mark murray, laura hurley, karen green, lanetta spears, paul, doris, james, nancy, maggie, sandy,

all of this and joining us live from the nbc washington bureau is the senior political director, mark murray. thanks for being with us. >> thanks. >> as we look at your map and look at the math right now you're saying that the edge is with the democrats. let me again repeat numbers. the new electoral scorecard courtesy of your network, nbc, barack obama 227, the democrats 197. 114. to be determined. those are the numbers. >> steve southeast biggest changes have to do with the midwest. southeast big public polling that's come out in michigan as well as wisconsin showed president obama with double digit leads there. we moved from our last map that we took in november, we moved that from toss up to lead democrats. we moved new mexico from toss up to lead democrats. we moved new hampshire from lean republican to toss up. we moved iowa from toss up to lean republican. after "des moines register" poll showed president obama not faring that well in the hawkeye state. that's where the situation is right now. you look from our last map that we had in november which is essentially a tie between the de

mark murray, laura hurley, karen green, lanetta spears, paul, doris, james, nancy, maggie, sandy, sabrina, maurice, dan -- diana, ms. coleman, ms. flores, sherry, david, sataro, patricia, and brandy. our most of the people here? >> is it on? president yee: is it outside somewhere? do you know? go ahead. or on. -- hold on. we will give you two minutes instead of once. >> and you ask us to get involved with our kids' education grid when we do, our voices are totally ignored. the only choice that we see seems to think is racism. what we ask for at our school, what we elect is ignored. they put in their personal -- they put their personal agendas in front of our kids' education. believe it or not, there are some decent black and latino families in 92114 who would like to see our kids educated and attend college. in the over 40 years i have been a student, parent, grandparent, to have a principal and vice principal go around and hand out pink slips to teachers that are doing their jobs. there are not doing their job because one teacher does not want to teach three kids that are disrupting the

we have to be respectful of their time too. >> my name is mark murray and i am a seventh grade teacher at mlk. i'm here to ask that the non- reelection of those teachers be rescinded. we are an understaffed schools. normally, we have one quarter to one-third of our staff leave each year. how can you fire the teachers that had highly satisfactory evaluations. how can you mentor these teachers and fire them because they're not improving quickly enough? all four of these teachers worked there butts off for these students and are well-respected and. now we find out we may lay off a higher percentage of our remaining faculty because, despite the fact that we have training, we are not in the zone so we do not get special treatment. put that together with the people who are leaving and retiring because of the atmosphere and we could be looking at 50% turnover for next year. that sounds like the turnaround model only we did not earn it. i am just wondering if something can be done about this. i really hope it can. as the previous speaker already said, we are feeling really ignored right now. [

and to break it down is jonathan martin an nbc news senior political editor, mark murray, generally,k murray, we noted this little thing, forget the exit polls yesterday afternoon. 28, 28, 26, 28, those were the respective percentages mitt romney had gotten in the previous southern state and he got last night 29 and 30, an improvement. >> and the polls were all over the place, looking at that demographic and geographic. >> we knew exactly what would happen. >> we knew what would happen, and mitt romney goes in and aces the perception problem, the delegate math is all on his side right now, but what he's doing in the heartland of the republican, the nerve center of the gop, he's losing. >> and that's what's happening, jonathan, look at the exit polls, 50% in alabama said he wasn't conservative enough, 27 and 32 said he was about right, well, that was about his number, 29 and 30 is the actual number. among evangelicals, romney got under 30, 27 and 29 in both states. the same income split was there. it comes to -- i mean, this is the same issue and these were states that -- >> the romne

. >>> nbc's mark murray is joining us now, and ari melbur writes for the nation.ve been saying for a couple weeks now if mitt romney wins it will finally silence his critics. is tonight that important, ari? >> good morning to y'all as they say in the south. i think what's happened here is we know presidential politics are unfair and the goalposts are moving for rick santorum. there was a lot of attention on him making this argument. whether he does decent in southern states, which i'm give mitt romney some credit, it is a home game for santorum, not because of geography but because of social conservative issues, i don't think a strong showing is going to up-end the gop establishment that this is romney's. >> okay, so he's been eating grits and saying y'all. here's some reaction from regular folks in the south. >> when they start talking about grits and biscuits and gravy, it seems like they are kind of talking up to us. >> i don't think anyone is going to vote because they actually are hunters or they like cheese grits, i don't think that really matters to most vo

. >> nbc news senior political editor mark murray joins me now. thanks for being here. >> good morning luke. >> mitt romney playing an away game. did we think mitt romney would have to worry about alabama and mississippi. >> it wasn't friendly territory for him in 2008 in southern states. we saw south carolina wasn't good. we saw super tuesday that oklahoma and tennessee weren't good states for him. there aren't the voters that normally make up for a winning romney coalition. luke, importantly for romney they see this as a delegate game. a second place finish in mississippi and alabama nets you important delegates. they want to be able to when they are not playing on wa to s along at a slow and steady pace. you have a lot of calls from some saying you are the reason we can't catch up to romney and have a conservative run for president. >> i was either in first place or i was in second place. senator santorum declined to leave. he is in better shape. he would like me to leave. this is all a game. i think this is going to go on probably into june. >

joining me right now is mark murray, nbc news senior political editor, good morning, mark. >> good morning>> let's take a look at the delegate count as it stands currently. can rick santorum or newt gingrich still stage a come back? >> mathematically they can but the math looks very, very tough for them. we've actually crunched some of the math. for mitt romney he really just needs to win less than half of all remaining delegates. and so when you realize that many of these contests award these delegates proportionately, mitt romney is sitting in very, very good shape. however, when you look at rick santorum and newt gingrich for their math, they have to win more than 60% of all remaining delegates. that is a tougher climb for them. we still have a long way to go if you think about this race as a 400 meter dash, we're about at the 200 meter point. mitt romney's in the lead but hasn't crossed the finish line just yet. >> might we be more like 300 meters down in this race on wednesday morning if mitt romney wins alabama or mississippi? >> yes. and there is a lot at stake at these alabama and

and joining us right now to talk about that is senior political he h editor mark murray. ou, mark. and does this show when we look at what he plans on doing that they are believing the polls and have some concern about how gas and gas prices will weigh on the election here? >> richard, they certainly are being defensive here and sometimes actions speak louder than words. we saw a slew of polls last week that were inconclusive whether or not the higher gas prices have hurt president obama's standing. in fact, some of the polls show his approval rating at or near 50% but all the travel of the president is done and, in fact, our own nbc's thomas has noted since late peb the president has held most of his official out of washington events, had some type of energy related theme tied to higher gasoline prices so they certainly see this as a potential vulnerability and trying to do everything they can to counteract. >> as you heard and saw over the weekend mitt romney called for the firing of what he was calling the gas hike trio. take a listen to what he said. >> this gas hike t

thank you, mark murray. be sure to continue to tune into msnbc for coverage of the presidential race including the upcoming super tuesday contest. now weg.ta >> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >> msnbc ties you behind the walls of america's most notorious prisons into a world of chaos and danger and now the scenes you've never seen. lockup, raw. >> inside prisoner jail regrets are never in short supply. >> actually killed an innocent kid. that haunts him. >> as if watching lockup isn't warning enough for some, this is the place where people come to die. >> prisons and jails use inmates to warn troubled teens before it is too late. others express re greets with personal cameras, we call inmate cams. >> during a typical lockup interview we have our producer, our director of photographer, our audio technician and associate producer, and various staff members in the room kind of surrounding the inmate. it can be difficult sometimes to get an intimate interview with so many people arou

as our own mark murray. mark, let's talk about how this changes the dynamic with jeb bush coming out to give his endorsement to mitt romney. it answers a lot of questions about where this race is going. >> thomas, i'm not sure it changes the dynamic. but it's almost a cherry on top of his victory in illinois last night, very good news for the mitt romney campaign. but as alice was just mentioning to you, mitt romney hasn't had a problem with the republican establishment. they've been behind him. important to note that jeb bush's father has already endorsed mitt romney. but i was actually struck by jeb bush's statement where he said that it's time for the republican party to unite around mitt romney. as we've seen, polls have shown that this republican primary season has taken a toll on its candidates, including romney. romney only has about $7 million in the bank. so you're seeing people saying, look, it's time to end this race. let's go to the general election. >> cherry on top, as you're saying. politico re

mark murray calls me up this morning and said it's the demographic, stupid. go through quickly what it is. this was the fourth most moderate state of the 17. 36% republicans. just 30% conservative and let me show you where that ranks. michigan and vermont. they were greater than that in the split between moderates and conservatives. blue state, blue state, probably still very blue. michigan and vermont. >> it drops chicago on the eastern seaboard. >> that's what my dad used to say. >> anywhere outside of the media market and outside of cook county south, romney lost because it's culturally. mark is right. it's demographics. we saw them tweet a great thing. romney won in every county that had a city over 45,000 people. that's the fundamental dynamic. >> there is a city and you look at last night and any of the states. birmingham he wins and jack county he won. mobile or huntsville. everywhere where you find a city of any size, he's going to win. >> let me size up the three wins. the income, education and religion. i am using those as examples. you compare them

about newt gingrich for a second, he made it clear he is not getting out, but this, as our friends mark murray and chuck todd were writing, is it a sixth sense candidacy where he does not know it's dead? >> i think that newt gingrich has a strong sense of his own place in history. and he is clearly enjoying his moment and he is a realist. i do in the think that he is under any illusions about what last night meant. it meant that he does not have a clear path forward, at least in any conventional sense of amassing delegates and winning contests he has won one of the last 20 and that was in georgia. there's lots of ways to continue a candidacy without it being disruptive, i do not see him waging a campaign. >> just seems to be a campaign to do mischief against mitt romney, there seems to be quite a thing going on there. >> and to make point that's feels strongly about. >>> >> john harris. thank you very much. from politico. >> thank you. >> and foreign exchange students falling victim to sexual abuse here in the united states. the investigation coming up next. my parents ran across an ad for a h

join me as nbc news senior political editor mark murray.think mitt romney can get the 1144 delegates needed to secure the race. >> if mitt romney ends up winning all the delegates that are in stake at all of the different contests, he really won't cross that imagine gal number of 1144 delegates until may 29th. that's the texas primary. so essentially, two months from now. if you actually say that mitt romney is going to win a 60/40 split of all of the delegates, he won't cross that 1144 mark until june 26th. but if you think they're going to trade contests like we've seen them do over the past month and a half, there is, according to our math, that mitt romney isn't going to reach that 1144 mark. that's our challenge. he has the delegate lead. but when he actually wraps up that magical number, it won't be for quite a while. he might not even do it after the last primary on june 26th. >> it looks like newt gingrich was crunching the math just like you were. you heard him say mitt romney may not get to the convention. >> well, right. and so t

. >> so let's bring in our panel, liz, editor for associated press, nbc senior political editor mark murray, bob schrum, adviser to bob kerrey, and it is great to have you all here as we have our super tuesday hangovers together. liz, let's talk to you first. mitt romney pulls off the upset in ohio. "the cincinnati enquirer" nailed it saying "romney takes ohio barely," it's like the fight of the century, but if we take a look at this map, santorum taking nearly every ohio county, what does this do to the perception that he can't close the deal? >> well, i think what's happened is that rick santorum has solidified his standing as chief alternative to romney. in doing so highlighted the main issue romney has had throughout the past year which is he just can't seem to consolidate the conservative base. as we move forward, this is romney's big challenge. he can't win in the south, can't consolidate the conservative base. when was the last time there was a gop nominee who couldn't win in the geographical base of his own party? that's his challenge going forward. how does he overcome that? >> bob

. >> nbc news political editor mark murray joins me here live in washington.pt that it might spark the political battle we saw. this is pretty much a done deal, this war if you will over this budget is on. >> this is going to be the terrain of the president obama and whoever his republican opponent probably mitt romney will fight on. in the fall of 2012. and it basically, the argument frame up, republicans say we need to do something drastic, something bold to get rein in our debt. this isn't balanced at all. you're asking poor people, the middle class, seniors to pick up the burden and they've been making attacks on that. >> you have the republicans regarding medicare. they say that they at least believe, this is a bipartisan deal. that's fudging it perhaps. none the less, maybe this could be sold as bipartisan. >> ron widen who came aboard and supported what paul rbi is doing. what paul ryan did last time, we want to privatize medicare so seniors would have to buy private health insurance. the modification is that they could buy it or still stay in medicare.

senior political editor mark murray joins me to talk about this.rybody looks to look at the delegate count and try to hash it all out. just a huge number for the candidates tomorrow. what's considered a successful day for the romney and santorum camps going into tomorrow? >> well, it's all about the delegate math. if the mitt romney campaign can rack up 180 to maybe 200 out of the 424 delegates at stake on super tuesday, i think they will be very happy with that. thomas, when you start doing the math, you're going to see the romney folks will rack up a lot of delegates. in massachusetts, his home state. also in virginia where he's the only republican on the ballot in addition to ron paul. he might end up getting all 46 delegates there. that's really the romney strategy. when you look to rick santorum, he's trying to win a contest in oklahoma and tennessee, the southern states, wells pull off the biggest prize of them all, ohio. >> we shall see. you can get in-depth information on the latest nbc polls and super tuesday states at firstread.com. forty

he's behind there with rick santorum and ron paul later and later i asked mark murray about romney'sa comeback. >> the man looks very, very tough for them and we've crunched some of the math and for mitt romney he needs to win less than half of all remaining delegates, and so when you realize it many of these contests award these delegates proportionately and mitt romney is in very, very good shape. >> mark says that santorum and gingrich would need to win 60% of all remaining delegates and adds that we still have a long way to go. >> rick santorum will be appearing on tomorrow's "meet the press." it airs tomorrow on nbc so check your local listings for the time. >> developing now, attempts at diplomacy in syria. kofi annan met with syrian president bashar al assad to try to end the year-long conflict there. president assad told annan that syria was ready to, quote, end any unrest. there was more violence in the city of homs as seen today in this amateur video. >> in texas, a flight attendant is under close watch following a startling onboard outburst. and she struggled with them and

murray's brother and sister-in-law came to dc to mark the milestone. >> we ran the 8 k, race down in dc to commemorate an activity that jaina enjoyed and a race she has run in the past. >> jaina murray's parents sent a flower arrangement to the store and visited her gravesite in houston. >>> we are less than 24 hours away from two more gop presidential primaries. the focus is on the south and rick santorum is hoping a strong showing could be enough to make it a two-man race. >> reporter: mitt romney is celebrating his 65ing birthday on the campaign trail in alabama. >> i want to say thanks to you forgiving me this birthday present. >> reporter: one of two southern states holding republican primaries tomorrow. >> i think it is time to send a president to washington who can fix things in this country. >> reporter: rick santorum is sending time in mississippi. the other state where republican voters will head to the polls. a new cbs news new york times poll shows santorum leads the poll over republican primary voters with 34%. romney trails just behind with 30%. newt gingrich and ron pau

. >>> yesterday marked the one year anniversary of jana murray. >> reporter: hew murray -- hue murray made a bittersweet appearance where his sister was stabbed to death and murdered by a coworker one year ago. >> my wife and i decided to come to dc and we ran the race she has run in the past. >> reporter: her parents were too upset to come. but they sent this arrangement. >> my parents and my brother and his family stayed in the houston area and went to the gravesite, had a service this morning there. >> reporter: some of her friends brought flowers, too. >> i want them to see people loved who she was. loved who she was. >> reporter: the small gathering was meant to remember and honor the young woman. >> it was very lively. everybody in there was full of life. >> reporter: coworker britney norwood was convicted of murdering jane na and trying to cover-up the fact by claiming the pair had been sexually assaulted by two masked men who broke into the store. >> all of the events of that night are so etched in our minds you start to re-live all of those moments. yet that is important. wit

. >> reporter: even though today marks the one year anniversary of jaina murray's murder, the folks who brought the flowers hearsay they did it to celebrate her life. in bethesda. >>> britney norwood is serving a life sentence -- for murdering murray. >>> someone stole more than 60 boxes of girl scout cookies from a family van, which is about $260,000 worth of cookies. mark sexton had loaded the cookies into the family van so his nine-year-old daughter could start his deliveries. >> to know they stole 66 boxes of girl scout cookies, my daughter was just a mess. it was heartbreaking. >> if you see somebody selling cookies at a grocery store and they don't quite look like the girl scout type, perhaps that might be something we need to know about. >> police recovered 46 of the stolen boxes of cookies a few blocks from the sexton's home but the rest are still missing in local boy scouts continue their efforts to help victims of japan's earthquake and tsunami. troop 964 hosted its 14th annual model train show. all proceeds from the show are being donated to our troops in japan. >>> we have j

today marks one year since a co-worker brutally killed jayna murray at the lululemon athletic store inethesda. family and friends will share memories about murray during an open house this morning. brittany norwood is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for murray's murder. >>> the island cafe in the petworth neighborhood is shut down following a stabbing. d.c. police chief cathy lanier used her emergency powers to shut down the restaurant until a hearing. someone stabbed a man early yesterday morning inside the restaurant. he is in the hospital with serious injuries. >>> both mitt romney and rick santorum picked up big wins ahead of tuesday's southern primaries. romney captured wyoming and the u.s. territories while santorum took home kansas. romney still holds a commanding lead in delegates. tuesday features primaries in alabama and mississippi. >>> virginia's general assembly needs more time to come to a budget agreement. yesterday ended the regular session without a deal on the state budget. democrats are pushing for an extra $450 million in spending

. >> the ban also hasn't stopped murray from recruitinglatest, w >> marks has been teaching me about what the hammer means, what the different gods and goddesses are. >> jones who also denies being a white supremacist came to wabash three years ago at age 18. he was sentenced to six years for burglary. >> i was hanging out with the wrong people and i strung out on drugs and broke into a house and took a tv and bunch of other little items like a tattoo gun, took them and sold them for drugs. >> the house he robbed was his father's. >> my dad called the police. he was like, i strongly believe it was my son, junior. and it killed him to it. >> jones said he would like to rebuild a relationship with his father, and will soon have the chance. he leaves prison on parole in one week. >> you're not enjoying the weather, are you? why would you enjoy the weather, man? you get to enjoy all that when you go home next week. next thursday. >> he wants to be influenced because he's still being molded as a man. you know, he's still a kid and he's turning into somebody. >> delivering papers. >> no, t

sunday marked one year since the bethesda yoga store employee was brutally murdered on the job. jayna murray to death inside lululemon store. her co-worker brittany norwood was eventually convicted for the attack. yesterday the store and held an open house in her memory. a flower arrangement with the letter j placed in the front window and pictures were posted inside the store of jayna murray. >> investigators are trying to figure out what started as far the damage to a southeast washington home. flames broke out overnight. firefighters quickly put out the blaze and there are no reports of injury. d.c. police are still looking for the gunman opened fire inside a northwest ihop. ihop this happened around 6:30 sunday morning at the 14th street in columbia heights. the shooting may of stemmed from an argument. the victim is still in critical condition. >> of gaithersburg priest at the center of a communion controversy has been placed on leave. the archdiocese of washington suspended father marcel guarnizo for intimidating behavior. he was serving as a parochial picker at st. john neumann parish

. >>> today marks one year since a woman brutally killed a co-worker at the lululemon athletic store in bethesda. jayna murray died inside the yoga apparel store on bethesda row. today her co-workers will have an open house to share memories about murray. her brother and his wife are expected to be there beginning at 10:00 this morning. a jury convicted brittany norwood for murray's murder. norwood is currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole. >>> this morning a popular restaurant in northwest washington remains closed following a stabbing. we brought you this story as breaking news yesterday morning. since then, we learned d.c. police chief cathy lanier shut down the island cafe on upshur street in the petworth neighborhood. someone stabbed a man early yesterday morning inside that restaurant. he is in the hospital with serious injuries. the restaurant is expected to reopen wednesday night at the earliest. >>> federal officials are investigating more letters with white powder discovered in d.c. two letters with the substance were found at the blt steak restaurant on i street northwe

today marked the one-year anniversary of her murder. the store held an open house to remember murraya flower or ring to it was placed in the front window and pictures of murray were inside the store. >> i just think she was beautiful and full of life. >> love to who she symbolized. a very touching story and a very horrible murder occurred >> she was only 29 years old. her co-worker, britney norwood, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life and prisoner. >> the governors of maryland and virginia held a mini debate on "meet the press" and advocated for their presidential candidates. martin o'malley as chairman of the democratic governors' association, wall bob mcdonnell heads the republican governors association. >> president obama under his leadership, we had 24 months in a row of positive job creation every month. >> we have lost 864, 000 jobs. 8% may be the best that barack obama can do, but that is not as good as americans in need. >> and bob mcdonnell supports mitt romney. both governors say the economy will be a major factor. >> irish eyes were not the only ones smiling toda

marks one year since a brutal killing inside an apparel store in bethesda. there were tears, but smiles, too. friends and family are remembering jana murray. >> reporter: her friends, family and coworkers have come a long way. they gathered at the lululemon today to celebrate a life. >> she was a beautiful soul and i hope she's in a better place. >> reporter: her parents sent a white flower arrangement along with a note thanking the community for their support. her brother and his wife attended the event that focused on her positive personality. >> the mood is upbeat. it's to remember jana. she was always a joyful person, loved life. and these are her friends. they knew her as well, so they have all kind of grasped on to her love of life. >> reporter: even sharing fond memories. >> all telling stories and remembering, you know, the time jayna wore roller blades in the store. >> reporter: many wore shirts to commit themselves to honoring her life forever. >> brittany norwood was sentenced of killing jayna in january. >>> tonight a university of maryland student is under arrest for an online threat of a campus shooting rampage. police say h

a look at stories making headline as somber anniversary yesterday marked 1 year since jana murray wastore in bethesda some people left flowers out front of the store coworker brittany norwood was convicted of murray's murder murray's brother and his wife ran the st. patrick 8 k race in the district. >>> dc police still looking for the gunman who shot a man inside an ihop in northwest washington yesterday, it happened 14th and irving the victim fought with the gunman before the shooting. >>> maryland senators would continue their debate of a bill that would not allow smoking in a car with a child under the age of 8. while second hand smoke effects children of all ages limiting the ban to 8 would make the law easier to enforce. >>> 8:15 a.m. let's head over the gwen, she has a look at this day plus a bonus. >> yes, got to start with that. >> definitely a bonus, and this is something that will make you smile because, it is my first 5 our first 5 photo of the day, take a look this is steven. >> oh,. >> i just want to grab those cheeks and tug them to death look isn't he adorable. >> look