from super tuesday and the road ahead in this republican primary, we're joined on the upon by michael hirsch, chief correspondent for "national journal." his stories available online at nationaljournal.com. thanks for being with us. the headline that caught our attention, "meet mitt romney: the independent candidate for president." what are you reporting tonight? >> i think that the results of super tuesday show that mitt romney just cannot win over the republican base. the idea that two deeply flawed candidates with their own sort of checkered histories like rick santorum and newt gingrich are still in the running, and that romney barely got a win in ohio, an absolutely must-win state, no republican has ever won the presidency without it, suggests that he is not going to be able to win over this base. and his only real chance of winning the presidency is to garner a large section of the independent and centrist voters that he's going to be battling with, with obama. and so he needs to start to do that now. obviously it's tongue in cheek to call him an independent candidate, but because the

. >> we're talking with michael hirsch of the journal. looking ahead, the caucuses in saturday, this week alabama, and mississippi and the next big industrial state contest, march 20th in illinois. >> right. so i what you're going to see, assuming that the romney camp does not succeed in its current campaign to try to get santorum and gingrich to drop out of the race, they've published a memo today in which they -- the romney in which a lead romney adviser basically said it would take an act of god for him to lose the nomination. one of the others to get one. to get the nomination and i think there's a great deal of truth in that because you look at the math, with about 404 delegates currently needing 1144 total and with his leading, next lead contender, rick santorum with only 165. it's almost impossible to look at the races ahead. particularly in the eastern industrial states as well as in california and illinois which is going to be in mid-march. it's almost impossible to imagine that someone like rick santorum really has not been able

our guest is michael hirsch of the national journal. then timl lynch of the cato institute debate the merit of hate crime laws. and then the report on the loan guarantee program. ahead of secretary chu's testimony about the program and lopes to the now bankrupt solyndra. we'll hear from frank rest coe. 7:00 a.m. every morning on c-span. >>> one year ago the fukushima nuclear power plant in japan melted down an after earthquake and tsunami hit japan. you can see the hearing live thursday here on c-span 3 at 10:00 a.m. >>> the center for responsive politics reports super pacs have raised $130 million this election cycle. mitt romney has raised the most money followed by american crossroads. further down the list are those backing newt gingrich and president obama. the common cause today hosted a discussion on theol. >>> good morning. everyone ready? good morning, my name is bill deblasio, i'm the new york city advocate, and also a member of the new york city retirement system boards. $40 billion pension fund and i'm wearing a green tie. w

host: michael hirsch, thank you. guest: thank you. host: in our last hour we will talk about the department of energy loan guarantee program, but next round table on hate crime laws and whether they are working. first, c-span radio. >> pakistan intelligence officials say a u.s. drone strike has hit a vehicle, killing at least six militants. islamabad criticizes the strike israel's parliamentary speaker has called off a delegation visit to the u.s. after washington denied a lawmaker a visa. three lawmakers were going to attend, but the trip was canceled saying that it was a front -- and a friend. the state department will not let a member of the national union party enter the united states because he considers and self a disciple of a slain rabbi who preached expelling arabs from israel, the west bank, and the gaza strip. washington designated it as it terror organization. turning to international trade, the united states, the european union, and japan, are filing complaints charging china is limiting exports of rare earth. the secreta

well, michael hirsch is the chief correspondent for "national journal," and salon's joan walsh is anlyst. i don't want to feed more ammo. i didn't mean to say these two candidates are necessarily against contraception and the bailout but they are partisanwise on the wrong side of this baby. >> they certainly are. and, you know, they're wiggling around, but they clearly want to defund planned parenthood. they're clearly making these culture war issues key to the campaign. you know, you really understand why they're doing it, chris, because you look at what happened last night and they're losing on the economic arguments. i mean, you asked who the winner was. i would say the winner yesterday was whoever scheduled that speech for president obama on the day of the michigan primary. >> it was a good speech. >> it was a beautiful speech. it was a wonderful speech. his heart was in it. he talked about caring about people. >> well, let's get right to the consultant's report we got from romney last night. we're talking about two very different kinds of speech. one had music and lyrcism and hi

politico's editor-in-chief john harris and michael hirsch chief national correspondent at "the nationalrnal." first off from a political perspective, john, did anything change with the super tuesday results as far -- in other words in terms of the trend and/or expectations around any of these candidates? >> no. i think nothing did change. i think there had been an expectation. certainly on governor romney's part. a hope that super tuesday would represent a change. that is sort of a decisive pivot in the race where he's no longer just ahead but is clearly recognized as the presumptive nominee. so that change did not take place. instead what we had was stats quo. yes he's leading. yes there's widespread expectation that he will be the nominee. but his weaknesses, the coolness of key constituencies in the party toward him got undermined. rather than being erased it got amplified. >> what has struck me, michael, so far, is the increasing number of people who seem to be what i would call awake. they know that they don't know. they know that they can find answers to problems and any of these