in tucson, arizona where john nichols is, mitt romney has a good lead. john, how do you figure?> i think mitt romney has a lead in arizona because the conservatives here, social conservatives who are dominant are split. the remarkable thing in arizona is that while romney leads and santorum is in second, newt gingrich is running way stronger than in a lot of the rest of the country. the recent polls have him over 20%. that 20% is coming out of rick santorum, so the fact of the matter is you are going to probably see a situation in arizona where mitt romney wins because of that divided opposition but doesn't get near a majority. >> the polls are tightening in michigan. howard, is this a must-win for mitt romney tomorrow? >> of course it is. it's his home state, i know there are jokes he lives in various other places in california and boston. he explained the two cadillacs were one each in california and boston. but of course he has to win it and even though -- you know he has to win it because his people say he will win it and they made the prediction shows how important they thi

john nicholls to join me on that. stay tuned. >>> and in psychotalk tonight noted conservative economist and college dropout rush limbaugh. rush is desperately trying to put a negative spin on the 243,000 jobs created in january. >> but even i failed to grasp this within the amount of the allotted time i had during show prep. we're still working on this, because i want to get to the bottom of it. i'm struck by the difference in the raw number of 2.5 million jobs lost and the government saying 243,000 were created. the bottom line is this. in a nut shell the withholding tax receipts numbers doesn't line up with employment. obama monkeying the numbers here, jimmying around with things in an election year designed to make things look better than they are. >> limbaugh admits he doesn't understand what he's talking about, but he's confident the president is cooking the books. he's wrong. here's how the murdoch owned "wall street journal" explains the january employment report. every january, the labor department readjusts

howard fineman and john nichols, on romney's failure to connect with regular folks. stay with us we're right back. 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. ♪ i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. thanks, mom. i just want to get my car back. [ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. . >>> coming up, rick santorum isn't just lying about president obama, wait until you see how he distorts john f kennedy's message on religion. joan walsh joins me next. >>> alabama is taking a page

john nichols is here to preview walker's jan brewer moment, stay with us. i stepped on the machine, and it showed me the pressure points on my feet and exactly where i needed more support. then, i got my number. my tired, achy feet affected my whole life. until i found my number. i tried the free dr. scholl's foot mapping center. in two minutes, i got my foot map and custom number. i'm a 440. that matched up to the dr. scholl's custom fit orthotic inserts with the right support and cushioning i need. i am a believer. i'm a believer! i'm a believer. go to drscholls.com to find your closest walmart with a foot mapping center. >>> coming up republicans caved on the payroll tax cut but are democrats letting them off the hook too easy? congress woman schakowski and jonathan alter will join me. >>> pressure from consumers, has apple investigating labor practices as -- at its factories overseas. mike daisey who visited the plant will join me later to tell us the story. share thoughts on twitter #edshow. we're right back. [ male announcer ] what if y was thought up

i'm joined by john nichols, washington correspondent for "the nation" magazine and author of "uprisingbout what transformed and transpired in wisconsin over the last year, is it not? >> it is a book that starts a year ago and comes to today and celebrates what i think is the most transformational movement i've seen certainly in my life as a reporter. >> the president making his first trip since all of this, good, bad, indifferent, what do you think? >> i think the timing is interesting, isn't it? he's coming on the one year anniversary of the first large demonstration at the capital. and that won't go unnoted. he will also be speaking to an audience at masterlock, united auto workers local 469. it's growing, membership is going up. and so he has a message for them but i do hope that he takes off on where you were talking about. unions have been battered in wisconsin they haven't heard and executive come in and say they are good, they are useful. governor walker hasn't done that i hope president obama takes an opportunity to at the very least say "thanks" to the union workers for sticki

john nick ols will join me for the latest. >> coming up next, john nichols has the latest from wisconsiner a scott walker aide pleads guilty in an on-going investigation. >>> the big finish, more explosive developments in the susan g. komen controversy, looks like someone is lying who made the call to defund planned parenthood. >>> we'll play you the sound and let you decide. stay tuned. >>> coming up in tonight's big finish, karen handel is out at the susan g. komen organization organization, does her resume keep her in politics? i'll ask the president of the national organization of women what this all means, next. >>> you know, ed, look five years from now my prediction the susan g. komen foundation won't exist or will be reduced to say between 10 and 25% of the current size. >> that was terry o'neill, president of the national organization of women on this program just last week, speaking about the susan g. komen foundation initial decision to cut off funding to planned parenthood. in a moment, terry will join us again. now the woman at the center of the controversy, komen's vice pre

let's turn to john nichols tonight, washington correspondent of the nation magazine. e two things here, john. number one, you've got scott walker going around the country making a bigger political name for himself and, of course, on this teaching tour, if you may, but he's also ginning up support for his recall on a national level. how was walker involved in arizona's anti-union fight? what do you make of all of this? >> well, walker's very, very involved. your view ersz ers will recall that back in the start of november, we were in ohio watching as ohioans voted 61-39 against an assault on collective bargaining in their state. well, two days after ohio cast its votes, scott walker flew down to arizona to deliver the speech you just have shown segments of. he spent a whole day and a half down there, met behind closed doors with goldwater institute folks and all sorts of other conservative political players down there. now what is very important to understand is that the goldwater institute is funded at least in part by the coke wroer brothers, the same people who spent

i'd point to the very important work by the media critics john nichols and will be bert mcchesney figuring out the ratio of journalists to public relations professionals. as it's becoming even worse. there is a pun afunny boxing mon the 50s. people become very sophisticated in creating stories about reality there are unquestioned. and in the case of weapons of mass destruction, it was a literal conspiracy by people acting in concert with media professionals like judith miller. in the case of austerity, you have a billion air like pete peterson setting up foundations and having people write op-eds and all the rest. so what we see as a result of the decline of this sort of civic minded journalism that i think with profound exceptions, henry luce represented i think nobly is something in which the interests have taken over from the public interest. >> michael. >> i guess i'd like on just stay a few words of dissent again. from the idea a little disagreement i guess with alan, also with rick, about the idea that was ever anything lacking in the golden age of journalism, ever a time when there

to revisit the uprising in wisconsin on its one year anniversary and where we go from here is john nichols washington correspondent with the nation magazine and author of the new book uprising our wisconsin renew the politics of protest from madison to wall street john welcome why that's the that's the best introduction i've had yet. this is the you were standing in madison a year ago i mean it was you live there i mean i spent most of my time in madison and and i should you know any viewers who knew or tuning in should know that some of the very first interviews i did from madison were with you yeah there were a handful of people recognized early on before things took off that this wasn't the only labor battle in america by far but this was the one that for a variety of reasons was going to become symbolic battles in states across the country as the crowds grew as the energy grew and and it's a pretty exciting moment since as i think we shared a few of those days yes absolutely and this was just a few months after the republicans crashed the democrats absolutely the tea party in the two t

the nation's john nichols tells us tonight if the number holds it would be one of the highest validation rates ever for a petition of this scale. >>> meanwhile, the man of the center of it all, scott walker, is out of the state again, soaking up sun and sucking up conservatives in florida locking for cash. he gave a speech at naples, florida, sponsored by an organization funded by who else, other than the koch brothers. it's important for walker to keep them happy because they are bank rolling his campaign. the koch funded group "americans for prosperity" spent $700,000 on a couple ad buys. here is a sample. >> thanks to recent reforms, wisconsin's government is working more effectively and efficiently. >> wisconsin put an end to abuses of collective bargaining, putting taxpayers back in control. >> wisconsin's government is working smarter. >> more to do but the facts show reforms are working. >> the facts don't actually show reforms are working. wisconsin has been losing jobs for six straight months, ever since walker's budget went in effect. ask yourself the question, is that a good t

and i talked to john nichols he was working the arizona market in tucson and phoenix, and there is nobt that gingrich has hurt santorum in arizona, and played well for romney no doubt many. >> won't be one of the big story lines out of tonight because newt gingrich got that big new infusion of cash because he didn't try in michigan or arizona all that hard but still that is kind of the question going forward in the republican race how big the field continues to be. >> arizona is a big state for romney to win. there is no doubt about that. he won decisively tonight, there will be strong numbers for him. the question for romney as i see it, he is the best wall street candidate that probably the republicans ever had, but what southern state will he win? i'm looking to next week, does he have a shot in tennessee? will he win anywhere in the south? he won in florida but he had all kind of money he spent down there got after it, what southern state, what is mitt romney's southern strategy, that has to be asked and answered, because rick santorum is polling well in ohio. >> i bet mitt romney