>> this is the "the chris matthews show." >> ask not what your country can do for you. >> i can hear you. >> the time for saying has come. >> missteps. romney has beaten back newt, and now we are listening to him. each time he speaks, we hear a man at a distance, a rich guy who speaks of the very poor as if they are on another planet. are republicans worried that their front-runner is too far ahead of the country's parade to even hear the music? blue skies will this week's great jobs report undermine romney's pitch? does it trump romney and trump?

respect. nearly 100% of conservative voters tell pollsters they have a negative view of president obama personally. last time john mccain was there to stop the ugliness. who is going to be there this time? hi, i am chris matthews. welcome to the show. with us, jon ritchie, andrea mitchell, and howard fineman. the presidential campaigns reveal what makes a candidate tick. republicans believe that mitt romney's mistake on not focusing on the country's very poor, not as much as a mirror. will the country be less willing to resort to a figure so removed from the average joe or jane? some very rich presidents were in touch with the average person like teddy roosevelt and jack kennedy. they had under gone leveling

experiences. other rich politicians never did seem to know how regular americans left like nelson rockefeller and george h.w. bush. remember when bush was discovering the wonders of a smrkt scanner? he had never seen one before. republican leaders are tear tied he is in the same category. he put his electricityability in question this week. -- his electability in question this week. are they worried is in this guy a good politician? >> absolutely. people on the left think conservatism is a monolithic thing, but there are gradations of it. if he is the nominee, it doesn't really matter. nixon says you run to the the right in the the primaries and to the center in the general lexi. that is what is going to happen. conservatives have no other

place to go. >> but is he a good politicians, which was raised this week when he says things like i don't want to think about the very poor or the very rich? >> he has to quit making gavins. we will forget about it when the general rolls around. >> michael continuesly once said a gavin in politics is when you say what you really think. >> it is a mirror into his soul. he is is who he is. everyone from rush limbaugh to others are deeply worried that he is a bad candidate. i think they are less worried about whether he is a true conservative as to whether he is a good politician. as to the scanner, that was inaccurate pool report. >> why was it an inaccurate pool report? >> he was asking how this particular won worked. >> and he didn't know the price

of a loaf of bread. are >> i am not letting him off on that. i have never heard anybody say let mitt be mitt. >> i have heard the problem with mitt romney is he is mitt romney. that is what you hear republicans say. >> some say he is not conservative enough, and secondly it doesn't look like he knows how to talk politically correct. he has to learn two things, how to think conservative and to get away with not sounding like one. which is very hard. he has made gavins. he is a man that seems like he handles experienced the same things that other people have. he hasn't been around a lot of people who look different farrah him. republicans are obviously very worried about him, that he isn't the right messenger for these tough times. >> symbolism is a big part of politics. this week he got his picture taken in trump hotel in las

vegas with donald trump. >> he looked very uncomfortable doing that. it was bad in presentation. >> and his wife looked like she didn't really want to be there. >> yes. >> is that a smart one? >> trump seems like an every-man billionaire. >> he just didn't want him to go to gingrich. >> good or bad? >> the problem with mitt romney is his idea of a conservative is donald trump. he was dissipate for the endorsement that anyone in the tea party may like. a few may like him because of the birther question. >> we have a very good jobs record by the president's standards of 8.3%. we haven't had this good a number in a long time. does that take away the argument by romney, that we need a fixer, somebody who can fix the

economy? >> that is going to be mitt romney's platform. one jobs number is not good enough. if they add 200,000 jobs a month until fall, yes. this sunday, clint eastwood is going to be on in a two of-minute add for chrysler giving a pep talk to the country. it is important because if the auto industry continues to come back, that is something that president barack obama can point to. he can say in those places here is where i stepped in, and we created two million jobs in the last eight months. >> who runs the shop if it is running well? you don't need a mitt romney. >> that is my point, but the numbers have to continue. >> the numbers are still bad, but they are getting better. if the right track numbers go

up, and the "washington journal" had it up to -- the "wall street journal" had it up to 30%. >> it is going to go up, not down. >> this guy is worth $250 million apparently. is that a problem? we have had wealthy presidents, who somehow were able to connect. reagan was pretty nwaelete. they were able to connect because they found through war-time experiences because of suffering. f.d.r. everybody knew had polio and had gotten through it. is it a romney problem that he has no scars of battle, no evidence of having suffered, no evidence about except his wealth? >> there is the famous story about f.d.r. of the guy in overalso in the west virginia overalso, and he was weeping. they said did you know him? he said no, but he knew me.

people felt he understood them. >> that is why you are editor of "time" magazine, by the way. i will remember that. >> a more recent example, mike bloomberg, who often does have the average person's appeal, but within instance of that susan koman controversial, he forked over $250,000. it showed that he does know how to use personal wealth to connect with people on an issue that is important to people. >> american voters do not represent rich people per se if the rich people make it clear they honor the hard work of everybody else, and they understand where they came from and know about the lives of average people. chris: we put it to the matthews meter. andrea, will romney's wealth be a voting issue, a problem for him. 11 out of 12 say it will be a

problem. peggy noonan actually said he will become more comfortable with the average voter. is it a problem or not? >> yes it is a problem. not because of the wealth per se, but because of the way it plays into the narrative about mitt romney, that he is out of touch, he will say anything, sending his mona broad to avoid taxes, because of that. >> some guy working on a line -- >> some say he is uncomfortable with his wealth, too. >> why do you think he is that way? >> i don't obviously know what it is like to be extraordinarily wealthy. >> his old man made it the old-fashioned way. he was making something. he made it by being a turnaround artist. that is different. >> that is that zone of privacy that bush 41 also had. we don't talk about money. they wanted him to reveal the

taxes sooner or later. >> there are 10 years of returns waiting to come out. chris: we have watched this forever. is there a way you can fix a problem like this? is it like nixon, a new nixon or old nixon? >> i don't think you can coach him or persuade him to not say something like i will bet you $10,000 on an impulse. you cannot in a general lexi campaign stop him from being himself. >> that is why i love campaigns because you do reveal yourself. >> we keep talking about how bad a politicians he is, how inept he is, how rich he is and all that. he is probably going to win the republican nomination and has a 50-50 shot to be the next president. >> newt, can he make one more comeback in this campaign? >> yes, and i think it is probably as we know on super tuesday. march madness will be newt's

last revival. >> he has georgia, texas, tennessee coming up. he connects so well, especially in the south. i want it to happen. chris: andrea? >> his advantage is regional and he can move quickly. the problem with the super pack money is it can't take him from point a to point b. it can't be spent on certain things. >> journalistic wishful thinking. >> will he have one more comeback or not? >> no. >> what a wet blanket. a "new york times" story revealed that guys who bought air time for attack ads in florida knew where to find viewers. they don't flock just to fox news. they also go to the home improvement channel, hgtv, to the food network, and they love the weather channel. 40% of florida republicans watch

the weather channel just in the week before the primary. we spotted a big-time republican in a 198 weather channel archives. when this was done, the bill clinton impeachment was in high gear, and speaker newt gingrich was forecasting normy weather. >> you notice the light green areas, there is not going to be very much of a difficulty. you have scattered showers, windy up here in the minnesota area, the eastern dakotas and along the east coast, up into maine down into florida, you have more precipitation, and you have that front that has moved along. >> i have always said a weather caster and politician are similar. because no matter what you say, someone is going to be upset with you. >> they both deal with hot air.

>> when we come back, the president pleaded for personal respect. some conservatives actively dislike him as a person. will they try to keep a lid on this. the notebooks of these top reporters, right back.

chris: welcome back. president obama pleaded for respect this week. >> i have to say that sometimes we talk about respect, but we don't act with respect toward each other during the course of these debates. >> polls showed 96% of republican voters say they have negative feelings about the president as a person, has a human being. that animosity may be hard to republican candidates to control. take a look at the difference

how between how john mccain handled it four years ago and what rick santorum did or didn't do two weeks ago in south carolina. >> i can't trust obama. i have read about him. he is an eric snow. >> no, ma'am. >> no? >> no, ma'am. he is a dessert family man, citizen. >> he is a devout muslim. my question is why isn't something being done to get him out of the government? he has no legal right to be calling himself president. >> well, i am doing my best to try to get him out of there. >> there he is cheering it on instead of stopping. she made two inaccurate statements. no right to be president? even a muslim has a right to be president, and he let it go. >> you are going to see more of

that in the primaries. having been out on the campaign trail for a month, the depth of hatred and fear of the president is overwhelming. what is going to happen in the general lexi, whoever the nominee is, probably romney, is going to do what john mccain did, or maybe a little softer. the independent spending groups and everything around him, and those groups are much more powerful and influential, with more money, they are going to go absolutely nuts. and mitt romney will be gentle and nice up to a point. chris: that is a big prediction. you are saying that the super packs will engage in the ugliness about ethnicity and nationality. >> and mitt romney will say just enough to try to avoid dabbling in it himselfle >> the people don't like leaders. they don't want anybody up front telling them what to do?

>> right. chris: is it going to be hard to clam up this talk? >> it is hard, but it is a danger for mitt romney because he is a mormon. he says barack is a nice guy. he is just in over his head. >> that is a nice thing. >> i saw a big change in mitt romney this week. when john in nevada asked him this week about the fact that he was joining at the hip with donald trutch with the birther issue, he said well, we agree 80% of the time. he refused to challenge trump in this interview on that birther issue. >> that is going to hurt him. >> i think that is a signal that he may be meaner. >> do republicans run a risk here if they play with this ugliness? >> absolutely i think so. mitt romney is a mormon, which a lot of people regard as the oather. when you look at that mccain moment, that was not a great republican moment. that was a great american moment. rick santorum saying we are not

>> tell me something i don't know is brought to you by charles schwab. let's talk about the personal attention you and your money deserve. talk to chuck. chris: welcome back. rim, tell me something i don't know. >> so many americans feel like with the financial meltdown, nobody has been held accountable. now there is somebody holding people accountable, the person

on our cover this week. the first indian-american person bringing to task people who used those mortgages as instruments of destruction. >> is there enough law there to do the job? >> yes. he is extending the boundaries because he is using wiretapping and other things other people haven't used before. >> draw? >> people are surprised if not concerned that president at the national prayer breakfast took a shot at mitt romney. it hasn't caused a lot of criticism yet. >> is that traditionally not done? >> not done. >> michelle obama is kicking off a busy month. next week she is going to be touring in mississippi, texas, iowa and other places. >> how do you get her on a show? i always wondered why they kept

her in the airplane hanger and haven't brought her out. she is so attractive. why have they finally decided to bring her out? >> she is obviously out partly because it is campaign season. she wasn't out much in 2010 because she figured she would want to save up her capital for 2012. she is their best weapon. she was on ellen last week, on leno and warm. >> and she is spontaneous, which most politicians aren't. she is technically a civilian, but she can respond to something funny. >> she is going to be the top surrogate for the president by the time october rolls around. mine is the focus on hispanic voters. they decided in the obama campaign to spend an enormous amount of money on hispanics. the key is health care. i am told by sergio, the guy running the program, that health care is the key to hispanic

votes. it is difficult for the president because his health care plan is controversial at best, but has to stress it in the hispanic community. >> will republicans push the president to endorse an israeli strike on iran. we will be right back. >> "the chris matthews show" is brought to you by charles schwab.

i.p.o. welcome back. this week's big question, and it is a big one. will republican candidates and other republicans push the president to endorse an israeli strike on iran? richard? >> i think they will. i think it is irresponsible. even the israelis think they can't do it in a meaningful way. i know you are going to disagree with that. >> the israelis now, leaders, now think they can pull it off, that they need to pull it off, and i think there will be republican pressure on president. >> to support it ahead of time. >> all of mitt romney, newt gingrich and the people on the

hill are going to pressure him to do this. >> having been out there for a month going to these events, except for ron paul, every other candidate is going to come out and push the president to do this. it plays in the bible belt. it plays with evangelical christians as well as jews and others. the republican candidates, if i have heard them talk about israel once, it has been a thousand times, and they are going to push it hard. chris: i hope there is a full consideration of the consequences of doing it and not doing it. this is a time to be cerebral, not play politics. i want to thank my guests. that is the