. >> as far as the battle about the swing states has there competition, florida, ohio pennsylvania, has competition changed much in four years? >> i think this time around the battle ground is going to be similar. i think the obama campaign does not expect to compete in indiana. they are looking at arizona however, which was not in play last time. >> ohio pennsylvania, and florida, if unemployment stays more or less where it is should we expect any or all of them to fall into his column. >> unemployment has gone down quite a be it those states. if unemployment continues to fall in those three states that would help obama. however, you have got to look at europe. things could fall apart there. we could easily enter recession again this year and that would make things harder for obama. >> he also carried southern states of virginia and north carolina. if newt gingrich falls to romney as expected does that put some of these southern states in play for the president? >> i know the obama campaign is again targeting those states. you'll know for sure that the democrats are holding their conve

. >> tougher in ohio, pennsylvania, michigan, because he has that cultural down market appeal in a waymney has proven again and again in the primary he has not. >> who has run the better campaign? santorum has no money, no endorsements. >> he's coming off an 18-point loss in pennsylvania. >> six years ago. >> exactly. yet he's leading the national field, did well in those two states. sometimes the most rational analysis doesn't fit the way the politics actually work. >> let's look at "the wall street journal." not its opinion columns but news. quote, mr. santorum doesn't come with the type of political baggage that gingrich had, said one obama adviser. he has the ability to go farther and much more likely to be a potential nominee. direct i directing attacks against mr. santorum is under discussion at the headquarters in chicago, he added. it doesn't sound like they're moving very fast. >> no. >> my hunch is that they want santorum to do all the damage he can, right? >> exactly. >> rough up romney. maybe at best beat him. but at least rough him up as much as possible between now and ta

how does this issue play in places like ohio, pennsylvania, western and upstate new york where you need to sweep in order to get to that 25? this can't be a good issue for you. >> there is no question there is a pretty strong range of opinion on both sides of this issue. frankly, if you take a look at most of the polling, majority of people agree that if you happen to be a woman teaching at a catholic hospital, you shouldn't be denied access to contraception. a majority of people agree with that. i fully understand this is the kind of issue that is, as mark said, contentious and complicated. maybe there are ways to work it out. i will also say this. the people in pennsylvania, ohio, in other states where we are competing, they want focus on job creation. they want focus on how you rebuild the middle class. they want us to be focusing on reigniting the american dream. for as long as republicans stand up there and say they will not give a tax cut to the middle class unless the rich are protected, that's where they continue to have these challenges. let's have a legitimate dialogue on this

but we think we can win, maybe ohio pennsylvania -- florida, pennsylvania, ohio, you have to get two to win in november. >> it certainly buttresses his electability argument. >> absolutely. >> so cnn, fox, and msnbc has declared mitt romney the winner. 47% for mitt romney over 31% for newt gingrich. this big win for mitt romney in florida, what does it mean maybe for president obama in florida in november? nobody knows better than former florida congressman alan graceman. >>> welcome back to our coverage of the florida primary. newt gingrich's best hope tonight was to keep it under double digits. he did not succeed. now with 53% of the vote in 47% for romney, 31% for gingrich. and you can see that mitt romney has taken over the tampa convention center. his supporters there waiting for him to show. cheering the news as they see it on their tv screens. joining us now currentingly running to get his seat back again, we'll give him all of the help we can, the good alan graceson. thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> what does this mean for the republican party that mitt romney could co

currently in those grab state lists there -- nevada, colorado, florida, north carolina, virginia, ohio, pennsylvania. wow. pennsylvania and new hampshire. well, what do you know. pennsylvania is a toss-up state. >> right now. we'll see if it hangs in there. >> it's always been democratic. >> the shift for us was the industrial midwest. wisconsin and michigan. both of those in toss-ups a couple of months ago. both of those shifts. the only thing that shifted from democrat -- shifted the republican way in our map is iowa. and part of that, and you talk to some folks in team obama. and they will tell you, you had for six months, republican messaging, anti-obama messaging sitting there. and it has taken a toll and it's both in public and private polling we've seen. it's taken a toll. in iowa, it's not they're okay with the social conservatism a little more. the sort of rural white blue collar vote that could be up for grabs. >> thank you, chuck todd. thank you, major garrett. >>> mitt romney spoke to a crowd of 1,200 today in a football stadium that held 65,000 potentially. the bigger challenge for romn

>> well, one of the new really exciting developments in energy is the northeast from ohio, pennsylvania, that area becoming a significant gas producer and possibly oil producer as well. there weren't -- the u.s. pipeline system wasn't set up to ship gas away from those areas. it was shipping gas to those areas. so the challenge now is, you know, getting the right pipelines to the right places so that gas and liquids can be economically developed. what we're seeing is this great revival on the supply side. this great revival has showed -- illustrated that our infrastructure system, our pipeline system, whether we're talking about the midwest or the northeast has yet to catch up with this great revival. >> and you would add keystone to that as well as mr. diwan said earlier, there still is adequate capacity now, but soon there won't be. and that would limit as well some of the development of some of our north american resources. >> there is enough cross-border capacity for the next few years, probably maybe till around 2019. but the problem in the short term, say in the next one to two ye

normally that would be pretty much all snow in ohio and pennsylvania.least north of the mason-dixon line. here is a look at the doppler radar. showers south of pittsburgh pushing up into williamsport. but you can see a few clouds for us. a couple sprinkles could get into tucker county and west virginia on the other side of the divide. but i think these showers will stay north of the immediate metro area tonight and tomorrow. best chance of showers will be tomorrow night. so a chilly start. you'll need a light jacket. so the kids at the bus stop are going to need a coat, even though it's going to be almost 60 by afternoon. breezy and milder on wednesday. showers wednesday night. that's okay. we can live with that. do you know why? it's going to feel like april on thursday. temperatures are going to be well into the 60s on thursday. maybe even 70 down towards fredericksburg and certainly down towards richmond. so overnight partly cloudy, breezy and chilly. winds continue southwest 10-15. in the morning it will be a little chilly. but eventually we'll play

lake-effect and snow and a weather disturbance to the north producing lake shore snows in parts of ohio, pennsylvania, and new york state specifically. then we pull the picture back a little bit. here is that front coming out of the midwest with cold air behind it. at the moment we have high pressure, so that explains the clear skies we have. at the moment, this high pressure is holding storms back. down in text that will be headed for the carolinas in the next 24 hours. again, this part of the storm and this part of the storm have to kind of phase up. to get snow, we need this back here. at the moment, it is too warm for any snow to fall. by the end of the day, scattered clouds. lots of sun this morning. temperatures finance unseasonably mild. most readings. southwest winds at 10 to 15 miles per hour. all right. the first alert is out for any kind of winter weather, significant winter weather off to our southwest. the winter storm watches all out for southwest of us. the mountains of virginia and west virginia. not even touching garrett county, and these begin on sunday morning. things will hold off

we're working in the ohio/pennsylvania area. we're working at a couple plays in texas and louisiana, a couple wildcat ideas that we're working much like we had when we discovered the eagleford shale, so we're not finding a shortage of things to look at nor a shortage of things where we think technology will be appropriate. >> what role do you think politics plays in this, sir? >> what are you thinking about? >> i would go for ronald reagan. there's a great bunch of people out there, but politics doesn't seem to be any great friend to the oil and gas sector here in the u.s. very often. with el deal with it, and we'll continue to deal with it. >> i knew there was a reason i liked him. >> and we're seeing balkan oil at $71 a barrel. i'm curious if that is a strategic decision, because it's tough to get the oil out of there. if so, are you concerned at $71 a barrel, there's a big incentive to bring that oil to market. that one will also, it's not so much tied to the location specifically where it is. it's tied to the markets where t

they're loccted in places like ohio, and pennsylvania, and colorado and florida whhch are of course criticalates for whoever wants to bbcome pressdent of the united states. so that catholic vote really matters." notre dame univeesity ... olive branch to catholics.n "maybe we won't agree on &pabortion, buttwe can still agree thht ttis is a heart-wrenching decisionnfor any woman is not made casually. it has both moral and spiritual dimensions. so let us workktogether..."(nats) "lee's honor the conscience of pbortion, and draft a sensible conscience clause." but now the goodwill the president accumulated may be in jeopardy, schneck says, especially or tte wayythe obama administration rolled out the new policy.(nats)ttree days before tens of thousands of prooesters -- many of them catholic -- came to washington on the anniversary on the supreme court decision oo roe vs. wade.""here's nothing like having a sense of oppositiin to you to rallyythe troops and i suspect that's going to happen here." the poliiy goessinto effect religious groups an extra yyar ptraight ahead... american airlines... is t

oil production in pennsylvania, ohio, those areas. as oil was moving west, people were trying to find oil everywhere, this is turn of the century, looking for oil in california, kansas, oklahoma, small shorings. texas had a small well in corsicana, only produced 25 or 30 barrels a day. couldn't market it, wasn't a refinery nearby. couldn't do anything with it. in 1901, spindle top came about. typical well produced 600 barrels a day. spinned he will top blew in at 100,000 barrels a day. that ushered in a completely new industry and people were looking for oil. at the turn of the century, it was cotton and cattle, main production, agricultural state. almost overnight, texas was transformed into an industrialized economy, based on oil. in the early part of the united states history of oil well drilling, it was pretty much used with a cable tool rig. with this equipment, you take a heavy steel bit, and then it is picking it up, dropping it over and over, like you were on the back end of a post on the end of a see saw, rocking it up and do

ohio, pennsylvania, wisconsin to name a few, but the winds of change are blog in 2012.ions. rick scott in florida not doing well. there are eight -- there are 12 governor races this year. eight in democratic controlled states and four in republican controlled states. i do not ask you to be betting people, but if you have to guess how the tide will shift, where do you think we are going, looking at what is happen engin virginia and in maryland with the passage of gay marriage. >> it's tough to be a governor these days they have a legal requirement to balance the budget and they have to make cuts they never imagined they would be making. it has less to do with being republican and democrat, and pit has more -- it has more to do with inheriting the obligations to public employees and they cannot balance their books. you have to do unhappy things to make it happen. you'll have another wave election if you goes in direction. we have seen it many times, people are saying somebody else. somebody else. >> i can do math well enough to know that in a situation where there's four

now colorado, florida, iowa, michigan, nevada, new hampshire, new mexico and north carolina, ohio, pennsylvania, virginia, and wisconsin are the so-called swing states. and in those places, president obama is not, not over auto% approval in any of them. that is why you watch the factor. we're not in business to promote any political candidate. you are smart enough to know how want to vote for. our analysis is trying to pinpoint what is likely to happen in the presidential race. if the republics can stay on message, mr. obama is incompetent in economic matters, the g.o.p. has a better than even chance of winning not only the white house but the senate as well as retaining the house of representatives. that would give the new republic president the power to undo what president obama has done. getting to that point is going to be very difficult. democrats will unleash hell against mitt romney if he is the guy. dug up everything he has ever done financially. corrupt rich person who doesn't care about the folks. governor romney has got to avoid saying things like this. >> am in this race because i c

president obama couldn't lose against this guy, can you imagine the ads in catholic places, ohio, pennsylvaniathe swing states? just saying president kennedy makes me want to throw up, i would love to see that campaign. >> you think santorum is deliberately lying about the meaning of kennedy's speech? or do you think he believes it? >> i think he's lying. the guy has three degrees, he's a snob, gone to a lot of college, he's not stupid. i don't think he's stupid. it's such approve vocation reminded me of gary hart, you think i'm cheating, follow me around. tells you to read the speech. okay, i don't remember it being that way, let me read the speech, i find it it doesn't say anything of the kind. so he's got to know that. he just is saying whatever it takes to win this election and as you put it, whatever it takes to rile people up, and scare them about president obama. it's that simple. >> i would love to see him win michigan. i would really love to see the nomination, we would have a clear contrast and a real debate which way to take the country which i think would be healthy for america. jo

iowa, ohio, pennsylvania, wisconsin. president obama, 42%, romney 41%.s was where the republicans felt that the president was vulnerable. it doesn't seem that that's the case, according to the latest polls. >> you know, the american people, and especially the people in the industrial midwest understand that when the president became president, in the very month that he became president, this country lost almost 800,000 jobs. and he stopped the bleeding. he saved the auto industry. he kept us from sliding into a deep depression. the economy is slowly coming back and the president has us on the right track. and what romney and gingrich and that crowd wants to do, basically is to take us back to the old policies that brought us this deep recession. and the american people, i think, have their eyes open now. they know who their friends are. >> you're right, governor. they have their eyes open. i'm going to have to hold it right there. thank you for coming on again tonight. congratulations on your appointment and thanks for your time. >> thank you reverend al

nevada, colorado, florida, north carolina, virginia, ohio, pennsylvania. wow. pennsylvania and new hampshire. what do you know? pennsylvania is a tossup state? >> right now. we'll see. >> it's always been democrat. >> but the shift in our map for us was the industrial midwest. wisconsin and michigan. we had both of those in tossups. both of those shifts. the only thing that shifted to republican is iowa. and part of that, and you talked to some folks in team obama. you had for six months republican messaging and antiof obama messaging sitting there. it's taken a toll. and iowa -- they are okay with the social conservatism. the blue-collar vote that could be up for grabs. >> let's go really big picture. this election has always struck me as basically about binary. keep it going or change. in the end after all the personalities and the crazies and you have this sort of sound, sort of boring mitt romney and maybe chris christie is his running mate. who knows. you end up having a solid business mechanic as an alternative to this more charismatic, if you will, presi

of the catholic vote in 2008, this is likely to alienate catholics in key swing states like ohio, pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. >> thank you very much, reena ninan in washington. >>> jerry sandusky's trial has been tentatively set for may 14th. the former penn state assistant football coach was in court on friday asking for more freedom so his grandchildren can visit. one of his neighbors said he was concerned that sandusky has been watching children at a nearby school from his back porch sot this video you see here of sandusky outside his home. but sandusky has not vaiolated the terms of his bail. >>> and a big honor for gabrielle giffords. in a ceremony at the pentagon, in which she attended, the navy named a warship after her, citing her courage and warship. the production of the "u.s.s. gabrielle giffords" is slated for later this year. >>> and the national parks service has decided to remove an incomplete inscription from the martin luther king jr. memorial there. and replace it with the full quotation of king's words. critics said that the paraphrased lang wage from the speech m

in the catholic vote sector, which is very large as you know and some very important states, ohio, pennsylvania, et cetera. >> absolutely. as a pro-life catholic the answer is yes. besides the health care bill being unconstitutional and expansion of federal government if it does not respect people's religious views and do things contrary to their deeply held beliefs there will be a visceral reaction and i think the catholic voters will look very favorably upon mitt romney this year. >> governor mcdonnell and governor o'malley as always i have many more questions to ask you. you have to come back. thank you for joining me. >> thank you. >> thank you. >>> up next, will the republican base ever fall in love with mitt romney? we'll get insoed with two conservati conservative leaders. all energy development comes with some risk, but proven technologies allow natural gas producers to supply affordable, cleaner energy, while protecting our environment. across america, these technologies protect air - by monitoring air quality and reducing emissions... ...protect water - through conservation and self-c

ohio, pennsylvania, et cetera. >> absolutely. as a pro-life catholic, i think the answer is yes. besides the health care bill being unconstitutional and a great expansion of federal government, i think if it does not respect people's individual religious reviews and makes groups or individuals do things that are contrary to their deeply held beliefs, there's going to be a visceral negative reaction. and i think the catholic voters will look very favorably upon mitt romney this year. >> governor mcdonnell, governor o'malley, as always, i have many more questions to ask you, so you have to come back. thank you so much for joining me. >> okay. thank you. >>> up next, will the republican base ever fall in love with mitt romney? we'll get insight from two conservative leaders. >>> and later, signs of strength and hints of weakness in the economy. we'll ask our expert panel to make sense of it. [ beep ] [ mom ] scooter? the progresso chicken noodle you made is so good. it's got tender white meat chicken. the way i always made it for you. one more thing.... those pj's you like, i bought

, this is major states, key states around the country, you -- and the rust belt tier, iowa, ohio, pennsylvania and wisconsin, where 54 electoral votes are up for grabs. president obama is at 42%. mitt romney 41%. in the rocky mountain tier, colorado, nevada, new mexico, 29 electoral votes up for grabs, president obama, 47%, mitt romney 40%. the dixie tier, the dixie belt tier, again now, fox news, all three of these are fox news, michael. florida, north carolina, virginia. 55 electoral votes up. president obama, 51%. mitt romney, 37%. so it appears that even by fox news pollings of three tiers of their choosing, key ten states president obama is beating willard mitt romney. >> right. and i am just amused and amazed that i'm sure you were citing those same fox polls a few months ago that showed the reverse fortune for the president at that time. >> now the point is not saying that the polls are accurate or not. the point -- no, no, i want to -- then you can answer. >> i'm not talking about accuracy. i'm just talking just about what -- >> even they're not arguing that willard romney is the -- >>