>> production assistance was provided by allbritton communications and "politico" -- reporting on the political arena. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> we did not win by enough, but we won by enough. that is what counts. >> mitt romney it squeaks by in michigan. >> if you want to talk about someone who has led on every moral issue -- >> rick santorum, culture warrior. >> coming up, super tuesday. >> these are the most perilous times facing our country. >> olympia snow, that up and

going back to maine. >> one of the most active 40 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. in 2008, he beat john mccain by nine percentage points in michigan. this week, he almost lost the michigan primary to rick santorum. why? >> i am not willing to light my hair on fire to get support. >> he is who he is. why did that work against him? >> there are a lot of republicans who do not think romney is one of him -- them.

they do not see him as the standard bearer for the conservative party. you see it as he almost lost michigan. he sees it as winning by enough. in a certain sense, i have to say he is correct. it does not matter if he won by three percentage points or six percentage point. he got the popular vote. that is what the press cared about. he got one more delicate. -- he got one more delicate -- delegate. rick santorum needed to beat him in michigan and did not do it. >> he won because his opponent really did have a culture where the warrior -- did have a culture war your campaign. the republican party in michigan and much of the country is way more conservative than it used to be.

he did not win the way he might have years ago. there were democrats who voted for santorum because he thought he was -- they thought he was an easier candidate to shoot at. limp over thel goal line. there are some in the party to keep shaking their heads. there is something about romney that voters really speaking do not like. >> the significance of michigan is not romney's close victory, but the delegates. over the next few weeks, we're going to see the importance of the delegates rather than the winning of primaries as the real issue. we will look at michigan the

same when we look at florida or south carolina. the question is the delegate count. toldntorum's robocalls michigan that romney supporter of the bailout for his wall street buddies proposed the iowa bailout. santorum also opposed the auto bailout. >> he did not run a good campaign in a state with a 9.3% unemployment rate. 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 snob. he talked about how he was fine with banning birth control. if any state wanted to do it and he was president, he would be for it. how does that help the people of michigan get or hold on to a

job? >> in his column this week, charles krauthammer says romney remains the tortoise in the race. is it now romney all the way? >> i think so. a few percentage points made a huge difference. had romney loss to michigan, you would have heard the alarm bells through washington. it would have been high drama. he won by a few points. the conventional wisdom is that romney will win. >> people make fun of him because he keeps putting his foot in his mouth. he is not the most appealing to most of america because he really is different from them. however, he did map out a year-

long campaign. he has been unbelievably tough. he had the money to stick it out. he modified the plan when he had to. if i thought running a campaign was evidence of running the country, i would have a great deal admiration for him. i still have some admiration for him because he has dealt with himself. >> the american public may not love romney, but his own staff apparently does. we have heard little of the usual back fighting. you do not hear that. that tells me romney is a pretty good boss and at least the people close to him like him. >> is a very disciplined campaign. in my view, he is a very much and manufactured candidate. if we've learned anything from michigan, he will have a difficult time winning the election. his position on the bailout of

the auto industry is going to come back to haunt him. a few democrats voted last week. the democrats will come out en masse for the election. >> wouldn't of ohio? as of friday, santorum was leading in the polls. >> he was leading in the polls by high percentage point. the polls taken after his loss in arizona and michigan shows him the one-point leader now. that is a bad trend. ohio is not quite like michigan. it is about a one. -- it is about 8.1% on unemployment. it is like much of the rest of the country with an urban population. state ofors santorum's pennsylvania. there is no reason on paper for santorum not to do well there. the feeling is he might lose it to mitt romney because mitt

romney will dump a lot of negative ads in ohio. >> to be continued. the culture wars continue unabated. " president obama said he wants everybody in america to go to college. what a snob. >> these are the quotes roger alluded to. you challenge the conventional wisdom that the religious right is a hugely powerful force within the republican party. >> it simply is not. they almost never get the candidate they want. they did not want john mccain. they did not want george w. bush refused to back the anti- abortion amendment. they did not want bob dole who refused to even read the

platform of the republican party on abortion. they did not want george h. w. bush, 41, who called them the extra chromosome set. the only candidate they really liked and got was ronald reagan, who rewarded them by going to church approximately once in his eight years in office. i am not saying they're insignificant. i am saying they are not determinative in the republican nominating race. >> that brings us to mitt romney. >> he is not going to win in tennessee, georgia. he might squeak out a victory in ohio, but you are going to have other players stepping up on super tuesday. gingrich will be partially back in the game. santorum might take tennessee.

romney is not emerging as the inevitable candidate. he may be the one they conclude to stem the best chance against barack obama, but there is no enthusiasm. >> i have had an aha moment in the last few days. i have been watching the way the candidates treat each other. the savage way they treat each other. it is very similar to the savage way they conduct themselves in congress. you know what kind of approval rating that has gotten for congress. i think the tone of our national debate did not use to beat -- there was some politeness in the party. there is not any more. i think it has debased the

republican party. >> voter turnout is down. i believe cable news ratings are down over 2008. the campaign is spun -- fun and has twists and turns, but the evidence suggests the general public is turned off. >> the negative campaigning made his unfavorable ratings shoot up. his unfavorable rating is higher than his favorable rating. >> there's also a larger price to pay for this. women can be increasingly concerned about what the republicans'l the war on women. >> there's still debating birth control in the senate on

thursday. -- they were still debating birth control in the senate on thursday. the amendment failed. explain to us why we're still having this debate in 2012. >> the republicans had an issue on the question of religious liberty with the obama health plan. where they made the mistake is going overboard with the question of reproductive rights and a woman's right to contraception. the amendment goes beyond the question of contraception. it would allow insurance companies to block mammograms. it is the zealotry of the republican push to embarrass obama that got them in this bad position on contraception.

>> there is a close balance between the free exercise of religion and the separation of church and state that the government should not establish religion. that was a legitimate question in the first iteration of the obama rule. i do not think it is in the second one. the goal post moved from weather over the religious organizations cannot include this in their insurance plans to can anybody this side you cannot have a right to your own reproductive freedom and we're just going to leave it out. that is a very different goalpost. question the question for some -- >> the question for some, especially women, is why do republicans want to get government out of our lives but into our wombs? the supreme court ruled decades

ago is a matter of privacy whether the government can intrude upon your privacy to force you into doing or not doing certain medical acts. >> the senator says she has had enough. " people are stunned by the partisanship and overall this function d -- dysfunction. it has gone to the extremes in terms of resolving the question. >> she was first elected to the house in 1978. she says there is an all or nothing mentality in congress now and she wants no more part of it. she is not running for reelection. that is an opening for the democrats. >> it looks like they have a war. they have two weeks to decide

who the candndidate is. this is really sad, i think. this is increasingly happening. moderate members of the congress leave because they feel there is no place for them. she is the latest. there are many others we can name. the idea of a moderate republican is almost non- existent. it is getting less existent in the democratic party with the idea of a moderate democrat. the national journal and data analysis of the voting patterns. there is almost nobody in the middle. how do you make a deal if nobody is in the middle? i hope obama offers her a job and puts her in something because you are in charge of something important. -- i hope obama offers her a job and poster in charge of something important. >> it is sad for the person and the senate.

she pinpoint the problem. the goal in congress is to block the other side. if you are a democrat, you vote against republican plans. if you are republican, you vote against democratic plans. gridlock has become your highest goal. you are not really there to pass anything or change anything anymore. you are just there to keep the other side -- >> i would put it differently. i do not think gridlock is the goal. both parties are excluding their own ends to the exclusion of everyone else. others want to try to reach some accommodation on policy issue. what is missing in the senate is the notion of respect for one

another. that is gone. >> what is going to change it? that is the issue. the directly to change it is -- would be for president obama to run and change it. he needs to do it again. he needs to find something substantive. he is doing familiar tropes. it is a tired message. it is not the message that will give him a clear mandate to force something. >> it is also exacerbated by the amount of money from outside and the fact that it is exacerbated in the primary system. people like senator bennett are ousted. he was not conservative enough for conservatives in utah. that happens over and over again. it is starting to happen in the

democratic party. it exacerbates the problem. in the house, the number of competitive districts is minuscule because they are drawn to be compact, singularly democratic or republican district. the fight is only which one gets elected in the primary. >> the american military presence in the middle east. are we getting out or getting in more deeply? >> in one of our longest wars, you wrote one of the most extraordinary chapters in american military history. now the iraqi people have a chance to forge their own destiny. everyone of you who served there can take pride in knowing you gave the iraqis that opportunity. you succeeded in your mission. >> it remains to be seen what the iraqis will do with the opportunity. president obama is hosting a dinner of the white house this week for veterans. we're still very much in

afghanistan. they are now killing our troops. is it time to get out? >> there is a plan to disengage. the question is whether we step up the timetable. there is a big question about afghanistan and the future of iraq and in syria. there is the larger question about iran and what will happen there with respect to whether israel feels the need to take a swipe. it is not one country. the whole region poses serious challenges to the united states. >> the israeli prime minister will be in washington next week. it will be interesting. >> i talked to a senior republican former executive branch official. i asked if the raise the region

if the israelis were going to bomb iran. i asked the israelis were going to bomb iran. he said they could do it to walk into supporting what they are doing. if they think republicans are going to win, they will wait and probably do it later. >> i think it is trickier than that. obama is clearly signaling not to do it. it afterry if they do the signaling, they will have a frosty relationship with obama going forward. >> jeffrey goldberg had a long interview with the president. he said they will try to persuade them to postpone any attack on iran's nuclear facilities. >> israel has announced they will do whatever they do without consulting the united states

first. i think this is designed to give the obama administration credible deniability if an attack takes place. it will not work. no one will believe it. the states of the mideast will not believe it. the aftermath of the attack on iran and all the rest, rocket attacks on israel, will produce the same results. we talked about afghanistan. the reason ron paul attracts so many young voters is because he is the peace candidate in this election. here is a guy who says to get out now. since the very unfortunate burning of the quran in afghanistan, six u.s. service

members have been killed by members of the afghan army. if we have to fight the taliban and the afghan army, there is no reason for us to stay in afghanistan another day. >> the president told jeffrey goldberg that iran and israel should take seriously the possibility of american action against iran nuclear facilities. he used the phrase, "i do not laugh -- bluff." >> tsa into israel, do not attack iran. -- he is saying to israel, do not attack iran. if iran gets the weapon, we will do it. you do not have to do it now. the message to iran is that we are serious. he is saying to them that you have to stop building weapons. >> there is the snowball effect in the middle east if iran gets

the weapons. >> the point charles krauthammer made last week is up for discussion. an attack on iran might get applause in amman, riyad, baghdad. the prospect of a shiite government concerns other parts of the middle east. it is a calculation. i think they all want to see iran not have the capacity to launch a nuclear weapon. i think president obama has made it clear that the united states would take all steps to keep

iran from having a nuclear weapon without the israelis taking action. >> there is a serious point of view in the intelligence establishment that this is not a good idea for technical reasons about whether it could be well- executed. it is fine to say we will bomb them, but if it does not do what you are trying to do, it is not worth much. >> the saudis are saying if you do it, really do it. take them all out. do not get us into a perpetual state of war. >> i keep reading about the potential for the bunker-busting bombs and how deep they go. >> it is a tough mission to fly. israelis will have to go along way. they will have to refuel on the way there and back. they will not have a long time over the target. on the larger point about whether the other arab states generally dislike iran would rally around the israelis and

americans, i simply do not see it that way. basically you are going to have a jewish state bombing an islamic state. that is not going to play well with the people saudi arabia, the royal family holding on by its fingertips waiting to be overthrown by islamic fundamentalists. it is going to be very tough for those countries to applaud an attack on iran. >> what about a role of turkey? >> i think more of syria and turkey. what would a strike on iran due to the populace of turkey? there is an islamic population

there, not as radical as in other states. the question i posed to charles last week and in this discussion now is what is happening in the islamic world if there is a strike on iran? >> i want to go back to afghanistan to end this. i suspect we will in the port jill biden since -- suggested we will be -- i suspect we will be where jill biden suggested we will be. >> thank you. we will see you next week. >> for a transcript, long go