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i'm gloria borger. john king is off tonight. >>> find out what brought the president and an ally together this afternoon? >>> a new take on "american idol." shows how some government workers idol away their time. >> should this idea be allowed to fly? a special seating area where, get this, children are not allowed. >>> we start with this year's biggest issue, jobs. u.s. businesses added 209,000 jobs in march. unemployment claims are starting to slow down. the all-important unemployment rate comes out tomorrow. on top of that, the president just signed a new law making it easier for small businesses to raise money. >> because of this bill, start-ups and small business will now have access to a big new pool of potential investors. namely, the american people. >> we also saw something really unusual at today's bill signing. the man right over the president's shoulder, circled in red, republican house majority leader, eric cantor. normally, these two don't see eye to eye on anything. our chief white house

political analyst gloria borger, ari fleischer. the romney campaign and the super pac that supports romney, they're going to be spending millions of dollars in pennsylvania to try to nail it down. >> they are because they would love nothing more than to defeat rick santorum in pennsylvania and make that be the final death blow to rick santorum's campaign. what could occur, wolf, could be a split decision. i've heard a lot of people say, while rick santorum might win the popular vote, mitt romney would be able to win in the delegates. speaking of delegates, we should also point out that tonight mitt romney is going to make a very big hole of delegates. rick santorum, i don't know, less than a dozen delegates maybe. >> maybe not. >> so it seems to me that this is a huge victory for mitt romney. and also today, barack obama made it clear, the president said, look, the person i'm running against is mitt romney. so while rick santorum may not be willing to admit that, today the president started to try and define mitt romney. so i think

john avlon is with me, gloria borger, ari fleischer and good to see all of you. ari, capitulation, question mark? >> capitulation? i think the writing is on the wall. only question is does rick santorum want to read it? what happens in a race like this, when you are the conservative in the race and you look at mitt romney and you say, how can he be winning, he's not conservative, it makes no sense. you say hang in there, the voters will come around. i don't think the voters are coming around. and that's what rick santorum has got to judge. >> look, i mean, rick santorum has notably failed to convert the big states he could have won. wisconsin one of them. he was up in the polls, then a bunch of big endorsements came in. the advantage of money and organization. and he's added the intensity of support. it's a sign of momentum moving in rick santorum's direction. but rick santorum is right about one thing. it is only half over with regard to rick santorum getting the number of delegates needed to clinch this nomination. >> you have done the math that would prove --

jim acosta is here and along with ari fleischer and gloria borger.at is the scene where you are in. >> reporter: it's a loud scene. they've been playing music behind me. gives you a sense of the mood here at romney headquarters. he's going to deliver a speech here tonight that is going to sound like a victory speech even though he has not gotten the number of delegates needed to clinch this nomination. he is basically there tonight. this is what he's going to be talking about. i have to tell you. this speech that romney will be delivering in just a few moments from now called "a better america begins tonight." there are some sharp elbows being thrown at the president tonight. at one point he will say during his speech according to excerpts from the campaign, because president obama has failed he will run a campaign of diversions, distractions, and distortions. so mitt romney is going to throw out some heavy artillery at the president tonight. it's basically what we've heard from mitt romney throughout this campaign. but tonight it's the pivot to the

ari fleischer, paul begala and chief political analyst, gloria borger. paul, what did you think of romney's speech there? he struck upbeat notes but he hammered president obama pretty hard. >> i thought it was a well crafted speech. well staged speech. he's had problems in the past with his staging. it was a well delivered speech. i think it did hit the work he needed to do. i would say this, strategically he made a big mistake. six times at least in the speech he used some variation of the word "fair." fair and unfair. that's very much traditionally a democrat's turf, and if he moves this election to that terrain, then i think governor romney has some problems. i think people will look at the business record and the people he laid off while he paid himself millions and ask if that's fair. and he raised taxes for the poorest americans ask if that's fair. if i were advising him, i would say, mitt, don't go to the fairness thing. >> ari, do you think that's a problem for him? >> i guess this is one of the issues that you want to hear what you want to hear.

cnn's chief political analyst gloria borger and joe klein. mitt romney gave a big speech in new hampshire last night. he said it was his pivot to the general election. he knows the president is making the case that the republican economic plans are not fair to middle class and working americans. listen to governor romney. >> we will stop the unfairness of government workers getting better pay and benefits than the very taxpayers they serve. and we will stop the unfairness of one generation passing larger and larger debts on to the next. >> how important, gloria, is it that governor romney changed the dynamics of this fairness fight? >> i think it's really important. i think what they've decided to do is start playing offense instead of defense, when it comes to the fairness issue, and what you're going to hear from mitt romney over and over again is that there are unfair ways in which the government operates and so he wants to kind of play a little on the president's turf. i think it's risky, particularly given the polling that shows that ame

let's dig deeper with gloria borger and ron brownstein. i think it's very effective. bill clinton narrated web video obviously in favor of president obama's reelection, which he talks about the courageous decision the president of the united states took to kill bin laden. >> he had to decide and that's what you hire a president to do. you hire a president to make the call when is no one else can do it. >> it's interesting. the democrats this time around think national security is going to be an issue in their favor as opposed to the republicans. >> right. and they also believe that the getting of osama bin laden will prove to the country this is a president who has got a back bon, who has leadership. what bill clinton is saying in that ad is very important, which is he talks about the loneliness at the very top. those of us who reported on the bin laden raid, we know that that was true, that aside from leon panetta, really president obama was kind of alone in making that call. and it's very, very difficult and lonely. >> it's pretty effective, especially narrated by b

joining us to talk the truth, gloria borger, kevin madden and democratic strategist, maria card dove experience on the hill, kevin. the embarrassment with the secret service and military, does it reflect whether he's a republican or a democrat? >> it is by fiat. it reflects very poorly on the way that things are being run in washington and in the public's mind, the person in charge of the way things are going in their government, the person in charge of the tone and any progress made in washington, in a large part that falls to the commander in chief, the president. the stops with him. all of these things that the public has outrage with, it becomes emblem mat particular of what they don't like in washington and they blame the person at the top. >> maria, it's the gsa one that makes you cringe, i would guess. >> they all make me cringe. >> the government is an instrument of good. you send us your taxpayer dollars, we will do good with it. we will help people with it. and then you see this. and does the president -- he is the president. life and politics are sometimes unfair. nothing

joining us is jeffrey toobin and jessica yellin and our chief political analyst gloria borger. jeffrey, first to you. how out of the ordinary is it that a federal appeals court judge like this one could make such a demand of the department of justice, a three-page single-spaced letter explaining what the president has in mind. >> totally extraordinary and totally inappropriate. this was a judicial hissy fit, and what the president said was entirely appropriate and entirely within his rights as an american citizen to express his opinion about this law. he wuasn't intimidating the supreme court and couldn't intimidate the supreme court if he wanted to and he was simply saying that the law is constitutional and this judge, doing this ridiculous patronizing act to the department of justice has simply made himself look ridiculous. >> you know, a lot of conservatives including the editorial page writers of "the wall street journal" are going after the president himself and a former constitutional law professor at the university of chicago and "the wall street journal." president obam

i'm gloria borger. john king is off tonight. >>> president obama takes his lumps from an angry judge. the judge is offended at something the president said and has the power to give the white house a huge political headache. >> in the wake of the tornado nightmare, people around dallas are asking the same question amid all the destruction, how is it nobody was killed? >> in year 2012, on the eve of one of the world's most prestigious sports tournaments, why do the rules still say, for men only? >>> and we begin with breaking news tonight. cnn just received the coroner's final report with new details about the death of singer, whitney houston. cnn's entertainment reporter, kareen wynter, is at the los angeles county coroner's office. what are we learning about the sequence of events that led to whitney houston's death? >> well, gloria, i can tell you we know a whole lot more about what happened that day back in february the day before the grammy's when whitney houston was found dead in her hotel room in

gloria borger has been digging into the numbers.always a democrat, always a gender gap with the democrats, but one that big you can't win. >> no, you can't win, which is why we're seeing the romney campaign put out ann romney so much lately. why they are going to start appealing to women on the issue of the economy because women, of course, vote on the economy. they take care of their parents. they are involved in the issue of health care reform, for example. they take care of their children. so those are going to be issues you're going to be hearing over and over again. not going to be so much the cultural issues but the economic issues. >> if you look beneath that, a clear plan for solving the country's plans. obama 38%, romney 33%. among independents, 33%/31%. those are slightly better for romney. it's competitive numbers especially after a bruising primary process where the other guy doesn't have an opponent. that's not bad. >> those are the closest numbers you get for mitt romney. what it shows you there and it's not rocket sci

gloria borger is here. they go through a bloody primary, still technically not over. president has no primary opponent, he is above the fray, and why? >> it is clear that republicans are start to go coalesce around mitt romney. the other thing is the precarious state of the economy, john, when you look further into the cbs, "the new york times" poll, what's interesting, voters are split whether president obama or mitt romney would be a better steward of the economy. and what do they care about? they care about the economy. they like president obama an awful lot more than they like mitt romney. but in the end, they want somebody they believe can fix their economic problems, and that's what it is going to come down to, and that's why it's close. >> so you get tougher tone from the white house, because at the moment, voters are looking at the obama record, not necessarily all his fault, but the state of the country, state of the economy, state of gas prices, you have like ability versus performance? >> that's right. the president's likability is higher than job approval.

. >> our chief political analyst, gloria borger, is here.t's the first time the president has mentioned mitt romney by name. >> it means game on, and it's no surprise that what he's doing is he's trying to tie him to paul ryan, who is the author of a very controversial plan that passed in the house of representatives, which essentially restructures medicare. what strikes me about all this because republicans responded immediately, calling the president outrageous, what strikes me about this is that each side in this presidential campaign really thinks it can win by drawing bright, neon lines in the sand. you know, republicans are making a calculation, they should go to the right. democrats go to the left. >> the president also said that essentially president ronald reagan couldn't win in this gop primary because he said it's so far to the right. is that a winning message for him? >> well, look, i think what the president was doing is kind of ribbing republicans, saying, looking in this primary season, i heard all of you compete for the mante

gloria borger, david gergen, democratic strategist donna brazil and ari fleischer, the former white house press secretary for president george w. bush. i suspect what candy is saying and what a lot of others have said to me, the romney campaign and the super pac that supports romney they'll be spending millions of dollars in pennsylvania to try to nail it down. >> right. they are. because they would love nothing more than to defeat rick santorum in pennsylvania and make that be the final death blow to rick santorum's campaign. what could occur, wolf, could be a split decision. i have heard a lot of people say that while rick santorum might win the popular vote, mitt romney would be able to win in the delegates. now, speaking of delegates we should also point out that tonight mitt romney's going to make a big haul of delegates. rick santorum i don't know, less than a dozen delegates maybe. >> eight or nine. >> so it seems to me, you know, this is a huge victory for mitt romney and also today, barack obama made it clear the president said, look, the person i'm running against is mitt romney

gloria borger, very different tone to a certain degree, he's much more political than hillary clintonney. >> and it's very powerful first of all coming from hillary clinton, who's probably one of the most popular women in this country, certainly one of the most respected women around the world. and she just responded to a question about mitt romney and russia, foreign policy and th that's her job as secretary of state. and bill clinton makes a very good point which is that mitt romney's character flaw if you will is the question is what's at his core, what does he really believe in? and bill clinton makes the point, his character flaw was about something else. >> bill clinton successfully in '92 defeated an incumbent president, george h.w. bush. and romney's trying to do the same thing now. and clinton says he probably dusht have the wherewithal. >> the interesting thing about bill clinton if you recall is that he was a southern moderate governor who decided he wanted to take the democratic party in a different direction. with mitt romney, you see someone who seems to be following the

. >>> let's dig deeper with our chief political analyst gloria borger and she's watching these situations unfold. gloria, the president's favorable rating, 56% and romney's 44%, but that's an improvement for romney and still very early, is it? can we make hard and fast conclusions as to this snapshot right now? >> no, we really can't, wolf. look, they just finished a really bruising republican primary process and what we can say about mitt romney, i was talking to some of his people today is that they're pleased that the numbers seem to be moving in the right direction. take a look at this. favorable opinion of mitt romney, now 44%, but back in february when we were in the middle of those primaries it was ten points less, and there's one more thing that could also be working for mitt romney. while the public really likes barack obama as you pointed out earlier, they're less approving of the job president obama is doing. take a look at this. his approval rate is 49%. that's the president's. his disapproval rate is 48%, wolf. so a lot less than his favorability, and by the way, about 3 thre

let's bring in our chief political analyst gloria borger. she's working this part of the story.t's clearly not going to be a major issue, all of this. >> no. most of it is going to be a sideshow. most of it will be about the economy. the polls show while most americans believe the economy is starting to stabilize, they are still desperately worried about their future and today we got some economic growth numbers that were less than the economists predicted, 2.2% growth. that's not exactly robust. >> that's for the first quarter. >> right. it's not what the obama administration wanted and, you know, a lot of people are comparing president obama's re-election to another re-election in 1984 when ronald reagan was running and he had a high unemployment rate as well a and we went back to look at those numbers. you see unemployment 7.8 and the unemployment in this country was 8.2, but look at the difference in those growth numbers. 8.5%. so the economy was growing at such a fast pace during the reagan years that it inspired an awful lot of optimism that the recovery would continue and

let's dig deeper with our chief political analyst gloria borger. i think he deserves credit for going to this jesuit catholic university, georgetown university, and addressing the issues whether you agree with him or disagree with him. >> it takes on the issue of medicare. wolf, earlier this week a report of the trustees for social security and medicare came out. take a look at this. they said these are when the funds are going to be depleted. medicare, just 12 years from now. social security, 21 years from now and as kay points out, paul ryan's budget in the future for people over 55 turns medicare into kind of a voluntary voucher program. you can stick with medicare as it is if you like or go to this voluntary voucher program. the democrats say that destroys medicare as we know it. they say they've got 400 billion worth of savings on their own budget and there's one thing we know for certain, these programs will go broke as the baby boomers live longer and we've got to do something. >> he wants to reform the tax code, and democrat des want to ref

our chief political analyst gloria borger is here in "the situation room." gingrich effectively, we knew which was going to happen for sure, suspending his campaign and santorum getting ready to endorse mitt romney. what's going on over here? this general election campaign clearly under way. we're going see six months of this now. >> we are. the first thing we're looking at is republicans and will they fall in line behind mitt romney. as you know, they're skeptical, conservatives about him. they're in the process of warming up to mitt romney. i've got some tape for you, wolf, from a focus wolf that was done by the annenberg center by pollster peter hart. these are republican voters in the state of florida talking about what they think about mitt romney. listen to this. >> we want someone like santorum and like gingrich when he was at his best in the debate to have a position, to stick with the position and not apologize for that position and not shave your answer to a question that matches what you think this particular audience you're in front of might want

let's dig deeper with our chief political analyst gloria borger.'t that long ago and we thought tonight would be important and santorum's last stand, and you know what? i could be wrong. i don't see him out there on the campaign trail with mitt romney yet. >> no, you haven't seen him out there yet. in fact, they haven't had the reality isdown. they've run into each other along the trail and they haven't had the reality is down together and i got off the phone with john raybender, a senior strategist for rick santorum, and he said they would get together in early may. he points out that rick santorum did win 11 states so he ought to have some leverage and he's got some importance here. first of all, he said, rick santorum's agenda, when he meets with mitt romney is going to be about finding out mitt romney's comfort level with social conservatives, with tea party voters, and with blue collar republicans. here's what brabender said to me. he said, quote, we're not walking out here with a litmus test. this is meant to be a candid conversation. it isn'

. >>> let's dig a little bit deeper with our chief political analyst gloria borger., obviously is issue number one, jobs, jobs, jobs. how important is it for the candidates to appear to be regular guys? >> i think it's crucial. what's important for them is to let people know that they understand their problems. they feel their pain as bill clinton would say that they're in touch with their problems. this is not a debate that is new to this campaign. it's been going on for some time. take a listen to what the vice president said and about what mitt romney said about being in touch. >> it's enough to make you think that years of flying around air force one surrounded by an adoring staff telling you that you're great and doing a great job, it's enough for you to think that you might be becoming out of touch with that and that's what happened. >> governor romney calls the president out of touch and anti-woman, by the way, but out of touch. how many of you all have a swiss bank account? no one? how many of you have somewhere between $20 million and $100 million in your ir