joining us now is john harwood from cnbc and the new york times, mr. harwood has been talking from the romney campaign tonight. when you talk with with the romney folks, how are they addressing the tennessee issue and the oklahoma issue tonight? rick santorum winning both those states? >> they're acknowledging they have to get ahead of them to get the delegates they need. it's going to be difficult. they think they can still win the state ohio. i just got off the phone with a romney strategist who said big vote in cuyahoga county. about half the vote in cuyahoga is in, romney leads by almost 9,000 votes in that county. he's got to do better if they're counting on cuyahoga to do it. this race is clearly going to go on, even if mitt romney manages to win ohio. i also talked to the santorum strategist tonight. they said they have a million dollars cash on hand, they're beginning to buy tv time tomorrow in kansas, alabama and mississippi. having won in the south, having competed on near even terms in ohio. maybe even winning ohio. they have an argument to

john harwood in washington today. thank you very much. know everybody's winding about the low volume. everybody's unhappy. forget the volume. we're at new highs. we have slowly hit new highs in all the major indices. dow industrials, s&p 500 are essentially at new highs. here's the problem, small cap, mid cap and transports are still lagging behind. that's a little bit of an issue here. but as you notice, five days in a row we're up. that's a melt-up. may not be exciting to be up 30 or 40 points a day but today we're up 100 points. everybody who is bearish right now is a little bit caught and a little bit behind. move on and i'll show you what's moving is the ones that were the market leadership earlier in the year. the global growth names, the kind of companies that you want to see, the global economy is expanding. financials, technologies, materials industrials and consumer discretionaries. part of the problem we've had in march is these have not been the market leaders. if you take a look at what's happened to the big cyclical names th

and our chief washington correspondent, john harwood, got a one-on-one with mr. in atlanta. what's his growth plan, john? >> reporter: well, tyler, rick santorum's trying to grow his vote going into super tuesday. ten states are on the ballot. he lost two states to mitt romney the other day. i sat down with him here at the atlanta airport where he had a rally. he went after mitt romney saying he practices class warfare in his economic plan, but he also defended his own economic plan, which is to give a zero tax rate for manufacturers. i asked him about the comments from a republican comment that said this is a terrible idea because you can't define what's a manufacture. he said not at all. >> i think markets work. but you have to understand there are different competitive marketplaces out there. and manufacturing is unique in that we have to compete against direct international competition. so it's not like you're creating a level playing field for, you know, for the airline industry. yeah, they have to compete, but they have to compete under the same rules here i

cnbc's john harwood. tt romney wrapped up another primary in puerto rico, but can he do it tomorrow? illinois takes its turn at the ballot box. the polling averages give romney a sizeable lead as john suggested. right now it's romney, 40, santorum, 31. so let's talk a bit about this. we bring in vin webber and santorum supporter tim lefebvre, chairman of the sacramento-based research institute. tim lefebvre, let me just ask you this, i had a great interview this weekend on the radio with rick santorum. really good interview. he hit all the key spots. but i have to ask you this. i don't see how you can win illinois, and i don't see how you can take the nomination right now. >> well, let me answer both of those. starting with illinois, remember when we started off last week, you started off with graphics showing how balabama and mississippi, he was in third place. in the end, he won both of those. we would hope the same thing in illinois. but one of the most unreported stories right now is the inflation of t

john harwood updating us. bring you some breaking news now because we just have the results of the five-year german bund auction. the big headline here is that the yield is the lowest on record of a german five-year auction. these were february 2017 bonds. the bid to coverage ratio was 1.78. the average was 9.79. as i mentioned, the lowest on a german five-year auction. interesting to see that we also have very low yields on the t ten-year as well, which is the benchmark we often refer to of course. we have the results of that. >> meantime still to come on the show, we're going to continue the political debate. the next guest warns that the in-fighting could end up hurting the republican party when november rolls around. more on that next. romney has beaten rick santorum to win the republican presidential primary. ten states were up for grabs on super tuesday. mitt romney took sex, rick santorum took three, and newt gingrich took one, his home state of georgia. this is how super tuesday has panned out. only ve

john harwood joins us now with the details. good evening, john. >> good evening, larry. the administration's been balancing two considerations there. one is those high gas price us that mention. the other is the desire as a foreign policy matter to crack down on iran's nuclear program. but the administration under consideration that congress passed last year, "there currently appears to be sufficient supply of non-iranian oil to permit foreign countries to significantly reduce their import of iranian oil. now, that is a process that is a rolling process. the united states has exempted japan and some nations in the european union because they've already begun to reduce their supplies of iranian oil imports. china, india, south korea, major consumers of iranian oil. the administration is talking with them to get them to reduce their oil to stave off sanctions. you talked about the release of strategic preserves. the u.s. did not play that card today. they've discussed it with the british and french. they're going to hold that card as long as they can and see how people rea

john harwood in chicago with the very latest on the illinois primary. u. >> reporter: maria, there are two different arguments going on in this republican primary. one is about delegate math and the other is momentum. rick santorum is taking to arguing late in this illinois campaign that he's got more delegates than he's been credited with. he shows himself over 300. nbc and other organizations show much less but he also needs help in the momentum argument. look at the polls here late in illinois. mitt romney moving out to a ten-point lead over rick santorum are. and only having a four-point lead in louisiana. it's a southern state and he ought to do very well. if mitt romney is able to hold off rick santorum, he could get a burst going into louisiana and begin to wrap up this nomination, maria, and he's gotten a late boost at the end from a misstatement by rick santorum saying he didn't care about unemployment but allowed him to pivot to his core economic message. signs have been looking good for the last few days for him. >> he doesn't care about unemp

john harwood, thank you so much.>>> speaking of money, boy, guess what made a lot of it at the movies this weekend? "the hunger games" gobbled up the weekend box office. it was massive. $155 million in ticket sales. that's the third highest debut in film history. "21 jump street" came in second. the charcoal went out already? [ sighs ] forget it. [ male announcer ] there's more barbeque time in every bag of kingsford charcoal. kingsford. slow down and grill.  in every bag of kingsford charcoal. this one's for all us lawn smiths. grass gurus. doers. here's to more saturdays in the sun. and budgets better spent. here's to turning rookies into experts, and shoppers into savers. here's to picking up. trading up. mixing it up. to well-earned muddy boots and a lot more spring per dollar. more saving. more doing. that the power of the home depot. break out the gardening gloves. miracle-gro garden soil is now 3 bags for 10 bucks. is the pain reliever orthopedic doctors recommend most for arthritis pain, think again. and ta

john harwood sat down exclusively with one of the front runners, rick santorum. ns us from atlanta with the details. over to you, john. >> it was fascinating, rick santorum is known as a critic of american culture and morality. he declined to extend that criticism to wall street, saying capitalism encourages morality. he rejected calls from republican insiders and some on wall street that he get out of the race to avoid further damage to the republican ticket this fall, saying we're not going to make it stop, because i'm going to win. and he gently poked at his wealthy rival, mitt romney's, inability, or difficulty in connecting with average people. >> i think there are a lot of successful people in this country who connect amazingly well with the american people. one of the reasons they are successful is because they connect well. i don't think that's the reason governor romney was successful. it's because he connected well with the american public, he was successful for other reasons. it's hard sometimes to go from one sector, or one area and transfer those skil

still with us, steve schmidt and new york times john harwood. john, in terms of the speech there from mr. romney, i've not been listening to his stump speech every day, but i've been listening closely enough to follow its evolution over time. is this what we should expect in terms of putting bane at the very, very center of what his appeal is for why he should be president? >> i think so. bane in the way that mitt romney wants to explain it is part of a step by step education process for him and what makes the american economy tick. i think it was significant, he had some new lines in here. some great republican plaz line. made fun of law professor and he had a whole rift about his vision for the country. plainly a general election speech. i think there's a reason for this because i think this win even though it was expected is a big deal. we found out that rick santorum simply is not capable of turning over the table in the way he needs to to stop mitt romney from getting this nomination. i think this primary race while mitt romney doesn't have

utah, new jersey are favorable to mitt romney he is the one likely to extend his lead. >> john harwoodcnbc chief correspondent, i like talk toug because you have brought data from the reporting world in these discussions and makes you more valuable than your average bear to talk to appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> now that the sandra fluke thing has not worked out so well for mr. limbaugh, the interview tonight on this show is the next young american woman who rush limbaugh has decided to come after. it is becoming a badge of honor, that is coming up. tiful makeup out there. but one is so clever that your skin looks better even after you take it off. neutrogena® healthy skin liquid makeup. 98% saw improved skin. does your makeup do that? neutrogena® cosmetics. >>> turns out rick santorum can't be googled problem is getting worse, not better. neat. that is coming up. >>> the history of this election year will be annoying. because in the future when people go to compare 2012 to other years, to look at like delegates and trends and who won what races and what order and who was still in t

. >> joining me is steve schmidt, and john harwood, gentlemen, thank you for being here, nice to have you here. >> rhey rachel. >> newt gingrich will stay in the race regardless of the outcome tonight. steve, if mr. gingrich does not win either of these states tonight, do you think he can remain a viable candidate? >> no, the race will be in the final stages for him, ehe'll hae tough decision. he talked about putting together a southern strategy to remain viable. that means he has to win these states, not come in second or third. >> if he won big say the hyalaba would that be enough or is it both places? >> he articulated it means winning the southern states. you can't run a race where you're trying to be the most conservative candidate and lose one of the two most conservative states in the race with the most conservative primaries electorates and continue to go on in my view. >> john, is it your perception the gingrich campaign would agree with steve schmidt there is pressure behind the scenes for mr. gingrich to guess out of the race that he might be susceptible to the pressure if

john harwood, correspondent. thank you both extra for your time tonight given the hour. appreciate it tonight, guys, thanks. >> you bet. >>> there's a lot more to say about tonight's results from alabama and mississippi, and, yes, there was big news today that had nothing to do with the republican presidential contest. that's coming up. >>> one more thing about the republican primaries. specifically tonight in the state of alabama. while it's the republican presidential primary getting the lion's share of attention out of alabama tonight, that's not the only game in town. there's been some really interesting down-ticket races in alabama, reflecting some national trends and national celebrity. in alabama's sixth congressional ticket, a ten-term incumbent republican congressman named spencer bachus found himself in a political fight tonight. mr. bachus is the subject of a congressional investigation over insider trading allegations. he's denying any wrongdoing, but those allegations have been dogging him for months now including in his home state. tonight he was challenged

. >>> for more, we want to bring in cnbc's chief washington correspondent, john harwood. let's talk about the south, john. does it provide more drama or potentially thin the herd? >> it may thin the herd. the story of the race is the identification and elimination of the challengers to the front runner, mitt romney. if newt gingrich does not win one of the two states, the roller coaster may stop. if rick santorum could win both of them, he could knock newt gingrich out of the race. if mitt romney wins them, he could improbably take a long step toward ending this nomination race and getting on a general election fight against president obama. >> thank you. a program note, rick santorum will be among david gregory's guests sunday morning on "meet the press." >>> one week ago tonight, we were on the ground in henryville, indiana, and west liberty, kentucky, which suffered widespread destruction. tonight, there's news from both hard-hit cities in west liberty we're getting our first look at what might be the most dramatic video yet of the twisters ripping off a roof like a tin

john harwood is joining us now with more. john, is this a change of heart by the president? or did he really, as he says have to wait to do enough environmental checks as he claims and was sort of backed into a corner by republicans? >> well, he was first backed into a corner by environmentalists, brian. i believe the president was intending through his state department to approve that keystone pipeline, then the heat was turned up, he was responding to his political base. so, yes, he was playing politics as republicans are playing politics now. and what he's trying to do in this visit to cushing is to neutralize republican attacks on him. republicans are saying by blocking the keystone pipeline, the upper portion for environmental reasons that he's both driving gas prices up and costing american jobs. the president responded that he too is in favor for the use of oil and oil drilling. but republican policies of drill, drill, drill are simply not enough. >> yes, we're going to keep on drilling, yes, we're going to keep on emphasizing production. yes, we're going to make sure

john harwood, thank you very much. back to larry and mike.mike, i want to follow up what mandy asked you as well and talk about the kinds of jobs that really are attractive to employers and veterans. where are the good matches? i know you've got a great feel good story, kansas city southern. i'll give a shout out to them. great work. ceo came down. 25 job offers made on the spot. where should veterans be looking right now? >> there's three different types of veterans that are getting out that we provide services for. those are the officers which are the degreed candidates. their graeat and engineering, supervisory, consulting. you have the enlisted technicians. they're fantastic to fill the skilled labor shortages that are going on in commercial america today. and the last category requires the most help. they are the folks that are the nontechnical enlisted people. these are the people that are the ones that the public probably thinks of the most. the infantry men, marines and soldiers actually over there fighting these wars in iraq and afgh

coming up next on "street signs," john harwood's interview with rick santorum.s campaign running on empty? and one-third of the world's billionaires call russia home. where are they? steve liesman dug them out. he's going to show them to us when we head live to moscow. don't go away. all in one account. it's powerful, easy to use technology for trading stocks, options, and futures. optionsxpress, the broker smart traders deserve. open an account today at optionsxpress.com. >>> welcome back to "street signs." it's time for street talk. what is it going to take for the dow to stay above 13,000? blue chips bouncing on either side of that key level again today after closing above it on tuesday for the first time since may 2008. let's ask matt cheslock. do you feel that the level of 13,000 is becoming a whole lot more than just psychological? >> oh, absolutely. you know, i started to think that with so many sectors up today and act so well, one sector that's down is the most defensive one, consumer staples. obviously people are optimistic about this market and the ec

cnbc chief washington correspondent john harwood is joining me now. >> good morning, chris. >> the president'sas going up and up and in the blink of an eye a staggering 9-point drop. what turned things around so quickly, do we snow in. >> well, first of all, we don't know for sure he's really at 41%. one poll was an indication, you got to wait to see it affirmed by others. gallop has it at 49%. we had him in our nbc/wall street poll at 49%. but assume as in the washington poll/abc news poll that showed him at 46% and going down, he's taken a hit in the last few days, and partly that's clearly a result of gas prices, which is very much in the news and very much in people's pocketbooks. and the president has got a vulnerability there and has a vulnerability on the economy broadly, that's one of the reasons he could be bringing this trade case against china. he's getting pressure from mitt romney on the republican side about getting tougher on china, which has been kind of a boogieman in u.s. politics, so the president is trying to step up to show the american people he's tough. yesterday he was

utah, new jersey are favorable to mitt romney he is the one likely to extend his lead. >> john harwoodcnbc chief correspondent, i like talk toug because you have brought data from the reporting world in these discussions and makes you more valuable than your average bear to talk to appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> now that the sandra fluke thing has not worked out so well for mr. limbaugh, the interview tonight on this show is the next young american woman who rush limbaugh has decided to come after. it is becoming a badge of honor, that is coming up. the landscapis 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 announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ what started as a whisper every day, millions of people choose to do the right thing. there's an insurance company that does tha

eastern time tonight on cnbc and you can join me and john harwood for cnbc's special coverage of superay live from 8 to 9 p.m. eastern tomorrow night, bring you all the up to the minute results as well as analysis of how they affect the gop race for the white house. >>> now a look at the stocks we are following on "the closing bell" ticker tonight. molly corps gained ground after morgan stanley reported this year's 25% decline in rare earth prices may spur demand that japanese rare earth import usually rise between march and may. molycorp stock up 4%, as you can see. pandora rises after stifle nicholas upgrades shares from a hold. telling client the ubiquitity will drive registered users as well as earnings. stock up 5.5% on the session it is up nearly 50% year-to-date. the stock is still below last year's $16 share ipo price. >>> leaf wireless sliding after it was downgraded to market perform from outperform. the analyst telling clients that leaf faces stiffer competition and the those shift strategy toward smartphones which require additional spectrum. leaf wireless slumping 7% on th

john harwood is here, he's our chief washington correspondent. john, the cynic or maybe the skeptic in me sees a coincidence between the timing of this and superdelegate. >> superdelegate, isn't it? whoa! i guess it was an accident. >> it was an accident, right? >> look, this president has begun the process of actively trying to counterprogram from what republicans are doing. you know he makes auto announcements and auto-related speeches. he speaks to the auto workers when the michigan primary is going on. now we've got super tuesday. mitt romney hoped to take a big step forward today toward the republican nomination. the president is dominating the news with this news conference. >> there are real issues to discuss, israel, iran, the middle east conflict -- oil prices. there are a number of economic issues. let's listen in to the president. >> good afternoon, everybody. now, i understand there are some political contests going on tonight. but i thought i'd start the day off by taking a few questions which i'm sure will not be political in nature.

your money, your vote hosted by john harwood and maria bartiromo. it begins right now. >> break news this hour. polls in three states have just closed. nbc news projecting that mitt romney will win the massachusetts primary. moving west, oklahoma, nbc news projecting the race is too early to call. and in tennessee, the same thing, too early to call in tennessee, john. >> right now the biggest battle ground state, ohio, is too close to call as well by nbc news. that is the place where mitt romney has to beat rick santorum to preserve his claim as the inevitable nom knee. newt gingrich expected to win his home state of georgia. that might keep him in the race for now. mitt romney row jected as the winner in virginia where only he and ron paul were on the ballot. romney also the projected winner by nbc news now in vermont. >> welcome to our special super tuesday your money your vote coverage. i'm maria bartiromo. >> and we're i'm john harwood. 424 delegates are up for grabs tonight in 11 states across the country. >> all this happening on a day when yo

joining me now, msnbc chief correspondent john harwood.he president is going to talk about his blueprint for a secure energy future in a series of interviews with local reporters, but what does he hope to accomplish by sitting down with those media-type representatives and is it successful in getting the message across? >> mideast trying to counter act the findings we see in the new washington post/abc news poll. the approval rating is taking a beating because of the high gas prices. the white house always said that his standing has improved the last couple of months but things out of their control, certain sevenths could harm his ability to win re-election. and high gases are one of those especially when the president is creating a psychcology of optimism around the recovering economy. more people feel the difficulty at the pump and feel that the gas prices are out of control, even if they understand that president obama is not making that happen, it plays into republican arguments and hurts the president. >> sure. the disapproval of the

utah, new jersey are favorable to mitt romney he is the one likely to extend his lead. >> john harwoodcnbc chief correspondent, i like talking to you because you have brought data from the reporting world in these discussions and makes you more valuable than your average bear to talk to appreciate it. >> my pleasure. >> now that the sandra fluke thing has not worked out so well for mr. limbaugh, the interview tonight on this show is the next young american woman who rush limbaugh has decided to come after. it is becoming a badge of honor, that is coming up. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starng unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've made? [ club scene music ] [ sigh of relief ] [ male announc

cnbc's chief washington correspondent john harwood joins us now with the details. od evening, john. >> good evening, larry. you know, one of the consistent themes in discussions of politics and the economy over the last couple of years in both parties has been the conviction of many ordinary workers and elected officials that china is taking advantage of us economically simply because they're not playing fair. mitt romney, who hopes it take a step towards the republican nomination tonight, has talked about labelling china a currency manipulator on day one of his term. the guy who works in this building behind me right now will go that far, but today went out in the rose garden publicized that complaint about china over the export, the restrictions and places on the export of rare earth, minerals, which are critical in high-tech, and in advanced manufacturing. both areas critical to the president's economic strategy. here's how he justified it. >> if china would let the market work on its own, we auto would have no objections, but their policies currently are prevent

back with mark halperin and john harwood.. >> exciting. >> the "game change" boot legs have already hit the shores of -- >> get it on canal street. >> stay off canal street, joe. >> i got it on canal street. >> your bag down there, too? >> yeah -- no. it's a movie. >> i saw the movie. without giving anything away, i thought it was astounding what sarah palin went through. and we never realized it. you know, there's that moment, mika, where they're afraid she's breaking down mentally. and they go to arizona, have the doctor there. and so how's she doing? and the doctor goes, okay, well, let's see, for a woman who is in middle of what she's in the middle of, who just had a baby, who just found out that her teenage daughter is pregnant, who has a son fighting in the iraq war being shot at every day, and she's dealing with all of you guys -- she's doing really well. and that's the thing, mika, that puts you in the perspective. we were talking about this after the movie. >> hmm. >> i've seen you out on the road away from your daug

polls close in less than an hour, and cnbc's own john harwood joins us now with all the latest on the race. good evening, john. >> good evening, larry. you know, mitt romney in polls in the last couple of days heading into this primary had opened up a lead. the average in real clear politics.com this afternoon was ten points for mitt romney. if he could get a victory like that, this could be very important in this race. there are two arguments going on in the race. one is about delegate math. the other is about momentum. on delegate math, rick santorum was out today talking about how he actually can expect to claim more delegates than nbc and other news organizations are crediting him with. you see from these numbers, he is saying he will get over 300, and those selected so far. he also has to make a momentum argument. he has to break through, larry, in some of the states, big midwestern states where mitt romney has been able to hold him off like he did in michigan and ohio. if rick santorum cannot punch through here in the state of illinois, is he going to have difficulty carrying on

well john harwood in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture it's been two years since obamacare became law and more americans have access to health care than ever before so many conservatives like paul ryan and mitt romney want to strip americans of such a fundamental right that and more internet it's a big picture rumble and striking a balance between private and public power is a major goal for society today and correctly reaching it will help us prosper in the twenty first century so how do we achieve this balance last very nice conversations and great minds and inside the daily to take it because an oil spill in brazil you're a criminal because or else bill in america you're given a first class ticket back to your mansion in england that's what our government's a laissez faire attitude about corporate crime. it's friday that means it's time to rumble joining me for tonight's big picture on the caroline may reporter with the daily caller tina deploy managing editor with crooks and liars

well i'm john harwood in washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture the temperature isn't the only thing heating up across the nation how has the warmer weather reenergize the occupy wall street movement where does it go from here also corporations control many aspects of our lives for our use of the internet has remained largely free of corporate influence is coming to an end and how will a new anti-piracy plan affect your ability to access the web and mitt romney may be strengthening his grip on the presidential nomination but new questions are surfacing over his treatment of man's best friend seamus the dog be the undoing of romney's presidential ambitions. you need to know this the warm weather is back and so is occupy wall street hundreds of demonstrators returned as a crowded parking lot are manhattan on saturday to celebrate the six month anniversary of the movement but as the sun went down the peaceful crowd was once again broken up by n.y.p.d. officers in all seventy four people were arre

john harwood will join us.e probably has a lot to say. >> and let's get a check on the markets this morning. dow would open up about 60 points off. and s&p 500 would also be off. i should say it would not open up down. recently i've been saying the dow would open up down so many points and i got an e-mail recently that said it couldn't open up down. it has to open down. so i want to make clear to -- >> the markets unfold to the down -- >> it would unfold to the down side or as mhe said yesterday, t would hug the flat line. let's tee a quick look at the ten year. >> this has been exciting. >> look at the yield withere. almost 2.35 for our radio listeners. kind of exciting. >> i love the yield curve. it's one of the most elegant and wonderful things out there. >> certainly more endo you remembering in the u.s. than emerging markets. it is a great way to watch and game what market participants think about growth and where we're headed. >> still trying to get over the elegant yield curve. >> it tells you so many th

joining me today, kurt anderson, host of studio 360 radio and john harwood, karen finney, and political analyst, john heileman. last night, mitt romney won the most states and extended his overall delegate lead to more than 200, but the bottom line is that he has not locked up the nomination, is he becoming a stronger candidate or a weaker one? folks? my thinking here is that this could be a pivot point for the team romney, not just going back to the lab but refining a message, making him a stronger candidate, there's a contention out there that he has been bloodied and bruised but this could be good. >> i'm feeing like we have read that and said that five or six times eer already. the question was would newt gingrich make him a better candidate. so far, i've not seen what we have seen in the democratic race as hillary and obama duked it out. obama ended up being a stronger candida candidate, but along with that we saw turn out and excitement in the democratic party only to up, which helped in the general. on the republican side excitement going down and turnout going down, so for the g

our chief washington correspondent john harwood has the latest on that. john. >> it could be a significant problem because president obama is counting on a rising spirit of economic optimism to lift his chances in the election. the more prices at the pump rise here at the spring dime before the summer driving season, which is expected to take it higher, the more difficulty that's reflected. you look at the nbc -- excuse me. the abc "washington post" poll out today showing the president's approval rating at 46, but showing a significant number of people and an increase in the number of people that disaapprove of the handling of the economy. that's why you have the administration out today talking about their energy accomplishments, trying to defuse some of the atacts from republicans. republicans are aggressive about this, especially as the job picture gets better. >> i don't know what they expect any president to do about gasoline prices, but that's just a me. in the election season everyone is talking about delegate math right now. what happens if santoru

let's bring in john harwood who is live in chicago with the details after another busy night, john?dorsed mitt romney after holding that endorsement for some period of time. that means that the pressure beginning to mount on rick santorum. he needed to break through against mitt romney. couldn't do it. lost by double digits. it now appears that he cannot have the capacity to topple mitt romney in a place in the midwest. he lost in michigan, ohio, now in illinois. very different delegate map facing him. which is why mitt romney at his acceptance speech last night -- or his victory speech, began turning immediately to the race against president obama. >> tonight was a primary but november is a general election and we're going to face a defining decision as a people. our choice will not be about party or even personality. this election will be about principle. our economic freedom will be on the ballot. >> now, even as thessure mounts on rivals like rick santorum and newt gingrich, we heard from newt gingrich this morning saying jeb bush was another establishment endorsement for mitt r

hampton pearson and john harwood join me. which side makes the better case with the nine justices?t two days you have to say the states and independent businesses made a compelling case in terms of reading the justices for, number one, not only striking down the individual mandate but saying, if you, the supreme court decide to do that, then the best solution would be to strike down the entire law because, frankly, it doesn't work. i mean, the mandate is the heart of the law in terms of all of the things that all of the people like and don't like about the law. so if you strike down the entire law, you send it back to congress and in essence give them a clean slate to quickly reinstitute those things that they lack of the whole notion of the a market-based solution, affordable care at lower costs. >> how unpopular is the health care law with the american people? >> ever since it passed in 2010, it has been less popular than popular. if you look at a cnn poll, 50% said that they oppose it and it reflecting the fact that greater intensity is on the conservative side. the key question

john harwood goes one-on-one and it is first on "power lunch" at the top of the hour.ow back to scott on the halftime report. >> thank you. and time to make a pit stop, gold bouncing back slightly from yesterday's monster sell off. what is the trade off on gold considering the fed may not deliver qe3? got it covered with dan. going to hand it off to stephanie who has a good question on oil. >> deutsche bank made a good call yesterday based on demand because of the higher oil prices. what's your thought about where you want to be positioned right now? >> well, in the oil space, if you're talking about stocks and first of all, glad to see you on the desk. that's a good get for the show. i think the place to play is in those stocks that might be able to give a little bit back to the supply losses that you're going to get not only from iran, but from sudan and syria and in fact in libya, where you're down from the 1.4 million they were delivering before the war, so the ones i like are the ones that are able to deliver some of that shortfall in the european theatre. like ap

our chief washington correspondent john harwood is at the white house. john, what's the latest? >> reporter: tyler, one of the most consistent themes in american politics and discussions with the economy these days is the need for the united states to get into a better place with china and its economic relations with china. mitt romney sounding that theme on the campaign trial. and today president obama linked the need for a freer export policy of rare earth minerals to one of his favorite causes in the domestic economy, high tech and specifically advanced battery manufacturing. here's the president justifying the new wto case against china today. >> if china would simply let the market work on its own, we'd have no objections. but their policies currently are preventing that from happening and they go against the very rules that china agreed to follow. being able to manufacture advanced batteries and hybrid cars in america is too important for us to stand by and do nothing. >> reporter: this comes against the backdrop of a slight depreciation of the chinese currency which quell

we're thrilled to be joined by john harwood who has just interviewed rick santorum.artable contributions came up. is that right? >> it did. he said romney's tax plan encouraged class warfare because he was going to pay for it by limiting deductions for upper income taxpayers. he said by doing that, governor romney would hurt the very institutions that conservatives need to thriver in order to shrink government. >> while we're going to shift, again, which is already being done, shicht more tax to higher incomes. he does it in way that's particularly damaged by limiting the deductibility of certain things, particularly charitable deductions. he's undermining the very institutions that have to be growing if we're going to reduce the size of the government. >> john, is he serious? i recollect that in 2010, mr. santorum gave 1.7% of his income to charity. the president gave over 14%. >> well, rick santorum made the point to me that he was one of those politician, unlike governor romney who needed the paycheck when he was in office, and even though he's making more money i

and our chief washington correspondent, john harwood, is at the supreme court. john. >> reporter: tyler, they're very high because this isn't just a legal question, this is a political question. remember, this was a law that was passed with democratic support, republican opposition. look at this poll numbers from the popularity today to show what a wild card this is. 43% support the law, 50% oppose it. that shows more intensity on the conservative side because they lost the policy argument. then look at how it might affect the vote. 76% of the people overwhelming majority say it would not affect their vote. however, you can bet that that's going to change once we get an opinion and the losing side is going to be mobilized by this especially if it's the obama administration that loses this case. they scored in 2010. a policy victory and a political defeat. they would have the possibility of sustaining a policy defeat turning into political victory because democrats all across the country would say look at that just like bush veto. we need to elect obama so he can