rescue. >> pete eer orszag. it's morning joe. see you back here tomorrow. stick around right now for chuck. >> and the big premier tonight. >> did mitt romney have a better wednesday than super tuesday? as the political world wakes up? it's clear mitt romney did well thanks to 12,000 votes in ohio. like all romney victories this year, it comes with a caveat. as santorum takes a stronger claim as the conservative alternative. despite all the results, all the new delegates, the story is the same, romney has a perception problem. santorum has a math problem. and as for paul and gingrich, they simply have a candidate credibility problem. and president obama doesn't sit super tuesday out. his first 2012 press conference includes a sharp rebuke of the republican candidates that he says are beating the drums of war when it comes to iran. it's wednesday, the day after, march 7th, 2012.

this is the daily rundown. super tuesday is behind us. let's get to the first reads of the morning. mitt romney won the raw popular vote. he won states in five time zones, and still, all that comes with a but. romney continues to struggle with the same parts of the party he struggled with the entire campaign. core conservatives and southern conservatives. romney won massachusetts where he was governor. virginia, where neither santorum or gingrich were on the ballot. he carried vermont, idaho and alaska. and in the symbolic victory, romney appears to be the winner in ohio. he carried with just over 12,000 votes. and i'll do a little ad lib here. the reason we say aparticipant, ohio has a history of having extraneous votes come in late. at this point, if it's just 1% that comes in late, santorum would have to win 90% of the vote to change the outcome for

what it's worth. and we know, obviously the delegate was already going his way. romney's way in ohio. now romney went zero in the red south. zero for the south. he lost tennessee, oklahoma, santorum? he lost georgia to gingrich. santorum beat them by double digits. 37-28. newt gingrich pulled in 20% of the vote. romney lost in georgia. gingrich picked up the only victory of the night in his home state. he spent four times as much campaigning there as his rivals did. gingrich pulled off a decisive victory 47% of the vote. he placed third behind rick santorum and ron paul. and in a testament to romney's organization, he nearly won conservative alaska. he beat santorum by 33-29 margin. the only candidate to campaign in alaska, though, ron paul. he finished third. and by the way, ron paul has now

gone 0 for 23. even newt gingrich has won some states. ron paul has not. 20% of the party's delegates were at stake last night. in all, romney picked up at least 212 delegates. he may get up to 219. that will half of the total number at stake. santorum won 91. we think he gets up to 97. he won't crack 100. we think gingrich will get up to 82. and nbc is projecting that romney will walk away with more than a majority of the delegates. 219, 97, 82. bottom line, romney hit his number. santorum did not. romney is more than 25% there on his path to the magic number. we're going to get into this later. i can tell you this, if you assume newt gingrich dromed out today, and you assume that somehow all of the delegates

remaining broke santorum's way, he would have to win 62% of the remaining delegates, primaries and caucuses. that's assuming he isn't win new york, didn't win connecticut, didn't win the northeastern primaries. you factor that in and you're looking at a 65 to 70% of the remaining delegates that santorum would have to win to get to the magic number. he has a gigantic math problem, not a small one. >> romney had a better night than he's getting credit for. all the victories in the world don't erase this perception crowd hanging over the campaign's head. he continues to struggle with the core conservatives, tea party workers and republicans. we come out with our exit poll information from the seven states and compare them to the numbers for the five states where we have done exit polling earlier this year. in the seven stateswoman knee won 28% of voters who describe themselves as very conservative. smaller percentage than the 31% he won up to this point.

38% of ohio republicans and 40% of republicans in tennessee said romney is not fif snuff, double digits more than his competitives. across the seven states, only 33% of republicans who make less than 100,000 dlarz a year pick romney. only two in ten voters in ohio and tennessee who asked which better understand the amplg americans, they picked romney. he also has the connection problem with conservatives. it's all showing up in the exit polls. that's why he can't seem to land this plane. by the way, even though romney won ohio, fewer voters actually said they would be sfied with romney as the nominee. perhaps the most striking number of the night. 57%. ohio republicans, 63% said they would be satisfied if santorum was the nominee. finally knowing ohio was going to make the night a lock one,

all three candidates declared their versions of victory a lot earlier in the evening. >> i'm not going to let you down. i'm going to get this nomination. and tonight we're counting up the delegates for the convention. it look good. we're counting down the days until november, that looks better. >> rick santorum who tweetd this picture of himself pretending to work out in ohio. where his rally was held at a high school gym. he also declared victory. >> against the odds. when they thought, oh, okay, he's finally finished, we keep coming back. we have won in the west, the midwest and the south. we're ready to win across this country. >> he hasn't won in new england, by the way. newt gingrich may have got third in three states and fourth in five but he says he has no intention of running out. >> i'm the tortoise. i just take one step at a time.

in the morning we are going onto alabama. we are going onto mississippi. we are going onto kansas. and that's just this week. >> his campaign has already responded to the santorum campaign suggestion that perhaps there isn't room for him in the race. telling nbc we can make the same argument. the worth part is he doesn't realize he's splitting the moderate vote with romney. okay. gingrich campaigns in alabama today. santorum stops in kansas and mississippi. that's right. that call der not so great for romney. finally, ohio was the first state to hold congressional primaries, and if the results are any indication of things to come, watch out washington. congress min kucinich lost to marcy kaptur, who accused kucinich of being too pro-war. guess who she faces in november?

none other than joe the plumber. you have to love that race. that's going to get network attention. and republican gene schmidt. she lost her primary to brad wenstrun in ohio there. and former men mary joe kilroy. she couldn't win the democratic primary. it's one set of primaries. if i were an incumbent i would be looking at that and being ha little bit nervous. something attached to washington is not so good. we request see that in the polling. ohio voters have the first chance to put that to the test. all right. mitt romney put some space between him and his rivals f he was denied the kind of victories that could have put this race away. romney said he's ready for the long fight. >> we have the time and the resources and a plan to get the delegates. we think that will get done

before the convex. wuchb thing i can tell you is there's not going to be a brokered convention. it's going to one of the four people still running. >> andrea mitchell is the host of andrea mitchell reports. steve schmidt is a republican strategist. andrea mitchell, look, i like at. this seven states. won the raw vote. won the majority of delegates. he's saying we're confident we'll have enough delegates by the time the process ends. they clearly realizeded, they have the memo. they can't be shoving strum out of the race. >> he didn't have a game face on at all. they should have figured out a better narrative for the morning after, even for the night of. he hasn't worked out the victory speech since new hampshire. he hasn't figured out how to use primary nights to effect the way hillary clinton and barack obama did. i'm still trying to get over the fact that joe the plumber, steve schmidt, i want to hear the back

story. >> it's not going to be a movie this weekend. but we sit here and do the math. i did this four years ago a lot. it's mathematically not impossible, but improbable that rick santorum can be the nominee. newt gingrich needs to drop out right now for that to possibly happen or these percentages just go up with every primary and caucus. but romney has to figure out -- i go back to the same thing we said. i don't know how romney is denied the nomination, and i don't know how he clinches it. >> it may be he doesn't clench the necessary number of delegates to be nominated and he enters that convention for the first time -- >> you really think that? >> when you look at the map and listen to governor romney and campaign, i think the campaign thinks they may not get the requisite number of delegates to win. when you look at the outcome of the contests last night, the one thing governor romney is right

about is that the nominee will be one of the people presently in the race and rouning. he's overwhelmingly likely to be the nominee. >> does mitt romney have a message problem? >> sure. absolutely. he has a message problem in a number of ways. he doesn't have a construct for the general election. there's an absence of a positive vision. not about that bad things that barack obama has done wrong in the last four years, but about the good things that mitt romney is going to make happen over the next four years or over the next eight years, and he has a process message problem, which has to do with what we're talking about right now. you know, when we're sitting around talking about sh he going to have enough delegates? is he not going to have enough delegates? they're having a news event today where they're going to do a big briefing, walk everybody through the math. but they need to begin to message around the question of inevitably and begin to close it down. >> let's talk about santorum's strength here. we all watched the 2010 primary. every time the establishment tried to force its way on a

nominee and start coalescing around them and certainly in the senate primaries, it would be a real pushback here. and again, there seemed the to be a slight pushback from the base, base of the party. conservatives saying, you know, not yet. but do they love santorum? i mean, is this reagan four? or not? >> i don't think there's love. it's not reagan-esque. but they feel more comfortable with santorum. he's not a great retailer. he's so much better than mitt romney. and he does have an authenticity that the base, the people are responding to. you see it in the exit polls. ohio is classic case. where he is touching every note. with the people who are primary voters. mitt romney, i don't think in this briefing today, i don't think you can do the math. and i saw your chicken strac ens

for the middle of the night. i don't think the numbers are there to nail it. their argument is going to be we don't have to. first ballot is a lock. they're doing all the trench warfare. they have so many of the state party apparatus. so they're going to get more of those, what the democrats would call super delegates. we're all getting used to the new rules with unintended consequences. >> if mitt romney didn't have a spending advantage, he would have lost michigan and lost ohio, don't you think? >> no doubt. >> then that ultimately -- suspect that ultimately a bigger problem? it's a good news he has a financial advantage. the problem is that's the only thing keeping him alive. >> sometimes good primary candidates make bad general election candidates. and sometimes bad primary candidates make good general election candidates. and mitt romney, if you're a republican you have to hope that he falls into the latter

category. >> you're making that bet? >> well, he clearly, as a massachusetts governor with a moderate record who has had his conversion and he's been consistent in a number of positions over the last four, five, six years, but there's skepticism in the base thof the party that when he talks he believes anything that he's saying. and it's been difficult for him to overcome. he's doing what he has to do to accumulate a delegate lead. he's doing what he has to do to be the front-runner in the race, but he's not locked it down, and as this primary has dragged on, a lot of republicans are trying to make comparisons to the 2008 race. barack obama came out of that 2008 nominating contest in june with a 51% favorable rating, 28% unfavorable. today, today mitt romney is at 28% favorable, 39% unfavorable. 12k3w4r the money is going to be an issue here. santorum does have a small donor base.

that's something mitt romney does not have. i heard him talk habit that last night. but there's a big donor here. at some point the romney people are going to be going to a foster freeze within the big super pac donor. will you stop? what's it going to take? >> foster freeze is the key right now. out of my own somewhat awkward connection from his appearance on our show. but he's going to have to decide whether it's worth it to stick with rick santorum. so far he's been a true believer, even though he has connections with mitt romney. >> and very quickly looking at the advertising spending that's going on over the next week and all the upcoming states, restore our future. romney's campaign is not up at all. i've been hearing rumors of money problems. does that tell you money problems? >> well, there's been extraordinary amount of money. i think the design for the race, although they say they're built for the long haul, and to a degree they are, no one is ever really built for a long haul. these are extraordinarily

expensive. it's difficult to raise money. >> and no small donor base. >> he may have to dip into his own pockets. >> either march 20th or april 20th reports. what a night. wonderful wednesday. all right. president obama lectures the republican candidates for, quote, loose talk about iran. that's next. but first a look ahead at the president's schedule. what he's doing. touring a manufacturing plant in charlotte, north carolina. my friends, do biden, michelle obama, president obama, the number of trips to north carolina over the last three years has been unbelievable. more, i think, than any other swing state, if you combine those three. you're watching "the daily rundown". this one's for all us lawnsmiths. grass gurus. doers. here's to more saturdays in the sun. and budgets better spent. here's to turning rookies - into experts,

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i'll make sure iran knows of the very real pearil that await it if it becomes nuclear. i will station multiple aircraft carriers and warships at iran's door. >> if some of the folks think it's time to launch a war, they should say so. they should explain to american people why they would do that and what the consequences would be. everything else is just talk. >> that was the president calling out mitt romney and a little bit of rick santorum for beating the drums of war in iran and treeing the crisis like a campaign issue, inted of a matter of life and death. steve clemens, the washington editor at large joins me now. i was struck that the president in the west wing. they pick and chew when they want to engage the republicans.

we saw it in two different places. he said, good luck tonight. no comment. but when specifically on the issue of iran, they want this debate. that's what struck me about the president. he's like, bring it. it was almost like bring it on. let's have the debate right now. >> the president is sitting behind the oval office desk and awaiting a lot of things. he's wanting to demonstrate that he's presidential weighing the risk against the real challenges of where iran is going. and he's trying to frame and i think they're helping him frame a recklessness in the republican side about, you know, what he's calling loose talk about bombing iran. you have on the republican side a kind of divide between the sort of cautious, realist types in which there are not many, and then the folks that hug dick cheney and john bolton and talk very pugnaciously and aggressively about the various wars they want to tilt the united states into it.

whether it's iran or lately syria. >> steve, it strikes me at how powerful, actually of an issue in the republican primary iran is. it really is, and a lot of that has to do with evangelicals. and i think, you know, my two cents has been this is romney's way of trying to appeal to some core christian conservative who are skeptical of romney on everything else, that if he does tough talk on iran, that maybe he'll be passable. boy, i couldn't believe, he was talking about moving warships. what was the policy? what did you hear when you read his speech that said, okay, i know what the policy is from mitt romney that is different from barack obama? >> i mean, the problem with mitt romney is when you read his speech, and i read it carefully, you don't get the sense of his real strategy. it's tit for tat. it's basically beat up the other guy. that said i want to give him one element of credit. he distanced himself, at least yesterday, from john mccain and distanced himself from john mccain on syria. and iran, romney has been saying

while he's been tough on the military side, he continues to basically talk about diplomacy. so i don't want to endorse or embrace what romney is doing. but he's not as bad as santorum and gingrich. so there's a scale, where as i think president obama has been trying to say, this is a vital national security issue. it's bun within of his highest priorities since he came into office, and it's something you can't be reckless about. the consequences to the allies with really aggressive action that isn't bought through, it can really be staggering and romney is not demonstrating awareness of the consequences. >> one of the accusations is that somehow the president was procrastinating and not enforcing some sanctions right away. what sanctions are left? >> i think right now they're trying to look at the various international players that are doing business with iran on oil and being financed through the iranian central bank, and what

romney is referring to is essentially there should be penalties assign to these various trading partners, and the president maintained an exemption to exempt those out. and so they want to see -- >> let me stop you there. that was my understanding of it, too. let's talk about the people we are penalizing. governments and companies that we do business with? would suddenly people not be able to do business in china is that the issue? >> it's china. it's europe. it's a broad base of companies where we're doing business, too. and to give the white house credit, they're moving in that direction. they're trying to move it without disrupting global markets and disrupting oil. but the fact is the world still needs to some degree iranian oil. there's going to be a squeeze. we're trying to get supplies from allies. fundamentally what he wants is a reckless, immediate jump. and the president is basically saying we need to move cautiously and make sure we don't undermine our interests or

our allies' interests. >> very quickly on syria. >> right. >> the three amigos, if you will. as they're known in the u.s. senate. mccain, lieberman, graham, issued a joint statement that they're out to do on some of these things, calling for air strikes. now, how would that work? every expert in the region that told me what's going on in syria said this is so far away from being libya that just a simple air strike, trying to create a no-fly zone isn't a viable option. explain. >> it just reminds me that john mccain -- i used to have a lot of respect for, but john mccain doesn't look at a map. but there's no divide around benghazi or misrata. this is a situation in syria where you have a much denser population where it's very hard. and the idea that you would unleash a mass bombing campaign.

a bombing campaign against whom? it's not something that lends itself to that accusation? so what obama has been doing is essentially ratcheting up the pressure, bringing up international issues. beginning to work with the syrian issue. to talk about just basically mass bombings, to come in and further destabilize, we would be -- end up killing rots of innocents. >> and speaking of killing of innocents, are we really going to sit here, though, at the same time and watch this humanitarian crisis unfold? is there anything that could be done responsible? >> i think you're going to see other parties to this, and particularly turkey. i think become much more engaged. it's not just about u.s. forces or classic nato forces of which f turkey is a member. they aligned half a million men on the syrian border because of the fear that there would be a kurdish refugee crisis running in. so turkey's military pressure and others in the region may

take action that doesn't involve u.s. or european forces at all. >> and that would be, obviously, the solution that the u.s. would prefer. steve, thanks for getting up early. looks like you're on the west coast. >> san francisco. triple digit losses on wall street. can the dow bounce back? no one is anywhere near the magic number of 1144. but first, today's trivia question. when was the last time we had three consecutive two-term u.s. presidents? # my mother froze everything. i was 18 years old before i had my first fresh bun. the invention that i came up with

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the united nations humanitarian chief is headed to syria in an attempt to persuade the syrian government to bring in relief supplies and i low the wounded to be evacuated. the u.n. estimated more than 7,000 people have been killed in the past year in this crackdown. and six british soldiers are presumed dead after an explosion hit their armored vehicle in afghanistan. it would be the biggest loss of life for british forces in afghanistan since 2006. and big news on the the tech front. apple is scheduled to unveil ipad 3 today. still getting all my apps squares away on ipad 2. the rumor mill is abuzz. the upgrade may be included with a sharper screen, potentially siri. it never quite works as well as it claims to in the advertisements, and of course, increases memory. opening bell rang on wall street. time for the market rundown.

b becky quick is here. let's talk about wall street's bad day. but oil prices were down. >> oil prices were down. they're down another 3 cents. earlier a rebound with oil back up above $100. ride now trading about $104 in change. we may not see prices go any higher. watching the rebound on the stock market. yesterday was the biggest drop that we've seen the entire year for the stock market. first time we have seen the dow down by triple digits. and for 45 sessions in a row we have not seen any sort of thing like that, the double digit drop like this. this morning we are bouncing back a little bit, although we're off the highest levels we saw earlier this morning. right now stocks are up by 25 points. when we were watching the futures, they were indicated to be up by twice that. the big news was the adp number that came out. adp showed a gain of 216,000. that was right if line. chuck, this gets us on our way to friday's big jobs number.

>> that should drive some markets, that's for sure. our deep dive into the delegate math. state by state in 30 seconds. we kept tell yg you it's about delegates. the deep dive is into the delegate count. this morning 11 states voted on super tuesday, and the results are in. mitt romney won in seven of them. four primaries, three caucuses and more importantly a majority of the delegates. let's start with the states where romney won. we're going to start, of course, in the state of ohio.

this is how the delegate breakdown. we know he won by 12,000 votes. look at the split. 38, 25. interesting here. we're giving santorum three for now. he's going to have to win a challenge with the state party because, remember, he didn't file full debt gat states. he won a condition gregsal district where he didn't have a full state. but he had some alternatives. virginia, ron paul won the third congressional district. so it denied mitt romney a clean sweep. he got 43 of the 46 there. then we have the next two to show you. which is in vermont and massachusetts. big wins in massachusetts. you had all 38 delegates go to mitt romney, and in vermont, more of a surprising split. we didn't see the majority we expected for mitt romney. he ended up with nine and santorum with four. and gingrich and romney split

the other eight. 32 for 32 in ohio. in wyoming, we had the county conventions. they released five of them. ron paul got one. romney got four of them. and in alaska, total proportional here. he only got one more delegate than santorum. and newt gingrich even nabbed three out of alabaska. one of them would be sarah palin, as we found out. tennessee broke down this way. 29 for santorum. romney slightly underperforming with 15. gingrich a distant third. picked up 11 delegates there. 18. thought he might get to 20. romney did better there. got 11 rather than ten. and gingrich a little bit worse than we expected. then to move on here, north dakota. u thought paul or romney could do better there. simply because it's proportional with no threshold.

here is a big disappointment for rick santorum. he's only going to get three delegates out of here. you have to get 20% in the congressional districts. we have nine of these not yet allocated here. we think gingrich going to get more. 55. we think romney is going to get five more. here are a couple of congressional districts in the atlanta area. on sunday he spent a lot of time in the atlanta market. so where does that bring us? our best estimate is that mitt romney, 219. we told you that we thought he could get to 221. we feel good about our math from last night. we said a good night for him would have been 115 to 130. and the big disappointment is the few delegates out of the state of georgia. ron paul is not so hot, as you

can see there. so what does this mean for rick santorum? the bottom line is the math doesn't work against him. i've done this three ways. all the remaining delegates, including those in conventions and caucuses. he has to win 62% of all remaining delegates to to 1144. if you assume mitt romney may win some primaries, like the new york primary, the connecticut primary, the new jersey primary, all in the northeast, places he would be strong. then santorum has to win about 67% of all remaining delegates. by the way, the rnc has the version of super delegates. 100 or so party leaders. if you assume mitt romney wins the lion's share of those, then the magic number for santorum is up to 71%. the bottom line is the ma doesn't work for santorum. if they push too hard t anti-establishment wing of the

party may strike back. the hump day political panel joins me next. of course, the white house soup of the day. look at this. this is usually reserved for a friday. crawfish corn chowder. not a bad wednesday soup. you're watching "the daily rundown." today i'm talking to people about walmart's low price guarantee.

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and galvanized support for the civil rights movement and, of course, now honored every year. well, mitt romney won the delegate mouth. he didn't knock the rivals out of the race. each declaring their plans to move forward. >> we're going to take your vote, a huge vote tonight in massachusetts, and take that victory all the way to the white house. >> there are lots of bunny rabbits that run through. i'm the tortoise. >> we won races all over the country. against the odds. when they thought, oh, okay, he's finally finished, we keep coming back. >> it's panel time. my colleague alex wagner, host of "now with alex wagner." but that's later. and nicholas, the political reporter with "the new york times." let me start with the political report we are "the new york times."

i want to say you're setting the conventional wisdom for all of us. the headlines in "the new york times" struck me, the final one. which was santorum strong was the second lead. fair lead? here's lead number one. romney does what he has to do. lead number two, santorum is strong. >> what happened towards the end of the night was the late closes by santorum. and all of the sudden the actual scoreboard, you know, was not quite the romney sweep that some people were expecting. you have a dominant campaign not overwhelming. and rick santorum, he keeps on keeping on. keeping on racking up delegates. he can't be dismissed. he won a more for the other guys. why isn't it a dominant night? >> in some sense the dell get is he looses x date.

>> more x's. fair? >> it is. because you have this sentiment around him that he is somehow less than compelling. there's a lack of compassion around him. that's not made up. that's not contrived. that's not a media aspect. that's real. that's on the ground. i've seen it myself. you have to imagine that he had a heroing night and a good morning. going forward, he has three or four weeks that are not going to be easy for him. not greatlines. states he's not only going to lose, but probably not even come in second. >> and then there's going to be potentially having to litigate health care in a way that -- rick santorum has been talking about this now for a week. he said it again yesterday. we're play a clip for you, alex. >> it's one thing defend a mandated top down government run health care program that you imposed on the people of your

state. it's another thing to recommend and encourage the president of the united states to impose the same thing on the american people. and it's another thing yet to tell the american public you didn't do it. >> see, alex, this is the nightmare scenario for romney, to me. santorum picked up on meeting late. he was just getting comfortable on how to attack romney. and now he has more time to do it. >> and a lot of us were wondering why nobody was hitting romney. >> a head scratcher. >> yeah. there's been some attention paid to romney's statements in 2009 and beyond. these are not, as i sooif said, we've discussd this before. this is not the great mind of research. this is clips of mitt romney on meet the press. on ab krrk. on cbs. really reversing position from everything he said. >> i assume the only person who doesn't read it is somebody from "the new york times." it is mitt romney has this

message problem. >> it's a fundamental problem. the fundamental problem is mitt romney eels crowning achievement as governor of massachusetts looks a lot like obama's achievement as the the u.s. how is it different? but for a president who is so unpopular with the base of this party, and with obama care being the rallying cry for the party, it's very devastating. >> you said he's so unpopular. i don't sense that he's unpopular. i think people, i think the base of the party is -- obama is. i think when it comes to mitt romney, the base is like, he's a nice guy. he would be an okay neighbor. >> i think it's deeper than that. for all the politics we do around elections, voting is still a deeply personal experience for most people. and they go into a voting booth. and they come out wanting the the feel good about themes. i don't think they have identified yet what a vote for romney means. what cause are they supporting?

is it just electability? surely there's got to be a more noble cause. until he can give conservatives a reason to feel good about themselves after voting for him, it's not going to happen. >> alex, i want to play this romney quote from yesterday. he's trying to admit he's not a good candidate. >> i met with moms and dads and teachers and students and factory workers and business owners. i've listened and i've learned. i hope i'm the better candidate, by the way, for having done all that. >> i hope. it is this -- you watch him and say just embrace it. embrace your inr dork. i think he would be a great neighbor. the pictures that we've seen with him and the kids. the more we get to know mitt romney as the dorky but incredibly capable good guy down the block, the better for mitt romney. he has to stop hiding behind

this veneer of the bain stuff. he has to get comfortable with his own wealth. fundamentally, he needs to show us who he is. >> after the break i want to get into how does he land this plane. we asked when was the last time we had three consecutive two-term u.s. presidents? believe it or not, the answer is between 1801 and 1825. jefferson, madison and monroe are the only three two-term presidents to serve consecutively. take that. we'll be right back. i knew it'd be tough on our retirement savings, especially in this economy. but with three kids, being home more really helped. man: so we went to fidelity. we talked about where we were and what we could do. we changed our plan and did something about our economy. now we know where to go for help if things change again. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get free one-on-one help from america's retirement leader.

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let's bring back the panel. ail ekts wagner, nicholas, nick, let's look at the calendar. it's not a pretty picture for the rest of march. and the same way we thought february was going to be this great month for romney, didn't turn out to be. we have kansas caucuses. this is the home of sam brownback. that's not a mitt romney state.

then we have alabama and mississippi on the 13th. then you have louisiana on the 24th. illinois seems to be the one place mitt romney could do well. >> that's not a great calendar for him and it's a good calendar for rick santorum and/or gingrich. they can come back and say, we're still in it. gingrich can win some more contests and both of them can, perhaps, make an indirect appeal for more super pac money which can subsidize their campaigns into the following round of contests. >> how does gingrich get driven out of this race? this was not a credible night for him. in my opinion. okay, he won his home state. less than 50%, number one. number two, third or fourth in every other state. he never had any other second place finish. >> you know, chuck, i go to sleep every night asking myself this very question, how and when does newt get out? but, i mean, i've got to be honest, and everyone at this table, i think knows by now, i am not a newt fan. but if i had last night and looking ahead to the calendar, i

would stay in. >> you would at least wait one more week. >> i would. have you to wait -- >> if santorum beats him in alabama and mississippi, but if he beats him in those two southern states, doesn't that -- >> you would think, especially since newt gingrich is practically running on vengeance now, just wanting to harm mitt romney, he harms him by staying in. i mean, it's a bizarre tactic, you would think he'd want -- >> he helps him by staying in, is what you mean. >> it helps him by staying in. if he wants to hurt him, get out. >> if you're mitt romney, what do you do now? do you try win a southern state? do you try to shut down this narrative we and the media keep going, you can't win in the south or, forget you, you go to springfield? >> you work on self-improvement. this is a battle between santorum and gingrich. let them have it and make yourself a better candidate. this is all about mathematics. they know they'll be in this for a while and they have the wind although their sails mathematically. >> i'm bringing in something out of nowhere but pat robertson,

you never know what he's going to change to the 700 club. he changed the name to the 420 club. listen to what he said yesterday. >> i'm become part a hero with hippy club when i said we need to legalize marijuana. how many people get put in prison and turned into hard core criminals because they are a possession of a very small amount of controlled substance. i mean, the whole thing is crazy. >> he hit on to issues there that actually is of -- by the way, those are -- those are liberal democratic issues that you hear brought up sometimes, which is, hey, we've got to change our sentencing laws, number one. also decriminalization, how about that, pat robertson. >> i've seen more and more republicans, conservatives who are -- >> younger. >> yeah, younger but also some officials in some cases. it's the elected officials for the most part who want to touch this. who wants to get involved in a

war about drugs and decriminalization. the substance of the issue, the cost of incarceration are persuasive for people. >> mitt romney used this issue against rick santorum because santorum voted for one of these bills in the senate that would lower some of the sentencing standards and restore voting rights, i think, for -- you know, things like this that is -- so, you're right. it ends up being something that could be used against you in a republican primary. thoughts? >> i don't think this is mitt romney's next winning -- >> no, but is the libertarian streak of the republican party coming back? >> i don't think it's ever gone away. it's just very hard to apply in practical politics. a lot of people running for politics are practical people and they know that. >> practical people except for ron paul, who has a really slold base for support -- >> robertson for paul. >> but at the end of this when the republicans are on the shrink's couch asking, what happened, i think some people with -- >> shameless plugs, you're last

because you wok here. nick? >> excellent work on the new york times by mike coming up sooner. >> good deal. ? >> i don't know any other shameless plugs so mine is i have a column out in today's "new york daily news." >> do have you a topic? >> mitt romney. what else? >> and alex, other than tune in at noon? >> we've got great folks on the panel today. rick tyler answering some questions, hoggan gidly answering some questions, karen finny, john heilemann, john harwood. big panel. >> that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." i think i'm going back to washington. no offense. i like new york. coming up next, chris jansing, and don't miss alex.

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