kruger. >> my pleasure. >> let's bring back our panel, perry bacon, jennifer bacon, and faj sa cure. to be some optimism. >> it's better to be creating 225,000 joobs a month than losing jobs but the fact remains we have a very highing a gra gath g -- aggregate number of the population that are unemployed. i don't think the president can win with 8.3% unemployment. the notion that they didn't understand how bad the economy was is belie by the facts and the president's own words. talking about the economy being the worst since the great depression, talking about the measures they were going to take. he was asked what's going to be the test for your re-election, and he said it's going to be jobs, going to be the economy. he's going to have to live with this record. he can make whatever excuses he wants -- >> do you like the record here? >> of course, there's two straight years of job growth, private sector job growth. the actual bad news is that public sector declines have been in the range of 650,000 over the past four years, and so that's something i think we've got to look at, and i

deon is a columnist and perry bacon an editor for the msnbc contributor. good morning to both of you. e.j., i was watching the entire interview. you heard what he just said, i am behind him because he is going to win and he is better than president obama. is that a ringing endorsement? >> it is not a ringing endorsement. i think what you are seeing here is sort of the last roundup in the republican race. i think wisconsin is the last roundup. rick santorum's original sin was losing control of his message the week before michigan. you really have a race where romney basically has the northeast. the southern states are anti-romney. the western states are split. all the tiebreakers were the big states in the midwest. romney won every sinlg one of those. if santorum can somehow pull out the victory in wisconsin, he could break that pattern. it would make things interesting. santorum is going to stay in to win pennsylvania. what you are seeing in these endorsements is a lot of people in the party saying romney has really been hurt by this primary process. his f

perry bacon, kelly o'donnell. dems out-drudge gop.h-a-sketch people don't realize, democratic was the first one and they spread on twitter like wild fire in the ways drudge used to be used by republicans when they used to beat up john kerry. >> this is a realization but seven-year effort. after 2004, liberals got together, started things like think progress, media matters and said we have to create our own echo chamber. the irony is, as democrats have come into their own, matt drudge is absent. >> retreating, put his chips in with romney. >> yeah, living with the guy. >> speaking of romney, the other thing we learned this week, romney doesn't have a cocoon of protection, the cheerleading section. >> what i find, having covered all of these republican candidates in the field, you get a barometer with viewer response, the public response. >> e-mails and calls and now tweets. >> tweets, all of that. and there was not an upswell of trying to explain for romney, trying to distance him from there this. whereas in a moment you will get that

, trey harden, republican strategist and senior vice president at vox global and in washington, perry baconnd the political editor of the grio.com. trey, is there anyone within the conservative ranks who would convince the other candidates for the good of the republican party, to step aside and just let mitt romney start to consolidate support. >> i mean, even barbara bush is pleading for an end to this fight. >> well, martin, i'm surprised you would want that to happen. but it's a good question. listen. >> it's in the interests of your party, sir. that's all. i'm really feeling a genuine sense of pity. >> i know you're very, very supportive of us. >> it's not nice to watch. >> it's not going to happen. >> it's not going to happen. >> i know. it's not going to happen. listen, the republican party clearly is scattered right now between electability, tea party mania, and the anybody but mitt influence. and it's going to take a little while for that to work out. the irony is that if newt gingrich got out today, this race would even be longer because it would have santorum and romney probably g

amy gardner, perry bacon, jr., thanks so much. >>> new federal filings indicate the ron paul campaign is short on cash. the texas congressman spent more money last month than he brought in. the campaign has the smallest stash on hand than at any other point in the campaign only $1.3 million. paul, of course, has the least amount of delegates thus far. after today's caucuses in missouri. puerto rico holds the primary tomorrow and march ends the month with louisiana's primary on the 24th. moving to april, washington, d.c., maryland and wisconsin hold primaries on the 3rd. >> president obama targets big oil. how might that affect what you pay at the pump. i'll speak with katherine crier about that next. >>> catch lucky. hearts, moons, stars, clovers and diamonds. >> plus, what you didn't know about lucky charms including a fashion icon who starred in a commercial as a child here on "weekends with alex witt." this is $100,000. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take t

perry bacon jr. is joining me from selma. see you. >> good to see you, alex. >> let's talk about what 2012 bridge crossing jubilee is all about. >> reporter: so today is -- we are at brown chapel which is in selma, alabama. marches of the 1960s and 1965 started. organizers, including al sharpton and jesse jackson want to start here. the laws that passed over the last year. they are trying to draw in between those laws and laws of the '60s restricted voting rights and want to raise attention to those laws through this protest. >> okay. so about how many folks do you expecting there and what are the big challenges in putting together a big event like this? >> you know, they are talking about several hundred people participating in the overall five days of the event. it is not clear how many people are there today. they are talking about by -- several hundred over the five-day period from starting today and through friday. >> we want to point out to the viewers here between 50-mile journey. what kind of accommodations get made f

. >> our political power panel this morning, perry bacon, doug thornell and susan del percio. to have all of you on this morning. perry, i want to start with you. as everybody's watching that, the signs of this process being difficult on the campaign trail this long. are we starting to see crack that is this is getting to rick santorum? >> i think we're seeing signs that he's frustrated. he feels like the media is not helping him. he feels like he can't gain on romney. in that comment, he was not misquoted. he's trying to, how do i change the game here? romney looks like he's going to win the nomination, a slow process. santorum's trying to change the dynamics of it but he's overattacking it right now. >> doug, these were the type of things newt gingrich could easily turn into his own advantage, the spotlight, that is. point at the media, blame them and gain from it. does santorum have the savvy to do it with this situation? >> it looks like someone needs a vacation. i would agree with rick santorum. if the republicans want to make health care the central issue of this campaign