good afternoon. it's monday, february 20th. here's what's happening. president's day, 2012, and rick santorum goes four for four. >> the idea that the federal government should be running schools. america sat from 1940 when france fell to december of '41 and did almost nothing. a lot of prenatal tests are done to identify deformities to bo abortion. >> is the sweater vest too hot for the public spotlight of the new republican front-runner, plus the ugly side of lin-sanity as america takes an honest look at language, humor and the asian-american. we begin this president's day with the rise of rick santorum widening his lead over

mitt romney in national polls. his is pitch as the most conservative candidate taking his rhetoric over the line. today he visited the subject of the environment. >> no more than we want to leave it to earth. p that's not my philosophy of government. it's not my philosophy of freedom. freedom isn't to do whatever you want to do. it's to do what you ought to do. >> as to what you ought to do, santorum has some very specific ideas. one is getting some heat on the campaign trial. let's start with how he talked about president obama in that same issue, environment, over the weekend. >> 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. not based on the bible, a

different theology but no less a theology. >> that remark led some to believe that he feels questioning obama's christianity. he said he was talking about the president's allegiance to environmentist values. >> the president has reached a new low in this country's history of oppressing religious freedom that we have never seen before. if he doesn't want to call his imposition of his values a theology, that's fine. >> do you believe he's less of a christian? >> i'm not suggesting that. obviously, as we all know in the christian church there are a lot of different stripes of christianity. >> are you arguing with that? >> if he says he's a christian, he's a christian. >> for the obama campaign, make no mistake santorum's comments were over the line. >> if you make comments like that, you make comments that are well over the line.

it's just time to get rid of this mind set in our politics that if we disagree, we have to question character and faith. >> the culture clash has not stopped there with santorum hitting at the president's mandate to cover prenatal screening suggesting it creates incentive for abortions. >> they are done to find out later in pregnancy whether the child in the womb has a disability. they are discovered in the womb, doctors encourage and in some cases insist that they abort these children. folks, this is a brave new world that we do not want to go down. >> if the environment, religion and women's health were not enough, santorum took his new found political punch to public schools. >> where did they come up that public education was the rule that america. yes, the government can help, but the idea that the federal

government should be running schools, frankly much less that the state government should be running schools. >> this is the candidate who continues his rise at the national level. today soaring to a ten-point lead over romney. >> some of his views which are so out there that he's never going to win. he cannot win the jeng election. there's no gift, no christmas gift that could be given better than rick santorum for the democrats. they are just salivating at that. >> we have a triple panel with us to kick things off. we have steve who is a political columnist and from washington, karen finney and dana milbank. good day to you all.

are democrats salivating over this gift of santorum? >> i wouldn't say salivating, necessarily, but there's an irony of donald trump, the guy who reinvigorating the controversy critiquing him for i think this is part of why over the weekend you saw even among republican circles suggesting that if it appears that santorum could be the nominee, they would have to step in to prep vent that from happening. it's not just that his views are so out of step with regard to democrats, but a lot of republicans, not even moderate republicans, but core republicans find offense with some of the things he was talking about and also recognized again the dog whistle politics of some of the things that he's saying and how in a general election, some of those things would be heard by women, people of color and they know that's a problem.

>> it's been a big question based on his statements. dana, santorum is leading, ten points in those national polls. is he electable. >> if karen and the other democrats are not salivating, it's only because they are not confidence that santorum will prevail. of course, he would be an enormous gift to the democratic party. it's hard to imagine that republicans won't come to their senses. the birth control issue. now we have him saying that public education is an anacroism. he's so far outside of the re realmany of where a plausible candidate could be the it seems like it's in state of suspended animation. you see that republicans have know it's not going to get them

where they need go. >> suspended animation. part of the comments are about theology that he made over the weekend. how do you take those comments? does he know what he's saying? >> he does. this is interesting because there's a potential he's going too white hot here because he's sort of well established as the true social conservative in the race. there's that vulnerability for romney. he had romney in a difficulty position for romney because the case can be made that santorum is too far on the right but that's a difficult message for romney to make in the primary. by making the comments that santorum made he might be giving an opening. >> he said he's not commenting on the president's christianity. >> it's not just the president's christianity, it's everything he said over the weekend. the entire tone makes it easy for romney to say i'm not questioning his position, i'm questioning the way he

addresses. . this way this will hinder our ability to beat barack obama. >> karen, you have a master of the message here. he's got to know what this intimates. >> i salivate over brad pitt, not rick santorum. it's like i have standards here. >> full disclosure. >> i think what santorum is trying to do here, he knows that mitt romney does not have a natural base in the republican party. he is trying to pick off as much as he can in terms of that far right con seservativconservativ. i think he's challenged going parted. you saw him trying to get to talk about the economy although he stepped on his own message with these comments over the weekend. he's not a single issue candidate. he's really made the social issues his bred and butter, and not been able to talk about the economy. in michigan he opposed the auto

bailout. i think santorum recognizes there's a danger of being too white hot or too focused on social issues and trying to come back to some of the economic issues. he keeps stepping on his own message. >> does he need to turn the corner and get onto the economic message? >> it's almost like he can't help himself. he said he wants to be engaging in the economic message. that's what you want to be doing in michigan and ohio where he was today. he should have some blue collar strength. it's like he cant help himself. whether it's in response to a question or whether he's going off into strange places where ever his mind is taking him, it's becoming an increasing problem for him that he can't turn that corner. >> steve, a fox news poll has

santorum tied with the president at the moment. are democrats underestimating what the force of santorum might be? >> there's the potential appeal because santorum's identity is middle class. he has a middle class background. he can resonate in a way that romney can't. the problem is there's so much baggage there from the culture assistance a stance. you would say he's benefitting from some in the republican primary polls. he hasn't been attacked until this point. it's allowed him toll get these inflated republicans. we'll see what happens when $10 million is spent against him. let's see what happens when hundreds of millions of dollars are spent against him. >> karen, you got a quick one. >> in a general election it would be not that hard to keep

him in the corner from birthers to birth control and never let him get to talk about the economic issues. >> we have six more months until tampa. no doubt we'll have more discussions. thank you so much. >> thanks. next, lin-sanity and a curious and not so funny double standard. stay with us. ♪ i had enough of feeling embarrassed about my skin. [ designer ] enough of just covering up my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. i decided enough is enough. ♪ [ spa lady ] i started enbrel. it's clinically proven to provide clearer skin. [ rv guy ] enbrel may not work for everyone -- and may not clear you completely, but for many, it gets skin clearer fast, within 2 months, and keeps it clearer up to 9 months. [ male announcer ] because enbrel suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections.

serious, sometimes fatal, events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu. tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. if you've had enough, ask your dermatologist about enbrel. 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? or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, if your car is totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. liberty mutual auto insurance.

he's like that sign say at wednesday's game, lin is the knicks good fortune. >> he's sweet, not sour.

>> he turned kobe into kobe beef. >> kobe is like, hey, i ordered fried chicken. >> hey. >> saturday night live opened with a sketch all about jeremy lin. they could not focus on his amazing rise or the 200 points he scored in eight career starts. they went after media and fans blind obsession about his name and race. an espn editor was fired for writing this headline which punned on the c word, blanked out there to describe his bad habit of turning over the ball. it's also been like this one or fan's sign that was seen on air. it's turned lin's rise into a discussion on race and double standards in the u.s. joining us here is a democratic state representative in

connecticut and in washington, dr. james peterson. good day to you both. thank you for spending time with us. >> good afternoon. >> representative, the man fired for writing that headline at espn says this, this has nothing to do with me being cute or punny. i'm sorry i offended people. i'm sorry if i offended jeremy. do you believe him? >> i think we've got to be better than that. this situation is regrettable. it's unfortunate because this is an amazingly inspirational story for all of us. when all of us are looking for a lift, certainly the new york knicks were looking for a lift, it gives us a spark not just here in the area and all across the country. somewhere an the continuum between stupid and malicious is where this headline came from.

espn found there to be something to be concerned about because they let this guy go. >> within 36 hours. >> i'm happy that espn took action. we need to move on now. it's an opportunity that reminds us we got a lot of work to do. there isn't sufficient awareness about asian-americans and all communities of color and what we have to overcome. >> the saturday night live sketch comes out and says there's a double standard, some might say when it comes to culture stereo types. when we think about that, that is if there was an african-american or hispanic american involved, we might have a different sense of uproar or concern about this. what do you think? >> when the espn, person, i heard about him using the c word, i was outraged by that. i think what the snl skit does well is it shows you the thin

line between the pun and the word plays and the more racialized word language. they try to outline the ways in which we're much more centuritized about with black folks. it's such a long tradition of black folk organizing around issues of race and asian americans don't have that same history the i don't know if it's a double standard but it's interesting to point out the distinctions. we can't have blind spots. i feel like what's happening around all this coverage, i love the story of lin. i love the way in which he's rose to fame but we're seeing tugly side and the insensitive side in which we deal with race. >> the doctor brings up a good point because it was an association that made the statement occupant against a former representative in his added with that asian american woman. it is the african-american groups that are very aware.

why is that? is it because there's not necessarily the properly leadership in the asian-american community? >> i think there are blind spots everywhere. we make good points there's not enough attention or focus or awareness. the history is there. asian-americans. there was a chinese american who fought on behalf of the union in the civil war and we experienced chinese exclusion act. >> where is the voice? >> it's not enough. there isn't enough of voice. that's why i decided to run for the united states senate. that's kwhowhy i spoke up again the ad in michigan. it was in a to line u.s. senate race. someone had to stand up and say that's wrong. that's offensive, take it down. >> last question to you here, doctor, much of the reaction is there's not real problem we're so comfortable with seeing

a fortune cookie and jeremy l lin's face around it, that's part of fabric. >> that's part of problem. the fact we can have so many huge media platforms engage in fairly degrading imagery or terminology, shows us we have a lot of work to do along the issues of race. >> jeremy lin who has handled it very well, i want to thank you very much. >> he's done exceptionally well. >> thank you for your time. stay with us. we have much more to come. >> mike huckabee joined the fight saying we're all catholic now. really. you know who is not all catholic now, all catholics now. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is coach parker...

whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ i'm a wife, i'm a mom... and chantix worked for me. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking.

it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these, stop taking chantix and see your doctor right away as some can be life-threatening. if you have a history of heart or blood vessel problems, tell your doctor if you have new or worse symptoms. get medical help right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack. use caution when driving or operating machinery. common side effects include nausea, trouble sleeping and unusual dreams. my inspiration for quitting were my sons. they were my little cheering squad. [ laughs ] [ male announcer ] ask your doctor if chantix is right for you.

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. powerful explosions rocking the city this weekend. the military crackdown continues against rebels. this is one of the issues president obama and the white house will have to navigate this week. let's get to kristen welker. good afternoon. on sunday, senator john mccain calling on the president to stand up and speak adding that the u.s. could get the syrian rebels some proper weapons. what is the white house saying so far? >> reporter: the administration really holding firm on their stance right now that they don't want to arm the opposition there in syria. why? one argument is who exactly is

the opposition. the concern would be they would arm people within syria and it would only add to the chaos and confusion. the administration say they are not ruling anything out at this point. they want to let sanctions continue to take their course. they believe that international pressure is mounting. just last week you had the general u.n. assembly voting. they believe that really the pressure is mounting on assad to do exactly that. they also think that humanitarian aid and those measures helping the folks in syria. they believe it's a matter of time before assad does relinquish his power. >> the president will meet with the israeli prime minister, benjamin, netanyahu.

what is the white house saying? >> reporter: iran will factor in that meeting. this is a meeting we thought might happen. he will be here and speaking at apec. he will be pleating at the white house with president obama. the administration has been saying that they don't want israel to take military action. national security advisor in israel right now wrapping up a three-day trip and really reiterated the white house's message that they don't want israel to take military action. they want sanctions to play out. they think that sanctions in iran are having an impact so they don't want to see military action right now. in fact, general martin dempsey making the point over the weekend that military action would be premature because it's not exactly known what iran's nuclear capabilities are at this moment. >> this as we watch the ripple effect on oil prices a kristen welker at the white house.

thank you. >> the day's to lines are next for you. >> do you believe that rick santorum can beat president obama in november? >> i don't see how that's possible. ♪ wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8.

what is this shorty? uh, tissues sir, i'm sick. you don't cough, you don't show defeat. give me your war face! raaah! [ male announcer ] halls. a pep talk in every drop.

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. sketch comedy or the republican race for the white house. you be the judge. here are the day's to lines. >> it's about some phony theology. >> remember stupid people are ruining america. >> there are a lot of different stripes of conditionty. >> the remarks are well over the line. >> if he doesn't want to call his imposition of threology.

that's fine. >> what in the world pr you talking about? >> do you believe rick santorum can beat president obama? >> i don't see how that's possible. >> president says he's a christian, he's a christian. >> really congress. you held a congressional hearing on reproductive rights and you didn't invite any women. >> the left in america has their own moral code. >> when he was young women held an aspirin between their knees for birth control. when you were young, people didp of polio. >> the greatest generation for a year and a half sat on the sidelines. >> i know that senator santorum is getting his moment in the spotlight. >> he bailed out the salt lake city olympic games by going to congress and asking for tens of millions of dollars. >> the games for a showplace for

the quality of the human spirit. >> that bill is estimated to be $1.3 billion. that's outrageous. >> i'm still confident that mitt romney will succeed. >> if you have a fiscal conservative, you can't vote for rick santorum. >> i think it's hard to argue that he's been inevitable. >> let's get to our guests joining us. good to see both you have. i want to show you some pictures of what's happening on the campaign trail. i have rick santorum in michigan. he's out there hitting the trail. newt gingrich in tulsa, oklahoma. both trying to show up some important points. we have newt gingrich doubling

down in the south. we have to bring up the two words that is now been resurged or brought up again and that's a brokerage convention. possible? >> i don't think. this makes for a great cable news story. it's not going to happen. i still think at the end of this long and winding road, mitt romney will be the nominee. what we're seeing is this brokered convention talk is how weak of a front-runner romney is. he's getting worse with time, not better. that's what has the republicans talking about this convention. >> every day voters, a poll shows that close to seven in ten republicans do not want a brokered convention but as ari noted with the stumbling and having trouble, you can't help but discuss it. >> it would be good for the news media. it's sort of the ultimate fantasy.

if it seems familiar it's because we had these conversations about barack obama and hillary clinton leading up to the night that hillary clinton gave her delegates to barack obama. these are dramatic moments that we try to engineer. ari is exactly right, but it's also a matter of republicans don't do it this way. republicans tend to have a more orderly process. for all of the sort of excitement about this race and the multiple winners and multi. contests, you have had a fairly orderly process. you haven't had people asked people to leave the race. you haven't had much back stabbing. >> this is orderly in. >> yeah. you'll see this debate on wednesday night and they will take measured jabs and at the end of the day all four will say what that vi said before that that would vote for the other one for president. unless they say no way would i

allow mitt romney to be the nominee then that's where you have a bit of fun. i will say that's where it's important to watch newt gingrich. >> the two of you just aren't playing along. that's okay. rick santorum, the national polling, leading by 10% in some place, some of the polling in the midwest showing p that santorum is falling by the wayside but still expected to win there. what's your thought? his mention of theology in association with the president. some say he's questioning the president's christianity. he brought up prenatal testing and that illusion of the greatest generation. what's the thought here? >> santorum clearly had an opening. the question is, is he really doing the best he could to seize the opening. some of his comments may appear to hard rights of the republican base. i think he's alienating a lot of potential voters including some moderate women here.

he should be talking about the economy, manufacturing, the issues that play to his advantage. >> doesn't he have it sured up. >> he should. he's undercutting his own message. >> christina, i want to get your thought on newt gingrich. a new infusion of sheldon adelson cash. this weekend he was saying if romney doesn't win in michigan, he should hang it up. he's also talking about himself. >>. >> yeah. ting georgia will be an interesting state to watch. it's a super tuesday state. it's newt gingrich's home state. he hasn't been in georgia for a while. santorum folks think they have an opportunity there. i think it's also interesting to note that winning our future super pac, which you mentioned the sheldon adelson money is

going toward the super pac. inferring that the candidates were train wrecks. i think you will hear that message more. that's where i go to the one slight chance this could ever be a brokered convention. i think that's unlikely. i think you have to watch who wins the next group of contests once delegates start collecting. you're going to have a much clearer idea of who the likely gop nominee is and it could be santorum. >> it still would be possible. you're watching live pictures of newt gingrich in tulsa, oklahoma. ari, the crowd not looking necessarily too thick, but what if that were to happen. newt gingrich, rick santorum coming together. would that be the wallup to take

down mitt. >> not because it takes one candidate to bring down romney, not two or three or four. now it does seem like santorum could be the more authentic anti-romney. he's a much bitter fit. santorum has an opening here to be that person. the question is, does he have the money? does he have the organization? can he stay on message to become that person? >> i think newt will continue to fade. the question is can santorum rise? >> resources divide and so to you, christina, does this help or hurt the republican party as they move toward the general? >> i think those questions are a little over blown. a lot of those were asked about the democrats in '08. people were paying attention for a long time.

this does help president obama because he doesn't have to be out there spending much money on his campaign yet until the republicans settle on someone. in that sense that helps. any negative attention to these candidates, that helps them a little bit. really, republicans don't really like president obama. he gain some republicans in 2008 when he was elected. he's probably not going to have anywhere near that many going forward if he is able to win re-election. this is an area where it's still a fairly divided country. republicans will rally behind their nominee. third party candidacy, it's all possible. it's not likely to really dramatically that i think the race. >> thank you so much. have a great afternoon. >> thank you. next, people are punching some holes in mitt romney's great olympic story. the audacity. stay with us. >> one of the things he talks about the most is how he he rowicly showed up on the scene

and bailed out and resolved the problems of the salt lake city olympic games. going to congress and asking them for tens of millions of dollars to bail out the salt lake olympic games. ♪

the 2002 salt lake city olympics are supposed to be one of mitt romney's big bonifides. he turned projected $479 million loss into a profit. democrats are questioning that version of events in a new ad calling it the most expensive games in history.

it also uses john mccain calling the games an incredible pork barrel project. rick santorum has joined in that assessment. >> one of the things he's talked about the most is how he showed up on the scene and bailed out and resolved the problems of the salt lake city olympic games by going to congress and asking them for tens of millions of dollars to bail out the salt lake olympic games. joining us now is michael. he's not a washington insider corrupted by the scent of earmarks, but your investigation has found some things. >> right. the romney people has seen this for a long time as a political asset for him.

the story turn around was the name of the book he wrote, how he turned olympics around. over the weekend when he was out there celebrating the tenth anniversary, a film crew from the romney super pac, restore our future was there to cut tv ads. as you pointed out, this has become a potential political liability. john mccain was quite vocal back in 2,000 abo 2000 about the por waste. the romney people said most of that was put in by utah congressional leaders before he got there. oneself he took over, he accelerated the push for earmarks for the olympics. he employed five washington lobbying firms paying over $3.5 million for the purpose of securing additional earmarks for the salt lake olympics.

he boasted about it afterwards. said he gotten record funds for the olympics. that's become a bit awkward now that he's on the campaign trail bashing santorum as an earmark guy. >> how much is that hurting him, him standing up saying those things that the earmarks are hurting romney and he's making a big deal that he's not from inside washington, the culture of earmarks? >> i don't know how much it's hurting him at this point, but it's given santorum an opening. part of this is because romney in the last few weeks has been increasingly aggressive going after santorum. they looked for vulnerabilities and they seized on the earmark issue because it's true as a senator from pennsylvania santorum played the game like many other senators and inserted a lot of earmarks for pennsylvania constituencies.

not a shocker, but it's something that romney has tried to distinguish himself from santorum on and that's given santorum the opening to shoot back with the comment that you showed because romney was so aggressive about seeking earmarks when he was head of the salt lake city olympics. >> thank you as always. >> thank you. stay with us. we have much more straight ahead. >> this is what you do. you don't do this with president obama. in fact, with president obama what you did was you went out and defended him against someone he sat in church for for 20 years and defended him that he can't believe what he listened to for 20 years. >> just moments ago barack obama responded to fox news regarding the troefrts surrounding his pastor and spoke to major garrett. >> thank you for joining us on fox. ♪

[ male announcer ] the cadillac cts sport sedan was designed with near-perfect weight balance from front to back... and back to front. ♪ giving you exceptional control from left to right... and right to left. ♪ the cadillac cts. ♪ we don't just make luxury cars. we make cadillacs. 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.

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.

today it we're learning the israeli president will meet with president obama. as fear and speculation grows. joining us from israel is nbc's stephan stephanie goskin. what do people want to see from this meeting? >> reporter: well, there have been some contentious moments between president obama and israeli president. officials insist they are on the same page. they it don't want a nuclearly-armed iran. the united states is willing to put everything on the table, including a military option. they are going to look for a that assurance from president obama. what the prime minister is going to hear is a message of

patience. from we heard from martin dempsey over the weekend. a unilateral strike on nuclear assets in iran would destabilize the region. >> stephanie, on paper, this sounds tense. what's the sense on the ground from what you're hearing there? the sense of tension that's happening now. the latest developments from today's nuclear talks? >> reporter: it's interesting, richard. here on the ground, israelis have a high tolerance when it comes to being on the precipice of war. it's the state they live in most of the time. you don't feel a lot of anxiety on the streets. we ask everyone we come in contact with, we ask them this question. they are going about life as normal. there has been an increase in tension in what leaders have been saying to each other and what we have seen in tehran. but it's not something that you feel on the streets here. >> it's just not there. do the people of israel hold

hope for these talks? as you say, it's a matter of a course of events. they are accustomed to these issues. >> reporter: well, they don't hold a lot of hope for what's going on in tehran today. this is the nuclear watchdog being on the ground there in tehran hoping to make some breakthroughs diplomatly. not a lot of hope here. a lot of people here in this country feel more pressure needs to be put on iran, both through diplomatic strategies and sanctions. a lot of people think a military threat is where it's going to go. >> what do they want to hear from president obama specifically? >> reporter: well, they want an assurance from him that everything is on the table. there's a sense there might be reluctance on the part of the united states to attack militarily. certainly, it's a message that they want more patients. they wanted the sanctions to have time to work. they want diplomatic pressure to have time to work.

and that's something we keep hearing over and over again. and there have been some thinly-vailed threats from israeli leaders they are not willing to wait that long for it. and that will be the discussion behind closed doors for sure. >> all eyes there. thank you. we'll be right back. ♪ there's another way to minimize litter box odor: purina tidy cats. tidy cats premium line of litters now works harder to help neutralize odors in multiple-cat homes. and our improved formula also helps eliminate dust. so it's easier than ever to keep your house smelling just the way you want it. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home. i have twins, 21 years old.

each kid has their own path. they grow up, and they're out having their life. i really started to talk to them about the things that are important that they have to take ownership over. my name's colleen stiles, and my kids and i did our wills on legalzoom. [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help you take care of the ones you love. go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. i opened the first sammy's back sammin 1966. box. my employees are like family. and, i want people that work for me to feel that they're sharing in my success. we purchase as much as we can on the american express open gold card. so we can accumulate as many points as possible. i pass on these points to my employees to go on trips with their families. when my employees are happy, my customers are happy. vo: earn points for the things you're already buying. call 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business.

online dating services can get kind of expensive. so to save-money, i found a new way to get my profile out there. check me out. everybody says i've got a friendly disposition and they love my spinach dip. 5 foot ten. still doing a little exploring... on it. my sign is sagittarius, i'm into spanish cheese, my hairline is receding but i'm getting a weave. (falsetto chorus) getting a weave. who wants some ronald tonight!? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. ♪ you are me i'm jennifer hudson, and i believe. i was strong before weight watchers, but i'm stronger with it. i believe weight watchers can do the same for you. i believe you have more power than you think you do. i believe because it works. ♪ if you want it, you got it

your turn. your time. your year. join for free. weight watchers points plus 2012. because it works. wait. ♪ it's morning in the himalayas... [ male announcer ] it's sweet. it's nutty. it's absolutely delicious. kellogg's crunchy nut. it's morning somewhere. it's now time to clear the air. and the discussion of an american inspiration in the making. the first, a skinny kid born in los angeles, california. jeremy lin. his dream? a college basketball scholarship. not one wanted him. only harvard was willing to gamble. after graduation, same thing.

nba teams passed on him in the draft. a flooier with the warriors and rockets did not amount to much. when the knicks took a chance, lin was so unsure of his contract, he couch surfed. >> there were nights last year i actually was just reduced to tears. even the beginning of this year getting waived twice. i was thinking, if i don't have a team, what's going to happen? >> then the second story. the legend. an amazing first eight games for lin. 200 points. one on one matchups. in all, lin and more importantly his teammates prevailed. now, the story. one that sadly starts with this. boxing champion floyd may weather all the hype is because he's asian. a flurry of questionable comments follows. each pushing the envelope. and as the winning stream came

to an end, the espn headline. the "c" word is the equivalent of the "n" word to african americans. but he forgives the espn writer and says he wants to move on. jeremy lin is the first u.s.-born asian to play in the nba. but he's also being watched by everybody else. if this were to be a teachable moment, maybe it's that these stories are inspirational and understandable alone. but all together, they transcend the world of sports. misunderstandings may continue to come about. bad puns are inevitable. but for jeremy, it's only about the team, the game, and god. that's so extraordinary. thanks for watching. dylan ratigan is here to take us forward. >> at the end of the