today was the kickoff of obama/biden 2012 campaign. vice president joe biden made the campaign's first official reelection appearance at a union hall in toledo, ohio. about 600 miles away, the president of the united states spoke to a community college in maryland. he addressed the hot-button issue of higher gas prices and called out the republicans for their fearmongering tactics. >> gas prices went up around this time last year. gas prices shot up in the spring and summer of 2008, i remember, i was running for president at the time. this has been going on for years now. and every time prices start to go up, especially in an election year, politicians dust off their three-point plans for $2 gas. i guess this year they decided they were going to make it $2.50. i don't know where, you know, why not $2.40? why not $2.10? but they -- but they tell the same story, they head down to the gas station, they make sure a few cameras are following them, and then they start acting like we've got a magic wand and we will give you cheap gas forever

. >> what senator obama--biden obama--biden--obama whatever. >> yeah, bla-bla-bla- >> i got winners and losers for you. the winner may an surprising one later on in the program and we have a great controversial in the g.o.p. field. >> are these magic grits? did you buy them from the same guy who told him sold jack his bean stalk bean? you know what the real shocker is? we have more news coming up. >> this morning we woke up to more sad news from afghanistan. one of our soldiers doing something terrible and hears what the news had all day today. >> afghanistan in a revenge from the taliban. >> new details about the u.s. soldier now accused of murdering at least 16 mostly women and children in afghanistan. >> he broke into three houses in two villages. slaughtering 16 people, including nine children. >> why should we continue to invest blood and treasure in over ten and a half years in afghanistan? >> well, all right well, i got to ask the same question. we'll ask that in a bit. it does not look good, and 16 people killed, mostly women and children. it's bad bad news. and president obama

despite the governor's popularity at home, the poll finds that an obama-biden ticket wins. all eyes will be on illinois for like election results. watch results on our sister station. thus starts a 7:00. >> we are monitoring late developments from bishop -- mexico where kurds are assessing the damage. epicenter of the quake was hit 15 miles there are acapulco on the coast. they did damage to roads bridges, buildings, and other structures. there are the reports of major problems. the mexican embassy tells abc 7 that they have received numerous calls from people trying to locate relatives in the country. more on local efforts to 9 at abc 7 news at 11:00. >> protesters have scheduled a march through the columbia heights section of the district. >> the silent march is set to get >> -- set to get started in about one hour. the i hoppe was the scene of the most serious attack, a shooting that took place after a fight broke out over the victim's sexual orientation. they say not to expect a protest but a silent march to reflect on what some of their friends have endured. cox>> this

i think we're going to be talking about how obama/biden 2012 for them the general election is now in.he's going to go to some rural areas. i think he's a big asset that will be used a lot for the obama campaign. thank you. the best dressed maen in washington. >> you're very kind. >>> i'm chris cillizza. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." melissa is in for tamron hall. >>> we're following several developments out of afghanistan. the taliban is breaking off peace talks. richard eng le is joining us live. >>> moments ago, rod blagojevich arrived a t a colorado prison will he will start serving his sentence. shazi: seven years ago, i had this idea. to make baby food the way moms would. happybaby strives to make the best organic baby food. in a business like ours, personal connections are so important. we use our american express open gold card to further those connections. last year we took dozens of trips using membership rewards points to meet with farmers that grow our sweet potatoes and merchants that sell our product. vo: get the card built for business spend

biden said the issue is worth discussing but won't happen in the obama/biden administration. he's expected to repeat the message when he meets with central american leaders in honduras this afternoon. >>> the white house abruptly changed the location of this year's meeting of leaders from the world's eight largest economies. the g-8 summit will happen at camp david instead of chicago. president obama says camp david will provide a better setting to meet with international leaders. chicago will still host the nato summit right after the g-8 on may 20. >>> 4:47. today eight current and former american service members will file a lawsuit accusing the top brass of tolerating a number of sexual assaults. two of the women say they were raped while at the elite rain barracks in washington. officials at the barracks strongly dispute the allegations. military officials are cracking down on sexual assaults. the pentagon estimates there are 19,000 incidents in the military each year. one of the women filing the lawsuit will be on the "today" show. she says she was raped by her superior.

back here at home, president obama invites president biden in maryland and ohio with tough talks againstheir american rivals. tracy, good morning. >> now, president obama and vice president biden jumping into this giving what they say is a different choice for americans. mitt romney, rick santorum. >> a one, two, three punch. vice president biden told auto worker ins ohio, republicans would let their bosses and employees go bankrupt. >> if you give any one of these guys a key to the white house, they will bankrupt the middle class again. >> joe bidden is doing what vice presidential candidates often do what is calling the other side out on issue differences. >> in maryland, president obama focused on energy and promises from his republican vivelle of cheaper gays. >> they start acting like we've got a magic wand. they dismissed wind power. >> this is utter intellectual concepts. and we'll see who the american people want to elect. >> a campaign underway with both sides in the ring. >> and it is fully underway, the president actually has more events today in chicago and atlanta. >> all ri

thanks to president obama and vice president biden, we have done that. finally. finally. [applause] let me tell you, we have a lot at stake in this election. the other side, mitt romney, the other candidates, what to reverse all that. they talk about wanting to pull the affordable care act by the roots and fully repeal it. and replace it with nothing. no new ideas. they want to take us back to the time when insurance company bureaucrats would be making decisions about what kind of care you could have. they want to -- they revealed, by reintroducing the ryan budget plan. mitt romney fully embraced this proposal to end medicare as we know it, to turn it into a doctor program. to make sure that safety net was no longer there for you when you turn 65. that is unacceptable. [applause] that is why i am so proud to stand with the president and vice-president every single day as the chair of the democratic national committee. i can tell you we will never lets you down. ted and i will fight every single day to make sure the safety net for seniors, the medicare program is preserved

. >> notice congressman paul managed to escape the obama biden campaign cross hairs. while biden's position on the american auto bailout and tax and new campaign documentary by former president clinton actor tom hanks and former white house chief of staff encourage mayor rahm emanuel. >> many want to do what mitt romney did, let it go? can't be saved. can't put good money after bad. >> romney never writes the detroit can't be saved like emanuel says. he said a turnaround not a check and a managed bankruptcy may be the only path to fund am tal restructuring the industry needs. it would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs and in a managed bankruptcy he writes the federal government would compel newly competitive and viable auto makers rather than seal their fate with a bailout check. the road we traveled is about the president's first term so far from the president's perspective. it's on youtube right now. >>> now it's time to take a look at who is talking. the white house isn't saying the president is in full reelection mode but he

the obama-biden duo in full campaign mode now. it's clear mitt romney is going to be nominee. flst no point in waiting. we can't wait. >> so we can't wait. is the campaign if full mode right now? or is this jv strategy? or are we seeing vs. today strategy? >> this is let's getting the machinery rolling publicly. they're doing grass roots organizing in each of the states. there's been a lot of activity going on behind the scenes. so this is starting to move that out a little bit more out front and a little bit more publicly. he lumped romney into santorum and the whole pack. it sort of diminishes his status, another what way to beat him up a little bit. in the age of a 24-hour news cycle, how will that play out? >> when that came out, i thought, this is something you normally see in the summer before an election. thuf positive message about the candidate. normally this section of the campaign is defining the other guys. they're doing both simultaneously, which shows you they understand the void that republicans are leading with the public for the regular guy. so they give you j

one can attribute political motives to that because of course on obama connection corazon biden because of the cronyism that we talked about before without i don't have no proof of that you know of the grave and obama team doesn't come to me to consult on the campaign trail but i know you have been there for setting up the areas they would come to but i think certainly it's smells of a lack of desire to aggressively pursue this case and that's one of the things that's been most frustrating it's not that complicated i think congressman posey had it right yesterday when he made the casino analogy if you and i are in a casino and all my chips are gone i can't get more credit at the window of the casino i can just reach over and take your chips and use them for my bed i'd be in custody in two minutes yeah if i surmise if you can occur john chorus line well it isn't it just to make to remind our audience of all of those connections you have corazon who has been a bundler for obama he way he goes and testifies before members of congress those were his former colleagues of them because he was

the obama-biden re-election campaign is kicking up attack on romney bit. chris?carl cameron on the campaign trail in new orleans. thank you for that. president obama spoke out today about an incident that has become a national outrage. the killing of martin, unarmed teenager by neighborhood volunteer claiming it was self-defense. they look at the impassioned word and what is done to quell the rage. >> following days of urging, president obama addressed the shooting death of treavon martin, the unarmed high schooler killed by zimmerman, suspicious neighborhood watch coord nowhere in -- coordinator. >> if i had a son he would look like martin. i think they are right to expect that all of us as americans are going to take it with seriousness that it deserves and get to the bottom of what happened. >> zimmerman claimed self-defense and has not been charged. >> the parents of martin joined by 5,000 people today at a rally for justice led by al sharpton demanding the shooter be arrested. >> are we stupid? we love our children like you love yours. >> no justice. >> no p

speaking foreign language ] >> translator: if i had an opportunity to meet president obama and vice president biden, i would say my husband, gao zhisheng is good people and he always did good deeds. what he had done in china is abide with the world and stand up for international standards. why in china he has to be persecu persecuted, why he has to be suffering for all kinds of torture. please help release him immediately. >> if i had an opportunity to talk to president obama, i want to say, my husband is innocent. because of the love, he did some things, but it's the way to show how he loves this country. so please help. >> thank you. >> thank you. let me ask our witnesses if there is anything further. do you want to perhaps touch on what the un is doing or not doing? the u.s. does play the lead, but certainly the european parliament and other parliaments and lawmakers and leaders ought to be raising their voices on behalf of the disappeared and the persecuted leaders of the human rights movement in china. >> sure. let me just say briefly. the u.n. is engaging on a couple key cases. the high commi

obama/biden 50, romney/mcdonnell 43%. the numbers don't change. >> no, nobody cares about v.p.have four candidates, trying to find a nominee, john, so nobody's paying any attention to that yet. and guess what? the election's not held today. it's going to be held in eight months and i think once we go head to head and it's romney against obama the numbers will change. i'd rather be up than down in all honesty in a swing state like virginia but this is going to change quite a bit as we get the head-to-head matchup. >> i was down to see you not that long ago and we had the conversation why can't governor romney close the deal. a month, six weeks later and i ask why can't governor romney seal the deal. santorum wins in mississippi and alabama. people say wow. romney wins in puerto ree ricoe. what does he have to do to convince people this is over or are we going to june? >> well he's got to get 1,144 votes, that's what he's got to do. there's four talented people in the race, all want to win. nobody's given up but mitt romney has twice as many delegates as any other candidate, won

and robert house is a former advisor to then senator joe biden and also a member of the obama biden transition team and president and ceo of fox global. and angela mcglowan an analyst, great to have both of you, and i think this is one of the most important topics i've been able to chat with a political panel with in a while and america seems to care. robert, you first. if the court rules it unconstitutional, what is president obama and his team going to do? >> that's a good question, i think i would be surprised if they did, quite frankly. i drove in this morning, past two big crowds and both of them were at movie theaters to see the "the hunger games" and the crowds on the mall weren't, but the hunger games crowds were huge. and they are he' covered in obamacare and they're getting to stay on the health care for a longer time. mammograms free, protective care for free and insurance abuses and those are parts of the act that members of congress, unfortunately, mcconnell and the republican congress have not tackled. >> jamie: what about the cost though, robert? the cost of the program is being

from coal burning electric plants, so the environmental protection agency anti-coal position, the obama-biden anti-coal position, if you have open markets you better have capable, i have proposals designed to make us the leading manufacturer in the world. at that point you'd like to go after every potential buyer, europe, frankly, regressing export to germany, a very high cost country. and open up all of latin america for important regional purposes and we also want to test yourself against china and india. if we can design regulatory policies that enable us to compete head to head with china and india, and the studies now that, for example, the south carolina and alabama will both be cheaper than coastal china, in the not too distant future. the u.s. is already less expensive than japan so we want to aggressively export to these countries and requires a very different attitude. >> go ahead, secretary. >> we all understand how important the manufacturing sector is to our country. and the number of jobs that it provides, but we also know the worldwide manufacturing has been on a decline. do yo

. >>> well, back here at home on the campaign trail, president obama and vice president biden went all out thursday in maryland and ohio with tough talk aimed at their republican rivals. nbc's tracie potts joins us with those details, tracie, good morning. >> good morning. democrats on offense after months of watching the republicans slug it out in these primaries and debates. the president and vice president this week decided to jump into the frey giving americans what they call a different choice. >> mitt romney, rick santorum, and newt gingrich, these guys have a fundamentally different economic philosophy than we do. >> reporter: a one, two, three punch in his first campaign event. vice president biden told auto workers in ohio republicans would let their bosses and employees go bankrupt. >> if you give any one of these guys the keys to the white house, they will bankrupt the middle class again. >> joe biden is doing what vice presidential candidates often do, which is calling the other side out on issue differences. >> reporter: in maryland president obama focused on energy and pr

from the chinese government, and i also need to ask that all of you, including president obama and vice president biden and secretary hillary to continue to call on the gun government of china to respect human rights for all of its citizens and i would like to request a meeting with them to tell them the story face to face. i ask you to continue to report on this case so the truth about his treatments and the chinese government will be known to the world. and i hope and pray that with your help, my husband will regain his freedom and my family can be together once again. thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak here today. i welcome any questions you may have. [ speaking chinese ] >> translator: i would request the congress to include the following articles as permanent records. the first one is a case regarding a persecution on christians in china and the second one is an open letter by lawyer zhisheng following a persecution and the third is a letter zhisheng wrote entitled dark knight and dark mask and kidnapped by the black mafia. and the fourth one, the last one, is an interview with the

we don't you know know exactly what i like but it's important biden being the genius that he is if you look at those sound bites both obama and biden attributed the stimulus plan through to the genius idea of john but of course biden always has to go over the top if you play back those videos which are available online he calls were one of the most honest. and still ahead where did you end up global customers think their missing money is and do they stand a chance against that true big to fail interest in getting it back we'll have more with stanley harvey first their closing market numbers. well. it's technology innovation all the rest of the limits of around rush hour we've got this huge earth covered. welcome back now as i said earlier our guest was also an m.f. global customers so he's been personally affected i asked what it's been like trying to get his money back he explained how different it's been from past bankruptcies in this industry. the firm that preceded m.f. global was refco they went bankrupt i had an account there at the time and basically the account and all the money was seamlessly moved to another bro

vice president joe biden came out swinging this past week marking a new offensive by president obama'sr gop rivals as being "dead wrong" on the auto bailout and pretty much everything else. take a listen. >> mitt romney, rick santorum, and newt gingrich, these guys have a fundamentally different economic philosophy than we do. governor romney was more direct. let detroit go bankrupt. you know, it's kind of amazing. gingrich and romney and santorum, they don't let the facts get in their way. >> so has the battle for blue collar america officially begun? i asked our political director mark preston. >> who better to send the message for the obama campaign than joe biden who really xemp fiz the blue collar background. that's why barack obama chose him to be his running mate, and, of course, we saw him on the campaign trail this week. he was very critical of the republican presidential candidates, named them by name, went directly after them. of course, joe biden right now is the top surrogate on the obama campaign. >> i want to talk about illinois. certainly the primary coming up on tuesda

name and turning him into o biden like obama or whether because he's irish, because of the irish association. i just think that it's funny that for all of the concern they had over it that she made that mistake and literally nobody noticed. you can go back and watch the tape of the debate and you'll hear her do that. i don't think there was any press coverage of it whatsoever. i don't think anybody mentioned it once. it's funny the way campaigns sometimes obsess over things. i understand exactly why they were obsessed over this, for the reasons mark said. but in the end, because she gave such a strong performance in that debate and had -- there were flaws to that performance for sure and ways you can poke holes into it. by and large she kind of fought joe biden who was thought to be not just a very experienced politician, but a solid debater, she fought him to a draw. in that context, given the concerns they had about her and some of the difficulties with her in debate prep, that was a huge win for her. because it went over so well and because she was broadly seen as having

well, today, the obama team hit back. joe biden was in campaign mode at a uaw rally in toledo, where he rallied blue-collar workers the president needs. on the out bailout, biden said the president was right and the republicans were dead wrong, and the president lampooned his opponents as flat earthers who dismiss any form of alternative energy. game on! >>> plus, mitt's got the math, but rick has the passion. and what in the world is newt up? we'll ask the man many republicans hoped who would save them from themselves, mitch daniels. >>> and what has once accepted by both parties has now become another partisan fact, the violence against women act. republicans say the democrats are playing politics. >>> and if there's one thing most people know about mitt romney, is that he once took a vacation with his dog, seamus, strapped to the roof of his car. what is it about romney that makes this story stick? >>> and let me finish tonight with a thought about glenn beck. >>> we begin with president obama and vice president biden in campaig

this is going to be the obama and biden campaign platform. while back a blogger wrote, left wing, the naive republicans think the election will be about jobs when it is going to be about taxes. and taxes for them mean tax the rich and class warfare and you will see that stress increasingly. you saw it from vice president biden in toledo and you will see it day after day after day from the obama campaign. >>neil: is it your sense going forward there is a risk with that strategy. say wall street continues doing well with a strong day today we, only of all the fat cats, and company earnings are doing well, maybe having in to do with the president but he could say this is happening under my watch, so, the very privileged folks, he and the vice president are fond of bashing could put him right back not oval office. >>reporter: well, it depends how well republicans score with their arguments. so far to the degree the scores with voters, romney has been doing well with talks about cutting the size of government and talks about unionized government w

biden jumps in and it will be the most refreshing thing to happen in presidential politics since obama ran. here's the question, would you vote for joe biden in 2016? go to cnn.com/caffertyfile. post a comment on my blog and go to the situation room's facebook page. >> can you imagine if biden in 2016 were running against the democratic nomination against hillary clinton? that would be quite a fight there. >> it would be a great show. we'd have fun with that. >> there would be high interest in that campaign. that's four years down the road. we have plenty of time to think about it. >> i'll be old by then. >> you'll be doing the cafferty file every single day, jack. >> thank you. >> we're standing by to hear live from the parents of trayvon martin. they've been meeting with justice department officials down in sanford, florida, about the case and the man who killed their son, a teenager, unarmed. we're going live to florida in a few minutes. we're looking at live pictures of the microphones there and that's where the parents will be speaking and answering reporters' questions at the sam

gop ticket doesn't help and is rumored to be a vice presidential matchup against president obama and joe biden. >>> and president obama said there is no reason for the united states and iran to be divided. in the message, the president said he wants iranians to know, quote, america seeks a dialogue to hear your views and understand your aspirations and called on their government to stop blocking the citizens access to some outside information. >>> irish prime minister kenny met with the president today in the oval office. the president said that the two nations share deep cultural ties and a commitment to some positive change in the world. they discussed the economies of both countries and strategies to get people back to work. the irish are struggling with a 14% unemployment rate. >>> first lady michelle obama made her first appearance on the late show with letterman and entered with a standing ovation and trying to get an inside scoop. >> hypothetically speaking at the end of the day, has your husband every come home and said to you oh, that john boehner, what an idiot. >> it's never happene

a sharper higher profile campaign mode for both president obama and vice-president joe biden. tonight the obama re-election campaign premieres a new 17-minute video pointing to what his people, the obama team, as the biggest accomplishments of the president's first term. today in ohio vice-president biden went after the top republican contenders by name. >> economic theories of gingrich, santorum and romney. they are bankrupt. if you give any one of these guys the keys to the white house, they will bankrupt the middle class again. >> let's check in with our chief white house correspondent jessica yellin. jess, why name names now? >> reporter: i've talked to multiple senior democratic sources on this one, john. the answer's pretty simple. they thought that there would be a republican nominee by now. the folks i've talked to say that in addition to that they planned this a few weeks ago. not only did they think there would be a nominee but they ultimately decide the they can't wait until may or june to start responding to republican attacks. so they decided to start quote drawing

." >>> well, back here at home on the campaign trail, president obama and vice president biden went all out thursday in maryland and ohio with tough talk aimed at the republican rivals. nbc's tracie potts joins us with those details. tr are acie, good morning. >> reporter: hi, lynn. good morning. good morning, everyone. after months of watching the republicans slug it out in these primaries and in these debates, the president and vice president this week decided to jump into the fray, giving americans what they call a different choice. >> mitt romney, rick santorum and newt gingrich, these guys have a fundamentally different economic philosophy than we do. >> reporter: a one-two-three punch in his first campaign event. vice president biden told autoworkers in ohio republicans would let their bosses and employees go bankrupt. >> if you give any one of these guys the keys to the white house they will bankrupt the middleclass again. >> joe biden is doing what vice presidential candidates do which is call the other side out on issues. >>> president obama focused on energy and promises from

. >> vice president joe biden on the campaign trail today in toledo, ohio as the obama effort continues to ramp up today with the release of a new 17-minute video and the vice president the first of four stops in four battleground states. welcome to hour two of "washington today" on c-span radio. i'm steve scully. politico puts it this way. headline kickoff day for the obama campaign. meanwhile, caning for a second day in puerto rico, rick santorum says making english an official language should be a condition of statehood for this u.s. territory. puerto rico set to hold a referendum on statehood in november. it currently does not have full voting rights in congress. it does have delegates for the republican convention. rick santorum campaigning there today and mitt romney also eyeing the delegates. the next key state is illinois on tuesday. ron paul refusing to commit to backing mitt romney if romney becomes the republican party's nominee for president. ron paul describing himself as the anti-war candidate saying that he would need more information about romney's foreign policy. he spo