with us most of msnbc's "morning joe," joe scarborough, and peggy noonan, and ej dionne, and former aide to president obama who is running a super pac, bill burton. captions paid for by nbc-universal television >>> good morning, a one-two punch for mitt romney. he got 39%, and second place finisher was ron paul at 36%, and here in washington the former massachusetts governor won the support of conservative activist that gathered for annual event for c-pac, and they had romney edging out santorum 38% to 31%, and that's getting a lot of attraction this morning. we will talk to rick santorum live from the campaign trail live in just moments. but first the debate over providing birth control coverage and the president's annual budget plan that will be delivered to congress tomorrow morning. with us the president's new chief of staff, formerly his budget director, jack lew. welcome to "meet the press." >> thank you, david. >> and here, religious freedom, social issues is the israel that is really taking the city by storm because of the birth control decision. within the white house there were

david brooks, david remnick, peggy noonan, chrystia freeland. let's talk about the obama administration, hhs, did on this issue relating to contraception and post-abortion pills. you think this is going to be a big problem for the president. >> yeah. it's a complicated story. and it's also abstract. and so it hasn't captured people's attention in a big way. certain in the political class. but i feel like it is a bomb that went off in the past week that the political class in america has not noted. the catholic church has been told by the obama administration that it must understand the regulations of obama's health care initiative to mean that the churches affiliated institutions, catholic charities, the hospitals, the schools, must, in their new health care insurance, provide and pay for services that the church itself feels are morally abhorrent from contraseptembcepo sterilization procedures. the church finds it unacceptable. the church says it will not do this. the church is left either with the choice of closing down its great institutions

later, bill burton, head of the super pac supporting obama along with msnbc's joe scarborough, and peggy noonan, along with msnbc's joe scarb[ male announcer ]noonan, to the 5:00 a.m. scholar. the two trains and a bus rider. the "i'll sleep when it's done" academic. for 80 years, we've been inspired by you. and we've been honored to walk with you to help you get where you want to be. ♪ because your moment is now. let nothing stand in your way. learn more at keller.edu. after just one use? think again. [ female announcer ] with olay regenerist wrinkle revolution, it's possible to reduce the look of wrinkles in just 10 minutes. now you've seen it. experience it for yourself. [ female announcer ] olay regenerist. diarrhea, gas or bloating? get ahead of it! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defend against digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. hit me! [ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. >>> coming up, does rick santorum have a realistic chance [ male announcer ] capri sun has 25% less sugar than leading regular juice drinks. because less sugar is

dionne, and peggy noonan.p next, politico's mike allen with exclusive details on how the santorum campaign is planning to break out the race against romney. >>> he's back, it's bill, he's got the forecast. >> you could add better than ever. that was better than i usually get from you guys. good morning, everyone, it was a cold day around the nation and now snow has moved into the heartland. a widespread snow. not heavy, but many people dealing with snow including st. louis, kansas city, chicago, yesterday it was here in amarillo, texas. a lot of areas of south texas dealt with the snow and a lot of traffic accidents. and this is what's heading through the heartland today. be careful on your morning commute. there's the snow on the map from st. louis right now, just outside dallas, we have reports of some sleet too. not a big snow. 1 to 3 inches widespread and as far as new england goes, yesterday was brutally cold, a big improvement today, the winds are dying off, windchills in the teens, temperatures today, t

our political roundtable includes, joe scarborough, and bill burton, and peggy noonan and ej dionne.m ] i was fain atbaedy wobirls aesoda anpl since i was a kid. [ mike ] i always wondered how did an airplane get in the air. at ge aviation, we build jet engines. we lift people up off the ground to 35 thousand feet. these engines are built by hand with very precise assembly techniques. [ mike ] it's gonna fly people around the world. safely and better than it's ever done before. it would be a real treat to hear this monster fire up. [ jaronda ] i think a lot of people, when they look at a jet engine, they see a big hunk of metal. but when i look at it, i see seth, mark, tom, and people like that who work on engines every day. [ tom ] i would love to see this thing fly. [ kareem ] it's a dream, honestly. there it is. oh, wow. that's so cool! yeah, that was awesome! [ cheering ] [ tom ] i wanna see that again. ♪ hey, two tickets just opened up on the 50. ...yup, about to go pick them up from will call. so 46 seconds ago. did you guys hear that chapman rolled his ankle? done. get out the

david recommend remnick is -- peggy noonan and christy freeman. welcome all. so if mitt romney gets the nomination, what happens to the conservative base? will it reluctantly accepted -- will it feel like a john stewart said, that's the chocolate in the chocolate box nobody ever wanted to eat but eventually they'll eat it and like it? >> they'll like it. you know, when obama ran against clinton, you could get polls saying 40% of democrats wouldn't support the other. that all vanishes. that's always going to vanish. i think what the tea party people should be asking ourselves, we had this -- >> you say ourselves. you mean -- >> they should be asking themselves. thank you. >> on the show you're not to out yourself as a tea partier. >> i have always been partial. it's been obvious. and they should say, lisp, we have all this energy, all these ideas, we have mowed by so many people, and we produce mitt romney. why couldn't they produce a leader? why couldn't they really change the party? if romney wins, the head of the republican party, the most -- three most impo

peggy noonan actually said he will become more comfortable with the average voter. is it a problem or not? >> yes it is a problem. not because of the wealth per se, but because of the way it plays into the narrative about mitt romney, that he is out of touch, he will say anything, sending his mona broad to avoid taxes, because of that. >> some guy working on a line -- >> some say he is uncomfortable with his wealth, too. >> why do you think he is that way? >> i don't obviously know what it is like to be extraordinarily wealthy. >> his old man made it the old-fashioned way. he was making something. he made it by being a turnaround artist. that is different. >> that is that zone of privacy that bush 41 also had. we don't talk about money. they wanted him to reveal the taxes sooner or later. >> there are 10 years of returns waiting to come out. chris: we have watched this forever. is there a way you can fix a problem like this? is it like nixon, a new nixon or old nixon? >> i don't think you can coach him or persuade him to not say something like i will bet you $10,000

catholics and those who do not practice but he won them both, and, will i think it was the columnist peggy noonan who said he all but lost the election over this? do you feel that way? >>guest: i don't know what will happen in the future. and that is one of the reasons why, together with the other bishops in country and together with leaders of other faith communities we are saying, there is a serious problem here, let's correct this problem. it is up to the people, to the voters to say where they want to go in the future but right now, let's correct this problem first and see what happens. >>neil: if he doesn't, is it fair to say that on human rights issues, on poverty issues, with catholic bishops and others have been trying to work together with the administration and this will fray those relations? how do you describe it? >>guest: well, it is hard to take away someone's basic fundamental foundational right and think we would not be upset. it is very difficult to affront that. and that is what we are experiencing. that is why the bishops are speaking up so insistently and so consistently. my h

with us most of msnbc's "morning joe," joe scarborough, and peggy noonan, and ej dionne, and former aide to president obama who is running a super pac, bill burton. captions paid for by nbc-universal television

peggy noonan actually said he will become more comfortable with the average voter. is it a problem or not? >> yes it is a problem. not because of the wealth per se, but because of the way it plays into the narrative about mitt romney, that he is out of touch, he will say anything, sending his mona broad to avoid taxes, because of that. >> some guy working on a line -- >> some say he is uncomfortable with his wealth, too. >> why do you think he is that way? >> i don't obviously know what it is like to be extraordinarily wealthy. >> his old man made it the old-fashioned way. he was making something. he made it by being a turnaround artist. that is different. >> that is that zone of privacy that bush 41 also had. we don't talk about money. they wanted him to reveal the taxes sooner or later. >> there are 10 years of returns waiting to come out. chris: we have watched this forever. is there a way you can fix a problem like this? is it like nixon, a new nixon or old nixon? >> i don't think you can coach him or persuade him to not say something like i will bet you $10,000

newt has been called an angry attack muffin by peggy noonan, i have called him an angry teddy bear, because have called him an angry teddy bear. but besides the teddy bear part of it, what did you guys make of newt gingrich's performance last night? he began his first response not asked question until nine minutes in, talking about the 280th anniversary of george washington's birth. but as rick said, did manage to get in some policy there. >> i thought last night, and no offense to rick, this is sort of awkward, having him here while i say this, but i thought he was really smug last night. we've seen angry newt on the campaign trail. sometimes that plays, sometimes it doesn't. i thought he was pretty smug. the, you know, if you remember, and i'm sure you do, i passed a budget. i didn't like that attitude. and i don't think it played very well with the audience. >> howard? >> i'm not sure "cheerful" is first word i would use to describe newt gingrich in any context. it probably wouldn't be in the first 5,000 words. >> right. >> look, he's running for reasons only known to him. he's not going

and now feel free to -- >> just the peggy noonan piece left some things out. i think we're going to have her on, right. maybe not today? but, as the governor of connecticut pointed out yesterday, there are 28 states that have these policies in place. six states have the one that the obama administration are putting in place, and the thing that was really left out is that in this new order, there's a one to two to three-year grace period for religious institutions to work it out to try to find a model in which it can be done. like hawaii has one. >> now, so let's start with -- >> that's really -- >> let's start with number two first, that the white house is putting out. >> i had a call with -- >> you asked mark what the white house was saying, you can also ask me. i took notes with it because i don't agree with it but i have to say that the article appears to be very misleading. >> they send you the memos. >> i was very curious about this, because i don't understand it. so i did some work and actually you know got information that we didn't have. >> joe was wat

peggy noonan's column was great.tuning out the president. becoming disenchanted with the whole political process. meanwhile, rick santorum was treated like a rock star yesterday even though he wasn't there. he had all those people there. they were selling sweater vests. everybody was working the room on his behalf. he talked yesterday about what mitt romney just said about him. >> politics for mitt romney. not interested in talking about this, he's interested in trying to make political sauce. >> i don't know. you know, turn about is fair play. at the debates when mr. santorum really did a very effective job showing the parallels between romneycare and obamacare, mr. romney didn't say that's not gotcha politics. he had to answer to the criticism. now what mr. romney is saying, look, he took a lot of earmarks. people would like to know what kind of earmarks he took. he voted to up the debt ceiling, what, five, eight times, something like that. let's hear what mr. santorum said at the time and let's move. on that's fai

should we end this block with a little peggy noonan? this in "the wall street journal." obama supporters are beginning to feel more confident or at least less embarrassed. a year ago, even three months ago, they were thinking, what a confounding, confusing, lose they are man is. they didn't bother defending him, never mind advancing him. but now they're starting to get friskier. they believe there is a new lay to the land. the economy is coming back, at least for now and at least a little. the republican nominee will emerge so bloodied his victory will hardly be worth having. republicans are delving into areas so extreme and off point that by the end mr. obama will look like the moderate." okay. >> and she nails it. donnie deutsche and i always talked about this three, four months ago, even in manhattan, you could not find anybody to defend the president. at dinner parties, at other events, at breakfast, now they are. >> yeah. >> they're feeling pretty darn good. >> all right. >> you know what? he's got republicans. he's got my party to

. >> we've got peggy noonan.rker talking about mitt romney, talking about -- it's a little bit of diversion from the usual stuff. then we have the prime minister of singapore who is fascinating. in some ways the best run country in the world. we get some tips from him. >> fareed zakaria, thank you so much. tune in to fareed zakaria every sunday at 10:00 a.m. now this. >>> fallen on my knees with great regularity since that moment. >>> that is president responding to critics who say he's declared a war on religion. you'll hear what he revealed today. but not your wrinkles? neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair. its retinol formula visibly reduces wrinkles in just one week. why wait if you don't have to. neutrogena®. [doors open] [car engine revs] [dog barks] [crash] [dog grunts] if you have painful, swollen joints, i've been in your shoes. one day i'm on top of the world... the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me

>> peggy noonan in this week's wall street journal saying the truth is it's a myth that the establishment establishment doesn't like him either, they don't trust him. >> they don't like gingrich -- >> they don't like gingrich either. i think the last danger for romney before he becomes the nominee, and i think he's on the path to becoming the nominee, i don't think we've had time for his comment for you to percolate yet. it usually takes -- >> the poor? >> the comment about the poor. maybe in minnesota, missouri, colorado we'll start seeing the impact of that comment, if there's going to be one. at the same time you have a lot of people who think he's got it in the bag. he'll he had a huge win in florida, he'll probably have a huge win tonight. you have people who are with romney not necessarily because they like hem but because they dislike everyone else so much more feeling like they can speak nor freely because they won't do harm, which may be too soon. >> if you're a conservative, you need mitt romney to do well with white, blue collar voters in hai expennsylvania, to make the argumen

peggy noonan wrote earlier this week in the wall street journal that a republican governor, has suggestedention not a brokered convention. and i got an e-mail from an iowa republican official who said you need to know about a couple things in iowa in case we do have a brokered con veng. that's what a lot of republicans are starting to get excited about. which is not where we were before. >> prospect of a brokered convention, john, what does that look like? >> believe it when i see it. i've been covering this a long time. every time the nomination process runs into a snag or the front-runner is having difficulty and the fight gets protract protracted, i think the -- this process tends to collapse support around somebody after some period of time, sometimes it happens very early, sometimes later. i'd expect that to happen this time. >> you think that will happen around super tuesday this time? >> i think super tuesday, if that doesn't settle it. if rick santorum can get on the board. one of the candidate on february 28th, newt gingrich or rick santorum can win one of those, that would exten

a wonderful way of putting words together, and why can't he find a speechwriter, and where is peggy noonan or landon parvin and where are they? are they all employed in journalism now and they can't do the jobs now? is that it? >> well, i can give them gerson's phone number, and he is a colleague of mine and maybe he can write for them. >> a columnist of the "washington post." >> you are right. no magic to the words. this is what we have got, but it is possible to find a speechwriter who hears romney's voice better than romney does, but who hears the resonances and the cadences of romney's voice and hears in the elements something that you can use and clay that can be molding, but it can be done. look, he won two primaries tonight, and imagine the alternative and what we would have said if he had narrowly lost in michigan or had nated in arizona, but winning ugly is so much better from his point of view than losing elegantly that he, you know, he will take it and see what he d do on super tuesday. >> and john harwood, richard nixon never got a great run from historians could give a very, v

in addition peggy noonan calls this a battle of the president cannot win. on monday it was reported that the signatures to resend the mandate on the whitehouse.gov petition page that there are many more signatures by 5-1 objecting this decision of the hhs but since today there are 2700 signatures opposing the mandate and fell behind with 18,000 signee. on capitol hill senator marco rubio of florida has introduced the administration after 2012 in an attempt to counter the mandate and also on capitol hill we see john boehner has given a floor speech saying if the president does not reverse the administration's attack on religious freedom in the congress acting on behalf of the american people and the constitution we are sworn to uphold and defend must. causing a lot of speculation of the obama administration may compromise and make a compromise on this issue. axelrod, one of the campaign strategists said on tuesday on a tv show "morning joe" we certainly don't want to abridge anyone's religious freedom so we are going to look forward to mow for that provides

is unbelievable, you look, chuck todd, at what republicans have to work with i go back to what peggy noonanesident inherited a bad situation, he made things worse. if you believe like i believe in smaller government, you talk about four years of trillion-dollar deficits. you talk about the 8% promise, where you pass our stimulus package and we'll keep unemployment below 8%. now democrats will say, well, the economy was -- let them have to explain that. >> make them defend it. make them explain it. make them explain a health care reform package that took up 15, 18 months of debate. and really, at the end, didn't do anything to curb costs over the next 20, 30 years. let them defend a bloated entitlement system. hell, i'm crazy? i would even bring up the president tripling the number of troops in afghanistan and ask, why are the troops in afghanistan? bring them home. why are we spending $2 billion a week rebuilding afghanistan instead of our country? there are so many lines of attacks against this administration. >> it sounds like a platform, joe. >> but are we -- please, all right? actually,

peggy noonan writes this. it's a fight the president can't win.ma just may have lost the election. the president signed off on a health and human services ruling that says that under obama care, catholic institutions including charities, hospitals, and schools will be required by law for the first time ever to provide and pay for insurance coverage that includes contraceptiv contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization procedures. if they do not, they will face fines in the millions of dollars. or they can always go out of business. in other words, the catholic church was told this week that its institutions can't be catholic anymore. mr. obama carried the catholic vote in 2008, they helped him win. they won't this year. and guess where a lot of catholics live, in the battleground states. there was nothing for the president to gain except perhaps the pleasure of making a great church bow to him. enjoy it while you can, you have awakened a sleeping giant. >> reverend sharpton, a lot of people are going to focus on the abortion side of

in addition "wall street journal" peggy noonan calls this a battle of the president cannot win. i meant it was reported that signatures to resend the mandate on the whitehouse.gov petition page but there are many more signatures by five to one object in this decision at the hhs. but since today there are 2700 signatures opposing the mandate and in favorite is still significantly trailed behind with 18,000 chinese. senator marco rubio has introduced religious freedom act of 2012 in an attempt to counter the mandate and also on capitol hill we see sean boehner has given a floor speech saying that the president does not reverse the administration's attack on religious freedom, the congress acting on behalf of the american people in the constitution, we are sworn to uphold to defend causing a lot of speculation at the obama administration may compromise, may make a compromise on this issue. asked about one of the campaign strategists have sent tuesday on a tv show what a joke, we certainly don't want to abridge anyone's religious freedoms were going to look for me to move forward th

in addition, wall street journal columnist peggy noonan calls this a battle to the president cannot win. on monday it was reported that the signatures to rescind the hhs mandate on the white house dhaka of petition page that there are many more signatures by 5-1 objecting this decision of the hhs, but since today, as of today there are 2700 signatures opposing the mandate and in favor they still significantly trail behind with 18,000. on capitol hill, senator marco rubio has introduced religious freedom restoration act of 2012 in an attempt to counter the mandate. and also on capitol hill, we see that john boehner has given a floor speech saying if the president does not reverse the administration's's attack on religious freedom, then the congress acting on behalf of the american people and the constitution we are sworn to uphold to defend. causing a lot of speculation that the obama administration a compromise may make a compromise on this issue. axelrod, one of the campaign strategists, said on tuesday on a tune to the tv show morning joe we certainly don't want to the burgeoning much