welcome to "the ed show." the polls have just closed in the republican primaries and in maryland and washington, d.c. in the district of columbia, nbc news is projecting mitt romney the winner. in the state of maryland, nbc news is projecting mitt romney is the winner there as well. the polls in wisconsin close in an hour. it could be rick santorum's curtain call. lots of details about what's happening behind the scene. this is "the ed show." let's get to work. >> this republican budget is something different altogether. it's an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. >> the president lights up the republican budget like a pinball machine. >> it's bad idea and will end medicare as we know it. it's thinly veiled social darwinism. >> the epic take down with maryland governor and eugene

robinson. can rick santorum survive a defeat in wisconsin. in north dakota third is first. rick santorum thought he won the state. steve and richard wolf on the strong arming of the delegates, romney style. an arrest is made in the connection to the wisconsin planned parenthood bombing. mitt romney thinks he knows,000 fix the republican problem with women. >> the way we're going to get women voters is talking about how we will get this economy going again. devastating tornadoes slam through nox. >> this is something i've never seen before. >> entire neighborhoods in dallas-ft. worth are destroyed. good to have you with us. thanks for watching. we'll have full election results as we get them. president obama was the big winner today. he laid out two starkly different visions for america. in a speech to the associated press, the president said we can choose the vision to definded by

paul ryan's budget or choose the path provided by president obama and the democrats. >> i believe this is a make or break moment for the middle class. i can't remember a time when the choice between competing visions of our future has been so unbasic biggousu unambiguously clear. the republicans running congress right now have doubled down and proposed a budget so far to the right, it makes the contract with america look like the new deal. >> the republican budget would require vast, and i mean vast spending cuts and no tax increases on the wealthy. republicans will not compromise on the radical plan. the president is calling the budget out for what it really is. >> if you want to keep these tax breaks and deductions in place or give even more tax breaks to the wealthy as the republicans in congress propose, then one of

two things happen. either it means higher deficits or it means more sacrifice from the middle class. seniors will have to pay more for medicare. college student will lose financial aid. working families scraping by will have to do more because the richest americans are doing less. i repeat what i've said before. that's not class warfare or class envy, that is mat. . >> ryan refuses to budge on massive cuts to social services. today ryan reacted to the president's speech. we all thought barack obama would be better than this. he had potential making his leadership failures so disappointing. ryan spent the day campaigning with mitt romney in wisconsin. this is another welcome site for the president who wasted no time linking romney to ryan's radical plan.

in a rare moment today president obama called out romney by name. >> one of my potential opponents, governor romney said he hoped a familiar version of this plan from last year would be introduced as a bill on day one of his presidency. he said he is very supportive of this new budget and called it marvelous, which is a word you don't here when it comes to describing a budget. it's a word you don't often hear generally. >> romney didn't take too kindly being mocked by the president. he ran to the said of the shaun hannity's radio show to hit back. >> this is a president who so misrepresents the policies and proposals of our party and myself as well, and then fails to acknowledge the mistakes and the errors in his own record.

it's just -- it's astonishing to listen to him. >> maybe the speech was astonishing to rom because the president proved the republicans will not work on a bipartisan solution. >> here is what this budget does. back in the summer i came to an agreement to cut $1 trillion in annual spending. this new budget breaks our bipartisan agreement and proposes massive new cuts in annual domestic spending, exactly the yarp where we already cut the most. >> i don't think there's any doubt this is a fight the president and the democrats, they got to want to have in front of the american people. president obama did not shy away from criticizing the ryan budget last year and it paid off. >> there's nothing serious about plan that reduces the deficit by trillion dollars in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

that's not a vision of the america i know. >> few weeks after the president speech, the democrats won a highly competitive election in new york by running against the ryan budge pet. they spelled it out to the folks and got a positive result. the president made it clear today the election in november will be a referendum on where we go as a nation. democrats have a plan for all americans not just those at the very top. you have to go back to our vulture chart. you couldn't take a budget and make it anymore perfect for this chart right here. we will go through the budget, line by line every night on this program and show you that the blue liners, those 99%ers, you're going to have to take another haircut from the republicans take control and ramrod this through. it's for the top 1% and the cuts will hurt more and it will trickle down to the states and

make it harder for governors to run their budget which means your local taxes will go up or you're going to have to sacrifice some more. remember, in the ryan budget plan, the wealthiest americans, they get more money back from the government. they get a tax cut. just like i said in the lean forward promo that we did, they're making the case that the rich are paying too much and they are still putting it out in front of the american people like that. i'm joined by maryland governor. good to have you with us tonight. i want to go through your response to mitt romney winning the state of maryland tonight and with this new way about the way the budget is playing out, how will folks in your state respond to this? >> i think that governor romney, governor etch a sketch will be the guy that would win in maryland. i think this budget underscores the problem with the republican

party that mitt romney has had to run so far to the right in order to appeal to what is now the republican party. they are not the party of lincoln. this budget that congress mangndman ryan put out and that mitt romney has called marvelous is really the sort of trickle down, cut america, undermine america that got us into this position of this recession that cost the greatest amount of job losses and the greatest deficits. >> would it be a great pick for the democrats if mitt romney wins the nomination and picks paul ryan based on this budget? would it be easy to run against? >> it would be a sharp contrast. ed, i think that every election and this is our experience here in maryland, is that when people, when americans are given the choice of moving forward or going back, they always choose to move forward. i think the president's remarks today were spot on.

the truth can defend herself but she needs to be stated. the truth about this ryan budget is it undermines the job generating core of our country, the middle class that we need to grow and expand. this is not a vision for a growing and expanding american opportunity. >> the president definitely made that case today as you said. he went off it in a big way. tonight paul ryan described the president's speech today. here it is. >> what we're getting is a desperate political attack. they are so beyond the pail, it doesn't make sense going thereupon it point by point. >> beyond the pail. he says he wont go point by point. if you go point by point, the 99% get screwed this this budget. >> they do not want a point by point discussion. paul ryan, who i don't know very well. he's the guy that does great

with the little sound bites and the great chin. the people that take it on the chin are the american people in the middle class. >> how will there affect any governor? there's going to be a trickle down. it's going to be harder on local taxpayers to provide if they want any services and the republicans seem to be bent ongoing after the elderly in this country and the poor. in our next segment we're going to show you who will be paying the price. as a governor, from what you know, how tough would this be? >> it would be very bad for every state. we're finally as a country, we had 24 months of positive job growth. this would pull the skids from right underneath that job growth. maybe that's the purpose of it. this would be very bad news for governors. it would be bad news for the senior citizens who depend on medicare and on family tsa are working to join the middle class who depend on medicaid. it would be mostly for our

economy. there is no progress without jobs. this ryan budget, it's a job killer. it takes the skids right out from under an economy that is only now starting to recover and grow. >> no doubt. thanks for your time tonight. appreciate it. let's turn to eugene robinson. i just think republicans would be doing the democrats a big favor if they took the guy with the radical budget and put him on the ticket. what do you think? >> i agree with you. if they want to embrace the ryan budget and if mitt romney wants to embrace paul ryan himself, i think as the governor said, it sharpens the contradictions. it lets the president draw a very clear bright line between his vision of the future of the country and the republican party's vision of the country.

i thought he made an impressive start on that today. if they want to adopt the ryan budget as the flag they wave during the campaign, i think democrats would be happy. >> what do you make of the president mentioning romney today and being so direct on exactly what this budget would do to america? >> i think it's become clear that the president, and not just in today's speech but in recent public appearances and statements, is going to be in your face during this campaign. obviously, the white house believes romney is going to be the nominee and romney is out there taking shots at the president, and i think the president has decided, no, if this is what you're going to embrace then i'll explain what it means, what it will do and not let you skate on this. >> the president, today, made

sure to define this republican budget as a right wing plan. here it is. >> in fact, that renowned liberal newt gingrich first called the original version of the budget, radical. said it would contribute to right wing social engineering. this is coming from newt gingrich. yet, this isn't a budget supported by some small romp group in the republican party. this is now the party's governing platform. this is what they are running on. >> paul ryan called that a desperate speech and beyond the pail. we're in campaign mode. >> we are in campaign mode. there is something fundamentally, i have to use the word dishonest about the ryan budget in that it doesn't specify in any detail a lot of

cuts that would be made. it says slash this, slash that. send medicaid back to the states. the president laid out what that means, and provided a basis for discussion that's a more honest basis for discussion than what congressman provided so people can decide which vision they prefer. that's the way our vision works but let's be clear on what the vision is. >> thanks. president obama details how the ryan plan will hurt the middle class. msnbc analyst will join me for the break down on that. mitt romney unzips a new strategy to win female voters. terry o' neil weighs in on that. stay tuned. we're right back. on december 21st polar shifts will reverse the earth's gravitational pull and hurtle us all into space.

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coming up, the president explained how the ryan plan

hurts the working class. you know those americans that take a shower after work. the americans the republicans don't have a plan for. ezra cline is here with the details. what do tonight's results mean for the gop candidate? what the heck happened in north dakota of all places? we'll update you on the massive tornadoes that ripped through the dallas-ft. worth area. the public information officer of johnson county, texas will have a report from the ground. stay with us. we're right back. [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu users chose prego.

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welcome back high pressure ted today president obama talked about two visions of america. he laid out the real effect of romney-ryan budget. >> nearly $10 million college students would see their financial aid cut by an average of $1,000 each. if this budget becomes law and the cuts were applied evenly starting in 2014, over 200,000 children would lose their chance to get early education. two million mothers and young children would be cut from a program that gives them access to healthy food. >> that's just a slice of it. the ryan plan would be a double whammy for states already hurting for money when the federal government is forced to cut back aid to states it's going to affect cops, first responders, teachers all at the local level. 37%, grab that number, folks,

37% of the tax breaks benefit the wealthiest americans. those making more than $1 million a year. this sounds pretty familiar. ryan wants to give another boost to the top 1% to those that have seen their income skyrocket while wages have been flat for the blue byliliners, the middle class. let's turn to ezra. the wealthy get most of the tax breaks but 62% of the budget cuts come from low income americans. is that correct? >> you've broken it down fairly well. here is what it does. it spends trillions of dollars on tax cuts, on defense spending and deficit reduction and it pays for that by cutting programs for the poor and programs for seniors and sort of everything else the government does which is a fairly small bit. the big transfer is programs for

the poor get cut in order to fund the main priorities of the ryan budget. you can't get away from making deep cuts into medicare, medicaid and food stamps. i thought it was telling when ryan released his response, he didn't say the president has my budget wrong. he didn't say the facts were wrong. he said i'm disappointed in the president. he should have been nicer to me. he can't argue with the math because the math is correct. >> well, this budget, if it goes after the food stamp program will hit the farm economy because the food stamp program is in the farm bill. rural america will have to take a real haircut and the farming community across america which agriculture is one of our biggest industries will feel the effects. is ryan's budget plan a deficit reduction plan? >> if he was able to follow the actual trajectory then it is. he doesn't really explain how he

would get there. he went to the congressional budget office and said the way you will score this plan is follow the rules i set out for you and the rules is you will assume that my plan brings medicare down to this level, taxes to here. you'll assume it brings other domestic spending to there. he doesn't say how he'll get it there. in 2050, the plan expects everything that the government does, defense, transportation, education, infrastructure will be less than 3.5% of gdp. right now it's 12.5. there's no way to get there. >> the president called it a trojan horse. i assume he's talking about medicare because a lot of people will take a whammy here. are the numbers correct? we heard everything from 5 to

$7,000 in reduction of benefits if it's put in place. is that right? >> i think it's important to say ryan backed off on his original plans. he used to have it at the growth of inflation but now it's gdp. it would cut the long term spending of medicare. i don't know about 5 to 7,000. the president's april budget proposal, his deficit reduction proposal has the same growth. he gets it by going at providers and trying to get at value base insurance design. ryan passes more costs onto con sie sierms. in ryan's plan the cuts are not coming from programs for seniors. they are coming from programs from the poor. medicaid takes a larger cut. medicaid and other programs take a cut that's twice the level of the cut that's to medicare. >> no doubt the wealthiest

americans get more money back, correct? they have to pay in less. >> the millionaires get a tax cut of about $265,000. >> thanks for joining us tonight. >> thank you. up next, is it really all over for rick santorum after tonight? we'll have richard wolf. a pair of violent tornadoes barrel through dallas this afternoon. we'll have the latest update for you.

welcome back. nbc news has projected mitt romney will win the maryland republican primary. nbc news has projected mitt romney will win in the district of columbia. polls have not yet closed in the state of wisconsin, but rick santorum has yet to prove he can do well in states with a manufacturing base. this is a problem for him and romney is outspending rick santorum by 50 to 1 in the state of wisconsin. mitt romney is beating rick santorum on process. here is a perfect example. in the state of north dakota, santorum won the caucus in march but what does that mean? ron paul finished second. mitt romney finished third but when they held its republican convention, the candidate walking away with most of the delegates was mitt romney. then you have the president of the united states picking them both apart.

>> ronald reagan who as i recall is not accused of being a tax and spend socialist understood repeatedly when the deficit started to get out of control for him to make a deal, he would have to propose both spending cuts and tax increases. did it multiple times. he could not get through a republican primary today. >> i'm joined tonight by steve schmidt and richard wolf. good to have you with us tonight. steve, i want to you about what unfolded up on the prairie. mitt romney finishes third. the republican establishment goes to work and romney walks

away with the delegates, the majority of the delegates. i understand the rick santorum camp is pretty hot about this process. isn't this ignoring the will of the people when they caucus? >> this isn't a general election. it's a caucus process in the republican party. the romney campaign is ready for prime time. they followed the rules. they got the delegates. another example of rick santorum's campaign not being ready to play at this level and that's why his campaign is all but over as we come to tonight and mitt romney is on the edge of being the nominee. >> romney did have some of his attorneys to that campaign this weekend. they must have done some pretty fast talking. romney looks like he's going to be get it, we might as well go with him? what about that? >> it's very powerful. the idea of being the insurgent is you can build momentum and steal on it. we have seen a number try to get it and fail on it and then hold

out. plan b was to stop mitt romney from getting enough delegates to take the nominee at the convention. that plan b is now collapsing. they're not playing the state conventions. they're not winning the caucuses. really there's nowhere left to go. >> if north dakota is a model for the rest of the states left. what's going to stop mitt romney from being the man in. >> nothing is going to stop him from being the man. the race is effectively over. the only person that doesn't seem to understand that is rick santorum and newt gingrich. santorum is like the guy at the blackjack table that doesn't know when to walk away and cash in his chips. you saw today with the president he's beginning to frame this race. republicans have made a decision not to focus the message on the president's economic record but to frame a choice between the ryan budget and president obama. republicans are going to have to do a better job than they did today at communicating around these issues. if you look at the damage done

to mitt romney in the republican primary, you understand why the president is trying to seize ground in the middle of the electorate, today. you also understand why people want rick santorum out of the race so mitt romney is start to merge his operation with the rnc, begin to off load a number of overhead cash expenses and get on into the general election. really a santorum candidacy doesn't serve more purpose except to conflict damage on mitt romney in the context of a general election. he doesn't have a chance to be the nominee any longer. it will be interesting to see how long he stays in and continues to attack the guy that will be the nominee. >> richard, what's happened to this talk about brokered convention. our exit polling shows in maryland and the district of columbia, that white evangelicals, tea partiers and conservatives are starting to converge and recognize it's going to be mitt romney and he

wins in both of those places tonight. what about the brokered convention? what happened to all that hot talk? >> it does require the other candidates to get enough delegates to make it difficult, if not impossible, for mitt romney to meet the magic number. they just failed to do that. there are going to be surprises down the road. i'm sure rick santorum will pick up a couple of states going down the track. it's not going to be enough to get him to the point where the math works for him at the convention. by the time, the party will come together. the debate will be engaged with the president, with the white house, with the chicago campaign, and that contrast between the two sides is going to lead to people converging on mitt romney, but still, it will be those questions. i think santorum's plan, if he does have one, the loser keeps getting the next shot in the next four years so there's a reason to hang on if only to

book a place for 2016. >> what if, steve, rick santorum wins wisconsin tonight? what if that happens? does that really change anything? >> well, it would be, you know, it would be the past is prolonged again where mitt romney stood right at the edge of the line of being the defacto nominee and getting knocked backwards in i don't think that will happen. i think mitt romney will sweep it tonight. i really don't understand how rick santorum continues to make the argument offering and going forward rationale the the ability to deny mitt romney the number of collapsed the dell gal gaits has been collapsed. >> great to have you with us. thanks for your time. an arrest is made in the planned plarnt hood bombing. we'll go to wisconsin for the

latest. >> women don't care about contraception. they care about jobs and the economy. >> women are running away from republicans thanks to comments like that one. now terry with the war on women. it's throwing lots of debris, 18 wheelers. this is something i've never seen before. >> an epic storm rips through north texas. we'll have a report from dallas-ft. worth.

our election coverage continues here on msnbc. you're looking live at a rick santorum event in pittsburgh, pennsylvania where the candidate is tonight, and is expected to speak to his supporters in just a moment. mitt romney has won maryland and also the district of columbia tonight. wisconsin, those polls will close at the top of the hour. welcome back. mitt romney knows he has a problem with women voters.

polls don't lie. romney is trailing president obama by 18 points with women voters in swing states. this morning romney, well i guess you can say he shook the etch a sketch and explained his new strategy to tackle the gender gap. >> i believe the way we'll get women voters is by talking about how we will get this economy going again. it's not going to be by attacking the economy and attacking business and attacking success like this president is doing. >> romney is looking for an avenue to win back women voters. his surrogate, south carolina governor didn't do him any favors today on the view. >> a lot of times people associate women's rights with liberals and not republican women. how do you say we are here representing women. >> all of my policy is not based oen a label. it's based on what i lived and what i know. women don't care about contraception. they care about jobs and the economy and raising their

families and all of their thing pps. >> they care about contraception too. >> that's not the only thing they care about. >> when rick santorum says he will take it away, we care. >> let's beclear, we're saying we don't government to mandate when we have to have it and when we don't. we don't need government making that decision for us. >> elizabeth couldn't save her from that flip-flop. polling shows women do care. the republicans war on women have only hurt them in the polls. if the gop continues to support radical, mandatory ultrasound measures and preparing to rally around a presidential candidate who vows to defund planned parenthood. she should be more aware of which party is making women's reproductive health choices for them. let's turn to terry o' neil.

what is more important? maybe the governor from south carolina is right. do women care more about the economy or their personal health care? >> both and they are both really intertwined. what women don't want is catholic bishops telling them when and when they can't take birth control. this whole notion that contraception access is not about women, it's about a bunch of male religious leaders is flabber gasting. >> what would you say to governor haley if you had been sitting there? >> i would have said women care about birth control because that is key to their -- to the economic health of their family as well as their own personal health. it's fundamental to women's preventative health care to prevent pregnancies. think back to the days when women were have 12, 13 and 20 pregnancies. in childbirth they died yupger and lived sicker and their

families were poorer. i've heard from so many men thanking me and our allied organizations for standing up for birth control because what the men say it's not just about my wife or my partner's health care, it's about our family financials. >> wuld you say republicans are advocating for gender discrimination. they're against the affordable health care act. it's going to prohibit health snurns gender discrimination. it's very personal to people when you start talking about who can get what kind of insurance and why women should be discriminated against. >> that's the thing that i think a lot of people perhaps have not grappled with is that the claim of religious liberty that the religious leaders, the catholic

bishops are saying about birth control, yes they have a religious liberty in the constitution but women have the right to not be discriminated against. when constitutional rights are in conflict, the courts have to balance them and weigh them. really not only have the right to not be discriminated against but we have a right of religious freedom and if our religion say it's okay to use birth control, they have nothing to sell us. >> she says the republicans are engaged in a retro debate when it comes to contraception. are we going to see more republicans with buyer remorse on this war on women. we're seeing that in the polls right now. we're seeing in ohio in that senate race and the senate race in florida and president obama leading mitt romney in women. now you've got a republican senator who is retiring saying, you know what, there's going to be buyers remorse. what do you think? >> i think there's definitely going to be buyer's remorse.

the senator from alaska has had to apologize to her women con stitch wents who were furious with her for voting for the blunt amendment. i think it's important to recognize what some people will be saying, which is, women don't care about it. that's the bullies response. that's the oh, i was just joking. >> she says that the economy is more important than women's health care. women don't care about contraception. if that's going to be the republican line, take it all the way to november, please. >> yeah. ed, women do care about jobs, in which case mitt romney needs to completely disavow the ryan budget which kills jobs for women. >> great to have you with us. thanks to much. a terrifying storm system left trail of destruction through the dallas-ft. worth area this afternoon. it was a dandy. the public information officer for johnson county sheriff's office will bring us the latest. stay with us.

up next, tornadoes ripped through the dallas-ft. worth area. we'll get a live update from the ground.

at least two massive tornadoes ripped through the dallas-ft. worth area. the twister tore roofs off houses and tossed tractor trailers into the air. the storm system was slow-moving about 25 miles per hour which means it had more time to cause damage. golf size hail was reported near the dallas-ft. worth area. hundreds of flights were cancelled and airlines are reporting more than 110 aircraft was damaged. so far more than a dozen injuries have been reported, but there are no reports of fatalities, which is nothing short of a miracle. joining me tonight by phone is lieutenant tim jones. he's the public information officer for the johnson county

sheriff's office. is that the case, there are to fatalities? >> injohnson county we had no injuries at all. >> kwhafs the response? how did that work out. this is the most horrific tornado you folks have seen in years? >> yes, it was. we're in the southwest part of the metroplex. the tornado started to spin up over our area and went towards the dfw area. we had about nine agencies that responded to the area that we had our tornadoes in probably about 45 or 50 people. >> what's the extent of the damage? this is so widespread, isn't it? >> it is very widespread. in our county we're very lucky. we only had it drop down and hit four homes and a bunch of out buildin buildings, but it was a rural area. as it traveled toward dallas-ft.

worth, it ended up into a residential and business areas. >> when the tornadoes were coming through and coming through slow and doing a lot of damage, how was the communication systems and how did the people respond? >> in johnson county, to my knowledge, the sirens were going off. the alerts were going off the radio. people were taking shelter as much as we could tell. the biggest thing is when they do happen and you hear the alarms, don't take them for granted. they go off for a reason. >> if you had to characterize the response, what would you say? >> in our area and what i've seen in dfw, i think we did an excellent job. >> lieutenant tim jones, it's a miracle no one lost their lives tonight. we can always replace stuff on the ground but lives cannot be replaced. thank you. we're just minutes away from the polls closing in wisconsin. mitt romney has high hopes for a

victory but an election day campaign event at a sub shop may have violated election law. we have the details.

up next, scott walker has been absent from the campaign trial as the gop candidates toured his state. john nickels explains why he might be the won avoiding them. don't forget to listen to me, my radio show on siruis xm and on progressive talk stations around the country. stay tuned.

in the big finishwisconsin i hopes it will put an end to the robo calls. some residents report getting up to ten calls day. the romney campaigns calls have tried to connect rick santorum to union leaders. >> the union bosses are trying to influence the election today by having democrats vote for rick santorum so the republican primary will last longer. they tried this trick in michigan and it didn't work there. dent let them do it here. >> santorum supporters are getting into the robo call wars as well focusing on social issue s. >> when you vote tomorrow vote for social sanity in rick

santorum. >> rick santorum is the only candidate that can be trusted to uphold traditional marriage and the rights to have a mother and a father. >> there's been one mayor player missing from the campaign events in wisconsin, governor scott walker. romney and santorum are more than happy to run on walker's anti-union agenda but they don't want to be seen with him on the campaign trial. he could become the biggest loser if he loses the recall election in june. he's the first governor to set up a criminal defense fund and no candidate wants to risk having his or her photo taken next to a guy who could turn out to be a felon. let's turn to washington correspondent. i got a sense in wisconsin they want to get this out of way and get with the the recall. i want to talk about this story about what happened with the

subway sandwich today. mitt romney and paul ryan handed out free subs at a campaign event today. the wisconsin democratic party is filing a complaint tonight against them for violating state election law. what do you know about this? >> well, wisconsin's a pretty old school at a time and it's always had a law going back to better part of a century against giving away free food or free drinks on election day. we didn't want to have what some people referred to as that chicago style politics. it's a very purist state in that regard and there are strict laws. i find it hard to imagine anybody would decide to vote for mitt romney and return for a subway sandwich. ryan, himself, should have known better. this is something every political figure in wisconsin knows you don't give away fry food on election day. >> there's got to be a commercial here with this video somewhere that the republican party is at the head of a bread

line giving bread out. there's not go the a message there because that's what ryan's budget will do to some people. that might be a bit of a stretch, but i think you know where i'm going. >> you take away their medicare and medicaid. >> that's very true. it's a ruthless budget. >> give them some free food. >> what about scott walker not appearing with either one of these guys? who is doing this? is walker doing this or is mitt romney and rick santorum doing this? >> that's a good question. i think at this point santorum is desperate that he could have been glad to appear with scott walker, to be face-to-face. for romney it's more complicated. he loves being next to paul ryan because paul ryan will be around no matter what. walk ser a much more volatile player. romney and santorum are glad to talk about how they agree with

walker there, big for the anti-union stuff, big for the cuts, but to be photographed with scott walker at this point is a rather dangerous thing. i think walker and romney understand that. that picture comes back to haunt men if walker is defeated in recall or runs into big legal trouble, that's embarrassing for romney. walker is going into a recall election where he's going to desperately be trying to present himself as a moderate figure, so he really doesn't want a picture of him next to presidential candidate who has had to run hard hard to the right. bottom line is, i think they have sort of decided to keep their distance but they have talked each other up in all these cases. >> great to have you with us. in the news tonight, mitt romney has won the state of maryland and the district of columbia. that's "the ed show." the "the rachel maddow show" starts right now. good evening. good evening. thanks my