that's the power of the home depot lay down a new look, with earthgro mulch, now three bags for just $10. new polls show mitt romney and president obama are running neck and neck. the good news, we've got a long way to go before november 6th. the bad news, we've got a long way to go before november 6th. it's tuesday, april 17th, tax day. and this is "now." joining me today, cnbc kudlow report contributor robert costa of the national review, rolling stone executive editor eric bates, msnbc analyst and columnist for "the hill" karen finney. three new polls of the general election matchup lead to one conclusion, unclear where this race stands right now, but this

november it's going to be a nail-biter. gallup shows the race in a statistical tie, a cnn/orc poll, gave obama a nine-point lead, and reuters/ipso has the president up four, outside the pla pla margin of error. karen finney, nail-biter. >> yeah. >> we talk about -- i mean this is something we talked about when we were having meetings to discuss this very show. >> how about that. >> one of the things we talked about a general feeling perhaps on left that mitt romney's weakness as a candidate has given way to malaise and a general sense that the president has this, i don't need to participate, he's going to be fine. >> it's a matter we didn't have a contested primary, right people were think, i'll focus on what's happening in the house or senate races and then i'll focus on the presidential farther down the road. i would say, though, as a practitioner of politics, i'll

be most interested to see where the polls are at about the start of the summer, because i do think it's only recently that romney is the presumptive nominee, and i say that with respect to mr. gingrich, but when we really have several weeks and some time of head-to-head and people really have the chance to see the two men on the campaign trail kind of going at it, at each other, on specific issues, specific ideas, then i think the american people will have a better sense of what they're thinking and feeling about these candidates. >> robert, may i call you bob? >> please call me bob. >> i will call you bob. you know, we've talked about what mitt romney needs to do next if he is in fact going to be the nominee, and ts a lot of debate within the republican party whether he needs to pivot further to the center or try to gin the enthusiasm and win the love of the conservative base. do what degree does his presumed strong standing in a head-to-head matchup make a crazy pick for a vp?

>> i was with mitt romney last night in philadelphia, speaking at a tea party rally, i spoke to 100 members, one, mitt romney's going to a tea party as general elections unfolds but, two, the tea party warmly embraced romney. i was startled by that surprise. you think it's a time for wound licking, the primary just ended but romney, i think, though he's a flawed candidate to conservatives, they're embracing him, they're ginned up, they want to go against the president and they're energized, and i was surprised to see that in philadelphia, even about romney and the tea party. >> it was lindsey graham who said yesterday the dislike for the current president is the great motivator here. romney can almost take that as a given. rick tyler, we talk about who is -- who's a candidate we all like, certainly gingrich, newt gingrich, has given us a lot of lod fodder for discussion. the idea of favorables is an interesting statistic to unpack.

abc/"the washington post" poll shows that romney's favorable rating is 35%, unfavorable rating 47%. the president, 56% favorable rating. unfavorable rating of 40%. now, i have to quote the "wall street journal" here, and they say, plenty of americans thought president carter was a good and decent man, too. by election day mr. reagan persuade him his rival wasn't up to the job. mr. romney already has vote of those who dislike mr. obama. the vote his needs are there for the asking. folks who like mr. obama but have serious doubts about his leadership as president. does that mean favorables don't matter? >> favorables do matter but people's individual situations are going to matter. mitt romney's done well thing well in the election, he's convinced the republican party that he's the person to beat barack obama, period. that's why they didn't pay attention to his governor earning record in massachusetts,

gun control, taxes, they sort of ignored it. they said we want to beat barack obama. but it's never good for republicans to just want to beat barack obama. you've got to excite the republican base. this is what happened with reagan, this is what happened in 1994, this is what happened in 2010. we don't have inherent turnout machines. the only way we turn out and win large numbers -- >> karl rove made the magic of microtargeting. >> when the unions endorse, right, you get everything, you get the office space, the copy machines that people stuff the envelopes, people go door-to-do. >> we get the check. >> mitt romney's win, coming back to alex's point, favorable ratings mitt romney won the primary in suburbs. romney is suffering, battered and bruised by the primary but winning with suburb swing voters, cincinnati, columbus, ohio and that's important in the general election. >> the number that we look at, more than the

favorable/unfavorable, trustworthy, that at the end of the day, that's how you make your argument with rotors. >> this is important because, george w. bush, when he ran, he was accepted that he was a conservative, he got to go off and dance with left and went to the naacp and everybody said that's fine, because we trusted him on the issue. there's no trust with mitt romney. he will not have the flexible to go too far to the center, because the right will get very, very nervous. >> it's not and much favorables here, it's trustworthiness. richard cohen, "the washington post" has a scathing op-ed, i admire a smooth liar and romney is among the best, he's not honest about himself. this is what enables the slumlord to be a charitable man. business is business. what you do. it's not who you are. lying isn't a sin. it's a business plan. boom goes the dynamite. >> when john kerry ran, the term was flip-flople.

you'll see that with romney. he's going to have to run against his record as governor and in the opposite directions a primary candidate. it's a question of which mitt romney is this and can we trust that there's a real mitt romney? and that's really going to be central, i think. >> i do want to pick. on what you said about you don't automatically get folks out to the polls, because we did not purchase this but people outside the billing who gave campaign donations to president obama to buy the birth certificate mug, another group of folks gave money to the romney campaign, again, not affiliated with this show or news network, the super fan. this is a chance to interface with constituents, right? if you order the barack obama birth certificate mug, made in the usa, you get this fancy little official discount card, good graphics, 10% off for future barack obama merchandise. if you order the mitt romney super fan shirt, you get this

sort of printout of -- >> it's meaningless. >> that's not meaningless. >> the election's about the economy, not a coffee cup on the website. >> it's getting voters out to the poll. >> coffee cups and t-shirts are not what the election's about. >> having done five presidentials, why this matter, when you're trying to build a grassroots base and army, the magic of what barack obama was able to do, howard dean started it and i think barack obama perfected it. we did work at the dnc on this as well, now you've got this. now you're like i have 10% maybe i'll go ahead -- hold on -- >> this costs more. >> but then you get an e-mail that says would you go to an event? okay. would you host an event? sure. would you make phone calls? >> you think because they bought a coffee mug they're going to host -- >> you can say this is crass or

whatever, but is it marketing a message. >> it's a minor slice of the campaign. >> i think that's right. to the extent those things matter they are emblematic as you're suggesting of the head start that obama has in terms of his machine and it's a bigger head start brought on by the dragged out primary season. obama has a grassroot organizations in place and humming alonged aaniteling speed for four years and romney has to play catch up. so this is emblematic of that. >> i think the organizational thing, this gallup poll numbers don't suggest the president is very much ahead at all. i sort of wish we had -- i mean i'd like to say we brought romney's numbers down. but you know, this is -- this is an even start. it's remarkable at this point. >> it is -- it is going to go on for a few months, as it would seem. and it will be neck and neck. we'll be following that. the race and the campaign merch

as it comes rolling off the production line. a poll shows most republicans want newt gingrich to drop out. we'll ask if there looks to be any end to the great american zoo tour, next. [ male announcer ] this was how my day began. a little bird told me about a band... ♪ an old man shared some fish stories... ♪ oooh, my turn. ♪ she was in paris, but we talked for hours... everyone else buzzed about the band. there's a wireless mind inside all of us. so, where to next? ♪

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i would not say i'm into it, but let's see where this goes. [ buzzer ] do you like to travel? i'm all about "free travel," babe.

that's what i do. [ buzzer ] balance transfers -- you up for that? well... too soon? [ female announcer ] fortunately, there's an easier way with creditcards.com. compare hundreds of cards from every major bank, and find the one that's right for you. creditcards.com. it's simple. search, compare, and apply. sir, this country needs you desperately. >> do yourself a favor, do us all a fave. >> vote for newt, 2012, don't be a fool. >> we are not only for you, but we're with you. >> go, newt gingrich, 2012. >> that is a video released by the gingrich campaign showing six people who want the former speaker elected. question is, how many others want the same thing?

rick tyler? where is candidate gingrich in the trajectory of this race? is he nearing the end of his involvement in it? >> everything i read says he's going to tampa, so i take him at his word. >> is that a good thing for the party? >> i don't know. i mean, i'm back and forth between it's a good thing for the party for the moderated to one again the establishment put a moderate in, to lose, like they did with ford over reagan with bob dole, clinton and then mccain we get obama. now they want -- now they say, no, new york mitt romney, he's the guy. no he's in a long line of guys in the establishment and we lose. that is good for the party, no. >> okay. a wonder what you make of herman cain saying, earlier, let's listen to what he said, actually. >> to newt gingrich i would say, speaker gingrich, wit all due

respect, let's get on this with okay? you made a great run. i endorsed newt gingrich at one point because i thought he had a shot. well, not now, he doesn't have a shot. >> that's herman cain, doubling back on his endorsement. >> i'm sure that hurt. >> did that hurt, rick? >> sure, it hurt. you know, herman cain endorses, he had a great plan, one of the thing wise learned from herman cain, keep it simple, 9-9-9 worked. and you know, look, he's doing what a lot of people are doing, hedging their bets and they believe that romney's going to be the nominee, so, you know, it's not surprising. >> bob, you know we have a quote/unquote endorsement from john boehner this morning where he said, it's clear now that mitt romney is going to on our nominee. i think he has a set of economic policies that can put persons back to work. doesn't this point to a republican party that is still

somewhat very much in disarray. >> you know why? john boehner respectfully sat on the sidelines for a long time, helped newt build the 1994 gop revolution, and john boehner's closing the door, giving a signal to his old friend, that it's over. i think the most interesting thing about newt gingrich, though, that it's not about mitt romney versus newt gingrich anymore. what is newt doing? he fancies himself a historic figure. he wants to continue on this campaign for history ex-reasons he wants to be a reagan-type figure ala '76 at the convention. i don't think he's living a political reality but trying to have a different kind of campaign, not just running against mitt romney. >> isn't part of the strategy, you hear him talk about this, i'll go to tampa, part of that is i'm going to tampa and cut a deal, whether that's putting things on the platform that he feels strongly about, whether it's somehow trying to leverage whatever delegates he has, for a speaking position on -- in the program. i mean this is kind of what we

see from candidates of both parties when we get to this point. >> i have known newt for a long time. newt doesn't have a driving ambition to president. he didn't have driving ambition to be speak. >> why is he running for president? >> he has an interest in the republican party. newt gingrich ran from georgia when you couldn't get your trash picked up. the whole south switched over to republican around speaker gingrich. he led the republicans to a majority and he did it by teaching republicans you can win on conservative issues and he went on the balanced budget, paid off debt all of the thing we need to do today. it should have played in today. it didn't. >> he's playing hardball for a prime time speaking spot in tampa. newt staying in until he gets offered that prime time spot. >> a gentle way of saying this is an exercise in ego. >> it's an exercise in keeping the republican party tethered to the base and the conservative

principles. >> if that's so true, why is it that newt gingrich's candidacy has failed so miserably? he was not able to consistently find an audience for that message. >> he won south carolina but got decimated in florida. he didn't have the money, couldn't compete pith romney. he put to much money and ep fa sis on florida. he could have survived santorum into february it could have been a different campaign. he put all of his chips on florida. >> i agree with bob on florida. >> there are southern primaries coming up in may. >> the primaries where the closed primaries, we have republicans voting and not everybody else. >> you can make -- >> his message should have -- if what you're saying is true, his message should have picked up more steam. >> he lost the message. >> i can make the conservative argument, the conservative vote divided between santorum and gingrich. if you take that as a whole, that was always their point, and that beat romney, you combine it. >> gingrich is the angry candidate after florida.

>> a problem many times before. >> discipline and not going so dupe into lunar policy at key moments of the campaign. the former speaker remains in the race, and we will continue to follow him. >> and committed to space exploration. >> and as rick tyler points out, committed to space exploration. a congressional committee grills the leaders of a government agency accused of throwing parties hundreds of taxpayers' dollars. [ male announcer ] with six indulgently layered desserts,

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today i own 165 wendy's restaurants. and i get my financing from ge capital. but i also get stuff that goes way beyond banking. we not only lend people money, we help them save it. [ junior ] ge engineers found ways to cut my energy use. [ cheryl ] more efficient lighting helps junior stay open later... [ junior ] and serve more customers. so you're not just getting financial capital... [ cheryl ] you're also getting human capital. not just money. knowledge. [ junior ] ge capital. they're not just bankers... we're builders. [ junior ] ...and they've helped build my business. where crimes have been committed, people will go to jail. >> and to be honest with you, it actually makes me sick to my stomach. >> 44 for breakfast? i'm a big man i can't spend 44 bucks for breakfast. somebody had to say that. are you kidding me? the american public believes every single employee and every single agency is corrupt and not doing what they're supposed to. >> that was a taste of the

outrage from lawmakers this morning, stemming from the extravagant spending by employees of the general services administration. it comes in part from photos like this of a scouting trip for a gsa conference, photos show commissioner jeffrey neely in the tub with what appeared to be daiquiris. enjoying room service and freshening up in a lavish hotel room costing the american taxpayers $130,000. photos posted on line by his wife who joined him on the trip. i think representative tim wolz had it right, the american public sees the photos and thinks every american agency spends like that. >> what a bun. of bozos, no question this in is out of hand. the real question is, is the response to it proportionate? we're getting with the piling on of congressional investigators is politically motivated.

you get a distortion effect going on, people believe this is way more indem ex-thendemic tha investigations by congress people who were absent during far worst scandals during the bush administration. this is an example -- >> he's a democrat. how is it partisan. >> it's not an example of people taking money in exchange for favorable decision for industry. we have to say, how bad is this really? >> it's worse. >> when you talk about the numbers the republican at the same time are saying something like the buffett rule is a drop in the bucket, what kind of drop in the bucket is this. >> bob, talking about this being a political football or partisan talking point, daryl issa had joyce words this morning. let's listen to what he said. >> this is something where the president came in saying he would scrub these activities now when we find a delayed investigation, the excuse is,

well bush did it, too. you know what? the american people may not have thought president bush was a fiscal conservative, reducing the size of government, but this has been a showing that neither is this president, and it's got to end now. >> there we see the -- daryl issa republican trying to pin this on the white house. i would say on the day after the secret service scandal. >> let's get back to what the actual issue is, is the gsa out of control? >> part of the earn this is being used for political gain and it's a bipartisan problem. >> i hate this stuff. what happens democrats get to go on the television and look like fiscal conservatives when they're not. the group provides great groups of sound bites one after the other, i'm against this stuff and they wave their fists. >> issa admitting bush was not fiscal conservative. the reality is, number one, this is horrible and i think the outrage you saw was bipartisan. it was nice to see bipartisanship for a hot minute on capitol hill. number two, i think to the point that with all of the piling on it does make it harder to truly

understand what really happened, how deep is it really and how broad is it, because it is something that need as tension. frankly, as an american, i want these guys to stop the pandering and figure out what is going on because this is our money. >> daryl issa runs a congressional oversight committee. it's his job to look into this. it's his job as a law maker to investigate the gsa. >> bob i don't think anybody's questioning there there should be an investigation. we're talking about the fact he's trying to pin it to the president as being not fair. >> that's right. >> i mean i think -- >> it's his department. maybe we should go down to seven field inspects instead of eight. >> this is a legitimate case. issa would have more credibility on something like this if he didn't do hearings without women when talking about -- >> no, no, he has tried over and over again, he's leapt to make it political, make it about the president. >> transparent. >> with a legitimate issue, he's

lost credibility. >> you don't propose all of these tax increases and budget and all of these programs and then say, well i'm not responsible for this. this is his administration. >> the president has absolutely taken responsibility for this and they've taken quick action. >> the gsa, we will continue to follow it. we have to go to break. coming up, as the epa prepares to sign off on new rules, republicans battle back on the policy. plus, the legendary carol king joins the panel, next on "now." [ man ] hmm. a lot can happen in two hundred thousand miles...

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i call on congress it pass a package of measures to crack down on illegal activity and hold accountable those who manipulate the market for private gain at expense of millions of working families. >> the president has all of the

tools available to him if he believes that the oil market is being manipulated. instead of another political gimmick, why doesn't he put his administration to work to get to the bottom of it? >> president obama and house speaker john boehner are going head to head over the president's plan to crack down on the manipulation of oil markets. with gas prices on the rise, both sides are trying to own the debate over energy policy. what does it mean for the environment? joining the panel grammy-award winning singer and songwriter, carol king author of "a natural woman" and advocates for legislation aimed at protecting the environment of the northern rockies. a true honor to have you on set. >> thank you so much. i hope you feel that way after this session. >> we'll see, if you end with a song. before we get into the legislation and the policy that the president's proposing i want to talk productly about the energy debate here. the president has certainly proposing incremental measures to heal our dependence or heal

our sort of -- the gas price wound and perhaps move the ball somewhat forward on energy policy. the republicans have been talking about keystone, likely to bring that back up this week. broadly speaking, in terms of real true energy reform, a real attention paid to the environment it seems like the appetite is not only not there in congress, but the american public has turned its eyes away from the issue. >> it's understandable because the american public is trying to figure out how to way for this week's food or last week's food. so they're not thinking about the environment and then on top of it, when the business interests that want to exploit the environment presented as you know question of jobs versus the environment, from my experience -- and by the way i live in a rural community in idaho. while i have more money than the average bear, most of my neighbors do not, so i know -- i'm speaking as somebody that is

in touch with how people live, how most of country lives, and when you cast it as jobs versus the environment and people are hungry, they want those jobs, even if they're short term, they don't want to think if it's going to poison their drinking water or if there's not going to be in i place for the animals to live. i get it. >> karen, you know, the president has put in a difficult spot as far as keystone, because the debate has been framed exactly thusly, jobs versus the environment and the impacts both in terms of job and terms of the environment, many people argue that they are inconclusive. where do you think he goes, now that it's clear the republicans are going to keep bringing this up over and over again? >> number one, broadly, the environmental debate has become a disconnected disbait. to what carol was talking about, when your water is poisoned, drinking poisoned water and more likely to get somebody, you're somebody less likely to have good health insurance.

there's a cyclical nature in the way that we talk about some of these things we've allowed to become disconnected. republicans have found the light on jobs. if they cared about jobs -- and there's disputes how many jobs keystone would create because the idea is it would be a rolling jobs program, not necessarily creating, you know, thousands of jobs in one place, you know that are permanent jobs, so there's a debate on the jobs -- why didn't they work harder with the president on the jobs plan? if you cared about jobs, that's what i think obama should say. by the way, they always use this argument against obama that well, buffett rule, that's politics and it's a drop in the bucket. keystone is probably a drop in the bucket. if we're going to be honest and have an honest conversation, let's view it in the larger context of what that would do, it wouldn't solve the gas price problem right now, so what would it do in terms of the things we need? is that the best use of our resources? >> and, bob, we talk about it's -- it's everything is

happening in inches rather than yards, or miles for that matter, you know at one point -- and i'm sure newt gingrich doesn't like me recalling this on air -- he sat down with nancy pelosi on a couch and talked about climate change. and the republican party, the conversation around alternative fuels, renewables, is totally -- it's like almost -- antithetical where the republicans are on energy and i don't understand why when there was republican support for perhaps an alternative energy future in the country that dialogue no longer exists. >> there was a plan called the keystone pipe lean and the president said no. i think the president with this speech is backed into a corner, he razes that energy's a potent issue this election year and he has to act about. republicans have the upper hand and they haven't managed everything well with alternative energy, i'll give you that on shale, fracking, they have political points to score

against the president who has been boxed into a corner by environmentalists. >> i don't know i agree that he's been boxed into a corner by environmentalists because there are many environmentalists who are not happy with the president's record on energy. solyndra, we talk about the gsa controversy, the notion that sort of -- what solyndra has done is prohibited the white house from talking and granting out funds, i think $16 billion in loans to develop fusel efficient cars have not been given out because of the solyndra controversy. >> president obama has not made the case aggressively against the keystone pipeline for the very reason stated, because there's political pointed to be scored there. it went do anything in the short term or the long term for oil dependents. we rely far less on foreign oil now than ten years ago and the price of oil has gone up. the incremental decreasing of is not doing any good. this debate is between building

the pipeline and the destruction of the planet. jim hansen, nasa scientist, leading expert on global warming says if you burn the tar sands from canada the pipeline will supply, it's, quote, game over for the planet. the amount of carbon pollution released by the tar sands will cook the planet. we're not talking about a loc e localized debate. we're talking about the survival of the species. >> i have to call your attention to the robert zubran, let us consider the question of warming, if it's occurring and i believe it is, which sea levels have risen two inches in two decades is a good or bad thing? answer, a very good thing. global warming increase the rate of evaporation from oceans, increase rail. global warming would lengthen the growing season increasing the bounty of agriculture and nature. >> but the drug companies are -- companies like monsanto figuring

out how to lengthen the growing season. don't worry about it with all of the chemicals they put in our stuff. the challenge, this is a complicated conversation to have in the context of an election year, it is much easier to beat the president up over gas prices, democrats do it to republican presidents, republicans do it to democratic presidents, knowing that the speculation issue is the only thing, the only place that the president can truly have a more immediate impact than some of the other things that we talk about. >> and it's factually something he can do. >> yes. >> which is -- which is saying something about where we are in terms of political destruction. after the break, a look at incredible life and career of carol king. details on her new memoir and album, next. [ male announcer ] drinking a smoothie with no vegetable nutrition?

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carol king's music career has spanned more than 50 years and created countless iconic songs is albums including her record setting tapestry "the legendary demos "ands and it is full of jams. miss king, i must ask -- >> miss king? >> carol. carol. the great carol king. >> i'm old but i'm not that old! >> just that attempted politeness. at any rate, we've been talking about changing altitudes towards women. as a woman who has been in one of the most vicious and eric ba bates can contest to this the music industry, tell us about your experience being a woman in the mid '60s and '70s and the rock industry and the lessons you learned from that. and i'd love to get your thoughts on the dialogue we're having today around women and women's freedoms. >> sure. i had actually a unique relationship to the business,

because when i -- bv i caefore in, gloria steinem said i was the first woman to give a downbeat i never thought about it. i just went about mied by, did what i did. and somehow found a niche in my businesser i was accepted, treated with respect, given place where other women might not have been. i can't explain why, other than my confidence and my lack of -- >> inknha bigs. >> the fear of being held back wasn't in my psyche. where it was difficult was my home life. i valued myself in my business. i didn't value myself enough in my home life. and you know i had -- that's a -- a lot of that's in the book but i had to navigate things like child care, for example, when i -- >> right. >> i didn't have child care, and

we didn't have money in the beginning either, so you know, i had -- if -- if i could get the kids to my mother's, that would work, she lived far away, or my grandmother, she lived closer. if i couldn't i had to bring them to work with me basically. and i was in a business where you can do that, but what do women who do can't? that's more my focus in the book. >> what do you make of the dialogue that we're having in sort of the national political discourse about women and the role -- i mean, everything from contraception to choice matters to whether women should be working or staying at home with their children? a lot say this is a rewind to debate we had in '50s and '60s we thought were solved. >> the reasons we're having the discussion are something we were talking about during the break, everybody's so polarized the republicans are certainly the romney cam taken just seized on that remark which you know whether you agree with what was

said and what wasn't said, it's good discussion to have but it came they're the enemy and you know, democrats are saying, wait a minute we're all for moms having the choice of whether to work. the more important discussion is, is business supporting moms who want to work. >> that is the bigger question, right? >> back in the day there were discussions you can do well by doing good. how much common sense is it to have child care in the workplace so the mom can come and fully give herself to the job? >> a position that mitt romney espoused not but a few months ago which is, i -- if the government needs to take on additional financial burden tonight provide child care i think it's a good thing because everybody should have the dignity of work. i mean, bob, do you think the conversation around women's freedoms, women's health is a good thing for the republican party? >> i think, as carol king said, it's right. the way she has the conversation is, we should all have it, have it with class. it gotten too much in the gutter

on both sides, the language on both sides, making it very partisan. if we have a real conversation, and that would entail talking about moms in the workplace, the way government could help out if federal employees or businesses could help out that's a conversation all sides could have. it's become too nasty. political observers, a whole year, back and forth and we miss the conversation that would be a disappointment. >> karen you have an article talking about do not abandon the sort of tenacity? >> yeah, because what i think is important about this concept of the war on women, say it how you want to, the point is, i think, women across the country, it's what they're feeling. they're feeling at a very gut level. i talk to women friends who see some measures being passed at state level. it almost the kind of thing they can't put their finger on it but feel that's disrespectful to say would i use rape as a loophole? that's not who i am. >> that's my state. >> sorry. one of the things i think we often forget is that a lot of

these things, workplace issues, they benefit men, too. when women push for flex time, that helps male workers as well. if there's child care at your workplace, dads can bring their kids in too. i'm wondering if you've seen that transition if n. your own experience, in terms of how it helps families, not just women? >> i like to say, when mama's not happy, no one's happy. >> that's true in every family. >> yes. >> and it is true that you know this treating women with respect is the key. there are many men who love and respect women. but somehow there are men in this political situation that are taking this opportunity to demean women and to humiliate women and okay, if you don't believe abortion is right for you and your family, fine, but -- >> but the shame and humiliation part of the dialogue, i think, is something we would do well not to have. >> agree. >> carol king, author, icon,

artist, books, cds, vinyl if you go that route. >> political analyst. >> political analyst. >> welcome to the club. >> the book is qurgs a natural woman" and the album the legendary demos, pick them all up. a pleasure to have you on set. >> thank you. >> coming up, did you know that today is equal payday, or as a new study shows unequal payday? a closer look at the wage gap between men and women, next, in "what now." [ female announcer ] want to spend less and retire with more? then don't get nickle and dimed by high cost investments and annoying account fees. at e-trade, our free easy-to-use online tools and experienced retirement specialists can help you build a personalized plan. and with our no annual fee iras and a wide range of low cost investments, you can execute the plan you want at a low cost. so meet with us, or go to etrade.com for a great retirement plan with low cost investments.

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yes. easy label, right?. but that label can lead to prejudice and discrimination, and we don't want to go there. so let's try to see people for who they really are. you can help create a more united states. the more you know. welcome back. time for "what now?" the president declared today equal payday. women have to work through april 17th to earn what men were paid on average in 2011. the women earn 77 cents for every dollar a man takes home every year. karen, a good continuation of the conversation we were having.

>> yes. >> we're not doing bra burning at end of the show but talk about things being like the 19670s and the gap between women's and men's pay. chief executives women make 69% of what men make. financial managers 66%. property managers 61%. >> part of what they were trying to talk about at white house summit a couple weeks ago, we've made a lot of progress but those structural issued that women encounter in the workplace, whether access to capital if you're a small business owner, whether it is the wage gap. i feel for our sisters in wisconsin when had that totally taken away. but again, these are important issues that women care about, they're economic issued that women care. they're the issues women would rather be talking about rather than contraception because this is where we need to be doing the work. >> rick, did it surprise you last wheek when the romney campaign was abosked about wome

and there was a pause? >> my mom was a single mom, she worked and she didn't have -- she had a high school education, she now has a masters, went to school afterwards. a lot of the women, there is unequal pay. and there are things that can be done about that. i'm not sure i want the government dictating. look what women have done. i've worked for women almost all my life. they all got paid more than me. but they have started their own businesses. i mean most smalled byes are started by women because they don't want to be in the marketplace where they are subject to have -- they make as much money as their talent takes them and that's a market response. it may not be a complete response but we've come a long way. >> this is what market does. >> right. >> what incredible is how little progress that's been made. half a cent tri now sense we passed the equal pay act theda. has narrowed by half a cent in half a century.

that's what the market does when left unregulated to its own devices. so clearly there needs to be intervention here to turn that around. talking about the same jobs. talking about equal pay for equal work, not different kinds of work. >> wall street said, just trust us. how did that work out? >> speaking of money, former gingrich donor sheldon addleson is putting his money $5 million worth in the coffers of a super pac backing house republicans. bob costa, shelly adelson will be a player in the race. does it surprise you he's putting that much money into the congressional race? >> guys like him want to be players. why? super pacs are the stories of the campaign on the left and the right. how the super pacs operate, they think they can have a hand in the election they haven't had in previous cycles. i expect more shelly addlesons to emerge to get a space in the market. >> the race we haven't been

paying attention to, the congressional races will dictate whoever is in office 2013. thanks to robert, eric, karen, rick. catch karen later today on the dylan ratigan show 4:00 eastern. she's hustling. that is all for "now." >> in a good way. >> only the best way. see you back here tomorrow noon eastern 9:00 a.m. pacific joined by alice stewart, jose diaz-balart, and hugo lingrin. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. hello, happy tax day to you, andrea. >> thanks so much i think. thanks to you, alex. coming up, heated hearings continuing on capitol hill over that gsa conference. congressman elijah cummings will talk about that. and the secret service scandal. government troops loyal to president assad are murdering the opposition. in flagrant defiance of a u.n. cease-fire.

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chex has five flavors that are gluten-free. even a cinnamon one the kids love. the word "wow" comes to mind. [ male announcer ] chex cereal. five flavors. good and gluten free. here we go. the final touchdown for "discovery." >> right now on "andrea mitchell reports," welcome to washington, "discovery." after 39 trips into space, the retired shuttle heads to the smithsonian after a dramatic flyover that thrilled the nation's capital. >> it's an amazing thing. bit 50, 60 folks at white house standing outside on the northwest driveway trying to get a glimpse of this spectacle. we've never seen anything like this in washington. we saw a glis of it a few minutes ago flying low. it's coming back around again. they must have heard us say we want to see it again. >> thanks to april ryan. no-show on capitol