come. if it is way too early, mika what time is it? >> it is "morning joe." now time "the daily rundown" with chuck todd. have a wonderful weekend. scorn on the bayou. mitt romney and rick santorum head into another southern primary kicking and screaming. will romney leave louisiana with another southern loss? does it even matter if he loses? and today, on the second anniversary of the signing of health care reform, president obama lets his allies tell the pieces that in place already while he puts all his energy into address the cost of another front, beating back the idea that he is not doing enough to keep gas prices down. and thousands rally last night in sanford, florida, calling for an arrest in the shooting death of trayvon martin. today, another protest, this time in tallahassee. we will have the latest on the investigation and what the state says they are going to do good morning from washington. friday, march 23, 2012, this is

the daily rundown, i'm chuck todd. get to my first reads of the morning. another day on the campaign trail, another soundbite the campaigns i want to make sure breaks through the chart chart. the candidates want to breakthrough tomorrow's primary. the soundbite team romney wants every ton hear is this one from santorum. >> you win by giving people the opportunity to see a different vision for our country, not someone who is going to be a little different from the person in there if they are not going to be different, we might as well stay with what we have, instead of taking the risk of what maybe the etch a sketch candidate for the future. >> the romney campaign seized on the comment, quickly sending out a press release with the title, santorum, if it's not me, let's re-elect obama. romney twisted the knife in an interview with the conservative radio host hugh hughet. >> desperate polls call for desperate calls. i know that there are a lot of people across the country saying we need to consolidate behind

the guy who has now weathered 38 different contests we have had, if we include the little islands, the senator hearing let's get going, move on, get our nominee ready to go against president obama and perhaps he is striking out with some frustration from those kind of questions. >> of course, all this in the wake of etch a sketch gate. rom minneapolis challenged on that and pointed out the gaffe was made by a staffer and not him.ney was challenged on that and pointed out the gaffe was made by a staffer and not him. as romney seems to be wing, his campaign steps in it. >> what about that the campaign stepping on its own story, governor? >> this time, it was not ideal, of course, but you never can estimate that every word that comes out of your mouth is going to be exactly the way you wanted to describe t rick santorum the other day said he doesn't care

about high unemployment. really? is that what you meant to say? >> the candidate was particularly desperate to pro-long the etch a sketch news cycle was newt gingrich. -- >> that is gingrich putting an etch a sketch in a plastic al gators a mouth. as the candidates traded soundbites, called for santorum to get out of the race in a memo from rich beason. one point on the comments about romney and obama it is the same thing he's been arguing since the day he got in the race. the president traveled to six bat ground states to counter the

argument he happens done enough to battle high gas prices. he made that pitch in of all placing curbing, oklahoma, the republicans hammering the president for weeks since the administration denied the permits to build the keystone pipeline from the canadian border to the gulf coast. the president tried blunt republican criticism by announcing he is fast tracking permits to build the southern half of the pipeline, a 450-mile stretch from oklahoma to the gulf coast. >> we are drilling all over the place, right now. that's not the challenge, that's not the problem. >> he blamed republicans in congress for playing politics. >> congress decided they wanted their own timeline. not the company. not the experts. but members of congress who decided this might be a fun political issue, decided to try

to intervene and make it impossible for us to make an informed decision. >> of course, this was all part of a four-state, two-day swing by the president to tout these -- his energy policy. speaker john boehner called the entire trip a "tour de farce." >> he is out in oklahoma, trying to take credit for a part of the pipeline that doesn't even require his approval. nafrnlts new gallup poll, 57% of americans say the government should approve the pipeline. pr front clearly helping with the republicans pushing it lately. finally, while he was in oklahoma, president did an interview with aaa. that's right, the auto club, posted on their website this morning, did make news but made sure to let readers know his first car was a ford grenada, staying rattle and it shooked and i don't think the girls were particularly impressed when i came to pick them up, but you know what, it moved. it was interesting to see how

they tried to use this trip, they had some back drops, only interviews they did one with the aaa auto club magazine and another one was some radio. finally, two years ago today, surrounded by members of congress and cameras the president signed the health care act into law. today was a country divided on the law there will be a formal commemoration by the president but the guy who said this at the bill's signing. >> [ bleep ]. >> he is on the road. that's right. he is taking the president's message on the road. the vice president will deliver earth second of four campaign speeches framing the general election for team obama. this one is in florida, about medicare and social security and of course, targeted to seniors. according to he was centers from the speech, the vice president will again call out republican candidate by name saying "make no mistake, if republicans in congress and their amen corner of romney, santorum and gingrich

get their hands on the white house, they will end medicare as we know t" biden's speech is part of a full-court press by the obama campaign to sell the law behind the scenes, including this campaign video. >> after a century of striving, after a year of debate, after an historic vote, health care reform is no longer an unmet promise. it is the law of the land. it is the law of the land. we are going to have millions of people with health care coverage that otherwise wouldn't have it. can't be dropped when you get sick and you need insurance most. >> and team obama is also making a pitch to women led by the first lady calling for women's week of action to coincide with the supreme court arguments on the health care mandate next week. >> as a mom, i know that the legacy of health care reform will be a healthier future for my daughters and for all our

sons and daughters. >> this morning, the white house's favorite spokesman for the individual mandate, mitt romney, has an op ed in "usa today" called "why i'd repeal obama care." romney writes it is pastime to abolish the program, root and branch, president obama's program is an unfolding disaster for the american economy, a budget-busting entitlement and a dramatic federal intrusion into our lives and in a nod to his political vulnerability on the issue, he also writes, it is the genius of federalism that it encourages experimentation with each state pursuing what works best for them. about the closest he comes to talking about the mandate in that op ed. interview with national public radio the president enjoyed pointing out romney's complicated history on the subject. >> i would have loved to have gotten it done quicker, which is part of the reason why we designed a program that actually previously had support of

republicans, including the person who may end up being the republican standard bearer and now pretending like he came up with something different. >> look, today is about a lot of hemming and hauwing, you will hear about this but the reaction is next week at the supreme court. mir a's campaign hasn't had luck pushing his owe months the sidelines so republican lawmakers behind-the-scenes are working on his cause. david greg from "meet the press" joins me now. one of those guys is jim demint. >> yeah. >> listen to what he said to our libby least when she caught up with him. didn't quite endorse mitt romney but said this, they could drag it out to the con vention if they want but i think if some of them look at where they are, the best thing they do do is maybe look at kind of throwing their support behind the one who might be our nominee h it is beginning to look like romney. >> yeah, i think there is -- if there's a change this week beyond the etch a sketch moment, which was difficult, the beyond the fact that jeb bush endorsed

romney but rather meekly, it is that this idea that the best santorum can do is block romney to the nomination, i think has a chilling effect on the race in the way that it says to republicans, look, is this really what you want to do? all he can really do is sort of prevent him from getting to the -- >> demint is a perfect guy to find that out, the rorschach test. you would expect if demint wanted that then he wouldn't have said that. >> that's right. he didn't endorse in south carolina because there's too much downside to doing that at that point. but now, i think there is a -- the combination of some figures, tea party figure like demint, establishment figure like bush, bigger than that somebody who could have come in as the white night saying let put an end to this >> yet it is likely santorum wins tomorrow. >> yeah. >> this is not exactly a triumphant march to finishing off the ray you go back and by the way, the base of the party's still not fired up about you.

>> we have talked about this throughout the week, if you look at it from santorum's point of view, he is not expanding his demographic base of support and it is actually small strip of land but he has got a compelling argument, he said let's go with a movement conservative what this party needs, what the country needs, as opposed to a guy how don't really trust. a lot of republican reasons don't really trust romney that goes back six years now. so that is the one sore he keeps pushing on. >> health care. today an anniversary, republicans try to make a big deal, two years, how of the done we mark a two year in the real issue is next week in this fight. >> it is. >> there is this thing being worked up, you feel like both sides are worried the supreme court is not going their way and say it won't matter much politically. do you buy that? >> i don't buy that. it is going to unleash the forces about trying to went argument, which nobody has really won. there's aspects of health care certainly popular if you can understand what they are, those protections for people who get

health care reform, it is difficult to take entitlement away once it has been given, health care to me has been about the role of government, particularly in a distressed economy that fight is something people do understand, both parties want to have. i think the problem for the president has always been did you go out and actually went argument on health care in the npr interviews trying to do that, that video shah you showed he is trying to do that. >> went argument, do a little thing later, it was 2-1, you just look at selling health care, well, selling -- not liking health care gone a lot better for republicans than selling. >> i think it is very difficult to understand what it is the government is going to do at the federal level and how the exchanges are going to, would, how long it is go going to take to get implemented, easier to understand the broader question, this the kind of thing the government taking on, looking at contraception, if it can be argued effectively this is what happens when the government makes health care decisions. >> what is coming sunday? >> we want to talk about energy and the fact who do you blame for high gas prices?

i think this is going to be bigger than the jobs debate perhaps in the fall. talk to david plouffe and joining the roundtable, brian schweitzer from montana and haley barbour as well. >> david gregory on sunday and trayvon martin as well? >> and whether there be more pressure on the president to say something. >> interesting. >> yep. up next, the budget fight, how will democrats try to counter the ryan plan? hearing about it this week, talk to the ranking democrat on the budget committee, congressman chris van hollen and behind him, congressman tom cole. will the plan divide the gop the florida governor is launching a task force into the trayvon martin. the police chief announces he is temporarily stepping down. first, a look at the president's schedule, a down day publicly because he is only overfighting one night. he heads to korea for the g-20. everyone in america depends on the postal service.

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house spe. the budget barely made it out of the budget committee. maryland congressman chris van who willson the ranking democrat on this committee. it was one vote. you have republicans on your side because they thought ryan didn't go far enough.

>> the debt ceiling negotiations and what was agreed upon, it was the idea of caps, 1.47 trillion. this is the cap for spending, disdiscretionary spending this year. the idea to provide stability don't get into the fight of a government shutdown this year. unfortunately, gone back. >> there was speculation he did it under pressure from the conservative base. >> one of the many problems with that you are going to come out with a budget next week to count ter, what i'm amused by what i'm hearing from you and congressman ryan, you both love to say, we take elements from simpson boles. everyone wants to borrow something from simpson boles they like but don't do the stuff they don't like is there stuff from simpson boles they didn't like that you are going to take? >> sure. first of all, we adopt the $1 trillion in cuts over ten years.

the cuts that simpson boles did. >> those exact cuts? >> yes, because they had $1 trillion in discretionary spending. we have adopted knows again in our budget. beyond that, there's $300 billion in what is nonhealth mandatory spending this includes things like ag subsidies and things like that we are going to instruct the committees to come up with that amount of savings as well, as the president does in his budget, and he identifies some things, so yes, we have cuts what we also have is cuts to a lot of the tax loopholes and eliminate those, eliminate the oil and gas subsidies and ask millionaires and others to go back to paying the same rate they were in the -- >> i was going to say. that's where i'm -- i have also been confused about the democratic budget proposal, you hear rhetorically secretary geithner talks about how he believes in lowering rates and branding the tax base and that

was close to what the agreement could have been had a grand bargain been struck and the president came out and said we are going to tax reform, here are the rates for now, how you are going to deal with this, here is the tax reform but here are the rates for now? >> we support tax reform but it needs to generate at least as much revenue as you would if you allowed the rates to go back up for the folks at the top, number one. and number two, it has to be progressive in the same way. in other words, you can't give folks at the top a tax break financed by increasing middle income tax which is what the republican budget does. >> in your idea, how many tax rates would there be? >> i would like to have a simple number, maybe three, four, not so much how many tax rates you have, but it is where you set the tax rates and determines the amount of revenue t is impossible for the republicans to say their budget is anywhere like simpson boles because simpson boles is a balanced framework. the whole idea it has cut bus it also has revenue. >> why won't somebody just say,

fine, i'm gale golden gate to take all of simpson boles, let's go. what is wrong with simpson boils won't adopt the whole thing? >> there's some -- simpson boles has whole lot of specific proposals in it. some are troubling. i don't like the exact way we do social security, for example. the republicans don't do that piece in their budget what they do do in their budget goes way beyond simpson boles when it comes to medicare, when they end the medicare guarantee, turn it into a voucher program and transfer those costs onto seniors that is not something simpson boles did, it wasn't a bipartisan consensus. what simpson boles did was say let do cut, we will do that in our budget but we also need to generate revenue, if you don't do it in a balanced way and whack seniors, cut students and put all the burden on the middle class. >> i got leave it there. congressman chris van hollen, appreciate it. now you to get other side, perspective here earthquake the ryan budget plan may not survive

as legislation but a political document already playing a key role in the presidential race. oklahoma republican tom cole is a member of the budget committee and joins me now. congressman cole, i want to ask first about this surprising to some of us, conservative divide over the ryan budget. you lost some republicans on the budget committee, only made it out of one vote, club for growth has come out kind of against it didn't say they were fully against it, but they don't like it. is this the way you envision it had? >> there was no drama to the vote in the budget committee, you know the the two no votes actually passed and waited to make sure we had sufficient votes to pass the budget. i wouldn't be surprised to semensing upset they would like to go further hearten ryan budget does, we are not going to have trouble getting the 218

voice and it doesn't bother me that people are impatient and want to do more rather than less. store, is actually good debate to have. i don't think it makes much difference and we will pass the bunnell net short order next week. >> is this -- how much of this -- it feels as if this was much more of a political document than the first budget that ryan put out a year ago, meaning, i mean, we are even hearing about how you guys tested it you focus group it had a little bit. there's some parts of it you are not announcing including what parts of the tax code which subsidies, specific subsidies would go away, tax breaks would go away. realistic here, election year politics play a role in some of those decisions? >> certainly an element politics about any budget. meant to be a statement as well as a working document. this is a real budget and i would argue better than last year. the medicare portion is probably improved by the widened ryan

addition. i like the fact that we dealt with southwester the way it ought to be dealt with looking at entitlement spending, as for not having the specifics on the tax piece, that is not what the budget committee is supposed to do it lace out the framework, but you actually have to work those things through committee, that is the ways and means job, the same way as on appropriations, they give us a number but we have a great deal of latitude how we do that otherwise, you are frankly concentrating too much power and authority in a single committee. so i think the ryan document is a fair statement of probably what -- whoever the republican nominee is going to run on. certainly where we are as a party and i think i'm glad to see the democrats are finally entering the debate. the president last year had a budget that didn't get a single vote and democratic senate. the democratic senate hasn't produced a bunnell net three years. my friend, chris you can didn't produce a budget their last year in the majority or last year. >> well, let's talk about this budget, i know is a favorite republican talking point about the senate not passing a budget

but actually, the passable of the debt ceiling deal became the budget control act, in essence is the budget, because it puts caps and in fact, this budget lowers the caps, that is something you are not for. you expect these caps to get -- to come back essentially? >> well, first of all, i disagree, chuck it is not a budget it is a number what the budget control act is. it there is no plan for dealing with long-term entitlements and nothing on medicare. it is simply a cap on discretionary spending. we respect the cap. we think we can do a little bit better. that is why we proposed that in our budget but obviously, we will pass and appropriate that number in the house and we have got to negotiate with the senate and the president and see where we end up it is actually got into the great deal of difference, a difference of $19 billion in a sum of over $1 trillion is really pretty trivial but we think we ought to do a little bit better than the minimum h. >> 19 billion, a billion here and a billion there eventually get real money i guess.

all right. the old everett dirkson line. tom cole republican from oklahoma, thanks for coming on this morning. >> thank you. up next, the president picks his nominee to lead the world bank. you know who it isn't or we would have broken in a lot sooner. today's trivia question exwho is the only registered native american currently serving in congress? , who is the only registered native american currently serving in congress? ahh, one.

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this just in from the white house, at the top of the hour, 10 eastern, president obama will announce that dartmouth president jim young kim is his nominee to lead the world bank. mr. kim is a prominent figure in the global health world. officials believe his experience will counter critics who say

there is too much control over the world bank presidency, into the guarantee who nominates for the u.s. bank is going to be that person but history suggests that will be the case. we are just minutes away from the opening bell. time for the market run down. look who is back. my friend, becky quick. what you got for me today, friday? oil coming down again, isn't it? >> it is. oil prices coming down again, good news, if you look at stocks, chuck, looks right now we are opening around the flat line, that is a little bit of a concern, if you are looking at what happened the course of this week, the s and the p and the dow look like they are going to close lower for the week but the biggest amount we have seen all year long because we have had such a long run to the upside but again that is causing some people to raise a few eyebrows, a lot of what has been driving things this week is what is happening in the housing market. more housing numbers at 10 a.m. eastern, the new home sales that are coming. by the way, while talking about house, i want to mention this story that's out today about bank of america and a new plan it has. we have heard about people who are facing foreclosure. bank of america is trying a very

small test case where they are going to be forgiving people what they owe on their houses and allowing them to stay in the house if they rent the house back from the bank. now, they will be guaranteed that they get those market rates or below market rental rates the least three years, this is an interesting way to come at t you get to stay in your house but tough represent it from the bank. we will see what happens. trying it on a very small scale and fee they can roll it out on on a bigger scale or causes problems all the way around. and mention quickly, nike shares trading higher after the company came in with better-than-expected earnings, 1.20 versus the 1177 the street was looking for. chuck? >> all right, becky, thanks very much. would have taken more time, could have asked about bernanke saying go shopping. our deep dive into the politics of health care is coming up. we are back in 30 seconds.

next week may be the single most important week in the history of the obama presidency. the supreme court hears oral arguments on the president's signature issue, health care. today marks the two-year anniversary of president obama signing that health care act into law. critics like to call it something else it is is a name president obama is now embrace. >> by the way, you know what let me tell you, i have no problem with folks saying obama cares.

i do care. if the other side wants to be the folks who don't care, that's fine with me. >> still, political opponent remain united and vocal in their opposition to the law. even today, they have coordinated a pr effort to put out op eds and press releases all over the country demanding repeal of the law. in fact, looking over the past two years, hundreds of tv ads have been released slamming the health care overhaul. >> consistent conservative fight here fought obama care. >> i will see to it that we repeal the breaker known as obama care. our nation simply cannot finance continue to fund entitlements. >> pass health care reform the night rite way, no mandate no takeovers. >> with perry, he will repeal it starting day one. >> i'm going to get rid of obama care, it is killing our jobs and keeping our kids from having the right prospect these deserve. oefrnlts 'bama gave us radical obama care based on romney care.

why would we ever vote for someone who is just like obama when we can unite around rick santorum? >> point is to show all that because a recent analysis by cantor media shows that since march 23rd 2010, the day the act was signed, advertisers overall have spent $262 million in ads, 410 of those advertisers aired 1,108 different ads that were against health care, the health care law. 48 advertisers aired 90 ads in favor of the ad that's right. 1,108 opposition ads aired versus 90 supportive ads aired. the majority of the opposition ads have aired in key swing states like pennsylvania, colorado, florida and ohio. what do you think they are trying to do? maybe sway voters from the president in 2012? on the other side, the department of health and human services did spend a majority of the supportive money toward simply ads that were about educate the public on the law. and although the white house and

president obama's campaign created websites and put out press releases touting what health care does, there is a concerted political effort to sell health care there were a few organizations that started up but they fell flat and then they sit there and point fingers, staying is the white house's fault, back and forth. democrats do admit their messaging mistake us in the rollout of the plan has taken a toll. >> i have to say that the communications around this bill i think have been poor and it has been the administration's achilles' heel, the one area they have fallen down. >> has been a communications challenge. >> so obviously it is not something we have been -- that we have been super successful at but this gives us a new opportunity to ensure people understand what is at stake. >> always easier to unite in opposition but still, so much back and forth about health care reform, it is a political lightning rod, as you know, yet still confusion over exact what

i has and what has not been enacted into law yet. here is a look at some portions to of the law that have started. adults 26 and younger can remain on their parents' health insurance coverage, a tax credit to small businesses that provide health coverage for their employees, lifetime limits on coverage have been eliminated and now there are insurance plans for people with pre-existing conditions available to purchase. now you what hasn't changed yet? some of the more controversial portions of the law, the individual mandate doesn't kick in until 12014 require you to buy health insurance or face the possibility of a fine, a government panel to review health care cost, ipab, would propose cuts to medicare in certain place and to start, coverage for clinical trials, elimination of annual limits and making illegal for any insurers to discriminate against pre-existing conditions. now, what happens next week? on monday, the supreme court begins an unusually long three

days of hearing on the constitutionality of the president's signature piece of legislation. on day one, the court will hear a very technical argument to determine if even if the court can consider the health care reform act until key portions of the law are finally enacted. this could possibly put off a real challenge to the law until after 2014. on day two, the court will hear argument the constitutionality on the key pro-vicious the individual mandate as it relates to the commerce clause, can congress force people to buy insurance? and finally, on day three it's the issue of sever ability, meaning if the supreme court decides an individual mandate is unconstitutional, what does it mean for the rest of the law? is the rest of it unconstitutional or account unconstitutional parts well, beselfered? all so simple, right? bottom line is the high court is likely to issue a decision some time in june, issuing not only a decision in president obama's marquee limb slaying but potentially refocus august political debate about health care right in the middle of the

2012 general election. some folks are saying if the slaw upheld, somehow good for republicans because they will rally conservatives or if it is overturn, good for democrats, rally liberals angry at the supreme court. i don't buy it the supreme court is still considered an arbiter here and the public will look at them, giving a stamp of approval or disapproval on the legality of the law and that that will matter more than people realize. all right, protestors demanding an arrest in connection to the death of florida teenager trayvon martin and they are taking their outrage now to the state capital in tallahassee that march beginning in the next hour follows a 20,000-person rally in sanford last night. the city's police chief has temporarily stepped aside, just a first step as far as trayvon's family is concerned. >> the temporary step down of bill lee is nothing. we want an arrest. we wanted a conviction. >> since the chief has stepped

down, there is a temporary relief but we need a permanent relief. i still say we need an arrest. >> live in sanford florida is ron allen. i understand the state announced a governor announced a task force. what does that mean? is that really a full-fledged investigation or is that a baby step here? >> well, i understand it chuck, the task force is going to focus on the stand your ground law and its implication and how it has been applied here what happened needs to be adjusted, if anything, to that law. that's what i understand the mission of the task force is. the governor also appointed a new state prosecutor to handle the grand jury that's going to be looking into this case. that's perhaps more significant and more directly focus ted trayvon martin issue in the near term. but the point, of course is that the governor has reacted, as have so many people a number of state legislators last night said they were going to demand

hearings in the florida state house, there was a congress person here last night said they were going to demand hearings in the u.s. congress next week. so there seems to be some momentum building. and then i think the challenge for the martin family and their advocates is to try and keep this on the agenda. that march last night was really impressive. it was 20 to 25,000 people. it had been billed for a small church early in the day and had to move it out to the public park because of the huge outrage, the huge anger building here, not just here but across the country. so that's write think we are now. account martins and as vo cats and advocates and supporters keep this all going because there certainly is a lot of outrage about what happened? >> the grand jury -- ron, is the grand jury -- if this new prosecutor around this idea of overseeing this investigation, are they investigate the police department or george zimmermann or both? >> well, the grand jury is a state grand jury which can bring criminal charges that range from

man slaughtr manthe lawer to -- man the ls m and they are asking to investigate the police department in its entirety, how to is operating, a number of cases we have been discussing the past couple of days. that is my understanding what the targets are the federal probe the entire police department and the state probe on the matter of the criminal case against george zimmermann and what happened to trayvon martin that day. chuck? >> all right. ron allen in sanford, florida. thanks very much. up next exit is t, the frid political panel and what i think is weekend wisdom. first, white house soup of the day, my favorites because i usually -- i'm usually hearing the little mermaid song in my

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we would have to consider layoffs as a result of that. closure of this plant will affect all of us. ♪ the health care law celebrates a two-year anniversary just days before the supreme court hears arguments that will have a national audience. look at this a new c-span poll found that 95% of those surveyed have an interest in the case. 91% claim they will pay close attention to the news coming from the high court. okay. we will see. bring in our friday panel, perry bacon, political director for the grio.com, nbc capitol hill correspondent kelly o'donnell and michael shearer from time magazine. welcome all. will the you are in capitol hill, right across the street from the supreme court, i understand this at this time, every member of congress is obsessed with getting inside this radio. >> all the talk, now just broken down to next week, the shortened

version of referring to the case. michele bachmann is thrilled -- >> she said, look, i got my ticket. like willie wonka. the golden ticket. >> enormous excitement about it. democrats in a defensive posture about it nancy pelosi in san francisco today, brings back a flood of memory over all of us, republicans see this as a real opportunity so it is the buzz, the distance between the supreme court and the capitol will shrink next week. . this argument bubbling up, you have pollsters arguing, well, politics are this, what comes out is complicated. is it complicated? >> they can uphold the law based on legalistic grounds. otherwise, i think particularly the republicans will pounce on this if they invalidate the law, big thing, mitt romney will talk about every day if the supreme

court says obama's biggest achievement is unconstitutional, thank you huge advantage for him. >> that to me seems to be the danger for the white house, right? >> i see this case as high risk/low reward for the white house they can didn't have to push it they could have delayed it until after election. >> they clearly wanted to get it done, tired of dealing with this sort of appeals court by appeals court. it if it is overturned or partly overturned by the supreme court, not just the health care law it is the whole ability of the president to govern, a subtext of the romney campaign. you hear this's really great guy but he just wasn't up for the job, if he spent a year of the nation's time or two years of the nation's time fighting for something that wasn't even legal, it really calls into question what he was doing with the country during the time he was there. >> justices are split on political grounds that doesn't surprise me, 65%, a third and a third. but i have this theory that the supreme court is above it a

little bit. particular if i fbi will this is 56-3 decision which my gut has been roberts at the end of the day d day doesn't want a politically divisive decision. >> people know cases contested over time but i think what is partly interesting about this case it is a proxy for the whole argument of government overreach. republicans want to make that case against the president and if this amplifies that, them look at it in every other context all the way to no. >> next week, they will release oral arguments every day, we are going to be live, i'm doing two shows, 9:00 in the morning here then up in the supreme court 3:00 every day during the arguments, what is interesting, you hear through the grapevine that an anthony kennedy you for instance, the guy that might be in the middle, didn't realize the political ramifications of

the citizens united. everybody says the justice politics isn't supposed to play a role, how does it not? >> it has to in this case, a law that gives 30 million people health insurance or doesn't it has to in the way they -- the most powerful thing they are going do this year this is the thing obama campaign or to in office has done the most important. they have got to be thinking about this in a political contest. >> michael shearer, if you are mitt romney what do you want? i think want to invalidate it, but the mandate, that odd sort of aspect of this. >> if you are mitt romney, you use this to make your very technical case that the federal mandate is different from the state man date. >> create a distinction. >> think he can ride this i think it is better this a way to really litigate this in early summer for mitt romney, to get all this out there when we have a decision. >> we will get it. >> by the time we get to the fall, pivot on other issues not one to get into an argument abo whether obama is able to be a

good president, able to get stuff done, knows what he's doing in office, where it's a competence issue. and he turns it into that, less an issue about policy. because as we have seen in the op-ed today, a tough time arguing policy. >> all right. we're going to talk a little week that was and a look ahead off the break. so perry kelly, michael, stick around. who is the only registered native american currently serving in congress. this is a jeopardy type question. we just heard from him. the answer is oklahoma congressman tom cole, who is a member of the chickasaw nation. you're watching "the daily rundown." in stall 5. it confirms your reservation and the location your car is in, the moment you land. it's just another way you'll be traveling at the speed of hertz.

well, it's friday. time to share some weekender are wisdom. three new pieces of information. perry bacon, kelly o'donnell. dems out-drudge gop. things that etch-a-sketch people

don't realize, democratic was the first one and they spread on twitter like wild fire in the ways drudge used to be used by republicans when they used to beat up john kerry. >> this is a realization but seven-year effort. after 2004, liberals got together, started things like think progress, media matters and said we have to create our own echo chamber. the irony is, as democrats have come into their own, matt drudge is absent. >> retreating, put his chips in with romney. >> yeah, living with the guy. >> speaking of romney, the other thing we learned this week, romney doesn't have a cocoon of protection, the cheerleading section. >> what i find, having covered all of these republican candidates in the field, you get a barometer with viewer response, the public response. >> e-mails and calls and now tweets. >> tweets, all of that. and there was not an upswell of trying to explain for romney, trying to distance him from there this. whereas in a moment you will get that from some of the other casey anthony.

>> if you just tweet the word pay lynn. that's all you have to do. you get a million responses. from her supporters saying what are you doing? >> there is this acceptance there will be gaps, problems, there is -- there are issues, and they just don't fight. >> and a state issue, florida drag a little bit. the florida republican party, an unprecedented effort to put up tv ads, trying to boost rick scott. he's not on the ballot. it's another republican that's going to be on the ballot. >> another republican on the ballot. but they have three governors, also ohio and wisconsin, a bunch of things very unpopular and motivating the democratic base at a time when president obama is not popular in those three states, which are all critical to win the election. >> shameless plug time. we'll go no reverse order. you first. >> university of louisville, hometown, could be going to the final four. >> never lost. >> never lost. rick pitino, exactly. >> unbelievable. and goes against a former player. billy donovan, right? >> exciting. >> i'm going to be at northwest,

my alma mater giving a keynote, so alums come on out. >> that's something they're not in the tournament. >> no, nothing to do with sports. >> great campaign reporting doesn't need to always happen on the campaign. louis menan has a great essay doing a close read of the romney literature. >> always love pieces like that. thank you all, that's this for today's edition of "the daily rundown." we're broadcasting from the supreme court starting monday, twice each day, as health care reform has its days in court. coming up next, chris jansing. have a great weekend. bye-bye. i'm meteorologist bill karins with a look at your weekend forecast. cooler temperatures arriving on the east coast as we go throughout our saturday. so be prepared for that. beautiful weather through the midwest all the way through the rockies. and on the west coast as we go

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