we don't throw people under the bus on this program. but if you want to know who made that mistake, it wasn't me. it was -- ok. john tower, what have you got, buddy? >> it kind of looks like donald sutherland, doesn't it? >> no. not at all. >> martha writes very simply, cow got into pool. >> that's it? >> that's it. >> that's new for us. people whose livestock have wandered into the pool. that could be a serious matter. we hope the cow is ok. "morning joe" starts right now. >> what was the result of the three days of argument? who won the court case of freedom v social contract? >> this was a train wreck. >> president obama's health care law could be on life support. >> it may also be a plane wreck. >> and down goes social contract!

eight, nine, 10, it's over! thank god that the disaster of that wasn't captured by cameras, as lady liberty just took -- oh, my god! biden. good morning. it's friday. can you believe it's friday? >> happy friday. >> it's finally friday, march 30. welcome to "morning joe." with us on set, msnbc and "time" magazine senior political editor mark halperin. and richard haass is with us as well. hi. >> good morning. >> what's the breaking news today? tweet, tweet, please tell me "wedding crashers 2" is coming out. >> no. i can't top yesterday.

we had the lead story of the week, the month, the year, "anchorman 2." >> massive. >> all right. can i just get right into news? >> kind of boring. >> no, please. >> i'd rather kill hamlet in the first act is. that ok? >> i'll tell you what the story is, megamillions. $540 millions. >> it's gambling. >> it's going to get up to about $600 million by the time it's said and done. get yourself a lump at about $375, take out taxes, get $190. >> everybody wins. >> hey, you never know. >> all the money goes to the kids. so everybody wins. and richard haass last night had his annual meeting. and he had to deliver his budget plan. and actually if he hits the jackpot -- >> that's plan b. >> that was plan a. i'm not going to tell you what plan b was. a lot of people hoping we don't have to resort to richard in his

speedos in the car wash on the side of the road trying to get the cars to come in. >> way too early for that. >> let's just pray. >> i will be at work on monday after i win. because it's not about the money for me here. >> no. it's about the kids. >> it's about family. >> that was funny. >> you always hear the stories about the people who won whose lives went bad. cautionary tale. >> we will take that chance. let's get into the news. i think the headline really is meant to be a debbie downer for my party. but, you know, we've got new nbc news/"wall street journal" polls out of wisconsin. and one more swing state where mitt romney is getting absolutely hammered by barack obama. >> yeah. why don't we start there. mitt romney and rick santorum are heading to wisconsin today, kicking off a final campaign push before tuesday's primary. according to the new poll out just this morning, romney has 40% in wisconsin. >> that's good news for romney.

>> ahead of rick santorum. in a general election matchup, wisconsin voters favor president obama over both romney and santorum, each by double digits. this lead for the president in wisconsin mirrors numbers this week from other key swing states. this latest poll shows the president topping the republican candidates in the battle ground state of florida. president obama is seven points ahead of romney and 13 points ahead of rick santorum. and in ohio, obama has a six-point lead on romney and seven points on santorum. rick santorum's home state of pennsylvania, even there he loses to president obama by seven points. mitt romney is closer to the president in that swing state, just outside the margin of error. >> mark halperin, it was not so long ago that republicans were handily defeating the president in every swing street poll. i remember one "usa today"/gallup poll showing the

president losing in ohio and one swing state after another. this is not only a turn for the president. it's a massive swing -- we have wisconsin which is a state republicans could win, should win if you look at the president's approval ratings not so long ago, and mitt romney, the supposed general election candidate, is getting hammered by almost 20 points. >> well, there are maps for the republicans to get to the white house without wisconsin but it's a heck of a lot easier with it. but, you know, the polls could swing back. republicans have to find a fundamental way to come back nationally, because a state like wisconsin is going to reflect the national polls. >> well, it's much easier to swing back from a five-point deficit than a 15 or 20-point deficit. what's behind those numbers? >> maybe it's the -- >> mitt romney has been battered going through the republican process. and he's not projected himself particularly well. and the president has done a good job in the last few months projecting himself in positive

ways. and that's what presidential politics is about. >> how about the fact that rick santorum is still there? if they were all out of and it were just mitt romney, would it help at all? because they seem to be splitting different sections. >> the sooner they are out, the sooner romney can concentrate on the general population. but with respect to gingrich and santorum, they are not the toughest opponents in the world. the fact they have distracted romney and have driven him down -- >> about you thbut they do get the republican base, do they not? >> but romney slices himself day in and day out. >> he is a cutter. a political cutter. >> that's so stupid. >> it's sad when politicians do that. >> don't say that. that's ridiculous. >> what are you talking about? >> it's ridiculous. >> willie, he cuts himself when he -- i don't know why. >> it's a terrible problem. >> he shouldn't do that. >> but we are looking at a double endorsement for the second time around. >> you asked what the problem is. president obama leads mitt

romney among women by 25 points. so it goes back to that conversation we've been having for a couple of months about the impact of this republican conversation on female voters. 25 points. >> really? i guess that idea of chaining women to a radiator in the kitchen, that the republicans wanted to put on the platform, not going over. >> that's a funny way of putting it in. >> they should have put frank luntz in the kitchen and poll tested it. what? >> can i go on with the endorsements? >> i'm just kind of wondering why the republicans and my party is doing what it's doing right now. and people are defending. >> you saw the pictures coming in. the latest from wisconsin. congressman paul ryan, though, who will reportedly throw his support behind the former massachusetts governor. romney has praised the house budget committee chairman's budget blueprint, which passed through the house yesterday, largely along party lines. and in another key endorsement for romney, former president

george h.w. bush officially threw his support behind the republican front-runner again. after a private meeting in houston, the 41st president encouraged the party to start focusing on the general election. >> barbara and i are very proud to fully and enthusiastically endorse and support our old friend, mitt romney. he is a good man. he'll make a great president. and we just wish him well. i do think it's time for the party to get behind governor romney. and she was reminding me kenny rogers sang, it's a time to hold them, a time to fold them. it's time for people to go and get behind this good man. >> and florida senator marco rubio, who publicly endorsed mitt romney earlier this week, offered this take yesterday on the republican field. he said in part, quote, this. there are a lot of other people out there that some of us wish had run for president. but they didn't.

>> ow. there's that pain. >> but they didn't. i think mitt romney would be a fine president. and he'd be way better than the guy who's there right now. >> you know, that's kind of like asking a girl out to a dance when you're in high school, and her saying yes, and then you hear her complaining, well, you know, the other 17 boys that i wanted to ask me before joey scarborough just weren't there. >> but he's fine. >> but he's fine. but he's fine. >> and then it turns out she's a cutter. >> yeah, yeah. >> no, romney is a cutter. he is a political cutter. and it's sad when kids or politicians do this. >> oh, thank god it's friday. >> no. it's just -- >> that was dumb. that doesn't even seem like a smart statement. >> that is the faintest of praise. >> i feel like his story about what inspired him to endorse romney is a little concocted as well. >> let's be honest. a lot of people that are just now endorsing mitt romney are

not that enthusiastic about him. and i think more people will slip up and say things just like that because it reflects their true feelings. >> a gaff. >> yeah. a gaff. what's happening in syria right now? we hear that there's a possibility of a peace plan. what's going on there? >> there is no possibility of a peace plan. if by peace plan you mean the diplomatic resolution to the civil war where the leadership of mr. assad stays in power, that is not going to happen. the arab league is meeting in iraq, and it's back to its old feckless self. it's simply not going to make a difference. the only diplomatic plan that could work, and i think the odds are less than 1%, is that mr. assad voluntarily agrees to give up power. this is going to be a fight to the finish. it's winner take all, loser lose all. diplomacy at the moment has no place. >> the president has said and

"the new york times" this weekend had horrifying stories of what was happening in assad's syria. but president obama said earlier that assad must go. does that not leave the united states in a position where assad must go? >> yes. but there's a gap between shall we say our rhetoric and our policy. there's all sorts of reasons that mr. assad must go. strateg strategically, it would be great to deal iran a major setback. this is a guy who has had 9,000 innocent people killed so he should go. but for the united states to say, quote, unquote, he must go, there's a tremendous gap between that and what we're doing. >> why is there that gap? because we were afraid that gadhafi might kill thousands and thousands of civilians so we went in. but here we have assad, who it's safe to say that he and his father, other than a couple of years in the early 1990s have been sworn enemies of the united states for decades. why is it that we go into

countries, you know, go in after gadhafi and not assad? >> in part you go into countries where it's not all that difficult to go in. to go into syria, would be militarily a bigger challenge, shall we say. diplomatically, gadhafi was totally isolated, had zero support in the arab world. assad has considerable support in the arab world. also the nato or international thing. so to take this on would be yet another significant military intervention. there's no stomach for it. and there's also not a lot of confidence as to what would take place. i think the opposition in syria has got to do some things that give us a better sense, for example, that they would form a government where all syrians, regardless of their ethnicity or sect is, would have a fair place. >> and we don't see that yet. >> it's premature. so from syria to gas prices, mika. i see that's up next in the news. any sort of instability even in countries that don't produce

oil -- >> well, the president is getting his arms around this. they are emerging obviously as a key political issue. and the president is hoping to shift the public's frustration away from the white house and to ward those ongoing tax breaks for the world's largest oil companies. the president spoke to representatives from a number of environmental groups yesterday at the rose garden just hours before the senate was set to vote on the bill that would repeal nearly $4 billion in oil subsidies. >> they can either vote to spend billions of dollars more in oil subsidies that keep us trapped in the past or they can vote to end these taxpayer subsidies that aren't needed to boost oil production so that we can invest in the future. we innovate, we discover, we seek new solutions to some of our biggest challenges, and ultimately because we stick with it we succeed. and i believe that we're going to do that again. today, the american people are going to be watching congress to

see if they have that same faith. >> the plan presented by democratic senator robert menendez would prevent the oil industry's big five from claiming several tax deductions. despite the president's attempts to rally support for the measure, the bill fell nine votes short of the 60 needed to advance. other political news, mitt romney is confirming that he had a private meeting last weekend with fellow candidate newt gingrich. is this interesting? >> yes. >> it's kind of interesting. what would they talk about? >> i don't know. >> the meeting came just days before gingrich announced he was scaling back his campaign staff. but the former house speaker insists he has not made any deals. and will continue on with his presidential bid. mitt romney also down played the significance of their get together, which i believe happened at 6:30 in the morning at a hotel. insisting the two have regularly talked throughout the campaign. >> well, we had -- what? what? i was going to say, we had a new

york governor that used to take his meetings in a hotel up at -- where was it? >> the days hotel on 94th street. 94th and broadway. >> and governor patterson would take 6:30 meetings also. >> meet the voters. >> oh, stop. come on. take just one story seriously this morning. everything goes into the toilet with you. >> you have close contact with the voters if you want to win elections, right? >> don't engage. >> we learned one thing about what happened at the meeting. hey, newt, i've got a humorous story for you. >> so what does that mean? do you think they are trying to -- what are they doing? >> not only at the candidate level but at the senior staff level there have been a lot more conversations amongst the various campaigns than have been reported. they are talking about trying to keep this in the interest of the party. they know they can't force gingrich out of the race, but -- >> any deals made? any offers or promises? >> i think more discussions about what tampa will look like. that's my sense of these talks. >> in august, it's just -- >> they want the convention to

be a unified thing. >> it's brutal. >> how big of a role will newt gingrich have at that convention? i think pretty big. pretty big speaking slot for him. and i think that's one of the important things he can come out of these discussions with. >> we're seeing a flood of stories now too at this point in the race that say newt gingrich threatens to ruin his legacy. if he hangs around long enough. i don't really see that myself. >> that's not true. but those are some of the stories saying he ought to get out for the preservation of his own legacy. but he's still going to be the guy who led the republican revolution. that doesn't change that. and i think this fits with his character. he is completely defiant. this is the way he is. >> if newt can strike a deal with romney to get a major speaking slot at the convention, and he goes out there and hits it out of the park, which he probably will in his 10 to 15-minute speech in primetime that wipes the slate clean of every loss, and that projects him forward as at least a player

in the republican party moving forward. >> and you think about the fact there are no more debates. there was a possibility we'd be having debates all spring. no more debates. that convention speech is his big moment for the whole year. he's never going to have the platform that he's going to have in that speech. and he'll get a great reception in the room. and i bet you -- this is not reporting. this is conjecture. i bet he'd like to be secretary of state in the romney administration. >> well that -- yeah, that wouldn't happen, would it? >> well, willie would like to host "dancing with the stars" with the super bowl pregame. >> tom bergeron has that locked up. in the murder of trayvon martin, we still haven't heard directly from the gunman, george zimmerman. but a new eyewitness of the confrontation plus police security video are helping to shape the public's perception of the case. zimmerman was brought to the

sanford police station less than 40 minutes after the shooting of the 17-year-old in what he claims was self defense. zimmerman's defenders say his injuries weren't clear in the video because he was given first aid before reaching the station. the gunman's brother insists zimmerman used his weapon as a last resort after being attacked by martin. >> george was out of breath. he was barely conscious. the last thing he remembers doing was moving his head from the concrete to the grass so that if he was banged one more time, he wouldn't be, you know, wearing diapers for the rest of his life and being spoon fed by his brother. and there would have been george dead. >> well, what we don't understand -- i think i agree with -- i think some of us don't understand this. like why is it that some on the right are actually taking this up as a cause when as a national

review said almost immediately after it happened, this has nothing to do with gun rights. this has nothing to do with the second amendment. this has nothing to do withstand your ground laws. this has nothing to do with the nra. this has everything to do with a guy that's trying to play security cop who was unhinged, who chased down and shot a 17-year-old kid, armed with skittles and iced tea. and yet, i mean, mark, some of these guys on the right are jumping in with both feet on the far right. they should listen to the national review when wise conservative thinkers and not take this up as a cause. but they are and they are trashing trayvon martin. it's disgusting. >> it's two of the most depressing trends in our political media culture. one is in the wake of the oj simpson trial, every criminal case with disputed facts becomes fodder for people in the media. but the other is, everything has to be political for some of

these people. and this is the big story of the day, so they feel they must talk about it and in a partisan way and in a way that is so bad for the country. >> and, willie, "the new york times" has something online in the lead. i forget what the blog is called. i guess it's the lead blog. >> yeah. >> and showing how some websites, some racist websites, but also sadly some fairly mainstream websites, are actually going in to trayvon martin's social media pages, be it twitter or myspace, and they are trying to find ominous looking pictures while skipping overictures of him holding up a birthday cake smiling, him fishing with his dad, him standing outside proudly of his home dressed in a tux ready to go to prom. but they are trying to cherry pick pictures trying to make him look ominous.

somehow suggesting that he deserved getting shot in the chest with a .9 millimeter, because they find a picture that may make him look ominous. >> and to what end? it's not just the photographs, too. they are pulling tweets out that don't actually say anything relevant to the case but make him sound thuggish maybe in some way in the way he speak. i'm not quite sure what they are going for with that. but mark's right. some on the right took one side right away without hearing any of the facts. they put up the sweet young pictures of trayvon martin. they are trying for some reason to provide balance, pull it back the other way, but i think they picked the wrong case to do that. >> exactly. >> and trayvon martin's mother, the pain, the agony that she's going through, she said first my son was killed, and now they are trying to kill his reputation. you go through that twitter feed.

it's innocuous at best. i can show you a lot of white kids from suburban neighborhoods, and take you through their facebook pages, their twitter feeds, their pictures. come on. >> yeah. that's a really good point. >> this is really -- i mean, i wonder if some of these people that are attacking him would like their children's social media pages gone through. this is beneath contempt. and we've talked about this before. this is beneath contempt. and these people on the right, far right, are being fools to try to make this a political issue. again, there are responsible, reasonable conservative outlets, and i talked about the national review from the very beginning. darrell peden out of florida, very conservative guy who drafted the stand your ground bill. a lot of republican politicians

that are doing the right thing. but there are some out there that are marginalizing themselves and making fools of themselves. >> because they have picked this case to make a stand. it's ridiculous. >> i guess it's because the president actually said something to comfort the parents. and i guess they just can't handle that. i guess in their warped, twisted, distorted political world view, that makes this dead 17-year-old boy who was kept in the morgue for three days before they even notified his parents of his whereabouts. i guess that makes it ok. >> that's pretty sick. coming up, we'll bring in republican senator saxby chambliss. tom brokaw. lawrence o'donnell, and eugene robinson. up next, mike allen with the politico playbook, and willie's week in review.

but first, bill karens with a check on the weekend forecast. >> it's going to be split. middle of the country, gorgeous and warm. northeast, you're not going to like it. worst weather in the country, much of wisconsin, milwaukee, green bay. in chicago, that rain will head through your areas. this storm system is going to track today through the southern great lakes, northern ohio valley. eventually that rain will make it to pittsburgh and buffalo. that will be late today. in the northeast, mid-atlantic, you're dry today. but late tonight, we're going to see snow and rain mixture throughout much of new york state, southern new england, including albany, boston, probably springfield. hartford to new york city, probably just a cold rain for you. it's not going to be a fun early saturday morning. saturday afternoon, a bit better. the middle of the country, i mentioned how gorgeous it's going to be. temperatures today in the 70s from kansas city to denver. and look what happens as we go through the weekend. temperatures are going to soar all the way up to minneapolis, to billings. we could even be in the 90s in dallas by the time we get to sunday. and the west coast, sunday

probably looks a little bit better. i know you're getting so much rain lately in oregon and washington state. your weather will get slowly better as the weekend progresses. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. ♪ there's a place i dream about ♪ ♪ where the sun never goes out ♪ ♪ and the sky is deep and blue ♪ ♪ won't you take me american flight 280 to miami is now ready for boarding. ♪ there with you fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself. nonstop. american airlines.

the mcmillions lottery. $540 million. to put that into perspective, if you laid $540 million bills end to end, you would regret it because people would just definitely come and take it. and, folks, i have got to tell you, i've got the winner right here. went with my old standby, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, ok?

same as my bank pin, ok? oops. jimmy, let's edit that out. >> can't do. >> ok, thanks. now -- >> welcome back to "morning joe." we were talking about trayvon before. and, again, i want to be crystal clear here. it's not the conservative movement. it's not republicans. it is, though, a select group of people in the media, new media, on the far right, that are trying to whip this up. but also, willie, on the far left, there's some -- you read some tweets that just make you want to gag. >> well, any time someone makes a tragedy about them and their movement and their personal feelings, it's a little distasteful. >> very well put. >> and that's what, mark, you were saying is so disgusting, is that both sides try to politicize absolutely everything. in this case, i think the far right is being a bit more disgusting. but there are some on the left that have said some things trying to pin this to republicans. >> capitalizing on the emotion

of it. >> but this is not about any political party. this is not about any ideology. this is about a police department in central florida that acted i think in a terrible way, right? i mean, it's politicized it. >> as you said in your story meeting, trying to plan your three hours of talk radio, just think about what you're actually doing and whether you can just leave the story of the day behind and talk about something else that's actually political. >> whether you're making it about yourself or covering the story. let's take a look at the morning paper starting with "the new york times." shortly after tim cook toured apple's chinese line, he worked out a new deal to improve conditions for workers, reducing their long hours and raising their pay. and the "wall street journal." struggling blackberry maker research in motion says it's going to shift its new strategy, right, and they are going to

just turn the blackberries into paper weights. >> no, no. i'm trying to go -- >> well, actually, if that doesn't work, they are going to return their focus to business customers who depend on email security after failing to compete with apple iphone and google android software. yesterday, r.i.m. reported that quarterly losses of $125 million. worse than wall street expected. and this is what i have been saying for like two years. give me the blue blackberry, right? >> yes, with the scroll on the side. >> the old one with the scroll on the side. and i'm dead serious. it emails. and it does phone calls. >> that's it. >> i don't even need the -- >> don't clutter it up. >> i don't need to even check the web. just make the blackberry work again. >> fast. >> instead of glitching. and make it fast. >> yeah. >> and i'm good. that's all i'm take. i'll use my iphone just for play things. but for work -- >> yeah. >> because i tell you what, these things are still -- i love my iphone. they are still hard to work on.

but blackberry forgot what their core mission was. they tried to be all things to all people and failed. >> the blueberry, right? the blue one. it was cute. >> no, it was the blackberry. >> i drove over one by mistake. >> richard haass agrees, right? >> it's too late. >> they're dead? >> they are hemorrhaging. >> i hope not. >> but if they go away, there's still a gap in the market. we still need a device with a keyboard. >> we need a device that works. >> the in between is the to droid, but the problem is it's huge. my wife has one. it's massive. >> and they don't have the corporate security that the blackberry has, which for corporate email, you know -- >> it's very complicated, obviously. >> again, strip it down. and there's the mistake they made. strip it down. watch your core mission. your core mission is not entertaining us. your core mission is giving us something that works, that we can call on, that we can send emails on, that is secure.

>> that's it. >> that's your core mission. i will say it again for the 50th time. and if they do that, and strip it down, they can survive. but all of these other apps, it's just like -- the reason i left pcs. you would get the pc. from whomever. and then you would have all of these different apps that didn't really talk to each other that well. they would glitch up. cause problems. the pc would slow down. and that's why apple does everything top to bottom. and the blackberry tried to do the same thing. >> yeah. >> all of these apps that didn't talk to each other. it slowed things down. and pretty soon emailing and calling would glitch up. >> well, there you go. >> and that brick game. you want the brick game. >> you can have the brick game. that's fine. >> my kids like that. they would always take my blackberry to do that. >> just don't clutter things up. you know who doesn't clutter things up -- >> say willie. >> mike. >> money mike allen. >> he is the chief white house correspondent at politico as you know by now. he is here with the morning

playbook. good morning. >> happy friday. >> happy friday. >> the weekend has begun with mike allen. mike, let's talk about one of your big stories this morning, gop fears latino revolt. you cite the often talked about march 8 poll from fox news that shows president obama beating mitt romney among latinos 70-14 with a 56-point lead is. there any chance, any way to turn that around for the republican party? >> well, republican senators know that they need to. and for the first time they're telling us that they want action on immigration this year. one of the leaders of this is senator marco rubio of florida. he says republicans need to be known as the pro legal immigration party. some of the top republican senators are telling us that they want to take some action to make it easier for there to be a path to some type of citizenship. marco rubio very smartly is

focusing on young people who have -- were born -- or who have come into this country. one of his ideas is people who are trying to enlist in the military. also republicans are talking about maybe something short of full citizenship. but some action that would show that the republicans care about these younger people. among the senators who have been leading this are senator saxby chambliss of georgia, coming up here on "morning joe." jon cornyn of texas, he says these are people that have not been communicated to and says the nominating process has left republicans in a much worse case. also behind the scenes, they are telling mitt romney, hey, we've got to do something about this. >> it's a huge long-term problem for the party. but in the short-term, places like florida, new mexico, nevada, they have to win those states with some portion of that vote coming up in the next few months. mike allen, thank you so much for a look at the playbook. we'll see you.

>> happy weekend. >> happy weekend, mike. sports is coming up next. and later, the megamillions jackpot at $540 million. >> richard haass is sweating. >> but that's nothing compared to what the top hedge fund managers took home last year. nbc senior investigator lisa myers joins us for an annual look at the rich list. we'll be right back. turn left.

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real quick sports here. get you ready for the final four. tomorrow, the games played in new orleans at the superdome where they are expecting a crowd of about 55,000 people to watch these games. the overall number one seed kentucky taking on in-state rival louisville at 6:09 eastern time. >> that's going to be a barn burner. >> barn burner. the cats if you're so interested, 8 1/2 points favorites at the moment. they beat the cardinals earlier this season on new year's eve. 61-62. >> you can just throw that out. because for two hours -- >> two hours on a saturday night in the big easy. >> in the big easy, anything is possible when these two teams tangle. >> and the other nice part is, the folks in new orleans can forget about their problems for just two hours on a saturday night. >> just for two hours.

but make no mistake of it. it's going to be hell on the hardwood in the big easy. intersta intrastate rivals. >> no love loss. it is family versus family. brother versus brother. >> there is another game. >> is there another game? >> yeah. about 8:49 or so, whenever the other one ends, two seed ohio state and kansas plays. kansas beat ohio state in december by 11 points. kansas won the tournament in 2008. ohio state favored by a couple of points. >> enough of that. that's when new orleans comes back to its wallowing and its -- >> up next, mika's must-read opinion pages. keep it here on "morning joe." >> always exciting. ♪

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welcome back to "morning joe." time now for the morning opinion pages. >> is he screaming in your ear too? >> he just wants to go home. >> he does. the front page of "the washington post," romney to stress foreign policy and will press obama on his record. just overall, the concept of romney doing that to obama doesn't seem to make sense. i'll read from the article. and his speech is just encapsulating what we have been seeing. romney has imposed a more confrontational approach to russia, iran, and other countries, one that would clearly identify the united states friends and enemies and treat them accordingly. he has also used language on the stump that has evoked the cold war era, including the pledge to

devote myself to an american century. this is a piece by scott wilson. and he has been taking on obama on russia as well, with really strong words. what do you make of this strategy? >> well, you can argue the politics or you can argue merits. the politics is not clear. the president's foreign policy is not perceived to be a great liability. we can point to the osama bin laden killing. he tripled the force levels in afghanistan. so i don't think he is that vulnerable. i think there's a strong case that the american people are not particularly at the moment looking for a muscular foreign policy, whether it's in afghanistan or anywhere else. i think it's a general sense that the real challenge for the united states is more at home. that we've got to repair the foundations of american power, the economy, our schools, our infrastructure, and the rest. that that's where the challenges are. the president would say nation building at home more than in places like afghanistan and iraq. and then i think some of the merits, whether it's russia or the others, we need to work with them on some of these issues, like it or not.

we have to work with them on places like iran. we can't do it all by ourselves. it's not clear to me either in the foreign policy case or the political case how there's that much space here for republican challenger to come at it in that way. >> there's a tradition in american politics you blast the sitting president's foreign policy, or at least the administration. kennedy did it in 1960 with basically made up a missile gap out of thin air. and of course, i remember bill clinton in 1992 going after george hw bush for coddling the buchers of beijing. and by the time he was sworn in, bill clinton had a very open relationship with china. but here it just doesn't seem to make political sense. because like you said, the president has tripled the number of troops in afghanistan. he is sending drones in to blow up people in countries where we haven't even declared war. >> took out osama bin laden. >> took out osama bin laden. just the pure politics of it

just doesn't seem to make a lot of sense to me. >> cold war provided a geopolitical context where you could have things like the missile gap debate and the rest. i'm not sure right now the war on terror does it. again, for two reasons. the president has been pretty muscular. his policy looks an awful lot like his predecessor's policy. plus, there's fatigue. the united states is going through two enormous wars, but there's fatigue. >> mark halperin, what is the strategy here? is it because he doesn't have anything on health care strong enough to go up against obama? in fact, he is weak? why wouldn't he just stay right on the economy? >> again, talking about the merits of the president's record but just the policy for mitt romney, he wants to make the argument that the president is not competent. if you're going to do that, you can't just seize on domestic. you have to cherry pick areas of foreign policy where maybe he is not competent. the issues and the economy matters as well. but part of being elected

president is getting people comfortable you would be a good commander in chief. i think you have to talk about foreign policy to do that. people have to envision mitt romney as commander in chief, not just the guy in charge of the economy. all right. up next, willie's week in review. we'll be right back. i bathed it in miracles. director: [ sighs ] cut! sorry to interrupt. when's the show? well, if we don't find an audience, all we'll ever do is rehearse. maybe you should try every door direct mail. just select the zip codes where you want your message to be seen, print it yourself, or we'll help you find a local partner and you find the customers that matter most. brilliant. clifton, show us overjoyed. no, too much. jennessa. ah! a round of applause. [ applause ] [ male announcer ] go online to reach every home, every address, every time with every door direct mail.

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ee, yes. is it time? >> it's been a long week.

finally we have reached that point. let's look back. time for the week in review. >> it was nice to see a flick for the first time in a long time. >> at number three, mitt at the movies. >> i actually read the books too. every now and then i read something just for fun. >> mitt romney when not defending the car elevators in his southern california home provided a review for the young adult blockbuster film "hunger games." >> i think the pg 13 is an appropriate indication of the seriousness of the film. but i'm over 13 now. >> rick santorum meanwhile got an r rating for his performance this week with a reporter from "the new york times." >> if i see it, it's bull [ bleep ]. come on, man. what are you doing? >> santorum blew off a little of that steam during a stop at the lake shore lanes in sheboygan, wisconsin, where his turkey run of three strikes in a row provided a sharp contrast to the president of the united states.

at number two, ladies and gentlemen, your new president of the world bank. ♪ i've had the time of my life ♪ and i never felt this way before ♪ >> it wasn't long after president obama nominated the president of dartmouth college, dr. jim yong kim, to head the world bank that this video of dr. kim has a rapping astronaut spread across the internet. ♪ so come on, let's go ♪ the show is out of control ♪ go, go, go >> the performance catapulted dr. kim to the very top of the president's short list. ♪ it's the truth ♪ and i owe it all to you and the number one story of the week -- >> everybody has to buy food sooner or later.

therefore, you can make people buy broccoli. >> an historic week at the highest court in the land where president obama's bfd health care law went under the microscope. >> you really want us to go through these 2,700 pages, and do you really expect a court to do that? >> the man charged with defending the law before the supreme court was, uh, thirsty. >> because of the -- uh -- the, uh -- the, uh -- excuse me. >> but the supreme court arguments about a law that affects the health and the very lives of millions of americans was overshadowed completely this week by news that impacts every man, woman, and child from sea to shining sea. >> paramount pictures and myself, ronald joseph aaron burgundy, have come to terms on a sequel to "anchorman." >> ron burgundy crashed conan's

show to announce he's getting the channel 4 action news team back together. >> news team assemble! >> the national rejoicing over the news of the "anchorman" sequel proved what ron burgundy has known for a long time. >> i don't know how to put this, but i'm kind of a big deal. >> really? >> people know me. >> i'm very happy for you. >> i'm very important. i have many leather bound books. >> i have to see that. >> will ferrell by himself is genius. but christina applegate playing off of him. >> so underrated. >> oh, my god. >> she's great. >> she is amazing. she is amazing. >> i have to see it. >> you would love that movie. >> really?

>> i promise. >> you know, san diego is actually german for -- [ laughter ] >> agree to disagree. >> what? what is it? >> you'll have to say the movie. >> just tell me. >> i can't say the punchline on the television set because children are watching. >> just watch it. this weekend. you need to watch it. >> all the guys, though, right? >> everybody knows. >> every meathead knows the punch line there. and i am the king of all meatheads when it comes to will ferrell. >> jonathan capehart is up next. >> thank god your here. [ male announcer ] what if you had thermal night-vision goggles,

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other things rick santorum thinks are bull [ bleep ]. number 10. imitation maple syrup. >> it's bull [ bleep ]. >> that's right. number nine, no shirt, no shoes, no service. >> it's bull [ bleep ]. >> number eight. the internet. >> it's bull [ bleep ]. >> number seven, dr. phil's medical degree. >> it's bull [ bleep ]. >> number six, corn shaped corn holders. >> it's bull [ bleep ]. >> number five, british revolutionary war uniforms. >> they looked good. >> oh, ok. well, that's our mistake. that shouldn't have been on the list. he thinks highly of those uniforms. number four, politicians using profanity. >> it's bull [ bleep ]. >> number three, "glee." >> it's bull [ bleep ].

>> number two, letterman repeatedly playing this video. >> it's bull [ bleep ]. >> and the other things rick santorum thinks are bull [ bleep ]. number one, sweaters with sleeves. >> it's bull [ bleep ]. >> very good. top of the hour. welcome back to "morning joe." mark halpern is still with us. and joining the table -- >> this is big. this is big! >> from msnbc's "the last word." >> we get the first word this morning. >> he is on four hours sleep. wow. >> look, for someone who works four hours a week, it is -- >> well, i was going to say. >> it is not being here on four hours of sleep. >> i can imagine. >> i was just going to say, because mika was being contemptuous because we live on four hours of sleep. but you don't realize, lawrence may have been born in the east. but he is an l.a. boy. >> yeah. >> he is used to working on four hours of sleep. >> i have a california passport now. >> yeah. exactly. >> and i was feeling really sorry for myself.

and then i come in and i see jonathan capehart, who was here as late as i was last night. >> yeah. >> we actually did another 15 minutes of the show after the show that jonathan participated in for the web because there was just so much to do. and, you know, i don't get extra money for that. >> you're actually rambling on now like you're working on four hours of sleep. getting down in the weeds there. >> please proceed. >> i saw your twitter feed, so i understand. but you just lost everybody else. do you know who you sound like? the solicitor general. >> oh, yeah? >> god, that was bad. listen to this. do we have this tape? >> is this the ad? >> i'm not playing this because it's an rnc ad or whatever it, is i'm just playing because you can really hear the bumbling around. >> case 11398, the department of health and human services versus florida. >> for more than 80% of americans, the insurance system does provide effective access. excuse me.

because the -- uh -- the uh -- the -- uh -- excuse me. >> lawrence o'donnell. >> yeah. >> need some water? >> you know, they tried to get rick perry to argue the case. and he said no. >> that's just shameless. >> actually, though, let's talk -- >> no, listen, i expect that to happen to me every night. >> it happens to all of us. >> in the middle of the show, i forget the name of, you know, the secretary of state. hillary -- >> i've had nixonian flops so many times to tv. but you said something that i thought was so fascinating, that you guys in 1993 when you were working this through committee

you got halfway through and said, hold on a second, there may be a viable constitutional challenge here. >> yes. >> and you guys figured that out halfway through the health care discussion in '93. you get the sense this week, at the beginning of the week, you had a lot of administration officials saying, we're going to win this 8-1. and they would even say that off the air. we're going to win this 8-1. >> joe, unlike here, in primetime, i'm allowed to do a little bit of editorializing, just a little bit. >> a smij. >> so i have been presenting the administration's thing about their confidence at the supreme court, which they have had ever since the supreme court granted permission for more time than anything ever in the court. they have been pretending they are confident about the outcome of the supreme court. it is impossible to be confident about the outcome of something at the supreme court, especially when you're prediction is -- i think it's going to be 5-4.

how do you have that confidence? every once in a while, you think that's going to be 9-0. ok. have you some confidence there. but this is a roberts court. it's a republican dominated court. and you are pushing out to the limits if it is the limit of what you could possibly do with the commerce clause and with this kind of jurisdiction. there was never any -- they were always lying about being confident. they were terrified from the start. >> were they really? >> yeah. it is not common to do big hunks of legislation coming out of the senate finance committee, coming out of these committees, and have it end up in the supreme court. when is the last time a senate finance committee bill ended up in the supreme court for a constitutional challenge? it doesn't happen. i mean, it happens every 50 years. >> lawrence, you've been underneath the hood and tried to assemble a health care plan before. howard dean was on yesterday. and he said, you know, they should have never gone down the individual mandate path. >> absolutely. absolutely.

and i would guess you would say the same thing. so for everybody that says the sky falls if the individual mandate is stripped out -- >> that's such a joke. >> tell democrats what else could be done. >> they don't understand what they have done. first of all, there is no universal individual mandate here. this bill, which was targeted toward what became 50 million uninsured -- the uninsured have gone up since president obama took office simply because unemployment soared, and that's how you get uninsured in this country. as soon as they are unemployed, because of the employer based system, which is a bad idea, you lose insurance. so the bill from its design leaves out over 20 million people. it leaves out legally 20 million of you. we're not going to do a thing. every single tragic story you've heard about people losing homes and all those things, we just -- this bill attempts to cut the number of those stories in half. and only in half. and it has no ambition to ever

get beyond that. ever. and so they are leaving out tens of millions of people from this mandate, from the medicaid expansion, from all of this stuff. and so the pretense is, if you let anyone out of the system, they will freeload and then the system will be burdened by the free loader, which by the way, the system has figured out how to account for within medicaid spending. it's called disproportionate share. we know where they are. they show up in big urban hospitals and we send extra money to cover it. so it's a fraud to say that without this, without the mandate, we'll have all of these free loaders. you're going to have 20 million of them at least. >> anyway. >> i think there's a lot of arguments for why they should have gone down the path of individual mandate, especially. jonathan capehart, you wrote this. in arguments before the supreme court this week, the obama

administration might have done just enough to keep the affordable care act from being rul ruled unconstitutional. if obama care is struck down, the implications are uncertain. conservatives may be buoyed by a mid year victory. the long-term consequences, however, are obvious. sooner or later, it will be inevitable. i am talking about a single payer health care system. if the supreme court strikes down obama care, the singer payer system will go from being politically impossible to being, in the long run, fiscally impossible. >> gene, in politics, there's always the law of unintended consequences. republicans could see this health care bill struck down and see an even more far-reaching one passed after the election.

>> well, look, this is -- as lawrence said this is kind of halfway health care reform. this is health care reform light. it leaves out a lot of people. it's based on this sort of rube goldberg employer-based system that evolved here and ended up being, i don't know, 17% of the economy or something like that, so it's hard to change that in one fell swoop. and it wasn't politically possible anyhow, even though every other industrialized nation in the world uses the single-payer system, and gets better health care outcomes, for half the cost. so if you can't do it this way, if you can't do it by just kind of adding a piece here and a little piece there, but leaving the basic system intact, costs are just going to keep going up. and we're going to reach a point where the only way to fix it is actually what is probably the

right way to fix it, which is to go to a single-payer system. and i think if it's struck down, i think it hastens that day. >> well, one thing is certain. i always talk about the need to reform and slow down the spending rate in medicare and medicaid. but everybody understands on the left and the right, from dr. howard dean to dr. tom coburn, that the system is broken. and it's inefficient. and we've got to get -- come back together and fix this, regardless of what happens this week. so, gene, what do you think happened to many on the left? where were they so overconfident coming into this week that they were going to win 8-1, when i think from the beginning most of us thought that it was coming down to anthony kennedy? >> yeah. i have no idea. i have no idea why anybody thought this was going to be 8-1 or some people said 9-0, that -- i don't know, that scalia was going to lose his mind. or forget who he was.

and also vote for the thing too. so i don't know why people thought it was going to be lopsided. it was probably always going to be a close thing. and it still is. and you can listen to what anthony kennedy said at the beginning of the hearing, and what he said at the end of the hearing, and you can decide that it goes either way. but i think that's the way it's going to be. >> well, that's the key. if you read anthony kennedy, what he said at the beginning of the hearing where he talked about this the federal government creating commerce in order to regulate it, and then what he said at the end, talking about why the health care act actually made sense, there is as lawrence said -- there are many very important constitutional questions to sort through. this is not a slam dunk on either side. >> and i think they are close calls. i heard very good arguments on both sides. and we showed, you know, the solicitor general's worst moment, but he made excellent arguments through most of this hearing. the other side made some very

sharp arguments. there was some bad and irrelevant arguments. it was, let's remember, the longest argument in my lifetime in the united states supreme court. and the solicitor general is accustomed to doing no more than 20-minute arguments. >> tough questions are no indication of the outcome. >> no, they are not. moving on to politics, mitt romney and rick santorum are heading to wisconsin today for a final campaign push before the primaries there. according to a new poll out just this morning, romney has 40% support in wisconsin, seven points ahead of rick santorum. in a general election matchup, the poll shows wisconsin voters favor president obama over both romney and santorum, each by double digits. this lead for the president in wisconsin mirrors numbers from this week from other key swing states. one poll shows the republican topping the republican candidates in the battle ground state of florida. president obama is seven points ahead of romney and 13 points ahead of rick santorum.

and in ohio, obama has a six-point lead on romney and is up seven points on santorum. and even in rick santorum's home state of pennsylvania, he loses to president obama by seven points. mitt romney closer to the president in pennsylvania just outside the margin of error. >> jonathan capehart, not so long ago you had the president faring poorly in every swing state from wisconsin down to florida. now he's 17 points ahead in wisconsin against romney. seven points ahead in other swing states. seven ahead in florida. >> right. >> which, again, the president has been in the low 40s in florida for several years. it looks like there's been a real shift in the dynamics of this race. >> well, i mean, if i would say anything to the obama administration and supporters of the president, enjoy it while it lasts, because as you said he was down in the battleground polls before. he is up now. once there's a republican

nominee, the poll numbers are going to close. so as mark said at the top of the show, this is a snapshot in time. >> why the big change? >> well, i think the president has been doing a very good job since last september of making his case for what he believes he's trying to do for the american people. he's been taking the fight to the republican party. he has been taking the fight to the republican leadership in congress. and the american people are responding because the previous three years they were complaining that the president was just sitting back and losing battles, and it didn't look like he was fighting. i think the american people don't mind a president who loses a battle as long as they believe he at least fought to win that battle. so i think between that and republicans just boxing themselves in, you know, we saw this in high relief with the payroll tax cut debacle in december, you put those two together, and i think that's what is happening with the president. but with mitt romney and his seven-point lead in wisconsin,

i'm just getting a feeling, and getting this feeling, that things are coalescing around mitt romney. he's got paul ryan. he's got marco rubio. he's got -- >> well, kind of. >> marco rubio was like, well, you know, other people should have run. >> 17 other people that i liked better wouldn't run. >> but still there's momentum that they'll get to tampa and be like, ok, you can be the nominee. >> i don't think joe's feeling it. >> i'm not feeling it. gene, you have 60 days between the last republican primary and tampa. if mitt romney doesn't get over that magic number and get the nomination before then, there is going to be weeping and gnashing of teeth and the wringing of hands for two months, day in and day out. in the media. and that can't be good for mitt romney. >> no. that would not be good for mitt romney. but, look, if you believe these

poll numbers would hold up through the election, then republicans can take the year off. right? if they are going to lose ohio, florida, and all the swing states, there's hardly a point. jonathan is right. it's going to close. we only have close presidential elections. so it will be close. nonetheless, you know, there's a weakness there in mitt romney. and there are vulnerabilities. and if he -- you know, if he thinks he's going to beat president obama on foreign policy, you know, good luck with that. i don't think that's going to work. i think he's going to have to make a better appeal. and frankly, he's going to have to root against the economy because i think that's really part of the shift we're seeing. people's perception is the economy has gotten better. and that makes them feel better about the president. >> all right. eugene robinson, thank you so much. we'll be reading your column in "the washington post." >> so, lawrence, let me ask you. what do you think happens over

60 days if mitt romney doesn't go over the top? >> well, i think the problem is within the party. you want to have that delegate count locked down in case you have a really bad day in the campaign, in case you figuratively get pulled over for speeding or something. if you start to create doubt between that last primary and the nomination as to whether you should actually have it, you want to be able to say, wait, i got them. i have them right here. you know, it's a -- i would hate to be inside the romney campaign. >> i think it would really be best for romney to spend those 60 days holed up in his la jolla mansion just playing with the car garage, the elevator. maybe just playing with it. because he's made so many gaffs. >> yeah. and i think with romney -- >> he can't afford any more. >> with all the candidates we have seen, john edwards surprised a lot of people. >> he sure did. >> but we don't expect some personal scandal thing to come out about mitt romney.

but imagine, that's the big reason why you don't want one of these situations. if a big personal scandal thing came up in that period of time, you'd be in big trouble. that isn't going to happen. >> that's not going to happen. >> but it could be that $10,000 bet, the elevator stuff, the -- >> telling a joke about your dad shutting down a factory. >> i think the biggest one so far is russia. it's easy to play the $10,000 bet. but the russia comment is the biggest wild thing, confidence shaking thing, he has said so far. >> all right. lawrence and jonathan, stay with us. still ahead, we'll be talking to tom brokaw and film maker lee hirsch about a provocative new documentary on bullying and what schools can do to help stop it. and speaking of bullying, this guy was just an s.o.b. to me when i was in congress. he would come back, poke me in the chest, and say, boy, you're going to follow me. >> you're not like that. >> republican senator saxby chambliss, a mean spirited man.

>> he is not. he is a wonderful man. >> i adore him. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks.

the senate has announced for the third year in a row for over 1,000 days they are not going to bother doing a budget. budgeting is one of the core fundamental, rudimentary aspects of governing. if you're going to govern, if you're going to lead, you must budget. >> welcome back to "morning joe." what a pretty shot. 23 past the hour as the sun comes up over capitol hill. gentlemen, just wait one second. >> we're talking to the legend of bud schuster, the guy that we all -- we're talking about back room deals. >> i'm sorry. >> here with us now republican senator from georgia, senator saxby chambliss. really good to have you on the show. >> thanks. always good to be with you. >> we went through congress together, saxby and i. >> yes. >> we were all talking about how washington works and how it there are -- you know, people say you just can't get things done. there are always a few people that always could just get things done. bud schuster from pennsylvania.

and actually murtha. it was the strangest sight, saxby, when we were in the majority and all the democrats were cowers in the corner. murtha was always in his corner with 20 people around him in his corner, and everybody called him mr. chairman. >> you and i went over there a couple of times ourselves. >> yes, we did. i was scared not to. so what's it like? we always hear how miserable things are in the senate, how it used to be the greatest job in washington. and someone would say in america. but so many senators now are saying they just don't enjoy it anymore. >> it's still a great institution. i think it still works the way the framers intended for it to work. particularly compared to the house. but the fact of the matter is, partisanship has gotten worse and worse every year that i've been there. and, you know, you don't have folks arguing with each other and then going outside and having a drink together like you

used to hear about. and we still hear the stories about. >> yeah. so it's worse. we always heard that from when newt came to power, when we came to town, that that was the great divide. but it's worse than it was even in the '90s when we were in the house? >> yeah. i don't think there's any question but that it's worse. and i think one thing that's made it that way is cspan, very honestly. you've got folks on tv, and now they -- instead of doing political commercials, they rant and rave during dinnertime on the east coast and then at 9:00 you see the west coast guys up there. so i think that, you know, being able to portray back home i'm fighting, you know, is the kind of mantra that a lot of people carry there. >> and, lawrence, you were there before the cameras were there. >> no, i wasn't. i'm not that old. >> back in the 1870s. >> but no, that's such a great

point. and people forget today how controversial it was to bring in cspan. we are still talking about can we bring cspan to the supreme court. and they are saying, no, no, no. but when we brought in the cameras, people thought this would ruin everything, people will start playing to their time zone, grandstanding. and it started first of all big time in the house, and newt gingrich was the master of it. they used to have that one camera on the speaker, and tip o'neill said make that camera pan the entire house, so we can see no one is there, and he is doing this just for the camera. >> yeah, yeah. >> and the thing is, jonathan capehart, even if 1 million people aren't watching the rants and the raves on cspan when people are yelling about how evil the other side is, the people in the senate and the people in the house are watching. >> right. >> and they certainly know and are taking notes. and it poisons the well. >> right. and one of the things i think also poisons the well, and i

want to ask you, senator, the abuse of the filibuster rule. do you think that has played a part in sort of the downgrading of discussion of commentary within that body? >> well, i think two things there, jonathan. number one, the filibuster is probably used more now than ever before, and it's easier to use it than it was when you had to stand up there and talk for 48 hours straight or whatever. but also the majority leaders' use of what we call filling up the tree, which means he brings a bill to the floor. instead of having open amendment, open debate like you used to have in the senate, he goes in and fills up the tree, doesn't allow any amendments, so then you have to have a vote. and with the current makeup, republicans who don't get amendments on a bill get upset about that. so we're not going to give them

cloture on the bill. >> if they don't give you the right to amend. >> yeah. >> do you think the filibuster rule should be gotten rid of? when the republicans are in the majority, the democrats talk about getting rid of it or it should be changed. when the democrats are in the majority, the republicans say it needs to be gotten rid of or changed. >> well, lawrence can tell you, he's been there, and the great thing about the senate is, and it was designed this way, minority party has rights. and the minority party has rights because of the filibuster rule. so it does work. and it helps shape legislation at the end of the day. so i don't think you need to get rid of it. >> it's maddening. there's no doubt it's maddening. but at the same time, i remember i loved -- no, i loved the senate. i absolutely loved the senate in 1993 and 1994 when bill clinton was president. and democrats were in charge. and i hated the senate in '95

and '96 when the democrats were in the minority but they could kill one bill that we sent over after another. but what you saw at the end of the day -- >> it was my favorite moment. >> the senate has always moderated the majority and always frustrated the majority be it republican or democrat. >> we had one vote in 1993, and -- no, i'm sorry -- yeah, it was 1993. we had this vote we were trying to get through, and we failed. and the cloture vote was 43. the republicans got 43 votes, which was all they needed to stop us, 43 votes. and i'm thinking, what an outrage. we have this democratic president. and 43 votes is stopping it. i'm really mad. chuck grassley stands up and says, 43% -- 43% have stopped what's going on here today, and that's the democratic outrage. the president of the united states, bill clinton, was elected with 43% of the vote.

because ross perrott was in the race. and i just went, hmm, let me think about that. >> senator, before you go, what do you make of the failure of simpson bowles to pass in the house? is there anyone in either chamber that is really serious about hard choices, do you think, at this point? playing into the overall conversation we've been having. >> well, the good news, that vote got 38 more votes than the president's budget, which got zero. you know, timing is everything in politics. the timing was not right to bring that up. and, you know, i understand the folks on the house side that we've been working with are a little frustrated about nothing happening, and they were anxious to put that bill on the floor, debate it, and have a vote. a lot of folks who had been in the room, a lot of folks on the house side who had been in the room in support of simpson bowles voted against it. and i'm not sure why except that

i do think the timing was just not right to bring it up. >> now, you were a member of the bipartisan gang of six. you caught a lot of heat for staying in that group. is there any chance after the election that we could build a consensus to take care of our doubt? >> well, i hope so, because it's going to happen. we were $14.5 trillion in debt last year during the gang of six decisi discussions. today we are at $16 billion, and nothing is being done about it. either we're going to fix it ourselves with this window of opportunity we have or the folks that buy our bonds, i.e., the chinese, are going to mandate to us how we're going to fix it. and i don't think any american wants that to happen. >> all right. ipit's going to be very difficult, though, on the part of policy makers. there are going to be some hard and tough votes that have to be made. >> all right. saxby, thank you for being here. >> remember when we started

talking about this, and you said something has to be done, something has to be done, and i said well, it's for a second-term president. he's not going to do anything in the first term. >> saxby, appreciate it so much. good to see you. coming up, for hedge fund managers even a tough year means billions of dollars in profits. >> we need to look bo into that >> lisa myers breaks down the numbers next on "morning joe." 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'd that get there? [ male announcer ] we can't hide how proud we are to have nine top safety picks like the passat and jetta.

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this morning, what's known as the annual rich list is out. and while 2011 -- >> are out it, mika? >> yeah. >> are you? >> yeah. no. but i love the way you like to feed into that narrative. >> you didn't value in your home in the south of france and -- >> stop it. there isn't one. >> because it's a villa. not a home. >> it's a villa. but the capri thing just goes on forever. >> ok. >> why don't you post pictures? >> skexcuse me. how many times have you been there? >> three or four. and sailed around. >> have you really? >> of course. >> that's what you do.

>> and while 2011 was another tough year for most americans, the top hedge fund managers again made huge money. now you be quiet because people will be respectful to lisa i'm sure. >> she loves the greek islands. >> nbc news investigative reporter lisa myers is joining us from washington with the story. lisa, take it. i'll cut their mikes. >> thank you, mika. good morning. as you know, the hedge fund managers are the ultimate masters of the universe. they say last year was only a pretty good year by their standards. still a new report out today says the top guy managed to rake in almost $4 billion. that's right. $4 billion. in the year of occupy wall street, when the overall stock market was basically flat, top hedge funds handling investments for the superrich still found ways to make big money. >> it was a pretty good year for hedge funds overall in a tough market.

but nothing like some of the years previously. >> reporter: "ar" magazine reports that the top 25 managers combined took home $14.4 billion last year, a staggering amount of money, but less than the previous two years. topping the rich list, ray dallio, who earned $3. billion, mostly by betting on u.s. treasury. >> my customers are pension funds, teachers. i did well when others didn't. and they are very grateful. >> reporter: two years in a row, dallio's firm earned more than google, yahoo, amazon, and ebay combined. >> for a billionaire, ray dallio is actually a fairly regular guy. it's not about spending the millions, it's about making more money. >> reporter: number two, carol icon. $2.5 billion. three, jim simons, $2.1 billion. and four, ken griffin, $700 million. griffin has a reputation for

living large. he had his wedding reception at the palace of versailles, and last year bought this $17 million home at an exclusive resort in hawaii. to go with at least three other homes around the country. griffin donated this wing of the art institute in chicago, which bears his name. and at number five, steve cohen, who earned $585 million. also known for conspicuous consumption, cohen has a 35,000 square foot mansion with a separate garage for his zamboni. owns a piece of the mets. and is a world class art collector. >> his art collection i would imagine is worth in the billions of dollars. >> reporter: some stars from previous years lost money last year. perhaps the biggest loser john paulson, believed to have personally lost about $3 billion. now all of these billionaires either declined comment or wouldn't return our calls.

the managers argue that unlike some corporate ceos, they only do well with their investors do well. mika? >> oh, gosh. >> wow. >> i feel so bad for them. >> i do too. >> lisa, thank you very much. >> thank you, lisa. up next -- >> by the way -- >> how much did you lose last year, joe? i lost $3 billion. >> you lost $3 billion? >> i lost a couple of chickens in the backyard. the coup opened up, and they ran off. >> you cut their heads off. >> i think the dogs next door ate them. i'm trying to recoup my losses. but, you know, we were talking about mika's conspicuous consumption. and we -- the guy got married at versailles. and what did mika say? oh, i spent a wonderful summer there. i tell you, i'm not making this up. i spent a wonderful summer there. how many people can say i spent a summer in versailles? coming up next, "in gold we trust." the book explains why one of the world's oldest forms of currency is at the center of the new evolution of currency.

mika buys up gold when she gets nervous. there she is on rodeo drive. keep it right here on "morning joe." ♪ under blue moon i saw you [ young man ] whoo-hoo!

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44 past the hour. here with us now, u.s. business editor and bureau chief for "the economist," matthew bishop, the co-author of a new ebook, "in gold we trust: the future of money in an age of uncertainty." >> so if you're like mika, and you have tons of money and volatile markets, why do you run to gold? >> well, look, this is a very interesting time because, you know, the people you have mentioned in the hedge funds like ray dallio, the people who have been the most successful investors over the past few years, a lot of them basically are very worried about the future of the dollar and the

future of the euro, and they see gold as the best alternative currency. and they have been right a lot. and they have a lot of their money in that currency. and i think the rest of us need to understand why. you know, it's always dismissed as this kind of crazy right-wing thing to do. >> so glenn beck has been right? >> well, he has on this particular issue. >> you remember like a year or two ago, glenn beck was talking about gold. if you had invested, like glenn beck told you to, you'd be doing pretty well right now. now the survival seeds we're not so sure, about the coming apocalypse. but on the gold front, it's been a good thing. >> we can debate gold, guns, and god, his three-way position. but on gold he has been right, and i think it's because there is a real problem with our money system. we're in this period where the fed and the european central bank now are printing money for good reasons, to get us out of the economic slump in the short run. but in the long run, where does this go? >> the likeliest outcome because

of the partisanship in washington is they are going to inflate their way out of the situation, and that means money will be worth a lot less. >> warren buffett wrote this, not agreeing with the concept. true, gold has some industrial and decorative utility, but the demand for these purposes is both limited and incapable of soaking up new production. meanwhile, if you own one ounce of gold for an eternity, you will still own one once at its end, and that's in a february 25 letter to his shareholders. >> warren buffett has always been very skeptical about gold. but he isn't skeptical about the crisis of government-backed money. what he think we should do is invest in agricultural land and buying shares in exxon. now, he is not always right, and i think gold has a very long history. and people like ray dallio have been backing gold because they understand that it is something that in the a crisis people turn to. it should be part of the solution, but not the whole solution. like in silicon valley at the

moment, the people that invented pay pal are trying to come up with different money that will hold its value. >> it's obviously very, very unlikely that we'll go to the gold standard. but let's just talk for argument's sake, what would it look like? what would it mean every day if we had gold as our everyday currency? >> well, it would be a disaster. >> there's that. >> it works for a while. in periods of history, you can look back and see that the gold standard was great. but it usually results in a session, because there's not enough gold to go around. like when political power shifted from britain to america, and now to china and other places, the gold standard is a very inflexible system, and governments usually break off of it and create new money systems gr good reasons, because the old gold standard doesn't really work. >> i think buffett represents the view that gold is a gamble. it is just speculating. and it's just gambling. it's not an investment. >> yeah. and i think he is the great

investor. but he is not right about everything. he didn't invest in apple. he probably would have said the same about apple. it would be a gamble. gold has a great history as we write about in the book, but is something that people when push comes to shove, they have gold coins, they have jewelry, and in india and china that's what they buy because they don't trust the government. and i think the same is happening here because we are definitely in a period where there's a lot of experimentation going on. the fed is doing things they have never really done before about inflation. >> so gold explodes if the dollar collapses. right? >> yeah. >> because richard haass said on this show a month or so ago after the world markets are finished battering the euro, and after that reaches its bottom and it stabilizes, they are going to turn their attention to the dollar. if that happens, gold is a pretty smart investment still, even though -- >> absolutely. >> what's it selling for right now? >> around $1,700. it's gone through a spurt. it's taken off some of that

gain. and i think, you know, if we do turn to a crisis of the dollar, which i think is quite likely, then you will see gold soar again. it comes down to people like the senator you just had on. you know, you think that washington is going to take the tough decisions and sort out the country's finances, then probably gold is not for you. but if you don't think that, then i think there is quite a good chance we'll have a crisis of the dollar. >> is the coming collapse of the dollar factored into that price right now? >> i think on the part of the story. but i think it's still, you know, basically an expert investment. the public hasn't really got into gold in a big way so it could go a lot high fehr that changes. >> you know, a friend of mine who has made the most money in gold, a simpsons writer. he has outsmarted warren buffett on gold and made maybe more money from gold than from "the simpsons." >> the book is "in gold we trust." matthew bishop, thank you simpson's." "morning joe" will be right back.

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welcome back to "morning joe." there's, of course, nothing

funny about cy but there's a lot funny about a guy arrested for dui without incident, placed in the back of a police cruiser in alberta, canada, and breaking into "bohemian rhapsody" in its entirety as caught on the dash cam. ♪ look up to the skies and see momma life has just begun ♪ ♪ now i've gone and blown it all away good-bye everybody i've got to go ♪ ♪ carry on carry on nothing really matters nothing really matters even the rcmp ♪

>> a wonderful trip. >> i agree. >> freddie mercury is looking down somewhere smiling that his song -- >> he just got himself booked on "the last word" monday night. >> maybe he'd do voiceovers for msnbc. >> oh, oh. >> he's in. we've got some more from the police blotter. did you hear about this story, silver spring, maryland? >> no. >> cops pull over a ferrari because it had improper tags. the police walk up to the vehicle and who is driving, bat man? >> of course. >> full batman getup, he had the batman logo on the back of the car and not a maryland state tag so he was pulled over. here's some of the conversation inside the police cruiser before the pullover took place. >> batman on. he's dressed like batman. black lamborghini and a driver dressed as batman. you can send me robin if you wish. >> can i see the registration? i like the outfit, man. >> thank you.

>> okay. >> over. >> how are you? >> all right, how are you? >> good. >> registration? >> you got a front tag there, batman? it's a nice car, dude. you mind if i take a picture of your ride? >> not at all. ♪ batman da da da da da >> all right. >> here's the deal, the guy -- the guy in the lamborghini is not a lunatic as it may appear, he's a guy that dresses up as batman named lenny robinson and goes and visits children's hospital and he just forgot to put his tag back on the car in the driveway. he was allowed to go on his way. >> and the cop stop and take pictures of him. >> the cops have a kind of hume maist in reaction. some might call it unprofessional pulling out personal cameras to take

pictures, it's from the movie of "starsky and hutch." i always shake hands with my cops when they pull me over. the first thing i do is shake hands. >> do you remember cat woman? >> exactly. >> every young boy remembers cat woman. >> lawrence, i guess you are leaving? >> am i leaving? >> also book your guests for monday night. >> get out, lawrence. >> he's booked. >> okay. >> lawrence, have a good weekend, man, we'll see you. >> thank you, lawrence. >> monday's show, congressman jim clyburn on set and we'll bring back dr. zeke emanuel. >> zeke emanuel? >> he's crazy, we love him. >> and senator ron johnson will be on with dr. emanuel for round two of their debate on health care. >> joe, try not to make it about your private personal health issues. >> he is a doctor. >> he's a doctor. >> on the air. >> yes. >> you wouldn't believe what he said. >> we'll be right back. >> seriously, i've got goiter problems. okay? >> we'll be right back. ♪ one way or another i'm going

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good morning. it is friday. welcome back to "morning joe." 8:00 on the east coast. as you take a live look at new york city. back with us on set we have mark halperin and richard haass. >> not to be a debbie downer for

my party but we've got new nbc news/"wall street journal" polls out of wisconsin and one more swing state on our marist poll mitt romney is getting absolutely hammered by barack obama. >> yep. why don't we start there. mitt romney and rick santorum are heading to wisconsin today kicking off a final campaign push before tuesday's primary according to the nbc news/marist poll out just this morning, romney has 40% support in wisconsin. >> that's good news for romney. >> ahead of rick santorum. in a general election matchup the pollster say wisconsin voters favor president obama over both romney and santorum, each by double digits. this lead for the president in wisconsin mirrors numbers this week from other key swing states. the latest quinnipiac university poll shows the president topping the republican candidates in the 3w59 the battleground state of florida. president obama is seven points ahead of romney and 13 points ahead of rick santorum. and in ohio, obama has a six-point lead on romney and

seven points on santorum. rick santorum's home state of pennsylvania, even there, he loses to president obama. by seven points. mitt romney is closer to the president in that swing state. just outside the margin of error. >> mark halperin, it was not so long ago that republicans were handily defeating the president in every swing state poll. i remember a "usa today"/gallup swing state poll showed the president losing in ohio and in one swing state after another. this is not only a turn for the president, it's a massive swing. you are in wisconsin which a state republicans could win. should win if you look at the president's approval ratings not so long ago. and mitt romney, the supposed general election candidate, is getting hammered by almost 20 points. >> there are electoral college maps for the republicans to get to 270 without wisconsin but it's a heck of a lot easier if they could win it. snapshot of today, the president

has moved up and the republicans have moved down, but, you know, the polls could swing back. republicans have to find a fundamental way to come back nationally. because a state like wisconsin's going to reflect the national pulse. >> well, it's much easier to swing back from a five-point deficit than a 15 or 20-point deficit. what's behind those numbers? >> maybe -- >> mitt romney's been battered going through the republican process. and he's not projected himself particularly well and the president has done a good job in the last few months projecting himself in positive ways and that's what presidential -- >> how about the fact that rick santorum is still there, the others were still there, if they were all out of it and it was just mitt romney, two that help at all, because they seem to be splitting different sections? >> the sooner they're out, the sooner romney can figure out how to craft his image for the general election. with all due respect to santorum and gingrich, they're not the toughest opponents in the world, the fact that they are distracting romney and driven him down -- >> but they do get a certain slice of the republican base that romney can't get.

>> but too often, though, romney axes himself down with the statements day in and day out. >> he should be looking better running up against them. >> a political cutter. >> don't say that. that's ridiculous. >> what are you talking about? willie, you know what i'm talking about, don't you? >> yes. >> he cuts himself. >> if you asked what the problem is, if you look inside the numbers, president obama leads among women by 25 points. it goes back to the conversation we've been having for a couple months about the impact of this republican conversation on female voters, 25 points. >> really? >> yeah. >> i guess that idea of chaining women to a radiator in the kitchen that the republicans want to put in the platform not going over. >> that's a funny way to put it. >> they should have put frank luntz in a kitchen and poll tested it. >> can i go off the endorsement? >> i'm just kind of wondering

why the republicans, my party is doing what it's doing right now. >> mitt romney's campaign is looking for high-level endorsement to lock up the republican nomination. you saw the pictures coming in. the latest comes from wisconsin, congressman paul ryan, though, who will reportedly throw his support behind the former mches governor. his blueprint for the budget passed through the house largely along party lines. george w.h. bush officially threw his support behind the republican front-runner. after a private meeting in houston the 44th president encouraged the party to start focusing on the general election. >> barbara and i are very proud to fully and enthusiastically endorse and support our old friend mitt romney. he's a good man. he'll make a great president. and we just wish him well. i do think it's time for party to get behind governor romney.

and she was reminding me, kenny rogers song, "a time when to hold them and a time when to fold them," i think it's time for people to get behind this good man. >> and florida senator marco rubio who publicly endorsed mitt romney earlier this week offered this take yesterday on the republican field. he said in part, quote, there were a lot of other people out there that some of us wish had run for president. >> ooh. ow. >> but they didn't. i think mitt roey would be a fine president and he'd better -- be way better than the guy who's there right now. >> you know, that's kind of like -- kind of like asking a girl out to a dance when you're in high school, and her saying yes, and then you hear her complaining, well, you know, the other 17 boys that i wanted to ask before joey scarborough weren't there. >> but he's fine. >> but he's fine. >> but he's fine. >> and then it turns out she's a

cutter. >> romney's a cutter. he's a political cutter. it's sad when kids or politicians do this. >> oh, gosh, thank god it's friday. that didn't seem like a smart thing. >> that is damning with the faintest, the faintest of praise. >> i feel like his story about what inspired him to endorse mitt romney is a little concocted as well. >> a lot of these people who are just now endorsing mitt romney didn't endorse him before because they're not all that enthusiastic about him and as more people come out to endorse they'll slip up and say things like that because it reflects their true feelings. >> it's a gaffe. >> yeah. what's happening to richard hodgson right now? we hear there's a possibility of a peace plan. what's going on there? >> there is no possibility of a peace plan. if by peace plan you mean the diplomatic resolution to the civil war where the leadership

of mr. assad stays in power, that is not going to happen. the arab league is meeting in iraq and it's back to its old feckless self, it's simply not going to make a difference. the only diplomatic plan that could work and i think the odds of it working are less than 1% that mr. assad would voluntarily agree to give up power and that won't happen until he's on his last legs and it's not there. it's winner take all or loser lose all, diplomacy at the moment has no place. >> the president has said and the news comes this weekend as horrifying stories of what was happening in assad's syria, but president obama said earlier that assad must go. does that not leave the united states in a position where assad must go? >> yes. but there's a gap between shall we say our rhetoric and our policy. there's also reasons that mr. assad must go. strategically it would be great to deal iran a major strategic setback on any sort of human decency terms, he's a guy that

has had 9,000 innocent people goed, yes, he should go, but for the united states, quote-unquote, say he must go, there's a tremendous, shall we say, gap between that -- >> why is there that gap? because we were afraid that gadhafi might kill thousands and thousands of civilians so we went in. but here we have assad who it's safe to say that he and his father other than a couple of years in the early 1990s have been sworn enemies of the united states for decades. why is it that we go in to countries, you know -- go in after gadhafi and not assad? >> in part you go into countries where it's not all that difficult to go in. to go into syria would be militarily a bigger challenge shall we say than libya was given the air force and the army. diplomatically gadhafi was totally isolated, had zero support in the arab world, assad has considerable support. they are not also the nato or international thing. to take this on would be yet another significant military

intervention. there's no stomach for it and there's also not a lot of confidence as to what would take place. i think the opposition in searisear i syria has to give us a better sense that all syrians regardless of what their ethnicity or sect is two have a free place. >> we don't see that yet. >> it's premature. >> from syria to gas prices we go, i see that's up next in the news. any sort of instability even in countries that don't produce oil -- >> the person that is getting his arms around this, they are emerging obviously a key political issue and the president is hoping to shift the public's frustration away from the white house and to the ongoing tax breaks to the world's largest oil companies. the president spoke to environmental is in the rose garden before he signed the bill that would repeal $4 billion in

tax subsidies. >> they can either spend billions more in oil subsidies to keep us trapped in the past or they can vote to end the taxpayer subsidies that aren't needed to boost oil production. so that we can invest in the future. we innovate. we discover. we seek new solutions to some of our biggest challenges. and ultimately because we stick with it we succeed. and i believe that we're going to do that again. today, the american people are going to be watching congress to see if they have that same faith. >> hmm. the plan presented by democratic senator robert menendez would prevent the oil industry's big five from claiming several tax deductions despite the president's attempts to rally support for the measure, the bill fell nine votes short of the 60 needed to advance. other political news, mitt romney is confirming that he had a private meeting last weekend with fellow candidate newt gingrich. is this interesting?

>> yeah. >> it's kind of interesting. what would they talk about? >> i don't know. >> the meeting came days before gingrich announced he was scaling back his campaign staff but the former house speaker insists he's not made any deals and will continue on with his presidential bid. mitt romney also downplayed the significance of their get-together which i believe happened at 6:30 in the morning at a hotel, insisting the two have regularly talked throughout the campaign. >> well, we had -- what? what? i was going to say we had a new york governor that used to take his meetings at a hotel. >> i just think it sounds like -- >> the day's hotel on 94th street and broadway. >> and governor paterson would take 6:30 meetings also. >> come on. >> meet the voters. >> take one story seriously this morning. everything goes into the toilet with you. >> if you want to win elections, right? >> we learned one thing, though, that happened at the meeting. >> what's that? >> romney said, hey, newt, got a humorous story for you, a guy

called in -- >> what does that mean? what does it do? >> do you think they find a -- >> not only the candidate level but at the senior staff level there have been a lot more conversations among the various campaigns that have been reported. they're talking about trying to keep this in the interests of the party. not try -- they know they can't force gingrich out of the race. >> any deals made? any offers? any promises like -- >> i think more discussions about what tampa will look like. that's my sense of these talks. they want the convention to be a unified thing. >> brutal. >> and, you know, what role will newt gingrich have at that convention? i think pretty big. pretty big speaking slot for him and i think that's one of the important things he can come up with, come out of these discussions with. >> we're seeing a flood of stories now, too, at this race, it's a newt gingrich threatens to ruin his legacy. he hangs around long enough. i don't really see that myself. >> that's not true. >> but those are some of the stories coming out saying he ought to get out for the

preservation of his own legacy. but i still think he's the guy that led the republican revolution and that doesn't change that. this fits with his character. he's completely defiant. >> if newt can strike a deal with romney to get a major speaking slot at the convention and he goes out there and hits it out of the park which he probably will in his 10- to 15-minute speech in prime time that wipes the slate clean of every loss and that projects him forward as at least a player in the republican party moving forward. >> and you think about the fagt that there are no more debates, right? there were a possibility we'd be having debates all spring. no more debates. that convention speech is his big moment for the whole year. he'll never have the platform that he'll have in that speech and he'll get a great reception in the room. i bet you. this is not reporting, this is informed speculation, i bet you he would like to be secretary of state in a romney administration. >> up next, tom brock kaw and

filmmaker lee hurst join us to talk about a new film called "bully" it was initially rated "r," and today it's opening without a rating. and growing up, patton, the grandson of george f. patton jr. joins us to share stories of the legendary world war ii general. plus, willie's week in review. find out which of these stories make the cut. but first bill karins with a quick check on your weekend forecast, bill? >> good morning, everyone. so much for march in like a lion and out like a lamb. got some rough weather out there this morning. now approaching chicago. bring the big umbrella with you and maybe the rubber boots because thunderstorms are heading through right at the peak of rush hour. it's going to be a mess. the thunderstorms will probably last 45 minutes. it looks like the worst of it on the north and northwest side of chicago. and also for the west coast, a lot of heavy rain lately, it continues this morning. northern portions of california, coastal oregon and washington state, another raw day there from portland up to seattle. we'll see thunderstorms this afternoon down in the southeast.

let's take you through your weekend forecast. the biggest heads-up goes to areas of southern new england, new york state, northern pennsylvania, especially the mountainous areas. saturday morning we'll watch some wet snow mixing in with the rain and, yes, the snowfall prediction. i thought i was done with this map, one to two inches in the catskills and the higher elevations of the berkshires, by sunday the middle of the country warms up and we'll get rid of the messy weather in new england. overall, it doesn't look like a nice start for april. a little april fool's in the northeast with some snow. you are watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. i look at her, and i just want to give her everything.

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when i opened my locker, there was a note that said [ bleep ] aren't welcomed here. the teacher was calling roll, and said boys and he said girls and paused and said kelby. and another teacher told me how they burned [ bleep ] and kept talking about it with me in the classroom. and everyone was laughing. and they knew it was hurting me and they kept going. >> that was a clip from the new documentary "bully" that explores the bullying epidemic in the country through the eyes of five families struggling with the issue. according to the film more than 13 million children will be bullied this year, and here with us now is the film's director, lee hirsch, along with nbc's tom brokaw and jonathan capehart is back at the table as well.

this, book, almost like an essential for people today given the prevalence of the problem, but it looks like a documentary that could have a huge impact because its searing in its storytelling. >> boy, i hope so. and that was the dream that we set out to achieve. i hope people find it for the merits just as a film itself, but people are talking about it. they're being moved by it. it's hitting for teenagers, for parents, for educators. and, you're right, there's so much to talk about. i think you have this generation upon generation upon generation of people that have experienced bullying. some at very horrific levels that haven't really been able to talk about it before. >> why is it surging or epidemic proportions? why isn't it something that we're always dealing with at a certain level? what's happening? what's changing? >> well, i don't know that it's worse now than it was when we were kids. i think that we've learned about a horrible, horrible amount of

suicides over the last two years. we've heard about them, you know, almost, like, weekly, monthly. i think that toll has risen to a sort of collective frustration and anger and created a moment where it's almost a zeitgeist in terms of frustration and sadness and people going what the heck is going on here? i'm hopeful that we're about to turn the page, that this is sort of the beginning of the change, where young people, educators, are saying, boy, are we sick of this. and i think it's -- i think we have an opportunity to help, be one small part, of lots of people looking to create change around -- around this issue. >> tom brokaw, back when we were in school, when you were in school, when i was in school, bullying may have consisted of somebody pushing somebody else up against a locker or a nasty note being passed. now it's a text message that can be forwarded to every kid in

class or a picture that can be sent around on the internet, that everybody in the community can see or in the rutgers' case even worse. >> you know, there was always adolescent cruelty that would exist. when i was in junior high which was at the turn of the last century, they had something called slam books which they would send around the notebooks with anonymous comments with somebody's name at the top. we were talking about, i remember one particular case in the working class town where i grew up where a young man that had artistic interests was bullied by two guys and other high school kids stepped in on that case. and we talked about this before we came on air this morning. i've seen the film. and it's so powerful and yet it's so empathetic which is the important part, anyone whether you are a parent or not, if you are on the outside looking in, how do i step forward and help do this. it's skillfully done. the parents in many ways are

heroic in this in ways you would have not expected. i think it has something to do with what's happened to our popular culture. midday the other day i was working at espn but the other day was one of the reality shows and they were pulling hair and they had to blank out most of the language that was going on. people were getting punched out on television. and that becomes the coin of the realm, you know, well, if it's permissible there, why isn't it permissible -- >> you have producers going yes, yes, yes, let's roll it back over and over. excellent point. >> jonathan capehart. >> i want to ask you this question, but maybe everyone around the table can ask you this question, how hard is it to break the mindset out there that bullying is just a rite of passage, that's just what kids do or boys will be boys, how hard is it to break that? >> i think it's absolutely hard, but i think that's the unique and incredible opportunity that we have. because people talked about legislation.

that can have a place. it can be very important. but i think that the opportunity here is to move hearts and minds, you know, if you have that shift, that empathy shift where you've connected to your narrative, tom just shared his narrative or what he witnessed, you know, and if you find that access point where you've connected and say, do you know what, if i just go out and do something for somebody -- you know, i can just walk with someone that's bullied, i can go with them to the principal's office and be witness for them for what's happening. i don't have to actually physically intervene, there are so many ways that you can help. and i'm hoping that this film, which opens as you said today, which is so exciting, will do that. we're seeing, you know, kids that see this film are writing us and saying, for example, today on the way home from school after seeing your movie, i had the courage for the first time ever to stop bullying. this kid was bullied. it was always happening, and i was able to step in and stop it. and it wasn't that hard.

and i feel great for doing it. so, i think if we can move that dial little by little, you know, the endline in the film a father who has lost his son says one by one, two by two, eventually we can have an army that can change anything. >> these are -- and these families are all working class families, rancher in oklahoma and there are people that you know in your neighborhood. it's not elite versus working class at all. it happens in all areas of the culture. we ought to talk about sioux city, iowa, which you chose because the school district thought they had a system that would be in place that would work. the film exposes the flaws in it. and the superintendent's been very difficult for them to be able to see this on the screen obviously. but i've been reading the local newspapers and reading the website of my old television station where i worked and they're covering it almost every day, and they're going to show the film because it now has no rating so there's no prohibition on showing the film in the school. and the superintendent obviously

is in some anguish about how sioux city got exposed. he said we can learn from this. >> that's right. >> and he's created a kind of dialogue in the community which is important. >> this is personal to you, to me. an issue. >> it is personal to me. i was, you know, 13 million, i was one of them that was bullied. it was a sort of a daily form of terror. lots of physical for me. i remember for probably a good year my arm -- it wasn't black and blue, it was just permanent yellow from about here to here and, you know, kids just -- for me it was sport to hit me. and so you carry that memory. and i think, of course, you can't make a documentary film unless you have some emotional access point with which to tell that because you're in it for so many years. and i saw and hoped that i could give voice, that i could bear

witness and give voice to what this looks like, and i think that also by showing what it looks like in such an honest and real way, it puts an end to some of that boys will be boys. because you don't feel that way after you see the film. >> yeah. and you talked about legislation, yes. legislation can be passed, but in the end it comes down to parents and teachers and those in positions of authority to constantly telling children day in and day out it is not acceptable. bullying is not acceptable, and, again, like you said, i think some children with the courage to stand up and stop this, like, tom said happened in his hometown. >> lee hirsch, thank you so much. >> thank you. >> "bully" in select theaters starting today in new york and los angeles. >> and we go out much, much bigger on april 13th. >> a week and a half. >> all right. >> tom, stay with us.

>> bullyproject.com. >> really, really is worth seeing. >> thebullyproject.com. when we come back, the grandson of general patton reflects on history. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] the next generation of lexus cannot be contained. [ clang ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. see your lexus dealer.

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some of you boys i know are wondering whether or not you will chicken out under fire. don't worry about it. i can assure you that you will all do your duty. the nazis are the enemy. shoot them in the belly. when you put your hand into a bunch of goo that a moment before was your best friend's face, you'll know what to do. >> that was a clip from the 1970 academy award winning film "patton" about the legendary general george s. patton jr. and here with us now to give us his personal take on the world war ii hero and his family is his

grandson ben patton. ben is co-author of the new book "growing up patton, reflections on heroes, history, and family wisdom." we'll get to more on the book in just a moment. but you saw that when you were -- >> 5. >> okay. >> oh, my goodness. >> you got a sense your family was a little special, right? >> i did. my first impression of my grandfather was george c. scott. what people don't know is my father has a towering and booming voice and presence that my grandfather wished he had. >> your dad was not keen about having the movie being made. >> not at all. in fact, even previous to that, in 1953, after my grandmother died, my mom answered the phone at the house, i think it was almost the same day as the memorial service, some hollywood producer said now that the old lady's gone, let's make a movie. but my father still pushed it off because he was frankly trying to come out of his shadow and trying to create his own

authentic self and career and he really didn't have anything to do with the movie, although george c. scott did pay a visit that year to our house in fort knox and brought a copy of the film and there are good stories that i've actually written in the book. >> wow. >> did he have objections a after the film came out of the portrayal of your grand father? >> i couldn't comment on it, but my father and his siblings thought it was pretty accurate. he didn't look like him or sound like him but he personified his persona. there's a scene where he said, by god, i love it, i love war, and i think the family really felt that wasn't accurate. he loved the game of war, the camaraderie, the soldiering, the tactics, but not war per se. >> you talked about your father trying to step out of the shadow a little bit. that certainly happens with fathers and sons. what about you? was it overpowering sort of pressure to sort of take a certain direction in life? >> i think the pressure was to take a direction, but it didn't have to be this direction.

i was close to going to the naval academy and changed my mind at the last minute and when i compare the shadow that i grew up with which is significant to my father's which he grew up in his college years is no comparison. in the back of the book i have a short story of the things that happened to him. he graduated six months on the back of the jacket, he graduated six months after high grandfather died and he was at graduation and an old veteran came up to him and said, you'll never be the man your father was, but congratulations on your graduation. >> there are new letters and photographs in here. tell us about those. >> the letters are the most significant, i think. history remembers a few of the letters that my grandfather rote. in my family, nobody throws anybody out. we have the bloody shirttail and shrapnel that went into my great, great grandfather's cuts in the battle of winchester in 1834. >> is it on the dinner table? >> but the letters are significant. i think most of the ones for my

grandfather are unpublished and all the ones back to him from my father are not published and i think what it reveals is a wonderful dialogue between a father and son that history recalls my grandfather's, you know, this famous and wonderful great warrior but perhaps not as involved as a fath interhe was gone a lot. but they communicated weekly by letter and there are these great sort of fatherly wisdom mingling with tactical talk, like, you know, talking about math, my grandfather says, you know, study hard, because both of them flunked math at west point and had to repeat. meet the enemy out as far back as possible so you have further to retreat. or i'm witnessing a lovely battle right now as i munch on, you know, an apple and a plum orchard, a great sight. >> there is a fascinating part of this and here's a picture of rommel. anybody that saw the movie knows the story of george patton, understands that patton and the desert fox had a respect for each other. and that's one of the fascinating parts of the movie,

where you can tell -- tell they were trying to figure out who their nemesis would be in north africa, but still a great respect of two great warriors. and that connection continued after his death with your families. >> it's absolutely fascinating. and i took it for granted as a kid and now i've reflected on it and i appreciate it for what it was. but in the '50s my parents were stationed in stuttgart, germany, had is where his son is, his father was forced to commit suicide in 1944 and he grew up in the rubble of germany in postwar. we were stationed two times in my life in the '70s and manford rommel became the overmeister of the lord stuttgart. and he and my dad became friends because that's where the northern forces are concentrated, and they both shared a birthday on christmas eve. we'd go over to the rommel's house and they would trade maps -- >> the pattons and the rommels, tom, sharing christmas eve

together in germany, holy cow. >> and they became great friends. and the book the way it approaches the subject, my father died seven years ago, so i sort of approach the history and re-engage my legacy through other people that he worked with such as manfred rommel and i learned about them as well and he was quite an amazing guy, as i was telling mr. brokaw before the show, one of his great legacies is reintegrating the jewish community back into stuttgart. >> wow, fascinating, tom. >> there are a couple of large and small lessons here. one of them is that in the era of electronic messaging and texting and twitter, we're going to lose letters. we're not going to have the permanent printed record anymore and people are not going to be saving their messages or it's unlikely from parents or from mentors on their pdas or their computers, that's a great loss for historians obviously. >> yeah. >> and the other larger lesson frankly in the western world, world war ii, the largest event

in the history of mankind, brought in all but one of the continents, 50 million people perish, and within a few years your father, through his father, was a principal figure in winning the war, is in touch with the son with the greatest general that the germans produced and they have a real civil relationship. >> right. >> and the great alliance that came out of world war ii also involved germany and nato in drawing the line against communist oppression, moving from moscow into -- back into western europe again. so, these are extraordinary tectonic plates that were in -- constantly in play and remain so to this day. >> what's interesting it goes even further. my sister helen married a german doctor, living in germany, raising her kids in germany. but i agree, i would slightly add to something to you what you said about the history being hovet

lost, the medium has changed. i never throw my e-mails out or text, i work in film and i spent a lot of time recording the personal histories and reflections of soldiers particularly with posttramatic stress. i think the mediums change but i don't necessarily think we're throwing the history away, i think it will come in a different form. >> all right. >> the book is "growing up patton." >> fascinating. >> ben, thank you so much! >> thank you for being here. >> wonderful to meet you. coming up, blackberry maker, research in motion, rethinks its business strategy. your friday business headlines next on "morning joe." all right, let's decide what to

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business before the bell with cnbc's tyler mathisen, live at cnbc headquarters. tyler, good morning, what you got? >> hi, mika, thanks very much. there are several big stories in the news today, companies who we know and products we patronize. let's talk about rimm, research in motion, it's based up in canada and yesterday they reported their quarterly results most alarmingly but maybe not surprisingly what they reported was their sales have fallen a full 25% from a year ago. this, of course, because other smartphone makers like apple, like samsung, and others, have come in and gnawed away at their core business, so the ceo has gone in and basically cleaned house. he's gotten rid of the chief operating officer. he's gotten rid of the chief technology officer. and the longtime former ceo who was still on the board has decided to leave that board. the question is whether r.i.m.

can turn it around. they're not going to have a new product in a big way until far later this year. >> all right, tyler, thank you. it's always great to see you. have a wonderful weekend. >> thank you. willie's week in review is next on "morning joe." ♪ ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman.

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all right. you waited patiently all morning, now it's time for the week in review. >> it was nice to be able to see a flick, the first time in a long time. >> reporter: at number three, mitt at the movies. >> i actually read the books, too, you know, i read serious books, but every now and then i read something just for fun. >> reporter: mitt romney when not defending the car elevators in his southern california home, provided a review for the young adult blockbuster film "the hunger game." >> i think the pg-13 is an appropriate indication of the seriousness of the film. but i'm over 13 now. >> reporter: rick santorum, meanwhile, got an "r" rating for his performance this week with a reporter from "the new york times." >> if i see it, it's bull [ bleep ], come on, man. what are you doing? >> reporter: santorum blew off a little of that steam during a stop at the lakeshore lanes in

sheboygan, wisconsin, where his turkey run of three strikes in a row provided a sharp contrast to the president of the united states. at number two, ladies and gentlemen, your new president of the world bank. ♪ i had the time of my life ♪ and i never felt this way before ♪ >> reporter: it wasn't long after president obama nominated the president of dartmouth college to head the world bank that this video of dr. kim as a rapping astronaut spread across the internet. ♪ let's go the show is out of control and go go go ♪ >> reporter: the performance last year at a dartmouth talent show catapulted him to the top

of obama's short list. ♪ and the number one story of the week -- >> everybody has to buy food sooner or later, therefore, you can make people buy broccoli. >> reporter: an historic week in the supreme court where the health care law went under the microscope. >> you really want us to go through the 2,700 pages and do you really expect a court to do that? >> reporter: the man charged with defending the law before the supreme court was, thirsty. >> because the -- the -- the -- excuse me. >> reporter: but the supreme court arguments about a law that affect the health and the very lives of millions of americans was overshadowed completely this week by news that impacts every man, woman, and child from sea to shining sea.

>> paramount pictures and myself ronald joseph aaron burgundy have come to terms on a sequel to -- >> reporter: ron burgundy cra crashed conan's show to say he's getting the action news team back together. >> news team! assemble! >> reporter: the national rejoicing over the news of the "anchor man" sequel proves what ron burgundy has known for a long time. >> i don't know how to put this, but i'm kind of a big deal. >> really? >> people know me. >> i'm very happy for you. >> i'm very important. i have many leatherbound books. people know me. >> if you kept playing that kept, you'll hear him say merlin olsen comes over to the house once in a while. i could go on all day.

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i remember the day my doctor told me i have an irregular heartbeat, and that it put me at 5-times greater risk of a stroke. i was worried. i worried about my wife, and my family. bill has the most common type of atrial fibrillation, or afib. it's not caused by a heart valve problem. he was taking warfarin, but i've put him on pradaxa instead. in a clinical trial, pradaxa 150 mgs reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin without the need for regular blood tests. i sure was glad to hear that. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding, and seek immediate

medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have a bleeding condition like stomach ulcers, or take aspirin, nsaids, or bloodthinners, or if you have kidney problems, especially if you take certain medicines. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures, and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval, as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. pradaxa is progress. if you have afib not caused by a heart valve problem, ask your doctor if you can reduce your risk of stroke with pradaxa. hey, welcome back, kids, it's time to talk about what we learned today. what did you learn, mark? >> that willie geist cares more about the clip from anchorman than he does about the squirrel

chewing on the earbuds. >> but not a squirrel skiing. >> i don't get that. >> i learned a joke from stephen colbert. knock knock -- >> who is there? >> -- i don't know, my butler opens the door. >> what did you learn, mika? >> thebullyproject.com, go there and learn about the problem and be part of the solution. >> tom brokaw? >> i actually learned two things, i learned, first of all, i didn't know about george patton's son and rommel's son becoming chose friends. >> isn't that something? >> amazing. and the other thing is i learned to my regret that ron burgundy is coming back and i've not been invited to be part of it. >> all right. hopefully so. it's going to be classic. all right, well, have a great weekend. >> happy friday. >> mark, if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's "morning joe," but now as always it's time for chuck. >> yes. >> all right, chuck! on wisconsin, as the new