smelling just the way you want it. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home. we asked you at the top of the show what you were doing at this hour. what you got? >> we've got a michael who writes, since 3:30 a.m. a car alarm has been going in the parking lot and appears nothing can be done until the battery fails or the owner is woken up. >> it's been going off for three hours and nobody even blinks. get rid of the car alarm. what else you got? >> in new jersey, i'm up way too early because my 1-year-old wants to work on his golf

skills. >> i know that all too well. i have a 2-year-old guy in a big boy bed, he's not in his prison or crib if you will which means he likes to get up in the middle of the night and practice his nudity, which makes for fun nights in our household. "morning joe" starts right now. i wasn't suggesting the president's not a christian. i accept the fact that the president's a christian. i've repeatedly said i don't question the president's faith. he says he's a christian, but i am talking about his world view or his -- the way he approaches problems in this country and i think they're different than how most people do in america. morning. monday, february 20th, presidents' day, but we're here. with us onset today, msnbc contributor, me. time magazine senior political

analyst mark haleprin's here. >> me. >> you. best-selling author and combat veteran in the united states army captain wes moore, thank you very much. new york daily news columnist, and in washington, chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of "andrea mitchell reports," who else, but the legendary andrea mitchell. >> the legendary mike barnicle. good morning, everybody. >> did you call yourself a contributor? is this what you feel like you contribute? >> you want to start right now? do you want to start right now. it's one minute past. do we want to do this? >> this constituted a contribution, i guess, is my own question. good morning, everybody, happy presidents' day we are known in business as the suckers here at work on a holiday. let's talk about the rick santorum sound bite getting a lot of attention. the theology bite as we're going to call it. the race for the white house. he says despite what his critics are accusing him of, he's not

attacking president obama's faith with the line he made over the weekend in ohio. >> the president of the united states is exercising his values and trumping the values of the church. if you don't want to call it a theology, you can have them let me know what they want to call it. but it is a different set of moral values they are imposing on people who have a constitutional right to have their own values within the church. the left in america has their own moral code in which they want to impose on this country. you can call it a theology, moral code, a world view, but they have their own moral code they want to impose on everybody else. >> the bottom line is that a lot of prenatal tests are done to identify deformities in utero and the customary procedure is to encourage abortions. and in fact, prenatal testing that particular lly amnio

centesis. so to suggest where does that come from? i have a child with trysome 18. so i know what i'm talking about here. >> okay. we'll come back to that. that was on a different topic. he was asked about his theology remarks on "face the nation." he said his comments were not about the president's religion, but rather about his environmental policy. >> this idea that man is here to serve the earth as opposed to husband the resources and be good stewards of the earth. and i think that is a phony ideal. i don't believe that's what we're here to do. when you have a world view that -- that elevates the earth above man and says that we can't take those resources because we're going to harm the earth by things that are frankly just not scientifically proven, for

example, the global warming debate. this is just all an attempt to centrali izize power and give m power to the government. this is not questioning the president's beliefs and christianity. >> mark haleprin, help us wade through this over the weekend. on saturday he talks about the president's theology with no reference to the environment. and he comes on "face the nation" and says he's talking about the president's environmental policy. >> bad if he's a republican nominee in terms of winning a general election make it harder for him to govern if he has becomes president. press doesn't like it at all, but might be helping him win the nomination, however. he's engaging in the rhetoric for the right pretty popular. >> we can comment on what he said there, but let's look a little broader too as to what's happening here. he's got a load, santorum, in the state of michigan, it's tightening up a little bit. where are we in this race eight

days ahead? >> i'm still in the camp that believes mitt romney's going to pull it out in michigan, the predictions are a little bit overblown. but if santorum wins in michigan, that's a huge problem optically, politically, strategically for mitt romney explaining that away as much as newt gingrich would like to say it's bad if anyone loses their home state, i think santorum losing pennsylvania not the same as romney losing michigan. bigger story. >> andrea, is this the way a candidate -- rick santorum, let's say two weeks ago, relatively unknown, now he's been in the headlines, he's in the news each and every day as he inches closer to perhaps getting the nomination and perhaps beating governor romney in michigan. but those clips we just saw, is this really the way you want to introduce yourself to a larger constituency in the nation? >> well, he began to introduce himself, you know, after iowa

when he thought he came close to winning, we later learned he actually won iowa. and those caucus results as we saw in maine raise real questions about this caucus process. but for rick santorum who has been introducing himself now for quite some time, he has an economic message, a blue collar appeal. these are the rust belt states, michigan then ohio where he ought to do very well. but he is -- taking a calculation that his gut and this is the real rick santorum, those of us who covered him in the house and senate remember this very, very well. this is the rick santorum that actually lost pennsylvania by 18% because he was too conservative on social value issues for pennsylvania, and because he was running against bob casey who had a famous name in pennsylvania, his father had been the attorney general and governor. and also was against abortion and was very conservative on

social issues. so appealed to that sector, as well. i think that rick santorum is making a mistake if he wants to be the nominee because, mark, i don't even know this is the right way to appeal to republican voters. yes, you excite the base by going after barack obama, but i think that this is so concerning to party leaders, the anonymous senators who talk to me and talk to people at abc who say he cannot be the nominee and that we then have to look for someone else if mitt romney were to lose michigan. >> andrea, what concerns those people the most about them? which positions? the theology comments? the contraception? what are they most worried about? >> some of his original comments on contraception going back. yes, being against abortion rights is really a mainstream conservative position in the republican party. but he is so far conservative, so far to the right that he is going to have a very hard time appealing to women and independent voters, republican

women and that whole sector of independent voters. the voters that are needed to win a general election. that said, ed gilespie said he refused to run. and if that is the case, if jeb bush is not someone that they can turn to in a contested convention, then i'm not sure where they go, who else is out there, if chris christie is not really running this time and if mitch daniels is not running or cannot be persuaded to run or is not considered a strong nominee. >> i totally agree that the elites in the party look at the things santorum's saying and enhances their worries that he would not be a strong general election candidate from their point of view, but i don't think that's the group that's going to power him to a win in michigan and ohio. >> you're probably right. >> it's the people who like the

culture warrior language plenty. i agree with you, though, it would be in his interest to not make his national narrative be all this stuff. he should be grandson of a coal miner, grandson of a coal miner, by the way, i'm a grandson of a coal miner. he could maybe bring in some people who think he could be a stronger general election candidate than mitt romney. but it does not depend on this stuff for the michigan primary. >> the appealing thing about rick santorum is that this is authentic and that does distinguish himself from what we see of mitt romney when he talks about the trees in michigan being the right height. >> but it also seems like in addition to the party leaders being concerned about what they're seeing with rick santorum, the other person that is really concerned about this is mitt romney. and for this reason. because it's starting to show a lot of shades of 2008. if the debate in 2008 was all about the economy, chances are there would have been a very different result. chances are that john mccain would not have run away and mitt

romney would've held on longer if that was the primary concern in 2008. by seeing all these cultural issues now taking center stage in the republican primary, i think mitt romney's seeing if the argument is not that i can be a better steward of the economy, then this does allow people to get in the race and makes it a tenuous situation for the romney people going forward. >> i think santorum has to make -- it's not a difficult job, but he has to make a pivot from the values issues which i think work in a primary for a little while to economic issues. it's a simple pivot. he can use this contraception issue to say, look, if we're out to protect women's economic security, the best way to do that is for the senate to balance a budget for the government to cut spending, to reduce the size of government in women's private lives. he has to make that argument that economic decisions have moral implications and make the message larger than contraception, prenatal care, et cetera. >> romney has to stop santorum.

at least based on the last round, he's behind. the thing about santorum talking about this stuff is romney can't attack him on this stuff. romney can't say, well, he's too conservative for a general election electorate. so to the extent this is the dialogue, i think it makes it harder for romney to get a clean idea on how to stop santorum. >> talked to a senior republican senator who said if mitt romney loses in michigan, loses his home state, it's time to open this thing back up and get somebody else in. we keep hearing that. what are you hearing? and is that a possibility at this point? >> there's tons of people who would like someone else to get in. even now, it has to be an actual human being. there's few people whose names even plausible. i think there's one scenario where this is a real thing and that's if mitt romney gives up. if mitt romney says -- say he loses michigan, it's not going to be me, i'm not the right guy. i don't think it's going to happen, but that's the only way

one of these big republicans, chris christie, jeb bush, mitch daniels, that's on the only way one of them would think about getting in if romney left that vacuum of the establishment. and even then, romney forced out by santorum, coming in against a guy with a head of steam. >> and the truth is, if a new person came in at this point, it would have to be at a brokered convention because you couldn't win enough delegates to win the nomination. if that's going to happen, it's going to happen down the road at the convention. andrea, i want to go to you on the iran story. a group of nuclear experts talking about the suspicion that tehran is working on a program. now the economic implications beginning to show itself, iran saying they stopped shipments to the uk and france, those are among the nations -- israel says those sanctions not enough to stop iran's nuclear ambitions. they suggest a military strike

may be the only effective option and that's raising concerns here in the u.s. martin dempsey speaking yesterday. >> we are of the opinion that the iranian regime is a rational actor. and it's for that reason, i think, that we think the current path we're on is the most prudent path at this point. a strike at this time would be destabilizing and wouldn't achieve their long-term objectives. but i also understand that israel has national interests that are unique to them. and, of course, they consider iran to be an eke threat. >> none of us want iran to have nuclear weapons, but i don't think it would be wise at this moment for israel to launch a military attack on iran. andrea, you've been reporting extensively on this story. where are we this morning? >> well, it was extraordinary that the chairman of the joint

chiefs, martin dempsey, plus william haig, the foreign secretary in the uk would both come out and say what they said. this is the strongest signal, the national security adviser is in israel, met with prime minister netanyahu last night and presumably having more meetings today. they are doing everything they can publicly and privately. basically pleading over to israel, all these u.s. officials telling israel not to strike iran. at the same time we saw a "diplomatic leak" very vaguely sourced over the weekend from vienna where the international atomic energy agency is based suggesting that the underground caverns that we all know about that u.s. intelligence actually discovered and then the iranians acknowledged two years ago that those caverns were being outfitted with centrifuges. the facts are according to american intelligence that is not the case, that the sanctions

have worked to prevent the equipment from being installed and that those caverns are basically a village. so all the signals from the u.s. is that iran has not made the decision yet to build a weapon, but israel as general dempsey says has a very different posture because it is a threat to them. they perceive it that way. and the argument is that israel would do more harm than good if it were to strike iran, it would be destabilizing said general dempsey. >> listening to general dempsey calling iran a rational actor, which kind of struck me, how much does the shadow of wmd, weapons of mass destruction in iraq hang over this dialogue back and forth? >> oh, i think it overshadows everything. internationally and domestically here in the u.s. but the bottom line is that at least this is what u.s. officials believe to be the case. they say that they have very good intelligence on iran.

they were able, at least the israelis, we suspect, if not with u.s. help were able to compromise the centrifuges over the last couple of years through the computer virus that was put either into equipment in iran or on its way into iran. you've seen the assassinations of iranian nuclear scientists. they've slowed the process down. they believe that iran has not made the political decision to proceed and now crippled by sanctions, this is the moment when iran is getting back to the negotiating table after a year. and they don't know if it's another stall and iran is trying to bluff and keep everyone else offguard. but they think at least now while iran is agreeing internationally to negotiate that iran is not a rogue actor, is not north korea, that iran actually wants to be part of the international world economically and politically. and that there is something to negotiate. >> see, does it strike you that we're talking about the nuclear

capability potential of iran? israel, preemptive perhaps, first strike on iran's nuclear facilities and yet in michigan and other states they're talking about the pill, public school education, in terms of the national political dialogue. >> one of these things does not belong. whether it's iran, syria, there's a lot going on in the rest of the world. that said, you can't dismiss the so-called culture wars in america as insignificant and distractions in an election year. these are the things that matter and even in economically terrible times or times when foreign policy problems are cropping up all over the world, these are still the kitchen table issues that matter to families. so when they come -- well, maybe not the pill, but certainly family planning. these are the things people talk about around their kitchen table. they're not talking about syria as much as we'd like them to. >> barnicle has seven kids, he

never talked about family planning around his table. the question from americans watching today is if as andrea said, we respect your opinion, america, we sense a threat, we have to go in, what happens to the united states? what becomes our role? do we go in support of israel? >> i think the administration's been very clear that the united states will -- whether it be military action or otherwise will go in and support israel. it isn't also just about what the u.s. is going to do, you have the other regional actors will have to act, as well. turkey, which will react. you have the new iraqi government which will react, saudi arabia will be forced to react. and the idea it could cause a nuclear race within the region, i think, is really what terrifies a lot of people, as well. coming up, we'll talk to the chair of the senate budget committee, senator kent conrad, he disputes the claim that democrats have not produced a budget in more than 1,000 days. we'll talk to gail collins, our friend chuck todd, and advertising executive steve

stoute on the tanning of america. that'll be a great conversation. politico's top stories of the morning including sarah palin's reaction, mark haleprin, to the game change movie. >> it's going to straighten you up. first, though, bill karins with a check on the forecast. well, good monday morning to you, willie, and everyon else out there. hope you had a nice weekend. let me update you on your forecast. big storm system pushed off the east coast, this is the one that could have been a nor'easter up along the new england coast, but didn't make the turn to the north, continued going out to sea. 3 inches of snow in richmond, virginia, the first snow of the season for that area. today, a little blustery out there on this presidents' day, but it will be sunny. temperatures will be about average for this time of year in the 40s and 30s, look at washington, d.c. this week. temperatures will be in the 60s from wednesday through friday, this is like the middle of the end of march type weather. as far as the middle of the condition goes, rain and snow, it's light, areas like iowa,

south dakota, and eventually later tonight toward chicago could see a little bit of snow. tricky tomorrow morning commute. this end of february, still feeling like march. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. i'm jennifer hudson, and i believe.

i was strong before weight watchers, but i'm stronger with it. i believe because it works. ♪ if you want it, you got it join for free. weight watchers points plus 2012.

because it works.

♪ welcome back to "morning joe," 6:24 in the morning on presidents' day as we look at "usa today," the u.s. population expanding at the slowest rate since the great depression. less than 1% increase, being blamed, of course, on the recession. >> "new york times," cardinal dolan was elevated to cardinal

in the roman catholic church this weekend. the 20th american to hold a post as chief adviser to the pope. turning to the parade of papers, "daily news," it's been 50 years since john glenn piloted the friendship 7 around the earth, 50 years marking the first american man orbital mission to circle the globe. in full mardi gras, will ferrell tosses trinkets and candy from one of the floats on napoleon avenue in new orleans and mark haleprin was just down there. >> getting the beads, huh? i was there right before it started. i like pre-math. aftermath is for losers. let's go to mike allen for politico with a look at the morning playbook. hello, mike. >> another sucker, good morning, willie. >> another sucker joins the conversation. that makes six of us now. let's talk about it, we've got mark haleprin here, sarah palin

coming out swinging talking about her portrayal by julianne moore in "game change." here's a look at the trailer. >> i'm not sure how much she knows about foreign politics. >> you can see russia from land here in alaska. >> what have we done? >> it wasn't my fault. >> i miss my baby. >> she's on the verge of a complete nervous breakdown. >> they're telling me what to say, what to wear, how to talk. i am not your puppet. >> all right, mike allen, has sarah palin seen the film? >> she has not seen the film, and that's the key to reading between the lines of her aggressive pushback, her pac over the weekend saying there they go again. and saying that this movie sensationalizes scenes, distorts history. they put up a photo gallery that they say is game change you can believe in sort of their rebuttal, some softer scenes of governor palin. now, the movie's coming march

10th. and a big difference from the best-selling book by one mark haleprin and john heilemann, the movie is 100% mccain. it's all the story of the selection of governor palin and then the 60 days of the general election. and it's been scrupulously researched, sticks very closely, very true to the book. takes very few liberties. it's not a documentary. so we see scenes compressed, words coming out of characters' mouths that aren't in quote marks in the book, but the film makers tell us they went for a balanced portrayal of governor palin. they did not want it to be scene as a hit job. so we see these embarrassing scenes that probably won't be comfortable for her to have revived, but we also see some moments that will be sympathetic portrayals. we see her electric connection with voters, we see her connecting with special needs parents. and we see the incredible

demands on her as she's thrown into this role as a small-state governor. >> mark haleprin, what's your reaction? >> i'm looking forward to people seeing the whole film. hbo, julianne moore did a great job and it was as the book was the actual events of what happened in a way that i think, again, when people see the whole thing they'll see it's incredibly fair and accurate and moving and interesting and compelling story about that part of the campaign. >> i talked to you and john heilemann about the film a little bit and i know the way you approached the book, as well, it did -- you did aim at a balanced look at sarah palin, in fact, john heilemann said go out of your way to make sure she's not portrayed in a sensational way -- >> and she shouldn't be. the way she handled a very tough situation. she made some big mistakes on the campaign, but she had a great convention speech, very solid in the debate. and so we didn't have to strive for a balance, it is the actual

history of what happened, which is a balanced picture and like i said, i'm looking forward to people seeing the whole film. it's a great piece of film making but also true to the history of what happened and based on sources from across the board from people who are supportive of her and to people who thought the pick was a mistake. march 10th on hbo. be looking for it. it's very good. >> the movie's two hours, governor palin's turned down the chance to screen it also turned down the chance to be interviewed during the research writing phase. the writer actually turned up new information about governor palin that had been missed by heilemann and haleprin and since confirmed it including a moment where governor palin in conversation with an adviser thinks that the queen of england, no the the prime minister, is the person who would be negotiating britain's participation in iraq. another little tidbit, there's a cameo in the film from one mark

haleprin and john heilemann. >> camera adds 30 pounds, let's be clear. mike mentioned the research that was done for the film. i've not worked on a lot of hollywood films, this is a team that did recap. they did a lot of their own reporting and interviews and benefitted from the fact there'd been a passage of time. they got to some stories we missed that we wish we had that are just as thoroughly reported as you can imagine. journalistic standards of reporting not hollywood standards. >> mike allen, thanks so much. coming up, jeremy lin puts the knicks on his back against dallas mavericks. highlights next in sports. [ 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. ♪ they hatin' ♪ patrolling and tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ [ mom ] hi, there. why do we always have to take your mom's car? [ male announcer ] the security of a tiguan, one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ gives you a 50% annual bonus! so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash?

no! but it's more money. [ male announcer ] the new capital one cash rewards card. the card for people who want 50% more cash. what's in your wallet? woah! [ giggles ] take the privileged investing tools of wall street and make them simple, intuitive, and available to all. distill all that data. make information instinctual, visual. introducing trade architect, td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. take control of your portfolio today. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account.

[ son ] mom, computer's broke! where's i.t. mom? she quit. [ male announcer ] even with technology -- it's all you. staples easy tech can help with everything from new computers to set-ups to tune-ups. stapes. that was easy.

a pekingese named malachi was named best in show at this year's westminster dog show. oh, man, that dog is going to get so much leg. and as always as westminster, worst in show went to ralph.

why do you keep trying, ralph? new research suggested men too nice on valentine's day buying too many gifts make the women suspect the men are cheating. your instincts are right. you can't win. >> it's true. poor ralph. unbelievable. let's do a little sports. you know you are a cultural force when you make the opening sketch of "snl" as one knicks point guard did on saturday. >> you better lock me up. i mean, i am criminally lin-sane. >> my feelings are lin-tense. >> it's lin-describable. i am literally lin-love. >> so the puns keep flying. i haven't seen this one, here's one, linfomania.

>> what does that mean? >> it means nothing. lin-sanity, we're back to that one. king lin, that's a good one. and how about this one? in your facebook because mark zuckerburg was at the game. they've won seven of their last eight. yesterday, lin, facing his toughest test against the defending champion dallas mavericks. in the middle of a six-game winning streak. the first quarter the knicks get out to an early lead, lin hits a three with an assist from j.r. smith. knicks led by 12 in the first half, but in the second, the defending champs come back, jason nowitzki, and looked like they were going to out class the knicks and run away with this one, but here comes jeremy lin leading them back off the steal. how about a throwdown? sneaks it down, fans are on their feet hugging each other.

speck lee's wearing the throwback jeremy lin harvard jersey. here jeremy lin finds steve nowak. he scored all 13 of his points in the fourth. four three-pointers, knicks went up by six points and then this happened. >> novak's drifting in the corner, lin over dirk -- come on! time-out dallas, how good is this? >> the roof almost blew off the place. that put the knicks up nine points, lofting one up over the outstretched arms of dirk -- knicks win 104-97, jeremy lin with a career high 14 assists. if you need more proof lin is the real deal, look at this stuff, over his first eight games as an nba starter, he has scored 200 points, more than any point guard in nba history over the course of eight games.

more than isaiah, morning magic, and his assists second only to john stockton over the first eight nba starts. lin has 53 turnovers, but those numbers are incredible. >> mideahe's going to play in t all-star game. >> maybe they'll sneak him in. hasn't always been this exciting for jeremy lin, he was waived by the golden state warriors and the houston rockets before finding his way to the knicks. he talked about some of his low points this year. >> i mean, there were nights last year where i was just actually just reduced to just tears. i couldn't take it anymore. from the outside looking in, they're like, oh, you're fine. he's still collecting an nba paycheck and this and that. but for me it's the sh what really hurt was i felt like i had the ability to do it.

even in the beginning of this year, getting waived twice. i was thinking, if i don't have a team, what's going to happen? do i go to the "d" league, go overseas or take a break altogether. and all those options were running through my mind. >> and if you live in new york city and you're a time warner cable subscriber, you can thank jeremy lin for bringing msg back to your screen. it looked completely intractable we were never going to see another braves or rangers game again, it ended on friday. andrew cuomo quoted saying the heightened pressure led to the deal between time warner and msg. >> can we send him to the middle east? >> let him broker the peace. we've got to show you this from boxing. british heavy weight derek trisora got himself in trouble before, during, and after his fight. started on friday during the

weigh-in, he smacks him across the face. he remained calm, did not fight back. the next day just before the fight, he gets in the face of the other brother and spits water in his face. again the brothers showing restraint. he did his talking in the ring beating him by a unanimous decision. it wasn't over there. during the post fight news conference, he gets himself into a heated exchange with a different heavy weight fighter, a guy by the name of david haig. he was at the fight providing analysis for one of the broadcasters started screaming up to the podium. camera equipment flies, couple of bloody heads. later detained by police at the airport. he now faces charges of battery and there, my friends, is the great heavy weight division of boxing. >> about to be extinct. >> where have you gone ali frazier? up next, the must-read

opinion pages, shedding light on what our elected leaders often seem out of touch with the people they govern. keep it on "morning joe."

[music playing] confidence. available in color. depend® for women is now peach. looks and fits like underwear. same great protection. depend®. good morning. great day. 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.

6:43 in the morning as the sun comes up over the white house on presidents day. joining us for the op-eds, brit peterson. why it matters our politicians are rich. she wrote in part, that politicians would like us to believe this doesn't matter, what matters is ideas, skills, and leadership ability, aside from a little extra business savvy, they're regular people like the rest of us, they just happen to have money. but is it true? in fact, a number of new studies suggest that in certain ways people with that much money are not like the rest of us at all. as a mounting body of research is showing wealth actually can change how we think and behave and not for the better.

rich people have a harder time connecting with others, showing less empathy to the extent of dehumanizing those who are different than them, they are less charitable and generous, less likely to help someone in trouble and more likely to defend an unfair status quo. if you think you'd behave differently in their place, meanwhile, you're probably wrong. these aren't inherited traits, developed ones, money changes who you are. tell us about this study. there's pretty eye-opening items in there. >> well, what's pretty amazing is not just one study. it's a series of studies done over the last ten years. so it's a number of studies being done by multiple labs that all add up to the same result, which is that rich people are different from the rest of us. and not necessarily for the better. >> so how does this apply to what we're watching right now? obviously mitt romney brings this to top of mind. had trouble on an emotional level connecting with voters. >> well, it's hard to apply this to individuals. this is talking about an entire

social class. you can't really say that mitt romney is doing these things particularly because he is a rich person. but it is really, really interesting that across all these studies you're getting this idea of how a rich person would behave. and as you read from the piece, a rich person is emotionally disconnected, a rich person has trouble, you know, with empathy. a rich person is, you know, less generous. so i think some of these stereotypes about rich people that people are sort of connecting with mitt romney may actually be more true than not. >> it does sound like you're painting with an awfully broad brush when you say all rich people have trouble connecting, they're not generous. i know a couple of rich people who are quite generous. is there a dissenting opinion on these studies you can share with us? >> well, absolutely. what's really, really interesting about these studies is, well, for one thing, i'm

oversimp oversi ov oversimplifying. and you do have dissenting opinions. there's one study in the piece talks about the effective power on people. it's very profound. and we know it affects you on a physical level and a hormonal level. even just by acting powerful, your entire physical make-up changes. but it's not necessarily a change for the worse. it can bring out effects in you that are latened and amplifies them. so if you are someone who is kind of a jerk, when you become powerful, you become a huge jerk. but say you are someone who is a generous person who is basically a good person, when you become very powerful, all of a sudden you have power to be an extremely generous person, a warren buffett or bill gates. >> in these studies, of which i have not read a single line, what role or do they even allude to it or investigate it? what role does parenting play in

the lives of rich people? >> well, the studies don't talk about parenting. >> aha! >> you got it. >> throw the studies out. throw these ridiculous studies out. because if you're the parent and you have wealth and you have good values and you provide those values that you've lived by to your children, your children are going to be generous, your children are going to recognize who is poor and who is hurt, who is damaged, and who needs help. >> well, i think that's exactly true. and what's great about these studies is they do show that compassion can be taught. it's not just that if you come into contact with money you're automatically corrupted or tainted. there is some effect of that, but you can also train yourself to be more compassionate. there was one study that showed it was a test of empathy. so it separated people, rich and poor people and gave them sort of an empathy quiz to demonstrate how they did on it. and the rich people as expected did less well than the poor people. but then the rich people were

shown a video about childhood poverty and the effects of childhood poverty, and that brought their empathy score to the level of where poor people scored, which was higher. >> all right. we'll take a look at the piece, britt peterson, why it matters our politicians are rich. thanks so much for being with us. appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> what's your take on that? >> well, i don't know when all of this happens that we started demonizing prosperity. forbes did a great piece listing the wealthiest presidents and turns out george washington, our first and by most accounts greatest president was the richest we've ever had. and how did he get that way? he was a smart landowner and married up. the jerk. and since washington we've had a history of rich presidents. i don't -- i don't know what is unique about this time and place. it's not like kennedy was a coal miner. you know? we've always had rich folks,

successful folks seeking this office, some are good people, some are not good people. mitt romney certainly, you know, donates millions every year to the poor. and the sick. i just think these kinds of studies can be very dangerous, as you said, very broad and vague and not very specific. >> well, yeah. and andrea, we've talked about this quite a bit. and it's about the way the candidate connects. perhaps mitt romney's not doing a good job, maybe not because he's wealthy, but because the way his personality is built. you take a guy like fdr and you have people living in appalachia with his picture on the wall. it's how you reality. what kind of politician you are. >> you may recall that a week or so ago that rick stengel was one of your guests and he was talking about the funeral train for fdr and someone in west virginia being asked, well, did you know him? and the response was no, but he knew me. and that -- that comment as

wealthy as fdr was and we have other political leaders, obviously, the kennedies come to mind, who were able to connect with people and people really felt they had their backs and that they understood their suffering and their struggles. so i don't think it's wealth. i think it is cultural. i think it's the way people are raised. >> i think you're right. coming up next, the news you can't use.

can you enjoy vegetables with sauce and still reach your weight loss goals? you can with green giant frozen vegetables. over twenty delicious varieties have sixty calories or less per serving and are now weight watchers-endorsed. try green giant frozen vegetables with sauce. oh there's tons. french presses, espresso tampers, filters. it can get really complicated. not nearly as complicated as shipping it though. i mean shipping is a hassle. not with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits it ships, anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that is easy. best news i've heard all day! i'm soooo amped!

i mean not amped. excited. well, sort of amped. really kind of in between. have you ever thought about decaf? do you think that would help? yeah. priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $5.15, only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship.

oh, yes, is it time? >> it is time, pre-recorded mika. time for a little news you can't use. "snl," pretty good night. good show saturday night. maya rudolph came back to host "snl." she did her beyonce impersonation as celebrity friends like l.l. cool j. and taylor swift stopped by to wish her and her husband jay-z the very best on the birth of their baby girl. >> it was perfect, l.l., we were in the hospital, just me, my husband, jay, and kanye.

first my water broke and i was like -- ♪ ha >> and then i went into labor and i was like -- ♪ ah >> and then the baby came out and i was like. ♪ ohhh >> and i asked my doctor, did i have a boy? and he said, no, you had a single lady. >> now taylor swift is here. >> taylor, we are so honored to have you in our home. >> yeah. taylor.

>> is it a gag on taylor swift. she's always shocked, stunned, and humble that people like her. pretty good. coming up, senator kent conrad. gail collins joins the conversation. we're back in a moment. not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. 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.

chocolate lemonade ? susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast speeds. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small businesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon. i wonder how she does it. that's why she's the boss. because the small business with the best technology rules. contact the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 1-800-974-6006. i was strong before weight watchers, but i'm stronger with it. i believe because it works. ♪ if you want it, you got it

join for free. weight watchers points plus 2012. because it works. if he can't carry his home state, i think the rationale for why is there a romney candidacy.

he's not a candidate of ideas, not a candidate of ideology. he was the candidate because he was the inevitable idea. he hasn't been able to win. if he loses his home state, and i assume they're going to throw the kitchen sink at santorum because it's the romney style. if they lose his home state, i don't see what he says the next morning to his donors to stay in the race. if any of the three of us lose our home state. santorum loses pennsylvania, you have a weakened candidacy. >> do you think it's possible and advisable for someone to get in the race on the republican side? >> i don't see how that can happen. it's too late. and it's february, these things have a way of taking time. assume this is going to drag out into april. and i have a hard time seeing how someone can get in at this late date. >> the other candidates can't beat obama, so the establishment brings in somebody like, for instance, jeb bush.

he can't win the nomination, but he gets enough delegates to throw it to a contested convention. tell me i'm crazy again. >> this proves that mental illness is transmittable by personal contact. i think it's about as remote as life on pluto. >> wow. welcome back to "morning joe." 7:00 in the morning on presidents' day. mike barnicle, mike haleprin. also with us, down in washington, andrea mitchell. and joining the table, the "new york times" columnist gail collins is the author of the new book "william henry harrison." >> finally. >> we've been waiting so long. >> yes. >> gail, good morning, it's good to see you. >> good to be here. >> tell americans watching on this presidents' day one thing they need to know about william henry harrison they didn't know before. >> well, he was marked as a person who was poor and a humble soldier.

in fact, his father had signed the declaration of independence, he came from a wealthy family. if mitt romney could do that now, his problems would be over. change him, you know, to a guy from dorchester who just grew up there in the streets and had a tough time. >> hard scrabble upbringing. >> what drew you to william henry harrison, though, of all the presidents? >> "the times" has a series of little biographies of all the presidents and asked me if i would do one. and i thought, he died after a month in office, so monetary policy will probably not come up all that much. so this sounds like a guy i could handle. >> only a month to cover, it makes it an attractive project. >> let's talk about the race. you mentioned mitt romney, rick santorum, the guy giving him a run for his money right now says despite what his critics were saying, he was not attacking president obama's faith over the weekend when he said this. >> this is what the president's

agenda. it's not about you. it's not about you. it's not about your quality of life. not about your jobs. it's about some phony ideal. some phoney theology. oh, not a theology based on the bible, a different theology, but no less a theology. >> the president of the united states is exercising his values and trumping the values of the church. if you don't want to call it a theology, i'm fine, you can have them let me know what they want to call it. but it is a different set of moral values that they are imposing on people who have a constitutional right to have their own values within the church. the left in america has their own moral code in which they want to impose on this country. you can call it a theology, you can call it a moral code, a world view, but they have their own moral code they want to impose on everybody else. >> so it's the phoney theology

line people are talking about. santorum was asked about those remarks on "face the nation" yesterday. he said they were not about the president's religion or faith, but about his environmental policy. >> this idea that man is here to serve the earth as opposed to be good stewards of the earth. and i think that is a phoney ideal. i don't believe that's what we're here to do. when you have a world view that elevates the earth above man and says we can't take those resources because we're going to harm the earth by things that are -- frankly are just not scientifically proven, for example, the whole global warming debate. this is just all an attempt to centralize power and give more power to the government. and this is not questioning the president's beliefs in christianity. >> that's santorum yesterday,

sunday, on "face the nation," he claims he's referring to to the views on environmental policy. santorum made no mention of the environment on saturday in the original comments. santorum also went on to talk about reproductive rights. we'll get to that in a moment. what's your read on this? he says after the fact he was talking about environmental making a larger point about world view and not about faith. >> really strange explanation. i don't actually find what he originally said to be all that controversial. he would not be the first person to call liberalism a religion of moral relativism that, you know, is somehow different or, you know, less full throated or muscular than christianity. to explain it away this way almost seems like he is di disavowing that idea completely, ashamed of the idea that conservatives have a better moral compass than liberals do, which would not again be a

controversial opinion on the right just as if someone on the left said we're better than they are would be either. it was a really weird explanation that doesn't seem to have much evidence in reality or what he actually said. >> andrea, the white house and the obama campaign read it probably for political reasons as an attack on the president's faith. do you think that's an accurate reading? >> i'm not exactly sure of that. because they thought it crossed the line, you saw robert gibbs going out very strongly on that. santorum has always been very judgmental in the way he describes faith. for him it is really us or them proposition. and i'm not sure whether he was talking about religion, but he certainly feels that the president and what he calls the liberal left has a war on religion. that is his view. and i think that is partly what he was describing. i'm not sure that he was trying to dog whistle the whole question of whether president obama is a christian, which, of

course, he is. i'm not sure this was actually part of the equation. i think it really was more about what he has been claiming in the whole contraception debate. and we can get to that, is a war on religion from his perspective. >> you know what's kind of interesting, at least to me. if you can exclude, you know, the content of what rick santorum -- what we just saw him say on the clips that we showed. if you can exclude the content and just look at him in terms of his personality, you can sort of understand why so many republicans in these primary states are now seemingly flocking toward santorum because he's real. he's much more genuine than roof man who you -- i figured i'd get it in there before you got it in there. >> i cannot -- i could see rick santorum with a dog on his roof, i could imagine. but the idea that it's normal

now that we should just assume that anybody running for president will naturally believe that his opponent is morally flawed that he has -- that his moral values are worse just because you've got a difference about your plan for health care seems to me still really shocking that you have to go there at this point in time, this early on, and what rick santorum says theology, i believe that rick santorum means theology. if anybody is into question of theology. >> so you believe that santorum was questioning the president's faith? >> well, i don't know he was questioning whether or not he worships at a christian church, but certainly suggesting he has a flawed values system. which did not used to be the same thing as saying i disagree with you politically, but clearly it's going to be this year. >> i like mike barnicle's endorsement of rick santorum including the line if you remove the content of what he said. we generally like to pay attention to the content for

most potential presidents. >> on twitter, that's a frequent critique on this program. >> take the content out. >> andrea touched a second ago on contraception because santorum's talking about reproductive rights, a position the president's supporters say could alienate some women voters. let's hear what santorum said. >> the bottom line is a lot of tests are done to identify deformities in utero and the customary procedure is to encourage abortions. and, in fact, prenatal testing that particularly amniocentesis, we know that 90% are aborted. to suggest where does that come from? i have a child with trysome 18, almost all are encoloneluraged aborted, so i know what i'm talking about. >> you'll remember his daughter was recently hospitalized. how does this play over the last couple of weeks? how does this play into the story of the republican primary?

>> well, let me expand on what gail was just saying. i don't know how we got to the point where prenatal testing, which is not related to abortion specifically, but which has a lot of medical implications and which gives people choices and information, important information about potentially what you're going to do if you discover, for instance, that during prenatal testing you have a spina bifida child. this is not about abortion, what steps you take after birth or what other steps you can take. there are so many issues that come up in prenatal testing. i'm not sure medically where we're going if we're starting to question whether insurance should pay for basic health care for women. and this is, of course, part of the larger conversation of what happened last week. but it's also -- gets to what gail was saying is that we have gone to a very different place in this campaign. we're not talking someone with fundamental issues of war, peace, jobs, you know,

unemployment, energy policy. we're talking about social issues that i thought were decided 30, 40 years ago. >> and how is this playing inside the republican party? >> you know, it's so interesting. it was on the ground at cpac, a couple weeks ago and i was asking right after rick's big -- and i can say rick, i know him. this big tuesday night three-for with minnesota and colorado and missouri. and i got a lot of rick santorums, and i said you wouldn't have said that a week ago, right? and they said no. and the reason wasn't because of the contraception issue. it was because all of a sudden he seemed electable. and that's all they were kind of looking for. a reason to believe that he could go the distance. so i'm not sure that his conservative values are going to motivate voters within the party either way by attracting them or dismissing them. i think it really is about

finding this conservative alternative to mitt romney and if he seems viable, they'll go to him for however long he seems viable. >> i'll tell you a dirty little secret about the presidential politics, being the media favorite in the candidates is a plus. very few reporters like him at all or want him to be the nominee. santorum had the opportunity to be -- to take that place and for the press to root for him, which is a big advantage, millions of dollars in publity, he's really risking that by talking about all of these cultural issues on which most reporters do not agree with him. they are alienated by it. it's going to set him back in the wider chance of being the nominee. maybe not in michigan, but more broadly, he's giving up the chance to be the press favorite. >> well, the press roots for the guy who is the new guy who will make a fight out of it, right? whoever it is, the new guy who will cause this to go on for

longer is the person that the press roots for all told. for regular people, the right to life community has been very smart throughout the last decade or so about narrowing down what they were arguing about. so that it appears you were having a fight about whether you can have an abortion when a fetus is six months along and partial birth and whether or not you can send 14-year-old children to have an abortion without parents. all of these issues in which they have wide support, they have now expanded this into can you get health care coverage for contraceptions? can you have prenatal testing? can you have fertility treatments? can you have an iud? can you use certain kinds of contraceptions that suddenly appear to be abortion causers as far as the right goes. they have lost an argument they were holding on to very tightly for the last 20, 30 years here. and i think it's a total disaster for them.

>> mark, help me out here. why am i sitting here wondering whether an element within the republican party has decided that women as a voting block aren't that important this fall? what is going on here? >> the president got back in charge of this issue when he came out and said there are two competing interests, there's a religious liberty interest and there's a reproductive and health care interest. he acknowledged both. i think the party's -- the republicans are making a huge mistake politically and being divisi divisive. and it's mostly male republicans saying it. it's a huge mistake for them because, of course, most of them believe that there is a balance there, but for political purposes, they're overplaying their hand and it's a big mistake. >> how does this play in michigan if we turn to the voting a week from tomorrow. if you look at the polls, detroit news had one, ppp had one, essentially santorum and romney in a statistical tie.

does all of this play into that? and how that happens? >> the negative frame the romney side and the super pac, that he supports earmarks. i don't know that's going to make up the ground. you know, it's a moving target. there's ads on the air, there's polling, the candidates out there. i don't think we know where it stands. my gut is that's not enough. that's not the equivalent of what they did with gingrich with freddie mac and they're going to have to find some additional negative frame to put on him. i could be wrong. it could be if there were polls taken today, romney would be ahead because of the negative ads late last week. >> and if rick santorum is able to win in the state of michigan, what does that pretend for this race? the shape of this thing changes if he loses his home state. if. >> if rick santorum wins michigan, he likely wins ohio. and you then have a race that goes all the way to tampa for sure. mitt romney will not have the delegates secured to have a majority of delegates going in.

and you're going to have a very, you know, contentious and contested convention. santorum will have real legs if he wins michigan. and romney will be almost fatally flawed. >> you said earlier that you are one of the few people you thought still believed that romney would -- >> i don't know if i'm one of the few, but i think romney's going to pull it out. i join the romney family in believing that mitt romney will probably pull it out, but it'll be close in michigan. >> now why do you say that? >> because i think he still has a lot of good will there. santorum's appeal, i think, is to this manufacturing blue collar republican. that's his message, i think it's going to work really well in michigan. i don't think it's going to have anything to do with contraception, but i don't think it's going to be enough to edge out mitt romney who is still a favorite son there. >> i couldn't figure out given that and it's all accurate, i couldn't figure out why he made such -- why romney made such a show of proclaiming his

disagreement with the automobile bailout over the last week or so. why? why just? >> why, mark? why would he do such a thing? >> i think he's trying to show consistency, like what he did on health care. on any issue where he's planted his position, he doesn't want more accusations of flip-flops and that was pretty clear in terms of what he believed. and there are people in michigan who agree with what he's saying, not all of them, but there are plenty who do. >> what could we look for at 1:00 on andrea mitchell reports? >> all of this, santorum and romney and also the contraception issue. where are women in this campaign? >> all right, andrea mitchell 1:00 today, great to see you. thanks so much. still ahead, chairman of the senate budget committee democrat kent conrad joins the conversation. and up next, the obama campaign starting to keep an eye on rick santorum. we'll talk about that with chuck todd after the break. you're watching "morning joe" 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.

♪ new york's mta, which is replacing wooden benches with new metal ones will be selling the old wooden benches for $600 to the centers for disease control? and if you act now, they'll even throw in an exhausted rabbi. >> those benches are sketchy. joining us now from washington political director and host of the "daily rundown" on msnbc, chuck todd. happy presidents' day. >> happy mattress sale day to you too. >> enthusiastic to be at work. hey. chuck, we spent a good part of the morning talking about michigan, eight days until the vote there. how do you see this race? where are we right now?

>> well, this week in particular is a pretty -- might be the most, you know, every week's the most important week in the presidential campaign until the next week, but this one is probably going to tell us where mitt romney's candidacy is going to go. you've got a debate this week, i think it's wednesday. friday is his big speech at ford field where he's supposedly going to at least readapt, reintroduce his economic program that does something to appeal to conservatives on a fiscal level since romney has struggled to do that and others. and i'm sure they're going to try to ramp up santorum. the other thing we're going to find out about santorum is this is his first full week being treated like a front-runner by the media. and i think how he handles himself, i think he's already had a rough weekend, frankly, with some of the comments he's made. how he handles himself this week with this extra scrutiny. so it's, you know, i'm not ready to write romney off either. it is amazing to me how quickly

the chatter -- it's almost as if there's a wishful thinking among some in republican party circles that you mean there really can be new candidates if somehow mitt romney loses michigan? i think that's the most dangerous story line for romney is that somehow a message is sent to republicans that the defeat of romney in michigan means new candidates. i think that would only help santorum's chances of upsetting him. >> explain that story a little bit. there was reporting from abc news over the weekend that an unnamed republican senator, senior republican senator said if mitt romney loses michigan, loses his home state, we've got to start over, get a new guy in. is that possible? is it likely? what's your assessment? >> well, is it possible? yes. i looked at the filing deadlines. the first big one is march 23rd. you start playing this through march 23rd is california. the filing deadlines for new jersey and texas also are after march 23rd. there's a few other smaller states, but use those three states as an anchor.

texas, california, new jersey. that's the possibility of just grabbing a couple hundred delegates. then you could go if you had some momentum, you could go to these places where there have been caucuses where you could go to the conventions later this year, held in april, may, and june, many of the states that held their caucuses earlier and find some of these -- it's a small slice, but there are "the republican version of super delegates," unaffiliated delegates of parties. i could paint you a scenario, a little less than 1,200 to get the nomination. i could paint you a scenario by the middle of june i could get a new candidate with a little bit of momentum with 700 or 800 delegates, no the enough, but enough to sort of force this issue of a brokered convention. somebody who has participated in a debate or two at the end say in april or may, and then, i think then you could figure out

how this happened. it wouldn't be easy, it would have to be a huge name that folks could rally around quic y quickly. frankly there's only three candidates in my view that could be that person, jeb bush, mitch daniels and maybe paul ryan. that they would be the only ones that could capture momentum that quickly, capture the apparatus of the establishment that quickly. that's how it could happen. but, man, you know, let's get a little realistic here. i think mitt romney's still got a better shot at winning michigan here than i think some of the polls indicate. >> chuck, don't take this personally, but if you mention the word caucuses one more time, i'm going to have to tape my eyelids open. that's the first thing. but what is the realistic over under for the republicans to have a brokered convention in tampa? what would you say it was? >> well, you know, six months ago, we joked it was 10%, and i thought that was high at the time and some people thought i was high for saying 10%. i still think it's only 20%, 25%

chance. and even, look, the convention is so late. let's say we get into this scenario. i sort of envision it happening this way. you get this new candidate, you cannot tell the voters they have no role in this. so i think at this point a rick santorum or mitt romney would have to somehow work with this new candidate. like, you know, if it were mitch daniels, i think he would be stuck making santorum stay his running mate so you could seal the deal before you got to tampa. you don't have time to deal with this once you get to tampa. remember when this convention is. remember the whole point of holding late conventions is they don't mean anything. when they meant something, they were held in july. so you had time to get this out of the way because a lot of times there were brokering that took place. now we move them late because they're nothing more than three or four-day advertisements. and so you would have to get all of your ducks in a row before then. so this is -- you want to talk about happening behind the scenes.

this would truly happen behind the scenes somewhere between june and july. and by august we'd know the ticket, it would be done and all the business would be over. there'd be some -- that would be my guess of how this would happen. >> mitch daniels might be the only politician in america who makes mitt romney look like mcjagger. >> the media has been accused of fantasizing about a brokered convention and someone new jumping in. but look at the poll numbers, likely republican voters simply are not enthusiastic about the choices in front of them. doesn't mean a brokered convention is going to happen, but it does mean they're not particularly excited about the front-runner. >> yeah, the media has been fantasizing, people would like an interesting story to cover for the next six months and i'm not sure mitt romney is that story. but it's not just the media fantasizing, republican voters are fantasizing, as well, and they have been for a while thinking of this frankenstein candidate where they can pick a little of this and that,

wouldn't it be great if we could have a little of everything? this this is the reality, though. and i'm not sure the sort of missing element to this. i'm not sure that someone new coming in would be able to survive over the next four months or so the media scrutiny that these guys have already gone through. rick santorum hasn't even been completely sort of excavated yet and we've already seen how he's handling it. it's not an easy job and i'm particularly thinking of someone like mitch daniels who i know is very sort of camera shy and does not want to be, you know, looked at for his private life. that was part of his reason for not getting in in the first place. so there's a whole summer of that to think about if you're one of these other candidates. >> can i say two things about romney in michigan that may seem contradictory but are both true. one is if he wins michigan, he still will struggle, i think to get a majority of the delegates.

and two, if he loses michigan, he's still the heavy favorite to become the nominee. >> you said earlier, mark, the part of mitt romney's problem might be the fact that the press does not like him. what don't they like? >> the press does not know him particularly well and they buy into the narrative that he is an ungenuine flip-flopper who doesn't relate to people. he gives the same speech every time, sometimes leavened by the recitation of song lyrics. whatever biases exist in the press, one of the biggest is we do not like candidates who change their positions. >> well, and the access issue. i would like to highlight, as well, as someone who has approached the romney campaign for interviews over the past. they are very cagey and very specific about who they talk to. and i think a lot of people in the press are wanting to get to

know him a little better. >> i'd bet they'd be very open to talking with you. >> gail collins, a series of interviews. >> we could go on the road together, talk every day. >> perhaps a short book like yours on "william henry harrison." what does it tell you, gail, that we're sitting here on february 20th, still talking about, my gosh, could somebody else get into this race? what does it tell you about what's on the table in front of us? >> can i say one thing about caucuses? these things you have that most people can't go to that you can't count the votes once they've got the votes in, and then once they've counted the votes they can't count, they're not bound to actually do anything relating to those votes, they can just vote for whoever they want in the conventions. why do we have these things? okay. >> get that off your chest. >> that was good enough. chuck, there is some evidence, though, in some reporting that the white house is taking rick santorum pretty seriously.

they're saying it's time to show his true colors. here's someone whose extreme right social views are out of touch as they are memorable writes obama's pennsylvania campaign director. >> two things going on here. one is they are a little nervous that santorum is getting such traction particularly in the industrial midwest, but getting traction with the one swing vote of this election that i think is more important than all others and that is sort of the working class white folk that stretches from the rust belt, pennsylvania, all the way to wisconsin, if you will. and santorum is -- appears -- is connecting right now with those voters polling pretty well, seen as a guy, you see in some of these numbers seen as the guy who most connects with people like me. that question. so i think they're a little nervous that somehow he's not being undermined among those voters and that's the voter the obama campaign is worried about.

ironically they feel they're doing better among those voters when matched against romney. the second part is, still, when they tell you they buy into the idea there are parts of santorum that could actually make him a tougher opponent, they do believe that once you have him talk about social issues and once you have that conversation, then, of course, it becomes an easier playing field for the president. i think part of this is they love to elevate santorum hoping in a weird way that could also hurt romney. >> chuck, i know it's pained you to watch this new york story about jeremy lin, the lin-sanity. >> i'm in. >> no. >> how do you not? he beat the mavericks yesterday. that's great. >> this is breaking news. >> for those of -- >> i'm in. forget it, you know. give me heat, knicks. that'll mean a heat/knicks conference final. those were some of the best -- the pat riley heat teams going up against some of those knicks teams. >> absolutely.

>> get that rivalry back. it was a pretty good one. >> yes. >> about two years? >> 61-58 final scores in the playoffs. >> that was nba basketball. it's fantastic. >> for those who don't know, chuck todd loathes the new york hype machine more than anyone. whether it's weather, sports, anyone else. and now we've got him onboard jeremy lin, that says a lot if you've got chuck todd onboard. >> chuck todd lin-sane. >> i've gone lin-sane. but hey, that's trademark. by the way, i don't like that, he's already trademarking it? come on, buddy. >> he's a harvard guy. he knows what he's got to do. >> he invented facebook too, right? >> we'll see you at 9:00 this morning on the "daily rundown," thanks a lot. still ahead, party crashers, takes a look at ron paul's path to power and what it has meant to the republican brand. keep it on "morning joe." [ male announcer ] we know you don't wait

until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ that right now, you want to know where you are, and where you'd like to be. we know you'd like to see the same information your advisor does

so you can get a deeper understanding of what's going on with your portfolio. we know all this because we asked you, and what we heard helped us create pnc wealth insight, a smarter way to work with your pnc advisor, so you can make better decisions and live achievement. a smarter way to work with your pnc advisor, ah, welcome to hotels.com. i get it...guys weekend. yeah! if you're looking for a place to get together, you came to the right place. because here at hotels.com, we're only about hotels. yeah! yeah! noooo. yeah! finding you the perfect place is all we do. welcome to hotels.com

[ son ] mom, computer's broke! where's i.t. mom? she quit. [ male announcer ] even with technology -- it's all you. staples easy tech can help with everything from new computers to set-ups to tune-ups. stapes. that was easy.

♪ welcome back to "morning joe." 7:38 in the morning here in new york city on presidents' day. a group of u.n. nuclear experts arrived in iran this morning. the standoff has been going on, of course, for months, only now the economic implications are taking shape. iran has said it has stopped oil shipments to the uk and france. those two among the nation set to impose a boycott on iranian crude this summer. israel says those sanctions are not doing enough to stop iran's nuclear ambition. israel insists a military strike could be the only effective option there. that's raising concerns for army general martin dempsey. >> we are of the opinion that the iranian regime is a rational actor. and it's for that reason, i think, that we think the current path we're on is the most prudent path at this point. a strike at this time would be destabilizing and wouldn't achieve their long-term objectives.

but i also understand that israel has national interests that are unique to them. and, of course, they consider iran to be a threat in a way that we have not concluded. >> meanwhile britain's foreign minister saying none of us want iran to have nuclear weapons, but i don't think it would be a wise thing at this point for israel to launch a military attack on iran. iran agreed to a new round of talks with international powers but there are few signs that iran tends to back down. wes, andrea pointed out, remarkable to have the u.s. joint chiefs of staff and the foreign minister from great britain saying the same thing from israel which is put on the brakes here, publicly. >> and i understand general dempsey's point about his belief that iran has a rational actor because you can understand why iran wants to develop nuclear technology. the reason is because they know

that countries are dealt with differently that have nuclear weapons. they can look at north korea as a perfect example and the reason there's even a conversation with north korea is because their nuclear arm power. the problem, though, what this does to the entire region and how this destabilizes, not just israel, but everyone around the region, as well. so i think that's why they're trying to bring israel back from this because they understand what both a strike or nuclear capabilities within iran would do. >> i'll tell you something else. the possibility of israel striking iran and the possibility of $5 a gallon gas by september, no one's going to be talking about contraception or theology. >> in the internet twitter age, this strike would get so much more attention and time than israel previously did in operation like this. and the pentagon's worried about the aftermath and what would happen. so unpredictable if there were a strike. >> an interesting piece this morning in gail's newspaper about how difficult this operation would be for israel. it's not a quick strike, get in,

get out. coming up next, congressional republicans say the senate democrats have not passed a budget in more than 1,000 days. we'll bring in the chairman of the senate budget committee kent conrad to answer that claim and do it in a lovely zip-up sweater. scarborough homage. >> he's a baseball hero too. ♪

[ kareem ] i was fascinated by balsa wood airplanes since i was a kid. [ mike ] i always wondered how did an airplane get in the air. at ge aviation, we build jet engines. we lift people up off the ground to 35 thousand feet. these engines are built by hand with very precise assembly techniques. [ mike ] it's gonna fly people around the world. safely and better than it's ever done before. it would be a real treat to hear this monster fire up. [ jaronda ] i think a lot of people, when they look at a jet engine, they see a big hunk of metal. but when i look at it, i see seth, mark, tom, and people like that who work on engines every day. [ tom ] i would love to see this thing fly. [ kareem ] it's a dream, honestly.

there it is. oh, wow. that's so cool! yeah, that was awesome! [ cheering ] [ tom ] i wanna see that again. ♪ let me get that door for you... [ man ] i loved my first car... sometimes the door gets stuck... oh sure. ooh! [ man ] ...and then, i didn't. um... [ sighs ] [ man ] so, i got a car i can love a really, really long time. [ male announcer ] for the road ahead, the all-new subaru impreza®. ♪ experience love that lasts. ♪ what do you get when you combine the home depot with this weekend? the cure for cabin fever. because with get-it-done savings on everything we need... we can turn this weekend into a fresh floor...

or an updated bathroom... or a brand-new look. so let's hit those orange aisles, and make today the day, we make a big difference, no matter how big our budget. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot maximize your budget with great buys, like mosaic tile, just $4.98 per square foot. the state of the union marks 1,000 days since this senate has fulfilled its statutory

responsibility of passing a budget. >> it's now been 1,000 days since the democrat-controlled senate under harry reid has actually passed a budget. >> today marks the 1,000th day since we've acted on a budget in the united states senate. >> harry reid's majority hasn't passed a budget in more than 1,000 days. now the senator's refusing to consider a budget on the floor. this is is -- >> here with us now the democratic senator from north dakota, the chairman of the budget committee, senator kent conrad coming in on a day off on presidents' day. senator, we appreciate you being with us this morning. >> you bet. good to be with you, willie. >> so you heard the republicans there. january 24th marked 1,000 days since no budget from the democrat-led congress. how do you answer that? >> first of all, their talking points are remarkably consistent. and remarkably misleading. they must have forgotten the budget control act that we

passed in august of last year with 74 votes in the united states senate that set a budget for the next two years, for this year and next that set ten years of spending caps. that's very unusual. most budget resolutions only have a year or maybe three years of spending caps. the budget control act has ten years of spending caps saving $900 billion over the next ten years. all of the enforcement mechanisms of the budget, it also provided the special committee that was given extraordinary powers to deal with revenue and entitlements enforced by a sequester, a sequester is a fancy name for automatic spending cuts of another $1.2 trillion over the next ten years. so, you know, if you think about it, how could it be that we know that there's going to be $487 billion of savings out of defense over the next ten years,

which the president's budget just called for if there was no budget plan, no budget outline, no road map for savings? we do know that there's going to have to be that amount of savings because of the budget control act. so our friends have convenient amnesia. it's good talking points. but the fact is we have a budget in place for this year and next. we have ten years of spending caps, and a special committee was given the opportunity to deal with entitlements and revenue without a threat of filibuster. unfortunately, they failed. but nonetheless, they were given that opportunity just as they would be in a budget resolution. >> senator, we've got mark haleprin with us this morning and he's got a question. >> it's all very complicated. but let me focus on one piece of it. you're right, you did turn it over to the special committee to try to address it. they didn't. wouldn't the responsible thing to do be to put forward a budget that deals with entitlements and

put down the marker for your party and your body to say here's what our budget would be on medicare and medicaid? >> absolutely, and i will do that. we will have a mark-up in the budget committee. and i will lay out a plan that will be a ten-year plan. even though we have in place the budget control act. and by the way, i think there was one other important point to make. a budget resolution is not the law. a budget resolution never goes to the president for signature. a budget resolution is purely a congressional document. the budget control act is the law. passed by both the house and the senate and signed into law by the president of the united states. so in many ways, it's stronger than a budget resolution. >> senator, gail collins of the "new york times" is with us. >> senator, hi, i think some people get confused about what the budget does. it's not appropriating money, right? you don't actually need a budget

to make the government continue to work, right? >>right? >> you know what a budget resolution does is it sets limits to what the appropriators can do. it says how much money you can spend, which is exactly what the budget control act did. it also says to those who raise the money how much money to raise. that's already in law what is going to be raised. so, a budget resolution says to the appropriators, this is how much money you have to spend, says to the finance committee and the ways and means committee, this is how much money you need to raise and, you know, look, what's also very clear is we do need a ten-year plan to deal with entitlements and revenue.

the budget control act gave that ability to a special committee last year, evenly divided between republicans and democrats and told them if you come up with a result, it can't be filibustered, it can't be blocked, it cannot be limited in the way we so often do around here with procedure. so, all of that was in place. unfortunately, the special committee did not come to a conclusion but there is a consequence for their failure, the consequence was also provided in the budget chrome act another $1.2 trillion of spending cuts that will have to be put in place over the next ten years. >> senator quickly before you go, what upsets you the most, republicans challenging you on the credibility of the budget or albert pujols leaving st. louis and going to anaheim? >> well in terms of substance, i'm most disturbed when my colleagues slip into the political in order to mislead people that there's no plan in play, nothing has been done to limit spending but it's just not

true. but in the sports world, i'm most upset that nobody has offer made contract as a left-handed reliever. >> little spot duty for you, senator. quickly before we let you go you mentioned to mark halperin that you will come out with something on the medicare and medicaid, can you give us a preview, any talk of ragtz retirement age, means testing? what are we talking about here? >> you know, the markup will come probably in march or april, those decisions haven't been made. as you know, i served on the president's fiscal commission, i served on the group of six. in both those venues, we came one ten-year plans to save $4 trillion, in part by changes to medicare but more broadly spending and revenue and, yes, we did raise additional revenue. the only place that there's been a bipartisan plan will is the fiscal commission, 11 of us, five democrats, five republicans, one independent. the group of six, three democrats, three republicans, in

both those places, we came one long-term plans that really did get our debt and deficits under control. i was proud to be a part of those efforts and i will borrow heavily from those conclusions when i put down a budget plan later this year. >> all right. let's hope you guys get together on that soon for the benefit of -- >> willie, can i just say i'm a little disappointed you didn't ask me yes missed our appointment last thursday. >> so we had you booked on thursday and took the shot, expecting to have an ennened conversation about the budget and there was nobody there where were you? >> willy, the night before, i started reading a book. i could not put it down. i got so engrossed in the book that i read all night and then overslept and. willie, here's the book. >> "american freak show" in paper back. >> i till, this is a must-read. >> senator that is what we call

an excused absence in the business. thanks. thanks. it is out in paper back, you can get now. senator conrad, we appreciate you being here, especially on presidents' day. thank you so much. >> all right. >> more "morning joe" in a moment. when bp made a commitment to the gulf, we were determined to see it through. here's an update on the progress. we're paying for all spill related clean-up costs. bp findings supports independent scientists studying the gulf's environment. thousands of environmental samples have been tested and all beaches and waters are open. and the tourists are back. i was born here, i'm still here and so is bp.

♪ they hatin' ♪ patrolling and tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ [ mom ] hi, there. why do we always have to take your mom's car? [ male announcer ] the security of a tiguan, one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. ♪ tryin' to catch me ridin' dirty ♪ 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. lord of the carry-on. sovereign of the security line. you never take an upgrade for granted. 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. i deserve this. [ male announcer ] you do, business pro. you do. go national. go like a pro.

gail collins, william henry harrison on president's day it is the book to have wouldn't you say? >> this is his month, he was

born february 9th. he is part of this group, you know? >> as you point out, you got in a one-month presidency as much out of william henry harrison as another author got out of fdr. >> all these books are says to read and short. >> thanks for coming n the book is "william henry harrison" by the great gail collin was. up next, choice words from rick santorum over the weekend raising the stakes in michigan. we will talk about that next.

forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever, it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. for our free usaa retirement guide, call 877-242-usaa.

are you still sleeping? just wanted to check and make sure that we were on schedule. the first technology of its kind... mom and dad, i have great news. is now providing answers families need. siemens. answers.

good morning. good presidents' day, 8:00 in the morning on the east coast, take a live look at new york city, back with us on set, contributor mike barnicle. msnbc and "time" analyst, mark halperin, veteran of the united states army, captain wes moore, new york columnist se cup and foreign affairs correspondent and the host, of course, of "the andrea mitchell reports" program every day at 1:00 on msnbc, andrea mitchell. let's talk about the rick santorum soundbite gaining attention, the theology bite, the race for the white house. he says, despite what his critics are accusing him of, he was not attacking president obama's faith with the line he made over the weekend in ohio. >> this is what the president's agenda -- it's not about you. it's not about you. it's not about your quality of life. it's not about your jobs. it's about some phony ideal, some phony theology.

oh, not a theology based on the bible, different theology but no less a theology. the president of the united states is exercising his values and trufrpg the valu and trumping the values of the church. you don't want to call it a theology, fine, you can let me know what they want to call it but it is a different set of moralalues they are imposing on people who have a constitutional right to have their own values within the church. the left in america has their own moral code in which they want to impose on this country. you can call it a theology. you can call it a moral code. you can call a world view, but they have their own moral code that they want to impose every be else. >> santorum was asked about his theology marks on face the nation. he said his comments were not about the president's religion but rather his environmental policy. >> this idea that man is not --

is here to serve the earth as opposed to husband its resources and be good stewards of the earth, and i think that is a phony ideal. i don't believe that that's what we are here to do. when you have a world view that elevates the earth above man and says that we can't take those resources because we are going to harm the earth by things that are frankly not scientifically proven, for example, politicization of the whole global warming debate this is just all an attempt to you know, centralize power and to give more power to the government. this is not questioning the president's beliefs in christianity. >> mark halperin, help us wade through this over the weekend. so, on saturday, he talk about the president's theology with no reference to the environment. he comes on "face the nation" on sunday and says i was talking about the president's environmental policy. what is going on here? >> i think the stuff that

happened to him the last couple of days, bad if's republican nominee in terms of winning a general election, make it harder for him to govern if he becomes president. the press doesn't like it at all it might be helping him win the nomination, however, because he is engaging in the kind of rhetoric for the right and the voters he competing with mitt romney for, pretty popular. >> you can comment on what he said there let's look a little broader to what's happening here. he has a lead, santorum, in the state of michigan, mitt romney's home state, tightening up a little bit. where are we this race, eight days ahead of michigan? >> still in the camp that believes that mitt romney is going to pull it out in mich mir, the apocalyptic predictions for michigan overblown though. if deserves to be said if santorum wins in michigan that is a huge problem optically, politically, strategically explaining that away. as much as newt gingrich would like to say that it is bad if anyone loses their home state, i

think santorum losing pennsylvania not the same as romney losing michigan. bigger story. >> andrea, is in the way a candidate -- rick santorum, let's say two weeks ago, relatively unknown, now he has been on the headlines, in the news each and every day as he inches closer to perhaps getting the nomination and perhaps beating governor romney in michigan but those clips that we just saw, is this really the way you want to introduce yourself to a larger constituency in the nation? >> well, he began to introduce himself, you know, after iowa when he thought he came close to wing, he later learned he actually won iowa and those caucus results, as we saw in maine, i are aed real questions about this caucus process, but for rick santorum, who has been introducing himself now for quite some time, he has an economic message, he has a blue collar appeal, these are the rust belt states, michigan, then ohio, where he ought to do very well, but he is -- taking a

calculation that his gut and this is the real rick santorum, those who covered him in the house and senate remember this very, very well. this is the rick santorum that actually lost pennsylvania by 18% because he was too conservative on social value issues for pennsylvanianess and because he was running against bob casey who had a famous name in pennsylvania. his father had been the attorney general and governor and also was against abortion and was very conservative on social issues so appealed to that sector as well. i think that rick santorum is making a mistake if he wants to be the nominee because, mark, i don't even know that this is the right way to appeal to republican voters. yes, you excite the base by going after barack obama, but i think that this is so concerning to party leaders, the anonymous senators who talked to me and talked to people at and who say that he cannot be the nominee and that we then have to look

for someone else, if mitt romney were to lose michigan. >> andrea, which concerns those people the most about him? which positions? is it the theology comments? is it the contraception? what are they most worried about? >> some of his original comments on contraception going back. yes, being against abortion rights is really a mainstream conservative position in the republican party but he is so far conservative, so far to the right, that he is going to have a very hard time appealing to women and independent voters, republican women, and that whole sector of independent voters, the voters that are needed to win a general election. that said, ed gillespie on "meet the press" yesterday was making the point very strongly that jeb bush has absolutely decided not to run. al hunt said that as well, based on sources he has in florida and that others at bloomberg have, mark silva in florida. and if that is the case, if jeb bush is not someone that they can turn to in a contested convention, then i'm not sure

where they go, who else is out there, if chris christie is not really running this time and if mitch daniels is not running or cannot be persuaded to run or not considered a strong nominee. >> andrea i totally agree that the elites in the party look at the things santorum is saying and only enhances and reinforces their worries he would not be a strong general election candidate from that point of view. i don't think that is the group that is going to power santorum to a win in mich and ohio. >> you are probably right. >> is people who i think like the culture language plenty. i agree with you though it would be in his interest to try not to make his national narrative be all this stuff. should be grandson of a coal miner, grandson of a coal mine miner, but the way, i'm grandson of a coal miner. he can bring in people who think he would be a strong general election candidate than mitt romney, but i think in the short term, whether he wins michigan or not does not depend on this stuff. >> say one quick thing, appealing thing about rick

santorum this is all the then theic that is what distinguishes himself from what we see mitt romney when he talks about the trees in michigan being the right height. >> but it also seems like in addition to the party leaders being concerned what we see with rick santorum, the other person that is really concerned about this is mitt romney. and for this reason, because it is starting to show a lot of shades of 2008 f the debate, particularly the primary debate in 2008 was all about the economy, changes are there would have been a very different result. changes are that jrm would not have runaway, would have held on longer if that was the primary concern people had in 2008. by seeing all these cultural issues now taking center stage in the republican primary, i think mitt romney is saying if not the argument not that i can be a better steward of the economy, this does allow room for people to get inside the race and make it is a very tiny situation for the romney campaign going forward. >> santorum has to make, into the difficult job, but make a pivot from the values issues which i think work in a primary for a little while to economic

issues and it is a very simple pif involvement he can actually use this contraception issue to say, look, if we are ought to protect women's economic security, the best way to do that is for the senate to balance a budget, for the government to cut spending, to reduce the size of government in women's private lives. he has to make that argument that economic decisions have moral implication and make the message larger than contraception, prenatal care, et cetera. >> romney has to stop santorum. i think the public polls are pretty con clues circumstance at least based on the last check, he is behind. the thing about santorum talking about this stuff is romney can't attack him on this stuff. romney can't say he is too conservative for a general election electorate that would kill him now to the extent this is the dialogue, i think it makes it harder for romney to get a clean hold in the earned media and the press as opposed to the ads to stop santorum. >> jonathan carl of abc news talked to a senior republican senator who said if mitt romney

loses in michigan, loses his home state it is time to open this thing back up and get somebody in. we keep hearing that, somebody else will get n what are you hearing and is that even a possibility at this point? >> there are tons of people who would like someone to get in, even now, have to be an actual human being, very few people whose names, even plausible -- i think there's one scenario where this is a real thing that is if mitt romney gives up. mitt romney says, says he loses michigan, not going to be me, i'm not the right guy. i don't think it is going to happen but that is the only way one of these big republicans, chris christie, jeb bush, mitch daniels that is the only way i think one of them would even think about getting in, if romney basically left that vacuum of the establishment. and even then, romney would have been forced out by santorum, coming in against a guy with a head of steam and i don't know any of those guys want to come in and deal with that. >> the truth is if a new person came in at this point, it would have to be at a broader convention, 'cause you couldn't get enough ballots, delegates to win the nomination f that happens, it is going to be something that is going to

happen down the road at the convention. andrea i want to to you on this iran story. group of nuclear experts in iran just this morning talking about the suspicion that perhaps tehran is working on an atoinlgs weapons program. the standoff going on for months, now the economic implications going show themselves. iran says it stopped oil shipments to the uk and france, among the nations set to oppose a boycott on iranian crude this summer. israel says those sanctions not enough to stop iran's nuclear ambitions. they insist a military strike maybe the only effective option and that is raising some concerns here in the u.s. martin dempsey -- general martin dempsey, chairman of the u.s. general chiefs of staff speaking yesterday. >> we are of the opinion that the iranian regime is a rational actor and it is for that reason i think that we think the current path we are on is the most prudent path at this point. a strike at this time would be destabilizing and wouldn't achieve their long-term objectives, but i mean i also

understand that israel has national interests that are unique to them and, of course, they consider iran to be an existential threat in a way that we have not concluded that irvan an existential threat. >> great britain's foreign minister echoing those remarks, saying "none of us want iran to have nuclear weapon bus i don't think it would be wise that the moment for israel to launch a nuclear attack on iran." andrea you have been reporting extensively on this story. where are we this morn? >> it was extraordinary that the chairman of the joint chiefs, martin dempsey, plus william haig, the foreign secretary in the uk would both come out and say what they said. this is the strongest signal, tom donelan, the national security adviser is in israel, met with prime minister netanyahu last night and is presumably having more meetings today. they are doing everything they can, publicly and privately, basically pleading, they are shuttling over to israel use these u.s. officials telling

israel not to strike iran. at the same time we saw "diplomatic leak" very vaguely sourced over the weekend from vienna where the international atomic energy agency is based, subjecting that the underground caverns that we all know about that u.s. intelligence actually discovered an then the iranians acknowledged two years ago that those caverns were being outfitteded with seine riff fines. the facts are, according to american intel jones, that that is not the case, that the sanctions have worked to prevent the equipment from being installed and that those caverns are basically a poe temp kin village. all the signal wers getting from the u.s. is iran has not made the decision yet to build a weapon but israel, as general dempsey said, has a very different posture because it san existential threat to them, they perceive it that way and the argument is that israel would do more harm than good if it were to strike iran.

it would be destabilizing, said general dempsey. >> andrea listen to general dempsey calling iran a rational actor. >> a rational actor. >> which kind of struck me. how much does the shadow of wmd, weapons of mass destruction in iraq, hang over this dialogue back and forth? >> oh, i think it overshadows everything, internationally and domestically here in the u.s. the bottom line is this is what u.s. officials believe to be the case them say that they have very good intelligence on iran. they were able, the israelis, we suspect, if not with u.s. help, with were able to centrifuges through a computer virus in iran or on its way into iran. you have seen the assassinations of iranian nuclear scientists. they have slowed the process down. they believe that iran has not made the political decision to proceed and nowville crimed by sanction and is the moment when irvan finally getting back to the negotiating table after a

year. and they don't know if it's another stall and if iran is just trying to bluff and keep everyone else off guard but they think for now, while irvan agreeing internationally to negotiate, irvan not a rogue actor is not north korea that iran actually wants to be part of the international world economically and politically. and that there is something to negotiate. >> do it is strike you that we are talking about the nuclear capability potential of iran? >> israel preemptive perhaps, first strike on iran's nuclear facilities and yet in michigan and other states, they are talking about the pill, public schools in terms of the national political dialogue here? it is kind of strike. >> one of these things does not belong. yeah. whether it is iran, syria, i mean, there's a lot going on in the rest of the world. that said, you can't dismiss the so-called culture wars in america as insignificant or

distractions in an election year. these are things that matter and even in economically terrible times or times when foreign policy problems are cropping up all over the world, these are still the kitchen table issues this matter to families. maybe not the pill, but these are things people talk about around their kitchen table, not talking about syria as much as we would like them to. >> barnicle has seven kids. he never talked about family planning around his table to go back, wes, quickly, get for americans watching today is if as andrea says, israel said we respect your opinion, america, but we feel an existential threat, we have to go in, what happens to the united states? then what becomes or role? do we go in support of israel? >> i think the administration has been very clear, the united states, whether it be military action or otherwise, we will go in and support israel. it isn't also just about what the u.s. is going to do, you have all the other regional

actors have to react as well. turkeyly react. you have the new iraqi government, forced to react, saudi arabia forced to react and the idea it could cause a nuclear race within the region i think is what terrifies a lot of people as well. >> "the new yorker" magazine develops into ron paul's unique brand of libertarianism and why despite being anti-tax and anti-bailout, he has failed to establish himself that is year's tea party candidate. also this hour, how hip-hop helped rewrite the rules of the new economy. music mogul turned advertising executive steve stout is with us. first, bill karins with the forecast. bill? >> good morning tour the snowstorm that hit virginia yesterday along with areas of north carolina is gone n its wake, chilly air this morning but a nice monday president's day forecast. if you can lucky enough tore the day off from work or school not a bad day of skiing areas in new england, too. temperatures in the 40s in the big cities, wind chills cool this morning. another very warm week ahead, temperatures up there to the mid to upper 60s possibly, areas of

d.c. to the end of this week, then colder air for the weekend. still some chilly air the middle of the country, some light snow out there through areas of iowa, possibly minnesota and south dakota. even chicago could get a wintery mix late tonight into tomorrow morning. by chicago standards this is a pretty mild week, you are going to dodge the rain drops now and then, maybe another chance of snow on friday. your president's day forecast overall looks pretty good out there, another wild week ahead you are watching "morning joe," brewed by starbucks. 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. chocolate lemonade ? susie's lemonade... the movie. or... we make it pink ! with these 4g lte tablets, you can do business at lightning-fast speeds. we'll take all the strawberries, dave. you got it, kid. we have a winner. we're definitely gonna need another one. small businesses that want to grow use 4g lte technology from verizon. i wonder how she does it. that's why she's the boss. because the small business with the best technology rules. contact the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 1-800-974-6006. when i lost weight in all the right places. you know what i mean! [ laughs ] when i tried to lose weight other ways,

i felt hungry all the time. on weight watchers online, i eat all day long. i loved grabbing those activity points and throwing them into my tracker. and then it adds it up for you at the end of the week so that you can earn more points for food. i never thought that way before. i lost 38 pounds with weight watchers online. i really did it. [ laughs ] [ female announcer ] join for free today. weight watchers online. finally, losing weight clicks.

america is waking up. the bad news is that washington is still sound asleep. but our job is to wake washington up, make sure they hear our message. we can never accept the notion which ex-symmss today that the government can protect us against ourselves. governments can't do that.ists government can protect us against ourselves. governments can't do that. >> ron paul on the stump in missouri. joining us, a staff writer for the new yorker. he writes about ron paul's

unique brand of libertarianism. "last summer ax, jon stewart mocked cable news channels for pretending ron paul doesn't exist and asked how does libertarian ron paul become the 13th floor in a hotel in the answer is embedded in a question, people don't think of paul as a top-tier republican candidate partly because they think of him as a libertarian. anti-tax, anti-bailout, but also anti-war, anti-empire and sometimes anti-republican." k, good to see you this morning. >> good to see you. >> has ron paul broadened his basins 2008 the last time we saw him? more support. we know he has the most passionate supporters, does he have more of them? >> yeah, doing better state by state than he did four years ago but i was really surprised when i went to his rallies. i figured after the tea party, after what happened in 2010, he was going to be a little more in sync with the republican party, he was going to be out there, blasting obama care and blasting bailouts, et cetera, et cetera. when i went to see his, i was surprised to see viscerally how

far he was from the mainstream of the republican party. he gets on the stump and talks about we have got to end the war, we have got to legalize drugs, cut $1 trillion right now. his message is really sharply different from what other candidates are saying even, now, even post tea party. >> any sense he has attempted or gotten advice he ought to attempt to mainstream himself or dedicated to his point of view, credited that? >> he has been at this essentially 40 year, since nixon broke the link between the dollar around the gold standard. he is kind of used to being an outlier. he was an outlier when he was in congress in the '70s and '80s, in '88 when he ran as a libertarian. an outlier in the libertarian party. he come backs to the republican party. he is used to not fitting in. this is who his supporters r >> his consistency is not only admirable, it is amazing in the context of these political times that we live in. does he not care at one level about getting elected, i mean on a national scale?

>> there are other issues he cares about more answered cares more about the federal reserve and more about the gold standard and more about shrinking government and ending wars, et cetera, than he cares about winning this thing or that thing but i think also he realizes that, you know, if he gave up those things, that would be giving up what his appeal was in the first place, so, you see bits of it from his campaign, in other words, you go to a ron paul rally there and is a little brochure that says ron small fighting to protect marriage and you can clearly tell this is meant to appeal to some republican sbroirts then he gets on the stump and he doesn't talk the same way his brochures look. get the feeling maybe there's some people in this campaign who think, hey there's ways we can reach out to republican voters, but you put in front of a microphone, he wants to talk about how the dollar has lost 90-something% of his value in 100 years, those are the issues he wants to focus on the. >> he gets on the stage in a debate, not interested in being a member of the club, talk about the issues the way he wants to talk about them, doesn't mind

getting wood the way he has been in a couple of these rallies, he is going to drive this message wherever he is. >> he is about issues, presidential campaigns are more than just issues and position papers and pamphlets. do you have a sense of him as a person what he cares about, what motivates him, what he is like what his person a.m. sit like? >> it is funny because you want there to be some spider-man-like origin story, right? people say his parents talked about hyper invasion plague in the old country and that got him flood reading hayek and pleases and stuff. but he is a man motivated primarily by the economic issues and scenes uncomfortable when it moves to culture and other issues. this is really what he loves. >> so when you look at the movement of ron paul is it about ron paul or is it about the issues? and answering that as well what is the bench look like? what does a libertarian bench have for ron paul? >> like i said, a lot of libyans even disagree with him on certain things, abortion, immigration or the gold standard

but i was always surprised when i talked to supporters at ron paul events, they really bought in wholesale. you didn't come up to people the way you might talk to someone at newt gingrich's events, i agree with gingrich on this but not so much on that i expect people to say ron paul is great on the budget but i don't know about foreign policy. they were with him kind of across the board and it is in some sense a quirky group of positions there is not an obvious other person two go for, some of the fans are fans of say alex jones, talked to people who voted for obama and now changed their mind but again and again, his supporters would say he is the only politician i really care about, with a possible exception of the senator from kentucky, his son rand paul. >> there is a specter, a possibility of ron paul running as third party candidate and gunking up this race. based on your reporting what is the likelihood that he does that? >> what happened in 2008, super awkward, press conference with four independent candidate, one

bob barr doesn't show up to the press conference, only three candidate, the last minute, he endorses chuck baldwin from the constitution party and it is kind of all mixed up, i'm sure he wants a slightly smoother end game at this time. the question, does he run independent, does he not do that in order to try to preserve a future for his son, wrapped paul? does he end up somehow endorsing romney? people talked about a strategic alliance between him and romney similar to what buchanan had with dole in 1996 against graham and that maybe somehow, if romney gets, they do work something out, he might be able to endorse romney even though his own supporters would flip out. >> mark, what's your sense of rand paul's future in relation to fizz father? >> i think he has got a bigger future if he wants to be a national player. his personality is more accessible to people, as much as ron paul has his following, especially amongst young people. i think rand paul has a more

accessible personality and a great politician e understands the public mood and the same sort of list of principled positions so i think rand paul will be a player, at least in the senate. i think if he decides to run for president, he will have at least as much success and maybe more as his father. >> go ahead. >> do you think is possible that someone like santorum or romney could make the overture to ron paul's poll three will allow him to get some of that support? >> some but not all that much. i think a lot of them will sit down. and you don't buy into the cop ventional wisdom he will run as a third party to hurt his son, rand? >> i don't, willie. i think rand paul's future path does not rely on apeegz the establishment interest who might freak out if his father got in as an independent candidate. >> kelafa, great piece, thank you so much. coming up, jeremy lin does it again, leading the knicks against the defending nba champion dallas mavericks. we will break it down when we come back. >> be right here in studio? >> yes, live for the hour. >> fantastic.

we will break it down when we we will break it down when we

lock me up. i mean, i am criminally lynn sane. my feelings are lintense.

>> it is lindescribable. i am literally lin love with this jeremy lin. >> that was the opening sketch on "snl" over the weekend. with that jeremy lin's status as a cultural icon is cemented. lin and the knicks have been on a tear since he was named starting point guard, winning 7-8. last night, he faced his toughest opponent, world champion dallas mavericks. dirk nowitzki and the mavs in the middle of a six-game winning streak. first quarter, knicks, an early lead, lin a three from the corner with the assist from the newest knick, jr smith. he played well, too. the defending champs come bang in the second. jason kidd to nowitzki for three. the mavs up eight, look liked they would pull away a little bit but jeremy lin led them back. not sure the knicks come back from that deficit against the world champs a couple of weeks ago. lin, a big steal and jam. how about the throw down from jeremy lin? knicks up three into the fourth, the fans at the garden going

berserk, spike lee loves it the throw back harvard jeremy lin jersey on the knicks roll, jeremy lin finds steve novack. how about steve novack lightning it up yesterday from the land of plenty, wes moore. scored all 14 of his points in the fourth quarter, hitting four threes for novack. knicks up six and then lin brought down the house. >> novack's drifting in the corner. lin over dirk. oh! timeout, dallas. how good is this? >> lin rains a three-pointer over-the-stretched arm of seven-footer dirk nowitzki. the knicks up nine at that point and did not look back, win 104-97, jeremy lin, 28 points, career high 14 assists. look at these numbers. you cannot doubt this man anymore. over his first eight games as an nba starter, he scored 200 points, that's more than any point guard over that span in nba history. more than isaiah thomas, more

than magic johnson. his 76 assists over the first eight nba starts, second only to john stockton. he has been turning the ball over a little bit but we can fix that, wes, fix the turnovers. and if you are a time warner cable subscriber in new york city thank jeremy lin for getting msg back on your screen a 48-day blackout, the two sides, msg and time warper fight bug they had to come back on the air because of jeremy lin. people were xrich switching to verizon, people calling furious, governor andrew cuomo said the heightened pressure from lin led to this deal. one other note from last night's game, lip sanity ruck off on some of the fans at halftime, one given a chance to whip a car if he can make a half-court shot answered goes glass and nails it, immediately runs to spike lee to celebrate his new car. it is amazing to see madison square garden like this it has been a mausoleum for 15 years. >> jeremy lin is very, very

happy he didn't sign with the timberwolves. >> yes. this is, woulding out well for everybody. coming up next, music mogul, advertising exec sive steve stoute, talks about the tanning of america. it is nating topic. we will get into it next on "morning joe." ♪

get a free balcony upgrade when you book now. limited time offer. some restrictions apply. 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? monarch of marketing analysis. with the ability to improve roi through seo all by cob.

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. i'm going b-i-g. [ male announcer ] good choice business pro. good choice. go national. go like a pro. gentleman believe it the two most beautiful women in the world in one room, my wife, beyonce, and my little baby. blue ivy jr. ha ha ha, yep. >> look at her, jay, sleeping peacefully in her crib. it's like one of diana ross's finest wigs. [ door bell ] >> oh, no our friends are coming to the see the baby, and i'm such a mess.

i'm only wearing this. >> excuse me, prince is here to see you. >> thank you, white butler. you may show him in. >> actually, he would prefer to enter from the kitchen. >> with us now the founder and the ceo of brand marketing firm translation llc, steve stoute, the author of the great book, "the tanning of america, how hip-hop created a culture that rewrote the rules of the new economy." does jay farrell do a good jay-z? >> the laugh. that's about it. tried to laugh his way through the entire bit. >> jay-z, of course, your friend and business partner. first of all we got to point out, look at this, guys, "new york times" -- >> look at him. >> the business section, corner office, with steve stoute.

i have been fascinated by your specialty for some time, as i think a product of the tanning of this country. why don't you explain the theory, the philosophy behind it. >> well, basically what it is tanning is this effect that took place i would say over the last 25 years, where hip-hop culture, not necessarily music but the culture created by the music has done a lot to bring generations of -- a generation of kids together and they see the world through a very similar lens and i call that lens tanning and that -- people start to see it more and more, since the census data came out, just speaking about how much this country has come together, interracial marriages, and you put on top of that what's taken place with sharing, people going online, there's so much social sharing happening right now that you start to see that people are coming out and you can no longer look at somebody'sette hisity to determine what drives them culturally, you can't telegraph that anymore. your ethnicity has nothing to do when with what you decide you want to partake in or how you

see the world, where years ago, they would telegraph that information and put you in boxes, like they tried to put you in a little box. they tried. couldn't keep me. couldn't keep me in the box. you talk about tanning moments, i saw a couple weeks ago after jay-z did a couple of shows at carnegie hall. and i thought about you, we have talked with tanning a lot. >> ran into each other. >> i saw you afterward there we were in carnegie hall this great symphony hall, an audience, let's be honest, predominantly white, jay-z. >> 5,000 a ticket. 5,000 a ticket. right. that happens. trust me, i didn't pay 5,000 a ticket. >> all went to charity. >> it was all for charity. jay-z is up in the second balcony singing biggie's juicy and every person in that crowd knew every word. >> that was amazing. out of all the things that took place, knowing a lot of record's on there b sides but when he sang "juicy" and just held the mike out to the crowd and just started singing in unison, i was

like, wow. you know, look at this. this is perfect this is carnegie hall, right? this is jay-z being as jay-z as he could ever be, he was perfect that night answered gave it up to biggie and the crowd just went for it. it was like, wow, this is a tanning moment. this shows how far we have come as a society to accept one another and the music part, we have all dibble and dabbled in music. it was more than music. everybody was culturally there they knew everything, the mannerisms, they all bounce the same way, like they all seen the music video together, it was a very special thing. you know, the book has definitely taken on a role, very scholastic part of colleges. they are starting to use it in their curriculum, starting to use it as a way to study music and study marketing. so, i'm just happy with the success of it and i think it's been doing a fantastic thing opening people's eyes. >> you can take that thing out, by the way, down the need it how far back to dow trace this?

the last 25 years or so? people like to go back to the aerosmith/run-d.m.c. "walk this way" has a big tanning moment. where do you see the beginning of this? >> i speak about the commerce aspect of it a lot, okay? so i think the commerce took place at madison square a garden in 1986 when run dmc was there performing and an executive from adidas came over, because there was a shoe that was selling particularly well on the east coast, but they weren't doing well overall as a company, but one skew was and he went and seen run start to sing a song called "my adidas" held up his left sneaker around the whole crowd of 18,000 held up the same sneakerer that's when this guy said this thing is bigger that music, it changed things culturally. it has aspiration attached to it and i think that's the tipping point of when it became much deeper than just a song you danced to on the radio. >> and you mentioned juicy earlier, one of the lines in

juicy is he says remember rapping dude i never thought the hip-hop would take it this far. when did you personally know that this thing suspect going anywhere and is only getting bigger? >> you know, i used to go over -- i manage nos, an artist nos and i remember going to europe in '96, '95, '96 and i started seeing the graffiti, people trying to emulate the dress code, like the music videos were tutorials, people were watching the music videos and trying to duplicate the sensibilities of it, i'm like this is not only penetrating caucasian neighborhoods because we already had seen that with the record sale spike but we started seeing the culture start to penetrate deep around the world and started to see clothing lines come out of it, right, baggy clothing or the term bling, you just started seeing it permeate, permeate, go deeper and deeper. i would say around '96 is when i knew this was gonna be something

really special for the long run. >> what do you think it is about hip-hop that caught snir where are white kids in the suburbs singing 50 cent songs about being shot nine times, something they can't relate to personally? >> i think that every generation has its counterculture stance in which becomes popular culture. i think coming out of the 60s, it was rock 'n' roll, right? something to i know you guys like "leave it to beer," mom and dad, but i like something else. it is this kpa weigh and an art form that captures the voice of my generation. i think hip-hop did something for this millennial generation that was much different than genx had. i feel this way, unapologetic about the way i feel, don't put me into a certain box and i'm gonna wear my hat backward and i live in greenwich, connecticut, and that's how i feel, mom. i know you don't like that so much but this is what it is. so i think that's the reason. any time you have that counterculture approach, especially disagreeing with your

parents is like a wave, right? >> yeah. >> goes through waves, generations like i don't listen to my parents, everybody, yeah, that's pop, what let's do that. >> wes gave you lyrics from "juicy," mike barnicle would give you "hypnotize." >> irving berlin. >> "leave it to beaver." >> before i go off, i want to give my daughter, sophia, a shoutout, she is down in disney world and she is trying to -- >> what kind of pass does she have down there? >> well, yesterday, she had an all-access pass. today, she is going to go through disney world the regular stand in line for an hour and a half way, but she is prepared for it. she has her crocs. ready to go. >> steve, it's great to see you. the bookville good. it says so much about our culture, as steve said you can not just culture but about the economy now as well. the book is "the tanning of america," read an excerpt of the block on our blog, mojo.msnbc.com. more "morning joe" in a moment. ♪

our machines help identify early stages of cancer and it's something that we're extremely proud of. you see someone who is saved because of this technology, you know that the things that you do in your life, matter. if i did have an opportunity to meet a cancer survivor, i'm sure i could take something positive away from that. [ jocelyn ] my name is jocelyn, and i'm a cancer survivor.

[ mimi ] i had cancer. i have no evidence of disease now. [ erica ] i would love to meet the people that made the machines. i had such an amazing group of doctors and nurses, it would just make such a complete picture of why i'm sitting here today. ♪ [ herb ] from the moment we walked in the front door, just to see me -- not as a cancer patient, but as a person that had been helped by their work. i was just blown away. life's been good to me. i feel like one of the luckiest guys in the world. ♪ 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 ya, 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 ♪ until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ that right now, you want to know where you are, and where you'd like to be. we know you'd like to see the same information your advisor does so you can get a deeper understanding of what's going on with your portfolio. we know all this because we asked you, and what we heard helped us create pnc wealth insight, a smarter way to work with your pnc advisor, so you can make better decisions and live achievement.

president obama's approval rating has risen in recent weeks and stands at 50%. said the president, keep talking, fellas. a congressional hearing held

thursday to debate president obama's birth control mandate was criticized for not including any women, though that makes sense once learn that the hearing was held in the congressional tree house. a pekingese named malachi was named best in show at this week's west minuter officer dog show. oh, man that dog is gonna get so much leg. and as always, at westminster, worst in show went to ralph. keep trying, ralph.

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.

your finances can't manage themselves. but that doesn't mean they won't try. bring all your finances together with the help of the one person who can. a certified financial planner professional. cfp. let's make a plan.

time to tell you what we learned today. start down at the end with mike barnicle. >> is still fairly easy to hurt my feelings by being excluded from talking with steve. i could have talked about dr. dre, snoop, ice cube. and you cut me out, 'cause you think i'm a lame old -- >> those are great 1992 rap reference he is. what else you got, mark halperin? >> mike barnicle has an odd definition of the word contribute. >> he does. >> wes moore what do you learn? >> i