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romney's fired up about attacking santorum on the economy thanks to rick the "i don't care about the unemployment rate" comment. on capitol hill, congressman paul ryan unveils his new 2013 budget today. last year the ryan budget cost the republicans politically. will it do so again? will republicans rally more around this version, which includes dramatic changes to the tax code. democrats already going after the medicare part, and said the plan shifts the burden to seniors. with growing yo ining outra unarmed teenager, the justice department begins its investigation. it's super tuesday. i'm chuck todd. a packed show. since the campaign's in illinois we'll hear from the president's top political strategist david axelrod later. mitt romney shopping that decisive win in illinois will

quiet talk the republican nomination fight could end in the first contested republican convention since 1976. rick santorum needs a victory somewhere that proves he can win a, an away game." illinois is one and has a serious shot at the nomination. on the trail in illinois, the candidates are making closing arguments. >> this is not something i learned about in a subcommittee of congress. i'm not about economic lightweight. president obama is. we're not going to be successful in replacing an economic lightweight with another economic lightweight. >> why do you vote differently from what you know is best? those going to washington, oh, they compromise, don't stand up. don't have convictions. well, how about you? >> those 11th hour appeals were overshadowed by this sound bite. a challenge to the argument that republicans should pick a nominee with the credentials to fix the economy. >> the candidate who's going to be a fighter for freedom.

who's going to get up and make that the central theme in this ray, because it is the central theme in this race. i don't care what the unemployment rate is going to be. doesn't matter to me. my campaign doesn't hinge. something more foundational is going on here. >> the romney campaign pounced on one part of that. didn't take an hour for team romney to blast this clip to reporters. >> i don't care what the unemployment rate's going to be. doesn't matter to me. >> and romney jumped on the comment right at his next stop. >> one of the people who's running also for the republican nomination today said that he doesn't care about the unemployment rate, that doesn't bother him. i do care about the unemployment rate. it does bother me. >> explaining himself last night, he jabbed romney on his achilles' heel. his past support for mandates. >> i said the unemployment rate, it didn't matter what it was between now and election time

because the fundamental issue that's causing the unemployment, that's causing the economic distress in our country is the fact that the government is imposing its will and mandating things on people and creating a yoke on top of businesses that makes it hard to employ. >> and santorum borrowed democratic talking points to hammer romney's job creation record in massachusetts. >> if he's an economic heavyweight i'm going to quote david axelrod. he must be looking in a funhouse mirror. >> look, the point is santorum was trying to make an argument that he has a larger, somehow, ideological view and that that's what his candidacy was based on and that perhaps trying to shed light that improving economic picture could actually hurt romney. you saw the nimbleness in the romney campaign. aren't always this nimble but jumped on it fast and quickly. every time romney has had an opportunity to put the race away by winning in, say, south

carolina, convincingly in ohio, alabama, mississippi, tennessee, he's failed to do so. decisively winning tonight in illinois, romney can deliver a perception blow to santorum maybe even extinguishing the former pennsylvania senator's fire. >> ran that campaign in 1976, and people saying, why don't you get out of the race? you have no chance of winning. and he fought. he won 11 states in 1976. i might add, just parenthetically, that if we happen to win illinois that would be the 11th state that i've won in this election. >> if santorum pulls off a surprise upset and wins the popular vote tonight he will still lose the delegate fight. why? in illinois the popular vote has no impact on how many delegates each presidential kchbd receives. the 54 delegates at stake tonight are done via congressional district. there is a statewide preference for president, the actual

delegates are individually elected in each congressional district. because santorum failed the file four districts he has a 44 delegate ceiling. the battle itself, it's not exactly streamlined. look at this. because romney filed on the first day of the filing period his name is at the top of the y ballot and leads the second part. voters pick pledged conviction delegates. may be another advantage as voters wade through pages and pages of options. bottom line, because ever the way santorum filed, minutes before the deadline in illinois his delegates are going to be at the end in the places that he actually filed a slate of delegates. so it could be a six-point margin tonight statewide. yet if romney comes away with anything less than 35 delegates out of the state i'll be shocked. and finally, after redistricting processes they control, democrats believe they could gain as many as five seats

in illinois pushing them closer in their hopes of retaking the house. republican lost the congressional seat in redistricting and set up a fierce center party fight in the 16th district. core freshman facing manzullo. he's accused cantor of ripping apart this. madder than hell at cantor, end quo. says cantor made a mistake by weighing in. preb congressman joe walsh? >> president obama, quit lying. we don't like ultimatums. tough. >> walsh's suburban chicago district redrawn sand now the best pickup opportunity for democrats in the state republican didn't really fight this one, by the way. democratic primary in the 8th district, an iraq veteran who's run for congress before. lost in 2006. she is the backing of chicago

mayor emanuel. former obama campaign adviser ignored calls to get out of the race. second district, jesse jackson jr., most competitive primary in a deck kate fending off a challenge by former congresswoman debbie halvorsen, served one term and lost her seat in the tsunami. and the house ethics kms investigates his tied to former governor rod blagojevich. finally in the 12th district, democrat congressman jerry costello's abrupt decision to retire after 22 years leaves a rare open seat in that area. the action on the republican side where former belleville mayor roger cook is running against millionaire businessman jason plummer, an um up and comer. finally, 10:30 this morning,

paul ryan rolls out of the budget proposal. the last time ryan release add budget it twisted the presidential candidates in knots. this time romney is more likely to adopt ryan's plan as his own. ryan has already released details of his tax reform plan reducing individual tax rates to 10% and 25%. reduce corporate rate to 25%. repeal the alternative minimum tax and shift the towse to a territorial tax system meaning u.s. multi-national would only owe tax to country in which the profits were made. medicare, compromised proposal with democratic senator ron widen. moments ago on "morning joe" he said he's prepared to take the political heat for the cuts he's proposed. >> that's not the politically risky thing. the wrong thing from a political standpoint is ducking this issue, evading responsibility, failing to fix this crisis. the people i work for want to

see us do something. see us lead. people are ready to be talked to as adults and not pandered to like children. >> you will see ryan rule that out. the house republican budget plan, a long way to go before becoming law. this is more about the debate for the 2012 election. mayor romney will definitely add to his delegate lead with a win in the appropriaprimary tod. he's hoping build momentum to the april 3rd primaries. an informal adviser charlie black here with me now. you saw the illinois ballot. down to three, four states that do it this way? >> that's right. >> this is completely archaic and ridiculous, is it not? >> it may be. there's a number of states individuals run for delegate and are not necessarily bound in some states by the results of the popular vote. pennsylvania, for example. rick santorum's state. the delegates run individually

on a big ballot like that and i predict right now that on april 24th rick santorum will probably win the popular vote in pennsylvania and mitt romney get a big majority of the delegates. >> in your history with this idea where the delegates themselves individually run, and obviously the more establishment campaigns can get familiar fa s faces. >> right. >> to be on that ballot, when you see this long list, how often do you see districts split and how often do you see a drop-off? >> seldom do you see a district split, unless you have three well well known elected officials running. one for romney, one santorum, might all get elected but seldom split. today at least to governor romney's advantage as you have described and he'll get a big majority of delegates in illinois adding to his total. all right won 55% of all delegates chosen so far. >> rick santorum, play for awe clip. he clearly knows the math is not

on his side for rick santorum but also making the argument it's not necessarily on romney's side. here's what he said. >> well what i've said is that i think it's going to be very difficult as this goes on for anybody to get to the, that magic number, and what i'm going to do is continue to work lard to make sure there's a conservative who's the nominee of this party. >> what do you think the chances of a broken -- are? >> obviously increasing. >> if santorum wince and we have a back and forth between the two, getting romney is dicey? >> the fact is the calendar in april is very good for governor romney. eight states. seven in the northeast. governor romney will be favored in six of those eight states at least and he's going to come out of april with another bigger advantage in delegates. rick santorum today must win 70%

of all remains delegates to be -- to win. by the end of april that figure will be over 80%. >> romney is, needs to win about 45% to 48% of the remaining delegates. >> so far won 55% of all delegates chosen. it's possible this will go until june when all the primaries and conventions are over, but i doubt it. i think by the end of april, after governor romney wince a lot of these contests and a big majority of delegates in april, senator santorum may have to take a look at whether he still is running on a fool's error rather than a legitimate campaign. >> you're not sure? not part of the crowd saying, let's shut this down now? >> not right now. governor romney is on great pace to clinch the nomination well before the convention but we're only half way through. threat go for a while. the end of april, early may may

be a time for the other candidates to assess where they are an assess the possibility that the romney nomination is inevitable. why not join the team and help beat president obama? no. i wouldn't push anybody to get out of the race today. >> i do want to you react to something. haley barbour on sunday and what he said about the idea of an open convention. here what he said. >> i don't think anybody in their right mind thinks the way the primary should play out has been good for the republican chances. but what to me is remarkable it hasn't helped obama much. look at pollings. >> but he also said, one other part, he said a conventional wouldn't be all that bad. do you agree? >> haley is a former fellow citizen of mine working for reagan the last time he was a contestant convention. we enjoyed it. it's not going to happen this time that wasn't good for your party. wouldn't you argue flshgs '76

that was not good in the campaign year of '76. may have led to 1980. >> president ford came out of that august convention 30 points behind and almost won. only lost by two. no correlation how early you clinch the nomination and win the general election. the two too clinched earliest, john kerry and mccain. neither won the general election. mccain may demand a recount. >> thanks for coming on this morning and sharing history of '76. i'll jump more into that later and may get you back for that. >> thanks. republican fight for bragging rights and today in president obama's home state. we check in with senior campaign adviser david axelrod. does the president have a big donor problem? what's going on there? still ahead a deep dive into a tough illinois republican primary, what it could look like tonight. what can romney and santorum learn from the party's fight for governor just two years ago. first a look ahead at the president's schedule.

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republicans are campaigning on president obama's home turf in illinois. meanwhile, the spread staying in washington today. he hits the road tomorrow when he goes to oklahoma and nevada and ohio and new mexico. joining me now, david axelrod, top strategist for president obama's re-election campaign. david, have you voted yet? >> here's my receipt, brother. i got there early.

but -- and i voted in the democratic primary, too. >> okay. you did? >> no mischief making on my part. >> and we know the president voted absentee. go ahead. >> yes. there were only what was -- interesting to me was that i voted an hour and a half after the polls opened, and there were only -- i was the 20th vedder in a very large precinct. so you know, i think that the turnout's going to be very low, and there have been harbingers of that going in. >> why? >> easy to understand if you watch tv there. i know you're back there in washington. if were you here you would see a cascade of negative ads bashing rick santorum. you can't get away from them. >> i want to talk -- >> an ill-spirited republican electorate. >> you brought it up. i was going to do this at the end. there's been a turnout issue for both sides i've noticed.

right? there's clearly been, i think, you know, at best, you see in many of these places republicans are, maybe, almost equal turnout from '08 or not making the mark from '08, but in comparing and the best apples to apples comparison here would be the democratic primary turnout of '96 when bill clinton was returning for re-election democratic turn joust this time and there's been a sharp decline there. we had a voter enthusiast number in our last poll that went down in an election year and that never happens. something's up here with turnout. do you not sense? maybe a pall over the election in general? >> where you cited there were, even with the last time often inflated by democrats, ron paul has brought a bunch of democrats into these open primaries and that's inflated their number.

it's been down. i think when you have a race -- i mean, mitt romney's outspending rick santorum 7-1 in this state. and almost all of it is negative. you know in florida, your home state, the story was much, much the same. you cannot put, dispirit people when all you're offering is a negative argument against your opponent, and i think we see it on their side. on our side we don't have an opponent. i've been very happy with the turnouts we've. using them as opportunities for the fall. it's been a very good exercise for us. >> you're not concerned -- >> something that will help -- >> you're not concerned it's been belew the '96 marks? >> no, i'm not concerned about that. what i see around the country is organization building, and it's been a phenomenal response in terms of activities in the precincts and so on. so i'm not worried about that.

and i'm looking forward to the fall. i think we're going to have a robust turnout. those numbers were interesting you mention in the nbc/"wall street journal" poll, because there's been a real collapse. at the last, last summer, the story going into last summer was the story was this big republican advantage in enthusiasm. you don't see that anymore. i think this long, grinding, negative campaign has really deflated interest in their candidates. >> you know, not to project out this far, but do you expect turnout to be down from '08? i guess i would. turnout was down from '92 to '96. it is rare we saw in '04 where turnout went up in a re-election year for a president running for re-election. would you expect turnout to actually be down overall? >> well, those are the indications right now. we'll see how this thing unfolds. what i do know and as i said before is that organizationally

in terms of volunteers supporting activity around the country, i'm really pleased with what i see. people are -- are very much engaged, talking to their neighbors. talking to their friends. talking on the social media to each other. on behalf of the president's campaign. i believe we're going to have a very, very strong organizational effort in the fall. so whatever the turnout is i think we will -- we will increase that turnout significantly on our side of the ledger. >> all right. let me stay on this enthusiasm, or potentially complacency issue. his big donor analysis that "the washington post" did for campaign fund-raising noted that you're not only down on maxed out donors on the campaign side, 2,000 or 2,500, you're actually down in comparison to the bush re-elect from 2004. two explanations given. one was some wall street donors that are not there this time. maybe they don't like the

president as much. but the second one was this complacency. somehow there's a bunch of your supporters, big donors, who just aren't impressed with romney or santorum and think you don't need the money. are you worried about complacency? >> well, i'm always worry about complacency. we're not really running against romney or santorum. we're running against the environme environment. running against three tough years, four tough years, really, in the economy. we're running against a variety of things that beyond the other candidates, and by definition, we're a closely divided country politically. we won a massive victory and 47% voted for someone else. by definition this is going to about close race and i know people get seduced because they wage the spectacle on the other side and say how could anybody on that side win? after witnessing these debates and this sort of race to the right, but the truth is we have

to prepare for a close contest. i'm proud, chuck, that 98% of our contributions come from people who give $250 or less. i'm proud that our average donation is $55. i think mitt romney's comparable number on donations is like 10% of his come from people who are $250 or less and it says something about the nature of the two campaigns. but you know, obviously, there's a lot of money amassed on the other side. particularly in the super pacs which are carrying the load for romney in this primary season. and so we're concerned about that and we're going to continue to urge people not to be complacent and take this very seriously. >> a couple policy issues. on health care, the supreme court hearing arguments next week. big sort of detailed public relations plan that republicans have in, during this health care anniversary week, trying to fan the flames of discontent about the health care bill. do you think you've done enough to promote the health care bill

in a way that at least fights it to even on public opinion? right now it seems you're at a net deficit overall on the perception of the bill, even if individually some things poll test very well? >> well, let me say that the republicans are very good at fanning the flames of discontent. their whole campaign is predicated on fanning the flames of discontent. so it's not surprising that they'd do that here. but in terms of the health care bill, here's what the republicans are going to have to explain to the american people. they'll have to explain to 2.5 million kids under the age of 26 now on their parents insurance because of this law that, why they're going to take that away. they're going to have to explain to people with pre-existing conditions and children covered now with pre-existing conditions under this law why they're going to take that away. explain to women why they have to pay a huge extra premium simply because of their gender. when this law is taken away.

there are lots of things, chuck that are in place right now that are giving the american people more security any their health care and the republicans essentially are saying, we're going to take that away from you. and i look forward to that debate. it's a winning debate for us and it's an important discussion for the country. >> as a communications professional, do you feel like you've got more work to do in selling this plan? >> there's no question. chuck, from the very beginning -- health care is a very complex issue. has emotional components like nothing else. we knew when we took it on it was a tough issue. if the president just did this on the basis of politics he would have walked away from this issue but he also understood that tens and tense of millions didn't have insurance and tens are moff millions would lose their and if we didn't get costs under control the sksystem woul implode over time. he shoved politics aside and did what he felt was right for the future of this country and for

americans. i'm proud of him noor. it has been a communications problem and we're going to plow forward with it. again, the larger issue sheer that it's already -- here is that it's fully implemented and already giving greater security to the american people and we're going to make they're ssure the understand it. >> david axelrod. you only vote once now in chicago? no more vote early and aun anymore, right? >> certainly on the air. no. absolutely. every vote counts and you only get one. >> all right. david axelrod from chicago. thank you, sir. up next, the market rundown. what's the latest on the justice department investigation? what's going on down there in florida? first, super tuesday trivia. how many first ladies were born in the state of illinois? tweet me the answer. this is googleable, quickly googleable. answer next coming up on "the

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politics per se, it's the national uproar over social media. it's the justice department investigating the shooting death of a 17-year-old trayvon martin. the african-american teenager killed by a supposed neighborhood watch volunteer as he walked through a gated community in florida. the alleged gunman, george zimmerman, is claiming self-defense under florida law that allows people to defend themselves with deadly force. msnbc politics nation trayvon's father said the claim is just outrageous. >> to call mr. zimmerman the victim is -- is a slap in the face to me and my family. it's a slap in the face to our community. my son was being attacked.

he wasn't the aggressive in this instance, and the police except trying to make george zimmerman out to be the victim, and the victim is clear. trayvon martin, who's dead in the grave. >> we're just minutes away now from the opening bell. so the rundown, jackie deangelis is here. >> good morning, chuck. just opened a few moments ago and the markets are lower at this point. futures indicated. focus on apple again. shouldn't come as a surprise to you, but seems everything apple touches turning to gold these days. the company already sold 3 million of the new ipads since they went on sale friday. the device is available in the u.s. and nine other countries hitting stores in 24 more countries this friday. apple stock topped 600 for the first time yesterday after announcing plans to pay dividends to shareholders. goldman sachs raising a price target in 660 to 700.

meantime, serious ceo, no red tags on his pay czech. a filing showing lou received nearly $10 million in compensation including salary, a signing bonus and stock as well as compensation to cover commute. this despite the fact sears struggled reporting sales declines the past six years. >> basically saying a shared apple stock will now cost more than the souped up version of an ipad? >> very possible. >> all right. thank you. up next, the deep dive into the illinois primary. we'll be back in 30 seconds subpoena

state of ill sill the sunlt of our deep dive today. a state that in theory at least should be relatively easy for mitt romney but you don't have to go back far to see potential signs ever trouble for the conservative front-runner. prognosticators, will illinois voters vote like in 2008 or in 2010? back to super tuesday 2008. john mccain came in with a head of steam and won the state by a huge margin. beat romney by nearly 20 points and picked up more importantly 54 of the state's 57 then available delegates. romney won two of the 102. comparison, huckabee. and 2010. a pack of republicans fighting for the chance to take the governor's seat back from illinois democrat in the wake of the rod blagojevich corruption scandal's in that ways, kirk

diller and andy fought for the vote. think of them as the romney-style candidates. centrist, moderates, business background. the other end of the spectrum, tea parties led by bill brady. others, think of them as stand-ins like rick santorum. race down to the wire. out of more than 765,000 cast votes, down to the wire. the moderate diller despind winning just over 20% of the vote. dillard and mckenna split the modern upstate vote down the middle. look at the map. brady won most of the state's rural counties including 30 and 40-point victories in places like mclean county. bloomington, illinois. macon county. those counties are key for rick santorum tonight. already has an uphill battle. he map regret one. 13th district. one he could carry but have no delegates there. cut through the middle of the state stretching from the st. louis suburbs northeast to

decatur and champaign, nirvana. asked santorum monday whether his lack of organization in illinois speaks to a larger problem four his campaign. >> for an organization that was purely volunteers we were in illinois, ohio and virginia, i mean, harder for us. but the idea that that's reflective of -- it's amazing we're on the ballots we are given how difficult these rules are from state to state and how different they are. >> turning back to the 2010 map, the two moderates, again, think of them as the romney-type, split in springfield and chicago. where romney can run up the score. down st. louis. win big, the rest of the state may not matter. here's why. chicago's cook county and five surrounding counties once republican strongholds. become more democratic leaning in recent years. still more than half the republicans that came out to vote four years ago were from chicago and those counties. moderates left the door open for

a conservative to win in 2010. will we see the reverse today? conservatives split the vote a little, pave the way for a romney landslide? that's what we're watching forred it joining me, state senator dillard. on the losing end by 500 votes. it took a week to find out. >> 193, chuck, but who's county? >> but who's counting? >> actually, you still might be counting. fair enough. talk about this issue of where the votes are, where romney -- first of all, have you pick add horse in this? are you with romney? >> i am not. my leanings are certainly towards governor romney. when i was listening to your intro piece it was good and accurate, there was one other candidate that aside from mr. mckenna, our state party chairman, a businessman from chicago and myself that i think factored in and that's the former attorney general of illinois jim ryun.

if you combine the votes of all three of us, you know, we clearly would have had many, many, many more votes than bill brady, my colleague, who's a state senator. >> interesting, sort of the following illinois republican primary sometimes the u.s. senate, sometimes for governor. it seems as if unlike other states, that there's more of a hard ceiling for a conservative candidate that really is more in the 30s or 40s if it were a two-way race rather than the ability to get over 50. you still see that as the case in today's version of the illinois republican party? >> yes. you know, you can never completely generalize, but clearly, mr. santorum will do very well in down states, illinois, really south of the metropolitan area of chicago and out into western illinois has actually become more republican over time. people view illinois as democrat

state, but outside of the metropolitan area, it's actually become more of a republican state, although up here in chicagoland, as i call it, this is where the votes are. >> now, you became a more famous name nationally. in the very first television ad that then candidate obama ran when he was running for president. something i'm sure that really helped you in the republican primary for governor. i say that from a friendly place. >> it was a factor, but not the killer. >> let me assess -- assess president obama. you think he deserves -- do you think, are you going to support, if romney's the nominee, governor romney over your former colleague in the state senate there, barack obama? >> i'll support any of the republican presidential nominee, whoever that is, against president obama. you know, i'm always supportive of the republican party. i was a john mccain delegate, and you mow, i was limited in a very small way to the early

democratic primaries for the president by agreement, but i raised money for john mccain. i was the second leading vote getter to the republican national committee convention for john mccain and yeah, i'll wholeheartedly support governor romney and i think he'll be the nominee. >> president still a friend of yours? do you consider him a friend? >> he is. and, chuck, one of the things that americans, and i hear it every day because i'm campaigning out in the western suburbs, we can get along on some issues. president obama and i are never going to agree on social issues or obama care. i fought him on universal health care when he was a state senator in springfield, but there are things you can work on and i think we need a more decent, civil tone. my ad for the president limited by agreement to those early primaries was about an ethics bill that he worked out with my and any time a democrat was with me on a principle like ethics

i'll say nice stuff about him. >> colleague of the president back in the state senate days. thanks for coming on this morning. >> thanks, chuck. thanks for having me. up next, the super tuesday panel. first, the white house sewage the -- the white house soup of the day. maryland crab chowder. normally they reserve this for a friday. doing the old fish on friday routine. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] this was how my day began.

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well, is it deja vu all over again? primary day inial ill. hard to get to. my tan today, politico former rc chair and writer of the rules, michael steele and miya politic kaw henderson. before i get to michael steele,

rule 4a, paragraph c, what is the different points issance i want to talk quickly about both, interesting yesterday, both the santorum campaign and the romney campaign found themselves on the defensive over women's issues. particularly this issue on contraception. here's both karen santorum responding on this issue, but mitt romney having to deal with it as a town hall yesterday. here's a look for more. >> rick is a great guy. he's completely supportive of women. he's surrounded by a lot of very strong women. and i think women have nothing to fear when it comes to contraceptives he will do nothing on that issue. >> let me tell you something. let me -- if you're looking-if you're looking for free stuff, if you're looking for free stuff you don't have to pay for, vote for the other guy. that's what he's all about. that's not what i'm about. you have the choice in this country of doing something which

politicians have been promoting for years. politicians get up and promise you all sorts of free stuff. all right? say i'm going to give you more and more stuff, and you won't have to pay for it. >> romney sort of trying to sort of dodge the issue. not talk about it, but he was peppered with questions about the various issues and some people expected that. suburbs of chicago. moderate republican women. these are key to romney not necessarily carrying a stat like illinois but a state like pennsylvania and then karen santorum serving as an advocate? >> she have a real gender problem going into this election and i don't think karen santorum can erase this. rick santorum introduced the issue of contraception into the race, gave the democrat as windfall. they're raising a ton of money over it and create add problem for mitt romney and a serious of other events republicans contributed to this. rush limbaugh's antics, bob mcdonald's legislation that he was humiliated by. they've got a real issue they

have to turn around. the latest pew poll shows that obama is beating romney by 20 points with women and santorum by 27. >> and to slice this, it is suburban, married white women. >> that's right. >> this is the group that are the more that usually provide republicans their portion of the women electorate. they're the ones sitting on the fence right now. >> they're the ones sitting on the fence. republicans in 2010 saw something of an evening of the gap among women. it was thanks to these women and that helped them take the house. yeah. i mean, this is a real problem that at this point they're still talking about this, and that they haven't been able to tamp it down. look out in arizona. there's a bill out there about contraception laws make women reveal the fact that they're not using a birth control for birth control for other reasons. it's a real problem. none of these guys have been able to tamp it down and turn

the corner and as chairman of t when you were there, i'm sure people would say this, can't you stop this? it's obvious, and i think mcdonnell knew it. >> mccain was begging. >> yes. >> the national leaders know this is a problem. >> how do you stop the arizona state legislature from doing this? the governor of pennsylvania from saying what he is saying. it's proof that -- >> the jeannie is so out of the bottom, it's naked. >> this does animate the base, though. people forget pro-life, the pro-life portion of the party are the most active portion of the party. >> they're the most active portion of the party, and as i learned as chairman, they are -- they feel they're the most disrespected because they had been promised going back to the 1980s that their agenda would be front and center for the gop and here we are 30 years later and there has been no overturn of roe versus wade, and -- >> phone into the right to life march. ? late really phone in. >> that has not been forgotten

by a lot of hard core pro-life activists out there. the difference between 2010 and 2012 is in terms of what we did at the rnc is we talked to those white suburb women about what was on their minds. their jobs, the economy, their pocket books. now we've shifted to a discussion which i think we're a little bit out of our league on. >> romney tried to go back and have that conversation yesterday. you do care about deficits, women out there. i heard them saying. they're trying. >> they're trying, but i think ann romney is also trying to warm him up a little bit. i mean, he has problems across the board with, you know, just connecting with people and i think she's his last best hope. >> just after the break, we're going to mess with michael steele here. first, the trivia. we ask how many first ladies were born in the land of lincoln? the answer is two. hillary rodham clinton. most of you got that one. and betty ford. they were both born in chicago. we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily

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i got to go fast. okay. these rules are romney getting to 1144. that's the thing. you heard charlie black. let's see what happens in wisconsin. then we'll decide whether to basically start forcing santorum out. fair? >> yeah, i think that's right. santorum has his strategy of just denying this. it's like when you are a kid and the other guy is winning the monopoly board. you just toss it over, and that's what seems to be his strategy, and gingrich's as well. >> are you comfortable with this denial aspect of it? it's clear -- you wrote these rules. it's clear who the leader is going to be, and by a lot. he is going to have a lot of the delegates. a lot more. >> 1,144, so work it out. >> fair is fair. >> lois, you think after wisconsin if romney wins it there, then finally that's the rick santorum, this game is

over? >> yeah, but it still has this feel of, well, he didn't lose for romney. he eeked it out. >> he never gets momentum. >> from state to state. >> shameless plugs. >> the documentary "being elmo" which premiers on pbs april 3rd. it's all about the guy who is elmo, kevin crash. it's fantastic. i smiled the whole way through. >> you say -- b.e.t..com, i got the mother of all double standards talking about the president's decision to go after american citizens overseas. >> oh, boy. that's going to fire up the bloggosphere. fabulous. feel healthy. >> you look great. >> thank you. sun. >> there you go. by the way, it is three first ladies. the question, of course, was how many former current first lady michelle obama was also born in chicago. that's it for this decision of "the daily rundown."

the complete results and analysis. coming up next, though, chris januarysing and company. >> i'm meteorologist with your forecast. heavy rain and a lot of problems at the airports. especially in east texas headed into areas of louisiana. on the east coast all the way through the mid-atlantic, the great lakes, the incredible warm weather continues on this first day of spring, and as we look out west, still very cold and chilly in the rockies. a chance of thunderstorm as we mentioned. areas in texas near dallas. carfirmation.

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