nia-malika, i will let you go first.ory. >> going to some of these rallies and hearing santorum talk about it and talking to people in the audience, i mean their big beef is the federal government actually forcing people to buy something, and they immediately leap to the gee of what if the government forces me to buy broccoli. should i have to do that? that's right. broccoli is delicious. i think that's the issue for most people. this issue of the government compelling you to do something that maybe you don't want to do. so that's the issue. but again, bill -- >> you know what i think it is? obama is for it. they are against it. seriously. >> is that what you think? >> the big deal is simply that this is something, after all, that republicans and democrats have fought for and talked about for 100 years. >> yeah. >> finally, it gets to obama who can get it done or nixwhere nexton couldn't get it done and some of the others didn't try. and suddenly they turned against it. you know the lemmings follow their leaders and say

nia-malika henderson, kasie hunt and howard fineman. that's the show, thanks for

nia-malika, let me start with you.ant americans to forget just how bad things were. i mean, don't they? >> in some ways they do. and that's the point this documentary seems to make. and make pretty effectively in a very dramatic, slick hollywood-type production. that things were very, very bad when this president took office. the nation was losing something like 700,000 jobs a month when obama took office. we'll get some new job numbers tomorrow. but i think this is a very effective way that the president can really argue his case and argue the case for his re-election. we've seen in some ways a white house that had seen a lot of the narrative to republicans. but we see the president here really giving his base a reason to get fired up and get ready to go for this election. >> dana, he also, unlike when he ran in 2008, will have a record that he can run on and taking the -- 23 straight months of private sector growth. weekly job claims have been steadily falling since the start of the stimulus. full screen here is real

with us today, "new york" magazine's john heilemann, "the washington post," nia-malika henderson, "the associated press"' kasie hunt and "the washington post" howard fineman. >> what would you like to say to mr. romney? >> good luck tonight. no, really. >> really. >> no, really, bring it on. for a long time there was a question whether the president would run on his record or just run against the republicans. this week that question was answered. here's a part of the new obama campaign film. >> how do we understand this president and his time in office? do we look at the day's headlines, or do we remember what we as a country have been through? >> our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions, that time has surely passed. chris: i talked to david on hardball this week and he believes an ultimate victory for president obama, but says it won't be pretty. >> we are prepared for a tough, close race. 47% voted against us in 2008 when we won a massive victory. so we have the wind at our back then. we don't have the wind at our back now. >> this

a mallia, malika and sam ra. they had to paint the claws different colors to tell them apart. >> we have awe been that person falling everywhere. i want to see what you think. luggage that you can ride. >> i love that. the scooter company microknown as kick board usa teamed up to create microluggage. >> that's awesome. >> i'm not kidding when i say i would definitely use this and ride it. >> i think it could save you serious time. a lot of times you are at gate and the other gate is so far away. >> do you look corny? >> of course you don't look corny. you have. >> you look sly. >> this woman pushes the call button and gets a unique surprise. >> you will never look at an elevator the same. >> i never looked at an elevator that way ever. >> the oreo is turning 100 and nick wants to celebrate. >> i created two and about to create a third. pa. >> sharon ghraiber was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer in january and she cutoff her hair going through chemo and got help from her family. >> i noticed that deep breath

joining us live from washington, republican strategist ron bongene and neleh mali malika henderson. neleh, let me begin with you. you wrote in "the washington post," i'm going to quote now, four short months ago rick santorum had hardly registered in national or presidential polls or made a blip in candidate debates. that came from your article. neleh, what happened? what has santorum managed to do to attract the attention and some real traction? >> yeah, i think in a lot of ways he's managed to tap into what this real anti-obama feeling among lots of grassroots conservatives. you saw him in iowa early on, he was the only one out there in that pickup truck going through those 99 counties, sometimes talking to as few as one, two, three people and really honing his message. i think along the way you saw certain people shoot up, people like herman cain, michele bachmann, rick perry, came and went. but rick santorum very much has been able to sustain his surge and in some ways he's surged at right time. people obviously still not comfortable in conservative circles with mitt romney, so

george will, haley barbour, bill burton, nia-malika henderson and david ignatius. >>> good morning, everyone. george stephanopoulos has a well-deserved morning off. >>> it's been a wild week on the campaign trail with voters in alabama and mississippi giving rick santorum's campaign a lifeline. yet in the all-important delegate race, mitt romney still holds a big lead with 496 delegates. romney has twice than rick santorum and is almost at the magic number. but our headliner this morning has been on a roll, former senator rick santorum joins us now, good morning, senator. >> good morning, jonathan. >> senator, front page of the "new york times" this morning, the republicans are girding for a floor fight. you have been saying, basically that nobody can get a majority of the delegates before the convention, are you saying that your best chance of winning this nomination is a fight on the convention floor? >> well, we still believe that there are plenty of delegates out there to do what we have been doing which is actually going out and winning the tough states and battles. with pretty overwhel

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. >> malika morel, a 27-year-old mom went to a new york city job fair hoping to end her year and a half search for work. >> at first i was nervous, but i'm more optimistic because there are a variety of different employers here so i kind of have hope. >> regaining confidence is the american recovery gained some momentum. ann thompson, nbc news, new york. >>> for some perspective on this, we are joined tonight by cnbc's kelly evans formerly of "the wall street journal." welcome to you. >> thank you. >> when will we know that a corner has been turned. there are signs that just the corner has been turned because it wasn't the headline numbers and the report that was encouraging and there were details that pointed to strength well including the fact that the people went into the labor force and that did push up the unemployment rate and we held at 8.3%. it's still high, but there ares. signs. >> we should check in this week on greece. a lot of guys in your line of work are watching it because of the blowback it could have here and elsewhere. >> that's right. we have a significant event happ

malika henderson joins us. and are they changes or explaining? >> it's explaining. the fact they released this on friday we get those, it's like a document dump and they are hoping, i'll pay attention. they aren't sure about this. this isn't really planned. it looks like they released new guidelines that look at students being covered for contraception. religious institutions having a way to wiggle around the rules. >> greta: is this going to end the dispute? >> no. it is not going to end the disputes. catholic bishops are still not happy with the stance on this. i think it's clear republicans want to make an issue about religious freedom and government and this is giving them a perfect argument health care and encroaching freedom. this is a fright that isn't going away. this is an issue, you've got a situation in arizona where a legislator there put forward a bill that would make it okay to deny women contraception. at least republicans still think its winning issue for them. >> greta: tell me if i have had right. under the rules the bishops objected to, the cathol

nia-malika henderson, thank you for being with us tonight. >>> coming up, sarah palin is going back to playbook of attacking president obama. >>> george clooney is arrested. i'll tell you why i respect him more than ever. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. >>> we have a breaking news update from orlando, florida, on the shooting death of 17-year-old trayvon martin. we had planned to interview his parents on our show tonight but in this hour we've learned that they are headed to the police department to listen to the tapes the night their son was shot and killed by a volunteer neighborhood watch leader. three weeks after the shooting, the man who claims self-defense has not been arrested, and trayvon parents are demanding justice. we plan to talk to the parents soon. we're also going to florida next week to get more answers about this troubling case. imagine zero pollutants in our environment. or zero dependency on foreign oil. ♪ this is why we at nissan built a car inspired by zero. because zero is worth eve

. >> i'm joined now by molly ball and by nia-malika henderson. good morning to both of you.in holds its primary a week from tomorrow. santorum argues if he wins, he goes into this big three-week gap. there's not a single election and he does it with momentum and credibility. molly, is that wishful thinking or is wisconsin potentially important? >> i think it's a little bit of both. obviously it tells us something, it sends a signal anytime voters in a state are unwilling to get on board with mitt romney, no matter how inevitable the math is for him. but we've already seen with, say, ron paul and newt gingrich and what you're going to start to see with santorum is he's not going to be treated as someone with a chance. he's going to be treated as a side show, someone standing on the sidelines. there's not a way for him to reasonably turn it around at this point. >> and some high-profile republicans are going to jump on the romney bandwagon if we wins wisconsin next week, it's been said. there's enormous pressure on santorum to drop out. and last night, he got a little testy wh

and malika henderson. exit poll information out of illinois and the illinois primary voters. we asked which candidate would most likely beat barack obama? not surprisingly, nearly all of romney voters, 93%, said they thought their guy was most electable. but 28% of santorum voters said they saw him beating obama. howard, speak of sports, that means people would rather vote for the guy, at least in some locations, they deeply believe in rather than the guy in november. >> i think some of those people buy santorum's argument, that you have to solidify the base, and if the base isn't really excited, isn't ready to walk through walls, then that's a weak position to be in against the president. >> tweedledum and tweedledee argument. does it work? they're too close in the end to president and the moderate republican, former governor of massachusetts? in the end their too close to excite the public? >> i think there's some truth to that. i know that's a fear for a lot of base. when you get the two of them stacked

join me and nia-malika henderson for a gat roundtable. >>> now, a look at what's coming up on "meet the gregory. >> thanks, chris. good morning, erika and angie. coming up, rick santorum crushed his competition in kansas yesterday, but mitt romney also picked up some wins of his own, maintaining his delegate lead. the question now is can santorum ultimately do the delegate math to beat romney? he'll join me exclusively from the campaign trail this morning. then, a preview of the fall campaign. will social issues trump talk of the economy? we'll have a special debate between two top governors who are also local voices, romney supporter and governor of virginia bob mcdonnell and maryland mayor martin o'malley. and the question of civility and politics. it's all this morning on "meet the press." and be sure to stay tuned after the program for my special "press pass" conversation after last night's big hbo problemier "game change" on the '08 c campaign. i talk with the authors of the book only here on nbc 4. >> david, thank you. >>> traffic alert for you. drivers who go through upper northe

. >> nia malika it comes down to momentum to count. tampa? >> romney's campaign says no. math nematically it's impossibl so his strategy is to deny romney the nomination. this 1144, the magic number that he would need to go into tampa as the nominee. he, of course, has something of a wing man in newt gingrich because he will of course, divide up these delegates as these contests go on, but i think one of the problems that santorum will have moving forward is he's got louisiana coming up and he should do well, but the map going forward looks difficult for him. a lot of moderate states and big states are a romney favorite to win, so i think that will be hard for him to claim momentum if he keeps coming in second or third in some of these contests. he's not even on the ballot, so it will be a problem. >> molly, how much does that have to do with newt gingrich's presence in the political season still. he's still out there in the primaries and were he to leave would that conservative vote better coalesce against rick san tour up. >> i love