let me start with howard fineman. you look at this as a track tell.this tonight and a good night for romney what would it be? >> well, a good night for romney is to win arizona, which i think he has got a good shot at doing. and to win michigan by more than a hair's breath. to do it by what he can describe or can plausibly be described as a real margin. because this is a -- michigan is a state he should win, should win comfortably, he's in the fight for his life up there. he has to win it and win it i think by more than a few votes. if it is a hair's breath then he will not have -- will not have quelled doubts about him. >> steven, we're leading in super tuesday, next week is the big enchilada, ten states will vote. how much does tonight affect that, will people change their minds? >> i think if santorum wins michigan it's devastating for romney to lose in ohio or be in a close contest in ohio. the reality is michigan is not going to be on the target list in the general election. the president will be in a solid position there. not the case with ohio.

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. >> howard fineman has the latest from cpac. >>> scott walker has reached another all-time low. he's using wisconsin's mortgage settlement to plug his budget shortfall instead of helping homeowners. milwaukee mayor tom barrett and state senator lena taylor are outraged, they're here to respond. >>> oh! >> 8th grade science whiz, joey hudy is bringing his cannon from the white house to "the ed show." >> came out great. it looks safe. >>> good to have you with us thanks for watching. >>> the republicans are moving forward with the war on women's health care. despite the compromise, offered by president obama. the president announced a revision to his administration's contraceptive policy. women will still get free access to birth control, regardless of their employer and religious institutions will not have to provide coverage. this is what the catholics want. instead, the rule shifts the responsibility on insurers, not employers. >> religious organizations won't have to pay for these services. and no religious institution will have to provide these services directly. whether you'

howard fineman with me on that story.y with us we're right back. >>> coming up, rick santorum walking back yet another ridiculous statement, he said the president has a different t theology not bibily cal. now he wants us to believe he wasn't talking about religion. we'll ask joy-ann reid and e69 j. dionne what they think. >>> virginia is the new battlefield for the republican war on women. today in that state, women were fighting back. the president of the national organization for women is here to explain. >>> espn anchor is suspended after racist remarks about jeremy lin, michael eric dyson joins me later in the hour. share thoughts on twitter using #edshow, we're right back. >>> welcome back to "the ed show." rick santorum ramped up radicalism in addition to comparing the president to hitler he wants the federal and state government out, i mean out of public education. and on saturday, he said this about president obama's agenda. >> it's not about you. it's not about your quality of life, not about your jobs. it's abo

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also howard fineman aol huffingto know post director. steve whashgs do these results mean to you at first glance, santorum having what looks like the night he needed to have? >> at first glance i don't think they changed the overall trajectory of the race. i think mitt romney is highly likely barring catastrophe to be the republican nominee. it's a bad night for newt gingrich because it giving rick santorum some claim he's the chief alternative to governor romney heading forward to the march 5th super tuesday states. i think one of the interesting aspects of it is in the republican primary coming in second place is usually a ticket to ride in the next election. so i think that's one reason you're going to see rick santorum keep going to establish himself as the solid runner-up in that contest he's now in against newt gingrich. >> howard fineman, there's a ppp poll out today talking about the personab personal popularity of these candidates. it found rick santorum's personal popularity is over 40%, 72% in missouri, 71% in colorado. mitt r

howard fineman, the earmark -- now they're telling me we have it. all right, let's listen to rick santorum on earmarks. >> as you know, there's a lot of anger in the base of the party about some of the things that have happened in the past, and the tea party especially. now, earmarks, the pork barrel spending, it's a tiny slice of the budget. i think we all know that. but if you talk to a tea party activist, they think it's an example and a gateway to corruption. senator, you have said there are good earmarks and bad earmarks and you have talked about your earmarks in the past. any that you specifically regret? and why have you criticized -- why do you think the money that went to governor romney for security at the olympics, why was that a bad earmark? >> governor romney asked for that earmark. that's really the point here. he's out there on television ads right now, unfortunately, attacking me for saying that i'm this great earmarker when he not only asked for earmarks for the salt lake olympics in the order of tens of millions of dollars, sought

howard fineman, the earmark -- now they're telling me we have it. all right, let's listen to rick santorum on earmarks. >> as you know, there's a lot of anger in the base of the party about some of the things that have happened in the past, and the tea party especially. >> governor romney asked for that earmark. so the idea that somehow the earmarks during the time that i was in congress were this thing that drove up spending in washington, d.c. if you actually look at it, as i said before, as a percentage of gdp, actually the deficit -- some of the debt went down. what happened is there was abuse. when abuse happened, i said, we should stop the earmarking process. but i did say there were good earmarks and bad earmarks. we wouldn't have the v-22 osprey, which is the most essential air platform for our marines in particular, in the war against the radical islamists. we wouldn't have it if it wasn't for earmarks. that would have been killed under george bush 41. dick cheney wanted to kill that. many of us stood up and made sure that was there. congre

joining me now is former vermont governor howard dean and howard fineman. you both, howards, for joining me tonight. governor dean, very to say, i don't think every one of the 279 campaign days left is going to be fun for the obama campaign. but i don't see what they couldn't -- what they didn't take pleasure in today in the republican campaign. everything seems to be going the obama campaign's way. >> we have a long way to go, but the problem is, that most people in america believe that republicans don't care about -- not only poor people, but middle class people. people complain about occupy wall street, but they've completely changed the discussion. it's the 99 and the 1. and most people believe the republican party is for the 1 and obama's for the 99. there's some incredible polling about this. 70% of the entire elector ate believe mitt romney cares about rich people. that's a very steep hill to overcome. since they're trying to convince people the stereotype is wrong, that's an even steeper hill. >> howard fineman, i don't believe we've had a republican

r.t.rybak and howard fineman are here on the state of the race. >>> the president outlines his political priorities as he sends budget to the congress, and calls for more stimulus. >> when our economy and growing and creating jobs we have to do everything to keep this recovery on track. >> plus republicans are caving on the payroll tax cuts. we'll have the latest with bernie sanders. >> this this country the government doesn't tell you or your organization what your religious views are. >> the republican war on women's health continues. as they misrepresent the president on anti-religion. >> this issue won't go away until the administration simply backs down. >> joan walsh and krystal ball way in on the potential blow-back. >>> tonight, we're taking a look back at the storied rise and tragic fall of whitney houston. the grio's joy-ann reid is here. >>> thanks for watching. rick santorum has been hiding in plain daylight for conservative voters. they finally are getting a good look at him and like what they see. the average of recent polls gives santorum a slight lead over mitt romney for

as howard fineman said earlier. it's cone head talk.square. conservatives are okay if you are a square guy. they wonder if you are a conservative. i think -- >> so it's all right to be square but -- >> you got to speak the policy ideas. >> you can be a little dorkish, but as long as you are a right dork. in the october debate, romney basically defend himself on the issue of hiring illegal imgrants by pointing out how politically stupid it would be for a guy running for president. he's openly admitted he's something of a fraud. let's listen. >> we hired a lawn -- a lawn company to mow our lawn and they had illegal immigrants working there. and when that was pointed out to wirks let them go. you have a problem with allowing someone to finish speaking. and i suggest if you want to become president of the united states you have to let both people speak. so, first, let me speak. so we went to the company and we said, look. you can't have any illegals working on our property. i'm running for office for pete's sake. i can't have illegals. >> i

minneapolis mayor and the huffington post howard fineman are here on the state of the race.he president outlines his political priorities as he sends his budget to the congress and calls for more stimulus. >> when we're creating jobs at a faster clip, we have to do what we can to keep the recovery on track. >> republicans can caving on the payroll tax cuts. we'll have the latest with vermont senator bernie sanders. >> in this country the government doesn't tell you or your organization what your religious views are. >> the republican war on women's health continues as they misrepresent the president as anti-religion. >> it will not go away until the administration simply backs down. >> joan walsh and crystal ball weigh in. tonight we take a look back the at the storied rise and tragic fall of whitney houston. good to have you with us tonight, folks. thanks for watching. rick santorum has been hiding in plain daylight for conservative the voters. they finally get a good look at him and find what they say. the average of recent national polls give santorum a slight lead over m

howard fineman is editorial director for the huffington post and joel klein is a columnist for "time"agazine. two heavyweights here. let me take advantage of your brains. let's go to a poll. the latest poll in michigan from the detroit news and wdiv. santorum now beats romney. and this is a very respected poll. four points among likely primary voters. first to you, howard. this is something i didn't expect but it's a god send to reporters and anybody who loves this political battle. romney for a long time looked like the front runner. looked like every time you get around the table with smart people they say eventually romney is going to win this thing. you ask who is going to be the republican nominee. no matter who you ask who watches politics. the junkies all say, after all the excitement and the cur fufle and everything else goes wrong, it's going to be romney. is that still true? is it still the thoughtful position? >> that conventional wisdom is teetering on the edge of extinktsion at this point and will go away if he loses michigan. it will no longer be the default asuchtion. >

thank you david gregory and howard fineman. a little slower there.ind of president has barack obama been in his first three years of office? james fallows is joining us. it's an in-depth article out in "the atlantic." a big thing on the president and how he's done for three years. it's very important for people to catch up on the depth of this guy's administration. this is "hardball" on msnbc. >>> former aide to congresswoman gabrielle giffords will run in the special election to replace her. ron barber was also wounded in last year's shooting announced his candidacy today and will have the backing of the democratic party on that june 12th election. no primary there. barber served as district director for giffords who resigned from congress two weeksing too focus on her recovery. giffords and her husband endorsed barber today. i guess it's all done on the democratic side in that district. we'll be right back. >>> we're back. at the start of president obama's re-election campaign, the journalist james fallows has written a piece on his presidency so f

howard fineman and also chip saltsman, who ran mike huckabee's campaign. howard, let's look at a national poll. we know the national polls reflect the latest events, but let's look. a matchup between rick santorum and mitt romney. the latest poll. santorum, 50%. romney, 44%. but looking to tuesday's arizona primary, the cnn/"time" poll, romney, 36%, santorum, 32%. gingrich and dr. paul way behind. let me go to the questions. what are we looking at now going into michigan? >> what we're looking at is the possibility of rick santorum becoming the confirmed front-runner if he wins michigan. and i think the reason for that is that is one of mitt romney's home states. it's as much a home state as any. it's the place he says he learned about america and learned about the auto industry and the values of his family life. >> and the trees are the right height. >> and the trees are the right height. and if he loses in that state to rick santorum, who was an asterisk a few months ago, beats mitt romney running for president actively for five years and deliberatively f

howard fineman, thank you, buddy.hank you, susan. >>> coming up, fears are rising on the right that the republicans are kicking this election away. they had a great chance. the people aren't there. the candidates aren't looking presidential. now a new worry. could a third party come along to the right of the winner of the republican nomination that could take away their votes and get the president re-elected? cent ury glob nomad ♪ ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ ♪ made sure his credit score did not go bad ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. >>> new poll numbers from my home state of pennsylvania. let's go