i'm going to ask you, michael gerson, as a former member of the bush white house, a republican in good standing, now a columnist, that you write from the right side of things-- what do you think the president is... is there more going on here than we might suspect? was he doing more than sticking the needle in? >> it was a good comedy act, but also a good strategy. you know, anything done to humiliate donald trump may make it more likely for him to run. any increase in the likelihood that trump is going to run is good for the president, because every minute that trump spends on the national stage is a minute that a serious republican is not on that stage. >> schieffer: that's very, very interesting. and i want to talk to the more serious side of this because, after this whole birther thing, the president put out his birth certificate this week. then, donald trump held this news conference up in new hampshire, and brings up the question of president obama's grades when he was going to college. listen to this. >> the word is, you know, you would think he would want to release it actually

bush, michael gerson.eems to be gearing up a little, which we like. mike huckabee is out. he was largely seen as here's where the social conversation will go. who now has that crowd to attract? >> i was in iowa not too long ago and people were already starting to make their choices, former huckabee supporters. he was really the front-runner in that state. among social conservatives kind of the harder-edge ones that had supported huckabee were interested in michelle bachmann. the softer edge ones were interested in tim pawlenty. who is much more electable in a certain way. so i think the huckabee people will divide among a couple of members of the field but those were the two that people were talking about. >> do either one of those, if you said now social conservatives, big in iowa, certainly in the early states, do you see anybody there that you think this is the guy we really don't want to run against? >> i kind of put them in two categories and huckabee is a little hard because i actually do have some r

joe lockhart, michael gerson, thanks so much. back. >>> when we come back a check of the top stories, then the arab spring and what obama plans to say about it. i love that my daughter's part fish. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. our superb school system on a chart. but how do you chart... happiness? we can show our diverse culture on a graph. but how do you graph... experiences? we can diagram the business reasons for your company to be here. but what kind of diagram do you use... for imagination? fairfax county, virginia, is the ideal business location. and the ideal life location. >>> time for a

that's syndicated columnist mark shields and "washington post" columnist michael gerson. david brooks is off tonight. picking up on what secretary napolitano told judy, mark, what do you see the prospects for immigration reform in the short run? >> i see it more politically than i do statutorily, jim. i mean the reality is that first of all, there's not going to be a major immigration bill-pass the congress. >> lehrer: why not? >> for a whole host of reasons. one is it's not on anybody's agenda. and secondly, there's no consensus. the party, republican party has moved from the position of president bush who was worked with people like senator kennedy. and who by the way got 43 percent of the latino vote in 2004. in 2008 that fell down to 31% for john mckane, 67% for barack obama. it's-- at 16% in the census they are now the largest minority in the country, latinos are. and almost one out of four people in this country under the age of 17 is latino. so it's politically important, especially in states like nevada and new mexico and governor napolitano's arizona, new mexico,

the stabilization of a fully fledged civil war what the situation in syria let's talk now to michael gerson duff's he's director of the camp of the bay center for research on globalization thanks for being on the line with us tonight on r.t. but make those directly involved in the libyan conflict now do you think when the coalition is likely to head to syria any time soon. i think that is unlikely in the foreseeable future what i what i think is is all a drawing boards of u.s. foreign policy is increased sanctions embargoes directed against syria. as well as a process of. diplomatic rhetoric which we are seeing now in recent days not a very intensive other situation even more. absolutely absolutely but i think this is some very fundamental questions which have to be addressed as to what is the cause of the violence in syria. it's not of the western media has painted i think a rather biased picture of what is actually happening on the ground and from my understanding. when i spent a month in syria just before these events unfolded but if you look at what happened right from the beginning in

this astonishing transformation has been repeated all over the continent thousands of times and michael gersontory because you're paying for it. >> there are good foreign policy reasons to do this sort of thing. >> reporter: gerson is a conservative columnist with "the washington post," a senior fellow with the council on foreign relations and he was once the chief speech writer for the man who got this rolling. >> he often talked about to whom much is given much is required. >> reporter: this was very important to him. >> right. exactly. there was a motivation here that one america should be in the world, we should be a source of hope. but also, you know, a kind of conscience motivation here, very much rooted in his faith. >> the president of the united states. >> "he" was george w. bush. in 2003, bush started the president's emergency plan for aids relief, or pepfar, an unprecedented $3 billion a year to help the world fight aids. in 2008, he led the charge for renewal and expansion. >> we can bring healing and hope to many more. so i ask you to maintain the principles that have changed beha