president of the united states. >> he's the potus with the mostest. >> let's keep the waste down on college loans. >> and stop the loan you save may be your own. let's get it together and make our lives better because a college degree is more than a -- college course who are financial blues. >> that is how we slow jam the news. >> oh, yeah. >> i don't know, i like the way brian williams does it. i'm andrea mitchell live in new york. our daily fix today, the republican national committee has declared the obvious, mitt romney is the nominee. he so why are newt gingrich and risk santorum so late to the party. chris cillizza, you've got the sort of gingrich and santorum factor. it's not that they have any

leverage left. they've obviously stayed too long at the party and now we hear newt gingriching is going to formally officially suspend the campaign on tuesday and will no longer be getting secret service. >> the thing with newt gingrich, we talked about this yesterday, it was really kind of the end had already come. he hasn't acknowledged it, frankly. this is his acknowledgement but in his own very newt way, not suspending his campaign today but announcing he will suspend his campaign in a week's time. you're right, andrea, i don't understand the thinking here in terms of lever and. newt gingrich is in his late 60s. i don't think he will run for president again and therefore, preserving good will within the party is not as big a priority. with santorum, i think he got out roughly at about the right time when it was clear he could not win pennsylvania but him not endorsing mitt romney, they're going to meet may 4th, i believe, he does have a future i

think in the republican party, whether it's running for president again or some other role. i think the more it looks like he's not being the good soldier and getting in line behind mitt romney, the more daniel he does not with the regular voters but with party insiders and sometimes they have a fair amount of influence. >> at the same time, mitt romney fine tuning that message, the economic message while the president is going on the college tours, student loans and also trying to sort of family size his "cool factor," jimmy fallon slow jamming. >> yeah, you know, andrea, i feel like what you saw yesterday was the cool versus what is mitt romney would like to describe as the competent. mitt romney is the serious guy who's got the experience from his time in business and in the public sector to solve the problem. he's the specialist. he's the guy who knows how to fix the problem. barack obama is the guy who yes, can go on jimmy fallon's show and be funny and engaging. but is he right the person to fix what ails the country?

that's how i think the romney campaign wants to frame the choice going forward. >> chrysalis cillizza, thank yo much. the same lawyers who were battling over the rez's health care law were back in front of the supreme court today this time over arizona's tough immigration law. the governor who signed that legislation into law spoke earlier. >> it was very, very revealing today. i think that weal succeed. and i'm looking forward to june. >> nbc justice correspondent pete williams watched today's oral arguments inside the courtroom and joins us from outside the court. first of all, what is jan brewer correct in what she is inferring from the oral arguments today? did it seem as though there might be a majority at least to uphold some of arizona's controversial law? >> andrea, usually i pay no attention to what the interested parties say after the argument but i think she's actually on to something here. it eemd to me a majority of the court is willing to uphold at

least part of the arizona immigration law, perhaps the most controversial one, the one that required police in the state to inquire into the immigration status of anybody that they detain or arrest and any kind of routine arrest or traffic stop. now, the obama administrationing had gotten that blocked in lower courts. they said that would completely overwhelm the federal system. that the federal government wants to concentrate on the most dangerous people who are here illegally, potential terrorists, criminals, people who have been here before and keep coming back and that arizona's sort of enforcement at all costs system would overwhelm the federal system. but today a majority of the justices seemed to not find that a very compelling reason and andrea, even some of the courts liberals seemed prepared to uphold that part of it but there are parts of the law they may have trouble with. >> thank you, pete. mitt romney raised the curtain on the general election campaign with a string of attacks last night against the president,

claiming that mr. obama has failed to deliver on the promise of hope and change. >> over the last three and a half years, we've seen hopes and dreams diminished by false promises and weak leadership. last few years have been the best that barack obama can do. but it's not the best america can do. tonight is the beginning of the end of the disappointments of the obama years. >> david axelrod is the president's senior campaign adviser and joins me now. david, thanks so much for being with us. well, game on. what is your response tols mitt romney's opening salvo? >> well, look, i thought he gave a great performance. everybody agrees on that. . it was a well written speech. there's much in there that we can agree on. he says the issue is how do we build an economy in which the middle class can thrive and in which people can get their best chance. the question slts whether mitt romney is the answer to that. i heard chris say he's the technician who can get under the hood. he was as a businessman a guy who made a lot of money

outsourcing jobs, taking companies to bankruptcy, loading them up with debt. and profiting personally, but that's not a job creating strategy. when he had a chance to test it as governor of massachusetts, it was kind of a disaster. they went from 37th in job creation to 47th in job creation. they had one of the worst records in the country on loss of manufacturing jobs. they had fiscal problems. he left a billion dollar deficit for his successor. what was interesting about that will speech was nos mention of the fact that he ever was governor of massachusetts. it was mitt's missing years. they don't want to talk about his record in public life because that was the test of his theory, and the test failed just as it failed four years ago. you know, under the last administration. >> if you look at our nbc news "wall street journal" the president is ahead in the head to head match-up by six points. it's going to be a closely fought election but on key factors as you well know, 40%

favored mitt romney as having better ideas to fix the economy over barack obama 34%. and also in that same poll, there was a big advantage for mitt romney in who can change. who can change washington. 36 to 29. somehow, president obama has obviously he's in the oval office. he's in the white house. but he is now associated with business as usual and everything that's bad about washington. a lot of people's minds, not with change, not with hope. >> well, let me say a couple of things about that. first of all, there were 13 dimensions that nbc tested in that poll. the president was well ahead in 11 of them. and at the top of the list was advocating for the middle class, understanding what's going on in the lives of americans. the central economic issue of our time is how do we create an economy in which the middle class can get ahead and grow and in which people who work hard can get ahead and in which responsibility is rewarded and

what governor romney's proposing is essentially let's go back to the old policies. tax cuts for the wealthy, cut wall street loose to write its own rules. that is not a prescription for a better economy, a stronger economy or a stronger middle class. as to business as usual in washington, you're talking about a candidate who just spent $55 million, 90% of the ads he ran were negative. he's raising money in large sums, won't disclose who his bundlers are, who are the people raising the money, george bush did it, john mccain did it. he won't do it. he left as governor of mass as and took with him the hard drives interest his computer because his team said they didn't want opposition researchers looking at their records. so the to me, that doesn't sound like a new kind of politics. it doesn't sound like change. it sounds like the same old politics we've dealt with in washington for a long time. he ought autonomous turn to his own party in washington and say look, let's find ways in which we can cooperate. let's work together to move this country forward.

let's not be so stuck in a strategy of gridlock and obstructi obstructism. >> whoever is responsible for the fact that so many people are turned off by washington, young people are really turned off and their enthusiasm for the president is not as keen as it was four years ago. what we've seen is a drop-off from 63% to 45% in enthusiasm. the level of enthusiasm let's say. we saw big crowds in north carolina. it's been pointed out that it was half as many as turned out for the president last time around. he had a very enthusiastic crowd in chapel hill, in iowa in about an hour that the event. how important is it for you guys to motivate the young people to come out and vote? >> well, it's very important for us. it's important for the country. they're the folks who are going to inherit the decisions we make. they have a huge stake in this. . i would note that in a harvard poll that was released this week, the president where the enthusiasm level was much higher than it had been and i think

it's going to continue to build. in terms of enthusiasm, there's a cnn poll last week and 75% of the president's is supporters said they enthusiastically back him. only 35% of romney supporters said that, the lowest reported number of any nominee that he had been tested in the history of that poll dating back to 1948 becau -- 84 because when you run an entirely negative campaign, you turn people off. you turn your own party off and other people off. >> excuse me. i don't want to run out of time here with you, but speaking of turning people off, this is the first campaign that is fully being fought on twitter. and in one respect, you fired the first shot on the battle of the dogs. you were tweeting this photo of the president, a lovely photo with beau in the car and you tweeted you know, this is how loving owners treat their dogs. of course, mocking the oft told

story of the romneys putting the dog on the roof of the station wagon a number of years ago. well, that was then responded to our eric fern strom from team romney with a real shot at what six to 10-year-old barack obama encountered when he was a young man, a child in indonesia. so is the twitter war going to be another level of engagement where we are now at sort of death con five or six? >> no, look, i think twitter can be a tool for getting information out that's valuable. you use it, i use it, and certainly they'll use it. so i don't think -- i think it can be a positive thing. i will note that i thought it was a little absurd to talk about what the president had done as a 10-year-old boy. i guess we're going to go back, do we go back to kindergarten and before that and that's going to be part of this debate? i mean, it's silly. there's a fundamental debate to be had and it's joined which is

how do we build an economy in which the middle class is growing and people get a fair chance in this country. do we go back to the same positions we had under the last administration or do we forge ahead and create a situation where people get ta shot, get the education where we're creating good, high of advanced manufacturing jobs and getting control of our energy future and so on. the president has a plan to do that. i haven't heard that from governor romney. >> david axelrod. we'll see you this weekend at the event for susan axelrod and her fight against epilepsy. thanks very much. >> good to be with you. coming up, mitt romney's point man on the hill, republican senator roy blunt. plus senator oh limpal snow weighing in on the secret service scandal and what's wronging with washington. education secretary arne duncan joins us to talk about tackling the student debt crisis. you're watching andrea mitchell reports only on msnbc. hey, dad, you think i could drive? i'll tell you what -- when we stop to fill it up.

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>> republican national committee today has officially endorsed mitt romney after his primary sweep last night. missouri republican senator roy blunt is romney's chief point man on capitol hill and joins me now. thanks so much for being with us. let's start with the talk of a running mate because several of the potential running mates are your colleagues. has mitt romney talked to you about the sort of personal qualities of marco rubio or rob portman? >> he hasn't but i'd be very positive about all of them and some of the other people being discussed. i think governor romney has just now really accepted the mantel as the nominee of the party. it's a long time before that will vice presidential choice will be made in my view. i think he's probably more focused now on trying to get the discussion where it needs to be, the jobs, the economy, private

sector job opportunities. and i'd certainly encourage that that be as much of his focus as it can possibly be as we get this campaign back to the issues that voters are going to care about in november. >> especially considering the quick vetting that led to some problems last time around as you recall from "game change." an initial spurt of attention on sarah palin but then a lot of problems with debate prep and the sort of unraveling of the campaign. what do you think should be the top priority, ability to take over as president, experience, collegiality, compatibility? what qualities would you want mitt romney to think about seriously in choosing a running mate? >> i think the top priority is who could be president. you know, that's the important choice here. that's what you're really choosi choosing. and then you look for who adds strength to the ticket, who add strength to the administration, but you certainly need a running

mate that people can look at and say, this is somebody who we would trust as the president of the united states and that's what the vice president's principal role is to be ready to do that if necessary. and then to be a real partner in the administration you hope to put together. i think there's an increasingly good chance there will be a romney administration and just the events of the last ten days as people have begun to focus now not on the intraparty fight but on what needs to happen after november, i think that's good for romney. >> why do you think that rick santorum has taken so long to be you know giving what is obviously going to happen. there will be an endorsement but he's quibbling about what kind of endorsement and whether it is an endorsement and taking a lot of time. i'm told there's a lot of annoyance within the romney camp over this. >> well, i don't know. rick santorum is a friend of mine. he and i co-chaired the

religious liberty effort together when i was in the house and he was in the senate. newt gingrich is a friend of mine as is ron paul. i think eventually they'll all be enthusiastically where they need to be. my advice would be to get there as soon as you can and that will be my advice to my buddy rick santorum. we need to unify behind the ticket. i believe they have scheduled a meeting here in the next few days. maybe there's something that needs to be said in that meeting that only rick has a sense of or maybe the two of them have a sense of. and there's a lot of time between now and november, and i believe everybody's going to get there and going to get their enthusiastically. >> what about some issues on which the congressional republicans may not be in sync with the candidate? already this week, mitt romney came out strongly in favor of maintaining the student loan rate, the lower rate which is due to expire july 1st. and when i was interviewing pat toomey yesterday, he said that he wasn't persuaded of that,

connie mack, the house member was on with chuck todd also yesterday. and he anti-on board yet. isn't there a point where the congress of republican party is going to be at odds with mitt romney's overall message. there will be some of those points. i don't know that that hurts mitt romney's overall message to have disagreements with members of congress right now. but there will be some of those areas where it's more of a matter of degree. there's really no reason for that student loan rate to be as high as it is. i was a university president for four years before i came to the congress. and we want to make student loans available, but why is that rate as high as it is? because it was one of the paid forces in the president's health care plan. you know, if the health care plan goes away as the court very well might decide, there's no longer an argument about this loan rate because it was used to take money from students and pay for health care and largely health care for people who aren't students because students don't -- students and people who

are recently students don't use a lot of health care. the wrapping up of the student loan thing ended the obama health care deal is the real problem here. we shouldn't be making money on student loans though i don't know that we should be losing money either. we need to figure out what the right interest rate is based on the cost of borrowing for the government and the default rate that you have in student lending. that's really all we ought to be calculating, not how students can help pay for the president's health care plan. >> senator roy blunt. thank you very much. good to see you, sir. >> you bet. >> coming up next, republican senator olympia snow. what she says is wrong with the senate. plus, the i'dening secret service scandal. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msbc. mine stopped hurting faster... [ female announcer ] neosporin® plus pain relief starts relieving pain faster and kills more types of infectious bacteria. neosporin® plus pain relief. for a two dollar coupon, visit neosporin.com.

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home land security secretary janet napolitano who oversees the secret service is defending the professionalism of the agency as a whole. but in her first testimony on the subject today, she blasted

the individual agents involved in the cart tas hania scandal. >> i think every mother of a teenager knows a common defense is well, everybody else is doing it. first, not everybody else was doing it and this behavior is not part of the secret service way of doing business. they're very professional. >> senator olympia snow is republican of maine it, also on the intelligence committee among other committees. senator, thank you very much. i wanted to discuss sort of what's wrong with washington because you've decided to leave washington, the need for bipartisanship. already we will have heard from senator grassley sharp criticism of the president's handling of this even though the director of the secret service predates president obama. do you think this is a partisan issue as to who got it wrong with the secret service, or is this something that really is institutional? >> no, i don't think it should be a partisan issue nor is it a partisan issue. obviously, these are deeply

disturbing turn of events as far as an agency is concerned with respect to the secret service and the mission that its objective is to accomplish, which obviously is to provide the protection to the president of the united states and other high level and high ranking officials. so this was a tremendous departure and tres depression from the professionalism of this organization. it is something that both sides and both branches of government have to concentrate on. get to the heart of the facts and what occurred. who is responsible? and then ultimately, make some determinations about what further actions should be taken. >> have you heard so far of any indication that the president's security or the security of other officials traveling in the party was compromised? >> well, you know, i haven't heard of any reports to that extent. and the president has indicated that his security hadn't been jeopardized. but nevertheless, it puts the

president into very precarious circumstances and, of course, our country. and frankly, i think many of us are in total disbelief because there are so many remarkable men and women who serve in the secret service agency. and they will have certainly been held to very high standards and for this type of departure, i think is unfortunate because it casts a shadow on the entire agency, which it should not. >> senator, there is what senator collins, your fellow maine republican senator said over the weekend was that it seems very clear to her just common sense would indicate if so many, 11, 12 people involved in this, it was so widespread, that it isn't the first time something like this has happened. >> you know i would agree with that. i would be very much concerned and hopefully, we get to the heart of that through these hearings and investigations. as to whether or not there was a culture that had evolved. and was embedded in the agency

of some kind. it really is -- it would be somewhat surprising, frankly, that this would be a first-time event given the nature of it and the extent of it. and frankly, i mean, the risk that was involved with respect to this kind of behavior. and that it could have jeopardized the president's security and ultimately the country's national security. i mean, you could think of a number of scenarios and hypotheticals that could conjure up some very serious circumstances that could have placed the president and our country. so clearly it's something we have to get to the source of this problem and whether or not a culture existed and how it transpired in the first place. >> and it was a woman, paul lal reed who had to clean up the mess, a supervisor in charge of all of south america. she's african-american, one of the 11% of agents and officers in the service hots are female. do you think that there's a culture there that is not really open to women and that we should

have a better balance and that that might lead to improvements? >> i think certainly it would. i mean, the fact that it's 90% dominated by males indicates that we have do further outreach, frankly. encourage within to join the service. and certainly it could change the overall atmosphere and culture and certainly would be a healthier representation for the agency itself and reflective of our society. >> senator, have you decided yet what your future holds? >> not at this point. i mean, some of the things that are restricted through the ethics laws in terms of you can't negotiate until i'm finished here in the united states senate. but i'm certainly looking to the future in terms of what i can do to reinforce the whole point of bipartisanship. it's not bipartisanship for the sake of bipartisanship. it's bipartisanship for the sake of the country which is so desperately needed given the

fact that only 9% or 10% of the american people approve of congress's direction or the future of this country's direction, frankly. and so we have to do a far better job. the only way you can accomplish that is by working together. the american people understand that, but fundamentally, it is certainly not occurring here. >> are you going to be campaigning for mitt romney? >> i certainly fwop asked because i think that he is the best candidate for the republican party. because he will fully concentrate on the one issue that should be a primary objective, and that is to put this economy on track to create jobs, and create the economic growth that should have occurred by now. it's long overdue. that is because we have failed to address the key issues of tax reform and regulatory reform and debt reduction. >> olympia snow, pleasure to see you. thank you very much. >> thank you, andrea. and the crushing burden of student loans, we'll talk to the man who knows all about it,

secretary of education arne duncan. and what is rick santorum waiting for? plus, seven games, that is all the suspension that is met tats world peace formerly known as ron artest got after throwing a knockout elbow. this is andrea mitchell reports. . she's a dietitian, and she suggests that i try boost complete nutritional drink to help get the nutrition i was missing. now i drink it every day and i love the great taste. [ female announcer ] boost has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to help keep bones strong and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. and our great taste is guaranteed or your money back. learn more at boost.com. [ dad ] i choose great taste. i choose boost.

learn more at boost.com. 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. mine was earned off vietnam in 1968. over the south pacific in 1943. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve

the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote. usaa. we know what it means to serve. president obama is speaking to college students in iowa today. it is the second day of his campaign to press for an extension of current student loan interest rates that would otherwise double july 1st. in north carolina yesterday, the president made it clear for him and the first lady this hits close to home. >> michele and i, we know about this firsthand. this is not something i read in a briefing book. this is not some abstract idea for us. we've been in your shoes. we only finished paying off our student loans about eight years ago. think about that, i'm the president of the united states. >> joining me now is the secretary of education, arne duncan. well, what the president was speaking to is something that obviously a lot of people we're

talking about student loans reaching crisis proportions, the burden of student loan debt for graduates. and we've got eight situation with young people where 53% of young people under 25 according to the latest statistic are either unemployed or underemployed. so it all comes together in to an issue i know you care about passionate passionately. what is your best argument for extending the student loan. >> a couple things. first of all, we have to educate our way to a better economy. the jobs of the future are going to go to the most educated workforce. anyone who thinks we needless people going on to college i think has the facts absolutely backwards. secondly with, college being so important, unfortunately, it's the most expensive it's ever been. we have many families not just in disadvantaged communities but more and more middle class families starting to think they can't afford college. that's a real problem. we can't afford to let costs continue to skyrocket. if congress doesn't act, these

student loan rates are scheduled to double by july 1st. but congress can stop them going from 3.4% to 6.8% and that would benefit 7.48 million americans. so we have to act, we have to act together with the real sense of urgency and get this done now. >> now, i was just talking to -- i was just talking to senator blunt from missouri who said that you guys created this problem by putting this student loan pay for into the health care bill. and that if you hadn't done that, it wouldn't be raising the interest rates. and that once the supreme court rules as he hopes against the health care bill, this won't be a problem. >> i don't think those facts are quite correct. this actually passed in 2007 with bipartisan support to keep the rates down was signed by a republican president. it had a five-year window. now in 2012, it's coming due and without congress acting again, this double. this has a history of folks

working together. there's no reason we can't unite behind giving our middle class families a chance to fulfill their dreams and go to college. >> i want to ask you a question. i know you played ball. you played basketball. you play all the time with the president. what about the us suspension of only seven games for the elbowing of the man now called metta world peace? is that an adequate penalty? i mean, just watching it -- >> that's not how i'm spending my time these days. i watched it. it was a vicious horrific blow, and quite frankly, i was a little surprised. that's all he got. there was absolutely no excuse whatsoever for that kind of behavior. >> i just want to ask you that because i know you care a lot about the role modeling for kids around the country. it seems to me that professional sports have such an influence on all of our young people. so thank you for taking a question out of left field. >> absolutely. >> and thanks very much, secretary duncan.

the prosecution's star witness in north carolina against former presidential candidate john edwards will be cross-examined in a few minutes in the afternoon session. it is turning into a he said he said case of whether nearly a million dollars was funneled to hide john edwards mistress was in fact, an illegal campaign contribution or a gift. andrew young is on the stand again today. he testified that the final tense encounter with john edwards ended with the former candidate saying "you can't hurt me, andrew." his own credibilitiability is at stake. u.s. capital police and local law enforcement officials are investigating a possible threat against florida senator marco rubio. it is not clear what the threat was, but police confirm there is an active investigation into that threat. the "miami herald" reports his home is now under police protection. and the mitt romney general election campaign is off and run. has anyone told rick santorum? >> you just endorsed mitt romney.

>> you can call it whatever you want. >> you know your husband. has he just endorsed mitt romney? >> not at this point, no. we're talking about it. >> joining me now is michael feldman, former senior advisor to vice president al gore and kevin madden viszer to the romney campaign. what are they waiting for, kevin? >> i think senator santorum had some very kind words for governor romney last night but did make a point which is the that he wants an opportunity to sit down with governor romney and talk about the campaign, talk about the issues, talk about what he can do to help governor romney in a general election going forward. and i think that both camps right now, we've spent a lot of time talking over the last few weeks, since senator santorum suspended his campaign. i think that's going to continue. in the very, very near future, i expect that both senator santorum and governor romney are going to have that conversation and an endorse the will be forthcoming and then we can get about the hard work of building up the campaign and taking on president obama in a general

election and beating him. >> according it to r.c. hammon, mitt romney called gingrich today and said he's welcome to join the team. hammon said gingrich is likely not dropping out on tuesday. we've been told he's suspending the campaign. what do you know. that relationship, anything about that call? >> well, it is my understanding that they did talk. very much along the conversation very much along the lines of what you just described. i think what we're seeing right now is a party coming out of a process, a primary process where we talked a lot about our differences, we talked why individual candidates thought they were the best candidate. the voters have spoken and now we've seen that governor romney is going to be the republican nominee. everybody across the party is beginning to focus on what we agree on. that's that president obama has been terrible for this economy. he's taken the country in the wrong direction and now governor

romney is going to be in a good position to take that case to the american people. and hopefully we can win back the white house in november. >> kevin, mike feldman is sitting here with me. i think he has a different perspective on that. mike, we saw a very different mitt romney last night. it was by all accounts in both parties, david axelrod mentioned this earlier today on the show, it was a very good speech. he's gotten the message down. game on into it was a good speech. i think it's probably strategically the right message for mitt romney. the question is, are people listening to him now. obviously the primaries are ending. we were just talking about mitt romney trying to clean up the mess from a very divis i be primary campaign. have you these two candidates, newt gingrich who is like the cheese in the refrigerator a little too long just hanging in there, maybe a week too long. >> there's a nice analogy. >> kevin can't say it but i'll say it. he probably should have gotten out awhile ago. there are diminishing returns in staying in. you have rick santorum who ran a

very smart campaign and i thought his endorsement of mitt romney or his comments about mitt romney were lukewarm. they've got a little work to do there. therein lies the challenge for kevin and his candidate which is the energy in the republican party, the conservative base of the party is sill not all together energized about the romney candidacy. rick santorum stands for a lot of those people. and i think kevin and his candidate have a lot of work to do in the next several weeks and months to pull those strands together. at the same time, like kevin wants to do, they want to talk about the economy. they want to talk about jobs. but mitt romney's kind of a flawed messenger on those topics. his record is lets just say all over the place. promises that he's made in the past about delivering on emp economic issues has been mixed. and so he's got to get the primary out of the way before he can start addressing general election voters what he's going to try to do. >> meanwhile president obama goes on with jimmy fallon to make his point about student

loans but also to make a larger point, which is as chris cillizza was saying, that he's the cool candidate? >> let's watch. >> i'm president barack obama. and i, too, want to slow jam the news. >> now is not the time to make school more expensive for our young people. >> oh, yeah. you should listen to the president. or as i like to call him, the preezy of the united stezy. >> you and i are both old enough to remember when bill clinton played saxophone on leno. is this all upside because of the youth vote and trying to appear accessible to people? >> i think it's a very smart

strategy that the obama campaign and the white house are employing right now. it's less about being cool but opening a window to voters. the president has said he's going to make college education more affordable while romney is all over the place. >> let me give kevin a quick chance to comment. >> i disagree with michael. i don't think you could see a more compelling contrast than a president who is going on and talking and making light of the issues last night like on jimmy fallon and governor romney, he was talking about the very important issues up in new hampshire. you know, these students, they don't care about the cool guy. they care and are very anxious about the fact they're going into a terrible job market right now. they're seeing costs rising across the board on everything from energy to education. and they want to see that addressed. president obama's big challenge here, mike, is that he's going to spend this entire campaign pretending like he hasn't been president for the last 3 1/2 years and had nothing to do with the problems they have right now. >> they want to know where mitt romney stands on college education to make it more

affordable. >> we have to leave it there. come back, please. to be continued. kevin madden, mike feldman. up next, patients in limbo. you're not going to believe what rock center's kate snow has uncovered right here on "andrea mitchell reports." when you pour chunky beef with country vegetables soup over it... you can do dinner. four minutes, around four bucks. campbell's chunky. it's amazing what soup can do. like a ramen noodle- every-night budget. she thought allstate car insurance was out of her reach. until she heard about the value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate.

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hi. i'm tamron hall. coming up on "news nation," breaking news. the supreme court appears to be ready to uphold the most controversial parts of arizona's controversial immigration law. plus the aclu's andre segura will join me to talk about the impact the ziz could have on the presidential race. plus, president obama back at it again on his college swing tour. he'll speak from the university of iowa in about 30 minutes. but will the president directly engage the gop's presumptive nominee now that mitt romney laid out some fiery remarks yesterday after the primary. and rupert murdoch under fire.

>> millions of dollars are spent every year to pay for permanent patients. these are sick people who come into the hospital emergency rooms, they recover but end up staying in the hospital for weeks, months, even years. it's a product of our broken health care system. it can leave the uninsured and undocumented people living in limbo. tonight, "rock center" look into how this happens. here's part of kate snow's investigation. >> 62-year-old barb braush lives in suburban chicago surrounded by the things she holds dear. plants, lots of them, photos of pope john paul who she met as a child in her native poland and pictures of her grandchildren. >> look, cute. >> how many grandchildren do you have? >> have? >> here. >> these two? >> yes. >> barbara arrived at legrange memorial hospital two and a half years ago. she suffered a stroke while cleaning a house, a job she had been doing for 20 years. the stroke left her paralyzed on

one side. several weeks later she was well enough to leave the hospital but she stayed. >> it has to costa lot of money to keep someone for two-and-a-half years. >> it costs an enormous amount of money. >> can you tally up how much money her health care cost. >> from the hospital perspective alone about $1.4 million. >> rock center kate snow joins us. kate, does she have family, does she have anyone to take care of her? >> she has a son that lives in chicago and as it turns out he has a small apartment, lots of family living with him, working, says he can't possibly take care of his mom. will you see the hospital goes to great lengths to try to figure out where to put her. the problem is, andrea, anybody has to be treated when they come into the e.r. when you don't have insurance, and then you need long-term care, like she does, no long-term care facility wants to take you because have you no insurance. they don't have to take you by law. >> that's what's missing from the system. coverage for long-term care facilities. >> right. >> or the facilities themselves.

>> right. even president obama's health care reform plan pending before the supreme court, if that goes into law, people will be required to have insurance but not necessarily long-term care coverage. that will be up to each state to decide what they want to mandate. >> gaping hole in the health care system. look forward to the report. good to see you. don't miss kate snow's full report tonight on rock center with brian williams at 9, 8 central on nbc. we'll be right back. >> to honor the tradition, you can ask me anything you want, but remember, and even older tradition, i don't have to answer. thank you. good night. [ male announcer ] if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze...

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chris is back. chris, joe biden is going on the attack. it is a foreign policy speech and a campaign event. >> no question, andrea, this is

the latest in a series of speeches by joe biden to kind of frame the election, particularly frame the negative case against the republicans. i am interested to see how much he talks about mitt romney in particular. we now have with newt gingrich getting out of the race we now have clear for a while, very clear now, barack obama versus mitt romney and how much does he talk about mitt romney, mention mitt romney's name, in the speech tomorrow? i don't think the election is decided on foreign policy grounds and you can't ignore them either when you talk about being a commander in chief. >> thank you so much. chris. tamron has a look at what's next on news station. tamron, right across the desk. >> so close and yet so far. thank you. great job in your hour. we're following big breaking news, the supreme court appears to be ready to uphold the most controversial portions of arizona's immigration law. the aclu's andre saguru will

engine me to discuss what happened today and president obama back at it again on that college swing state tour. he will speak from the university of iowa in about 20 minutes but will the president directly engage the gop's presumptive nominee after mitt romney's fiery remarks following the primaries yesterday where he squarely aimed his attention at the president. ct you ♪ ♪ to check your credit score before it gets too late ♪ ♪ and you end up strapped for cash ♪ ♪ patching your board with duct tape ♪ ♪ so hit free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ find out what credit's about ♪ ♪ or else you could be headed for a credit wipeout ♪ offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™.

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i've been fortunate to win on golf's biggest stages. but when joint pain and stiffness from psoriatic arthritis hit, even the smallest things became difficult. i finally understood what serious joint pain is like. i talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, and stop joint damage. because enbrel, etanercept, suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have occurred. before starting enbrel, your doctor should test you for tuberculosis and discuss whether you've been to a region where certain fungal infections are common. don't start enbrel if you have an infection like the flu.

tell your doctor if you're prone to infections, have cuts or sores, have had hepatitis b, have been treated for heart failure, or if, while on enbrel, you experience persistent fever, bruising, bleeding, or paleness. [ phil ] get back to the things that matter most. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. [ doctor ] enbrel, the number one biolog medicine prescribed by rheumatologists. developing news right now on news nation. we have live pictures to show you from the university of iowa where president obama is set to address education and the student loan crisis hovering over the heads of millions. iowa is the president's third stop on this big tour, but it will also give the president his first public chance to take a shot at mitt romney after the gop's presumptive nominee's fiery speech following tuesday's primary results. i am tamron hal. we begin with breaking news, the supreme court takes on arizona's