cupp, contrary? >> every politician comes out and says, i care about poor people. maybe it's refreshing to have a guy come out and say, i don't really -- >> s.e., that is refreshingly naive. >> and this comes a few days after president obama did the google interview with a woman who said her husband left a job, and he said, oh, that's interesting. but this is probably why they kept governor romney off the air and off the sunday shows for many months because there is a tendency to do this. this is a teachable moment for the romney campaign. don't say you don't care about people of lower income. and that's something i'm sure they're going to work on. >> when, alice, when does this happen? >> a teachable moment. mitt romney go back to acting school. martin bashir, thank you, as always, for the wisdom, the charm. the big announcement, as we mentioned before, will be on martin's big show today at 3:00 p.m. eastern time. do not miss it. it is must-see. >>> coming up, poll position. every day we get a new set of polls, but what are the numbers actually telling us or not t

cupp. >> oh, no!ive you your favorite texan in cowboy boots, but we can give you a cupcake. that's all for "now." i'll see you tomorrow. >> the big 2-5. >> noon eastern, 9:00 a.m. pacific. until then, you can find us at facebook.com/nowwithalex. "andrea mitchell reports" is next. hi, andrea. >> hello, alex. >>> coming up next on "andrea mitchell reports," rick santorum under fire and a team effort to end his surge. >>> plus, why hispanics are going to pick the next president. ambassador nick burns will be here on the latest threats from iran and the controversy over birth control continues on the hill today. wait until you see what nancy pelosi did. "andrea mitchell reports" next right here on msnbc. if there was a pill would you take it? well, there is. [ male announcer ] it's called ocuvite. a vitamin totally dedicated to your eyes, from the eye-care experts at bausch + lomb. as you age, eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. [ male announcer ] ocuvite has a unique

. >> reporter: 57-year-old don cupp's heart attack five years ago nearly killed him. changed everything, dropped weight, stopped smoking and dramatically cut the salt. >> ruled out a lot of red meat, eat a lot more fish, eat a lot of oatmeal. >> reporter: for good reason. 800,000 people die each year from diseases related to high blood pressure. >> elevated blood pressure can create problems with heart disease, diabetes, strokes and kidney disease. >> reporter: today, the centers for disease control said on average, americans consume 3300 milligrams of salt or sodium each day. that's twice what's recommended for anyone at risk, those over the age of 51 and all african-americans. and the cdc says 44% of the sodium we eat comes from only ten types of food, with bread and rolls topping the list. followed by cold cuts, deli and packaged meats, pizzas, poultry, soups, sandwiches including cheese burgers, cheese, pasta dishes, meat loaf-type dishes and at the bottom of the list, snacks. >> we're eating more food made by others, in restaurants or prepared food from grocery s

cupp. i do think he's going to damage his own brand as well as the republican brand. money donors that will keep him in this race even though the voters are telling him it's not his time and won't be. i think he has a heck of race to run. he's got to stop the misspeaking. speaking about now caring about the very poor even though out of context, that sounds like a very, very damming statement for him. >> goldie, i want to give you a right back at you. it's remarkable that rom has not been able to come up with a good defense of his own wealth, mern prosperity. these are not hard issues to sell. we have been a country that's confidentable with prosperity. in 1928 herbert hoover promised a chicken in every pot and two cars in a garage. i don't know why he's allowing one group of people to bully him on this issue. he's got to get it together. >> what do you think of the context i was taken out of context. it happens every single time. when i was standing up and talking b about enjoying firing people, he was not being subjected to an adversarial interview. he was speaking.

referring to the new salary of apple's tim cupp. -- cook.joe is an independent in kentucky. -- new jersey, excuse me. caller: i want to talk about nafta. it is a global economy and everyone's pay scale is going down. the only thing you have is the restaurant industry which is growing. you cannot raise a family on $8 an hour. these ceo's are getting $189,000, and then everyone gets mad when they move to mexico. and when you move to mexico, you cannot compete with that. how this nafta so good for the country when gdp is so down on exports? guest: i think nafta is good for the country, all free trade agreements are good for the country. if you think about what the auto industry was like before we had any imported cars, basically, cars that were too big, too costly, too fuel inefficient. the manufacturers were wholly on responsive to consumer demand because there were just three of them in a cartel in detroit and did not care. then when we started to get imports from japan, suddenly, they had to care about it. then detroit began to say, we have