howard fineman, and john nichols washington correspondent in the nation magazine, author of the book "uprising." gentlemen i couldn't have two better people on the face of the earth talking about super tuesday. howard, is davy crockett -- this is song going to connect him to the regular folk in tennessee? >> ed, first i have to say you looked remarkably comfortable in that coon skin hat. >> we used to put that on to get squirrels and such. >> mitt romney is mitt romney, and he's equally plastic and impenetrable, he's like walmart against mom and pop stores. you saw rick santorum in amateur hour back pedaling and giving up what had been a central strategy of his recent campaign, with the four year college comment. he doesn't have a staff to go carefully looking at delegates, didn't file all the delegate slates in ohio. he's making it up as he goes along, mitt romney as mechanical as he is, is consistent and strongly organized and on the attack every where. and he's basically forcing the republican party to surrender to him. >> i want to play ann romney's response to a question whether

i'm joined by howard fineman and john nichols, washington correspondent and author of the book "uprisinguldn't have two better people on the face of the earth talking about super tuesday coming up. howard, is davy crockett, is this song working for romney, to connect him to the regular folk in tennessee? >> ed, first i have to say you look remarkably comfortable in that coonskin cap. >> we used to put that on to get squirrels and such. but whatever. >> look, mitt romney is mitt romney, and he's equally sort of plastic and impenetrable wherever he goes, he's running a big machine like walmart compared to the mom and pop operations he's up against. you saw rick santorum in a classic example of amateur hour there, back pedaling and giving up on what had been a central strategy of rhetorical strategy of his campaign with the four year college comment. similarly he doesn't have a staff to carefully look at delegates, didn't feel all the delegate slates in ohio, he's making it up as he goes along. mitt romney as mechanical as he is, is consistent, strongly organized on the attack every where a

howard fineman said that. before we break, john heilemann and his co-author are seeing their great book on the screen as an hbo movie. there they were at the washington premiere, there they are, boifment here's a scene i like. here's woody harrelson, high think stole the show, as well as joanne moore. he played steve schmitt. at this point in the movie the prep for sarah palin's debate with joe biden is not going well at all, and schmitt has a new approach. >> what we need you to do is to memorize 25 answers and four tag lines. do you think you can do that? >> yeah, i can do that. >> on the subject of nuclear iran, senator o'biden and i are most likely in agreement. they cannot be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, period. it was ronald reagan who said that freedom is always just one generation away from extinction. we don't pass it to our children in the bloodstream, and there is only one man in this race who has really ever fought for you, and that's senator john mccain. chris: wow. that's the prep in the m

howard fineman has the latest on the republican circus. >>> major news out of wisconsin. democrats score a major victory, john nichols of "the nation" has the latest. >>> good to have you with us tonight folks, thanks for watching. >>> in february, president obama announced a compromise on contraception and women's health care, he stood his ground and righties aren't going to like it. atowarding to the new rule from the department of health and human services, religious universities will not have to offer contraception directly, but both students and employees of those institutions will be able to get birth control from insurance companies without a co-pay. hhs is also considering three options to implement the resident's birth control for no co-pay policy with religiously affiliated self-insured employers. third party administrators would provide contraception in cases where employers act as insurers. the department wants feedback from the public on those ideas. the college student who became the center of the contraception controversy after rush limbaugh's vicious attac

we are back with chuck todd, howard fineman and alex wagner.ment, as rick santorum told glenn beck on his radio show that newt gingrich has nowhere else to go after tonight to get votes if he can't win, of course. let's watch this attack line from -- from rick santorum. >> shown no ability to be able to get votes outside of -- in and around the state of georgia and that's -- you know, that's really not -- those primaries are all over, all the states that border georgia are now as of -- as of today will have had their primaries. illinois is next. the poll there is showing romney and i running a dead heat race with gingrich about 20 points behind the two of us. and whether he does well or not, i don't think it is going to matter much, he is just not attracting votes anymore. it would be great if he would get out of the rates because clearly the vast majority of the votes that he is taking are coming to me. >> we are getting down to the final straws here, alex. there's candidate with his voice going badly, rick santorum, long the underdog in this

for more on all that, let's turn to howard fineman, nbc political analyst and editorial director of theton post. have you checked in with the campaigns, what are you hearing? >> i have checked in with them. here is my sense of it, the romney campaign is weary but relieved because they think they will do pretty well especially in mississippi. i think the -- i know the santorum campaign is defiant and fef feisty, they think they will do well in alabama. the gingrich campaign is a little bit desperate and one might say self-delusional. they put out a big memo how newt can win the whole thing, they put it out in advance of what they were expecting to be less favorable results than they originally anticipated. >> how would newt gingrich move forward if he does not score well tonight? let's say he finishes third in both mississippi and alabama. how does he move forward? >> chuck raised that possibility i think it's a real one, and i think what the gingrich campaign is saying is they looked at the math, they believe they can pick up delegates elsewhere, they believe it's a long process, they b

howard fineman is now with us. howard, how would you, i love getting this from you because you're a botmrting all night. in addition to the bottom line where it looked like he was losing momentum and he got a lot of wins tonight, three in a very close loss in ohio, what else happened tonight? >> well, what happened tonight, chris, is that the notion that this is a long, long struggle was reinforced rather than ended. this was yet another chance for mitt romney to say, look, this is effectively over and we can wrap it up fairly quickly now. the results don't prove that even though he had a very good night in terms of delegates, a decent to very good night. rick santorum managed to slip the punch. he slipped the knockout punch. he did it by winning those three states and by taking it to the wire in ohio over though he was outspent nine or ten to one and even though he messed up many features of his campaign in his message. it's a little like groundhog day. we keep waking up every wednesday morning to the same story. t

and howard fineman and mark halprin said it earlier. >> and no mo romney, i did say that. and thank you, michael. and thank you, joan. and joining us is how we see this things running through the convention, and we will look at how this works starting next tuesday all of the way in. we will be right back. >> well, mitt romney escaped with the slim victory in ohio tonight, and apparent winner after a very close race there. and steve schmidt with us here in new york. and steve, you are the expert on this thing, and how do you see it going right now? >> mitt romney keeps winning and with each win he drives the narrative that he is a weak candidate and we spent a lot of time talking about the comparisons between 2008 and 2012. when barack obama became the de facto nominee in june, the favorable and unfavorable ratio was 51-28, and he was popular. today the "wall street journal" report, mitt romney is 28-39, and rick santorum is 24-39, and the fact is that both candidates have flipped upside down on the favorable ratio, and weakening as this goes on. >> and if romney gets to th

and howard fineman, i love to get this from you, because you are a bottom line guy, and reporting all night. in addition to the bottom line where it looks like santorum had a good night winning three of this coming in where it looked like impressive wins and close loss up there in ohio, what else happened tonight? >> well, what happened tonight, chris, is that the notion that this is a long, long struggle was reinforced rather than ended. this was yet another chance for mitt romney to say, look, this is effectively over. we can wrap it up fairly quickly now. but the results don't prove that. even though mitt romney had a very good night in terms of the delegates and the decent to very good night, rick santorum managed to slip the punch. he slipped the knockout punch. he did it by winning those three states in diverse area, and by taking it to the wire in ohio. even though he was outspent nine or ten-to-one, and even though he messed up many features of the campaign in the message. so, it is a little like groundhog day, chris, we keep waking up every wednesday morning to the same story

and howard fineman and mark halprin said it earlier. and thank you, michael. >> and no mo romney, i did say that. and thank you, michael. and thank you, joan. and joining us is how we see this things running through the convention, and we will look at how this works starting next tuesday all of the way in. we will be right back. >> well, mitt romney escaped with the slim victory in ohio tonight, and apparent winner after a very close race there. and steve schmidt with us here in new york. and steve, you are the expert on this thing, and how do you see it going right now? >> mitt romney keeps winning and with each win he drives the narrative that he is a weak candidate and we spent a lot of time talking about the comparisons between 2008 and 2012. when barack obama became the de facto nominee in june, the favorable and unfavorable ratio was 51-28, and he was popular. today the "wall street journal" report, mitt romney is 28-39, and rick santorum is 24-39, and the fact is that both candidates have flipped upside down on the favorable rati

joining me now is aol huffington post director howard fineman. howard, there is a thing i don't get here. mitt romney, he won i will toil night. he's way ahead in delegates. he's on his way to this nomination. it's not clear what can stop him from getting this nomination right now. why would he embrace the politically deadly ryan plan? the plan that pretty much sinks the republican nominee in florida? >> i think it's because he's still in primary season mode, lawrence. yes, he won illinois. i agree with you, i think mitt romney has shown ruthless efficiency here and spending the money to pile up the adds to get the delegates to get close to if not over 1,144 as you were discussing in your last segment. but he still has rick santorum attacking him from the right and newt gingrich attacking him from the right and ron paul is an asterisk. he has tough primaries coming up. i don't think he wants to vary one smidgeon. he said he liked the plan. he supports it or whatever. maybe that will hang him. i think he said it was bold. i mean he used a lot of ad

. >>> now let's turn to howard fineman, nbc news political analyst and editorial director of "the huffington post" and steve schmidt, served as a senior adviser to senator john mccain's presidential campaign. howard, what are you hearing from the campaigns tonight in the wake of this? >> well, i think the santorum campaign thinks that, at best, there's a semicolon, neither a period or exclamation point, there's another half of the sentence, and they think the next half of the sentence are some of the states chuck was talking about, louisiana and wisconsin, but also they had a long conference call today, earlier today, ed, that i was on in which the santorum people were lay bore yously going over the places rick santorum can end up winning more delegates than you might think because he's going to do well at the district, county, state conventions in states such as iowa, missouri, colorado, minnesota, states that had beauty pageant caucus and primary votes but where the real, hard, nitty gritty work of getting the delegates is only now happening. santorum were spending a lot of time on that ea

howard fineman also talking with the santorum campaign directly. howard what are you hearing from them in terms of their initial responses tonight? >> i went so far as to go to stubenville on sunday, so i was there that is santorum country, even though he won't get delegates out of there. what the santorum people are saying, look we don't have the money, we don't have the organization, we screwed up on those districts in ohio for sure but we don't need a lot of money and we are keeping on keeping on. they are going to put ads up on television in alabama tomorrow. he is going to kansas tomorrow. they have enough money running the kind of campaign they run, they say to go all the watch and their intention is to go all the way to tampa with what they've got. and their concern tonight is they want to whip somewhere. they may or may not win ohio, but they are pipping their hopes on oklahoma and tennessee and they have got to have some victories. if they have some victories, they will have something positive to talk about but they are in it regardless. >>

michael steele, chairman of the republican national committee for years, and howard fineman is the editorial director for "the huffington post." gentlemen, let's start with the pro. let me ask you about this guy. howard, what was the great quote of the day from romney? >> he was talking to a birmingham, alabama, radio station about his prospects in the south, and he said i realize i'm playing a bit of an away game. that was very sporty. that was sporting of him. >> in other words, when he goes south, it's not really him. >> it's a bit of an away game. it's giving away all too honestly what his problem is. this is a southern base, modern republican party. >> there you go again. >> why does he always do this? >> i don't know. he's not feeling it. there's something about him that the switch turns off, the mouth opens, and this comes out. i don't know how you now go into mississippi, alabama, kansas, and make the argument that i'm one of you when this is considered an away game. you're not even part of my home team. >> every sports caster knows this line. they heard it in minutes. >> it's all to

. >> howard fineman is with us as well. he's been talking to the santorum campaign specifically about ohio. we don't know who has won. how does the santorum campaign feel about what they're seeing so far in terms of results? >> well, rachel, i just got off the phone with rick santorum's campaign manage r who's in stubenville in the gymnasium and the candidate just got done speaking. they're upstairs looking at their computer screens. what he told me is that they are waiting for some of their strong votes to come in, especially from counties in the northwestern part of the state. i'm looking at a map of ohio, including williams county and fulton county in the northwest where they think they will do very well and are doing very well. they're also waiting for votes from southeastern ohio, including jefferson county and some those counties near stubenville along the ohio river. they know they're not getting delegates from there, rachel as you've been explaining all night. they're going for a psychological win with here in a pop

michael steele was the chair of the republican national committee and howard fineman is the editorial director of "the huffington post" media empire. both are msnbc political analysts. thank you, howard. you know, let's take a look right now at joe biden. joe biden's on fire today. the vice president was fired up in toledo, ohio. he took on the republican candidates, naming names and leveling attacks on all their candidates. here's some of his speech from today. let's watch. >> mitt romney, rick santorum, and newt gingrich. these guys have a fundamentally different economic philosophy than we do. simply stated, we're about promoting the private sector, they're about protecting the privileged sector! we are for a fair shot and a fair shake. they're about no rules, no risks, and no accountability. i want to tell you what's real bankruptcy. the economic theories of gingrich, santorum and romney. they are bankrupt. if you give any one of these guys the keys to the white house, they will bankrupt the middle class again. >> well, let me start with howard on this. it's my sense now that they

howard fineman, thank you. >>> coming up, indiana governor mitch daniels. he joins us next. you're watching "hardball," only on msnbc.. wanna know the difference between a trader and an elite trader? it's this... the etrade pro platform. fast. beautiful. totally customizable. finds top performing stocks -- in three clicks. quickly scans the market for new trading ideas. it can even match options strategies to your goals and lets you see the potential risk and reward. and, it also comes with a dedicated elite service team. got it? get it. good. introducing new etrade pro elite. ♪ >>> we have new poll numbers now. let's go to the "hardball" score board. president obama is leading all republican rivals. now he's over 4% over romney. against santorum the president's lead is 10%. he leads ron paul by the same numbers. and his widest lead is against gingrich. 53% to 35%. as if it matters. it pretty much destroys his case that the republican party would ever turn to him. we'll be right back. but don't j. listen to these happy progressive customers. i plugged in snapshot, and 30 day

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howard fineman has been with us -- >> you see what happened with the conversation, the impact. >> exactly, we just did it. reverend al endorsed mitt romney, and it happened. and now i understand that we are talking with the romney and the santorum campaigns and howard, what is the latest from them? >> well, let me explain why the santorum campaign thinks it is as close as it is right now, although i should say a week or ten days ago they were behaving like they were the one in the driver's seat before the full extent of the romney air at tack. but, here is what might be under from the campaign manager telling me that the absentee ballots that were filed a month ago were strong for rick santorum, because they had come after rick santorum had won a bunch of races in the midwest and before the carpet bombing air superior ity of the romney campaign hit the airwaves. and what mitt romney said what about individual mandates and had helped to turn the thing a little bit and santorum on the game. i am fascinated by this sort of smug technical expertise of the romney people. they'll probably pull

howard fineman is now with us. w would you, i love getting this from you because you're a bottom line kind of guy and you've been reporting all night. in addition to the bottom line where it looked like he was losing momentum and he got a lot of wins tonight, three in a very close loss in ohio, what else happened tonight? >> well, what happened tonight, chris, is that the notion that this is a long, long struggle was reinforced rather than ended. this was yet another chance for mitt romney to say, look, this is effectively over and we can wrap it up fairly quickly now. the results don't prove that even though he had a very good night in terms of delegates, a decent to very good night. rick santorum managed to slip the punch. he slipped the knockout punch. he did it by winning those three states and by taking it to the wire in ohio over though he was outspent nine or ten to one and even though he messed up many features of his campaign in his message. it's a little like groundhog day. we keep waking up every wednesda

joining me now is aol "huffington post" editorial director and anlis howard fineman. there's a thing i don't get here. mitt romney has won illinois. he's way ahead in delegates. he it's not clear what can stop him from getting this nomination right now. why would he embrace the politically deadly ryan plan, the plan that pretty much sinks the republican nominee in florida? >> i think it's because he's still in primary season mode, lawrence. yes, he won illinois and i agree with you, i think mitt romney has shown ruthless efficiency here and spending the money to pile up the ads to get the dels to get close to if not over 1,144 as you were discussing in your last segment. but he's still got rick santorum attacking him from the right and newt gingrich attacking him from the right and ron paul still out there as an asterisk. he's got some tough primaries coming up. if you listen carefully, yeah, he said he liked the plan. he said he superiors it or whatever. maybe that will hang him. but i think he said it was bold. i mean, he used a lot of adjectives in there. i would e

alex wagner and howard fineman join us. alex, you and i were talking before we went on. staggering research. but it's not that hard to find. harry smith on the morning show, the other big broadcast. these are big network interviews in which well-known anchor people. >> a little show called "meet the press." this is not digging into some bedrock mountain of opposition research. this is abc, cbs, and nbc. it's surprising that it's taken so long for anybody to bring this us. for all of us on the sidelines, we wonder why anybody hasn't gone harder on his record on health care. to some degree, it's a mixed bag. rick santorum supported government involvement in health insurance when running for senate. newt gingrich came out for the individual mandate. it's treacherous waters for them. that explains it a little bit. rick santorum has been so distracted about satan attacking america that he's kept his eyes off the prize. >> if romney ends up being the nominee, all you have to do is cut the tape and show it back and forth until people are dizzy trying to figure out who this guy

howard fineman, thanks very much, check back in with you later, howard. >> thank you. >>> the first resultsnight are coming up at the top of the hour. georgia, vermont and virginia with an ast ter risk. we will explain the ast ter r-- asterisk in a moment. and why we can't talk about virginia in an uncomplicated way. our coverage will continue in a moment it's the tastiest, the sweetest, the freshest. nobody can ever get enough. [ male announcer ] it's lobsterfest at red lobster, the one time of year you can savor 12 exciting lobster entrees like lobster lover's dream or new maine lobster and shrimp trio. [ laura ] hot, right out of the shell. i love lobster. i'm laura mclennan from spruce head, maine, and i sea food differently. . [ male announcer ] this is lawn ranger -- eden prairie, minnesota. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male a

joining me now editorial director of aol "huffington post" and msnbc political host howard fineman and chief adviser to george w. bush mark mckinnon. when you look at these math exercises we are dogging right now, not quite college-board level math problem s but if you took gingrich out, look at that. santorum would be in the 50s. he would be getting di vice i have majority victories in these things. >> he would but you have to say what is the incentive for gingrich to get out? the math is if he stays in romney probably doesn't get the number of delegates he needs to win on the first ballot of the convention. why wouldn't gingrich stay in the convention and go to the second ballot and he is the king maker either way. because i don't think that ron paul's delegate -- >> there's been a big presumption that if gingrich gets out all of those voters go to snowstorm. they don't all go, but we're seeing that probably, let's call it 60% of them would go. a lot of them would go to mitt romney. it seems to me you are saying to voters i want you to make a different decision. right now there are f