with us today, "time" magazine's michael duffy. christian science monitor liz marlantes. nbc's kelly o'connell and national journal major garrett. first up, it's panic time among republican leaders. they feel their most conservative voters painted the party until a very difficult corner. the long primary process has exposed the candidate who always looked most electable, mrmmrm, have having real -- mitt romney having trouble talking real. two attempts this week. >> any old girlfriends here? [laughter] have to be careful. ann's not here today. don't tell. >> a little history. i was born and raised here. i love this state. it seems right here trees are the right height. chris: trees are the right height. the only alternative is rts rts, -- rick santorum, more natural and appealing because people are panicked because he said things like this just last october. >> one of the things i will talk about that no president talked about before is i get the dangers of contraception, sexual liberty ideas. maybe persons of faith said that's ok, contraception is ok. it's not ok. chris:

michael duffy is washington bureau chief for "time" magazine. i've gone almost this entire election cycle, so far, without having to mention donald trump. i think today, i've run out of -- >> you broke down. >> i've run out of rope. >> you finally broke down. >> i broke down. but michael, what does he bring to mitt romney? is this the time to re-emphasize romney's wealth? hardly. is there any support base? >> i think with donald trump, there's always a negotiation somewhere. he was negotiating with a network when he was trying to decide whether to run for president. last fall you'll remember that mitt romney actually was kind of in talks with trump about whether to -- he went to new york, i think, a couple times to see him, about whether to have an endorsement then where he was farther down in the polls than he is today. and now they've actually done some kind of a deal to have trump come out and endorse soon. and i suspect there'll be some kind of -- something in this for donald trump, in the way of appearances. >> for one thing, it's almost ju

covering the week, michael duffy of "time" magazine, jeanne cummings of bloomberg news, nancy youssef of mcclatchy newspapers and yochi dreazen of "national journal." >> award-winning reporting and nalings, covering history as it happens. nation's capital -- live from our nation's capital, this is "washington week" with gwen ifill, produced in association with "national journal." corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- a line is a powerful thing. it connects the global economy to your living room. cleaner air to stronger markets. factory floors to less-crowded roads. today's progress to tomorrow's promise. norfolk southern. one line, infinate possibilities. corporate funding is also provided by prudential financial, boeing, additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by cryptions to pbs stations from viewers like you. thank you. once again, live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. gwen: good evening. you can tell we're approaching another do or die moment in this republican primary contest as the criticis

i would like to now introduce my partner in moderation, michael duffy, the executive editor of "time," he joined "time" if 1985 as a pentagon correspondent and he covered congress and did first bush presidency and the clinton white house. he has won many journalism awards and written a couple of books, but most of all, his up coming book "the president's club, inside the world's most exclusive fraternity" will be coming out and i look forward to reading it. michael, thanks for joining us. >> my first job is to actually know something about negative advertising and advertising in general, so i have to exit the stage quickly. it's robertman, he is the author of "daisy petals and mushroom pads" he has the remark able distinction of having worked for three different democratic sr t

i'd like to now introduce my partner in moderation, michael duffy is the executive editor of "time" andhe magazine's former washington bureau chief. he's covered congress, he covered the first bush presidency and the clinton white house. he's won numerous journalism awards and written a couple of books, but most saliently i should mention that his upcoming book, "the president's club: inside the world's most exclusive fraternity," is coming out, will be published by simon & schuster in april, and i know i, for one, am looking forward to reading that. michael, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. [applause] >> my first job is to introduce someone who actually knows something about negative advertising and advertising in general, so i have to exit the stage quickly. um, and it's robert mann who has had an interesting life and is the author of "daisy petals and mushroom clouds: lbj, barry goldwater and the ad that changed american politics." bob is the directer of the reilly center at lsu and has the quite remarkable distinction of having worked for three different democratic senators from

i'd like to now introduce my partner in moderation, michael duffy is the executive editor of "time" and magazine's former washington bureau chief. michael joined "time" in 1985 as a pentagon correspondent. he has covered congress. he covered the first bush presidency and the clinton white house. he has won numerous journalism awards and written a couple of books but most saliently i should mention his upcoming book, the president's club, inside the world's most exclusive fraternity, is coming out, it will be published by simon & schuster in april. i for one am looking forward to reading that. michael? thanks for joining us. [applause] >> good afternoon. my first job is introduce someone that actually knows something about negative advertising and advertising in general so i have to exit the stage quickly. and it is robert mann who has had a very interesting life and author of, daisy petals and mushroom clouds, lbj, barry goldwater and the ad that changed american politics. bob is director of reilly center and media and public affairs at lsu and has the quite remarkable distinction havin

duffy. >> calling from westchester, pennsylvania, my name's michael. and i think that the great idea, in can the fa, i would take it a step further and ask that they take a 10% pay cut when they don't -- when they fail to meet a balanced budget. i think it's ridiculous that think that they should not be penalized for doing their job properly especially when you consider that most of the time they're not even at congress. they're off on other you know, tasks outside of congress instead of focusing on their core responsibilities. >> i think that the federal workers in this area should definitely take the pay freeze without complaining because there's a lot of us in the private sector who went from making you know, in this specific case software developer such as myself going from making $120,000 a year to $90,000 a year in this economy. so i took not only a pay freeze but a pay cut of obviously, $30,000 pay cut. i don't have any recourse, i don't have anybody to complain to except for -- and i can go out and look for a different job. the fact that federa