braun's amaro to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture that romney won the most states last night which is increasingly disliked by the american electorate what's going on with this and why don't democratic primaries for democratic candidates weigh republican primaries for republican candidates also america is the safe it's it's been in decades arguably in centuries the president is calling out the republicans for the constant drumbeat for more war the bigger military so why that steady drumbeat of terror from republican primary and it's and our media and greece

is on the verge of collapse and in a crisis in that crisis are both lessons and warnings for america countless richard wolffe the way that all of us tonight. need to know this he did what he needed to do but it was not so super tuesday for mitt romney last night while taking six of the eleven say primaries including the most coveted state of ohio in nabbing a lion's share of delegates in tuesday night's primaries romney was still on able to take control of the republican race in a way that the establishment had hoped for the republican establishment santorum stayed in the game by winning four contests last night and even newt gingrich was able to pull a victory under his belt under the home state of georgia biggest primary state up for grabs in every state mitt romney underperformed based on poll numbers heading

into tuesday night and you know i o. he just barely avoided a catastrophic loss but beans in form by a mere one percent so as mitt romney actually in better shape to win the republican nomination after super super tuesday results let's find out it's time to rubble. joining me for tonight's lol liberal is mike brown field editor of the foundry and the morning delap assistant directors for future communications at the heritage foundation and its colonies senior on line editor with the daily caller thanks for joining me tonight guys mitt romney might have won the most states the last bus that the last night yes yes like they have flight of the six states he won only his victories in idaho massachusetts and virginia were definitive and in virginia he was basically the only guy on a serious candidate still trying to figure out of him which is a serious but in any case. he was in santorum or on the ballot massachusetts was

his home state and i don't know who has a disproportionate number of mormons compared to other states in the in the union so. you know with these kind of numbers and is this unconvincing win and you know the couple states coming up looks like he's not going to win is romney going to be the delegate for you guys his party well look i mean you can look at the numbers and you can see is he underperforming in the number is look at the raw delegate count right and romney is well ahead in that raw delegate count but is there if you want to get to eleven forty four he's like it was two hundred less than some if you want to talk about an underperforming candidate running for president talk about president barack obama his polling numbers last month were at forty five percent for incumbent presidents running for reelection everyone who has won has been over fifty percent in february running up to the election so i want to look out of this i would say it's not

a good sign for rock obama but i'm curious isn't it who is going to be competing against him it seems to me that the newt gingrich was never actually running for president that he was running to jack up his speaking fees and sell books that's why he doesn't have a nationwide you know. a campaign really and even santorum i think santorum just thought hey i'll throw the rice base and see what i mean i think there's some cognizance of the fact that running a presidential campaign is a win win i mean look how many people jumped into the race but i'd like were never any factors i mean buddy roemer gary johnson i mean people will go bridges and we're going to have a debate president these are message candidates candidates who want to get in an absent sort of influence i think everybody had a you know everybody had to hustle michele bachmann was trying to raise money for her congressional campaign and she did believe everything i want to sell books they want to make money the idea is like look there are people in here that actually are from run for president i think given the longevity of the race how the mitt romney who even longevity the race look i think ron paul as crazy as it might seem is actually running for president i think newt gingrich running river here on the ground pretty sure and said look he's running it called the question is the

question is is mitt romney on his way to becoming the doubt the nominee it looks like it yes although it's not going to be an easy road you have a serious opposition coming at us in front of gingrich if a lot of those guys get out of the race what does that do for their delegate counts i think santorum has a very reasonable case to make that gingrich leave this race right now or very soon santorum can actually be a very very holy al brocchini romney has got to be slip in a new game bridge money in the back you know here don't tell anybody here's a here's a million bucks stay in the race please you know i mean this is talk about this primary this contentious primary the president is loving speakers it's a distraction from his record and where he stands and it's a delay for him having to get in the race and talk about what he's doing for the ground well you know obamacare that's polling over food to pursue his record like his forty five percent twenty one such as to arrive at sector job creation if you want to talk about for working people's history of america if you want to talk about the economy you can look at the fact that we still have eight point three percent unemployment this suppose i know there's

a we this that we have is it six hundred fifty thousand government workers laid off by republican governors in red states around the united states the supposedly great you guys read about everything you can to destroy the recovery there's no you really this great recovery that the president is bragging about is the worst the slowest we. seen in the post war era yet we have absolutely the reality of really large extent great effort when nancy pelosi got a piece of legislation passed that would have just stopped giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs offshore the republicans filibuster this so it's the presidential connel so is number one job is great obama a one term president and what's the president proposing to do raise taxes by two trillion dollars in an economy that slowly plodding along trying to recover like when bill clinton raised taxes on those rich folks really killed the economy looks or gave us a balanced budget and even though he runs out of resident himself said the last thing you want to do in a recovery is raise taxes and that's the first thing he's proposing in his twenty thirty forty one percent of americans say this primary season has made their view

of the republicans less favorable putting forty six percent say they want congress and that's a majority you know there's those that undecided or. the forty six percent who say they want congress to be run by the democrats next year in two thousand and eight point in the election or in the primary the democratic primary hillary clinton and barack obama will beat each other up but they both had favor ability numbers in president obama's was sixty two percent at this point in two thousand and eight and he and hillary clinton were pretty much at the point where santorum and romney are right now and it wasn't it wasn't decided nobody knew why is it that compared to mitt romney's twenty eight percent approval rating right now by the republicans. during primary debates and democrats rises because the exposure of the media i mean is it but i don't think there's any question about because the agenda the republican agenda is exposed by the media no matter what if the idea is that you have a liberal media who is looking for glaring faults in these candidates and is looking for ways to create in the case for republican candidates to show that they're out

of touch as opposed to showing which one is the most in touch with america what ot actually are out of touch the but there's a negative assessment every single reporter and every single editor in mainstream liberal media outlets is coming out saying ok how can i show that this individual out of touch today. as opposed to the opposite which is to show how in touch they are now remember you talk about barack obama and hillary clinton there was never a a race to be seen like this or a primary race where you had a white female and a black male that's close to the presidency if ever get it who has a lot of attention for you beyond all of the wanting attention from the media and that's the distinction and that's not what we're seeing this look this is all sideshow and the president again is eating it up and loving it the old axelrod came out this week and said oh this is you know republicans are beating each other up and they're tearing each other apart this is exactly what happened in two thousand and eight you said chris dodd come out and say this contentious primary season is causing is undermining democrats' chances at the election at this point oha. it

howard dean come out and say this is terrible for the republicans even mccain's senior media adviser said hey this is this is i'm sorry bad news for the democrats mccain senior media advisor said this is great for republicans in two thousand and eight this is the same thing voters have a short attention span a short memory and once the general election arrives and its attention is focused on president barack obama his record the slow economy the unemployment the thirteen million people out of work you're going to see a change of tone you're going to see focus and it's going to be a different campaign but you know been says on the issues that we're this is bringing the issues in a high relief and the liberal media is somehow distorting it or. if please correct me if i'm misinterpreting or misunderstanding what you said but let's look at some of the issues the majority of americans want social security actually want a cap with that on social security taxes so that mitt romney pays the same amount as as janitor and social security will be solvent for the rest for the rest of the

work of. eternity the majority of americans want social on medicare to be able to negotiate drug prices the majority of americans want you know agree with the idea that we should have laws that say that transnational corporations don't get tax breaks for offshore. jobs majority of americans believe the oil companies should make three billion dollars a year in government subsidies i mean these are all positions that the democrats are taking in these propositions that the republicans are on the wrong side of your cherry pick cherry picking one if i will give you a list i'll give you a list if you look at the primary yesterday and every single state the economy was the number one issue of six or seven not a cent but once the result would be a nominee some of us in solution for the job if the economy is so great under president obama why is the economy the number one issue for these vote because i've got i've got republicans in control of the senate and for three and a half years they have not allowed any of the legislation that actually would have helped the economy for through but what is your solution i mean i've heard no no no from the republicans but i haven't heard and we're seeing more than words about

your eyes medicare services sane conservatives are saying no so higher taxes from the president in the middle of the recession by the way this is one half of one third of government that the republicans are holding here we have the rest of the government the senate and the presidency is not walking that is the one half of one third which i don't see no way but our imagination the president is going to make a case as you are tonight that the republicans have something to do with the state of the economy is the only thing you can do to run a negative campaign it's always going to have to do and the problem is there's no way that you can say that with any sort of you think that anybody but president obama shoulders the blame for this over two hundred pieces of legislation that came out of the house of representatives nancy pelosi was speaker of the house that would have affected positively if i could be a part of the we're all filibuster by republicans in the senate you think republicans have no bill no are going to take no blame for that the american people are going to hold them accountable if you're asking if you have some answers the republicans conservatives in congress are the only ones in congress who have managed to pass a budget i still are over three years are exactly doing it for it was two or three

years elma budget it was a it was a it was it was a it was a small kid no it was a budget that reformed entitlements was a crisis for our president it was as if i just had maddox here but in fact he said it was a ploy your insight really made was the president's budget the senate wouldn't even take it up. it's own democratic senate wouldn't take his budget up so you're telling me that the one solution you guys have to fix the economy is about medicare that's going i've heard so far though that's the solution to deal with the fact that we have an out of control deficit so we want to know how to share the deficit which is the real deficit problems country eight hundred billion dollars a year well last year was six hundred fifty billion and it was that is going out of the country that the only way it comes back is when a foreign country companies or countries buy us some when the president had a controlling about white house when the senate when he had control of the senate we had control of the house what did he do about it he did not know what solutions he certainly ever had sixty democrats and so he had majority in all in. he didn't even need that as

a budget. he did i'm not talking about the budget no but i mean it's that you know i'm with you but the idea is the president had the opportunity americans didn't like what they saw two thousand and ten comes around republicans take over the house and now is this the public's ever shot of taking the stand we're going to go with the world will be back but we'll see how this plays out as time goes on any and more of tonight's long look around the corner. we just put a picture of the need for those like nine years old so if you tell the truth. i think i am going to get a friend that i love traveling. and. he was kind of yesterday. i'm very proud of the world with its place.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so silly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear see some other part of it and realize everything you saw you don't i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

for. all about the rise of low liberal rubble joining me that i might brownfield editor of the foundry and the morning bell and system director strategic communications over the heritage foundation and vince colony's senior on line editor with the daily caller the group of americans the least likely to fall into poverty in the united states and it has been this way for about forty years these people over sixty five why because of social security we have a social safety net that catches people when they fall if they're elderly their social security cut as is but more than half back in the thirty's what happens

everybody else according to census bureau is doing quite poorly although l.b.j.'s great society lifted fourteen million people out of poverty and basically cut poverty in half in the united states and for half years bill clinton ended well. as we know it and turned it into a four year time limited program and people are sliding back into poverty now the number of households living on less than two dollars a day in the united states doubled it went from a little over a half a million to a little over one man half million in the last according the last census this is pretty astounding and fifty percent of americans are now either right income or living in poverty after all this country is very much was not the case twenty thirty years ago before reaganomics so given the the details the extent of these you know horrible details about poverty in america unemployment underemployment underwater homes people can't afford to buy cars anymore they're renting them calling leases what are conservatives offering as i mean we know what the democrats

are offering it's basically f.d.r. recycled let's let the government be the employer of last resort you know bring back those programs let's build some infrastructure it's there it's all out there one of the one of the conservatives are well look there's some numbers that you're leaving out one of those numbers is that since nine hundred sixty five sixteen trillion dollars has been spent on the war on poverty the number it's spending has it been increased thirteen times president obama has pledged promise to try to increase it by something like forty two percent and yet despite all that spending this poverty is continuing as you cite in your numbers so the problem isn't not enough money being thrown at it what's the problem the problem is that your government policies aren't tailored in such a way to help bring people out of this cycle of poverty so like we just in solutions sure ninety ninety six we saw with welfare to work that you got children but that was a child on our own child partly probably poverty level drops the number of poverty

the number we were in a bottle connoisseur would know that's that's all you we've got to encourage people to get back to what i hear you do that in the middle of the bush great recession you're drinking or even yourself a good economy is to get people out of poverty isn't that the goal i mean shouldn't it be to go on as might noted. there's a second ago voters in every state they can't be care about anything that are coming out to vote care about the economy so the economy recovers so do people get out of the author want to make the economy work better then why not drive up to band but putting money in people's pockets by having for example unemployment benefits me ninety nine weeks in those seventy six weeks why do the republicans dial back on unemployment benefits that's money as stimulus the economy for the same reason that this all jobs every well there are for consumers place to try and get people out of the cycle of welfare. so you're suggesting that if people are unemployed right now in america you have four people looking for five people excuse me for who are looking for every single job that's out there and you just want to cut them off from unemployment benefits some less going to unemployment benefits serve an important per purpose it's a safety net but the notion that throwing more money through unemployment

benefits will stimulate the economy is a is a false one what you need is not this accruals if you put money in consumers' pockets they spend it that stimulates the economy and if you don't have why the idea is they don't get the wheels moving at all anywhere else that i mean i know people i'm sure you know what people that have been in similar situations where they're taking unemployment evidence take a full time job that pays less is not advantageous to them so they have a bad job today is less than on a day when doesn't exist yes it does they do if you've been on america's or bigger at all mark that's a percentage they descend into a part time job and they take on employment benefits because that is more advantageous to them i saw that happen while you're calling for more stimulus spending is what i understand we're going to get it we've got to wrap it up i'm sorry we're just we just have time for a last question during his latest attack on clean energy mitt romney told a crowd in ohio monday that since he can't drive a car with a windmill on it we should be investing in wind power so if we can put a windmill on top of a car as mitt romney says and what can we put on top of her question a a dog there's no more room for the car for

a family road trip or be here plugs to give your top endorsers some fresh air or see a cadillac since ann romney can drive a couple of cadillacs or be ideas if it's a chevy volt try to put some solar panels on top of the a lot safer than the batteries that are catching on fire in the models that are out on the road right now but one that caught on fire because it was in a car accident or actually i'm cool with it you know been on it all i put a dog on top of a car through a crowded road trip you're doing it together ok my answer is man on a dog this is rick santorum so idea is new line of attack against romney and i'm going to quote ennio mike brown field in scholars thanks a lot thanks thank you for shit. if you listen to what the republican candidates say you think our nation was an

imminent danger that it's time to crawl under the desk and put your hands over your head pray after all bran is out there. listen john we have a president who isn't going to stop them he is going to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon if you think a madman is about to have nuclear weapons and you think the admin man is going to use those nuclear weapons then you have an absolute moral obligation to defend the lives of your people by eliminating the capacity. we must not allow iran to have a nuclear weapon if they do the world changes america will be at risk and someday nuclear weaponry will be used only mitt romney can save us from danger you hear the same talking points when the subject comes up of cutting the defense budget which has tripled since one nine hundred ninety seven and accounts for more than half of the world's total spending on weapons we can't cut the pentagon's budget or else will be vulnerable to attack the odd thing about these frightful talking talking points is that they're just talking points and they're not true the truth is

americans have never been safer in history than they are today and the number of violent conflicts around the world is at an all time low despite the warnings and so-called threats one times al-qaeda tackiness it since nine eleven zero so if we're not really in danger then why are politicians in washington and members of the media trying to scare and alarm americans joining me now to discuss this is michael cohen columnist with foreign policy and a fellow with the century foundation and author of the book ride from the campaign trail michael welcome to program. thank you good to be here why why does the government write of politicians actually maybe it's both consistently exaggerate the level of danger that americans face. well i mean i think there's two things going on here you have a political benefit for both parties and sort of play up the notion that there are great dangers out there if you're a publican's you've constantly benefited from. from sort of pointing out global

bogeymen where there was you know the communists and how the terrorists could but when the chinese maybe you know if you know things go forward and so you have a kind of advantage for them in supreme od'ing this idea that the world is unsafe because they're sort of the net international security party they're seen as a party that is is better able to handle foreign policy on the flip side democrats for fear of being portrayed as weak or feckless on national security and overcompensate and so they don't want to be portrayed as we can affect those so they end up sort of playing into this idea as well that there are all these great dangers out there so there's a sort of situation where there's a political benefit for both parties to play up this idea that you know we're risk when in reality we're not really i've always in this is a conversation for another time i measure but i've always wondered how the democrats became the not war party when the democrats won world war one and whatever has won world war two. but in any case hardly are the threats of the perceived threats of iran or china or any place else in the world real threats to

the united states and specifically those countries to begin with. no not really i mean sure these are challenges i mean china's economic growth this is it is a challenge for the u.s. their security position military position in the in the far east is a challenge it's not a threat it's not an accidental threat it's not a great power threat you know cause any american student should cause you know americans to lose and sleep at night iran getting a nuclear bomb is certainly a challenge to the region as a whole the challenge two key u.s. allies in the persian gulf in the middle east but you know it's not really a danger to the u.s. and concern the fact that iran doesn't really even have a nuclear program at this moment to develop a bomb it's hard to argue that it's the greatest. the world has some problems except that you did for your yesterday or the day before mitt romney wrote an op ed in the washington post saying that iran was developing a bomb and then i believe it was yesterday afternoon or early this morning the

former head of mossad came out and said ok you have mr romney just sped up the process that the iranians are going to do because now you're telling them if you happen to get elected president they damn well better have a bomb. has as mitt romney's rhetoric changed the dynamic there i don't know the changes the dynamic i think the iranians sort of you know they they they operate by whatever the it is their best interest but it's not helpful i would say they're probably. in fact for the process of them do this but i still think what the real problem with it is that it creates this false sense in this country that these are terrible threats to us that and then taken a step further must be responded to with some use of military force and i think that's where it sort of it ends up i think harming our national spirit debates when we're not able to look at these challenges in a sort of sober and pragmatic way if we did we would say this is something to deal with is not it but not an accidental threat to the united states how can how can

you say that the united states is right now at a time of less danger and threat than it has been through most of its history or much of its history and certainly its recent history what's what's how do you back that up. well i mean just look at the world around us i mean there are fewer conflicts then than ever before and certainly in recent memory there's no great power rival to the u.s. there's no extension of threat to the u.s. there's no goal power that even has the inkling threaten the u.s. and the us global hegemony we also live in a world that has more democracies than ever before that is more prosperous than ever before people live longer they're better educated all of those attributes all of you know more democratic countries and more economically liberalized countries tend to be countries that are are less inclined to go to war with each other so we look around the world right now and in fact the threats the u.s. are minimal certainly not nowhere near as difficult as they were during the cold war when the threats were real although you know slightly distant but certainly

they existed we live in a very safe world we live in a world where the dangers are not significant to us and they don't represent real huge threats to us but if you listen to policymakers that you get something very very different or the media for that matter it seems with michael we've run out of time thank you so much for your observations and for your brilliant writing for shipping which thank you my pleasure were the land of the free and the home of the brave not the cowardly and frightened time to stop listening to the fear mongers and war profiteers who make millions of scaring us in the never ending war on terror and what not and intrusive security state. after the break if you want to know what's in store for the future of the american economy there's one country need to be keeping a close eye on it was richard wolfe explainer. you

know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then something else hears you some other part of it and realized everything is ok. i'm charging welcome to the big picture.

mr.