we'll pull out all the stops to cover the delegates up for grabs. but what does it really mean? according to intrade, mitt romney is so far ahead that no one else is even in double digits as far as probability to win this thing. eric cantor endorsed mitt romney. barbara bush speaking up. she's a romney backer. she oftened this about the campaign so far. >> i'm worry ied about this campaign because it's too ugly. i really don't like it. >> of course, we have been on many a crucial day so far. before we get to this day, let's take a trip down crucial memory lane. >> it's a crucial element. >> it's a crucial time. >> it's the most crucial primary so far. >> the crucial state of ohio. >> it's very crucial. >> crucial state for both.

>> so much at stake the next few days. >> this is a crucial jelection. >> crucial wins in michigan and arizona. >> everything seems pretty crucial. any way, today, crucial. to sort out fact from hype, we have two folks to join us who understand the difference between a political dog fight and a country that's supposed to have competition and one set of rules, which is why we had a government to begin with. ed rendell, he was super tuesdayed up four years ago. an award-winning journalist and advocate of one set of rules for all of us and a competitive society, katherine crier. she's author of "patriot acts." my push for the past few days has been a simple one. which is get over the denial and accept the reality, which is that mitt romney by any rational

measure will be the republican nominee for the president barring some extraordinary event which can always occur. why do you believe there's so much reticence to accept what is self-evident to most people who look at the nature of how this is playing out? >> well first of all, i think, dylan, you have to understand that politicians have three different motives. for rick santorum, you know, he's fighting to win. he still thinks there's lightning in the bottle. but he's also fighting to set himself up for 2016. this experience has convinced him he can be a viable candidate if romney is the rom knee and loses to president obama. so he wants to get as much coverage, go into as many states as possible, get americans to know him, build up support. so santorum has a reason to go on. and number two, it's still not clear that mitt romney has won the hearts of the conservative

base. although i think you hear that over and over again. that's a little bit of an unsense call argument, because against barack obama, that conservative base is voting for mitt romney. >> and let's just look at the delegates, katherine. you look at the delegate count now as nbc's measure, they float around. but any way, romney at 119. gingrich nowhere close with 30. santorum at 17. paul with 8. today is 424 delegates. at the same time, if you look at the data of the distribution it stays the same. >> when they don't have the winner take all, they are going to divvy these up, but romney is going to walk out with, one would have to expect, in excess of 200. when you look at the math in terms of the races, barring something extraordinary.

>> at the same time, how do you feel, katherine, about barbara bush's evaluation, which we have heard a lot from the conservative community in general, which is the extension of this race because of the divvying of the delegates, which extends the burn and the ability for sheldon adelson to pay for newt and foster frieze to pay for santorum, creates a distorted extension of the primary debate, which is ultimately risks if not imploding major self-destruction for the party. >> the target here is obama. and i think we would be kidding ourselves no matter how they seem to be self-destructing through this process. once there's a nominee, the party will rally behind whoever it is. we certainly expect it's romney. so whether he has wooed these people or not, i expect they will turn out. >> that they will fall in regardless of the candidate in opposition. >> it's interesting. the las vegas billionaire has

already said, i'm not going to push this and destroy the nominee. i'm prepared to put a lot of money behind romney. >> do you agree with that analysis across the board? regardless of what they say they are going to do, since we're in a race to the bottom, who can take more money from who to do things. we're not in the business of actually fixing problems in this country anymore. we're just in the business of who is taking money from who to set rules for who's benefit. the republicans appear to be winning a race to the bottom by virtue of their willingness to self-destruct with the birth control. can a party recover from that level of apparent damage to resurrect itself and combat the democrats? >> it's hard, but not impossible. but first, let me say the fact that sheldon adelson continues to contribute $100 million to defeat barack obama, the supreme court i say it on your show, but

the supreme court should be ashamed of itself for citizens united. the only thing we can do is amend the constitution. >> but as a judge, i am going to sustain that objection. i think it's absolutely outrageous. two decisions. i would go back to 1886 and get rid of corporate personhood. >> you're right. but to go back to dylan's question, there's a reset in presidential politics. there's a reset that starts with the conventions and the nominating speech. and then most americans for the next ten weeks focus on the election. very few americans, a small percentage have vote d for paid attention to what's gone on so far. there will be a reset. if mitt romney makes a great speech coming out of the convention, if he runs a good campaign, if he holds his own and debates with barack obama, and remember as clod a candidate

romney has been, his best performances have been in the debates. a lot can change. and you have the economy itself. that's the x factor. the price of gas at the pump. that's the x factor. so i remind our democrats, do not think this is over by a long shot. >> and even today, you can see what a snakebite looks like with the stock market taking its biggest hit of the year with the debt crisis in greece. >> we remember the summer of '08. interesting poll though that i saw this morning. it was talking about polling latino voters. all three of the republican candidates only garnered 14%. the commentary was there's no way today to win a presidential election with such a low percentage. i think that's going to be really interesting and may put mark rubio on the ticket.

>> but don't forget rubio has a few problems. the possibility of the governor of new mexico to take it. but i think katherine is right. if the numbers stay the way they are, there's a strong imperative for the republicans to put a latino on the ticket. >> if you are the democrats at this point, your instinct, i presume, is to feel relatively good because of the difficulties republicans are having in their process. but it also seems you could run into risk to think the republicans are so either self-imploding that you're not going to do anything about that. where would you say the greatest risk -- if you're a democrat feeling confident today, where's the greatest risk? >> you disaffected your own base. and certainly the young people that got out in 2008. the swing voters, if the economy stays down, if the employment

numbers go up, unless you can regenerate that enthusiasm. but the republicans are doing a pretty good job. >> i think that's a great point. i think president obama can do just so much to bring back that good feeling. but the republican primary with all the talk about contraception and snobs going to college and the anti-women stuff, it's been so bizarre that i think our base is motivated by that, if not by a continued love for the president. we're going to turn out. i have no doubt about it. >> interesting times. thank you for the analysis. nice to see you. >> it's crucial. >> it's a crucial day. say it nice and crisp so we can put it in the next video reel. thank you so much. coming up on this especial day, or dare i say it, crucial super tuesday, the mega panel gets their say and the president is

looking to steal the gop's thunder with a press conference of his own. plus a not so super tuesday on wall street. as our specialist tells us, the problems with the financial system run much deep r than one day's 1% move. and president obama out today praising the relentless neness our troops in afghanistan, but what about when the troops are being tasked with either no mission or the only mission they know, which is they have been sent to a place where people want to kill them and their only mission is to not get killed. a struggle for survival. is that the american military mission? two award-winning journalists tell us if this simple and absurd struggle that we finance as taxpayers in america.

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i understand there are some political contests going on tonight. what's said on the campaign trail, those folks don't have a lot of responsibilities. what's happening in syria is heartbreaking and outrageous. do you think the president of the united states wants gas prices to go up higher? anybody who thinks that makes a lot of sense? >> the president this afternoon coming out to the cameras holding his first news conference of 2012 addressing everything from foreign affairs, as you heard, rising gas prices.

if you will, some counterprogramming from the president on the gop's super tuesday. which brings us to our mega panel. karen finney, susan del percio, and jimmy williams. interested in your thoughts on the president's decision to make the point you made was that it was a strategic move for him to put himself a little more risk by holding a press conference. he will create a bigger gap between him and then. >> it's like i wrote in my column. you watch a train wreck? you get out of the way. the president didn't have to do a press conference today. he could have let people go to the polls. instead he rolled the dice and had a press conference. it was a total success. i'm not saying that because he was a democrat, but because he did pretty well. >> or at least he didn't create

a sound byte that's going to hurt him. >> so you have four guys hurting each other. >> there's one two years ago he called the cop stupid. in other words, he didn't make any dumb mistakes. >> although on that, i didn't think he was wrong to say that a -- >> i'm saying it was politically stupid because it created a sound byte that distracted from the press krvconference. >> it's not something that mitt romney can say. because every day he goes out there, you never quite know where you're going. but i think also the point of what the president was trying to do, the strategy seemed why seed the ground? why give them the whole news cycle. think about it. tactically the way it works, we're not going to get results until fairly late tonight. that means you have a good chunk of time that if you have some news to put in there and you have an announcement -- >> you have a big audience paying attention to politics. >> the announcement was pretty

substantial amount of money they are going to give to service members, $100,000 plus lost moneys for homes wrongly foreclosed on. then looking at some fees. point being, it's a little nugget of news. >> things that make him look like he's doing something for housing. your thoughts? >> i think at the end of the day, there's the visual. he's behind the podium. he's looking very presidential. and no matter what happens tonight in super tuesday, it's going to be a bad story for mitt romney because he's either not going to win by enough, or he lost, or everyone is not in love with him. he's going to have a bad news cycle. there president obama is going to be looking good and making announcements. >> if only we didn't have massive wealth inequality, largest poverty in the history of the census and all the other things. that's what's going to make this

combative. if this president was sitting on a functioning economy, he would be sitting pretty his greatest risk is you have a fully corrupt electorate. and you're telling me that you're taking care of it but you're not doing anything about the min. that's the risk. but his benefit is the republicans. in case you're feeling a little down, i can be a little rough on this country and this electoral process. however, in the scheme of corrupt elections, we pale in comparison to those who do it better than us. i take you to russia. 94%, the one that raises the most money wins the election. then obama has the money advantage over romney so he's winning there. that basic mechanism is working.

this is the most important thing you need to see out of russia as statistics go. look at the bottom number there. the voter turnout in favor of russian president vladimir putin represented 107% of the people. which means for every e 100 people who voted for him -- excuse me. for every 107 people who voted for him, there were 100 actual people. now here's where it gets interesting. we have the benefit of a very esteemed and educated and informed political panel. i was rather alarmed when i saw this saying they were stuffing the ballot boxes. what they informed me to was that this russian election where the ballot box stuffing was really only about 7% more than the actual votes, that's not so bad, is an improvement from the last election where it was well

in access of that. >> it's only because they ran out of paper at the voting places. >> reportedly, they did say they were making an effort so it wouldn't be too obvious. the thing i love, the initial results, his opponent got one vote. so he got 107% and he got one vote. >> that's a way to make it less obvious. by giving him the one vote. >> but they said they are going to have to double check it. now it was that putin won by 99.4%. >> it gives people watching a whole new meaning. >> so e we don't do that. >> by proportion, america seems vastly superior to russia in that context. there's a broader issue here. whether you're chinese, russian, american, australian, whatever it is, there's one group of

people that know there's an emerging way to solve problems that is based on distributed power in the networks. right? basically, the way you solve health care is look to the network and find the 5% of the people that are sick. you help them become healthy. that's dr. brenner. that's not a democratic or republican position, that's an analytical view based on the modern network. you have these political parties that are really threatened by that. and these businesses that is a threat. and these political parties seem to be trying to run this high wire act where they preserve the incumbent business funding them but appear to be trying to help the people. and as a matter of pure point of view, how long do you think the world's politicians can get away with accepting the preservation of the most threatened industries in the world while appearing to help the people get what they want? can they do this for ten more

years? >> they have been doing it for years. >> they have nothing but the network existed. >> i think 24 -- >> the network news. it's the connectivity to solve problems. >> can i answer the question? >> if you want to answer it in the context that i'm asking it. in the context of a modern social shared interest connectivity to analyze data, who is able to identify the 5% which is a resolution that's remarkably threat tong a lot of business, my question is in the context of this new weapon, governments that have forever, as you would point out cater to elty interests who find themselves threatened by the renaissance and revolution in information as a matter of point of view, how long do you they they can keep it up? >> until the people tell them to stop. and that's a simple way of

answering the question, but it's like the drunk. until the drunk hits rock bottom, he's never going to sober up. >> i think people are starting to say it. i don't think they have much longer. >> i agree with that. if we go back to russia. you know me. people have to get involved because the point is a small group of people have all the power. in russia, one of the reasons, good or bad, that they really had to make an effort not to seem to be too corrupt in the way they were stuffing the ballot boxes, people. how many protests have we seen in the last several months? and how are those organized? networking. they are networking with each other. they are saying we're not going to take it anymore. let's be clear. for a lot of people in russia, it's their lives literally at stake. we don't deal with the brutalism that they it face. so point being, power structures are breaking.

it's happening. >> it's interesting to watch the american power structures not respond. where basically they are taking advantage of the fact we can fight about birth control and fight about whatever as a way to not have to respond to the threat to the entire system by the new message. that's an interesting time. the panel stays. the wall street chief joins us who says they are doing what they are doing with quite simply the wrong culture. the lost culture of wall street when we return. follow the wings.

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the worst day in three months pr the markets. the indexes across the board fell 1.5%. fresh fears emerging about u.s. bank's exposure to greece. we have codified under dodd-frank too big to fail banking industries. and their credit insurance markets worst hundreds of trillions of dollars and we're

told it's okay because quite honestly they get a pile of money from those people. this president or any president doesn't want to do. our next guest who was on the front lines during the financial crisis says the lack of transparency is a result of something even deeper than the math. he says we have a cultural crisis, not only in america, but on wall street. specifically, the culture of stewardship. what does it mean to have the privilege and responsibility of custody of other peoples money? think fund manager. think the person you give your money to. joining us live from the new york stock exchange, john taft. he has a new book out called "stewardship." it's out today. a fun fact. he's also the great grandson of president howard taft.

so there's the picture. that's beautiful. no mustache? >> no mustache. and a little thinner waistline. >> so define for us your intent with this book. what's the culture that is necessary for stewardship to work the way its intended by groups of people assigning custody of thinker money or assets to another individual and that individual accumulating a disproportionate amount of power and influence, but providing a service with humility that benefits the community. where did that break down? >> well, one of the causes of the financial crisis, in my opinion, was the fact that leaders of our largest financial institutions lost touch with the mission, purpose of the financial services industry. and that is to efficiently allocate capital from people who have capital to people who need

capital. borr borrows, companies, and do it in a way that everyone wins. it's an intermediary function. it's an agents function. it's a stewardship function. what happened going into the financial crisis was that financial institutions started acting like principals and lost sight of their clients. that's the failure of stewardship. i think we have to focus on that if we want to prevent future crisis from happening. >> i notice in brazil, they did this. in order to align the stewards interests with those over whom they have stewardship. so if you're the steward for our money, we pay you for that stewardship. in brazil what they would do is say, okay. john gets a fee for helping with our money. however, if e he behaves recklessly and loses all the money, the first money out will

be john's car, john's house, which is the rule in brazil. meaning the ceo of the bank and the board of directors of the bank are personally liable in the event they mismanage the bank to the point of collapse. is that not the best mechanism to ensure aligned stewardship? >> no. i don't think that is. and i think that you're almost describing a different issue. you're describing the issue of coinvesting when somebody coinvests. >> how would you hold the ceo of the bank if you wouldn't do it through the personal liability of their assets relative to everybody else's money? so jon corzine, he lost a billion dollars, but what are you going to do? sorry. >> there's a simple concept in the financial services industry. that is the contest of fiduciary. they are closely aligned. what a fiduciary is obligated to do is put their clients'

interests first. it doesn't mean it's conflict free, but what it means is that if there's a conflict, the fiduciary has an obligation to disclose that to the client and the client has to agree to acknowledge and accept that conflict. so that's a mechanism we have here today without going to brazil to put into place a fiduciary apparatus that makes sure wall street and their clients are properly aligned. that's one of the several provisions of the dodd-frank act that i've been working on is to create a new fiduciary standard for anybody in the financial services industry that provides advice to retail clients. >> the only issue with that is when you have giant banks and have no choice. i know you're conflicted, but if there's no other bank to go to because you've consolidated, that's the only issue with too big to fail. karen was speaking to this. >> hi, john. it's karen finney. good to see you.

so question. part of the tension, i think, when going through the -- coming out of the financial collapse, if. you will, is this tension between what you're talking about in stewardship. the smaller banks versus the larger banks that lost touch. because to them, it's about making money. whereas smaller firms and banks and investment houses have a more, i think, in touch direct relationship with their clients. >> they both want to make money. but one makes money by transferring risk to the government. the other by taking care of customers. >> so my question to you is, that tension, how does that tension play itself out mean a smaller institution and a larger institution and how they view that duty? >> in fact, there's a section in my book on that whole issue. it's called too small to save. and that is really a kind of tongue and cheek reference or

parody of the too big to fail line we heard throughout the crisis. but it's definitely true. as an institution gets larger, it gets further and further away from the real daily concerns of its clients. and it gets further and further away from the communities in which its clients live and work. and that makes it harder for them to stay in touch with the needs of their clients. and i think that's one of the reasons why you tend to see, not always, more stewardship failures. examples of stewardship failures in larger organizations. because smaller organizations can't afford to do it. the impact would be greater and more immediate. >> and they don't have the leverage because of their size if things go wrong to transfer the problems to the government because the government would let them fail. if you're citigroup, you have to take all the risk. go ahead, susan. >> you talk about the choice of service in your book. about what it means to take that responsibility if we're going to

fix that problem. can you talk about that? >> that comes from the whole ethic of steward leadership. a guy named robert greenly wrote about that. when i went to work in the financial services industry, i went to work for a firm whose ceo was deeply religious and wrote a mission statement that defined the purpose of the firm as serving others. now i think that is the purpose of financial institutions. they should be means to greater ends. they should not be ends unto themselves. they should define their mission as helping solve the needs of others. so i think the servant leadership ethic, stewardship, thinking about the impact of your actions on others, managing responsibly what others have entrusted to your care, that really lies at the core of the financial services industry. and how far from that did we

stray going into the financial crisis? my concern is not only did we get away from that, but we have been trying to solve the financial crisis, trying to prevent future crisis and we have forgotten one of the basic and core issues, which is it comes down to character and principles like stewardship. >> really, it comes down to culture. >> it does. >> and without the culture, there's no list of rules that will make it happen. if their culture is to get around the rules, that's what they will do. >> exactly. there's a quote in the book that somebody pointed out to me. it was a french revolutionary and a poet. too many laws, too few examples. to me, that describes our response to the financial crisis. we have written too many laws and we haven't focused on the examples of leadership that are needed to prevent this from

happening again. >> this is what a healthy bank looks like with capital requirements. that's helping the community. instead of showing people what a valuable financial institution looks like, we're making rules for financial institutions that may or may not create value for the community on a given day. is that fair? >> that's fair. >> congrats on the book. >> thank you. >> and obviously, we are in agreement with the basis of your narrative. you have a friendly audience here e. and we're grateful to have a voice like yours at the table advocating finance in its valuable role as opposed to its role as a liability. thanks to the panel for their time today. next up, an afternoon sugar fix. a treat celebrating a large birthday. [ female announcer ] experience dual-action power,

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our troupes are forced to go to to accomplish a mission that maybe even our own government can't define. ok, guys-- what's next ?

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the way, they get the job done. >> no one contests that. but what happens when you have the world's most capable army without a concrete mission? president obama this afternoon praising the troops for their effectiveness at completing missions. but what about when the leaders don't have a mission for them? but they are still at war. our next guest has seen our military in action firsthand. he was embedded with special forces on six occasions and is out with what is billed as a cautionary tale for any politician thinking of sending our troops into away. it's a story of valor in the mountains of afghanistan. there's two parts of this story. the competency and effectiveness of our military when they have a mission defined clearly for

them, really without comparison. fair? >> absolutely. if you give them a mission, they are going to achieve it. or die trying. it's that simple. >> what is the story that reflects that? >> in april of 2008, special forces team with their afghan commander were stoent the shock valley in afghanistan to capture or kill a terrorist commander. the plan was not tactically sound. they climbed up the mountain to get them. the problem there is that that doesn't make any sense. you don't fight up a hill. so the team fought hard. but ultimately, they were sent. >> which is a classic of people setting the mission have one point of view. >> that's fair. >> the second part of this, though, is once we fully appreciate just how competent,

just how committed, and just how motivated and able our soldiers are, that that really should raise the level of discipline from everybody else who likes to talk about the things they like to do or order them to do things like our political leadership. is that fair? >> true. absolutely. >> and so right now what perplexes me is this. 80% of our soldiers when pulled when returned to afghanistan and asked why are you going back to afghanistan? what's your mission? 80% say my mission is to make sure my friends who are sill stuck over there don't get killed. how does that mission, as self-identified by our reenlisting soldiers, reconcile with the mission competency that we all admire so much that the president talked about today? >> well, i think it all falls back to the the politicians and our planners. they have to give clearives for why they are going into harm's

way. then the soldiers know how to act. >> where do we stand today in a world where you have highly-competent soldiers and political leadership without missions? >> there's a term for it. it's called mission creep. when a mission changes its objectives, that's a problem. then you never really know what you're fighting to do. so really if you look at it, afghanistan started with get bin laden. topple the taliban. those missions are complete. but every year there's a new mission. now it's being told that it's build a stable afghanistan that can fight the taliban. i'm not sure how you get there. that baffles me. and i know it baffles soldiers on the ground. >> elaborate on that. if it you go to a soldier. repeat the mission and give your reporting of how soldiers respond to that mission directive. >> i asked that question to a soldier in the back of the truck. i said what are we fighting about?

what are we fighting here? what's the mission? he said he didn't know. he wasn't able to articulate it. as we drove by girls waving to us, he said if i'm here to fight to get them to go to school every day, that's good enough for me. >> is that good enough for the american taxpayer to send our most elite soldiers to a foreign nation to make sure the girl can go to school? that's rather profound political statement. by the president and the taxpayer saying we are so concerned about the education of 4-year-olds in afghanistan we're dpoing to commit billions and billions of dollars and all of our most tactical and best-trained military soldiers to make sure those 4-year-olds in afghanistan get a chance to get an education and the american kids we don't care that much about. that's what's implied isn't it? >> the mission has become personal. there's no national standard goal that the soldiers can articulate. that goal has been achieved.

that's what it says to me. it says like you said, they are fighting for the guys to the left and right. that's in every war. but now more than ever, guys cannot articulate. >> i looked through the book. it's an awesome story of the capabilities and the incredible stress that we are putting our soldiers under and how remarkably and heroically they respond to it in that context. so thank you for your own bravery to put yourself at the risk that i know you do to tell a story like this. so thank you. super tuesday coverage the subject here in the states. it continues all evening. a special e decision oi "hardball" is teed up for you. but first, david goodfriend has a daily rant. i habe a cohd. i toog nyguil bud i'm stild stubbed up. [ male announcer ] truth is, nyquil doesn't un-stuff your nose. really? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus liquid gels fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your stuffy nose. [ deep breath ] thank you!

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david goodfriend is here with the daily rant. what's on your mind? >> dylan, in case you didn't hear it enough already, today is super tuesday. a big event in any presidential primary. but in the course of the debates, campaign ads, and press coverage leading up to today's voting, did you hear any candidate come forward with a really big idea? i didn't. admittedly, i'm a democrat, so you'd think i'm just saying this to pick on the republicans as they grope for a nominee. but that's not it. i yearn for the days where campaigns were a chance to float big ideas. ideas generated in the drama and heat of a national campaign. put it out there.

argue over it. get a reaction. and in the process, maybe lay the groundwork for something big. there are plenty of examples throughout american history of democratic and republican presidential candidates throwing out big ideas on the campaign trail that later became reality. not themes or slogans, but real, ambitious proposals. it was during the 1960 presidential campaign that kennedy proposed to a bunch of university of michigan students a new organization for young americans to volunteer, travel the new countries, and help people around the world to improve their lives. that bold idea became today's peace corps. during the 1980 presidential campaign, ronald reagan said it was time to appoint a woman to the supreme court. as president, reagan did just that. franklin roosevelt proposed the new deal before he was elected. speaking before the 1932

democratic national convention during the depths of the great depression. social security, the exchange commission, and many of the products of the new deal are integral parts of our lives today. abraham lincoln. he called for the end of slavery during a speech while running for president. and bill clinton proposed real health care reform as a candidate in 1992. even though his proposal was defeated in congress, he laid the foundation for president obama's later success. so again, i ask you, where are the big ideas of today's presidential campaign? republican candidates seem stuck on either the same platform they have used for decades or attacks on one another. this isn't good for anyone, including democrats like me. you see, we all benefit when big ideas are part of a primary presidential campaign. the opposing party has no choice but to react, hopefully with big ideas of their own. just like the competitive market place for goods and services,

the marketplace for ideas needs innovative participants. the more the better. without it, we the consumers or voters, are left hungry for progress. >> isn't this the natural by-product to the race to the bottom? if power is exchanged by making the other guy look worse than you, the president doesn't have to come up with a big idea for 30 million jobs or energy independence in america. all the president has to do is hope the republicans are crazier than he is and he gets reelected. isn't what you're searching for impossible when you're in the race to the bottom? >> not impossible. just harder. i would love it if a republican would go out there and propose a big idea. let's hear them. >> i fully agree with that. and it may still happen. well presented. thaung thank you. i'm dylan ratigan. hope to