>> you have a new television ad that labels him oeighta a a fake. why? >> because he is a fake. [laughter] >> this week on "inside washington," front runner blues. >> there is no reason we cannot get gasoline to $2.50 a gallon. >> in the story in a newspaper sasaid "gasoline is on the rise and republicans are licking their chops." >> reproductive rights. >> these laws are mean-spirited. >> the bloody crackdown in syria

and the violence in afghanistan. >> it was a mistake. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> we had 20 of the debates during the remaining candidates for r the republican presidentialal nomination. is time it was a wk santorum's turn -- - it was santorum's turn to be the front-t- runner. >> i was fighting to save at the olympics you were fighting to save the bridge to nowhere. >> i voted for that. it was against the principiples i believed in, but sometimes you take what the team. >> "you take one for the team," just what the tea party was

waiting to hear. there was a lot off talk about centaur, winning in michigan. but his lead seems to be shrinking. did he hurt himself in this week's s debate? mark? >> he did. give him credit for it to the mistak somhing few candidates can do. he ht himself by being on the defensive and falling into senate-speak. the motion to o recommit was the amendment to table >> without objecti. >> exactly. eyes just glaze over. republicans ought to be grateful that 305 million did not watch the debate wednesday night, because not a single one of the candates were impressive, commanding or sharpethan it 10 months ago. >> nina? >> this is a classic example santorum, of trying to explain

the intricacies o of legislative votes. it is like kerry saying "i was for it bore ias against it." it is said that that is where we are in our political discourse where you cannot have that kind of conversation. >> colby? >> santorum was the victim of a tag team match by romney and ron paul hitting him from both sides. numbers showed a big balloon blocking right into rick santorum's head. he w offalance the whole two hours. >> charles can santorum m take michigan? >> the debate will have a negative effect. histrength is tea party. he wanted to claim the mantle of tea party, small government guy.

romney being a sort of inconsistent, and reliable conservative, , if you like. the problem with santorum is that he has quite a record of being a big government conservative. es not mean n he is not conservative but he got with the bush, hasn't itt conservatism. he's aut -- with the bush compassionate conservatism did he supported stuff like no child leftehind and said he did it for the team. the whole idea of tea party is acting on principle even against the majority is that the schwinn. what is being the -- majority establishment. what is being discovered is not a tactical errorbut tea party is not who he has been in t past and he is adopting it to be anti-romney but it is not a perfect description of who he was. >> why isn't santorum store in michigan - -- stronger in

chigan -- i mean, romney? >> what wasas at his home state? hifather was a liberal republican. >> ooh fighting words. >> now he is trying to adopt michigan with a wonderful lines like "i love the trees, i love the lakes, little lakes." that doesn't go over well. he is not very authentic. >> why isn't he stronger there mark? >> i think colby is right, butime has passed. she ran in michigan sucuccessfully against john cain -- he suran successfully against john mccain in 2008 as the conservative. now he has candidates to his

right. >> wt is going on with ron ul and romney? >> theyre oectively allies. it is not a conspiracy or because people s say the wives are close. you are ron paul, you are 76, you are not going to be the president, but your entire objective is to build a movement and a choir of legitimacy. s objective is not to end up with number one in delegat but number two. romney inot a guy he needs to bring down. he needs to exceed the total of the guys who are hisis rivals. he wants a strong romney, he wants to emerge in tampa as leader of the internal opposition, gets a speech in primetime, hence it over to his son as the leader of a strong and legitimate movement in the republicaparty. >> le's say something about ron paul's ideology as well. it is a libertarian movement.

onof the things t that santorum has consistently stood for in his public talking poin is that government, in fact, it should do certain things about people's private lilives. at is not a libertarian movement. to be fair, i think it is offensiveve the 2 r paul's ideology. he does not go around penn state "i am pro-o-choice" or anything -- he does not go around and say "i am pro-choice" or anything, but he said in this debate "pills are not m morality." > it is not explain why he ran the ad against newt saying he is not a conservative. it is not ideological. it is that he was to be no. 2.

>> if you want to be no. 2, you have to take on a number one at some point -- >> no, you don't. >> may i speak for a moment? we had an interesting analytical discussion of what he wants. i have no idea what he wants. rick perry was the leader, he went after rick perry. newt gingrich was the leader, he went after newt gingrich. at no point has he gone after mittomney, who was also intermittently been a leader. the legimate conclusion is that there is something going on, that it is deeper than wanting to give a speech outat the tampa convention. >> romney is the only one who is bindi consistent fodder and presumptive nominee. it makesense that y you don't want to go after him, you go afteyoyour rivals. >> there of the 20 changes of

leadership in the p polls. >> the only guy who was still l there is romney. >> for rick santorum, he supports arliss sector and specter goes around the next day and says that's not true. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] from our nation's networks... ♪ ♪ ...to our city streets... ♪ ♪ ...to skies around the world... ♪ ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... [ soldier ] move out! [ male announcer ] ...without their even knowing it. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman.

>> since it is is an eleion year, department are dusting off their theiree-point pls for $2 gas - -- they are dusting o their three-point plans for $2 gas. the president >> says that as bus who are talking about $2 gas is just politics. thats baloney. there was $1.13 gas when i was speaker. that is a fact. it was $1.89 when he became president. that is fact. >> actually, i checkcked.

it was. if the gas hit $5 by election day, what are the chances for reelectition? > gasololine prices are lilike a big tax in that they take money out of people's pockets particularly athe lower income levels. however, i tnk we have seen enough of this for the last 20 years, that people have some sense that politicians don't control this. there was a studrecently that showed if the united states was accountable, made all of its own gas, all that was pued in the united states, it still would only reduce the price of gas internationally and to us at about few cents a glon. we don't producall the gas in t the world. >> i understand, but we are taking more oioil out of the ground that we have 90 years refineries are running at full blast, gasolinee consumption is

down. why are prices going up? >> unlike wyndal newt gingrich was speaker, you did not have a growing china, a consumer of gas you did not have the problem is you have no with iran withholding production, so much uncertainty in the world now. the other thing that is absolutely true -- we arere ner going to be energy independedent. we are not going to be free of fossil fuels. that is a fact. we will learn enough to -- we will he to learn to reduce our dependency and will take a variety of things which means coming up with alternative sources. >> newt gingrich is going tout a 30-minute infomercial about gasoline prices on television. you are going to watch that chars? >> jeremy lin iplaying, i probably won't. [laughter] >> if he puts it jeremy lin in

the half hour? >> then i might watch it. >> newtingrich said, "my job is not to win reelection, my job is not t to pass a law. my job is to save western civilization." this man's vanity is a limited perio -- is unlimited. "when i was speaker, the gas was $1.13." this is the first time we have had a speakership a affect -- >> bill clinton was president. > did n not hear him giva tip o'neill credit for t reagan revolution. wh gas was at its highest in 2008 did the democrats exploit it politically? you better believe if gas rose to $5 a gallo in 2012, you better believe the republicans

will do it. that is the way the game is played. >> can the president went if gasoline is $5 a gallon? >> look, it it will hurt his chances. win or losis the big question. there are other factors on election day. generally, the two numbers that count the most part the unemployment number and the price of gasoline. the price of gasoline hitsou every day. it has a direct effect on th mood of the country because it takes money out of your paycheck. it has a an indirect effect because it slows the economy. it is attac on the economy, money that ends in the pocketet of the saudis and the russians, and it has the secondary effect on unemployment. if it begins to rise and oppresses the economic recovery, that is prorobably the most important element. >> is it not true that when ronald reagan was running for

reelecon, the price of gas went up and he won? when george w. bush was runningng for reelection, the price of gas went up? >> reagan also experienced the dominant question was unemployment. there had been a tremeous drop in unemployment and the trajecry was headed down with a reelectionon, and a growth rate was 6%. today is what we 7% >> which m makes my point that gas prices are not determined to of withth an election. >> we a

how did this small colorado town get through tough economic times? freight rail. it attracted large companies, like vestas. we built four factories to make turbine blades towers, and genetors. creating over venteen hundndred jobs. then suppliers, stores more companies followed, creating more jobs. economists call that the ripple effect. i call it the freight rail effect. freight rail connects ery corner of america, bringing jobs and economic growth along for the ride. visit freightrailworks.org. >> i have a body, which is my right to control. >> she was fious about a propos virginia legislation that would have required women seeking abortions to undergo ultrasasound imaging by way of ginal insertion.

gov. donald came out against the pers -- gov. mcdonnell came out against it. i personhood a bill in virginia died awell. in marylan they apoved gay marriage. >> what is our ghts date, what is a blue state. -- one is a red state, one is a blue ste. except on the question of reproductitive rights. virgin has been put on this subject, and although gov. mcdonnell was moving to what direction, he had to step back as well when he got a real reaction. no one was going to do same-sex marrrriag -- maryland w going to do same-sex marriage, but that will be pushed to a referendum. >> during the debate they seemed to shy away from the birth controrol issue. >> they may have shied awa fm it but my view is that abortion

is the question, republicans win. if contraception is the issue republicans lose. by making tit le 10, which ovides equal access to m money for contraception, this has become a big issue. for women, this is a very sleeping giant kind of thing. i have this quouotation courtesy of ruth marcus of "the washington post." george w. bush said when he was gogovernor, , "we ed to take the sensationalism out of this topic. if a family planning is anything, it is a public health matter." "there would have been 1 million more unwanted pregnancies, and nearly half of them would have endeup in abortions." i don't understand it. if you are against abortn, why would you be against birth control? look >>, the onlnly rereason it has become anssue among republicans is that santorum is

living in the 1950's and he makes it an issue. i don't see any of the other candidateses who thinks it is an issue. remember they're really a debate where abc's stephanopoulos asked about contraception? romney said, whathe hell is this a about, who talks about this, it is a settled issue. it is a settled issue. santorum, instead of saying that the john kennedy think, i am a catholic but it will not influence how might gern, i don't take orders from the vatican, end of story -- he does not say end of story. he keeps talking about it. once santorum is out of the race, unless he wins the nomination, i hope it will die as an issue. >> santorum had his golden opportunity. the microbe came to him, this was the chance for him to talk about manufacturing his grandfather story, working in the mis, speak to blue-collar

republicanans. instead, a series of unforced errors come from "phony theology" to contraceptn and to questns of prenatal testing. it took the focus from what was working for him to issues that don't workrk for him. i cannot agree or r more. abortion is a seriouous, grave decision. contraceptioion is a settled matter. [ male announcer ] are you paying more and more for cable and enjoying it less and less? stop paying for second best. upgrade to verizon fios and get tv, internet and phone for an incredible price: just $89.99 a month for two years with a two-year agreement. it's an amazing deal, but it's for a liteted time only. so don't wait.on want to save even more? call right now and we'll add a special bonus: $300 back. unlike cable, fios deliver d a 100% fiber-optic network to your home.

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>> anyone who gets on the street, if they got hit by a shell, but there are snipers all around. the sickening thing is the complete mererciless nature. >> that was marieie colvin, an award winning jonalist was killed covering the carnage in

syria this week. is there anything unites states can or should do to stop this budget? >> you heard this week the suggestions that maybe we will have to find a way to intervene as well. i said it last week, ihink every sign suggests that there is g going to be some kind of coalition among international forces, may be starting with turkey and some of the others to do something to get some supporor the antis. right now the international community is embarrassed and humiliated by what is going on. the american people are pretty war-weary. >> they are,ut they are lookinat the slaughter -- this is unadulterated slaughter r of innocents. you ccannot sit there is a garrison in there or thisis is collateral damage. the strategy of the younger assad is to do with the father didd in 198 where he killed

20,000 people in three weeks in each tape over the city. this is what we are dealing with. the united states government is speaking about humanitarian aid when it is a a complete irrelevance. you cannot get food in or out. either you get mility aid or you at the -- you do empty words. >> the difference between assad's father and nows that we have pictures contemporaneously. the uned states cannot be the policeman of the world. this the hardest kind of moral question to face. i d't have an answer. >> mark? first ofll, shame on russia shame on china. second, 70 nations will meet in tunisia this weekend with essure building. i'm reluctant, as somebody with a press pass, to idealize and

lionize journalist, but but for the courage of marie colvin and those who paid with theirir life and limbs for the coverage,e, we would not know what is going on. they have fced the conscience of the world to address this devastation, this elimination and violation of man beings. >> it is n enough to say it shame on russia. russia is acting in its national interest. it is not as if itit is not living up to its expectations. the obama administrationas made a plea that the greatat success of a foreigngn affairs is the reset with russia. he has done nothing. >> in afghanistan, military people inadvertentlyurned a career in. all hell has broken loose. two of our people have gotten killed. >> the reaction is not surprising. it is is being whipped up by those who oppose our presence in afghanistan.

the prede's stement of apology is not going to d whwhat is going on n in there. the cartkarzai government has recognized the problem. >> it is an example of cultural clashes when we get involved in a country like afghistan and syria. >> seeou next week.

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