we asked you at the top of the show what you're doing up at this hour. tower, what do you got? >> we've got deb who writes very simply insomnia but willie's voice is better than ambien. >> thank you. wait a minute, that's not that compliment. >> i'm up to see if barnicle is going to tuck in his shirt. >> here's the problem, you can't tuck in a nike pullover. is that what you're wearing, mike? seriously? "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ mitt romney, rick santorum, and newt gingrich, these guys have a fundamentally different economic philosophy than we do. simply stated, we're about promoting the private sector, they're about protecting the privileged sector. we are for a fair shot and a fair shake.

they're about no rules, no risks, and no accountability. >> i want to tell you, the economic theorys of gingrich, santorum and romney, they are bankrupt. if you give any one of these guys the keys to the white house, they will bankrupt the middle class again. >> well, he is kicking butt and taking names, isn't he? >> notice he was wearing a tie. >> well, unlike some other people here on the set of "morning joe." good morning, everyone, it is friday, finally it is friday. i don't know about you guys, i think i might have barely survived the week. it's march 16th. and with us onset as you can see, this is just a disgrace. >> mike, this isn't dress rehearsal, we're on, baby, we're live. >> this is the real deal?

>> we had our usual -- >> i'll tell you what, i'll make everyone's life easier. i'll leave now. how about that? >> don't tempt barnicle. >> most of the time mike's pajamas have feet, as well. >> mike. >> i watched basketball all day yesterday, i didn't get to the dry cleaners. >> you just look horrible. >> want me to get a coat? i have a coat over there. >> no, no, you've committed to it. let's just go with it. >> you think so? >> it's too late now. >> what if i did that? what if i came in like that? what do you think management would say? >> they love you any way you dress. >> very good, steve. very good. >> i'm going to try it. >> okay. >> i'm going to do it. i'm going to come in in some sort of horrible barnicle outfit with the tube socks. >> you have tube socks? >> that's when he's wearing them. executive editor at random house and "time" magazine contributing editor jon meacham with us, looking very good. and financier and "morning joe"

economic analyst steve rattner is with us, as well. >> i'm going to dress like that next time. >> yeah, i just -- you know, i don't know, mike. really. >> really? >> what's the bar on that financier title? is there a level of personal wealth? >> 1%, 2%, 1.8%, we'll discuss that later. >> that's the segment later. >> you earned your salary, willie geist. >> we've got a lot to do today. we're going to get to afghanistan, new information coming out about the men involved with that massacre and what potentially led up to it. we're going to hear from his lawyer. it's more of what a lot of people thought, but we'll see where it goes. but let's start with political news. you saw joe biden coming in. it's pretty good, right? barnicle? >> that was a paid political event. it was a campaign event. that's why he named names. >> he named names and doing quite well. in political news, president

obama's holding five fundraisers in two states today as the white house reelection team shifts full speed toward november. vice president joe biden kicked off that effort as we showed you yesterday in ohio. a key battleground in the general election. addressing hundreds of workers, the vice president focused specifically on the government's rescue of the auto industry. something analysts credit for saving 1 million jobs. biden says that never would've happened if the president's opponents had their way. >> governor romney was more direct. let detroit go bankrupt. newt gingrich said, "a mistake." but the guy i work with every day, the president, he didn't flinch. this is a man with steel in his spine. he made the tough call! and the verdict is in, president obama was right and they were dead wrong! governor romney says the market,

wall street, quote, will help lift them out. wrong. any honest expert will tell you in 2009, no one was lining up to lend general motors or chrysler any money or for that matter to lend money to anybody. that includes bain capital. they weren't lining up to lend anybody any money either. >> wow. okay. he's just going there. president obama, meanwhile, was in maryland yesterday where he also went on the attack. the president mocked the republican field's resistance to alternative energy. >> lately we've heard a lot of professional politicians, a lot of the folks who were, you know, running for a certain office. who shall go unnamed.

they've been talking down new sources of energy. if some of these folks were around when columbus set sai sail, -- they must have been founding members of the flat earth society. they would not have believed that the world was round. >> newt gingrich who has promised to bring gas prices down to $2.50 a gallon responded to the president's remarks. >> i'm just asking the president who apparently belongs to the flat earth sierra club society to consider that, in fact, if we had the same level of drilling for oil, you know, why ask the president. why is saudi oil good and american oil bad? why is saudi drilling good and american drilling bad? this is utter intellectual nonsense. >> steve rattner, we should point out that you're slightly

biased on the matter of the car rescue as the cars are. but that's a message a lot of us, a lot of people around this table suggested the president and the vice president should be pushing out there. and you saw how effective it was in ohio. >> he was great in ohio. look, in fairness, the president and the vice president have been out there for a while on this issue. but it just doesn't seem to have broken through. the vice president's speech yesterday was quite extraordinary as we just saw. incredibly fiery. and of course, romney set him up for it in michigan when he wrote that op-ed once again saying the government should not have gotten involved. and as biden said, there were a million jobs saved. and if you look back to the spring of 2009, 200,000 jobs created in the auto sector since the rescue. so i think it's a pretty strong case for the democrats on this one. >> jon meacham? >> the legitimate point he raised over and over again yesterday, the vice president, that there was no money available. no one was going to loan anybody any money in detroit. >> look, i feel like a broken record on this because i've said this over and over again. romney keeps talking about private capital and it should

have happened private and i thought the vice president was great when he brought bain capital into his speech. even bain capital wasn't prepared to provide any money. there's no question, if the government hadn't stepped in, general motors, chrysler, and then ford because of the supplier base would've closed and a million people would have been out of work at least for a time. that's just a fact. >> yeah. >> jon meacham? >> you know what also is just a fact. the way you're sitting is how you watch a football game and the way you're dressed. >> you're insulting me -- >> it's going to be a long morning. >> what is going on? >> i'll be right back. >> seriously. somebody dress this man. i feel like you should be in my basement covered with popcorn. >> he will be in his own basement later. >> oh, thank god, try to get some camouflage going. >> okay. >> jon meacham, let's talk a little business. >> yes, sir. >> the president's reelection campaign. >> yes, sir. >> began in earnest.

>> yes, it did. >> in a battleground state. >> the car argument, but also the question of energy policy. which seems to fit into a larger narrative that the president's making that these republican candidates want to take us backwards on everything. >> yeah. we're the folks -- it's an interesting argument. because it's more forward leaning. the president's had a hard time for three years now trying to make voters give him credit for things that did not happen. which is a really hard thing to do. it's not fair, it drives people crazy who do things. i think anyone who is a parent understands this. and to some extent, it's i think one of the things that has frustrated the president's political operation and frustrated and kept the approval ratings down. but now saying, you know, we' we're -- things are moving, warming up, and arguing that the republicans would not be as

forward leaning. i think columbus is a good person to bring in. it was a catholic enterprise. so barnicle would like that. so it fits into the cultural argument. but to argue -- to paint the republicans as outside the mainstream is clearly a critical obama argument because the republicans have spent 4 1/2 years, four years at least, painting obama as outside the mainstream. so i think that's -- we're going to see that all the way to november in the battleground states. >> all right. let's stick with politics before we move to afghanistan here and get a couple more stories in. all four republican contenders are back on the campaign trail today ahead of tuesday's primary in illinois. after a pair of losses this week in the south, mitt romney's campaign is making a concerted push in the state, including

sending governor chris christie there today to stump on behalf of romney. the latest polling from the "chicago tribune" shows romney and rick santorum in a statistical tie in illinois. newt gingrich comes in at 12% and ron paul at 7%. and just wondering, does anyone he hear we're going to hear this is a must-win for romney? it seems like -- >> you know what it is? it's basically the first time that it's going to be santorum and romney head-to-head in illinois. the other two candidates are just extraneous. >> the latest polling, let's see, we've got from pew research center points to troubling numbers for republicans if rick santorum wins the party's nomination. according to the poll, 20% of romney supporters would likely vote for president obama if santorum becomes the gop nominee. santorum, however, insists he has the best shot in the general. >> on so many fronts there could

be no person in this country we could nominate who would be any worse on taking on barack obama on the most important issue of the day, obama care than governor romney. and it is -- it's -- it's malpractice to nominate someone who gives away the most important issue in this race. >> jon meacham? >> the flat earth comment and seeing santorum, there's a connection. one of the interesting things about that line of attack is it is in an economic context, obama is making a cultural point. that, you know, the context there was alternative energy and, you know, that somehow the republicans aren't where he is. but it is also a way of saying this is the party more comfortable in the 15th century culturally than the rest of america should be. and i think that's a really interesting argument. and i think santorum -- i think santorum, the longer the conversation is about him, the

longer he's doing well, the more powerful that argument is to the 10,000 independents who will decide this election. remember, this is about a sliver of the electorate and the prominence of senator santorum is not helping the republican case for pulling those independents down. >> okay. i think first on energy, they're going to fight each other to something of a draw. arguments on either side. what president obama wants to do is deflect this rising gas price thing off of him and on to these other issues and vice versa. and energy policy is a 40-year problem, not a three-year problem. i think they'll fight to a draw to some degree. but i think on this santorum thing on that last poll, that's what we all have been thinking about. when you look around the states that romney has won are the states that republicans have to win in the fall in order to carry this election. and to your 15th century point where santorum is strong is in parts of the country that may be more attracted to the 15th

century but that the republicans will carry anyway. mississippi and alabama are not the issue. the issue is ohio, michigan, and florida, all of which romney's been winning and we'll see what happens in illinois, another state like that. >> yeah, i would imagine it's nearly impossible when you're a candidate like rick santorum or newt gingrich we're you're a candidate, in the middle of it every day, it's consumed you every day, it's impossible for you to realize the damage you've done to the brand of republicanism in the context of the campaign with regard to independents. >> sure. >> and i'm not talking about northeast, people who are prone to -- i'm talking about -- i'm talking about men and women, independent voters in florida who work at target who shop at target, who have been kind of leery of some of the language and rhetoric and points of view that have come out of the republican primary. >> remember, in a general election, we have not had a more, you know, four-point race in decades. and from 1988 until 2008, no --

with the minor exception, you know, a little margin for kerry and bush in '04, no presidential winner got above 50%. and this is such a narrowly divided electorate. and i think when the conversation unfolds you think, well, this is a broad national conversation and people are going to react that way and that's how it turns out. it's an electoral college system where it depends on very few number of people and very few number of states who wins the presidency. >> look, that is fair. if the republicans nominate santorum, this will be 1964 or 1972 or 1984 or 1988 all over again. >> i agree completely. >> let's get one more note in here. house republicans will be unveiling their 2013 budget plan and house budget committee chairman paul ryan. we can talk more about it later, but this is their video trailer highlighting it. >> you know, i was here in congress in 2008.

when we had the economic crisis. it was a terrible time. millions of people lost their jobs, trillions of dollars of wealth, gone. this coming debt crisis is the most predictable crisis we've ever had in this country. and look what's happening. this is why we're acting, this is why we're leading. this is why we're proposing and passing out of the house a budget to fix this problem so we can save our country for ourselves and for our children's future. >> willie? >> let's strip the theater away. >> can we? i'm not sure i can. >> there was some acting in there we can discuss later. let's talk about the substance of it, steve rattner. we do face a fiscal crisis. it's a question of whether you like paul ryan's approach to it or not. >> he's completely right on the core message. we have a terrible fiscal problem and my view is he's wrong on the solution, which is in two respects, you don't want

to massively contract the budget deficit while the economy is recovering. we're 500,000 jobs down in the public sector since the recovery began. it's a drag on it. and while we're still recovering, having some amount of fiscal stimulus, most economists will tell you is prudent. in the question is the long-term -- turned into a voucher program where seniors went from paying 25% of their costs to 68% of their costs. now he's got a new plan and i don't think anybody fully understands it yet. but it's a series of social choices. do you want the medicare plan we have now? and if so, are you willing to pay for it? or do you want lower taxes? in which you've got to trim these benefits. he's on the trimming the benefit side and lower costs and lower taxes, but that's the discussion we should be having. >> maybe we don't like the approach, but his core truth is there. that medicare is a problem that we have not addressed in a serious way. and there's no reason for us to believe that we will address it in a serious way on the horizon. based on the political

conversation we've seen. >> his core message is right. we have a $54 trillion unfunded medicare and social security program that somebody's going to have to pay for. it's not going to get resolved this year. this is theater, we've got a election coming. but one hopes, one likes to be optimistic in 2013 with a new president and new congress, people will start to address this issue in a serious way. >> before we go to break, let's turn to afghanistan because we should learn the identity today of the american staff sergeant accused of killing 16 afghan civilians last weekend. one of several new details coming out about that suspected shooter as the u.s. military faces two big developments in the mission there. an attorney hired by the suspects' family said the 38-year-old trained sniper is a highly decorated soldier who had enlisted in the army just days after 9/11. he suffered a head injury and a roadside bomb attack during one of three combat tours in iraq

where he also lost part of his foot in another injury there. the soldier had witnessed his friend's leg being blown off just one day before sunday's massacre. according to the attorney, the suspect's latest deployment to afghanistan came as a blow to his family. >> he was told that he was not going to be redeployed. the family was counting on him not being redeployed. and so he and the family were told that his tours in the middle east were over and then literally overnight that changed. so i think that it'll be fair to say that he and the family were not happy that he was going back. >> the "new york times" is reporting that the suspect could be moved to a prison inside the united states as early as today. u.s. officials tell the "new york times" that the soldier had been drinking alcohol the night of the shootings with two other troops, both of whom are now facing disciplinary action. the military's investigation into the incident coincides with

two new challenges to the u.s. strategy in afghanistan. president karzai is demanding that nato pull back its troops from rural areas as part of a quicker overall withdrawal. he's also calling for the coalition to transfer security to afghan forces in 2013 instead of 2014. meanwhile, the taliban announced it is halting peace talks with american officials. so much there to discuss. bottom line, though. let's just touch on the repeat tours of duty whether or not whatever comes out to bear in this trial. >> listen, every member of the military and their families have been burdened, it doesn't matter in the context of this case. what matters was, was he guilty of shooting and killing 16 unarmed villagers. and the prosecution ought not to rest just on this soldier's shoulders, it should go down the chain of command. how do you walk off a base in the middle of the night?

walk 1/2 mile, 3/4 of a mile armed in a village ready to kill without anyone noticing. how does that happen? >> and what about warning signs on many levels? >> in this "new york times" report on the front page this morning, mika. one american official says it'll be a combination when it all comes out of stress, alcohol, and domestic issues. he just snapped. and we were talking about this. i just have to say to bring in the marital problems, to put any of this on his wife who is now a widow with a 3-year-old and a 4-year-old and to draw a straight line between a marital problem and the death of 16 civilians -- >> well, actually one of the stories i read said he had a good marriage and the separation from her being in -- >> his attorney said that's nonsense the marital problem. but we've heard whispers of that. i think putting any of this on his wife and their marriage is pretty absurd. >> and i don't know who wouldn't have struggles with tour after tour. >> exactly. >> right. >> exactly.

>> it just cracks families in half. >> john, when n, will we look b this one moment, this one hour where a staff sergeant walked off a base and killed 16 people as a historic moment in the war in afghanistan? a pivotal moment? >> it depends on what happens with the strategic questions afterward. we are clearly at an ultimate chapter, one hopes it stands in the cultural imagination of afghanistan. there are, tragically, every war has its atrocitieatrocities, an, in fact, stand out as symbols of what can happen when you have those extraordinarily combustible circumstances all put together. all right. com coming, we're going to bring in tavis smiley, also lawrence

o'donnell, eugene robinson, and david gregory. up next, the politico playbook. but first, a check on the weekend forecast with meteorologist ryan phillips from our nbc affiliate in miami. ryan? >> mika, good morning to you. cool start out here in the northeast. clouds on the increase, and we're into the 40s. not quite spring. this is the last weekend of winter. and we're going to get our spring pattern right back in the cards by saturday. 43 in new york, 41 in hartford, 37 in boston. so clouds out there, showers coming in. it's not going to rain all day, but spotty showers, maybe a thunderstorm, highs only in the 50s. but other parts of the nation looking good. down across texas, 70s there, and 80s down in south florida. that's a quick look at the national forecast. stay with us, more "morning joe" coming your way after the break. americans are always ready to work hard for a better future.

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♪ oh. time now to take a look at the morning papers. we'll start with the arizona daily sun which says a bill nearing passage in the state's republican-led legislature would allow all employers, not just religious institutions to opt out of providing contraceptive coverage based on moral grounds. also in the bill, women in arizona who want birth control covered by their health plans could be required to prove that they need it for medical purposes. as opposed to using it to prevent pregnancy. >> wow. >> the bill has more passed in the house and now moves to the state senate for a full vote. >> we're a bunch of guys, so we shouldn't say anything, but no. how are you feeling? nothing? >> is that like a newspaper from

50 years ago? a mistake that got caught in the archives? what in the hell? sorry. just can't believe it. >> the "wall street journal," rod blagojevich in his vehicle yesterday got lost in colorado on his way to prison. >> well, he will begin serving a 14-year sentence. while he got lost, he thought he'd stop for lunch. and he did. freddy's a burger joint where he posed for photographs, signed autographs, shook hands like he was running for office one more time. >> it's hard to imagine he's going to be gone and we're not going to hear from him again for 14 years. >> i hope it's not that long. >> is it true you're going to do the biography? >> i don't want to ruin it. yes, we're talking. >> it's on the grapevine. >> yeah. on the cover of this sunday's "parade" magazine, one of the most anticipated movies of the year, an adaption of the popular teen novel "the hunger games" debuts next week.

"parade" details what's behind all the hysteria. there you go. >> let's do some politico. joining us now for a look at the playbook, the executive editor jim vandehei. good morning. >> good morning, how you doing? >> i'm doing all right. you guys have a 2008 memo, laying out a plan to shield steve schmidt from john mccain blame. there's been a lot of talk about him over the past week with the "game change" movie. >> this is fun stuff for political junekies. it's a very favorable movie to steve schmidt. and unearthed this memo written before the campaign had ended by a campaign staffer about how they can make sure they could protect steve schmidt's image and make sure he didn't get blamed for the collapse of the mccain campaign, and it detailed how they can use their friends and resources to make sure he does not come out looking like the person that sunk the campaign. and it clearly worked.

i mean, schmidt's reputation is better than ever and the "game change" movie very much reflected his vision of how the campaign worked which has been palin's chief critique. she feels like, listen, this is just the campaign as told by steve schmidt. >> so, jim, this is ten days before the actual election was held. so we're talking late october here. they're already thinking about saving their reputations before the election even happens. >> imagine mccain, exactly. you've got your staffers, these are paid campaign staffers spending at least some of their time worried about their own reputations. this stuff happens because they knew they were going to lose and there's always some sort of fallout and people want to blame the operatives, the strategists, the ad makers, and in this case they wanted to make sure that steve schmidt didn't get the blame. brian jones, the author of a memo is a good friend of steve's, they work together at the same strategy group. >> meacham? >> jim, hey, doesn't this fall

in the category of things you say, but don't write down? >> i've never heard of it -- otherwise it ends up on "politico?" >> it is probably something you shouldn't write down otherwise it might end up on the website several years later. like i said, it happens all the time, but the audacity of writing the memo during the campaign when you're supposed to be helping the candidate getting elected worrying about his image not your friends, it's an interesting memo and takes you deep inside how these things work, much like "game change," the book and the movie do. >> you can read the memo at politico.com. >> take care. have a good one. syracuse is one very lucky one seed this morning escaping a historic upset at the hands of unc asheville. with a little help from the officials. we'll go through the highlights. >> a lot of help. >> how bad was that call? >> terrible call. two terrible calls.

>> also, uconn's ugly exit from the tournament. they're the champs. >> going back to stores.

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all right. let's do some sports. at this time last year, kendall walker was leading uconn on an incredible run through the big east and ncaa tournaments. this morning, uconn is done. the ninth seed huskies defending champs taking on eighth seeded iowa state, the cyclones blowing the doors off uconn in the first half. a long three, iowa state was up 22 points in the first half. the uconn did fight back in the second, give them some credit. eight minutes left, the three-pointer makes it a six-point game, clawing their way back, but the night belongs to the cyclones. palo drives, puts up a tough shot, that ends the rally, and then it gets ugly. these are the final seconds of the game. jeremy lan of uconn attempting a dunk, not even close.

iowa state beats uconn, 77-64. uconn the first defending champion to win in the first round. a number one seed has never lost to a 16 seed in the ncaa tournament but almost happened last night. syracuse trailed unc asheville by four at halftime, second half, jeremy atkinson steps back, hits the three, syracuse still trailing until james sutherland comes off the bench hits a three to give the orange the lead. down to the wire, watch this. syracuse up three points with 35 seconds left. they throw the ball away clearly last touched by syracuse. >> terrible. >> but the officials somehow give the ball back to the orange. the kid from asheville never came near the ball. >> terrible. >> you want to call a foul, that's one thing, but he didn't touch the ball. they should have had the ball back down, instead it goes to syracuse who goes up five and then asheville throws away.

wow. syracuse escapes with a 72-65 victory. they'll face eighth-seeded kansas state tomorrow. asheville, by the way, one of the most underrated cities in the united states of america. >> asheville, north carolina? >> asheville, north carolina. beautiful place. last year cinderella story, vcu taking on wichita state, vcu up to its old tricks, up a point with two minutes to go, but the shocker, long three, that gives wichita state the lead but back comes vcu with an answer, hits a three to retake the lead final seconds now. wichita state needs a three to tie, steps behind the line and fires and it goes off the rim. that's your first big upset of the tournament. can we call it an upset anymore? vcu wins, marches on to take on indiana tomorrow night. here's my game, you impressed i waited this long to mention vanderbilt? >> i'm stunned.

>> 6:38 and it's our first mention. taking on harvard, the 12th seed in the tournament for the first time since 1946. vandy up ten at the break, a dunk there in the second half. commodores up 18, but harvard came back and gave us a scare. steal leads to a lay-up, cut the lead to nine and got closer than that. vanderbilt head coach little concerned there, but his commodores hold on 79-70. vanderbilt moves on to the next round facing four seed wisconsin. my sister went to wisconsin, i went to vanderbilt, we are a house divided. >> you are. >> it is to be war between us. >> tension convention toward the end. >> yes, unfortunately my sister couldn't possibly care less. i'm trying to trump up a rivalry. she's not playing along. >> she's probably not even listening to you. >> she's probably off reading books. >> she is. she's a smart girl. the madness continues with a full slate of games including

notre game, xavier. and they play st. bonnie's. coming up next, mika's must-read opinion pages, also steve rattner has new figures released that might explain why the 99% is not happy with the 1%. keep it on "morning joe." not in this economy.

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deficit reduction, but he has never thrown himself all in. he has never displayed an inner passion, a sense that these projects are his life mission or a willingness to bear the pain that taking on these challenges necessarily entails. it'll be interesting over the course of this campaign to see what's underneath the cageyness. it'll be interesting to see what if anything arouses obama's passion to go all in. fair, meacham? >> i think so. slightly, i guess i would say that health care was an enormous political risk and one that if the republican party were not in the middle of mutual suicide pact would be looming even larger. i think it's slightly unfair to argue that was not something he followed his heart rather than his head. >> yeah. >> and so i would disagree with david on that. but -- >> where are the areas where he has fallen short? where it might hurt him? where three years in might be more difficult to sell? >> well, the central problem as

david points out is he had a plan of simpson/bowles where he didn't put it out there. steve was talking about medicare. these questions are not simply economic. there's a capacity of potential for a cultural corrosion in a generational warfare if there's not a rebalancing here. and without that, you know, we have with a declining middle class and add the pressure of where the young are going to be paying more for the old and that's going to make this level of partisanship look like paint ball. >> well, that's a perfect segue to steve rattner's charts. because over the past few years we've seen the concept of the 99% versus the 1% evolve. you have new information that gives us a sense of the 1% and

what it means to be a part of it. >> yeah, so there's new numbers out from the gurus of 1% and 99%. and if you go back to the 90s and the recovery that occurred then, the -- about 45% of the gains of the total income gains between 1994 and 2000 went to the top 1%. if you go to the recovery in the mid-2000s, about 65% of the gains went to the top 1%. but here's the thing, in 2010, in one year, 93% of all the additional income earned in this country went to the top 1%. now, if you break that down even further and you look at the top .01%, 37% of the gains of all the income that was gained in this country went to about 15,000 households. now, let's look at that in terms of what the numbers show as it goes between the top and the

bottom. in this last chart. >> advance the chart. there you go. >> that's the .01% i talked about before being 37%. but let's try to get to that last chart, which -- here we go. if you look at the bottom 99%, their average income in 2010 was about $42,000. in real terms after inflation, they got an $80 pay increase, 0.2%. if you were in the top 1%, your average income was $1 million, you got $105,000 pay increase, 11.6%. if you're in the top .01%, your average income was $24 million in 2010, you got a $4.2 million pay increase or 22%. so i think if you want to know why the 99% is not happy with the 1% or the .01%, you just look at numbers like these. $80. >> what are the mechanics of that? how does that happen? and why does that happen? >> it's a phenomenon of a lot of different factors going on in

this economy for a long period of time. whether it's the knowledge economy, where people with better knowledge achieve higher incomes, whether it's the downward pressure on wages in manufacturing because of global competition, whether it's the tax policy we've had where capital gains is now taxed at 15%, which is why warren buffett pays 17% or 18% total tax rate. it's all this stuff rolled together has created this. and in fairness, not just in the u.s., all over the world. but these numbers for 2010 are really about the most striking i've ever seen. >> and i guess the biggest question then is, how do you stop a trend like that as you watch it go this t as you watch it go this way? >> well, unfortunately, it's the same rolling back of a whole series of different things. you need to change tax policy and make it more fair, you need to do the education and training so the people in the 99% who got $80 last year can achieve higher incomes, deal with your spending programs, government programs and the way to help those at the bottom invest in the future, r & d, infrastructure, all the

things we've talked about on the show in the last several years. there's no magic bullet, not one thing. this has been going on for a long time, so it's not going to be turned around. >> it's a trend? >> it's a trend, going on for 20 years basically, and at the moment, it's not showing any sign of abating as you can see from these 2010 numbers. up next, willie's week in review. we'll be right back. piro.obert over a million people have discovered how easy it is to use legalzoom for important legal documents. so start your business, protect your family, launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. launch your dreams. mid grade dark roast forest fresh full tank brain freeze cake donettes rolling hot dogs bag of ice anti-freeze wash and dry diesel self-serve

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oh, yes, it is friday. it's time. does he even know he's here? >> dramatic. >> looks better with a jacket. >> it's better, but -- >> you know what dresses up a nike pullover? a nice blazer. >> and a long john shirt. >> nice blazer. it's time for the week in review. >> oh, good. >> barack, it is an honor to call you an ally, a partner, and a friend. >> at number three, bosom buddies. >> i'm grateful for the time david and i have had together. >> president obama hosted david cameron this week taking him on a mandate to an ncaa tournament game where the boys watched hoops and destroyed a couple of hot dogs. >> was our president helping you

follow the game? >> he was giving me tips, he's going to help me fill out my bracket. >> and he's going to teach me cricket. >> there was a second date the very next day on the south lawn of the white house. >> to think that 200 years ago my ancestors tried to burn this place down. >> and then things really got steamy at a black tie state dinner where the president recalled his favorite moments of the special relationship. >> when we met two years ago, we exchanged beers from our hometowns, when we had a barbecue, david and i rolled up our sleeves and decided to flip the burgers ourselves, and finally when david and i got beat pretty badly in table tennis by local london kids, both of them -- i'm quoting here -- looked a little confused. >> at number two, blago goes to jail. >> maybe you've got to be a little bit more humble. you can never have enough humility, and maybe i could have

had more of that. >> there's really nothing funny about a husband and father going to jail for 14 years for a little chicago-style tom foolery, but it does give us an excuse to show his greatest hits. >> my hands are shaking, my knees are weak, i can't seem to stand on my own two feet. >> then i thought about mandela, dr. king, ghandi and tried to put some perspective in all of this. >> and the number one story of the week. >> we did it again. >> rick santorum won tight races on tuesday in alabama and mississippi. despite mitt romney's southern strategy. >> i'm learning to say y'all and i like grits and the things are strange things happening to me. i got to start it right this morning with biscuit and cheesy grits. >> get jeff foxworthy over here. >> as a southerner i would tell him that kind of stuff doesn't

really go over well in the deep south. >> newt gingrich made no secret this week of his feelings about romney. even playing the dreaded leonard wood card. >> he's the weakest front-runner since leonard wood in 1920. >> gingrich used creative math to declare a victory in tuesday's primarieprimaries. >> between santorum and myself, we'll get over 2/3 of the delegates. >> right, but you don't get to add santorum's to yours to make it sound impressive. >> between me and lebron james last night, we scored 36 points. >> romney, meanwhile, told america to get up off his jock about all the cheese he's got. >> guess what, i've got a lot money, i've been successful. i'm not going to apologize for that. >> yeah, who's leonard wood now, newt? >> he's probably the weakest republican front-runner since leonard wood in 1920. >> from one historian to the

other, jon meacham? >> i like it, 1920 was a good year, cox/roosevelt. >> yes. >> fdr was the dan quayle of the 1920 -- >> wow, the things you learn on "morning joe." >> barnicle's covered that race. >> it was interesting. >> yeah. just graduated from college. good for you. >> a club reporter. >> our good friend tavis smiley is in the building, also lawrence o'donnell going to join us at the table. keep it on "morning joe." [ female announcer ] eyes feeling overworked? discover visine® tired eye relief with hydroblend™, only from visine®. just one drop instantly soothes and revives tired, overworked eyes. and comforts them for up to ten hours. visine® tired eye relief. try now and save $3.

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yesterday, he went down to puerto rico to pick up some delegates or delgatos, and rick did not pander especially when the subject pandered to what puerto rico would have to do to be considered a state. there needs to be compliance with federal law and that english needs to be the principal language. folks, folks, it takes serious cajones to go to puerto rico and tell them to stop saying cajones. welcome to "morning joe." top of the hour and still with us, financier steve rattner and mike barnicle. >> yes. >> mike, get a look at this

table, if you could. joining us now the host of tavis smiley on pbs, tavis smiley, look at him. >> elegant. >> and the host of msnbc's "the last word," lawrence o'donnell. >> nearly elegant. >> no, he's pretty elegant. now cut to barnicle. seriously. it's like -- >> yeah. my team's doing well, you know. >> yeah. >> this is my sideline uniform, you know. all right. boys -- >> he's got running shoes and socks. >> lawrence -- >> met a higher standard than that. >> lawrence, we won't get into this with lawrence. >> he hits new lows all the time. >> this is not your first day. >> did you see the top of 6:00? he just had this top on, his gut hanging out and he was leaning back basically just like propping himself up on it trying to conduct a conversation. now, can you imagine if i did that, lawrence? >> he knows that hour's televised, right? >> no.

>> i thought that was like dress rehearsal deal. >> you thought it was rehearsal? >> well, i guess it doesn't preclude him from being able to talk about politics. let's start with president obama who is holdi ining five fundrai in two states. vice president joe biden kicked off that effort yesterday in ohio. a key battleground in the general election addressing hundreds of auto workers. the vice president focused specifically on the government's rescue of the auto industry. something analysts credit for saving 1 million jobs. biden says that never would've happened if the president's opponents had their way. >> governor romney was more direct. let detroit go bankrupt. newt gingrich said, "a mistake." but the guy i work with every day, the president, he didn't flinch. this is a man with steel in his spine.

he made the tough call, and the verdict is in. president obama was right is and they were dead wrong! governor romney says the market, wall street, quote, will help lift them out. wrong. any honest expert will tell you in 2009, in one was lining up to loan general motors or chrysler any money or for that matter to loan money to anybody. >> that includes bain capital. they weren't lining up to lend anybody any money either. >> you can tell biden likes being out there. he's good at it. let's go around the table. starting with lawrence o'donnell. how does this stack up to what the republicans are putting on the table? >> well, it's clearly a matter of they ran out of patience. they couldn't sit around waiting

for this nominee to emerge and they started running that general election campaign now. which means biden has to mention multiple names when he goes out there and does this. but, of course, every one of them oppose what the president and steve were doing with the bailout of the auto industry. and so, you just got the feeling with joe biden that it's -- i've been dying to say this for months and months and months, since these guys were in iowa, i've been dying to say it. and it was really, really fun to watch. >> steve rattner, you know a thing or two about the auto bailout having designed it. but do you think people truly understand what was at stake and what was saved? >> i think increasingly, they do. when you look at the polls at the time the president made the decisions that biden was talking about yesterday, the auto bailout was extraordinarily unpopular. biden is right. the president really did do something that when counter to what the public opinion polls said. but as time has gone on and people have seen the fact there are 200,000 more jobs in autos than there were before, i think they have come around to the

view and the polls show that. this whole primary season, the republicans have really not talked about the core economic issues. we've been talking about everything around it. and i think what this string of appearances is going to start to do is bring out this incredibly stark difference between what the president is proposing and what the republicans are proposing. and people are going to see those choices and they're going to have that choice, i think, right in front of them. and i think it's a very clear choice. >> you mentioned 200,000 auto industry jobs. what is the reasonable projection of what the multiplier effect is and the ripple effect on jobs around the auto industry, the hamburger stand near the, you know, the plant? >> we don't know, obviously, but i think it was -- it's probably two or three to one. in other words, as vice president said, had the auto industry gone down, it would have been over 1 million jobs lost, it would have rippled all through the economies. michigan's unemployment rate has actually improved more than the unemployment rate of any other state of the country over the last three years. >> tavis smiley, i'm going to

bring you out of your comfort zone. this will be fun, but try, okay. you see biden there. it seems like a pretty good winning message, one of perhaps hopefully many they will have for president obama's reelection team, you never know. but if you were the republicans right now, what would the message be? what would be the counter to this? what do you think they should be doing versus what they are doing? >> that's a good question. and i don't know the answer. i have been -- and i don't know the answer because i've been surprised -- not surprised but i was taken aback at the message that mr. romney kept delivering while in michigan, in fact, that the president was wrong about this. i could not -- and i still can't understand how and why it is he chose to go that particular route in that particular state. but to play devil's advocate -- to go along with your thesis here. i guess if i were the republicans, the argument i would make is that what about you? i mean, it's that age old question, are you better off now than you were four years ago? and the reality is that most americans are still not better

off than they were, you know, just recently, you know, in their own lives economically. so i think the argument would be that he hasn't done enough for me. nice for the auto industry, nice for wall street, but as an individual, i don't see my economic state getting any better, my situation getting any better. and if the president can't do that for you, why do you care about wall street? why do you care about the auto industry? >> all right. so as you heard, joe biden, vice president joe biden was naming names, president obama did not. but he was in maryland yesterday where he also went on the attack. the president mocked the republican field's resistance to alternative energy. >> lately we've heard a lot of professional politicians, a lot of the folks who were, you know, running for a certain office. who shall go unnamed. they've been talking down new

sources of energy. if some of these folks were around when columbus set sail -- they must have been founding members of the flat earth society. they would not have believed that the world was round. >> all four republican contenders are back on the campaign trail today ahead of tuesday's primary in illinois. after a pair of losses this week in the south, mitt romney's campaign is making a concerted push in the state including sending governor chris christie there today to stump on behalf of romney. now, the latest polling from the "chicago tribune" shows romney and rick santorum in a statistical tie in illinois. newt gingrich comes in at 12% and ron paul at 7%. polling, by the way, from the pew research center points out troubling statistics if rick santorum wins the nomination.

20% of romney supporters would likely vote for obama if santorum becomes the gop nominee. santorum, however, insists he has the best shot in the general election. >> on so many fronts, there could be no person in this country who we could nominate who would be any worse taking on barack obama on the most important issue of the day, obama care, than governor romney. and it is -- it's -- it's malpractice to nominate someone who gives away the most important issue in this race. >> late last night, lawrence o'donnell, you were talking about that pew poll in your show. >> the other interesting piece of that is -- this is the most fascinating number, 11% of santorum voters would go and vote for president obama if romney was the nominee. those were the people i don't understand. >> who are they? >> i don't know. >> that's like 5% who still like congress. who are they? who are they? >> the most interesting flips

imaginable. hey, this is the anybody but romney campaign, you know? it's still going and he was a bad idea from the start, but every once in a while, this happens to a party. of the people available to run for president, this was the best they had. this is -- 1996, they nominated bob dole because they didn't have anyone better than bob dole. other people tried and they, you know, went up and campaigned -- >> there are people that are better, who are better on the right. and i -- >> who aren't running and aren't considering running. >> the question i want to ask you, why won't they get in? if you're sitting on the right and you see that the party is begging you to get in and everybody -- >> and if you believe the country needs help. >> and you believe -- >> it's the same reason -- this is not a mystery. it is the same reason every time. there has never been a politician who believes he or she can win the presidency who did not run for it. every one of them who chooses

not to run is saying my calculation is i would lose. >> you know what's kind of interesting to your point. the point that you made earlier with joe biden out on the stump yesterday naming names and going right at it on the auto bailout, the democrats are getting an incredible head start in framing everything up for the fall while the republicans are going anybody but romney. and in that context, we showed that clip of the paul ryan commercial. >> right. >> and if you watch that commercial with paul ryan, you say that guy is a better candidate for president than any of the republicans currently in the field. >> except for the little fact he wrote the bill that is going to sink the republican nominee. mitt romney embraced the ryan plan, which is going to destroy him if he's the nominee in florida. and that is where biden is going next to talk about the ryan plan. they want you to know more and more and more about the ryan plan. they want paul ryan to be as prominent as possible.

>> but still, in terms of presentation -- >> i'm going to show you the clip in a minute. >> the more people learn about what the republican policies actually are and what it would mean for them and what it would mean for this economy, i think the better the democrats do. it is striking in illinois how weak romney is. here you have a state against santorum. who's santorum? he was a senator who lost by 16 points from pennsylvania more to the right than any of us have ever met. and the system of error in illinois? >> is it that? i mean, he has a following. >> 1/3 of the republican electorate. that's his following. it's hopeless. it's a crazy notion that that party should tie itself up on this guy who can't command the attention of more than 1/3 of the party. this is historically a party that does its duty in the voting booth. when they start to see this is who our front-runner is supposed to be, they have had a tendency to compromise their own thinking

as voters and go in and cast the vote and help push their front-runner forward. they're refusing to do that. >> why won't the establishment do something they know the base is opposed to? >> the establishment is doing anything. >> they're starting little by little to get behind him. >> he's got more endorsements -- >> why don't they do something they know the base is opposed to? >> you look at the list of people sitting back and not endorsing, that's a bigger, more impressive list. >> he is the best shot of those in, and it's way too late for anybody to get in and they're playing the best card they can but it's an inedible weak card. >> and it's going to be a great convention. looks like we're going to go to a convention where we don't actually know who the nominee is before we check into the hotel. >> oh, look at you. look at him. >> chomping at the bit. >> yes. so exciting. and i just, you know, i wish the conversation was better for the country. but next week, house republicans, this is the paul ryan video. so you mean in terms of

presentation and sort of kills, right? >> yeah. >> okay. they're going to unveil their budget plan for 2013 and paul ryan the house budget committee chair previews the proposal in this video trailer. take a look. >> you know, i was here in congress in 2008 when we had the economic crisis. it was a terrible time. millions of people lost their jobs, trillions of dollars of wealth, gone. this coming debt crisis is the most predictable crisis we've ever had in this country. and look what's happening. this is why we're acting. this is why we're meeting, this is why we're proposing and passing out of the house a budget to fix this problem so we can save our country for ourselves and for our children's future. >> okay. mike barnicle? >> just in terms of the cosmetics of it. >> can i ask you a silly question, can you shoot a commercial like that in the halls of --

>> clearly -- you cannot shoot a political -- that must be another hall. >> that's an office building, but it's still a government building. that is a -- no, if. >> it sure looks like it. that's government building -- >> i believe they dressed the set. >> it's a bit misleading when he says i was here. >> doesn't look like -- >> it looks like a hallway in a government office building, and if that commercial is shot there, that's a problem. >> yeah. >> i'm just saying, i don't know. but it looks like -- >> on a more substantive level, the last time he presented a budget, they lost that new york state congressional district. >> i know. i know. >> but just in terms of the cosmetics of it. >> but there's a grimness to it and in elective politics when it's vote for me and vote for my side, there's an aspect to that commercial, it's almost black and white. you know, there's -- where's the

hope in that? where's the -- it's really this is kind of why we were defeated at trying to do the right thing, you know, buy those bad guys who we don't quite name. >> where's the hope in anything on the gop side? >> it's a negative -- i think tavis had it right. i think their best argument is people are not better off and therefore you should make a change. >> but if paul ryan talking about actual debt figures, i think, as he walked along there with a somewhat brighter aspect would be more impressive. >> all right. let's get one more conversation in before we go to break because last hour steve rattner had some charts talking about the growing wealth of the 1%. some pretty stunning numbers. tavis, you're going to be involved with an event this weekend that has to do with the issue of poverty but specifically among women. what's the headline? >> it's called made visible. women, children, and poverty in america. i've been talking about poverty for quite some time now. but it is starting, and steve knows these numbers better than

i do. it's startling when you consider the americans falling fastest into poverty happens to be women and children. it raises a question for me, what does it say about a nation that would allow its women and children to fall into poverty faster than any other subset of americans. and the worst thing you can do for poor people is to render them invisible. and too many women and children falling through the cracks and in short order, i figure if you can't get a conversation in women's history month about the future and plight of poor women and children, you can't get this conversation -- >> within the disparity between the rich and poor, there's a disparity among the poor. >> absolutely. >> between men and women -- >> women much more likely to be poor than men, obviously, black and latino women twice as likely. this is not about -- i get sick of these color-coated poverty conversations because the new poor are the former middle class of all race, color, and creed. but something is wrong particularly against the backdrop of this war on women. ghandi once said that poverty is the worst form of violence.

for all the violence women endure, poverty is the worst form. and for us to be having this conversation without specifically focusing in on extreme poverty and the mothers falling into poverty, something is missing in this debate and poverty's got to be raised higher on the american agenda. >> this is exactly what was predicted when the republicans wrote a welfare reform law, which was actually a repeal of welfare. it was the first and only repeal of a provision of the social security act, which bill clinton signed into law. this was precisely the prediction. because that program was the way you could get it was being a mother with children. now, those were basically the only recipients of that welfare money. and they are now -- they are time limited to a couple of years where they used to be able to stay on it for the period of time they needed it. do we know what that has to do with the numbers you're seeing now? >> i don't have that particular data. but you're right, this was predicted and as you'll recall,

this is where that long standing relationship at the children's defense fund and the clintons sort of frayed, her husband left a clinton position over this particular issue. this was predicted then. i think in many ways the chickens are coming home to roost. but again, i don't know how we have this conversation in this election year about the plight of the american people without focusing specifically on this population. >> sadly, this is nothing new. and sadly, it's cultural as much as it is political. because for some unknown reason, over the last 50, 60, 70 years, too many people come to the conclusion that poverty is a choice, that somehow someone out there thinks, you know, i'd love for my child to be born poor. or i would love to be poor. and to need public assistance to get along. >> it's only new in the sense that it's getting worse. it's never been this bad. >> yes. >> and our ignoring it isn't helping the situation. >> the welfare repeal question.

the new phenomenon comes after that -- the only change in law we know about related to this is that. >> we're not ignoring it on this show. we're going to keep talking about it. >> it's an all-woman panel. so i'm not -- >> where are you doing this? >> nyu on sunday. >> good luck with that. steve rattner, thank you very much. lawrence o'donnell, will you stick around? >> i can hang. >> still ahead, we're bringing in nbc's chuck todd and from washington, the "washington post's" eugene robinson. up next, david gregory joins the conversation. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. americans believe they should be in charge of their own future.

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mitt romney, rick santorum, and newt gingrich, these guys have a fundamentally different economic philosophy than we do. simply stated, we're about

promoting the private sector, they're about protecting the privileged sector. we are for a fair shot and a fair shake. they're about no rules, no risks, and no accountability. >> i want to tell you what's real bankruptcy. the economic theorys of gingrich, santorum, and romney. they are bankrupt. if you give any one of these guys the keys to the white house, they will bankrupt the middle class again. >> welcome back to "morning joe." a live look at the white house on a foggy, rainy friday morning in washington. and here with us now, we have the moderator of "meet the press" david gregory along with lawrence o'donnell, jon meacham, tavis smiley, and mike barnicle. david, listening to the vice president on the campaign trail,

more than just a sneak peek into the obama reelection campaign. >> first of all, biden is out there working swing states, mentioning the republican contenders by name, and that's contenders with an "s" because it's still plural. i think they felt when they deployed biden, they would be down to the nominee, but they decided to launch him and go after all three of them. note that they're also not trying to nationalize biden yet, even though we're talking about it. having him primarily work in swing states with this message. and the message is interesting, as well. it's a middle class message. we've heard that from the president. but biden particularly will be deployed to work middle class or working class, you know, voters in the democratic -- democrats, i should say, in these swing states. and it's an interesting strategy. as the president talks about manufacturing as he did in the state of the union. he's going after shoring up that

weakness he has with more culturally conservative working class, largely white democratic voters. because he knows in part that if romney's the nominee, a group he did well with back in 2008, which was wealthier earners over $100,000 could not be the strength for him that it was against john mccain. a lot of details sort of unpacked from seeing biden out on the trail. but noting that they're not quite ready to deploy him nationally just yet. they still want to buy their time and wait for the republicans to grind through this. >> lawrence? >> david, they seem to be -- joe biden and the speech writers seem to be enjoying the things they can throw out there -- you get the feeling they're looking for some form of guilt by association, let romney be stained by gingrich ideas and let them all be infected by each other's ideas and throw them all together. >> i think that's an interesting point. rather than wait, why not make the point that a lot of

republicans are making, which is, wait a minute, romney's supposed to be the front-runner? he's supposed to be the nominee and can't put away newt gingrich and rick santorum? you know, how -- just how weak is he? and how are they all going to kind of marinate in their own ideas? i think that's an important point and definitely one that they're trying to get their teeth into now. >> i think i'm mentimentioning at once is a way of reducing romney's status. >> no question about it. but biden has told people and i thought this was an interesting point, part of what he's got to do is try to give encouragement to voters who may be on the fence, who may not even think a whole lot of obama's policies, but they like him. they need some encouragement to get off of that fence and vote for obama, for the president. and i think this is interesting. because the more economic optimism people feel, the more encouragement they have to say, well, you know, maybe things are

looking up. and then, of course, you get into the contrast. i go back to 2004 when carl rove said to president bush, if the conversation is the war on terror, the answer is george w. bush. that's the contrast obviously they want to create. >> tavis? >> david, tavis here, when you talk about economic optimism, the numbers are still clear. we were talking about in the last segment about poverty in this country. one or two americans is in or near poverty. when you deconstruct that message, what's the ultimate message here? it could have been worse. and if the message is it could have been worse, is that a winning strategy? >> well, it's -- no, i don't think that's a great strategy. i think it's, things are looking up again, and these guys will take you back to a worse place. i think the added difficulty for republicans is romney's greatest strength politically is as a turn around artist. that's h biography. that's his business biography. if his pitch is i know we're not

quite in the circumstances we were back when the president took over because things are a bit better, but there still come deep structural problems, people no longer looking for work and we have long-term challenges, that could be a more difficult message to sell unless he finds a way to breakthrough on it. both have elements of a tough message. it would be a huge mistake for the president to say, hey, things are better now. it's that spark of optimism that if people can hold on to that, there's still a reservoir of good feeling for this president. that voters want to see him succeed, they want him to do well. it's always been an issue of how they felt about his policies and he's got to win that debate. >> i guess the question, david, the final piece, if the spark doesn't continue, in other words, if this spark doesn't turn into a full flame or this economy starts to move again, what danger is the president in for suggesting that things were getting better and then they fall back? >> no question that he's riding a wave now, and if things look more bleak, look at the impact

the rising gas prices have had on his approval rating. this is where the contrast becomes important. i always like to remind people, president bush was reelected and there were no weapons of mass destruction in iraq. he made this a contrast election about who will make you more safe in america. so, again, it'll be a question of who do you trust to keep the economy recovering? that's not going to be an easy sell, but that's the contrast and lawrence's point about what biden is starting to do, that'll start to take colla clearer vie. >> the other thing the vice president did yesterday in mentioning all three of the republican candidates, santorum, gingrich, and romney lumping them in together is we're going to find out over the course of the next several months how much damage the republican party did to itself with talk about contraception and all these social issues among independents. and by lumping the three of them in together all the time, the fear factor has got to be right

there in the front of a lot of minds of the independent voters. >> he did do individual paragraph hits on each one of them too. >> well, the greatest -- >> gave each one of them their due. >> david, go ahead. >> no, i just -- i think the point about independents is really important. and it goes to romney's overall strategy. we sit and wait for him to try to put these guys away. and yet he still stays focused on president obama. you know, he's obviously his super pac is carpet bombing santorum and gingrich. i don't mean to say he's ignoring them, but he wants to ride this out and become the general election candidate that he knows he can be, which is frankly a lot more formidable to tavis' point on message. and if he can get through this primary process without eroding all of that support among independents, then they think they'll be okay. but that's the -- that to me is the danger sign.

in the end, no the whether he's conservative enough, but in the process of having to deal with these guys, he's -- >> you can catch david on "meet the press" on sunday on nbc and a big show this sunday. >> yeah, thank you. we're going to talk about afghanistan, and which way are we going now in afghanistan? we know from the headlines this morning there's a new debate about when we're going to get troops out. there's also this question of what's going on with our troops? what happens when you deploy troops over and over again in now the longest war in u.s. history? we'll talk about that. bob woodward and others and i sit down with george clooney to talk about sudan but also a little politics, as well. >> david gregory, thank you very much. we'll be watching that. >> thank you. >> up next, a live report from richard engel in afghanistan as the u.s. military faces new challenges to the mission there. "morning joe" is back in a moment. [ female announcer ] if whole grain isn't the first ingredient

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37 past the hour. a quick look at the headlines out of afghanistan. hamid karzai is demanding that nato pull back its troops from rural areas and be confined to larger military bases. this comes as we learn new details about the american staff

sergeant accused of killing 16 afghan civilians last weekend. nbc chief foreign correspondent richard engel is live in kabul this morning with much more on this story. richard? >> reporter: good morning. first on those new details. the american staff sergeant has obtained a lawyer. and the lawyer is now speaking out. he's describing his client as a decorated veteran who served three tours in iraq, one tour here in afghanistan, and while in iraq he sustained two injuries, one a concussion, the other an injury to his foot. and that he didn't expect to be given that fourth deployment here to afghanistan that the soldier was training to be an army recruiter when suddenly he and his family received the distressing news he would have to do yet another combat tour. but the damage on the ground is still being felt. yesterday, president karzai gave that somewhat surprising announcement. he made a statement calling on u.s. forces to be confined to

major bases, not to be operating in villages. we've been told by u.s. officials that the military, however, has not accepted those terms and that the u.s. forces will not be confined to their bases, but will continue operations as normal. >> richard, it's willie. it's good to see you this morning. i want to ask you about the scene on the ground there in afghanistan. i think a lot of people here in the united states expected protests, rioting, the kind of thing we saw after the koran burning. but looks like we haven't seen that. what's the difference in the distinction there? >> reporter: we haven't seen that. today is friday, of course, the holy day throughout the muslim world. and there had been concerns that today there could be protests after friday prayers. the friday prayers here have already happened. there were not any protests driving around in kabul today. the situation was fairly calm. there weren't that many people out on the streets, which is

normal on a friday. there was a much bigger reaction after the burning of the korans in part because that was u.s. policy. they were u.s. soldiers who decided as a matter of a decision that was taken to destroy these religious documents, dump them on a burn pit, and that was seen as a great offense, not just to the people of afghanistan, but muslims around the world. this incident, which has been explained away, apologized for by u.s. officials, by some afghan officials has been seen as an isolated event, not policy. and i think that was the significant difference here. >> jon meacham, of course, those nato soldiers, american troops said it was not intentional, it was an inadvertent burning of the koran. >> richard, i wanted to ask, what is the sense of how the american troops are reacting to the news of the shooting? how does it -- what kind of reaction does it produce?

>> reporter: well, a lot of american troops are concerned that they are going to be painted with the same kind of brush. after ten years of near constant warfare both here in afghanistan and many years in iraq, there are a lot of soldiers who went through multiple deployments. in fact, more than 2 million troops were deployed throughout the global war on terrorism and a lot of the soldiers are worried that they're all being considered damaged goods and that is going to affect them when they get out of the army try and apply for jobs when they just walk around airports and the streets in the united states. they don't want americans coming up to them and saying i'm sorry, i know you have a problem, you're a dangerous person now. they think that these incidents are crimes that they should be punished, that there was a breakdown in leadership that soldiers should watch each other and try and help each other out when they notice someone in tremendous mental distress. so you're not seeing a

tremendous amount of sympathy for this soldier -- more that they're all going to be considered potential liabilities to society. >> richard engel, thanks for all your reporting this week. we'll be coming back to you. thanks so much. lawrence, what's your sense -- i'll ask you what i asked john in the last hour, how important this moment is in the united states' role in afghanistan, this shooting, does this change the direction, the trajectory of the war? >> the fact it also occurs, you know, dead center in a political campaign focuses the country on, okay, exactly how long are we staying there and why? and that's actually -- that's what the president doesn't want. he wants to be able to make those presidential decisions without the pressure being raised and the attention being raised to it the way it is now. today, that question is so much more intensely in need of an answer than it was even after the koran burning. which it seems was explained reasonably well. about how that happened.

and -- but this is a different thing. our troops are -- this is a story of the overwhelming burden. and there's this crazy number going around that it's something like one-third of them have had traumatic brain injury. and how do you get sent back into combat with any kind of brain injury? why would we need to do that with anyone who has had any form of brain injury? and so that question that i'm asking goes to the question of how long can we continue to do this? and is this what happens when you just stay at war for ten years? >> is that your sense, quickly, tavis, this changes the sense we look at war? >> it is. as counterintuitive as it might seem, i hope out of this horrible incident comes a greater appreciation, understanding, empathy for the troops how they're dealing with things. even when they get home, they don't get treated with the respect they deserve much less

being take care of while they're there. >> the care they deserve. >> amen. >> thanks for waking up early. you had the last word late last night, you're up early with us, you're a good man. >> almost as hard a worker as willie geist. i saw him in the building at 11:00 p.m. the other night. >> i wasn't working. >> did you sleep on the couch that night? >> there is a couch. there is a couch. stay right there. we'll will be right back. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about fees.

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performance of rhetoric. presidents have plenty of pollsters on staff. they give many speeches in the course of a year. how do they overestimate the importance of those speeches? the study for presidential studies at texas a&m believes that by the time the presidents reach the white house their careers have taught them they can persuade anyone of anything. the normal way is talking for two years, that's all you do and somehow you win. you must be a really persuasive fellow. but being president, ezra writes, isn't the same as running for president. when you're running for president, giving a good speech helps you achieve your goals. when you're president, giving a good speech can prevent you from achieving them. ezra, good to see you. >> good to see you. >> it's an interesting point. you think about the way speeches are covered. state of the union, for example, you ramp up the coverage, get the countdown clock, analyze it and the next morning if you ask 100 people what was said in

speech, two, three could probably tell you. >> and this is the way it is every year. one of the pieces of evidence, gallup went back and looked at every state of the union they had polling for. this went back to carter, tracking polling right after state of the unions. the average bump a president got from the state of the union, and that's a big speech. the best speech writers, save up their best policy announcements, zero. in fact, a bunch of presidents, including reagan, george h.w. bush have a negative bump. clinton had a plus 3% and these things would go away. you do not see any sustained movement of public opinion when these guys go out in front of the population. and it's funny because i think people are surprised to hear that. but when you think of your experience, how popular health care or the stimulus is. joran bush's efforts to sell social security privatization, when reagan left office, support for social spending was higher than it was coming into office.

and maybe give a slightly different speech it would be different. >> what about presidential speeches they give at an event, the challenger explosion, things like that? >> that is what i call nonpersuasive. right it is symbolic. it is important and i don't know as well whether that can have an effect on public opinion but it isn't clear what kind of effect it would have. what i'm sort of interested in this article is how do you get things done in washington? because i think that the model we have is you put the president at the center of the action and say the president will give a speech that will either persuade congress or persuade the public to persuade congress to do something. it doesn't work. we see it not working all the time but we return to the same strategy even though it seems to never pan out for us. as culture changes do the means of persuasion change? that is, washington, adams, jefferson, madison, they didn't give speeches. >> right. >> they put out statements, long statements. they'd be read.

roosevelt masters the radio. kennedy, reagan television. how does the role of rhetoric change as the medium changes? is this the next great president have to be a twitter president? >> it becomes less important. it's one of the -- one of the conclusions you would take from the numbers. take the president's big speech in september, his big jobs speech. there is a whole flap of whether he would give in on the wednesday or the tuesday. 30 some million people watch that speech. it's a good number of people. it is a fraction of the country. it is much lower. there's a lot of doubt on this. year by year the audience, the average presidential speech is getting smaller because people have other choices. when fdr gave a fireside chat, there was no tv and there was nothing else on the radio. and when in the 1950s eisenhower or kennedy would come on and give a speech there was nothing else on tv. there were three channels and they were covering that speech. now you have options. so a lot of people choose not to watch the speech. and the folks who do tune in and this is i think the most

important point, the folks who do tune in are convinced. they're the people around this table, the people watching the show, the people who are political junkies. they know what they think of president obama. they don't need him to tell them. >> maybe it's not just more choices, ezra. and i enjoy the piece. maybe it's not just more choices but also that you can't disconnect their words from the work. you can't disconnect the rhetoric from the record. so it's not -- i think we live in a world now where it's about, you know, show me. don't tell me. >> absolutely. >> and if all you do is give a great speech and there's nothing there that flows from that or follows from that or there is no follow through, then i don't know if we can focus just on the words and disconnect that from the work. >> i would actually say the way we evaluate rhetoric in the long run is we look at the record and look at the work and then we retroactively decide whether these guys were good communicators. in the piece i talked about reagan in '81. great communicator. i remember him as one of the greatest presidential communicators ever. in '81 the first year of his

presidency we were in a bad recession. his approval ratings fall below 40%. david broder in my paper in "the washington post" writes a column saying reagan is a one-year phenomenon. it is over. there begins to be talk about a primary challenge to reagan coming up. obviously they lose a lot of seats in the mid term. two years later the economy bounces back very aggressively when the fed loosens up rates and reagan wins a 49-state landslide. then we go back and say, god, that reagan. what a communicator. how likely is they just lost his communication abilities for two years? it was the economy. >> quickly isn't part of the phenomenon maybe linked to the fact that people now think presidential speeches are just an extension of the constant campaign we're all consumed by? campaigns never stop. >> i think it's part of, and this is the bigger issue in congress. there are two parts. one it doesn't really work on the public. the scarier bit is there is all this evidence and what it does in congress is polarize them. folks always want the president to give the speech to congress to pass the bill, do whatever. they say the president needs to fight for the presidential

leadership as if life is a drama. we have seen if you go look, when a president picks a stand on an issue that issue immediately polarizes. his people in congress become more likely to vote for it. the other side becomes more likely to vote against it. when you have divided government and you compromise to get things done that makes it harder. >> all right. ezra klein, a fascinating piece. you ought to read it in the new issue of the new yorker. ezra, good work. thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> we'll be right back. turn left. the passat is one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. not...that... we'd ever brag about it... turn right. come on, nine. turn left. hit the brakes. huh? how did that get there? [ male announcer ] we can't hide how proud we are to have nine top safety picks like the passat and jetta. so we're celebrating with our "safety in numbers" event.

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on monday's show congressman elijah cummings, the bbc's katty kay and actor william dafoe. up next joe biden officially kicks off the president's campaign. did that yesterday at a rally in ohio. calling out the republican candidates by name. "morning joe" back in a moment. [ woman ] my boyfriend and i were going on vacation, so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline,

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mitt romney, rick santorum, and newt gingrich, these guys have a fundamentally different economic philosophy than we do. simply stated, we're about promoting the private sector. they're about protecting the privileged sector. we are for a fair shot and a fair shake. they're about no rules, no risks, and no accountability. i want to tell you what's real bankrupt. the economic theories of gingrich, santorum, and romney. they are bankrupt. if you give any one of these guys the keys to the white house, they will bankrupt the middle class again. >> good morning. it is friday, 8:00 on the east coast. welcome back to "morning joe." let's take a live look at

manhattan. back with us onset, mike barnicle. >> hello. >> we have john meacham. i know. it's truly -- >> just call me coach. >> disturbing. >> middle school principal mike barnicle. >> and, thank god, for some balance and elegance we have financier steve rattner. let's start with political news. you saw joe biden coming in. pretty good, right? >> yes. that was a paid political event. >> it was. >> it was a campaign event. >> mm-hmm. >> that's why he named names. >> he named names and was doing quite well. in political news president obama is holding five fundraisers in two states today as the white house re-election team shifts full speed toward november. vice president joe biden kicked off that effort as we showed you yesterday in ohio. a key battleground in the general election addressing hundreds of workers the vice president focused specifically on the government's rescue of

the auto industry, something analysts credit for saving 1 million jobs. biden says that never would have happened if the president's opponents had their way. >> governor romney was more direct. let detroit go bankrupt. newt gingrich said, quote, a mistake. but the guy i work with every day, the president, he didn't flinch. this is a man with steel in his spine. he made the tough call and the verdict is in. president obama was right and they were dead wrong. governor romney says the market, wall street, quote, will help lift them out. wrong. any honest expert will tell you in 2009 no one was lining up to lend general motors or chrysler any money or for that matter to

lend money to anybody. that includes bain capital. they weren't lining up to lend anybody any money either. >> wow. okay. he's just going there. president obama, meanwhile, was in maryland yesterday where he also went on the attack. the president mocked the republican field's resistance to alternative energy. >> lately we've heard a lot of professional politicians, a lot of the folks who were, you know, running for a certain office. who shall go unnamed. they've been talking down new sources of energy. if some of these folks were around when columbus set sail, they must have been founding members of the flat earth society. they would not have believed that the world was round.

>> newt gingrich, who has promised to bring gas prices down to $2.50 a gallon, responded to the president's remarks. >> i'm just asking the president who apparently belongs to the flat earth sierra club society to consider that in fact if we had the same level of drilling for oil, you know, why is saudi oil good and american oil bad? why is saudi drilling good and american drilling bad? this is utter intellectual nonsense. >> steve rattner we should point out you're slightly biased on the matter of the car rescue as the car czar but that's a message a lot of us, people around this table have suggested the president and the vice president should be pushing out there and you saw how effective it was in ohio. >> he was great in ohio. look. in fairness to the president and the vice president they've been out there a while on this issue but it just doesn't seem to have broken through. the vice president's speech yesterday was quite

extraordinary as we just saw. incredibly fiery and of course romney set him up for it in michigan when he wrote that op-ed. once again, saying the government should not have got involved. and of course as biden said there were a million jobs saved and if you look back to the spring of 2009, 200,000 jobs created in the auto sector since the rescue. so i think it's a pretty strong case for the democrats on this one. >> not only that but a legitimate point that he raised over and over again yesterday, the vice president, that there was no money available. no one was going to loan anybody any money in detroit. >> look, i feel like a broken record on this because i've said this over and over again. romney keeps talking about private capital and it should have happened privately and i thought the vice president was unbelievably great when he brought bain capital into his speech. even bain capital isn't prepared to provide any money. there is no question the government hadn't stepped in, general motors, chrysler, and then ford because of the supplier base, would have closed and a million people would have been out of work at least for a time. that's just a fact. >> yeah. you know what also is just a

fact? that the way you're sitting is how you watch a football game. okay? and the way you're dressed. what is going on? seriously. >> i'll be right back. >> somebody dress this man. i feel like you should be in my basement covered with popcorn. >> he will be in his own basement later. >> thank god. try and get some camouflage going here. >> all right. john meacham -- >> yes, sir. >> while we get him dressed up let's talk a little business here. >> yes, sir. >> the president's re-election campaign. >> yes, sir. >> began in ernest. >> full gear. >> now we're serious. >> okay. that's better. >> the battleground state. >> the car argument but also the question of energy policy which seems to fit into a larger narrative that the president is making that these republican candidates want to take us backwards on everything. >> yeah. it's a -- we're the folks -- it's an interesting argument

because it's more forward leaning. the president's had a hard time for three years now trying to make voters give him credit for things that did not happen. >> right. >> which is a really hard thing to do. it's not fair. it drives people crazy to do things. i think anyone who is a parent understands this. and to some extent it's, i think, one of the things that has frustrated the president's political operation and frustrated and kept the approval ratings down. but now saying we're -- things are moving -- warming up and arguing that the republicans would not be as forward leaning. i think columbus is a good person to bring in. it was a catholic enterprise so barnicle is like that so it fits into the cultural argument but to argue or paint the

republicans as outside the main stream is clearly a critical obama argument. because the republicans have spent four and a half years, four years at least, painting obama as outside the main stream. so i think that's -- we'll see that all the way to november in the battleground states. >> all right. let's stick with politics before we move to afghanistan here and get a couple more stories in. all four republican contendors are back on the campaign trail today ahead of tuesday's primary in illinois. after a pair of losses this week in the south mitt romney's campaign is making a concerted push in the state including sending governor chris christie there today to stump on behalf of romney. the latest polling from the chicago tribune shows romney and rick santorum in a statistical tie in illinois. newt gingrich comes in at 12% and ron paul at 7%. and just wondering, is anyone

here going to hear this is a must win for romney and then he won't win? yeah. i don't know. seems like -- >> you know what it is, it's basically the first time that it's going to be santorum and romney head to head in illinois. the other two candidates are just extremes. >> the latest polling, let's see, we've got from pew research center, points to some troubling numbers for republicans. rick santorum, if he wins the party nomination, according to the poll 20% of romney supporters would likely vote for president obama. if santorum becomes the gop nominee. santorum, however, insists he has the best shot in the general. >> on so many fronts there could be no person in this country we could nominate who would be any worse on taking on barack obama on the most important issue of the day, obama care, than governor romney. and it is the equivalent of malpractice to nominate someone who gives away the most important issue in this race.

>> hum. jon meacham? >> the flat earth comment and then seeing santorum, there's a connection. i think one of the interesting things about that line of attack is in an economic context obama is making a cultural point. you know, the context there was alternative energy and, you know, that somehow the republicans aren't where he is. but it is also a way of saying this is the party more comfortable in the 15th century culturally than the rest of america should be. and i think that's a really interesting argument and i think that santorum, you know, i think santorum the longer the conversation is about him, the longer he's doing well, the more powerful that argument is to the 10,000 independents who will decide this election. remember, this is about a sliver of the electorate and the prominence of senator santorum is not helping the republican case for pulling those independents in. >> okay. i think first on energy they're

going to fight each other. there's something of a draw. there are arguments, each throwing arguments on either side. what president obama obviously wants to do is deflect the rising gas price situation off him and on to these other issues and vice versa. energy policy is a 40-year problem not a three-year problem. but i think on the santorum thing in that last poll, i'm sure, we all have been kidding a bit, but when you look around the states romney has won are the states the republicans have to win in the fall in order to carry this election and to your 15th century point where santorum is strong is in parts of the country that may be more attracted to the 15th century but the republicans are going to carry it anyway -- mississippi and alabama are not the issue but ohio and florida all of which romney has been winning and now we'll see what happens in illinois which is another state like that. >> i would imagine it's nearly impossible when you're a candidate like rick santorum or newt gingrich, when you're a candidate, when you're in the middle of it every day, when

it's consumed you every day, that it's impossible for you to realize the damage you've done to the brand of republicanism and the context of the campaign with regard to independents and i'm not talking about northeast people who are, you know, prone to -- i'm talking about men and women independent voters in florida who work at target, who shop at target, who have been kind of leery of some of the language and rhetoric and points of view that have come out of the republican primary. >> in a general election, we have not had a four-point race in decades. from 1988 to 2008 no -- with a minor exception of a little margin for carrying bush in '04 no president -- presidential winner got above 50%. and this is such a narrowly divided electorate. i think when the conversation unfolds sometimes you think, well, you know, this is a broad national conversation and people are going to react that way and

that's how it turns out. it's an electoral college system where it depends on a very few number of people and a very few number of states who wins the presidency. >> that is fair but if the republicans nominate santorum this will be 1964 or 1972 or 1984 or 1988 all over again. >> i agree completely. >> let's get one more note in here. house republicans will be unveiling their 2013 budget plan and house budget committee chairman paul ryan previews the proposal. i wanted to show it to you. we can talk more about it later. but this is their video trailer highlighting it. >> you know, i was here in congress in 2008 when we had the economic crisis. it was a terrible time. millions of people lost their jobs. trillions of dollars of wealth, gone. this coming debt crisis is the most predictable crisis we've ever had in this country. and look what's happening. this is why we're acting. this is why we're leading. this is why we're proposing and

passing up the house a budget to fix this problem so we can save our country for ourselves and for our children's future. >> willie? >> well, let's strip the theater away. >> can we? i'm not sure i can. >> there was some acting in there we can discuss later. let's talk about the substance of it, steve rattner. >> yeah. >> we do face a fiscal crisis. it's a question of whether you like paul ryan's approach to it or not. >> look, he is completely right on the core message. we have a terrible fiscal problem and my view is he's wrong on the solution, which is in two respects, first, you don't want to massively contract the budget deficit while the economy is still recovering. for example, with 500,000 jobs down in the public sector since the recovery began, it is a drag and while we're still recovering having some amount of fiscal stimulus i think most economists would tell you is prudent. then the question is long term and what are people prepared to accept on medicare? his original medicare plan would have turned into a program where

seniors went from paying 25% of their costs to 68% of their costs. now he's got a new plan with ron wyden. i don't think anybody understands it yet. it is a series of social choices for this country. do you want the kind of medicare plan we have now and are you willing to pay for it or do you want lower taxes in which case you have to trim these benefits. he is on the trim the benefit side and lower costs and taxes and the democrats are on the other side. that is the discussion we should be having. >> maybe we don't like this approach but the core truth is there that medicare is a problem that we have not addressed in a serious way and there is no reason to believe we will address it in a serious way on the horizon based on the political conversation we've seen. >> his core message is right. we have a $54 trillion unfunded medicare and social security liability that somebody has to pay for. but it's not going to get resolved this year. this is politics right now. >> right. >> a bit of theater. we've got an election coming. but one hopes and likes to be optimistic that in 2013 with a new president, new congress people will start to address

this issue in a serious way. up next we'll talk to "the washington post" eugene robinson. we'll also bring in chuck todd and also you don't want to miss willie's week in review. find out which of these stories will make the cut. but first, let's get a check on your weekend forecast with meteorologist ryan phillips from our nbc affiliate in miami. ryan? >> mika, thank you. as we get things started on our friday morning a lot of low clouds hanging around over the northeast and leading to some flight delays in philadelphia. the only location with some delays, only about 30 minutes. check ahead with your air carrier. clouds and showers widespread across the northeast and mid-atlantic. it's an umbrella day here as we head through the last day of the work week with temperatures into the 50s and 60s. things will improve as we get into the weekend. the southeast at least with some sunshine down there toward florida. that's your national forecast. stick around. more "morning joe" coming at you live in a bit. ♪

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between santorum and myself we will get over two-thirds of the delegates and the so-called front-runner less than one-third. i believe after the primaries are over it'll be obvious that the so-called front-runner in

fact didn't get there and from that point on we'll be in a whole new conversation. >> that was newt gingrich on tuesday night attempting to piggy back off rick santorum's primary wins in alabama and mississippi. here with us now nbc news chief white house correspondent and political director and most of "the daily rundown" chuck todd along with pulitzer prize winning come ummist and associate editor of "the washington post" and msnbc political analyst eugene robinson. thanks for being on this morning. i want to read from your column. you say this. santorum needs gingrich in the race and you write in part gingrich voters who put less emphasis on social issues might well turn to romney instead. given the romney campaign's deep pockets santorum would face a blistering barrage of negative ads in every state. legitimate questions about santorum's electability would be raised nonstop. the romney campaign is built for this kind of multi theater

battle. santorum's comparatively under funded campaign is not. the most favorable field of battle for the anti-romney insurgency would be a contested convention and the most plausible way of getting there is for gingrich to stay in the race and help keep romney's delegate count short of 1,144. >> gene, that is an interesting take and the exact opposite of the santorum campaign's argument which is that they need one conservative in the race to consolidate the base against mitt romney who they believe to be not conservative. >> i think it is too late for that strategy. romney has a delegate lead that is meaningful right now and at this point if he is going to win the nomination outright santorum has to win basically two-thirds of all the delegates that are yet to be won in the primaries and caucuses to come. i don't think he can do that and i think if you look at the math

and his real chances of getting the nomination, i think he's got to get this to the convention with romney not having won outright and i think the best way to do that is for him to delegates and gingrich to draw some delegates. i'm not sure all of gingrich's supporters necessarily go to santorum. >> when you see republicans in washington is there any sense f of -- does anyone know what is going on? >> no, no. >> i could ask it more elegantly. >> no. that's the way to ask it. nobody knows anything. no, republicans in washington are, many of them are confused and depressed and wondering how this is going to play out and nobody sees anybody beating romney for the nomination,

people see romney's weaknesses obviously. >> so chuck todd, people are wondering how this is going to play out. illinois? >> illinois is going to be a big delegate win for romney simply because of santorum's inability to file full delegates like illinois and i've said before the most convoluted system of electing the delegates you elect the actual delegates. you don't just vote twice for the candidate and then a lot of places you vote once in the ballot and once in your congressional district to decide sometimes that is the two part process. here it is actually four votes. right? your preference up top which is meaningless not connected to delegates and then the individual people who have been hired essentially signed up for the individual campaigns running as individual delegates so it could be you're voting for your neighbor jane smith who has

romney delegates. new york does it this way. as a way for political party bosses to control things and this was done and when you see a system like that the campaign that is most like a machine, mitt romney, is going to do well. the next one really is april 3rd. it's about wisconsin. and the -- you know, i think we'll see a split. illinois is going to go romney. louisiana is going to go santorum and wisconsin is another shot for santorum to say, hey, i can win in a place that just isn't about evangelicals and social conservatives. >> all right. a couple topics. i want to get to the massachusetts senate race but first, chuck, and then gene, i'd love to hear your thoughts on this headline out of the arizona daily sun. i'll bring it to you. we read it in the first hour. a bill nearing passage in the state's republican-led legislature would allow all employers not just religious institutions to opt out of

providing contraceptive coverage based on moral grounds. also in the bill, women in arizona who want birth control covered by the health plans could be required to prove they need it for medical purposes as opposed to using it to prevent pregnancy. the bill has already passed in the house and now moves to the state senate for a full vote. what's going on in arizona, chuck, first? >> apparently arizona republicans were a little concerned that president obama wasn't going to have a shot at carrying the state so they decided what else could we do to give democrats a shot at carrying the state? it's unbelievable that -- it's proof by the way that the republican party is leaderless, right? you know, there's a whole bunch of people, republicans here in washington wringing their hands during the contraception debate that was taking place here a few weeks ago and relieved when, frankly, it ended if you will. that it sort of moved along. and then all of a sudden it's

popping back up in other states -- arizona, pennsylvania. this is not helping the republican party and we've seen there is a shift among women against the republican party and stuff like this is just, you know, the arizona legislature is more conservative than the state itself. it's been that way. it's been that way for a while. and this is how democrats win in arizona when republicans over reach. >> gene, none of us lives in the state of arizona so help us out here. is there some great strategy that they're employing here that is going to be effective in the end? at face value it looks ridiculous. >> this is insane is what it is. it is like a political suicide pact. but as chuck said, the arizona legislature is more conservative than the state. and so it's not the first time they've kind of gone way out on a limb. you know, there are a lot of people who seek to lead the

republican party these days. it's just there aren't a lot of followers. i mean, they're just kind of going off in these extremist directions that are going to cost them votes. that are absolutely going to cost them votes in many states in the fall. >> jon meacham? >> chuck, i want to ask you a numbers question. what are you seeing among an independent attitudes about the effect of the santorum, the contraception, the cultural questions that have taken so much air time in the republican primaries? are independent attitudes shifting more toward obama? >> you know, jon, to me the biggest surprise in our last poll, and i think it didn't get enough coverage, was how turned off both the entire electorate had been on the campaign itself. you know, we measure these questions about enthusiasm and we measure these questions about likelihood to vote or how excited they are about the

election as a way to judge a likely voter. and for the first time ever in an election year, we saw the enthusiasm numbering down not up. and month to month the way it works in an election year is as things get closer it ramps up. it's sort of logical that's the way that works. and here we were in six weeks basically of this debate had turned everybody off. so republican enthusiasm had been -- there had been a big gap. now, democrats, the gap closed but it's not because democratic enthusiasm went up either or independent. it was all -- it all went down. republican enthusiasm went down the most but it all went down. it's having, look, i think we are headed for an election that is going to be a lower turnout election and it's because i think when you have a negative -- sometimes change elections are big turnouts and angry electorates are big turnouts. i think we're in one of these where we could be creating a cynical, fed up public and the

unintended consequence when you're not debating issues people care about actually just turns people off. >> all right, chuck. eugene, thank you so much, and chuck todd we'll see you in a few minutes. thanks very much. when we come back how man's best friend is making heroic accomplishments in the war zone. keep it right here on "morning joe." [ male announcer ] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles, like in a special ops mission? you'd spot movement, gather intelligence with minimal collateral damage. but rather than neutralizing enemies in their sleep, you'd be targeting stocks to trade. well, that's what trade architect's heat maps do. they make you a trading assassin. trade architect. td ameritrade's empowering, web-based trading platform. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account.

36 past the hour. here with us now news editor and featured writer, maria godagage of soldier dogs the untold story of america's k-9 heroes. they are, so many of them, that obviously these are stories of different ways that this war is being carried out and the different types of heroes and dogs are. >> dogs are really big heroes and until recently people didn't know that, a lot of people didn't know there were dogs in the war, in the military. we have a lot of four-legged heroes, about 2700 are deployed around the world. about 600 right now are in afghanistan doing extremely important things. they're leading the troops through these i.e.d. infested fields and saving so many lives every day because of their

noses. they're extremely sensitive, better than any instrument or technology out there. people say they don't know if they can ever develop this kind of technology. and, you know, certainly not this kind of cute technology. >> adorable. tell us about the different capacities they're used in out in the field there. ieds literally sniffing them out? >> yes. they're detector dogs and some primarily only sniff out ieds. some do that and protect and defend you and will take down the bad guy if they have to. so let's say how that works is they're in front of a squad and sometimes usually they'll be off leash if possible. they'll be leading and everyone else is following. handlers are watching for any kind of change of behavior. it could be just wagging the tail. the dog could lie down. the handler has to really know the dog and then the handler will call, stop, and then the techs will come, eod techs will come and check it out and usually if the dog has done this there is something there. and if the troops have gone over it, it would be really bad. >> amazing using dogs over tech nothing nollology.

is there a certain kind of dog that's best at this? >> a lot of dogs are being used right now but the primary ones in afghanistan now are belgium malamuts and german shepherds. a few different kinds of shepherds and of course labs are being used but they're not the attack kind of dogs, just happy sniffers. >> what is it about those breeds that make them good for this kind of work? >> great noses and as far as shepherds and malamuts, they don't quit. the dod has a breeding program for malamuts. they have puppies because they'll just work and work and they don't have hip problems and other difficulties. >> that german shepherds have. >> right. >> i'm wondering about the relationship between say the young 22-year-old lance corporal and his dog, the handler and the dog, and the relationship that develops between them. is there any separation anxiety that goes on when one or the other leaves theatre or the dog stays? how does that work? >> that's a great question

because the bonds that they develop especially when they deploy are nothing like we -- we all have dogs. i love my dog so much but they say you cannot begin to imagine how close they get because you depend on the dog for your life and the dog depends on you for everything out there. they're sleeping in the same cot often or in the same fox hole, in the same sleeping bag. and you're there 24/7 together and that is the -- sometimes the dog's best time because they're always with the person that they care about most. and, yes, they do separate. they won't separate there unless there is an injury but when they come back they don't stay with their handlers usually. they'll stay for a while, protracted period of time, then they go on to someone else. it's more the handlers that miss the dogs. sometimes, i talked to a marine who broke out in tears when talking about the dog he just left a year ago. and they grow really attached. i would love to see them be able to stay a little longer with their dogs but it depends on what service they're in and what they're doing. >> so how are you able to research this book and how much

access did you get? >> i got really good access. it took a while getting through military red tape. i did not have time to do a media embed because it was a pretty fast turn-around. i'd been preparing to do this book for a long time. then the bin laden raid happened. there was cairo and the world went crazy for, wow, there are military dogs? that's when i started. i went all over the u.s. to various bases and saw extreme training in a place we call in the book afghanistan usa and it's just like afghanistan, they have everything, the mortar, everything is the same except you won't die, you could from heat it is so hot. and the training is intense. i got to the airforce base where the dogs are all trained and the handlers are trained. it's ground zero for dog training and people training. >> how are the casualties, what is the casualty rate? dogs must be wounded and killed. >> dogs do get wounded, killed action. there are something like 45 dogs

killed action since 2005 when they started keeping count but probably about half of those are from heat injuries. and they're really trying to watch the heat injuries. and it's tragic. but it's a hard call. you know, i don't want to see any dogs die. nobody does. but a dog that has given his life has saved others and so we have in the book i have a couple good stories about dogs who have done that. >> i'm interested in what role dogs play when the soldiers come home. ptsd is a big problem. you actually mentioned for dogs as well but for the men and women who come home with ptsd i imagine that companion can help them get through that. >> there are actually programs for men and women with ptsd who come back and they set them up with a dog. not an active soldier dog of course but they set them up with a dog to help them get through the day and these dogs have been immensely helpful in getting them through every day life. >> the book is "soldier dogs" and you can read an excerpt on

our blog. mojo.msnbc.com. maria goodavage thank you so much. congratulations on the book. it looks great. >> thanks. >> still ahead willie's week in review. "morning joe" continues in a moment. now on verizon's 4g lte network.

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topped 600 for the first time in yesterday's session. fans are lining up outside apple stores in ten countries to pick up the latest ipad, which hit the shelves earlier this morning. apple is forecast to sell more than a million new ipads today up from roughly 300,000 when the original ipad went on sale in 2010. is that where you thought you were going, barnicle? >> yes. i was going to go to the apple store and get right in line. but i will be there a little later. >> yes you will. you'll be doing what we learned. >> you'll be comfortable in your zip up. >> no. i am taking it away. >> what is new about the new ipad? >> that's what i wanted to ask. >> graphics and speed. >> it's speed. >> the streaming video. >> faster than the sound of light. >> graphics and speed? >> the sound of light. wow. >> do you use your allowance to buy apple stock at 600?

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you waited two hours and 51 minutes for this moment. it's time for the week in review. >> it is an honor to call you an ally, a partner, and a friend. >> at number three, bosom buddies. >> i'm so grateful for all the time david and i have had together. >> reporter: president obama hosted british prime minister david cameron this week taking him on a man date to an ncaa tournament game in dayton, ohio where the boys watched hoops and destroyed a couple hot dogs. >> was our president helping you follow the game? >> he was giving me some tips, helping me fill out my bracket. >> he's going to teach me cricket. >> there was a second date the very next day on the south lawn of the white house. >> to think that 200 years ago my ancestors tried to burn this

place down. >> then things really got steamy at a black tie state dinner where the president recalled his favorite moments of the special relationship. >> when we met two years ago, we exchanged beers from our home towns. when we had a barbecue david and i rolled up our sleeves and decided to flip the burgers ourselves. finally when david and i got beat pretty badly in table tennis by some local london kids, both of them, i'm quoting here, looked a little confused. >> at number two, blogo goes to jail. >> maybe one of the lessons through the whole story is you got to be maybe a little bit more humble. you can never have enough humility and maybe i could have had more of that. >> there is really nothing funny actually about a husband and father going to jail for 14 years for a little chicago style political tom foolery but it does give an excuse to trot out his biggest hits.

>> you know, my hands are shaking. my knees are weak. i can't seem to stand on my own two feet. then i thought about mandela, dr. king, gandhi, and tried to put some perspective in all of this. >> the number one story of the week. >> we did it again. >> rick santorum won tight races on tuesday in alabama and mississippi. despite mitt romney's southern strategy. >> i'm learning to say y'all and i like grits and the things are strange things are happening to me. i got started right with a biscuit and cheesy grits. i'll tell you. >> we've got a guy here i think you know pretty darned well. >> as a southerner i would tell him that kind of stuff doesn't go over well in the deep south. >> newt gingrich made no secret this week of his feelings about romney even playing the dreaded leonard wood card. >> he is the weakest front-runner since leonard wood in 1920. >> gingrich then used some creative math to declare a measure of victory in tuesday's

primaries. >> between santorum and myself we will get over two-thirds of the delegates. >> you don't get to add santorum's stuff to yours to make it sound impressive. you know, between me and lebron james last night we scored 36 points. >> romney, meanwhile p. finally told america to get up off his jock with all the cheese he's got. >> guess what? i made a lot of money. i've been very successful. i'm not going to apologize for that. >> yeah. who is leonard wood now, newt? seriously, who is leonard wood? >> romney is probably the weakest republican front-runner since leonard wood in 1920 and he ultimately lost on the tenth ballot. >> leonard wood. that is cold, man. up next, what if anything did we learn today? [ man ] predicting the future is hard.

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the passat is one of nine volkswagen models named a 2012 iihs top safety pick. not...that... we'd ever brag about it... turn right. come on, nine. turn left. hit the brakes. huh? how did that get there?

[ male announcer ] we can't hide how proud we are to have nine 2012 iihs top safety picks. so we're celebrating with our "safety in numbers" event. that's the power of german engineering. right now lease the 2012 passat for $219 a month. it is time to talk about what we learned today. willie? >> mika. just say you're not looking your best. >> you have been -- >> i didn't brush my hair and i just put my feet up. what happened to me? >> i think your point is made. >> you have been owing lg this

all morning and i finally gave it to you. >> ogling. is that the new breathable material? it's really nice. >> yes. >> i learned i'll say it one more time we're going to sincerely miss blago. 14 years for that? a joke. >> ridiculous. >> what did you learn. >> i learned that my sense that you want to be the blogo biographer has been confirmed. i see, i foresee a future here. >> the problem is it would be more stenographer. >> that's okay. just think of the book jacket. we won't work together but --. >> barnicle what did you learn? >> i learned 14 years in prison for showing up -- >> geez. >> the abuse i took. just awful. >> the man was under attack. >> senior abuse. >> you're dismissed. >> all right. thank you. >> i also learned vanderbilt commodores beat harvard yesterday. i'm just