captioned by the national captioning institute --wwwcicap.org-- >> we won by enough. that is all l that counts. >> mitt romney squeaks by in michigan. >> lead on every single moral issue. >> rick santorum, culture warrior. coming up, super tuesday. >> even the most perilous times facing our country, we could not get tother. olympia snow is fed up and going back to maine. the special white house tribute to the troops that fought in iraq. >> you wrote one of the most assured the chapters in american military history. -- one of the most

extraordinary chapters in american military history. >> mitt romney was born in michigan, grew up in michigan. his father was the governor of michigan. he beat john mccain in michigan by nine percentage points. this week, he almost lost the michigan primary t rick santorum. hy? >> i am not willing to light my hair on fire to get support. >> he is who he is provided thahat work against him? >> there seem to be a lot of republicans who do not think romney is one of them. they do not see him as the standard bearer for the conservative party. you pu it as romney almost lost michigan. he said he won michigan by enough.

in a certain sense he is correct. it does not matter if he won by three percentage points osix percentage points. he got the popular vote. that is what the press cared about. he got one more delegate. the best thing he had going for him was rick sanantorum. rick santorum needed to beat him in michigan and did not do it. >> h he won because his opponent did ve a cultural warrior campaign and because he won the women's vote. michigan and the rest of the country is more c conservative than it used to be. he did not win the may he mit have years ago. there were democrats who voted for santorum because they thought he was an easier

candidate to shoot at. >> romney is going to live up -- to limp over the goal line. some of this is manufactured excitement in the press. conservatives keep shaking their heads. there's something with romney thatat the voters probably speaking do not like. >> the snificance of michigan is not ronnie's victory -- raw meat -- the significance of michigan is not romney's the street. it is the delegagate count. that willl be the real issue. we could look at michigan the same way we've looked at florida or south carolina a in the past. ththe question is the dedelegate count. >> santor's robocalls told

michigan voters that romney supporter the bailo for his wall street billionaire buddy is proposed the auto bailout. santorum also opposed the iowa bailt. -- santorum also opposed the auto bailout. >> he did not run a good campaign in a state with a 9.3% unemployment rat he talked about how john kennedy made him want to throw up. he talked about how barack obama wanting kids to go to college made him a slump -- made him a snob. he t talked about how he was fine withth banning birth control. how does that help thehe people of michigan get a hold on to a job? >> in his column, charles krauthammer says romney remains a steady and spectacular

tortoise in the race -- unspectacular tortoise in the race. >> a few percentage points make a huge difference. hadomney lost michigan, there would have been alarm bells across washington. it would have been high drama. it did not happen. the conventional wisdom is that romney will win. >> i want to see something about romney for a second. people make fun of him because he keeps putting his foot in his mouth. he is not the most appealing to most of america. he really is different from them. however, he really did map out the year-long campaign. he has been unbelievably tough. he did have the money to stick it out. he has modified the plan when he had to. if i actually thought running a

campaign is evidence of running the cntry, and would have a great deal of admiration for him. i still have some admiration for him because he h has dealt with himself. >> the american public may not love mitt romney, and his own staff apparently does. we have heard little of the usual back fightg. you do not hear that. that tells me he is a pretty good boss and the people close to him like him. >> he ishahas a very disciplined campaign. in my view, he is a manufactured candidate. if we've learned anything from michigan, he will have a difficult time winning the election. not supporting the bailout of the autoto industry will come back to hauntim. demomocrats are going to tururn out. >> super tuesday is coming up.

what about ohio? santorum is leading inin the polls. could this be another michigan? >> he is leading inheolls by high percentage point. the poll s taken after his loss in arizona and michigan. it shows him the one-point lead. ohio is not quite like michigan. it has about 8% under plan rate. it is like michigan in that it is another state with an urban population and neighbors santorum's home ate of pennsylvania. there is no reason on paper for centaur not to do well there. the feeling is he might lose it to mitt romneyy because romney will dump a lot of negativive ads in

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>> president obama said he wants everybody to go to college. what a snob. to say that people of faith have no role in the public square, that make you throw up. >> roger's latest political column is titled "saytan makes a bad running mate. >> they almost never get the candidatthey want. they did not want john mccccain. they did not want george w. bubush whoefused to back the anti-abortion amendment. they did not want bob dol who refused to even read the platform of the republican party

on abortion. they did not want george h. w. bush who called them t extra chromosome set. the only candidate t they liked and got was ronald reagan who rewarded th by going to church proximately once in his eight years in office. i am not saying they are insignificant. i am saying they are not determinative inn the republican nominating race. >> that brings us to mitt romney. >> he will probably come out on super tuesday squishy squashy. he will not win in tennessee or georgia. he might squeak out a victory in ohio. you will have other players stepping up onuper tuesday. newt gingrich will be partially back in the game. rick santorum might do well in

teessee. he is up in the pls there. romney is not emerging as the inevitable candidate. he may be the one the republicans conclude will stand the bes chance against barack obama, but there is no enthusiasm. >> i have had an aha moment. >> share it with us. >> i have been watching the way the candidates treat each other the savage way they treat each other. it is very similar to the way they conduct themsmselves in congress. you know what kind of approval rating that has gotten for congress. i think the tone of our national debate did not used to -- there was so politeeness in the party. there is not a any more. i think it has debased the currency of the republican party. >> voter turnout is down.

i believe cable news ratings are down over 2008. the campaign is fun and has twists and turns. the general public, the evidence suggests, is turned off. >> it shows up in the polls in other ways. the negative campaigns particularly by iran, made his unfavorable ratings shoot up. his unfavorable rating is hher than his favorable rating. >> there is a price to pay for this. women, i think, can be said to be increasingly concerned about what the democrats call the republicans waon women. >> they were still debating birtrth control in the senate on thursday. the amendment would allllow the employers to refuse to includ

contraception because of religious or moral conventions. it failed. explain to us why we're still having this debate in 2012. >> they had an issue, the republicans had anssue that turned on religious liberty with the obama health care plan. where they made the mistake was going overboard with the question of reproductive rights and a woman's right to contraraception. the amendment goes beyond the question ofontraception. it would all insurance companie to block mammograms. it is the zeatry of the republican push to embarrass the obama that got them in a bad positition they are in on contraception. >> there is a close balance

between the free exercise of religion and the separation of church and state, that the government shouldot establish religion. that was legitimate question in the first iteration of the obama rule. i dodo not think it is in the second one. the al post moved from c overtly religigious organizations not include this in their insurance plans, to can anybody decide that you cannot have a right to your own reproductive freedom and we're just going to leave it out. it is a different goal post. >> the question for some especially women is why do the republicans wantt to get government out of our lives but into our wombs? it is more than contraception and repeproductive rights. the supreme court ruled decades ago it is a matter of privacy

whether the government can intrude upon your privacy to force you io doing or not doing certain medical acts. >> i was paying too much with cable. paying so much you want better quality. it just got more frustrating and frustrating. for the amount of money that i'm paying, my cable company should take care of me. [ male announcer ] stop paying for second best.

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checking could earn five times the national average!! and free atms anywhere. five times the national average!!! that's new school banking. sign up for high yield free checking at a capital one bank. what's in your wallet? somebody help me down. >> people are stunned by the debilitating partisanship of the institution. the political paralysis is to the point of extremes when it comes to resolving the problems facing this country. >> senators snowe was elected to the senate in 1994. she says there ian all or nothing m mntality in congress now. she wants no more part of it. she is not running for reelection. that is an opening for the democrats.

>> they might have a war in maine. ey have two weeks to decide who the candidate is. this is really sad, this is incrcreasingly happening. moderate members of the congress leave because they feel there is no place for them.m. she is only the latest. there are many others we can name. the idea of a moderate republican is almost non- existent. is happening in the democratic party wh the idea of a moderate democrat. the analysis of the voting patterns shows there is almost nobody in the middle. how do you make a deal if nobody is in the middle? i hope that obama offers her a job. i hope he puts her in charge of something important. >> she left because othe political paralysis on capitol

hill. nina is right. it is sad for the person the senate is losing b because she pinpoint the p problem. the goal in congress ito block the other side. gridlock has become your highest goal. you are not really there to pass anything anymore. you are not really there to change anything anymore. you are just there to keep the other side -- >> i would put it differently. i do not think gridlock is a goal. it is a result of both pararties pursuingheir own ends to the exclusion of everybody else. they want to reach some accommodatn on. policy issues. what is missing in theenate e is

the notion of respect for one another. that is gone. >> what is going to change it? that is ththe issue. >> it is been exacerbated. >> the direct way to chang it would be for president obama to run on changing it. >> he tried that. >> he needs to do it again. he needs to find something substantive. instead, he is doing familiar tropes. it is a tired o old message. it is not the message that ll give him a clear mandate to force something. >> it is also exacerbated by the amount of money from outside. it is exacerbated in the primary system. people like senator bennett are out. nobody thought hwas not

conservative but he was not conservative enough for utah. he gets ousted. that happens over and or again. it is starting to happen in the democratic party. exacerbates the problem. the number of competitive districts in the house is minuscule because they are drawn to the compact -- be compact units, a singularly demratic or repblican. the fight is only which one gets elected in the primary. >> the military presence in the middle east. are we getting out or oever said

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suites. get more. >> in one of our longest wars, euro one of the most extraordinary chapters in american military history. now the iraqi people a chance to foforge their own destiny. everyone of you catake pride in knowing you gave the iraqis that opportunity. you succeeded in your mission.

>>t remains to be seen what thee iraqis wl do with the opportunity. president obama hosting a dinner at the white house for iraqi war veterans. we're still very much in afghanistan. the people the military has been training are now killing our troops. is it time to get out? >> there is a plan to disengage. the question is w whether we step up the timetable. there is the big question around afghanistan, the future of aq syria and what will happen there, and the larger question about iran and what is going to happen there with respect to whether israel feelsls the need to take a strikee and what that does to the united states. it is not just one country. it is the whole region that poses serious challenges to the united states. >> is re the prime minister will be in washington next week. -- t the israeli prime minister will be in washington next week.

it will be interesting. >> i talked to a senior republican former executive- branch officials. i asked if israel was going to bomb iran. he is really pgged in. he said if they think obama will be reelected, they will do it to locked into supporting them before the election, support what they're doing. if they think the republicans are going to win, they will wait and probably do it later. >> i think it is trickier t than that. obama is clearly signaling do not do this. >>they worry if they do it after he has done the signaling, they willave a froststyelationship with obama going forward. >> jeffrey goldberg had a long interview with the president. he said they will try to persuade netanyahu's to persuade any attack on iran's nuclear facilities.

-- he said it will try to persuade netanyahu to avoid any attack on iran's nuclear facilities. >> this is desigigned to give the united states, the obama administration, credible deniability if an attack takes ace. itill not work. no one wl belie it. the states of the mideast will not believe it. the aftermath of an attack on iriran and rocket attttacks on israel are possible, will boycott, all the rest. it will simply produce the same results. we talked about afghanistan for a minute. the reason ron paul attracts so many young voters is because he is t peace candidatete in this election. he says get out now.

since the unfortunate burning of the quran in afghanistan, six u.u.s. servicemen have been killed by members of the afghan army. if you have to fight the taliban and the afghan army, there is no reason for us to stay in afghanistan and other day. -- another day. >> that is the last word. we will see you next week. i was paying too much with cable. paying so much you want better quality. it just got more frustrating and frustrating. for the amount of money that i'm paying, my cable company should take care of me. [ male announcer ] stop paying for second best. switch to verizon fios tv, internet and phone for just $99.99 a month, guaranteed for two years. first time we saw tv on fios was amazing. i was just in a...trance watching it. i'm discovering new channels every day. [ male announcer ] call now and get $300 back with a two-year contract.

but hurry, this is your last chance. fifios internet...the speed, you can't compare. i'm able to take care of things much faster now. [ male announcer ] save with fios... just $99.99 a month, guaranteed for two years. last chance to get $300 back if you choose a two-year contract. or ask about our no annual contract option. is change good? in this case change is very good. [ male announcer ] call 1-888-884-fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities that's 1-888-884-3467. at 800-974-6006 tty/v. fios. a network k ea