romney go back to the lab and emerge with mitt romney 2.0, this is "now." joining me today, kurt anderson, host of studio 360 radio and john harwood, karen finney, and political analyst, john heileman. last night, mitt romney won the most states and extended his overall delegate lead to more than 200, but the bottom line is that he has not locked up the nomination, is he becoming a stronger candidate or a weaker one? folks? my thinking here is that this could be a pivot point for the team romney, not just going back to the lab but refining a message, making him a stronger candidate, there's a contention out there that he has been bloodied and bruised but this could be good. >> i'm feeing like we have read

that and said that five or six times eer already. the question was would newt gingrich make him a better candidate. so far, i've not seen what we have seen in the democratic race as hillary and obama duked it out. obama ended up being a stronger candida candidate, but along with that we saw turn out and excitement in the democratic party only to up, which helped in the general. on the republican side excitement going down and turnout going down, so for the general it looks like there's going to be more fracturing. >> maybe, john, it takes longer for the message to set in for team romney. >> in maybe so. i've been amazed. there's many ways that romney is weaker in having been drawn to

the right on issues and having alienated all the groups that we talk about all the time. >> those voters. >> and they are serious problems, we talk about them all the time. it's clear that he is a weaker candidate in that respect, can he fix the problem? maybe not. we will see. but something you can fix right now, is he goes out every tuesday and gets to speak to a national audience, this is a thing that barack obama and hillary did, they gave great speeches, they were of messaging to a general election audience. they were setting themselves up up for what would happen if they were the nominee. mitt romney gave one good election night speech in new hampshire and every since then, the speeches are strategy and they do not do anything. they should start working to build him up in the eyes of a nation that he has to compete for centrist voters. >> team romney needs to channel

the one line zingers of a michael steele who is joining us now from washington. seriously, michael steele, what is going on with mitt rop any, will he come out as a better version of the ipad? >> i don't know, it's been six years in the making of this thing, i don't know. the problem is, look, this is the guy, this is who he is. so, instead of trying to package him into ronald reagan or to bill clinton or some other, you know, bigger than life political figure, let him be himself, so he may be a little uncomfortable standing on the stage. build around that. make that part of the theme about him so people feel comfortable with that instead of judging him against other candidates or likely can dade d

like a chris christie, make the argument for your candidacy, but most importantly for your future administration, because that is what everyone, including the base is looking to hear. that is what will move them toward you. so, until you -- until they get comfortable with mitt romney, his team around him and stop worrying about the gaffes and the foot in mouth disease and the misspoken word, incorporate it into the man that you want us to know, that human guy and let that be the selling point as opposed to trying to premanufacturer this person. >> i don't know how this works, it seems to me in 2008, you had barack obama who the base loved, imagining that he was more like them rather than the mod raet that he is, and here you have a base that does not like romney because they know he is pretending to be a moderate.

that cannot be changed by letting him by himself, can it? >> it's a good and fair point, what i'm trying to say, okay, we know that. look, he has a record that a lot of conserves look at and say that is not conservative. but, okay, be out front with it and embrace it. say i pushed the envelope, i had to take my tstate where we needd to go. talk about what was wrong about what you did, as opposed to running away from it. >> how does he do that when he has rick santorum who is winning the votes of conservatives, and winning southern states with a message that is basically the -- that he is taking this in the same direction that barack obama is taking it and by the way we hate that direction. >> i want to talk about that santorum dynamic, we talk about

money and how much it matters in this race. romney and his super pac, spent $4.21 million in ohio and santorum spent $1.19 million, that was a lot of a difference for a 1% margin of a win. >> imagine without the money? >> that is my point. you made the changes that we made in the calendar, the idea was to give movoters more of an opportunity to vote. on our side, that helped. we had more rovoters engaged by the general. but on your side, the schedule change is doing more damage to your candidate, as it goes on, it fractures your party more and i do not see if rmc playing a role in party building. >> go figure, right? >> at some point you know this, there are things that only the party can do in these

situations. >> absolutely. absolutely and this is a moment from where the beginning of this process, and to answer the initial question first, i think it's a little too late to try to do all of that with respect to romney because making that argue pt in the face of a santorum standing there becomes more difficult, that is something is that should have been -- my phrase, baked into the process earlier on. >> then maybe he would have sealed the deal. >> yes. to karen's point, quickly. you are right. if whole goal here was to is have national parties under pin the game for the state parties to build the resources and momentum for the fall. in other words, get the grassroots organized and use all of the candidates, all eight or mine, or ten of them to get yourself into a organization to do battle, that has not been done and well rue the day.

>> don't hate the player, hate the game, but it's the reverse here. if it was chris christie and jeb bush in this primary season, i think you can say it steel would have sharpened steel. >> i think there's a role that the rnc could be playing. michael understand this, it works when you focus on the grassroots in terms of party building so it's not just about we are waiting for the messiah to come. >> michael steele? >> you had two candidates who were well matched to the interest, the philosophy and desires of thisser party. in mitt romney, you have a candidate that is a out of sync on key issues, in particular the health care issue. so, it's -- i'm not sure how the

rnc can repair that problem. i have a question for michael. that is, as the builder on of this proportional system that drags it out, are you feeling you were smart in helping the party because romney cannot be caught or are you feeling guilty because santorum and newt are still in it? >> this is still back to don't hate the player, hate the game. >> i cannot help the process, built an on ramp of how to get you on the highway, we cannot help you drive once you are there. >> michael steele, thank you for defending, thank you for the answers and the wit and the wisdom as always, here is a live look -- do there be more to this visit? we will bring in the president's remarks live. first. should steady eddie turn his focus to knocking off newt

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>> 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 go out and tell the american public that you did not do it. we need a person running against president obama who is right on the issues and truthful with the american public. >> rick santorum called mitt romney a liar in his ohio speech, flexing his muscles and he flexed his muscles literally tweeting himself this picture in

the high school gym before taking the stage. hogan gidley is joining us, the man who speaks truth to power, hogan, thank you for joining us. >> thank you, alex and thank you for the time. >> hogan, i know that your candidate is going after mitt romney, is it not newt gingrich who is his enemy for the foreseeable future? >> no, they are not enemies. the factory mains that we would never call on anybody to get out of the race, whether you decide to run for office or get out of the race is a personal choice, but if you look at the polls we would be up by large margins in some of these states in newt gingrich was out of the the race. so the fact is there, if you were not in the race, we would be obviously taking it to romney pretty good at this point of course but that is politics and that is where we are. >> to be straight, you are not calling for newt gingrich to exit the race, but you are

saying it's not a bad thing if he did? >> that is correct. truth in politics right here. >> the nbc political unit, a cracker jack team says if gingrich drops out now, santorum needs 62% of the remaining delegates. that seems like a climb. >> yeah, but it'sab doable, loo i'm sure romney would have loved to go on the field and say i'm the champion. but there's a second half to play. ely will lead them on the charge and the giants are the winners, we are lplaying for the second half. it's a climb, no doubt about it. it's a blood sport and santorum is well versed in that sport, we are prepared to keep going. he is an italian kid from a small town and he does not start

any fight. but he will finish them. >> my question for you is that you will have to fight with newt gingrich in a couple southern states coming up. louisiana, mississippi, alabama, do those states look similar to oklahoma and tennessee, ie states where you can win in a three-person race? >> right, well, you know, that's a good point, john, i mean, i think so. i mean, rick santorum's values pl play well there and the plants and manufacturing facilities are gone now in those areas and i went ole miss, so i'm excited about that. >> you locked down that vote? >> that is right. >> we were trying to determine what the answer was to this question, i'm still unclear, why can't rick santorum win the catholic vote? this was one of the most shocking things about ohio. mitt romney won 44% of the

catholic vote and santorum won 31%, and romney had 17 know points higher there. newt gingrich is catholic so we have another catholic in the race, it's not like they all get together on a call and say this is what we are going to do as a huge unit. >> wait, i was on that call. >> i was too. >> no, alex, listen, i mean, if you called it the woman vote, you would be offended because not all women get together. >> yeah we do. no go ahead. >> the catholic vote has been fractured for years, they do not have a huge issue they vote on. they look at the candidates. i said this last time as well, santorum is a brand new person on the stage. mitt romney did did this three years ago and the catholic vote is unique, they all don't vote on one particular issue and it's been fractured for years, it was

fractured when jfk ran, fractured under reagan, they are not a huge voting block, they are a huge voting block but they have rarely one united voice. you have to realize, we have two catholics in the race, that divides it right there. >> and you have catholics on this panel. everyone is ready to jump in, i want to bring in another piece of exit polling data. overall in ohio, romney won 40% of the female vote and santorum won 37%, not a big difference, however if you split it unmarried women. romney 45% and santorum 28%. working women -- >> romney has problems with republican voters, approximate but we know that santorum is going to have problems in a general election with independent voters on issues like contraception, look at the

numbers, how are you answering what the romney people are arguing is that every day that santorum is staying in the race is assistanting barack obama in winning re-election and a barrier to republican s not ju at the top of the ticket but down ballot? >> we know why romney wants us out of the race, he wants uses out of the race so equity talking about -- the things he passed and profited from in the state of north carolina. >> i thought he wants to talk about his pro growth economic plan and his job creation record at bain capital. >> i'm not sure, you mow and i know that he is a moderate. he wants to show his true colors

and show the moderate wolf he is underneath. >> moderate wolf? >> he cannot win conservatives is the problem and he knows it and he knows that santorum is the stumbling block for him, at the end of the day, his worst nightmare is going against santorum one on one, if we can get to a one on one match up, as you see in states like missouri, we win by 30 points. >> this is karen finney again, i want to go back to the women vote, the catholic vote of course i would note that the mormon is winning the catholic vote not the other catholic. i want to ask you if romney missed the opportunity for the comments made by rush limbaugh, but santorum, had a bad couple of weeks with women, and i have to tell you, i used to work for hillary clinton, i remember when that book came out, it was visceral the hate that came

toward hillary and working women. wasn't there an opportunity for rick santorum to gain back women, speaking with that same pash and conviction we hear from him all the time as the father of daughters. >> he did come out and talked about the comments being absurd. the further this goes along, the more women will understand what rick santorum is about as it relates to women's issues. if that is the argument that you want to have, we are glad to have it. passing right -- >> great. >> passing legislation to allow women to work from home. his mother with went to yale, for heaven's sakes, she was the bread winner in the household in the '50s and '60s and -- >> and he said that women that work outside the home are selfish. >> i want to remind you hogan of what you said yesterday, i quote you a lot, because you have great ones. if we go to the convention, so beit and i'll have you know,

hogan gidley f you go to the convention, we will be right there with you, sir, thank you for joining us, thank you for your time. thank you alex. >> slow and steady wins the peach state, the self proclaim turtle, newt gingrich said he will wait to see what is ahead. that is next on "now." man, i'm glad aflac pays cash. aflac! ha!

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head of the super pac, winning our future, thanks forgetting on the program. >> thank you, glad to be here. >> we are glad to have you. the red, white and blue fund said with gingrich exiting the race it would be a true head to head and conservatives would be able to make a choice for a true conservative in santorum. newt has become a roadblock to a conservative. do you think rick santorum should drop out? >> sure, i'll return the favor, i mean, look. why not just have the voters decide. you know, we can move on to decide which is the conservative alternative. newt won here in georgia in a big way and santorum did not do well here, i think it was a mixed result all around last night, i would have liked to

have won a coupe more states. mitt romney struggled, he struggled in virginia against ron paul, he struggled in vermont. you know, rick santorum did not win ohio, and ohio was a rematch like michigan, and in many ways ohio is like pennsylvania, where he lost by 18 points in a must-win state of course look, he could drop out too. but i'm not for that. look, i'm for, my current prediction is we will go to the convention and we will not have someone with enough delegates to take the nomination. and then we will have a good old fashion floor fight. >> then a good old fashion floor fight. let's open this up to the panel. santorum had a strong showing in georgia, but he did not do well in tennessee and oklahoma, he came in third. john, you want to get something out? >> he is from georgia. i mean, it's the -- you know,

it's good. that is good for newt gingrich, he won his home state. he has not demonstrated strength in other places, he won south carolina, panhandle of florida and georgia, now the question is, whether that strength through the deep south continues to alabama and mississippi or whether as the questions we were talking about hogan gidley, gidley hogan earlier, if santorum can duplicate the strength he had in his states. i think this voters are going to have spoken if those states vote for santorum. >> aside from winning georgia, if i'm not mistaken, he did not get second anywhere. rick, why doesn't that meet the test that you laid out. the voters have spoken and of the two conservative alternatives, they want santorum? >> well, i think there's a lot

of unknown about santorum, he is in many ways an empty vest. because mitt romney had run all the ads against newt gingrich and people wanted to believe that santorum was a true conservative, it not that he was not a true conservative, he was a conservative, and had his record is now coming to light, which does not match that. he voted to lift the debt five times, he voted to raise the minimum wage several times and voted for medicare part-d and he famously endorsed arlen spector for senate and president. >> rick, despite all that, didn't the voters speak last night and say, of the two conservative -- >> sure, voters speak every time they vote. >> -- that santorum is the guy? >> that may be your conclusion from last night. i think we probably over invested in georgia, but we needed newt to win because it was his home state. and he had to win georgia, mission accomplished.

he tripled his delegate vote, so that is what we wanted to get accomplished and and we will move on to mississippi and alabama and we will let those voters speak too, how about that? >> from your standpoint as a somebody who thinks in shorthand about who santorum voters are versus gingrich voters, what is that shorthand for you? what conservative republican in oklahoma or wherever votes for newt gingrich rather than santorum. and i don't want an answer if you can avoid it, specifying newt's character, but how do those people differ? >> how does santorum and newt differ in. >> no, how do voters perceive that difference and why does a person vote for the also ran conservative alternative newt gingrich. >> he got pounded in the national media from ohio to

florida, so people have a perception that they saw from the negative ads. what i try to say is look, newt gingrich has experience, he has changed washington before. he has balanced the budget and cut spending and paid off $405 billion of debt. he was the 47th largest job creator when he was the gove governor, and that is not good. but that is what romney is telling people. >> let's talk about expenses, winning our future seems to be the wind beneath his wings and how much longer can adelson fund gingrich? >> in definitely. >> he can continue to fund him to 2024. >> adelson is good at

investments, and you you look at what is happening with gingrich and you have to say, will he make another donation? >> within that, at some point, and again, having gone through it in '08, great spin, everyone will have it, about why they are the person that can carry the votes. at some point the math comes into play and it does not matter how much money you are spending or how good your spin is, you cannot get to the magic number. that seems to be the issue for newt. how can he math wise get to the magic number? >> he cannot. >> thank you. >> rick? go ahead rick. >> it's not about math, it's about voters. the only math equation that i thought was interesting, if you keep romney down to 3-1, you are likely to win. that is the number. you said it, with we may arrive at the convention, that is my current prediction with nobody

having the required amount of numbers and then, look, all bets are off. >> rick tyler it will be an interesting next few days and weeks with the up coming states. i heard that chuckle. >> i'll live through it with you. >> we will live through it with you too. >> and it's not boring. >> we will not forget that you called rick santorum a an empty vest. thank you for the wisdom and campaign strategy. you are looking live again at mount holly, north carolina where presidethe president will it is expected to center on energy, we will bring you the remarks live next on "now." shh, shh. did you hear that? it sounded like the chocobeast. the what? half man, half beast. he'll stop at nothing to sink his fangs into people who steal other people's chocolate temptations. but you guys have nothing to worry about, right?

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democrat to win the tar heel state since jimmy carter, the white house strategy, they will tell you this is not a campaign event, and perhaps not a coincidence, it's obama's fourth visit in six months. >> caught him again. yes, zing, look, let's talk about the white house strategy going into the 2012 election season, we know the president is trying to keep a couple of states in play, which is to say, north carolina, virginia, ohio, colorado, arizona, florida and georgia. we have been talking about the states because we looked at the republican primary, but certainly if you talk about a general election, president obama could do well in all these states. >> and he does not have to do, certainly not as well as he did last time. but 2004 is the interesting thing to compare it to in this re-election. how only incrementally better

than john kerry he has to do. he does not need all the newly democratic states just a couple will do. >> and a state like colorado is considered safer for democrats now than a state like ohio which traditi traditionally has been more conservative than ohio. >> we have talked about our republican friends about the independent woman vote and the independent female vote, not to box her in, and we have the numbers, there are fox polls out about the latin vote and where the hispanics are going and they are flocking to the democratic party. >> not to do more math -- >> you are a girl, layoff the math. >> oh, you will hear about that on the twitter verse, my friend. >> it was my way of mocking larry. >> just in the pure numbers, looking at the demographics, north carolina, increasing

latino, and african american population barack obama lost the hispanic vote but won because of on the african american vote. none of the candidates are doing themselves favors with either of those demographics. >> we pay attention on how much people are spending on the republican side, but it is sparta versuses sparta. sent white house has sent jill and joe biden, michelle obama to n north carolina and the president has been there. they are sending everyone there. >> and they chose north carolina to hold the democratic national convention. the numbers are, the president's position is improving right now. if you had said six months ago of course how many states did the president not carry in 2008,

would he expect to carry this type they would say maybe arizona. the things have changed in six months for some of the reasons you were talking about now. and because of the length of the republican fight, they are in a stronger position, they are more states to give up, but they are not going to expand the map much in 2012. >> on their strategy, we saw from their poll, the damage that has been inflicted on the republican party from mitt romney and the process so far is use of. what axelrod said, is while this goes on, they are destroying each other and we are building. >> they are really rebranding the republican party for

independents watching as this party that is not for them. if david axelrod had invented a three-month rebranding process, i'm not sure he could have done it better. >> i have e-mailed my former counter part, brad woodhouse saying we at least had to work for it. for god's sake. >> they have the sound and ads cut already courtesy of the campaign. >> the campaign and dnc are wisely using the time, their using the republican's campaigning in states to bring together voters. the other thing i say, again, we will see a record turnout among african american voters. do not under cut -- i was stunned in alabama by how many n n --

>> among african americans, i think we are going to continue to see record turn wrought in some of those key states that we are trying to hold on to, where in particular, every time the republicans go after him with something that feels racial and they may not see it, the folks, you know may not see it, that is how people are taking it and they will not stand for it. >> certainly, the republican party is doing a wonderful job of digging itself into a hole for a general election, what is the president going to run on? i think the last coupe of weeks have shown us that message and i'm talking about the speech to the uaw, we are all together, and imagine it's we are all in this together. and yesterday's press conference, where i think you saw some of the themes emerge, foreign policy will be a question mark this summer, you see obama saying these guys are

speaking casually approximate about this, but i have to make the tough decisions. >> foreign policy will end up being a strength to the president. he is a vulnerable incumbent president, he can lose the election. and no question, mitt romney will look healthier in six months than now. but their message will be our pauses -- our policies are making things better. you can see it and he feel it. >> and it will be the same message that was in 2004 with george bush, what they will argue is that what we have learned about mitt romney is that he is a person of no -- he is not on the side of swing voters but the 99%, they will make a powerful argument that is he is not the right person to take up the mantel. >> he that is a couple of

cadillacs too. >> and a couple too many cadillacs. there's going to be a heavily personal attack, there will be a very, very sharp contrast message and they will have the money and research to do it. >> if romney continues to do what he is doing, he will continue to hand them new phrases like the cadillac -- >> unless those engineers go back to the lab and come out with a better model come march 20th. we will follow the president's speech coming up. you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more processed flakes look nothing like natural grains. i'm eating what i know is better nutrition. mmmm. great grains. search great grains and see for yourself.

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economy. we were talking about what the president's strategy will be going into 2012, i would like to know what you all think about each of the candidates. i'm leaving dr. ron paul out of this for the sake of time. never mind, we will talk about dr. paul. santorum has been hitting romney hard on health care, as of late. let's play sound from santorum as speech last night. >> i've never passed a statewide government run health care suspect. but governor romney did. and now we find out this week that not only did he pass it in massachusetts, he supported it to be passed in washington, d.c. >> there have been in the pages for your new york magazine, it was suggested that mitt romney had gotten a free pass on romney care, but it looks like santorum is making the pivot to hit romney over and over again. >> he has not gotten a free pass, he has been hit over and over, and santorum is coming at it again.

and of course, it will not mean that santorum will get the nomination, it is though, in the general going to be a problem for candidate, nominee romney, to make the case. >> he has gotten a free ride on it. let's be honest. it's mind boggling that this op-ed existed in the usa today and none of his rival s put it out until now. it's amagz, the press, no one, how did people not find this op-ed in usa today? >> is that a sign though of -- to the point you have been making about money, you have to have an operation and researches, i know the googles are popular. >> it's like an account. i put the presses in that category too. >> it's about discipline, not money. santorum spent the last two weeks discussing seriously whether satan would be attacking

america, and now, he is making a clear distinction between then and his message then and his message now even though hogan gidley is unclear, if americans want to just talk about the economy, they can have mitt romney, so it seems like he is taking a harder tack. >> they have tried and beginngi had tried and perry tried to use romney care, but romney has been effective in countering it. it will not be a negative in the general election. >> we will probably see president obama launch those attacks. he is now going to speak at a daimler chrysler plant in mount holly, north carolina, let's listen in. >> hello north carolina! hello mount holly!

thank you juan for that introduction, i did not know he was a preacher. he must be a least a deacon. i saw him weeelll: he was starting to get the spirit up here. i'm going take juan on the road to introduce me everywhere. can i hear amen? i want to thank mark hernandez, ricky mcdowell, and mark dobb, for hosting us and being great tour guides, that you had everyone, and give them a big round of applause, we have a few out standing north carolina ns in the house, you have your governor, ms. purdue, your

mayors are here, two out standing congressmen, mel watt and heath shuler are here, thank you all for being here. it is good to be in north carolina. anthony fox pointed out that i decided to wear a tie that could be a tar heel, but it has gotten a bit of duke color in there too. i did not want to get in trouble with anybody, so i was hedging my bets. this is -- i tell people all the time, i'm one of the best advertisers for north carolina. i love this state. love this state everybody here is so nice.

so welcoming. even the folks who don't vote for me, they are nice to me. they usually wave five fingers. so, it's just a great pleasure. i just had a chance to see some of the folks who are doing the wok here today. i could not be more impressed. some people had been here like juan, 32 years, 25 years, some fo folks had been here for four months just gotten hired, but everyone had such pride in their work. you know, the freighter line trucks that you are making here at this plant, run on natural gas and that makes them quieter and makes them better for the environment, and it makes them cheaper to fill up than they would be with diesel, i hear you sold your 1,000th natural gas truck last november. [ applause ]

the first company to reach that milestone and it was made right here in mount holly. and last year this plant added more than 1,000 workers. hiring back a lot of folks who were laid off during the recession. that is something to be proud of. now, here at daimler, you are not just building trucks, you are building better trucks. you are building trucks that use less oil. and you know that is important right now, most of you have probable filled up your gas tank a time or two in the last week of course and you have seen how quickly the price of gas is going up. a lot of you may have to drive a distance to work. higher gas prices are like a tax straight out of your paycheck. and for companies that operate a

whole fleet of trucks, the higher costs can make a big difference in terms of the profitability of the company. now, here is the thing though, this is not the first time we have seen gas prices spike. it's been happening for years. every year, about this time gas starts spiking up, and everyone starts to wonder how high will it go? and every year, politicians start talking when gas prices go up. they get out on the campaign trail and you and i both know, there are no quick fixes to this problem. but listening to them, you would think there were. as a country that has 2% of the world's oil reserves but uses 20% of the world's oil, i'm going repeat that, we have got 2% of the world oil reserves, and we use 20%.

what that means is that as much as we are doing to increase oil production, we are not going to be able to just drill our way out of the problem of high gas prices. anybody who tells you otherwise does not know what they are talking about or they are not telling you the truth. here is the truth. if we are going to control our energy future, then we have to have an all of the above strategy, we have to develop every source of american energy, not just oil and gas, but wind power and solar power, nuclear power, biofuels, we need to invest in the technology that will help us use less oil in cars and in our trucks. in our buildings, in our factories, that is the only solution to the challenge, as we start using less, that lowers the demand, prices come down. pretty straight forward. that is the only solution to

this challenge. and that's the strategy that we have now been pursuing for the last three years. and i'm proud to say we have made progress. since i took office, america's dependence on foreign oil has done godown every single year. in 2010, it went under 50% for the first time in 13 years. you would not know it from listening to some of these folks out here, some of these folks, but a key part of our energy strategy has been to increase safe responsible oil production here at home. and under my administration, america's producing more oil today than any time in the last eight years. under my administration, we have quadrupled the number of operating oil riggs to a record high. we have more oil riggs operating

now than we have ever seen. we have opened up millions new acres for oil and gas exploration, we have approved more than 400 drilling permits that follow new safety standards after having that mess in the gulf. we are approving dozens of new pipelines we announced that we will do whatever we can to speed up construction of a pipeline in oklahoma that will relieve a bottleneck and get more oil to the gulf, and that will create nor jobs and encourage production. these are the facts on oil production, if someone tells you we are not producing enough oil, they just do not know the facts. how much oil we produce here at home, because we have 2%, and we use 20%, that is not going to set the price of gas worldwide or here in the united states. oil is bought and sold on the world market. and the biggest thing that is causing the price of oil to rise

right now is what is happening in the middle east, you guys have heard what is happening in iran, there are other oil producers having problem. and so people get uncertain, and when that happens you have speculation on wall street that drives up up prices more. here is the thing, over the long-term, the biggest reason that oil prices will go up is that there's growing demand in countries like china, israel, and brazil. there are a lot of people there. in 2010 alone, china added nearly 10 million cars on its roads. think about that. 2010, ten million new cars, people in china, folks in india, and brazil, they will want cars too as their standard of living goes up, that is more demand for oil and that will kick up the price of oil, worldwide. those number