democratic strategist and go vote.com had tor jamal simmons. jackie kucinich. welcome, all. mr.r. >> yes. >> 28, 28, 28, 26, 28. south carolina, oklahoma, georgia, tennessee. have expectations gotten out of hand for romney? last week it was like he might win tennessee and shut the race down. >> this is a four-way primary, chuck. you're supposed to get 60% in every contest? >> all of a sudden there's chatter that you guys can win one of these two states. i'm just saying the evidence in the south has been you can't even crack 30. so aren't you being hurt by these expectations? that's my question for you. >> well, look, gingrich was up 20 in some private polls i saw in mississippi about a week ago. so the fact is this is a razor-close race. no one really knows how it's going to play out. but romney has been there. i've spent a lot of time working in this region. i was a consultant to the alabama republican party in 2010. he's showed up. he's closed strong on the economy and he's a good shot to win this. i'd be surprised if he wins both but he has a shot at winning one. >> jamal sim

our political panel is here, john avlon, and jamal simmons. did the president go far enough, did he go too far or did he get it right? >> i think he walked the right line. he was speaking as a parent, reminding everyone of the commonality that all parents should feel when a child -- a teenager is murdered and i thin he hit the right tone. >> and you were tweeting that the gop candidates were followers. because the president came out first. >> not just because the president came out first. i have been tweeting and facebooking about this all week, that romney and santorum on the republican side hadn't come out and said anything. three days ago, sam youngman from the hill asked mitt romney on the rope line for a statement on this and mitt romney walked away and wouldn't say anything. today he didn't say anything on camera. he put it out on a statement. and the governor of florida asked for a task force today. i'm just wondering whether or not the republicans decided to sit back and let the republican governor of florida lead on this before they s

i want to bring back jamal simmons and crystal wright. so i want you guys -- did you see the movie? movie and i've got to say i fell asleep halfway through it. >> no way. >> i'm going to make it up. >> i don't believe you. >> oh, it's true. it's true. but i can still speak to it. >> i want our viewers to see the two main characters. steve schmidt was the campaign director and nicole wallace, how they reacted to this. >> i think it's a story of when cynicism and idealism collide when you have to do the things that are necessary to win, to try to get in office and do the great things that you want to do for the country and i think it showed a process of vetting that was debill stated by secrecy, that was compartmentalized, that failed, that led to a result that was reckless for the country. >> true enough to make me squirm. listen, this isn't a movie about mccain and palin. this is about the gray space area where 99% of our politics take place. >> mccain didn't agree with that. here's what he said over the weekend. >> of course i'm not going to watch it. it's based on a book completel

jamal simmons and danny vargas are joining me. why do you agree here?necessarily agree. i myself am a puerto rican dissent. i know how important puerto rico is but i'm a small conservative. i don't think we necessarily have to mandate everything at the state level in terms of what states should do. we know new mexico was considered a buy lynn gal state and that in the era of globalization, puerto ricans want their children to become english proficient and fluent. but i don't think we have to mandate it at the federal level. it's something that has to happen naturally. >> so you don't agree? >> look, english is incredibly important but so is spanish. so i think to the extent that they can maintain the spanish proficiency, increase english language proficiency, it doesn't have to be mandated at the federal level. >> in a newspaper interview, santorum lays it out. there needs to be compliance with they and a federal law and that is that english needs to be the principle language. jamal, weigh in here. >> first of all, he's wrong on the facts. it's not fede

democratic strategic jamal simmons, also crystal wright. thanks for coming in. he government solicitor general did apparently a poor job defending the law. paul clement who is arguing against the mandate did a very good job. how worried are you now that this supreme court, these nine justices, by a majority will overturn health care reform? >> well, first of all, it's got to be tough to be the lawyer who argued the case and have everyone believe that you didn't -- though you may have had a good case you didn't present it well. so you got to have sympathy for him. in the political aspect of this, though, i think that this is something that you could argue either direction. if the president loses this battle he gets to take his case to the country and say we've got to fight to preserve what we can preserve and go back it is a it. if he wins he says we were right. i'd rather be on the winning side than the losing side and i think the white house probably feels the same way. >> you would rather -- of course be on the winning side. crystal, you weigh in. >> politicall