and then they're going to move forward. and then they're -- you know, we're going to have a tough battle in the fall. we could -- the same -- democrats were wringing their hands in june when barack obama and hillary clinton were tearing each other up back in 2008. but could go back to 1998 when republicans looked at george h.w. bush, and this man now that many people consider to be great was being dismissed as a wimp. and of course, in 1992, your party was panicking during the democratic primary because of the rise of a certain arkansas governor who many democrats believe became the savior of the modern day democratic party. there is -- there are ups and downs to every campaign. and like you said, democrats need to be careful not to think this race is breaking their way for good in january. >> yeah, i think that's right. it's too early to get all, you know, excited about these numbers. these numbers are important

because the hole president obama was in was pretty deep. this basically gets him out of that hole and now back into territory where he can win the election. but there's going to be ups and downs in the campaign is really just -- i know it's hard to believe this, but this campaign is just barely beginning to start. >> major, i want to get you in. we've got new polls we just got from quinnpiac as they battle in florida. five days ahead of tuesday's primary. showing a dead heat, 45%, 45%. >> an improvement for president obama in florida. back to the december debate real quick because, you know, if you talk to senate democrats, they knew that two-month extension politically was a great move. but legislatively, it was not a great bill. everyone knew that. the republicans on the house side did craft what they thought was a serious piece of legislation that addressed a lot of these issues, cut spending, reformed programs for a year. it was a decent piece of legislation, solid work product. one problem, they were disunified with their own senate republicans. yesterday, a member of the senate republican leadership.

we said are you unified in your position? he said, we're meeting, answer, no, they're not. that disunity is at the heart of the problem the republicans had on the payroll tax issue. when republicans can't be unified on the tax issue, governor dean, you know not only is that a surprise, but it's a net advantage for your party. and that's a rare occurrence. >> but this is a bigger trend. this is the tea party influence. >> that's what i was going to point out. isn't that the burden on the republicans going forward? they have a speaker of the house, john boehner who i think seems inclined to try and make a deal to get anything moving on the republican party but prevented from doing so because of a minority in his own party. >> that's right. >> well, i've got to say, though, i'm hearing, mike barnicle a lot of concerns about this republican congress. when it came in, everybody was talking about the tea party congress. they were going to be too right wing, too harsh, and you turn around and look at the end of the year, and john boehner got

abused by barack obama time and time again in negotiations. much like newt did when he was negotiating with bill clinton. you remember the government shutdown, john boehner comes out and says we won this fight, we ended up saving $35 billion for taxpayers, later we found out the bill actually spent $7 billion more than before. then we had the debt ceiling showdown, he lost that battle, as well. and then at the end of the year, john boehner lost that battle, as well. there are a lot of conservatives that look at the end of the year and see that another $1 trillion was added to the national debt. in the first year of this tea party congress, and a lot of tea party members and a lot of people in the republican base are saying why did we put these guys in charge of the house again? because even with nancy pelosi in power, the debt wouldn't have gone up more than $1 trillion. right now, actually, john boehner's in a difficult

position. it's not like he caved -- it's not like he held a really strong line against president obama last year, spending continued to explode upward. >> yeah, joe, i don't disagree with you, nor do i think anybody here would disagree with you on the inside baseball of what's going on with the house republican party. but in the larger picture, out in the wacampaign trail, a whol lot of people aren't sitting around saying i wonder if they're going to add another $1 trillion to the deficit down the road. they're thinking about what's happening with my job, what's happening with my mortgage? it's the now that has frozen the republican party because encompassed in that definition of now is as major garrett pointed out, what happened in the house over the last year. >> right. >> with no, we're not going to pay our bills all last summer. then the payroll tax credit for november and december. and thinking this is the gang that can't shoot straight led by cowboy john boehner. >> that was found in florida. >> well i -- i was just going to

say, willie, i understand that a lot of americans may not be concerned about debt this year. just like a lot of greeks haven't been concerned about debt for a generation, and a lot of italians haven't been concerned about debt for a generation. we better be concerned about debt because this isn't about ideology, it's about math and, willie, the numbers don't add up. we're in trouble, and the clock is ticking, whether we like it or not. >> we didn't hear much about debt in the state of the union. >> no, we did not. and i wonder if joe would sign on to this metaphor i heard when i was in florida. one of the seasoned republicans there said, look, the mitt romney/newt gingrich race. right now, a contest between nine iron republicans and bass boat republicans. >> well, actually, it reminds me -- you know willie, speaking of florida, i remember when i ran in a certain year that people don't like me -- actually it's a drinking game. so drink up, kids. when i ran in 1994, i had a guy

come up to me and say, you know we're going to beat you because, you know, all the doctors that i know around the bayou are voting for your componenopponent. i said, yeah, that's great. they're all voting for me and i've got you guys outnumbered. and sure enough, we won. if it's nine iron republicans, willie, against bass fishermen republicans, the guys that fish for bass, the guys that wake up every morning and say this is a bad day to be a fish, those guys are the ones that are going to win. >> joe, i have to ask you a question about the debates. it's been on my mind. are you in favor of the live audience cheering and whistling and hooting? or do you want the audience to sit there comatose? >> well, i -- i -- what -- well, i could ask you that. the question. let me ask you the question this way. in spring training this year, do you want the boston red sox playing softball, or do you want

the boston red sox to play hardball? >> hardball. >> the answer to that question is you want them to play hardball. and right now you've got these debates that have cheering sections that you're not going to have in the general election. we want our candidate whoever that candidate is going to be to be able to prevail in the type of debate format that we're going to have in the fall when our candidate goes up against barack obama. and they're are not going to be pep rallies and cheerleaders and cow bells ringing in the audience this fall. so, no, i don't -- i don't like presidential debates as pep rallies. i like them to be done the way they're going to be done in the fall to prepare the republican candidate. >> newt gingrich said a couple of mornings ago on fox, he's not going to let the elite media silence the voters in the crowd ever again. so -- >> one more story to report to you this morning. after the president touched down

in phoenix yesterday as part of the tour, he was seen on the tarmac having what some called a tense exchange with arizona governor jan brewer. not tense there, but you look at this photograph. according to the governor's spokesperson, the president was upset about the way he was portrayed in brewer's book, scorpions for breakfast. brewer describes a 2010 meeting at the white house where the president criticized arizona's law on illegal immigration. she writes, it was though president obama thought he could lecture me and i would lean at his knee. describing the meeting as cordial. the governor addressed the controversy on the tarmac to reporters last night. >> i wanted to be there to welcome him to come and see firsthand what arizona has done in regards to our economic recovery. he wanted to talk about the book. and i thought that he was pretty

thin skinned. >> the governor said the book is what the book is. i asked him if he read the book, he said he read the excerpt. just moments before the exchange, governor brewer handed the president a letter inviting him to join her on a tour of the border to see how things had gotten better down there. >> what was the name of the book? >> "scorpions for breakfast." >> was the subtitle dining alone? just wondering. >> cheap shot. what do you think? meeting on the tarmac? >> two politicians working things exactly to their benefit. the president wants a focus on his stand against the immigration law, jan brewer wants to say she was confronting the president. working the same issue to their benefit, seems to me. >> absolutely right. absolutely right. >> joe, isn't that the oldest trick in the book, though? the tarmac picture of brewer with her finger pointed at president obama. she's probably saying thank you very much for coming to our

state. >> well, i mean, you've got two choices. you can go if you're a republican, you can go the jan brewer way and have this picture or the charlie crist way and hug the president. what is best for a republican governor? >> what's interesting, though, the fact of having a picture of you pointing the finger at the president of the united states wins you points says a whole lot about where we are right now. >> it does. absolutely. >> it really does. and you know what? i just wish republicans today would be as charitable as democrats were when george w. bush flew into their district 2006, '07, and '08. it's a problem going on for a while, right? >> i'll agree with that. coming up, an unfinished revolution. co-directors of a new documentary about egypt's uprising one year after the people first took to the streets. plus, chuck todd and peter alexander join us on president

obama's improving poll numbers. what it means for the race in florida. "morning joe's" coming right back. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, if your car is totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. liberty mutual auto insurance.

it's got 10 speeds, my friend. ♪ is it fast? it's got a lightning bolt on it, doesn't it? ♪ is it fast? i don't even know if it's street-legal. ♪ is it safe? oh, yeah. it's a volkswagen. [ male announcer ] the security of a jetta. one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. ♪ got you in a stranglehold, baby ♪ that's how it is with alzheimer's disease. she needs help from me. and her medication. the exelon patch -- it releases medication continuously for twenty-four hours. she uses one exelon patch daily for the treatment of mild to moderate alzheimer's symptoms.

[ female announcer ] it cannot change the course of the disease. hospitalization and rarely death have been reported in patients who wore more than one patch at a time. the most common side effects of exelon patch are nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. the likelihood and severity of these side effects may increase as the dose increases. patients may experience loss of appetite or weight. patients who weigh less than 110 pounds may experience more side effects. people at risk for stomach ulcers who take certain other medicines should talk to their doctor because serious stomach problems such as bleeding may worsen. people with certain heart conditions may experience slow heart rate. [ woman ] whenever i needed her, she was there for me. now i'm here for her. [ female announcer ] ask the doctor about your loved one trying the exelon patch. visit exelonpatch.com to learn more.

welcome back to "morning joe." joining us now from washington, nbc news chief white house correspondent and the political director, also the host of the "daily rundown" which airs every day at 9:00 on msnbc. good morning. >> good morning, willie. >> let's wade through some of these polls. we can start with the "wall street journal" number we've been looking at all morning. the president now at 48%, first time, i guess, in seven months he's been right side up on that number. >> he has. but you know, to me, that was the smallest change in the president's favor when you look at this poll. and we've got more, by the way, coming out tonight. we did a deep dive, oversampled republican primary voters. you know, this gingrich versus romney. a lot of good stuff.

a bunch of that tomorrow morning. but what was significant about what released last night. all of a sudden, six months of all this economic data that is somehow shows some improvement, but the public hadn't -- hadn't felt the improvement. they hadn't told pollsters they were feeling improvement. and we saw one year high spikes in important places like the right track/wrong track. the president's approval, job approval on the economy, and probably most significantly, this question about whether in the next 12 months do they think the economy's going to get better, worse, or stay about the same. a seven-point jump on the better number. it's one of those where you're like, boy, this could be one of those markers we look back on and say, oh, that was a turning point. >> hey, chuck, the president is in las vegas today. is there any truth to the rumor that he is going to meet with sheld sheldon to keep these two guys

on the stage competing through june. because obviously the backdrop to his presidency, this portrait of gingrich and romney in the backdrop has got to be a huge plus in these polls, no? >> well, it is. i think what's been interesting is you've seen this in other polling. we've got some detailed data that we'll release later today. but there's clearly the republican party in general, their image with nonrepublican voters, the middle right now, nonprimary voters has taken a hit. both in a whole in a republican party but individually. gingrich, romney, and really the only person who seems to be in a better place than he was when this campaign started is rick santorum. and that's simply because not a lot of people knew him. now he's seen, especially now, the more romney and gingrich fight, the more he's looking like sort of the lovable -- or the less hatable loser or the lovable loser here a little bit.

i think this campaign is taking a hit on the party in general. >> hey, chuck, you look at some polls that koim out. a new quinnipiac poll. another poll that came out yesterday showed romney going ahead a little bit. i'm just curious as a guy from florida like me, don't you see the sunshine state as a romney-leaning state? it seems to me that you had gingrich coming in with great momentum. but you knew that momentum was going to hit a wall. and we don't know -- i mean gingrich can still win, but don't florida republicans usually elect guys that are more like mitt romney statewide than newt gingrich? the connie macks, the jeb bushes, the guys that are temperamentally moderate? >> there's one exception in there, what happened just two years ago. that's what has he hesitant, it's the rick scott primary.

you look at newt versus romney, and boy you see some of that similar breakdown, rick scott was the tea party guy, and we saw what happened. that was a very close election. we saw what happened there. so, you know, i'm with you, joe, except for that, right? except for that one -- that one recent data point. and i think that seems to -- and what's interesting actually is it's the central tension inside the republican party national little, right? are they going to go with their historical instinct? or is the sort of outside of the conservative populism tea party, are they going to say, hey, establishment, we're not going to do what you tell us anymore, and the more you tell us, the more we're going to revolt. it does seem there's more of that push/pull. every time romney seems to be just pulling ahead and wrapping this thing up, there's the revolt of the conservative

outsider saying not yet, not now, not this time. and so, you know, right now i think florida's a pure coin flip. >> chuck, real quick. i'm coming back to the white house. you've been there all year, i would say my guess is they look at the numbers and see the psychology on the future of the economy improving. and economists will tell you positive impressions lead to economic behavior. they have to think there's something optimistic to hope for there now. >> there is, except, major, you and i both remember the green shoots of march 2009, march 2010. one year ago at this point. there was always something that got in the way. arab spring, the greek debt crisis seemed to take whatever momentum was at the beginning of 2011 and stopped cold in 2010 you had the gulf oil spill and the greek debt crisis again slowing down momentum. so that's been the -- they don't

get too fired up about it simply because of that bad -- >> words from the fed -- >> it is awfully early. chuck todd, we'll see you at 9:00 on "the daily rundown." we're going to go live to switzerland to ask andrew ross sorkin to ask what was the deal with the hat yesterday. >> he's got the hat. >> he didn't dare put it on. >> he'll put it on. we'll go live to davos when we come back. managing my diabetes is part of my life,

between taking insulin, testing my blood sugar. is this part of your life? freestyle lite test strips? why, are they any beep! wow, that hardly needs any blood! yeah. and the unique zipwik tab targets the blood and pulls it in. so easy. freestyle lite needs just a third the blood of onetouch ultra. really? yep, which is great for people who use insulin and test a lot. max and i are gonna run out and get some right now.

or you can call or click today and get strips and a meter free. test easy. on my journey across america, i've learned that when you ask someone in texas if they want "big" savings on car insurance, it's a bit like asking if they want a big hat... ...'scuse me... ...or a big steak... ...or big hair... i think we have our answer. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. spark card from capital one. spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day.

what's in your wallet? this guy's amazing.

we haven't told andrew ross sorkin that we're looking in on his live shot. he's getting ready for that shot. that's our dear friend, best-selling author andrew ross sorkin. he wrote "too big to fail." and i'm afraid that hat is too big. >> the sequel was going to be "too stupid to wear." >> i love andrew, but you know the -- >> give me -- >> he has no idea we're looking at him right now. breaks every rule of television putting someone up -- >> sorry, andrew, but yeah, you asked for it. >> that was yesterday morning on "morning joe." here with us now to defend himself somehow with that hat, our good friend, columnist for the "new york times," co-host of

squawk box. what's the deal with the hat? >> reporter: willie, first of all, it was actually a joke. there's a hat competition here in davos. and last year i wore this hat and i won. and i should also tell you, actually, about a year ago, actually, leaving "morning joe" one morning, i was wearing this hat, brian williams walking into "30 rock" and looked at me and he said, you know, andrew, they make that hat for men too. >> can we see the shot again? let's see the shot again. >> put it on. >> he's the defending champion. >> you're asking me to put it on? >> if you would. >> reporter: just for a second. >> just for a second. >> reporter: is this good enough for you? >> we want to see if we can wait a couple of seconds to see how quickly someone comes over and either steals your lunch or takes your wallet from you. >> #fashionfail. >> reporter: right.

right. at this point, i'm going to keep the hat on now. >> it's functional. tell us what's going on out there, andrew. >> reporter: there's a couple of things pretty interesting. and i know you had richard haas on yesterday. a lot of worry about greece. i was at a dinner with jamie dimon, he's less worried, but a number of other people predicting that greece will default this year. the most interesting thing i've heard about this, though, was if greece defaults, that's one thing. it's another thing if they get kicked out of the eurozone and have -- because everything else gets so devalued. that's the thing we need to watch out for. the other big conversation here all morning is actually a front-page story in the "new york times". the second part of the story about apple, a lot of people here talking about that and what steps tim cook at apple may have to take because of the public pressure that may start to really pile on as a result of

this series. and i think there's -- i know charles who was running the series, there's a number of other pieces coming. we'll see where this plays out. >> the front page of the times, the human costs built into an ipad. let's go back to merkel for a second, though. we talked to richard about this yesterday. what kind of pressure is she under there? we know the pressure she's getting domestically to stop austerity measures, to stop saving other countries at the expense of her own. what kind of pressure is she getting from the world community to intervene on behalf of greece? >> a lot of the business leaders here, a lot of the public leaders here all putting pressure on her. tim geithner, by the way, secretary of treasury here today, everybody is putting pressure on her. and yet, the politics as richard said yesterday are so politically unpalatable to the people here. and some of the things were surprising because she really explained, look, i am under pressure, there is politics.

you have to give us time, you have to have patience. of course, the global economy doesn't necessarily have the patience that she needs to have politically given the polls and some of the regional elections that are going on there. she needs to almost get through some of those things first. the question is, does she have enough time? >> andrew, one more thing i should point out, you have beautiful young children, a beautiful wife, they're some day going to see this photograph. and that's their dad. >> reporter: thank you, willie. >> they have to look up to you and somehow respect. >> reporter: i already got a call. it's going to be bad. >> for andrew, it was completely necessary. andrew ross sorkin, we love you and love the hat. >> thank you, willie. appreciate it very much. see ya. the education of david petraeus, a new book digs into the retired general's relationship with president obama and their disagree over

troop levels in afghanistan. -i love this card. -with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, we earn more cash back for the things we buy most. it's 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% on groceries. 3% on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. that's 1% cash back on oscar. ...tony. oscar! 2% back on whatever she'll eat. 3% back on filling up this baby. [ male announcer ] now get 1-2-3 percent cash back.

it's that simple. [ male announcer ] apply online or at a bank of america near you. we're talking 3% back on gas. or at a bank of america near you. when bp made a commitment to the gulf, we knew it would take time, but we were determined to see it through. today, while our work continues, i want to update you on the progress: bp has set aside 20 billion dollars to fund economic and environmental recovery. we're paying for all spill- related clean-up costs. and we've established a 500 million dollar fund so independent scientists can study the gulf's wildlife and environment for ten years. thousands of environmental samples from across the gulf have been analyzed by independent labs under the direction of the us coast guard. i'm glad to report all beaches and waters are open

for everyone to enjoy. and the economy is showing progress with many areas on the gulf coast having their best tourism seasons in years. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp. we're committed to the gulf for everyone who loves it, and everyone who calls it home. d we took this last minute trip! you booked our room right? not yet, thanks for reminding me. wait, what? i have the hotels.com app so we can get a great deal even at the last minute. ah, well played sir. get the app. hotels.com. is another way to look at the bean. another way that reveals the lighter, mellower side of our roast. being blonde is nothing new but blonde roast is something new. something subtle. something soft. something with 40 years of roasting experience on its side. introducing delicious new starbucks blonde roast.

the lighter roast perfected. ♪ after nearly 40 years in uniform, including american and coalition forces in some of the most challenging military missions since 9/11, david petraeus will retire from the army that he loves to become the next cia director. >> well, mr. president, thank you very much. i feel deeply honored to be nominated to become the 20th director of the central intelligence agency. and i feel deeply grateful for the opportunity if confirmed to continue to contribute to the important endeavors to which so many have given so much over the past decade in particular. >> joining us now, paula broadwell, the author of "all

in." not just an author, also graduated from honors from the united states military academy. paula, great to have you with us. >> wonderful to be here. >> i want to talk about the book in a second. do you mind, because i think the work is so important, that we start on the ptsd work. and wes, you can speak to that too. can you talk about what you're doing and how serious this is for our guys coming back? >> absolutely. first of all i felt it's a great opportunity to be able to write this book and spend time with the troopers with my tribe again as wes can relate to. but when you're back in the battlefield and see the things they're going through and their losses and the separation from their family and the things they have to deal with, and you come back to the u.s. and realize how fortunate you are, i felt really compelled to do something. so i'm donating 20% of my book proceeds to a group called team red, white, and blue, which focuses on helping wounded warriors with invisible wounds. and that means post traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, things you can't see on somebody's body.

there are 472,000 troopers served in iraq and afghanistan who have some kind of invisible wound, if you will, as opposed to about 42,000 troopers who have visible wounds, and we need to care for all of them. but we're not addressing the issues with those who have the invisible wounds. i'm trying to focus on that group and bringing more attention to it. the uso has just launched a public service announcement campaign to bring more attention to it. and to take away the stigma that's attached to disorder, the word disorder, and there's a little bit of controversy there. so we need to help these folks find their new normal and reintegrate into society. and a big part of that is finding a new connection and a new organization or community to belong to. i strongly feel that physical fitness is a part of that. and this group i'm donating to really integrates fitness as bringing a community together to work together to grow stronger. >> and where can people help out? is there a website they can go? >> you can google team red,

white, and blue and find out more about it. but there are wonderful organizations out there. the mission continues. and a number of other great groups. but i think, you know, you have to find out where you can get involved locally. i'm a working mother, i have two kids that take up a lot of my energy and time, it's difficult for me to find ways to get involved physically. maybe i can volunteer my time online to help organize a race when i run races i can wear the team red white and blue uniform to advertise for them. but it's really important to understand the complexity of this epidemic. i think it's an epidemic that 500,000 americans are suffering from this, debilitating, unable to cope. we have to deal with the suicides that go with that amongst that veteran population, there's a 30% increase in sexual -- violent sexual crimes, 40% increase in child abuse, and that's something we should all care about as far as its impact on our society. >> wes, you and i have talked about this an awful lot. we hear about cuts of the defense, we hope that doesn't go after benefits for our veterans.

but we know that the government's not enough, we need organizations like this one to help take care of these guys. >> that's right. taking care of veterans is not a 2012 issue. taking care of veterans is something we're going to deal with decades to come. we've had over 2 million people serve in iraq or afghanistan, any time you put them in harm's way, understand these are also some of the things that will come along with any kind of combat operation. thank you for that, as well. >> we tried to show in the book many of the things they've gone through. you're all well read gentlemen, but the horrors of seeing your friend have three limbs blown off and trying to resuscitate him and you never get to say good-bye and don't have closure and his family suffering and wondering, is this worth it? especially the troops. these troops fight so hard to gain, you know, the ground, the terrain and capture it and then if we don't hold it and build, they feel like, was that for

nothing? was that for loss? so i think the troops feel a great stake in making sure we maintain the momentum we have in afghanistan right now and you can understand why. >> absolutely. before we get into the meat of the book, just one more point on this. one of the component parts about this issue is that too few americans are aware that we're fighting a war because too few americans are fighting this war. so it's not enough to wear an american flag lapel pin. the other night when president obama was talking about tax breaks for corporations that return jobs to america, which is, you know, terrific thought, all you can think of when you think about the people who serve us in the best, finest, most honorable ways, why not tax breaks for companies that plempy veterans immediately dismissed from service? because the time element involved, you're out of the army, out of the marine corps, and now you're drifting. >> that time element is important to kind of get them

into the system immediately. and there are a number of initiatives that joining forces initiatives that mrs. obama and mrs. biden are spearheading and working with the u.s. chamber of commerce has brought great attention to this. what i found was a disconnect between the employers and the troopers who want to find a job. and infantry man maybe doesn't have the right skill set to become a computer technician. it's talent management. and there's a lot of awareness, but troops are also able to take advantage of graduate school, financing, and so forth. i -- i hope that society just takes the time to recognize, you know, there are sacrifices and i don't think we had the same sort of issues after vietnam. finding a way to plug them in is important. >> remember, mike, the only part of the president's jobs bill that passed. >> was the veterans, so he has done some good work on that. >> i didn't mean to imply he hadn't. but to the book, identify always been very curious about the

relationship between general petraeus and general mcchrystal. >> that's an interesting question. they go back to ft. stewart. they met when petraeus met italy. he went to ft. stewart and they were running buddies then. mcchrystal went to the rangers and petraeus missed the timing. he hadn't had a company command yet, he was pulled to serve at his aid which opened a lot of doors for him in the future, but the door for the rangers was closed at that point. they crossed paths periodically throughout their lives and of course worked very very closely in iraq. and petraeus is quick to give mcchrystal a lot of praise for the work the joint special operations community did there. while petraeus was in afghanistan, he maintained general mcchrystal's name as one of the important inputs to the war on this slide show he would show everybody who came through and so forth. he felt like he'd been instrumental in getting the concepts right and focusing on a real coin strategy and of course

resourcing it right. mcchrystal fought to get the right resources and input there. he was very sad for general mcchrystal as you probably read in the opening chapter. he hoped he would keep his job. he felt there was obvious tension between the white house and mcchrystal and civil military relations is something general petraeus takes very seriously and i think mcchrystal does too. he feared it would change the momentum that mcchrystal and his forces had gained in afghanistan. and there was a little speed bump, but petraeus went right in and picked up the ball and kept running with it. but he's very grateful for all the ground work that mcchrystal laid there. >> i was curious what your thoughts are about petraeus now at the cia and drawing down gradually in afghanistan, pulling out of iraq. we saw the operation in somalia yesterday where it appears to be more and more operations or at least more serious consideration of using small, special operations forces to achieve very targeted goals. how do you think petraeus will play into that?

and his military experience moving into the culture of the cia. >> i have sources who confirmed it. he absolutely loves the agency. i think it's a great place for him. i try to show in the book how well-prepared he was. because his work in the intelligence community, he's a voracious consumer of intelligence, every commander is, but he tries to bring in all sorts of intel, and intelligence drives operation, that's really critical. he understands that. there's a biographical digression that covers his period in bosnia. he was there right before 9/11 and working on a war criminal pursuit. but he put together, helped to galvanize a joint and inner agency terror zone task force. this was comprised of intelligence agencies, you know, from the entire community. there are 16 different organizations in the i.c. and he really learned a lot during that period how to get them to work together better. there was a lot of animosities

and it was a huge owning point for him. but throughout his career, he becomes more of a consumer, driver of intelligence, and he is very much an intellectual as you know, and the scholar, you know atypical military typical military scholar. why the agency fits in well, more analytic organization, paramilitary arm as well but he appreciates the intellectual stimulation there the brains versus brauns, although they have it all and the military does too but he is very happy while he is -- where he is at now. >> paula, talk a little bit about what you did in the military and also how that translated into the research and how it helped you for the research for this kind of book. >> that's fun question. well, obviously, i went to west point, so i had that common ground with general petraeus, a big runner there and graduate ted top of my glass physically so give him a little bit of run for his money, if you will, and i think he liked that he has used running as a mechanism to

mentor and train and push his club, if you will, for many years it wasn't unusual for me to be running with him but i had proposed running and doing an interview and that is how our interview relationship evolved. obviously, i have a strong military network, i'm still in the reserve bus able to tap into a lot of my military colleagues from over the years, west point classmates and some are characters in the book, it was easy to identify with. they we had trust and rapport when i went there embedded as a journalist, not uniform they took good care of me but i wasn't afraid to share risk with them, i was eager to get out and capture the tactical, the ground truth and have readers understand, here is what the strategy looks like and how it place out on the ground. they were wonderful hosts to make it happen. >> paula, you said you finished the top of your class physically, jon stewart learned that the hard way last night. we have video of "the "daily show,"" you versus jon stewart in a pushup contest. tell us how this went, paula. >> well, i was eager to draw attention to, again, this team,

team red, white and blue and so i challenged jon backstage, i said let's have a pushup contest and the loser has to pay $1,000 per delta between whoever does the most pushups to this group, he said he would do it. >> he collapsed, at 38, not bad. >> that's pretty good. >> you only had to get to 52. >> i can do 96 in two minutes. >> like barnicle, top of his class physically. >> let me say on behalf of all four men here, we are not worthy. >> let's go? >> wes might be able to hang with you. i don't know about the rest. >> thank you for giving attention to our wounded warriors and the troops. >> no, no thank you. >> give them a shoutout. >> thank you for the work you're doing and congratulations on the book. paula broadwell, "all in, the education of general david petraeus." >> thank you, gentlemen. rick stengel joins us to reveal the cover of the latest time magazine. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks.

>> my name is jane and i've got osteoporosis. but i'm an on-the-go woman; i've been active all my life. that's why i'm excited about reclast. it's the once-a-year i.v. osteoporosis treatment. reclast helps to restrengthen my bones to help make them resistant to fracture. and with reclast, well, no other osteoporosis treatment is approved to help protect in more places-- hips, spine, even other bones. >> announcer: you should not take reclast if you're on zometa, have low blood calcium or kidney problems, or you're pregnant, plan to become pregnant or are nursing. take calcium and vitamin d daily. tell your doctor if you develop severe muscle, bone or joint pain, if you have dental problems-- as jaw bone problems have been reported-- or if you develop new or unusual pain in your hip, groin or thigh. the most common side effects include flu-like symptoms, fever, muscle or join pain, headache, nausea, vomiting,

and diarrhea. if you have questions about your current treatment, ask your doctor about reclast. ♪ he was a 21st century global nomad ♪ ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. what's he looking for? i think he's looking for savings. ♪

i can't watch this anymore. stop! there's an easier way! we compare your progressive direct rate to other top companies so you get a great price. no more running around. ha ha ha! wouldn't you love to see the world through his eyes? i bet i look like the strongest man in the world. the best place to find a great deal. now, that's progressive. call or click today. on tomorrow's show, three governors stop by the set. we will talk to maryland's martin o'malley, delaware's jack mar kell and pat quinn of

illinois. ahead this morning it seems every time you speak on the campaign trail, newt gingrich calls himself a reagan conservative. turns out though, he wasn't quite as enamored of the gipper when they worked together in the '80s. we will bring you the quotes next. ♪ i've discovered gold. [ female announcer ] roc® retinol... the gold standard in anti-aging. clinically proven to give 10 years back to the look of skin. nothing's better than gold. [ female announcer ] roc® retinol correxion deep wrinkle night cream.

we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

it's got 10 speeds, my friend. ♪ is it fast? it's got a lightning bolt on it, doesn't it? ♪ is it fast? i don't even know if it's street-legal. ♪ is it safe? oh, yeah. it's a volkswagen. [ male announcer ] the security of a jetta. one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. ♪ got you in a stranglehold, baby ♪ named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, if your car is totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. liberty mutual auto insurance.

good morning it is 8 a.m. here on the east coast, a live look on new york city, back with us on set, mike barnicle, wes more and governor howard dean. start with president obama starting his day in nevada, part of a five-state tour for battleground territory for the

2012 election, speak in vegas this afternoon, lay out his plans for energy policy and job creation. yesterday, the president visited a plant in iowa where he called on congress to provide tax breaks to companies that hire american workers rather than sending jobs overseas. according to the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll there are new signs the president's message maybe connecting with voters. the poll shows now 48% of americans approve of the way president obama's handling his job, his first positive rating in that poll in seven moments, where he hasn't been upside down. 48% approve, 46% disapprove. on the economy, 45% approve, that's up six points just from december. the poll also shows that 30% say the country is headed in the right direction. that's an eight-point improvement from december. 60% still say though the country is headed on the wrong track. let's stop there for just a second, joe. what do you read into those numbers? >> again this is pretty basic

stuff, the past three year, we have been talking about how this president was hurt because he wasn't focusing enough on the economy, distractions with whether it was cap and trade or whether it was a health care bill. we listened, time and time again and his numbers, sure enough, went down. now you have a contrast that this white house has to love. you have got the president talking about the economy, the state of the union, running across america, going into factories, talking about how he is going to create new jobs, how he is going to stimulate growth, how he is going to build a manufacturing sector and what are his competitors doing? they are deboning themself necessary florida talking about lobbying for freddie mac, talking about paying 15% tax rates, talking about how newt gingrich compared ronald reagan to neville chamberlain. the contrast is striking. now, this is inevitable. it happens in messy primaries when you run against incumbents, you could say the same thing about what happened in 1980 with

ronald reagan and george h. w. bush, the same thing that happened in 2003, john mccain and george w. bush. but at the same time, it's not good for republicans and it is very good right now for the obama white house. of course, there are a lot of ups and downs in every campaign. howard dean, of course, can tell us about that since he has been inside of the campaign and knows it very well, but right now, you've got to say, the optics really favor the president, at least for the next two or three months until republicans sort things out on their side. >> i think that's right. i think they do favor the president, but the right track/wrong track number still needs some serious improvement. the president has come a long way but there is a long way to go i do think that they are damaging each other, the republican primary. i have never seen a republican primary like this. i don't think it was -- this is like the reagan/bush primary in 1980. this kind of rhetoric. first of all, newt has got a flame thrower everywhere he goes, always been like that the rhetoric is a whole lot

different. secondly, in all due respect, governor romney is not governor reagan in terms of his ability to take a punch and all that stuff. it testimony americans them both and i don't think this is going go away until they settle this. >> mike barnicle, 48%, given all the economic data working against the president now, that is a pretty good number. . they are got the balloons out in the white house after they saw those poll numbers. look it, these polls are a snapshot of the instant, so the instamatic snapshot is clearly president obama, as joe indicates, basically campaigning now most of the week, he goes on these tours, factories, a campaign stump speech he is giving as president of the united states, as you would expect him to do but the backdrop of the picture is, as governor dean just referred to, mitt romney and newt gingrich, and my view, not just my view but the view you pick up from anecdotally talking to a lot of people, there is no way really

to measure the damage that newt gingrich, specifically newt gingrich, has done to the republican brand in the course of these primaries. >> joe, do you think this is unusually ugly or what we see every four years in these presidential primaries? >> i think this is what we see every four years in these presidential primaries and we are talking about things getting ugly with newt gingrich. we also have to remember newt gingrich has taken a torrent of negative ads so it has been very ugly going toward gingrich and from gingrich's campaign. i look at these numbers though and i want to put up again the president's approval rating, willie, for the nbc news/"wall street journal" poll. he is sitting at 48%. now, in past elections, we would usually say, well, the president needs 3 percentage points more to get to 51%. i suspect that's just not the case anymore. this president, won, 53% last time, probably will win and get re-elected, if he wins, whoever wins, will win with less than 50%.

going to have america's elect coming in, regardless of what side they take from, i think they are going to take three, four, five percentage points at the very least. and what that means is that a president that won by 53% last time may only need 47, 48% of americans supporting him this time to get re-elected. i think the days of a two-person race between a republican and democrat are gone. i think you're going to have to go back to what happened in 1992 with clinton, bush and perot to see what elections are going to be looking like for the rest of our lifetimes. >> and wes what about the optics, the president gives a soaring speech inside that chamber tuesday night the state of the union, talking about creating jobs, bringing manufacturing back and the state of florida you have them going at it over ronald reagan, immigration, nitpicking at each other about these small issues, good now for the president?

>> great for now for the president. i think what the president also is trying to do is reinforce a lot of the messages that happened from the state of the union, talking about manufacturing or american energy. what we are seeing with the approval rating numbers and going back to some that barnicle was talking about before, when people asked about the president's favorability ratings, a lot was on this objective comparison where it is like looking at where i am, how do i think about where the president s now, we are starting to see the republican party and the republican field start to come together and looks like we have these two leading candidates. now not simply looking a it the from an abstract perspective, now looking at it of him versus the alternative that's why all the long, drawn out republican arguments and debates, watching mitt romney or newt gingrich every day kind of putting together these various gaps, people are looking at the job of the president saying you know what he is doing better than i thought and one of the reasons you are seeing these numbers. >> look at some of the back and forth in florida mitt romney, newt gingrich, one last chance tonight. they are going to debate one

more time before tuesday's florida primary. the latest cnn poll shows the two in a statistical tie in florida. cnn/"time" poll, mark halperin would make me say. romney down six points from last week, gingrich up 16 points. rick santorum and ron paul back 20 points. comes to head-to-head matchups in the general, suffolk university poll, inside the state of florida shows mitt romney with a five-point lead over president obama but when you flip that and put in newt gingrich, president obama leads by nine percentage points, joe, and that tells you a lot. >> go back and look at polls taken in 1995 and newt gingrich had a 27% approval rating nationwide, a 60% disapproval rating nationwide. on the eve of the south carolina primary, the ppp polls and the nbc news/"wall street journal" polls that were all out that week showed newt gingrich around the same, 27, 28% approval rating nationwide.

in 2012, 60% approval rating nation wide. he is a person people in the base love in 1994 because he took a party from minority status to majority status for the first time in a generation, so there are people that feel good about him. he still can't move middle america, but you know, willie, i look at those florida numbers and we see actually a self-correction here. mitt romney actually has stopped the bleeding. it looks like that race is tied up. i'm just saying, as a floridian, it seems like a romney state to me, as far as the republican party goes it is not as conservative as south carolina. it is a massive state it is more like a nation than a state. and i think it's -- i think florida may just be the firewall that romney needs. if he loses in florida, that says a lot. that shows that gingrich is

continuing to beat against the tide. that's certainly the $5, $6 million that he has just gotten into his super pac is going to help him possibly do that. but i still -- i still have to give the slight edge to romney moving forward. >> governor dean, at the core of mitt romney's argument is these the more electable of the candidates. is he right? can newt gingrich win a general election against obama? >> i think very tough for newt gingrich to win a general election and electability does matter. it doesn't matter in the very conservative, ideologically based state like south carolina but does matter in florida. i think joe is right about this, these number russ good for romney. he really got his clock cleaned in south carolina, both kind of momentum-wise and numbers-wise and he appears to be coming back, but anything can happen. we got four days for this thing, so anything can happen. >> coming from howard dean. >> yes, i know, anything can happen. >> let's get into this reagan stuff, a pro-romney super pac out with a new ad that attacks newt gingrich for connecting himself constantly to ronald

reagan. >> from debate, would you think newt gingrich was ronald reagan's vice president. >> i worked with president ronald reagan. ronald reagan. ronald reagan. president reagan. >> gingrich exaggerates, dropping reagan's name 50 time bus in his diaries, gingrich mentioned reagan only once. reagan criticized gingrich saying "newt's's ideas would crime our defense program." reagan rejected newt's ideas on leadership and character and beginning vich no ronald reagan. restore our future is responsible for the content of this message. >> gingrich hit back against that super pac ad last night, arguing that he is more like reagan than is mitt romney. >> governor romney cannot defend his record, he can't defend his past, kent defend what he's done and so his goal is to somehow throw enough mud at me. and i think it's all gonna wash off because the american people are smart enough. i first met with ronald reagan in 1974, i campaigned with him in 1980, i helped him for eight years while he was president, i have made a movie about him, i have written a book about him.

to suggest that governor romney is more reagan like than i am is an act of total fantasy. the national review is adding some fuel to this gingrich/reagan fire pointing to specific twrims gingrich criticized pretty harshly president reagan. the conservative-leaning publication cites a comment about the 1985 meeting with then-soviet leader mikhail gorbachev, something gingrich called "the most dangerous summit for the west since adolf hitler met with chamberlain in 1938 munich." and the congressional record from march of 1986 shows gingrich publicly attacked reagan's approach. said, in part, "president reagan personally snows a soviet empire, a global transnational threat to america and free do he ranks with presidents truman, eisen hire, kennedy and nixon in trying to focus attention on the soviet empire and trying to protect freedom yet president reagan is clearly failing." joe, should i go on or do you

want to get in here? 1983, beyond the obvious social indicate others of decay, the fact is president reagan has lost control of the national agenda. that is the guy gingrich has been comparing himself to on the trail of president reagan. >> willy, you can sort through all of these quotes. you have quotes where newt gingrich, while reagan was president, while he was fighting tip o'neill, while he was pushing his agenda, in 1983, you have newt gingrich calling reagan and reaganomics an utter failure. and he did it repeatedly. he also attacked his foreign policy. the man who we conservatives believe was more responsible than anybody else in lib rating eastern europe was constantly being attacked by newt gingrich, who actually called reagan's policies toward the soviet union

pathetic and said that his foreign policy was an abysmal failure. i think -- i think all this really tells us about newt gingrich is what most people already know and that is that he is just ideologically unmoored. you will say whatever he thinks will gain him an advantage that day and when the tide turns, he, too, will turn with that tide. yeah, willy, they are pretty shocking quotes. when i read them in "the national review," i was pretty stunned. >> yeah, mike this is the same guy, remember who said he worked with president reagan, presumably the pope and gorbachev and others to take down communism. a couple of things this whole back and forth between governor romney and newt gingrich about, you know exwho is more like reagan. if you are living in lee collier or collier county down the west coast of florida you have lost your house, you've lost your job, you don't care who is more reagan-like of these two guy,

you just want stability back in your life. >> amen. >> the other thing is we tend to forget and really underestimate, those of us around this table and others in this business, that today, in elections, especially in a huge nation sight state like florida as joe indicated a huge, very diverse place, the television is your handshake. the television is your how you doing? the television is your how's it going big guy slap on the back to voters and what they see in newt gingrich more and more is this preposterous, egomaniacal, hypocritical fool. >> tell us what you think, mike. >> here it comes. here it comes. >> tell us what you think. come on, mike. i'm gonna have to ask you to -- >> holding back, joe. >> put on the compressor. you got to hold back. you know exwilly, the fact is we are talking about newt here. if i were mitt romney, i would be very, very careful comparing myself to ronald reagan. this is a man, after all, who was ashamed of ronald reagan when he ran for governor, a man

who said that he had nothing to do with reaganomics, that he was, in fact, an independent during that time. neither newt gingrich nor mitt romney should compare themselves to ronald reagan, only people that can compare themselves to ronald reagan may be margaret thatcher and pope john paul ii. everybody else should just be quiet. when we come back, an exclusive first look at "time" magazine a year after the revolution. talk to the creators of a new hbo documentary that chronicles the 18-day uprising in cairo's tahrir square. but first, bill karen has a check on the forecast. yesterday morning, we were talking about tremendous amounts of rain in texas. here is the video that proves it that was beneficial rain but of course, not beneficial if that was your car. we saw numerous roads flooded, san antonio, waco, the dallas area, a couple weak tornadoes reported by the houston area. as far as what we are dealing with now, we have a tornado

watch this is the same storm system, just moved further to the east, already flash flooding around new orleans, an inch and a half of rain in the last two hours, mississippi is getting the heavy rain. further to the north, we have had a little bit of a wintery miss in northern ohio, some of the roads may be flick slick north of pittsburgh, too. today's forecast, mostly a rain forecast, the southeast will watch those storms heading for atlanta later on today and rain will head for areas like new york, philly and d.c. and the carolinas as we go throughout this evening. no problems on the west coast, just some light rain throughout the state of oregon. you are watching "morning joe," we are brewed by starbucks. ♪ ♪

[ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. and i'm a master roaster at starbucks coffee. brian hayes. i'm a master roaster at starbucks coffee. sitting right here we have 40 years of roast experience. how can we use that and do more with it? new starbucks blonde roast was created to increase the offerings that we can give to our customers. [ anderson ] we decided that we would take our experience

and apply it to the lighter, mellower, more subtle side of the bean. it's for the person who always wished that starbucks had a roast like this. [ hayes ] they're gonna love it. i mean, it's a fantastic blend.

welcome back to "morning joe," now the managing editor of "time" magazine, rick stengel here to reveal the new issue of "time" magazine. good morning. >> good morning p >> what do we got? >> the cover story is something you know absolutely nothing about. >> oh oh. >> it is called the power of shyness. it is based on a book by susan cain about this ex-throw version/intro version part of our associates where we have been in favor of ex-throw version, we want our kids to be ex-throw investigators and the thesis is that we neglect intro version, there are virtues to intro version we do not look at.

we want people like the governor to bound up on stage and not be shined governing, in some ways, better for introverts, people who don't make decisions so quickly, who round up a lot of points of view and that's the political aspect. >> an interesting question i have four, i started out very, very shy as a kid. so tell me how that all fits together. >> i would say, if i'm doing my, you know, instant psychological analysis of you, you were naturally an intro vert but you were ambitious and had aspiration and you taught yourself to be an extrovert. so one of the things that susan cain in the cover story says things called -- people called amniverts, combination of extroverts and intro investigators. >> oh, lord, i have been called worse.

>> this question is it possible to be an extrovert and an introvert, go back and forth? >> yes. yes. you know, i joke around with my staff, i say -- i say i'm a combination of the two. they say i well, actually, you are really an extrovert. but of course it's -- we are all combination. there isn't a complete disparity here but everybody at this table is probably more on the ex-throw version side than the introversion side. such a bias in favor of extrovert, wasn't our kids to be outgoing and friendly and we focus on those kids and we think of these other kids, shyness being something you want to overcome and one of the points of the story it is not something to be overcome it is something to be used. >> and what's interesting in this presidential campaign, on the republican side, i have been reading the "boston globe's" book, "the real romney" and talk about the difference between george romney and mitt romney and george romney was a classic extrovert, he was brash, he was not only outgoing but i was at an event yesterday with john

dingell, a member of congress from michigan, remembers the romney family very well, george romney is the only politician you could ever recall would get red in the face, pound the take, to say no comment. classic extrovert. romney tends to be less extroverted and probably one of the elements that the distance that some republican voters feel. >> kind of shy. >> asked the other night you do you follow your father, he said maybe. and i think that was kind of revealing unintentionally possibly but dealing with how he views himself, vis-a-vis his father. >> you were saying that romney is kind of shy u. >> yeah. >> but can you be a true introvert, governor deals, and be a successful poll mission? you have to bound up on that stage, gout shake hands, gout solicit money from people. >> you have to have a natural persona that allows to you do that n my case, i was very shy but i had a father that was an incredible extrovert and that was the model. so i -- i'm with you.

there are very few all one way or all the other way anyway in the world anyway you talk about, i think it is a combination. >> what would you all say the president is? an introvert or extrovert? >> intro vert. absolutely an introvert. >> on this political scale, he is an introvert, but in the real world is a guy who has run for president of the united states, can he possibly be an introvert? >> oftentimes measuring them on the bill clinton scale. the bill clinton is the greatest extrovert who has ever lived, right? every politician in some way seems like an introvert compared to bill clinton. >> and there is a sort of rhetorical side of the presidency, ronald reagan had personal friendships, very few, not extroverted among people generally but a great communicator so used the communications skills to convey messages but personally, more on the introvert side. richard nixon also very much an introvert, did not like shaking hands, was on the machinery side of politics, used that very well. so you can succeed with different models, it seems. >> reagan actively.

>> nixon seems like how could this guy actually ever jump up on a stage and project? in some ways, if you didn't think about it -- >> he didn't. >> in pretelevision age you can the precable age, preinternet age, you could be an introvert and hide it more easily than now where any time you are kind of sulking, somebody see it is. >> do we know what things like intellect, level of self-esteem play in being a -- >> they all -- yes. in the susan cain book she posits that shyness -- the difference between shyness and intro ver is an introvert a person who retreats from too much stimuli. they are not shy. but they just don't -- they don't necessarily want to be around people, they don't want to be in big groups, they would rather be by themselves. shyness, she say is a slight aversion to being around people and nervousness that is the nervousness that certain people feel about public speak, things you actually is to overcome.

at the same time, she makes the point there can be shy extroverts, she says, barbra streisand a shy extrovert and nonshy introverts which actually rather be by myself but doesn't bother me to get up and speak in front of a group of people. >> she argues in the way we raise our children should change a little bit? >> yes. >> how does that manifest itself, raising child who is a little bit shy, goes to the soccer brand slinks in the corner, you embrace that, you allow that to happen? >> i think not so much that you embrace that, but you don't say, hey, johnny, got to get out there and yell charge and kick everybody in the butt. you know, obviously, people who become scientists, people who become teachers, people who become writers, probably leaning more toward the introversion side. by the way, those are all incredibly valuable. >> don't want to get in two education fights in one morning, to try to stand up in front of a classroom of 25 dirksd introverted, you got a big problem. teacher is a leadership position it absolutely s

>> i do think with kids, one of the first schools that my kids went to, every week, every kid had to stand up in front of the whole school and give a presentation, it was fantastic, it was great for my boys, right? gets you used to it and in the beginning, not like eating ice cream, nobody likes standing in front of a room of people, right? you have to learn how to do it and then feel comfortable with t. >> an important skill in life. you have some quiet giants in the magazine, history making intro investigators, joe dimaggio, mother theresa, warren buffett, interesting one, hillary clinton, is hillary clinton really an introvert? i never asked her. >> put her on the scale, maybe she is. >> well, in the book, the -- moses, the author writes, because moses is like god keeps saying, you got to keep doing this got to do that, he says quit bothering me, leave me alone there are great introverts who become great extroverts in history. >> yeah, i knew moses. >> always trying to get him out. texting him all the time. >> we graduated together.

>> enough. >> a beard then. >> got another piece by joe klein, the return of barack obama. >> yes, again, joe watched the state of the union, like all of us, answered felt that again, obama was getting in touch with that 2008 obama, the one that people felt like he was speaking to me and joe was saying that once again, after listening to that speech, people feel like, okay, he is talking to me again. >> joe, introvert or extrovert? >> uh -- [ laughter ] >> well, you know, anybody that becomes a writer is at some core an introvert but i think joe has certainly taught himself to be an extrovert, right? by the way, part of that -- brian wrote our story says he is an introvert but being a reporter allows to you overcome some of the introversion and basically introduce yourself to people, go into rooms, because it gives you a persona that allows you to do that. >> it's called being fake friendly. need to talk to you about something. >> you know anything about that,

mike? >> he wouldn't. >> eli manning as well, getting out of the shadow of peyton manning, a good issue this week. >> the hero of younger brothers every where. >> he is there. rick stengel, the cover is the power of shyness. interesting cover this week. rick, thank you so much. >> thank you, guys. up next, the 18-day revolution that overthrew a 30-year-old regime. we will take a new look at a new hbo documentary from tahrir square, next. ♪

♪ let's go ♪ ♪ cruise like a norwegian ♪ but one is so clever that your skin looks better even after you take it off. neutrogena® healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% saw improved skin. does your makeup do that?

neutrogena® cosmetics. the new spark card from capital one. spark miles gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. the spark card earns double miles... so we really had to up our game. with spark, the boss earns double miles on every purchase, every day. that's setting the bar pretty high. owning my own business has never been more rewarding. coming through! [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet?

really surreal to see this part of cairo look like this. mubarak forces seem to be pulling back, they are running back. people are cheering. they are cheering as they retreat. [ speaking a foreign language ] >> this country should change. this is enough. enough playing games with us. we need freedom! >> that was a clip from "in tahrir square, 18 dives egypt's unfinished revolution." you can see it right now on hbo. here with us, the co-directors and producers of the

documentary, emmy award-winning filmmakers john alpert and matt o'neil. thanks for being here this morning. >> thanks for having us on. >> tell us about the inspiration for this beyond the obvious, you saw a revolution happening on tv. how did you guys get together and go into egypt? >> this was a request. we got an e-mail from shelia neff.president of hbo documentaries, asking us to go to egypt. basically, egypt, question mark, in the middle of events. when shelia sends an e-mail, we are packing our bags and trying to buy our plane tickets as quickly as possible to get over there. >> what did you see when you got on the ground, john? >> it was astonishing, a country that has lots of divisions, we know about the divisions now, but young, old, rich, poor, educated, people just living in the desert, they all got together an an imabovable object there for years and they moved it. >> okay. so you guys get over there it is one of these things, you don't get off the plane and say let's find the story, the story just floods over you and you start

going through the story but if you notice in the clips that we are showing now, numerous -- numbers of people are holding iphones and taking their own videos, how does that play into putting together a documentary these days >> when we went over with he knew we wanted to focus on sharif. sharif was our friend but also someone tweeting from tahrir square. you remember they shut down the twitter feeds and facebook aenkd else, he figured a work-around and calling a friend back in new york so they could text from heater twitter feed. he was basically the only person who was tweeting from tahrir. >> explain who sharif is for our audience. >> he is an independent journalist, correspondent for democracy now news hour around the star of this film. he is an egyptian-american. interestingly, from a family of journalists. his uncle is a member of the muslim brotherhood. he is very much of the young, liberal generation who started this revolution. you can see the whole thing through his eyes. >> born in america. and went back and is still there

covering it? >> exactly. >> gave up a new york city apartment. that shows his level of commitment, giving up a new york city apartment. i guess a year ago yesterday the revolution started, the 25th, we watch it from that set, every morning, astonished a little more, the one day when the plain clothes police officers rode into the square on camels and the rocks started flying, that was when it really punched through and jumped out to the world, my god, something remarkable is happening here. tell us about that day. >> when they held those lines and they fought off those thugs and you saw that people just kept coming to the square, despite the danger, despite the violence, i think that's when the mood started to shift and what seemed like a total impossibility became a rate. people realized if they stuck together, asked for the same thing day after day and refused

to step down, they could reach their goal. >> you know, john, human nature being what it is you go into these things and you know what you want to give the whole picture, you you want to tell both sides story, but doesn't there come a moment, as you just alluded to, you know, come in with camels and crops and baseball bats that you say, oh, no, i got this side of the story that i tell. >> almost like having a video camera when we were fighting the british and being able to capture that moment and, you know, i wouldn't have felt any sympathy for the british and when these thugs came in i sure didn't feel any sympathy for mubarak. and you could -- you know, you're the right age, you guys are too young, but back in the good old days, we were in the streets and we thought that if we banded together, we could change things. these guys did it. >> yeah. yeah. >> i think one of the amazing things here was also just the speed, and you talk to a lot of people who say eventually they thought the chances of mubarak actually being thrown out was a

possibility but also how fast it happened. how much does it a trial of mubarak mean to egyptians and what exactly does it mean to see him on trial? >> we were talking with sharif last night and he said that the moment when mubarak was seen in that cage at the trial, in that white uniform, it was like you saw the farr roy taken down and made human and really, really important to the american people, to the whole process that you see mubarak that they see mubarak held accountable for his crimes. >> watched wait this played out over the days, jon, was there a tipping point, a moment at which you guys and the people in the streets knew they were gonna be on the right side of this, that mubarak was going to be on his way out, that it was a matter of time? because that wasn't clear from the beginning, obviously, by mar rack had been in power 3 to 0 years, a point where everyone said you got this guy where we want him, he is going to leave? >> actually not. i think the announcement of his resignation came as such an exciting surprise to everybody, we all were sort of stand, what,

what, what? everybody began jumping up and down and screaming and shouting. it's what made it so climactic and dramatic. everybody after they got done shouting, they cried. >> tell me about the process of editing this film. i mean, you write a tube in column, you got 84 lines. you're thinking, oh i got -- i got ten that would make it 94 that would be spectacular but there's no room. how do you edit a film like this with all of this great stuff? >> well, we had a great editor, we actually a hollywood editor, pat mcman who came in and helped us at the time story. this were multiple sources as well. you talk about the thing also -- cameras, some of these people did a really good job holding up their cell phone cameras and filming this and we were able to weave this all together. the nice thing about hbo, no time limit, if you you want to tale story in 20 minutes, tell it -- spike lee, tell a story all night long. >> yeah. yeah. plug right here, joe, before we get to you, you've got to get

people, you have got to get the hbo go app on whatever instruments you have out there because stuff like this, you can punch it right up, watch it on your ipad, it's incredible. >> how did you figure out how to do it mike? >> my kids. >> we got joe scarborough with us on remote. joe? >> yeah. you know, it's so fascinating having you guys in here today. obviously, a lot of people in the obama administration are looking very closely at the news. you have ray lahood, the secretary of transportation whose son has been detained over there and you see all these joyous pictures from a year ago that i think many in the west celebrated. now you look a year later and it's got an bit messy, hasn't it? >> absolutely. i think the one thing that we can learn is that revolution don't happen in 18 days with he called it up finished revolution in our film and the protests have been ongoing, the pressure continues to mount against the military government that is controlling things over there and really most dishearteningly

you the violence continues and the oppression continues. >> people and -- >> sorry, go. >> i'm sorry, go ahead. >> people like our friend sharif, who could come back here live a nice, normal life, made a commitment, friends have been killed, one guy got blinded, somebody that he knows. it is not going to be a good revolution if people stop and if people stop, this is going to get ugly and it's going to get unpleasant. people saw their power. that is what is exciting. do we have a messy democracy? sometimes. they have a big fight over there and i'm glad they are continuing it, but it is going to be tough. >> it is going to be tough and it is the same thing all across the middle east. again, a lot of reasons to celebrate the ar rob spring but for those who believe, like some

in the bush administration believe in 2003, we will have jeffersonian democracy sprouting across this region, guys, that's -- that's fantasy land, isn't it? >> it won't be jeffersonian democracy but i think it will be egyptian democracy and i think it's a step forward, no matter what. >> all right. guys, thanks so much. the film is "in tarr err square" watch it right now on hbo, on demand, jon alpert, matt o'neil, con co-con congratulations on the film. up next, new jobless numbers. next. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

premier of the packed bag. you know organization is key... and so is having a trusted assistant. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle...and go. you can even take a full-size or above and still pay the mid-size price. here we are... [ male announcer ] and there you go, business pro. there you go. go national. go like a pro. and also to build my career. so i'm not about to always let my frequent bladder urges, or the worry my pipes might leak get in the way of my busy lifestyle. that's why i take care, with vesicare.

once-daily vesicare can help control your bladder muscle and is proven to treat overactive bladder with symptoms of frequent urges and leaks day and night. if you have certain stomach or glaucoma problems, or trouble emptying your bladder, do not take vesicare. vesicare may cause allergic reactions that may be serious. if you experience swelling of the face, lips, throat or tongue, stop taking vesicare and get emergency help. tell your doctor right away if you have severe abdominal pain, or become constipated for three or more days. vesicare may cause blurred vision, so use caution while driving or doing unsafe tasks. common side effects are dry mouth, constipation, and indigestion. i've worked hard to get to where i am... and i've got better places to go than always going to the bathroom. so take charge of your symptoms by talking to your doctor and go to vesicare.com for a free trial offer.

hey, aren't you supposed to be following that fidelity green line? well, yeah, but it keeps leading me back to my old office. i think it might be broken. or maybe it's trying to tell you something. yeah, but what could it be try-- oh, i left my 401(k) at my old job. and i left a jacket on the back of my door. but i think the line's talking about my 401(k). leave a 401(k) behind? roll it over with a company that's helping more people reach retirement than anyone else. call or come in for a free portfolio review today. welcome back to "morning joe," looking live at times

square, new york stained america wakes up. let's go a little south of that beautiful scene to the new york stock exchange and talk to cnbc's brian shactman. brian, so much to talk about today. let's start very quickly with what the feds said yesterday, which is don't get excited, the economy is going to slow down for the next couple of years. but we are here to help. we are going to keep interest rates sneer zero. talk about that. >> 2014 is the number that jumped out and people were like, wait a second if they are going to keep rates that low through 2014, is something worse than -- do they know something we don't know in terms of weakness in the economy. listen, they say that their expectations can change with every meeting but that basically told people a couple of things, one, it is free money for longer, a lot of money came into the equity market, the stock market, and people went after dividend-paying stocks 'cause if you can't get any interest at a bank or a savings account, you are going to go after your fizers of the world and try to get some dividend yield. that is what we saw yesterday. going up against, joe, about 52

points from one-year high on the dow and just a little more than that from three and a half-year highs in the dow, seeing the market reach levels we haven't seen in a long time. jobless claims ticked up a little bit but still under 400. durable goods were pretty good, so the economy is saying that we are okay. we don't know if they are being defensive and safe or we don't. >> looks flat line for a while, free money a while longer, it is amazing how low the cost of money has been for some time. jamie dimen quickly, necessary the news today. >> people come on your show all the time, politicians that do talking points and you roll your eyes. well, here is a guy, a ceo, stick to their talking points, says exactly what he thinks, a couple of the highlights, great interview from calf voce and

cnbc today. he said greece is not a systemic risk. just too small. italy would be a different story. he is not against regulation but says to d.c., get it together, don't overlap all these organizations and just write these regulations so we know what the heck is going on. the other thing, he is a democrat. he said he is barely a d one thing that was striking, i think you guys can talk about i would like the democrats to at least not act like they are perfect. they did some things wrong. admit to things that you are responsible for and then we will respect what you are doing. >> exactly. jamie dimon was a democrat, a good friend of barack obama. i think less of a democrat four years later. thanks, brian. we appreciate it. so uh this is my friend frank and his, uh, retirement plan. one golden crown. come on frank how long have we known each other? go to e-trade. they got killer tools man.

they'll help you nail a retirement plan that's fierce. two golden crowns. you realize the odds of winning are the same as being mauled by a polar bear and a regular bear in the same day? frank! oh wow, you didn't win? i wanna show you something... it's my shocked face. [ gasps ] ♪ [ male announcer ] get a retirement plan that works at e-trade.

with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine or with uncontrolled glaucoma should not take cymbalta. taking it with nsaids, aspirin, or blood thinners may increase bleeding risk. severe liver problems, some fatal, were reported. signs include abdominal pain and yellowing skin or eyes. tell your doctor about all your medicines, including those for migraine and while on cymbalta, call right away if you have high fever, confusion and stiff muscles or serious allergic skin reactions

like blisters, peeling rash, hives, or mouth sores to address possible life-threatening conditions. talk about your alcohol use, liver disease and before you reduce or stop cymbalta. dizziness or fainting may occur upon standing. ask your doctor about cymbalta. imagine you with less pain. cymbalta can help. go to cymbalta.com to learn about a free trial offer.

welcome back to morning joe. yesterday morning, we grasped for answers as we watched the president state of the union joke about spill milk bomb completely. last night, stephen colbert and jon stewart put a little more pressure on the president. >> we got rid of one rule from 40 years ago that could have forced some dairy farmers to spend $10,000 a year proving that they could contain a spill because milk was somehow

classified as an oil. and with a rule like that i guess it was worth crying over spilled milk. >> by the way, somebody who does comedy for a living, been there. [ laughter ] and i can tell you from experience, the worst part isn't the crowd's reaction. it's the wife's. >> a rule like that i guess it was worth crying over spilled milk. >> you know what that face says, that face says [ bleep ] told you that wasn't funny. i told you it wasn't funny. spilled milk is not funny. not funny to me, not funny to children, it's not a joke. >> oh, hardy har har. it is to laugh while the jay leno in chief was cracking wise. the crime rate in this country

is soaring. why just yesterday, two peanuts were walking down the street and one was a salted. [ cheers and applause ] [ applause ] a true story. true story. >> by the way, if you ask around the white house, no one will take credit for putting that joke in. it wasn't me. it wasn't me. it wasn't me. >> will argue against t >> a quote. >> still don't have a name but we will find one. who put that joke in the state of union. up next, what if anything did we learn today? an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer.

to learn more, visit us today. responsibility. what's your policy? all your important legal matters in just minutes. now it's quicker and easier for you to start your business... protect your family... and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. and i'm a master roaster at starbucks coffee. brian hayes. i'm a master roaster at starbucks coffee. sitting right here we have 40 years of roast experience.

how can we use that and do more with it? new starbucks blonde roast was created to increase the offerings that we can give to our customers. [ anderson ] we decided that we would take our experience and apply it to the lighter, mellower, more subtle side of the bean. it's for the person who always wished that starbucks had a roast like this. [ hayes ] they're gonna love it. i mean, it's a fantastic blend. but sometimes i wonder... what's left behind? [ female announcer ] purifying facial cleanser from neutrogena® naturals. removes 99% of dirt and toxins without dyes, parabens or harsh sulfates. so skin feels pure and healthy. [ female announcer ] from neutrogena® naturals.

so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates.

welcome back to morning joe. it is time too talk about what we learned today. willie what did you learn? >> fidel castro has now weighed in calling the republican field a pack of idiots. fidel castro on 2012 politics. governor dean, what did you learn? >> shy as soon as a good thing, not a bad thing. >> worked for you, wes moore? >> i learned that even though it is a very vity trollic debate no debate we are going to have more important than the debate about education, particularly early childhood education. >> ptsd is real. we all knew that before but the idea the disorder is not a way to classify it and could stigmatize is an important issue and i hope it gets rephrased. that's what i learned. mike barnicle? >> that andrew ross sorkin cannot go home and face his children.