you keep coming in third, you're not much of a front-runner. >> we will compete everywhere. we will compete everywhere. the time is now for conservatives to pull together. the time is now to make sure, to make sure that we have the best chance to win this election and the best chance to win this election is to nominate a conservative. >> david corn ir, washington bureau chief and political analyst and karen hunter is a pulitzer prize winning journalist and msnbc contribu r contributor. >> good morning. >> after another super tuesday, we call every tuesday super. mitt romney is in new york city for a wednesday -- series of fundraisers. karen, what do you say to people in that room. yeah, i didn't win. i can't win in the deep south but look at the delegate map. >> yeah. he has a tough, tough, tough row to hoe. i guess eating the cheesy grits came off cheesy in the south. they didn't buy t he has an

authenticity problem. i don't know how he's going to make that up and what he'll say to the folks about giving up more money. it's clear, you come in third and you're the front-runner in both of those southern states. you cannot win the south, you cannot win the nomination. i call for a brokered convention a couple of weeks ago. i called for it. >> yeah. let me play for you what romney said last night. this was on cnn before the results came in. let's play that. >> senator santorum is at the desperate end of his campaign and is trying in some way to boost his prospects and frankly, misrepresenting the truth is not a good way of doing that. >> well, i mean, he calls him desperate, david. it does seem to me that that campaign really just messed up the whole idea of managing expectations. last couple of days, they go in hard. he actually said in alabama, i'm going to win here. why did they do that? >> chris, who won last night? mitt romney won if you look at

the delegate count. he won hawaii, he won guam. these are things for him to be celebrating this morning. >> why isn't he out there doing it? >> the thing is, i mean, the argument that he would be making in that room this morning to all those 1% is i lost to the conservatives in the south. that means i'm less conservative, which actually means i have a better case of getting elected in november. do you really think that any republican nominee is going to lose mississippi or alabama to barack obama in the fall? these states don't matter in the general election. so i am doing -- he went over the 50% mark in terms of delegate. he look like bruised material, bad goods. he's having a hard time -- >> scoffing at the idea that we go to the convention without a nominee decided? >> listen, the question -- it may be that he comes in with 49.9% of the delegates and needs to cut a deal with santorum,

gingrich and/or paul. >> david, that's not good enough. we didn't have a good turnout last night. he's not inspired anyone to come out to vote for him. you have a larger problem. not just about losing the south. it's about losing the momentum of folks wanting to vote for him. they're not wanting to do that. >> i know. the problem is, they don't want to vote for the other guys any more and santorum can't hold the middle. the republicans are stuck. they have three candidates, none of whom should win, none of whom make a great candidate in the fall. these are imperfect choices. as long as -- they'll expand the deficit gap with rick santorum and he'll be a bleeder. he's a bleeder. >> let me ask the question. if newt gingrich stays in the race and you divide the delegates, there is a real possibility that he goes to tampa and he doesn't have the number that he needs. >> hello?

>> look at where santorum did. he had no money, outspent by both newt gingrich and mitt romney and outorganized. he has virtually no organization. >> he couldn't get on the ballot in two state. >> he still wins most of these states. can he build on it, karen, unless newt gingrich gets out of the race? >> newt being in hurts mitt as well. newt is a -- >> they're splitting the conservative vote and allows them a better chance to win. >> 60, 70% of the people don't want mitt romney. >> i want to bring in someone who knows what it's like to be in the middle. chip salts man, a republican strategist. i see you smiling. i can tell you want to get in on this. >> gingrich comes in second. let me play what he said last night. >> what state coming up do you think you can win? >> i don't know yet. i don't know yet, brett. we're looking at a number of them from louisiana to arkansas. >> how chip, does he stay in the

race with that kind of an answer? >> yeah. in the world of super pacs and extended primaries, as long as he wants to. that's the challenge. he's kind of doing a new model for a presidential campaign. romney is running the conventional model of raising money. rick santorum is running more of the mike huckabee type of campaign. doing a great job on the grassroots. >> ahead of the big super pac said look, we were predicating this on winning these state. and they didn't. >> yeah. i think it's going to be incredibly tough for newt gingrich to raise any more big super pac money and certainly not in the grassroots money on his campaign side to move forward. i mean, he's got to give his people a reason to move forward and i'm not sure losing two states last night is good enough. of course, he's always going to say i'm in it until tampa until he's not. >> let me ask you what goes on inside a campaign. you've been inside a campaign where a candidate had to decide it's over, it's done.

who has his ear? are the party elders going to put pressure on him? how do you see this playing out? >> yeah. the outside pressure groups usually don't work. i can give you an example from us, governor huckabee four years ago. i had a map and a calendar. literally several times during the campaign i would say okay, i don't think we're going to make it to x. then we'll win a state and we'd get there. i always had enough money in the bank to close down shop so to speak. whenever we had kind of big moments in the campaign, i mean, for instance after the iowa caucus, if we didn't win iowa, we kind of knew our campaign was finished. but we won iowa, we moved on. we knew losing in south carolina was tough. once we decided to stay in the race until john mccain won enough delegates to be the nominee, we kept going on. but we always kept an eye on the checkbook because, as you know, presidential campaigns don't lose. they run out of money. we didn't want to carry debt. >> super pac situation though. that is a little different.

it's going to be interesting to see what happens to the money now. david, is the role of newt gingrich, does he have a choice, spoiler or king maker or is that too simplistic? >> i think he wants to be in the race to continue to say things to get attention. now, there aren't any debates planned coming up. he's not going to have a lot of money. certainly not the campaign. maybe sheldon adelson might write another check. he'll have to say more and more outrageous things to draw attention to had himself to breakthrough what they call free media. that is coverage on cable channels and shows like ours. i think he's going to be pushed to desperate lengths to get attention. and at the end, he said it last night, his dream is that mitt romney makes it to tampa without 50% plus and that the convention turns to the guy who is there with 12% delegates, newt gingrich. i don't think it's a real dream but it certainly seems to be motivating him at the moment. >> david, i don't think you give newt enough credit.

behind him there's a bit more ethnicity than the other two candidates behind him and has a plan similar to herman cain's 9 9-9-9. finally the republicans foun an issue that's issue, hitting the president -- >> it didn't work last night in his best states. >> when the front-runner comes in third, i think something worked. i'm looking at newt, i don't think it's about him grabbing attention. i do think that he's ego maniacal person. he has an issue that's resonating with the american people. this gas thing is working. >> we'll talk about the gas thing coming up. chip, let me ask you about rick santorum. what does he do now to build on this? how does he move forward and not be taken as the candidate who is the maybe conservative alternative but too conservative to get elected. mitt romney still wins the elect act question. >> he has to win, plain and simple. he's won an away game in the

south so to speak. he took out newt gingrich. he will get his one-on-one chance with mitt romney. he'll rye to build on that this weekend in missouri. then you have illinois. if he can take out governor romney in illinois, it's another game changer for rick santorum. >> that's a whole different thing. suddenly, he has the industrial midwest, right? louisiana? >> that's correct. >> is he going to take louisiana? >> i think he'll do well there. the rules there in louisiana are complex and difficult. but i think rick santorum can do well down there. >> to counter it, david, what does mitt romney have do? there's been a lot talk about shakeups. politico is saying don't expect him to fire anybody, mitt romney. but the messaging question, is it enough for him to say, i'm the best one to beat barack obama? >> well, you know shall that's the best argument and the only argument he has at this point. the republican primary base has gone way to the right. he is a northeastern moderate republican governor who is

trying to pretend he's a severe conservative. no one is buying it. but he's getting just enough delegates to maintain his lead. i think he has no choice but to see this as the long slog and there's no message change. this guy has flipped around, flopped around so much in the last two years, any radical change would get to the core criticism against him, which is he's not who he is. so he has to -- he just bear down, take the arrows and sort of keeping walking along, bleeding and getting wounded. trying to cross that finish line with 50-plus delegates. >> i don't know. i think karen, to -- >> it's not going to be pretty, chris. >> it's been ugly. let's be clear about that. it's been ugly. i'm not sure people buy newt gingrich's argument about $2.50 gas. they're having an effect on the president's approval rating. having said that, does mitt romney need to focus economic issues. >> yes. it's the one thing he has over everybody. he comes in with this vast

business experience, this is his strength. he's the one to present that argument against barack obama and he hasn't. he's busy talking about cheesy grits and y'all and trying to be a regular guy while he's stepping on his own feet. his son is in hawaii where he won last night. saying that barack obama is great. i mean, he has a lot of problems. we know in man. it's not like we don't know him. it's like his eighth year doing this. >> chip, is rick santorum going to see an infusion of cash now? >> there's no question. i'd say last night their website lit up like a pinball machine. >> we love it. love the comparisons. chip saltsman, always great to have you on the show, as well as david corn and karen hunter. with all the pomp and circumstance, president obama and the first lady officially welcomed david cameron and his wife to the white house. this is a short time ago. it's going to be a jam-packed day for the two leaders. a joint news conference at noon. a state dinner tonight and of course, serious discussions about afghanistan.

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president obama's campaign manager is playing the underdog card. in app e-mail to supporters titled why the race is closer than you think. jim mess ina writes, we're looking at a race that will be tighter than you think. we can underestimate someone like romney showing he will spend and say anything to win. nbc's correspondent kristin welker joins me now. what more do we know about the strategy by the campaign? >> hi there, chris. remember, president obama called himself an underdog a few months ago. the strategy seems to be to make sure that the president's supporters don't take his reelection for granted. there are really a couple of reasons why. first of all, we've seen the

president's approval ratings decline according to the latest abc news poll. romney beats president obama. that's something that messina references in that e-mail. that's in part due to the high price in gas and the other part is dollars and cents, chris. super pacs. if you look at the numbers from 2011, republican leaning super pacs far outraised democratic leading super pacs. because of the donations by the coke brothers. the president's reelection team trying to rally the troops and they're aware of the realities you heard the reference to spending at the end of that e-mail, that is certainly in part a reference to super pacs. trying to make sure that the president's supporters know that this is shaping up to be a pretty close race right now. chris sf. >> we talked about this a little while ago. let me get you to update us on the situation with the president and the british prime minister. they're going to be holding a joint press conference at noon.

what are we expecting there? >> sort of the central topics, i'm expecting of that news conference, chris, will be afghanistan and iran and also possibly syria. of course, afghanistan, given the recent shootings there. the recent burnings of the koran has been a hot topic. there's a lot of pressure from folks within the uk and the u.s. to speed up the timeline of withdrawal. president obama has been adamant that's not going to happen. u.s. and uk troops expected to hand over the situation in afghanistan to afghan forces in 2014. there have certainly been a lot of questions this week about how that timeline might be impacted. that will be one of the main topics addressed. also, iran, president obama, prime minister cameron seemed to be on the same page when it comes to iran. they have been dissuading israel from take military action. both leaders are not taking any options off the table. chris? >> kristen, thank you. i want to bring in colonel jack

jacobs, military analyst and medal of honor recipient. besides the meetings today, secretary of defense leon panetta is going to afghanistan. long-planned trip but obviously tensions are increased there. l be meeting with karzai in addition to american troops. what does he need to accomplish, jack? >> it's going to be pretty much more of the same. although things have slightly changed in the wake of the calls from both sides of the aisle that we speed up our withdrawal from afghanistan. used to be the conversations revolved around the general strategy and how we were going to empower local leaders get things accomplished for security purposes in the prove ins and so on. but now the conversation is how is the mechanics of the american withdrawal, which i believe is going to happen much more quickly than most people believe. i think there are plans afoot to start withdrawing relatively early next year. >> in the meantime, because of the shooting there of the civilians, president obama has promised a thorough inquiry.

let me play that for you. >> the united states takes this as seriously as if it was our own citizens and our own children who were murdered. i can assure the american people and the afghan people that we will follow the facts wherever they lead us. and we will make sure that anybody who was involved is held fully accountable with the full force of the law. >> so colonel, what will that inquiry look like and could this soldier face capital charges? >> the commander in afghanistan, the general there is going to appoint an officer who will conduct what is called an article 32 investigation. it's the military equivalent of a grand jury investigation except that the accused can be represented by counsel and cross-examine witnesses. the officer will make a recommendation to the commander how the case should be disposed. in any case, i think you can bet that there is -- it will be a

capital case, it will -- unless this guy is determined to be not capable of defending himself because of some mental defect -- >> the fact we learned yesterday that he had a traumatic brain injury in 2010 and learning today maybe marital problems, alcohol may have played a role in this. none of that would mitigate the possibility? >> not in my judgment. all things being equal, what we know now, the premeditation that was in this case, i greatest likelihood, it will be recommended that he will tried by court-martial and it will be a capital offense. >> thank you colonel jack jab objects. >> you're welcome. actor george clooney is on capitol hill where he will testify before the senate relations committee about the feud between sudan and its neighbor. just hours after his return yesterday, he told nbc's ann curry why everyone should care about what's going on there. >> let's take away the idea that

we're the most generous nation in the world and let's take away all the facts that we care about people and let's go completely selfishly and let's just talk about economics. right now what is going on in the sudan changes the cost of your gas every single day of your life. >> george clooney is scheduled to meet with president obama and secretary of state hillary clinton after his testimony this morning. more suntans... in alabama we had more beautiful blooms... in mississippi we had more good times... in louisiana we had more fun on the water. last season we broke all kinds of records on the gulf. this year we are out to do even better... and now is a great time to start. our beatches are even more relaxing... the fishing's great. so pick your favorite spot on the gulf... and come on down. brought to you by bp and all of us who call the gulf home.

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that is of course, facebook/jansingco. while the guys were watching basketball, the ladies were taking on the olympics. check out michelle obama and samantha cameron at a mini olympic event yesterday. here's one of the highlights. the first lady playing tennis with a group of fifth graders. she went up against a whole bunch of them on the other side of the court. and david axelrod pulling out as a guest on real time with bill maher. politico reports last week he was in, now he's out. it could have something to do with the attacks coming from the right. maher has name called sarah palin the same way rush limbaugh attacked a georgetown law student. now to the politics of gas prices. who is telling the truth and who is trying to manipulate you? we'll get the real story from washington post fact checker extraordinaire glenn kessler next. p with a solid plan. wa-- wa-- wait a minute; bobby? bobby! what are you doing man? i'm speed dating!

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including 22 schoolchildren when their tour bus slammed into a tunnel wall in the swiss alps. the police chief described the scene as a scene like a war. investigators are trying to figure out what caused the crash. they had been returning to belgium after a ski vacation. about 13,000 people are still without power in boston this morning after a smoky fire broke out in a back bay utility building last night. traffic throughout the area ground to a halt this morning and two subway stations are still shut down. fortunately, no one was hurt. jurors are expected to start deliberating today in the so-called rutgers webcam trial. dharun raf i is facing 15 charges accused of using the webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with a man. an eight-year-old washington girl accidentally shot when her classmate brought a gun to school. she is off a ventilator and is

no longer constantly sedated. waking up for a couple of hours a day to watch tv and talk to her family. she turns nine next week. former illinois governor, rod blagojevich is set to go to jail tomorrow for as long as 14 years on a corruption con vic. we haven't heard the last of him. he's expected to hold a news conference just after 6:00 p.m. eastern time today to say goodbye. some local news stations can carry. nearly ten days and a thousand miles later, there's a record breaking winner in the iditarod in alaska. we'll have the details when we go counsel to the wire in 20. mitt romney says he has the math, rick santorum the momentum and newt gingrich is fighting calls to drop out. msnbc's richard liu is on the path forward. where are we going from here? >> with wins in mississippi and alabama for ric, marks got madder. missouri, puerto rico and illinois vote early this month.

mitt romney needs a win in these air yeas. two southern state, texas and louisiana will challenge romney. let's talk illinois first. millions of dollars are planned for ads, ugly is on in illinois. local polls show a tight race right now as well, which is why some like politico call illinois the new ohio. it's not a romney lockup. the delegate math favors him. math is why puerto rico is important. newt gingrich in that territory, in an uncommon situation interviewed the territory's governor for a news network last year and gingrich supports a territory vote statehood and this could help him. the governor endorsed romney and santorum is on the ground. romney made need the likes of territory to solve his evangelical problem. romney did not win a primary when more than half the voters are evangelical, the red area on

top. in romney's losses, both states had over 75% evangelical voters, 80% in mississippi's case. those are new highs as romney lost. let's look at three upcoming tests, missouri, louisiana and texas. all have evangelical voters in 2008 above 50% topping off at 60 there. this year's trend holds true, romney loses here. texas would be a major loss obviously with over 155 delegates. the total delegates of the five battles discussed is a huge chunk when we take a look at that. that is over 30% of the amount that is needed to take the nomination. one last one for you, chris, as we look forward. pennsylvania, a new quinnipiac poll hassan torm beating romney by 14%. >> that's his state. the washington post is call it the claim that won't die. did president obama really want higher gas prices?

pain at the pump has been impacting poelgs. we thought it was time to separate fact from fiction with glenn kessler. good morning, glenn. >> good morning. >> republicans have been hammering the president over the soaring price of gas. his approval ratings have gone down as a result. let me play a claim that we've been hearing from republicans over and over again. >> president obama said he would prefer a gradual adjustment to near $4 a gallon gasoline. president obama said that. unfortunately, the president's put policies in place that have gotten us to $4 in gasoline prices. >> he wanted higher gas prices and he got them. >> he wanted they, he got them. glenn, your ruling? >> three pinocchios. that's what that is. you know, we looked into this. this is all based on a -- the clip that obama made when he was a senator, where he was asked was there a silver lining to higher prices. he didn't really answer it.

he did talk about how that might create adjustment in people's habits. but as far as we can tell, he never ever said he wanted higher prices. >> certainly not $4? >> exactly. >> yeah. mitt romney go after the president yesterday on high gas prices. let me play that for you, glenn. >> it's related to the fact that you stopped drilling in the gulf. maybe it's related to the fact, mr. president, that you were not drilling in anwar. maybe it's related to the fact that you said we couldn't get a pipeline in from canada known as keystone. those things affect gasoline prices long-term. >> is romney right? >> well, those kinds of policy decisions can affect gasoline prices long-term. that's the key thing there. but most experts say it takes about 10, 15 years for policies that are put in place to make their way to the pump. all those things he talked about, even if obama had done all of them, wouldn't be affecting gas prices today.

>> meantime, we've had newt gingrich. he has gotten traction on this talk about 2:50 a gallon gas. here is something he said. >> it was $1.13 a gallon when i was speaker. that's a fact. it's $1.89 a gallon when he became president. that's a historic fact. i'm not trying to take us to some magic land. i'm trying to get to a world we can call prooep obama. >> give us a fact check. he's trying to fend off critics that goes goes to $2.50. >> this is a three pinocchio claim. because the problem there is you have to look at inflation adjustment. since 1919, inflation adjustment gasoline prices have generally hovered above $2.50. there was a period there in the early '90s where it was below

that. generally it's $2.50. why were prices so low when president obama became president? because we were in the middle of a recession. demand was down and gas prices dropped. i don't know if that's the reason we want to go back to the lower gas prices. >> finally, president obama has obviously also been talking about gas prices lately. let me play something from a stump in north carolina recently. >> because of these new standards for cars and trucks, they're going to all go further and useless fuel every year. and that means pretty soon you'll be able to fill up your car every two weeks instead of every week. over time, that saves you a typical family about $8,000 a year. >> glenn, your ruling? >> well, it's one pinocchio there. and you know, the president completely misspoke. it's really $8,000 over the life of a car. >> the white house quickly

acknowledged that we should say. >> they didn't correct the transcript or anything like that. he had gotten it right most times when he uses that line. even there, the reason i gave one pinocchio, he's not telling you about the fact that the higher fuel efficiency standards are going to add at least $3,000, even higher, at least $3,000 to the price of a car. so will take you about four years of driving before it lowered -- less gasoline to make that what you're paying for that more expensive car. >> if it's $8,000 minus $3,000 theoretically five grand. >> there's another estimate that say it will cost $8,000. it could be a wash. >> fact checker, glenn kessler, always good to see you. >> glad to be with you. speaking of the facts, they speak for themselves. the dow had the highest point in more than four years. the nasdaq at an 11-year high.

we have what's moving your money. mapped mandy, it's fun or not heart stopping to look at your retirement statement. >> that's so true. remember when you were scared to look at your 401(k)? >> the bull market ended the fourth year. starting from the march 2009 lows. the question now is how much room is there in this rally? the good news is that the rally is essentially being driven by solid fundamentals on the economic side, especially strong earnings and what a lot of people think are attractive values as opposed to, chris, massive amounts of stimulus being thrown at the markets. when you consider the stock market logged an average yearly gain of 7% for the past 65 years, the 100% rally move we've seen in this equity market really is a big deal. >> other big story today. u.s. taxpayers as we know shelled out, what, $700 billion to bail out the big banks in 2008. here we are nearly four years

later, some apparently are -- feel too big to fail, essentially. >> the results of the stress tests on these u.s. banks that come in and four major u.s. banks have failed to show that they have enough capital to survive another downturn. that list includes citigroup, the third large he's bank, alley financial and sun trust. at the end of the day, 15 of the 19 major banks stress tested passed. it also shows, i should say, that 19 are in a much stronger position than they were immediately after the 2008 financial crisis. what was the testing for? it looked at the balance sheets of the banks to determine whether they could withstand a crisis sending unemployment to 13%. causes stock prices to be cut in half and also cuts home prices about 21% from today's levels. the financial sector is actually still underweight in many portfolios and a lot of major

investors have been waiting to step back into this group. the s&p financial sector is one of the top performance sectors year to date. it feels that sentiment and optimism is starting to return. >> cnbc's mandy drury, always good to see you. thank you. it is the end of an era. the encyclopedia britannica will stop publishing after 244 years. instead, the company will focus on the digital versions of the encyclopedia. online editions serve more than 100 people around the world. is this what we're doing now? i don't want a plunger anywhere near my coffee. not in my house. with maxwell house french roast, you let gravity do the work. [ male announcer ] maxwell house french roast. always good to the last drop. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice...

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could you, it may help with weight loss. in the study, obese participants who ate a higher calorie breakfast that included a dessert were more likely to maintain a diet than those who ate a smaller breakfast. however, dietitians stress that while a big breakfast can help with weight loss, it must be well-balanced with protein and carbohydrates. >> good morning everybody. i'm thomas roberts. the agenda next hour shall the grits hit the fan. we'll break down santorum's double in dixie. mitt romney's southern third finish and is gingrich the walking dead? we'll ask his campaign chair. it a brokered convention the only thing inevitable for mitt romney? ron reagan weighs in. comedians in chief. funny moments from president obama and prime minister cameron from the white house. but now the serious talks are on over afghanistan. bully, the movie. the fight to get the r rating to pg. the filmmaker joins me live. >> i was in trader joe's yesterday in the new product

section they had, guess what? >> cake? >> grit. >> you think that's a coincidence? >> maybe. they're in the news. they're a hot topic. >> thank you so much, thomas. move on.org joining democrats to -- check out their new attack ad. >> a woman impregnated through rape should accept that horribly created gift. the gift of human life. >> these aren't our words. >> they're all real things that prominent members of the republican party. >> until the republicans get over their issues, we women have got a serious problem with the republican party. >> i'm joined now by howard bragman, vice chairman of reputation.com and chairman of 15 minutes public relation. always good to have you here. so here we have it. we have women saying the words of republicans that they say are further argument that there is a war on women by republicans. do you think that was effective? >> i do think it's effective. you know, i listen to the

internet and read what people have to say. people are not afraid to express their opinions. one woman said something really fascinating. it said, how could a woman ever support the republican party again? then that's been the argument in the african-american community shall that's been the argument in the gay and lesbian community and if it starts going to women, they're going to have trouble. women won the election for obama. obama has a big problem with men, particularly working classmen. so he's counting on women. >> let me ask you about rick santorum. obviously he won mississippi and alabama. his super pac has gone off with this new ad in louisiana. >> under barack obama, america is spending $314 billion a year on foreign oil. funding radicals with bad intentions causing pump prices to rise drastically. rick santorum is the principal leader with an energy plan. develop domestic resources, utilize natural gas. >> i love the change in music when they're talking about

barack obama, it's like doom and glam. >> happy days are here again. >> we now that the president's approval rating have been affected by the gas prices. >> i think most intelligent voters now that there are other problems adding to gas prices. in fact, a lot of the republicans bluster is raising the gas prices because fear of war in the middle east, fear of bombing, fear of nuclear development. you know what's going on, you got to look at the big picture. there's two different kinds of ads. there's the ads and then the the candidates versus the opposite party. the candidates versus -- trying to keep it all straight is pretty confusing. >> mitt romney happy birthday. just turned 65. the dnc is going after him because he said he's going to opt out of medicare. take a look at the dnc ad. >> i'll tell you what, 10,000

bucks? >> what do you think? >> very clever. they're going to position him as a guy who is not in touch with the average person, doesn't rely on medicare, which all our families do. they bring up the $10,000 bet. i'm surprised they didn't talk about how he was friends with the owners of the nascar teams. >> it's surprising to me that they even made a big deal about that. he's not going to sign up for medicare. >>let take a look at one more from the conservative group american future fund. this one goes after president obama. >> i did not run for office to be helping out a bunch of fat cat bankers on wall street. guess who gave $42 million to obama's last campaign for president? wall street bankers. but his white house is full of wall street executives. >> fact check.org looked at that ad. they said it's full of exaggerations and misleading statements. it's not the first ad that has been. does that matter, though? does this matter?

>> one client said to me, in this world we live in, truth is only one point of view. if you spend enough money getting a lie out there or getting a misinformation out there, it's going to have as much validity. did you see the study in mississippi, half the people thought obama was a muslim. that has nothing to o do with the truth. it has nothing to do with the truth. truth doesn't always matter nowadays. >> does that make it much more difficult for any candidate to have fully truthful ads? >> absolutely. because you can't not play the game. the opposition is playing. it's when somebody stands in front of you in the stadium, you got to stand up too or else you won't see the game. >> we'll see a lot more of this, aren't we, howard? >> it's not going to be pretty. it's going to get so much uglier. what obamas campaign said, it's going to be close and you'll see the super pacs spending hundreds of millions of dollars to try and keep obama from getting

re-elected. going to be an ugly season. >> come back. i'm sure there will be more ads to talk about. howard bragman, thanks so much. >> today's tweet of the day from chuck todd. in september 2011, we said we didn't know how romfully gets the nomination and we don't know how he's denied it. nothing has changed. ♪ [ male announcer ] for our families... our neighbors... and our communities... america's beverage companies have created a wide range of new choices. developing smaller portion sizes and more low- & no-calorie beverages... adding clear calorie labels so you know exactly what you're choosing... and in schools, replacing full-calorie soft drinks with lower-calorie options. with more choices and fewer calories, america's beverage companies are delivering. the sleep number bed. the magic of this bed is that you're sleeping on something that conforms to your individual shape. wow!

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cherry blossoms, a town for sale and a toilet paper problem? let's go down to the wire. a 25-year-old musher has become the youngest person to win the iditarod trail sled dog race. it took him nine days, four hours and 29 minutes to complete the race. get this. his dad won in 2004. you can soon own the smallest town in the country. buford, wyoming goes up for auction next month. the only resident plans to retire and move on.

his origins go back to the 1860s and once had as many as 2,000 residents before the intercontinental railroad was rerouted. one advantage of the warm weather in the east and earlier dher i blossom season in washington, d.c. the 100-year-old yoe shin owe cherry trees are expected to reach peaks between march 24th and the 31 s. the average bloom is around april 4th. talk about a town with money problems. trenton, new jersey's municipal buildings have little to no toilet paper because they can't agree on a contract to stock the supplies. the health department could get involved if it becomes a sanitation issue. no money problems for chad ochocinco, the wide receiver tweeted out adiner invitation to the first 200 people that arrive at sylvia's restaurant. he reportedly brought 8 grand on the dinner. here's your cute animal video of the day. a set of polar bear triplets making their debut at the moscow

zoo. they're finally big enough to go outside and romp and play. oh, my. they are cute. sylvia's is an awesome restaurant. have you ever been dr., don? >> yes, i have. >> thumbs up. >> so does chad ochocinco. thank you for watching us. that will wrap up this hour of jansing & co. a big exciting group of people, kucinich, aaron mcpike. see you tomorrow. thomas roberts is up next. my name is robin. i'm a wife, i'm a mom... and chantix worked for me. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke.

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what will they say about the end game in afghanistan. america's defense chief arrives in afghan san in full damage control mode after a shooting rampage. live coverage from kabul coming up. then, is a new film to fight bullying being silenced because of the r rating? >> we'll talk with the filmmaker behind it. lee hirsch. i'm thomas roberts. the grits have hit the fan. rick santorum sweeping two deep southern state. once again shall the race for the gop nomination has hit the reset button. all that talk of romney being inevitable turned on its head. santorum showing true grit by taking both alabama and mississippi despite expectations. he might fall short. mitt romney's cheesy grits strategy clearly didn't work. he came in third. ird place in both those critical races. rick santorum who now really wants newt gingrich out of his way, out of this race, says last night's results prove he's ready to go all the way to