joe" -- i don't know what to say. >> oh, my god. >> here's chuck todd. rick santorum takes the south. he wins mississippi and alabama in a convincing fashion. and crushes newt gingrich's hopes of being even the southern candidate. but the south pacific makes mitt romney the overall delegate winner, for the night that is. and what about gingrich, he pulled second place in both southern states, but how long can he play second fiddle to santorum as the conservative alternative to romney? is he really going all the way to tampa? also this morning london calling, prime minister cameron already arrived at the white house yesterday but the official arrival for the official visit begins any minute now. we'll have the action from the south lawn live in just minutes. good morning from washington, wednesday, march 14th, 2012, this is the "daily rundo rundown." i'm chuck todd, another wednesday, another postmortem, another perception problem for

mitt romney. let's get to the first reads of the morning. in september we said we didn't know how mitt romney gets the nomination and we didn't know how he was going to be denied it. now 27 states have weighed in and on the process of selecting delegates and nothing has changed. rick santorum swept last night's southern primaries and romney finished third. and the race moves on to next week's illinois primary and will likely stretch into may and june. in alabama santorum won third, 35% of the vote, gingrich second at 29%, just 1,300 votes ahead of mitt romney. romney gets enough congressional districts that helped him delegatewise, santorum won mississippi, and romney did crack his 28% southern ceiling he got to 30% in mississippi. romney is the muscle of mississippi's political establishment behind him, nearly every statewide elected official endorsed him it was good for two extra points in the south, although santorum twept the south, he actually lost the

delegate fight, why? because romney won hawaii with 45% of the vote and continuing his winning streak on the islands, romney picked up all nine delegates at take in america samoa, about 70 republicans caucused in the territory there where residents are not allowed to vote in u.s. elections. by the way, fun fact here, american samoa is more than 25% mormon. look at the byu line on any college football saturday. romney ends the night with a 42 delegate is. and romney has 419 delegates, santorum, 38, and ron paul 24, and tennessee's seventh district the vote is too close to call. that was from a primary over a week ago. but this has never been about the math, it's about romney's inability to get conservatives fired up and behind him, we'll dig into it later this hour to discuss the problem.

santorum, though, does have a math problem. and last night, though, he celebrated his new momentum with a dig at romney. >> for someone who thinks this race is inevitable, he spent a whole lot of money against me for being inevitable. who would have ever thought in the age of media that we have in this country today, that ordinary folks from across this country can defy the odds day in, day out? >> and though santorum stopped short of explicitly calling for gingrich to drop out of the race, he hinted that it is getting chose. >> the time is now for conservatives to pull together. we want to make sure that everybody knows we're campaigning everywhere there are delegates because we are going to win this nomination before that convention. >> meanwhile newt gingrich who has won only two states, south carolina and his home state of

georgia, compared with ten for santorum, 15 for romney, he's beginning the five stages of grief. first denial of his place in the race -- >> because this is proportional representation, we're going to leave alabama and mississippi with a substantial number of delegates, increasing our total going towards tampa. >> and stage two, anger, now targeted toward those elite media types -- >> we'll now have three or four days of the news media and they'll all say why doesn't gingrich quit. these are the same people, by the way, that said last june i was dead. they recycle this every six weeks and the biggest challenge will be raising money. >> by the way, even the guy in charge gingrich's super pac rick tyler he told "the washington post," quote, this is pretty important, the pac felt we needed to win both of these states to change the narrative. romney called it an early night, he skipped an election night speech and instead weighed in by

press release saying, quote, we'll be increasing our delegate count in a very substantial way after tonight and we are even closer to the nomination, those are all facts. the last time we saw romney was at 6:30 eastern last night. he'd moved on to missouri which is holding caucuses on saturday. >> we've got work to do. i need you guys to caucus, all right? you got saturday, you're going to come together for a caucus. i need you to get out there and vote for me. >> this morning romney is in new york city for a string of finance events expected to net him about $2 million over the next two days. but you got to ask yourself, we will talk about it more, but mitt romney, he's got a message problem and a narrative problem. think about it. the message, how consistently has he answer eed the why does want to be president question, more importantly, what's his narrative, what's the story that he's telling? this businessman narrative if you recall, he basically ditched it after the banin attacks happened and he's never really found a narrative since other than i'm the guy best equipped

to take on president obama, but organizationally when you make that argument and you lose to a guy who is kind of disorganized and only knows where he's going 24 hours in advance in various states, it's hard to make that a compelling argument. finally president obama is welcoming british prime minister david cameron to the white house this morning with a 19 gun salute, all the trappings of a state visit. tonight he'll host a state dinner for the british leader. last night it was fun and games, the president treated cameron to court side seats for the ncaa, the one they saw was mississippi valley state and western kentucky in dayton, ohio. >> sometimes when we have foreign visitors, they're only visiting the coasts, they go to new york, they go to washington, they go to los angeles, but, you know, the heartland is what it's all about. everybody including these two teams are thinking maybe i'll be the cinderella this year and that's what makes it a great tournament. >> today, though, the serious business begins, the two leaders

will have to navigate a host of issues, iran and syria and, of course, afghanistan where the president is trying to contain the fallout from sunday's massacre. >> the united states takes this our own citizens and our own children who were murdered. we're heartbroken over the loss of innocent life. we will make sure that anybody who was involved is held fully accountable with the full force of the law. >> president and cameron will be discussing the upcoming nato summit in chicago where a decision on the timetable for withdrawal from afghanistan is expected to be confirmed. yesterday the white house denied that somehow the timetable is speeding up. >> make no mistake, we have a strategy that will allow us to responsibly wind down this war. we're steadily transitioning to the afghans who are moving into the lead, and that's going to allow us to bring our troops

home. >> defense secretary leon panetta arrived overnight in afghanistan, it was a surprise visit this morning where he is scheduled to hold talks with president hamid karzai. let's take you back to the white house, live pictures here, as president obama is welcoming british prime minister david cameron to the white house. this was all part of the festivities of hosting an official state visit, the state dinner later tonight, but, of course, the big topic of conversation this afternoon at the joint press conference and with what the media is going to be asking a lot about is this issue with afghanistan, defense secretary leon panetta is in afghanistan, it's a trip planned months ago but it's coinciding with the growing anger on sunday's shooting spree by a u.s. soldier that killed 16 afghanistan citizens. what is leon panetta hearing from karzai this morning? >> reporter: hi there, chuck, i'm having a bit of problem with the audio, i didn't hear your question, but i can tell you that the secretary of defense leon panetta did make his way

down to helmand province first where he met with u.s. marines. an interesting occurrence happened there, the marines, about 400 of them were in the tent. they were actually told to leave the tent, take their weapons off and come back into the tent which is very unusual. usually u.s. service members are allowed to hold on to their weapons while the secretary of defense is visiting them. we don't know if this was a cultural issue because the afghan soldiers aren't allowed to hold on to their weapons during these kind of meetings, but it was something that caused a little bit of a concern. they say there wasn't a security issue, but we're still not clear on that. and another update, we have heard from an afghan official who told nbc news that a surveillance blimp in kandahar province on sunday has footage of this u.s. service member coming back to the base and surrendering in the middle of the night. they showed -- the u.s. military showed this footage to the afghan officials to try to prove to the afghan government that it was only one u.s. service member

involved in sunday's killings because right now afghan government officials are still questioning whether it was more or more than one shooter involved in killing those 16 civilians that included nine children. chuck? >> all right, atia abawi with an important update in news this morning with the fact that there was surveillance footage indicating it was a lone, rogue u.s. soldier. all right we're getting more details about the staff sergeant that was accused of killing those afghans. jim miklaszewski has more for us, and clearly he had personal problems that he let get to him. >> defense officials are telling us in addition to the surveillance footage which showed this soldier approaching his own base, laying down his weapon, holding up his hands, and essentially surrendering to the u.s. forces. we're told that when initially asked about this shooting incident, at that village about a mile away, he reportedly

replied "i did it." then when his weapon was seized and taken into custody, he then said he wanted to talk to a lawyer and hasn't talked to investigators or anybody else in the military since. but this 38-year-old staff sergeant had three combat, and we're talking direct trigger-pulling combat tours in iraq, was involved in a rollover of a humvee in 2010 in which he had a traumatic brain injury for which he was treated and then cleared, had three screenings for posttramatic stress syndrome when he came out of the battle areas and had pretty much a clean health record, clean behavior record, and now some officials are saying it's possible that he did have some marital problems. they're talking about a possible message that the wife had sent to him recently that could have pushed him over the top, but nobody knows for sure. but we can tell you that in the interest of justice and transparency, the u.s. military is considering seriously

court-martialing this staff sergeant right there in afghanistan. >> all right, mick, if you can stick around. we'll sneak in a quick break here. i want to talk about more of what we expect the two leaders to be talking about when it comes to withdrawal timetable. what you know about what leon panetta is telling karzai, so let's sneak in a quick break here. we're packing a lot in today. we've got this state visit. lots of chatter about afghanistan's going to come with it. we'll have some remarks from the president and, of course, we'll get back to the delegate map and the republican race. ahh, one. two. three. one. two. and, three. [ male announcer ] with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card, earn more cash back for the things you buy most. 1% cash back everywhere, every time. 2% cash back on groceries. 3% back on gas. automatically. no hoops to jump through. it's as easy as one. -two. -three.

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here we are, we're awaiting the president and prime minister cameron to come out.

there's some formalities that go with this, they'll be reviewing the troops, we'll hear the national anthems, they'll be making remarks, more welcoming remarks not the serious issues that we'll get later in the morning with the morning press conference as well as, of course, the official bilateral meeting that they are having now. as you can see it looks like any second now we're about to get to this. let me bring back jim miklaszewski if i can, hey, mik, i want to ask you another question about the rogue soldier, the pts -- the posttramatic stress issue and his home base here in the united states, in washington state, in ft. lewis. they are saying -- there had been some reporting they diagnosed a bunch of guys and they pulled back the diagnosis. what is going on over this? and will there be a pentagon

>> the accusation is that the doctors there had taken it upon themselves to be very stern in diagnosing ptsd because it's estimated over a lifetime it could cost $1 million, $1.5 million in medical expenses for each individual soldier who is diagnosed with ptsd, all of that, of course, still has to be worked out, but initial -- there were 14 cases that were isolated. those soldiers were sent to walter reed, where the doctors at walter reed overturned six of those cases and said no, in fact, out of the 14 that were rejected, 6 of those were ptsd. now, all of this is still under investigation. there are probably still about another 200, 250 that may have to be re-examined to see if they indeed have ptsd, but this soldier was not involved in that process as far as we can tell.

and, again, like i said, he had a clean record. there was no record of misbehavior or problems on his part. it was suddenly he just appeared to snap. and if i could follow-up on what atia abawi said a minute ago. >> yeah. >> about the marines there in helmand province being forced to leave the meeting hall where secretary panetta was going to arrive and deposit their weapons outside, the marines in a combat zone never leave their weapons. they can't be outside of their reach, so this is highly unusual, and according to "the new york times" one of the commanders say some people got itchy, but concern over u.s. marines armed in the presence of the secretary of defense as far as i know, chuck, is unprecedented. >> so, is -- you know, we don't want to speculate here and hopefully we'll get more reporting. so, if it's -- could this be about some sort of issue having

to do with the afghan army? >> no. because it's always customary that afghan troops in the presence of the secretary of defense are not normally armed. but, you know, we've been there many times with the secretary, with the chairman of the joint chiefs, and the soldiers, the marines, are always armed in a combat zone when, in fact, they have their -- they have their arms at their feet, sometimes on their laps, but i've never seen an instant where they have been forced to disarm themselves. the thought -- even the suspicion -- that a u.s. marine would open fire on the secretary of defense, unbelievable. >> anyway, here we are with the president -- with the opening ceremony, the president and the first lady getting ready to officially welcome mr. cameron and his wife to the white house official state visit. one of the topics of conversation, mik, is obviously afghanistan and the timetable for troop withdrawal. you know, it's interesting, i'm thinking about the two secretary

of defenses that you covered under this administration, a guy like bob gates who rarely talked publicly out of turn and already a guy like leon panetta who seems to be very comfortable sometimes speaking out of turn. and a few months ago he talked very openly about the timetable of withdrawal and the white house had to walk it back, but they didn't necessarily walk back what panetta said, just simply walked back the timing of the announcement it seems, is that fair to say? >> just very briefly, leon panetta seemed to accelerate the timetable for withdrawal when he predicted all u.s. combat troops may be out of afghanistan by sometime next year, all u.s. commanders want as many combat troops still in afghanistan as long as american forces are there. the timetable now is to leave at the end of 2014, chuck. >> and let me ask you this, mik, with other european countries, and we'll i think hear from cameron later today more formally about when they expect

to be with withdrawing their troops, we know the french want to speed up, we know other parts of the coalition would like to speed up their withdrawal from troops from afghanistan, what kind of pressure does that put on our troops? >> particularly it does, because particularly most of those foreign elements are allies who are there putting troops in afghanistan are involved in the training up of the afghan security forces so that they can take over the country's security which is absolutely essential to any success in the u.s. mission there, chuck. >> and, mik, another i think question that i think -- and it keeps coming up and we're hear it in the republican primary debates a little bit frankly when it comes to afghanistan, this issue of the mission, and if we transferred the mission of trying to stop al qaeda in places like yemen and frankly even in africa and the way the mission to get bin laden worked, it was all special forces. it was all in some cases it's

drones, in some cases it's special forces, but none of it involves a massive amount of troops. is that the way out here for the president to be able to basically say, look, we have the way that this is going to work now, we don't need this many ground -- troops sitting in country? >> well, you know, the strategy is, of course, by the end of 2014 almost all american troops will be out, because by that time, the afghan security forces should be up to speed. you know, quite frankly there are very -- there's a growing number of people who think that may never be possible, and the u.s. will have to withdraw nonetheless. >> all right. >> but this mission -- >> all right, mik, i'll stop you there and we'll listen in to the national anthem. >> okay. ♪

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>> well, the president and prime minister will be doing a few other formalities here, including a review of the troops, about a little bit more pomp and circumstance, a little

greetings, local area british citizens, things like that, and then they will have the remarks. we'll, of course, bring the remarks to you live. mik, i interrupted you, i wanted you to finish your last thought about this issue of this idea you're saying that the commanders there obviously don't believe they have enough troops and they're concerned that we're going to withdraw too fast. at the same time you were saying that there was sort of a rock and a hard place. i wanted you to finish your thought. >> quite right. the mission there has morphed not officially, but officially we were there to drive the -- to defeat, dismantle, destroy al qaeda as president obama has shaped the mission, and to prevent afghanistan from becoming another breeding ground or safe haven for terrorists. but there's also a third sort of mission in the back of the heads of many strategic planners, particularly in the military, that if the u.s. military were to withdraw too quickly, that

afghanistan would simply implode, which could destabilize an already destabilized part of the world even further. and according to one senior military official who told me this about a year ago, he said, you know, we're in afghanistan to keep pakistan from imploding. >> right. >> pakistan, of course, with nuclear weapons, so many strategic thinkers think there's much more at stake here than just stability in afghanistan. >> all right, jim miklaszewski at the pentagon, mik, thanks for being my partner on this. appreciate it. >> all right, chuck. all right, let's go back to the other big story that we're also following which, of course, is the republican presidential primaries, mitt romney's southern streak continues, but it's not exactly the streak he was hoping for. after last night's primaries romney added alabama and mississippi to his list of southern losses. and to break it down is jonathan martin an nbc news senior political editor, mark murray, generally, yesterday mark

murray, we noted this little thing, forget the exit polls yesterday afternoon. 28, 28, 26, 28, those were the respective percentages mitt romney had gotten in the previous southern state and he got last night 29 and 30, an improvement. >> and the polls were all over the place, looking at that demographic and geographic. >> we knew exactly what would happen. >> we knew what would happen, and mitt romney goes in and aces the perception problem, the delegate math is all on his side right now, but what he's doing in the heartland of the republican, the nerve center of the gop, he's losing. >> and that's what's happening, jonathan, look at the exit polls, 50% in alabama said he wasn't conservative enough, 27 and 32 said he was about right, well, that was about his number, 29 and 30 is the actual number. among evangelicals, romney got under 30, 27 and 29 in both states. the same income split was there.

it comes to -- i mean, this is the same issue and these were states that -- >> the romney voter wasn't there. where he does well -- >> it's groundhog day, you know, we're waking up and hearing sonny and cher just like the movie, with mitt, the same problems, the same blocs of voters are giving him trouble. to me now the question, though, is are we going to see a repeat of what happened in florida, ohio, and michigan next week in illinois? which is to say, can santorum broaden his own coalition? >> he's getting the same -- >> absolutely. >> we put this pressure on romney. >> we know romney's problem, but santorum has the same problem, he has a narrow coalition and you go to every event and it's the same crowd in every state. can he with mitt fading broaden his coalition to make himself a credible challenger? >> they have to know they've got a problem, they are not reporting on this team romney, do they know? i can tell you this i know a lot of romney folks outside of boston are just -- they're

throwing their hands up in the air, they just don't understand what this team is thinking. >> if you inject truth serum into mitt romney's advisers and certainly in the outside circle of advisors, they will tell you that, yes, the rules have changed, it's harder now to get the nomination because the delegate distribution, it's harder because of the addition of super pacs, but there's also more than that. they have a candidate issue, okay. they have a candidate issue in terms of a party that has become much more conservative than the obama era and they followed a candidate whose profile isn't great for where the party is right now and his performance on the campaign oftentimes isn't that great, so i think there is a challenge for them in terms of the inherent forces of this cycle. super pacs, new delegate rules, but they don't like to talk about although under duress they will admit that, yes, the candidate is an issue, too. m

>> they have a message problem and they also have a competition problem, look who they are losing to in the south, rick santorum, hillary clinton lost many races, and john mccain lost plenty of races, but none of like mitt romney. he has the establishment behind him and he wasn't able to pull away. that's the biggest problem. >> he won the night on delegates. >> that's the story of the campaign, all right? he grinds this thing out. he's on his way -- >> he's going to lose the preference but he'll win -- >> he's on his way to getting to 1141. but it's not pretty. you know, this is going to be a grind. it's not pretty, but any reasonable person would say, he has the best shot to win the nomination. i think that's right. the problem that he is, every time he appears to be on the

doorstep, we get a reminder of this. >> all right, mark murray, jonathan martin, got to leave it there. one of the crackling mornings. getting into a quick market rundown, got to do that. we got to pay the bills around here, keep the lights on. so, opening bell rang about two minutes ago, miss quick, what do you got for me? the feds -- you got to pay the bills? >> come on, don't we got to pay the bills? >> we do have to pay the bills, but you love talking to me, too. >> i do love talking to you, you're right. there will be a special treat for folks, too, you'll be in studio very soon. >> tomorrow. let me tell you quickly the opening bell just rang, it looks like we're opening slightly higher, after major gains yesterday. the stocks were off to the races yesterday when we saw the dow, the s&p, and the nasdaq all up by their biggest percentage gains in this entire year. and the big news came with the fed releasing the stress test results for the banks, and i say the fed releasing, this was

actually a premature release from the fed that was prompted by jpmorgan, one of the big banks came out and said it would be raising its dividend also and plus how it would be buying back shares because it passed the stress test and overall the fed released everybody's. 15 of the banks of the 19 banks passed with flying colors. four of them had a few issues, but overall it really kicked things off and we're seeing a little bit of a followthrough on that today. >> all right, thank you, becky. i'll see you tomorrow. the "daily rundown" will be back in 30 seconds.

all right. as you're seeing now, we've got the president, prime minister cameron, they're still reviewing the troops. they'll be speaking in a few minutes, and as soon as they do, we're going to bring you that live. also want to update you on some news, some stunning nups that was reported by atia abawi, an unprecedented action where a u.s. marine disarmed when secretary of defense leon panetta went down and visited them. it's news that we're going to keep following up and try to find out why this happened. here's the president. >> -- the united states and the united kingdom is steeped in tradition. and last night as president i shared with the prime minister a uniquely american tradition of brack bracketology. march madness. he's learned to appreciate one of our great national pastimes. his team has told me he has

decided to install a hoop at 10 downing street. today we carry on another tradition, an official visit from one of our closest friends and our dearest allies. prime minister cameron, mrs. cameron, members of the british delegation, on behalf of the american people, it is my great honor to welcome you to the united states. david, samantha, on behalf of michelle and myself, we welcome you to the white house. and, samantha, just let me say that we are delighted that you've made america your first official foreign trip.

it's now been 200 years since the british came here to the white house under somewhat different circumstances. they made quite an impression.9j they really lit up the place. but we moved on. and today, like so many presidents and prime ministers before us, we meet to reaffirm one of the greatest alliances the world has ever known. this visit is also an opportunity to reciprocate the extraordinary and gracious hospitality shown to us by her majesty, queen elizabeth, by david and samantha and by the british people during our visit to london last year. and we are proud that this visit

comes as her majesty begins her diamond jubilee, celebrating 60 extraordinary years on the british throne. it is remarkable to consider now throughout the decades we've seen nations rise and fall, wars fought, and peace defended, a city divided, a wall come down, countries imprisoned behind an iron curtain, then liberated. we've seen the demise of a cold war and the rise of new threats, the transition from an industrial revolution to an information age where new technologies empower our citizens and our adversaries like never before. our world has been transformed over and over, and it will be

again. yet, through the grand sweep of history, through all its twists and turns, there is one constant, the rock solid alliance between the united states and the united kingdom. and the reason is simple. we stand together and we work together and we bleed together and we build together in good times and in bad because when we do, our nations are more secure, our people are more prosperous, and the world is a safer and better and more just place. our alliance is essential. it is indispensable to the security and prosperity that we seek, not only for our own citizens, but for people around the world.

that is why as president i've made strengthening this alliance and our alliances around the world one of my highest foreign policy priorities. and because we have, i can stand here today and say with pride and with confidence, and i believe with david's agreement, that the relationship between the united states and the united kingdom is the strongest that it has ever been. and so in the sunlight of this beautiful morning, with children from both nations in attendance -- we reaffirm the enduring values in which our alliance is forever rooted. we believe that every person, if they are willing to work hard, if they play by the rules,

deserve a fair shot, deserve a chance to succeed. so, in these tough economic times, we stand united in our determination to create the jobs that put our people back to work, in expanding trade that is both free and fair and fighting for a global economy where every nation plays by the same rules. we believe that our citizens should be able to live free from fear. so, like jgenerations before us we stand united with our countries and against those that would terrorize our people, and against the globe with the world's most dangerous weapons. we believe in the universal rights of all people, so we stand united in our support for those who seek to choose their leaders and forge their futures, including the brave citizens of the middle east and north africa, who deserve the same

god-given rights of freedoms everywhere. and we believe in the inherent dignity of every human being, so we will stand united in advancing the developments that lift people and nations out of poverty, the new crops that feed a village, the care that saves a mother in childbirth, the vaccine that allows a child to live a long and healthy life. this is what we believe. this is who we are. this is what we do together, what we achieve together every single day. and this is the alliance that we renew today, guided by the interests we share, grounded in the values that we cherish, not just for our time but for all time. and finally i would just note that while this is not the first official visit of my presidency, it is one of the few where i have not had to pause for

translations. we americans and brits speak the same language most of the time, so let me just say, david, we are chuck to bits that you are here. and i'm looking forward to a great natter. i'm confident that together we're going to keep the relationship between our two great nations absolutely top notch. david, samantha, the warmest of welcomes from michelle and myself, but, more importantly, from the american people. we are honored to have you here. >> president obama, first lady, mr. vice president, members of both cabinets, guests of honor, ladies and gentlemen, thank you

for such an incredibly warm welcome, and i have to say, barack, with that spectacular command of our shared language, with all these union flags and with so many friends at home, you are really making me feel very at home here in washington. so, i am a little embarrassed as i stand here to think that 200 years ago my ancestors tried to burn this place down. now, looking around me, i can see you've got t place a little better defended today. you're clearly not taking any risks with the brits this time. and thank you also for the lessons last night. i will leave america with some new words, alley-oops, brackets, fast breaks, and who knows maybe that hoop will be installed in downing street after all. it was a great evening, thank you very much indeed.

now, of course, since that unfortunate episode 200 years ago, generations of british and american servicemen and women have fought together. our grandparents fought in the same campaigns. my grandfather wounded a few days after d-day, the greatest ever british and american operation in history, and yours, barack, serving under general patton as the allies swept through france. whether it is defeating the nazis, standing up to the soviets, defending the korean peninsula, or hunting down al qaeda in afghanistan, there can be no more tangible illustration of our two nations defending our values and advancing our interests than the mutual sacrifice made by our servicemen and women, and let us oncein pay tribute to their valor, their courage, their professionalism and their dedication here at washington today.

from the balkans to bag dad, across the world and across the decades, we've been proud to serve with you. when the chips are down, britain and america know that we can always count on each other. because we are allies not just prepared to say the right thing, but to do the right thing and to do it in the right way, promoting our values, standing up for our ideals. the partnership between our countries, between our peoples, is the most powerful partnership for progress that the world has ever seen. that is why whenever an american president and a british prime minister get together, there is a serious and important agenda to work through. and today is no different. afghanistan, iran, the arab spring, the need for trade, for

growth, for jobs in the world economy. the biggest issues in the world, that is our agenda today. but what makes our relationship so vigorous and so lasting is that it draws its strength from roots far deeper and broader than government or the military. it is a meeting of kindred spirits. when the world's brightest minds want to generate the innovations that will make tomorrow more free and more fair, they look to our great universities like harvard and stanford, cambridge and oxford. when the most audacious and entrepreneurial philanthropists like the gates foundation want not just to give out to charity but to eliminate polio and other avoidable diseases so that no child in our world should die unnecessarily, they find partners across the atlantic in the british aid agencies like state for children, oxfam and christian aid. and when a great innovator like sir tim berners-lee wanted a

partner to make the world wide web a reality, he turned to america. why? because he knew that it was in america that he would find that same spirit of creativity, innovation and risk taking that defines our unique approach to enterprise and to people. he's not alone. in 2010, transatlantic partnerships produced 8 of the 9 nobel prizes in science. foreign direct investment between britain and america is the largest in the world and now stands at $900 billion. this creates and sustains around 1 million jobs each side of the atlantic, and it provides a strong foundation for bilateral trade, worth nearly $200 billion a year. in fact, american investment in the uk is eight times larger than china's, and uk investment in america is nearly 140 times that of china. so, yes, the world is changing

at a faster rate than ever before, and the ways we will influence events are changing with it, but one thing remains unchanged -- the ceaseless back and forth between our two nations, through ideas, friendship, business, and shared endeavor. and that's why i believe that we can be sure that in 50 years' time an american president and a british prime minister will stand on this very spot just as we do now, they will stand here as we do, for freedom and for enterprise. our two countries, the united states of liberty and enterprise, that is why i'm so pleased to be here today, to celebrate an essential relationship that as you say has never been stronger, and to work with you to make sure we deliver that and to make our countries closer and closer still. thank you.

>> president obama, prime minister cameron addressing the crowd. it's an official visit here. a little pomp and circumstance. little jokes there both about basketball and trying to burn down the white house, so apparently the rule is too soon about joking about the white house 200 years i think need to pass and then apparently you can joke about trying to burn down the white house. the humm ap day political pl joins me next, they are doing a lot of serious stuff, and that will begin in a few minutes. but first the soup of the day, cream of broccoli, not what they'll be serving at the state dinner tonight. oh dear...

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well, it's a shortened panel. financial times, field, washington post anne kornblut

and politicos -- why, anne kornblut, let me start with you. nothing happened last night that changes the story and yet it feels like a change in the story. >> we haven't had a game changing election night this entire time. >> romney -- he doesn't want -- >> the fact that romney couldn't win in the south is a big deal. the fact that he came close is a big deal. the fact that he's ahead in the delegate counts is a big deal. romney is able to argue that he's ahead probably forever in the delegate count and hes his rivals saying he can't win the conservatives. >> the fact that we've got in perception and that the perception is leading to more people questioning and the questions have not been silenced by any of this stuff. >> it's a passion issue. that's ultimately what we're all -- the voters and the numbers are telling us there's a passion problem for mitt romney.

that's the bottom line. >> we're also saying clearly, passion is not mitt romney's strong point. numbers are his strong point. if i was mitt romney, i would be looking at this enterprise saying we immediate to restructure here. clear out the people, bring in the new. >> what would be the restructure? this is the place where it's the candidate. staff kind of saying that. not really. >> you're thinking more people around advising him and resal brating his strategy. it's not working. >> he strikes me as a guy taking too much advice. i agree. i hear what you're saying. >> the other campaigns, you would have seen. >> a shakeup. >> there was the hillary clinton. >> this one, this one. jeff garan. >> exactly. you would see that. mitt romney has this reputation as a flipflopper already and ho is not fundamentally going to be able to change, it's really hard to see what new adviser could advise other than a new person

amount at this point for him. >> joe, our obsession was the fact that -- let's forget -- set the message thing aside, what's the story of mitt romney? he had one three months ago, which was i'm the business guy, i'm a turn around expert. >> that story evaporated. it disintegrated slowly. not only because it was viewed as somewhat inappropriate for the time. you wanted the republican party, wanted someone with passion to beat the man in the white house, but it disintegrated as the economy got stronger. so the message had to change. it changed to something completely different. i don't think -- the last primary i recall he tried a new tactic. he had a three-word slogan for the economy. you couldn't say what it is on a bet. >> very quickly. anne kornblut, do you expect a shakeup? >> i think it's hard -- i don't know. probably not. it doesn't seem like he's a pretty consistent guy about who he has around him. >> thanks for the shortened thing. no shameless plugs. i apologize but there is one. happy birthday, anna.

>> thank you, chuck. >> the plug of the day. that's it for this edition of the daily run down. we'll she you -- coming up chris jansing. have a great day. lots of coverage today. the president and british prime minister cameron doing a joint conference where afghanistan will be topic "a ". bye bye. simply repeat history. we had to create it. introducing the 2013 lexus gs, with leading-edge safety technology, like available blind spot monitor... [ tires screech ] ...night view... and heads-up display. [ engine revving ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back.

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[ gasps ] ♪ [ male announcer ] get a retirement plan that works at e-trade. good morning. i'm chris jansing. if you thought the gop race couldn't get morte tumt tumultuous and twisted. he then won mississippi. mitt romney came in third in both southern states. he skipped last night's speeches to head to new york. his opponents seized the moment to bash his inevitability argument. >> we did it again. >> if you're the front-runner, if you're the