the republicans both the super partisan republicans and moderates shoot off in a conservative direction. democrats stay roughly the same. since 1975. the most partisan democrats that is the very bat tom ottom line they stay where they have been over the last several generations. moderate democrats, that is oert line, they get more liberal over time but barely. look at the rest of the lines they stay flat. but the republicans, look, both the moderates and the super partisan republicans just fly off the charts. if you look over time, the craziest hair on fire most extreme republican in 1975, which that is top arrow, that person's super crazy far right wing positions in 1975 are where the most moderate republicans are now. that is where the most liberal republicans are now. they have the positions that were far to the right of the republican party just a generation ago, that happened over one generation. again, partisan democrats over this time have stayed exactly the same. moderate democrats have gotten more liberal but basically the same. the republicans have gone off the charts. the mos

some republicans think that, they think that is what the republican party ought to be nope for and workn whenever anybody's paying attention. some republicans believe that. some don't. frank lakers lot more republicans believe that last week than believe it this week. john bain her hoped to bridge that divide in his own party by saying he would never give up in the fight against access to contraception in the house of representatives. by saying that he was pleasing the people who think issues like that ought to be front and center on the republican agenda but he thought he might also be able to appease the people who don't think that should be the focus of republican work in congress by the fact that he was not actually going to move on t he was planning on letting it sit there and percolate in committee forever. democratic senators with this letter are now putting john boehner on the spot, saying, you know what, pick a side. which one are you? they say to john boehner, "we are asking that you abandon the promise you have made to bring legislation to the house floor similar to the blunt

that are republicans.he house. when i came to washington, we had many, many moderate republicans. you know their names as well as i do. danforth, an episcopalian minister from missouri, hatfield and packwood. we had john heinz from pennsylvania, jon chaffee from rhode island. and on and on. you could count up to 20 moderate republicans. >> it wasn't limited by region, the midwest, the northeast. >> no, that's for sure. mainstream republicans don't accept all this crazy stuff that you see taking place within the republican run for presidency. but the sad part about it is the house of representatives, we all know, is dominated by the tea party. what people don't realize is the senate, about 40% of republican senators are tea party folks. look at what happened -- we have a moderate republican elected from missouri. he had had experience in house leadership, roy blunt. he runs for a spot here third or fourth down the hierarchy of republican leadership. he damn near got beat because he was running against a tea

some examples from republicans, these are just republicans, here are the words republicans are using to describe the republican contest. ready? unenthusiastic, discouraged, lesser of two evils, painful, disappointed, poor choices, concerned, underwheel manied, uninspiring, and depressed. so say the republicans. right now gallop says the favorability rating for the nominee, likely, mitt romney is 39%. at this point in the race in 2008, john mccain was at 56%. at this point in the race in 2000, george w. bush at 58%. poor little bob dole in 1996 was at 49%, and that was worrying everyone. mitt romney's 10 points below that. if you like republicans screw stuff up, this long drawn out process of trying to pick a nominee has been fun to much wave. has this been more than a comedy of errors for the republicans? is there a way they could turn the primary process and mess it has been this year to their advantage? for the general election? joining us steve kornacki with salon.com, nice to see you. >> sure, you too. >> is there any way for the republicans to turn what i think has been a long,

>> guest: the npr republicans are a mixture i would say of republicans. a number of them have left the republican party and become independent because of their frustration with the social agenda. the starbucks moms and dads would be independent, but they might also be center-right republicans and centerleft democrats. it's a little tricky because i am focusing on independent voters, and that is mostly who i talk to but there are also registered democrats and republicans who swing quite a bit too. they just haven't changed their registration or maybe they want to be able to vote as moderates. >> host: 20% of democrats across the country called themselves conservative. ideologically, something most people might not know. we are using the word unaffiliated and independent. >> guest: that's right. i used the word independent for the more accessible but in most states, their registration category as unaffiliated or unenrolled. >> host: interesting. the third group, younger people. >> guest: younger people, the facebook generation, people under 35. they are reg

republicans are not dumb, republicans read polls, republicans read the political tea leaves as much as any democrats do. why are they going to keep running with this? after losing today in the senate, now they're vowing to take it up in the jobs, jobs, jobs house. what works for them on this issue? >> i don't get it, frankly. i mean, maybe there's some subtle political jujitsu that they're after here. i think you're right that the framing is supposed to be government intrusion. but it is incoherent, and you can't really claim government intrusion if you're doing the intruding. you're making the intrusion and mandating this ridiculous new policy that you never would have favored or even thought of in the past. it seems crazy to me, and i've been expecting them to try to find some way to back out of it. but if they're going to press it, fine. gee, we're the anti-contraception, anti-sex party. i just don't get it. >> the beltway is d.c., right, but it's also maryland and virginia, and we had this sort of amazing, i guess microcosm today, in the beltway, where we had blue state maryland to

bashing republicans.n hurt the party in the short-term. >> you know, to use a bad term x don't get in a peeing match with a skunk. the president's approval rating is up to 50%. that's the highest since the killing of bin laden. the voters believe the economy is on an improved path. 57% believe the worst is behind us. just 36% think it's still ahead. with republicans, the president leads romney by six points. he leads santorum even wider here's the one that grabs me. 50 to 42% against ron paul. all romney can do after the millions and millions and millions he's spent, ron paul who is a nobody in terms of being the next president and having a chance is at 42%. he has hardly any advantage over the guy who nobody thinks will be the next president. >> paul steals part of the democratic base. but if you take him out of the equation, look at the obama/romney issue for a minute. the thing about this poll that's unbelievable, chris is romney's personal negative rating. it's upside down. among independents, it's wo

bashing republicans. it's no question hurt the party in the short term. >> you know, to use a bad term, don't get in a peeing match with a skunk. these ads are making them all look bad. let's take a look at who hasd n. here's the president. good news for him in the poll. the president's approval rating is up to 50%. that's the highest since the killing of bin laden. on that great operation over there. the voters believe the economy is on an improved path. 57% believe the worst is behind us. just 36% think it's still ahead. in a head-to-head with republicans, the president leads romney, six points, 50% to 44%. he leads santorum even wider, 53% to 39%. >> still a long way to go. rick perry with ron paul. here's the one that grabs me. 50% to 42% againsich tells me ao after the millions and millions he's spent, tens of millions. he's 54 to obama down to the 44 end. ron paul who is a nobody in terms of being the next president, in terms of having a chance is at 42%. he has hardly any advantage over the guy who

more than republicans are democrat. which to me means they are dissatisfied with the system and the two parties, and i've been covering politics for a long time and i've been wanting to address this. i've been wanting to get at what are these voters looking for, who are these voters, what do they care about, what do they want, and how? because i don't think anyone could say that we are becoming fairly dysfunctional. so, this largest voting bloc in the nation had determined the outcome of every election since world war ii that the book is named for. they are tired of being ignored and unrepresentative and not having to say how politics and government is run, and i began the book with thomas kane and end of the book with thomas paine not to be too grandiose and someone accused me of using a new gingrich word last night, but comes at the sort of thomas paine book but lifted the revolution was a call to how to be governed by the people, and i think we need to return to that. i don't think we are really there right now, so i

a winner for republicans. talking about respect for religion, religious freedom, that's an argument they can make or talking about mandates by the obama health care plan that seem intrusive or extensive or too much, that's an argument they could make. that was the argument they were trying to make yesterday. rush limbaugh has hijacked that argument and made it about contraception. >> he isn't speaking for the church. >> it's hard to imagine -- even rick santorum comfortable talking about the social issues wanted not to talk about this, wanted to dismiss it and move on to other things. >> he's getting into the jobs issue again where he belongs. >> where he ought to be, where he's trying to be. >> i think he's -- you know, jo john, he's about the only one who said anything, using the lingo, oh, he's an entertainer, don't take it seriously. he said it was absurd. they retreat to this. these cultural issues, will they drive up the republican base next november? will they help them when they need -- if romney is it

alone when welcome to crossfire computable is the republican party on a long guest march to november it is very likely former massachusetts governor mitt romney will eventually capture the party's nomination but does he have what it takes to unseat obama in the general election. and. to cross out the prospects of the republican party just months before the election i'm joined by andrew hardisty here in the studio is chair of democrats abroad in russia and atlanta we have amy kramer she is chairman of the tea party express and co-founder of american grassroots coalition and also in atlanta we have laura ramble she is a freelance writer and blogger all right crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want amy if i can go to you first in atlanta mitt romney he see it there seems to be an inevitability about the man but as things stand right now is the electable you know i use the word and have a bit and have that ability but i don't see it that way i mean we are only a third of the delegates have been awarded there this is still an ongoing process and anything can

because the republicans can't deny it. the republicans have no game for this. in fact, mitt romney's tax plan plays right into this chart. let me look at the tax plan for mitt romney. if you make under $30,000 a year under the romney tax plan, your taxes are going to be going up, that's right, if you're on the left there, in the blue, your taxes are going to be going up if you're in that income category. now, if you make over $1 million a year, anywhere from $500,000 to over $1 million a year, you're going to get a tax cut between 2% and 5%. let's go back to the vulture chart. so, the republican plan, they have more for the red liners, they have nothing but more taxes for the blue liners. median income in alabama, $40,976. median in mississippi, $37,881. if you live in mississippi and you live in alabama, your taxes, if mitt romney is the next president, your taxes in that income bracket, they are going up. look, i'm just tired of hearing about how the democrats can't win the south. that chart plays in every single southern state. this is what they want, more t

caused the republicans damage. but you had a republican president that said, you know what? we've got to protect the party brand. but they're leaderless now and that's why -- this has been a terrible month. >> i just thought it was interesting, you've gone from leadership in the catholic community criticizing the president to the president of georgetown university coming to the defense of this woman quoting, you know, classic literature saying this is about civil discourse. and i thought, again, this changed the public debate here and showed how this issue went advantage from one party to the other. >> it is hard to imagine, mika, how horrible the republican party has botched this over the past month. >> it really is. and you brought up the individual mandate. let's quickly get that in before we go to a break. facing attacks at his health care law in massachusetts is essentially the same as the president's when that happened. mitt romney has argued that he backed an individual mandate in massachusetts. but not for

>>> this is what it it's like to be in republican governance, not to be a republican candidate but to be a republican governor who is in office and responsible for making policy. if you are, for example, governor sam brownback of kansas and you've governed the way he has governed signing into law some of the most extreme anti-abortion measures in the country last year with more on the way this year, if you are sam brownback, your facebook page right now is full of questions like this, quote, do you have a crossword puzzle book i can have for in between pregnancies? seeing as i can't do too much walking around holding this aspirin between my knees. or this one. i just need to ask one more question. do you think it's true 100% of pregnancies in the state of kansas were caused by men? if so, do you have a proposal to deal with them? thank you so much for your time and expert tyce. sex with me would be pointless since i am in peri-menopause. or this one, governor brownback, i have a rash on the back of my hand. please let me know when i can come over and you can look at it and prescribe m

in fact he's no more seriously republican the republican party because republican party a lot of those people will support earmarks and other kinds of government spending ron paul be very attractive to them but his isolationist school of foreign policy means that he can never win a republican nomination michael in new york it seems to me that what we've just heard here is that ron paul makes republicans the democrats will come also identical really on most issues here ok if you're looking at very little differences ron paul comes out and says he lot of different things that could be republicans like even the democrats. well you really does and i want to jump on something said before about ron paul's utopianism actually in america we've had a lot of utopianism in the past decade suddenly two wars we're going to democratize the entire middle east this kind of will sony and for that somehow the force of arms will change a culture of a region in just a few years when the culture has been there for fourteen hundred years and that way around paul's very anti utopian and much more of a realis

it is astounding to republican women, to conservative republican women is astounding f republican women and independence that republicans have gone down this have a trail over the last month. it is bad news for this party. tavis: let me get your take on this terminology we are cheering every day, the so-called war on the mn -- we are hearing every day, the so-called war of thue women. 10 years ago we are looking a figure of the woman -- looking at the year of the woman. i was going to speak at nyu with an all woman panel. we are talking about women, children, and poverty, but we are doing it against a backdrop of this so-called war on women. is there a war on women right now given what you have seen? >> i think there are parts of the republican party who do not understand that talk about contraception and not only pushes away democratic women and independent women but also republican women as well, and there are a lot of people in the democratic party who do not understand there are conservative and pro-life people as well who sometimes do not feel they are as represented by the democra

this is not a rick santorum problem, this is a republican republican problem it might be the republican problem of 2012. joining us is jan schakowski of illinois, great to see you, thank you for being here. >> thank you, rachel. i have a great idea. i think every woman voter should be required to see these 13:00 of what you said before you vote. >> this is why i will never run for office i would be the kind ofity ran-- of tyrannical gover, i will make you watch, that is the law. in terms of what is happening with this in washington, do you think that at the federal level at least, and for state level republicans who have federal ambitions, do you think they are changing their mind about this, they're having second thoughts? >> well, i think they are certainly has been a backlash, i don't know if they're getting e-mails quite as clerer as some of the governors you read from wonderful women writing those clever things, but definitely think that women have been expressing themselves in no uncertain terms that they are not going to accept going back, they're not going to accept these ridicu

republican nominee. what would you have for your top few planks in your presidential, you know, campaign? >> my top two planks would be to disengage in afghanistan. al qaeda is not there. we have no quarrel with the taliban. i would fight al qaeda, but i wouldn't spend time in afghanistan on foreign policy. i would be much more into diplomacy during my tenure in the senate where i chaired the intelligence committee. i visited with saddam hussein. i think we had a chance to use diplomatic pressure on him. mubarak, assad, we had an opening with iran back in 2003 and didn't really take it. we need to treat foreign countries, foreign leaders with more dignity and respect. we're known around the world as the ugly americans and for good cause. that's one item that i would emphasize very strongly. and i would restructure our tax laws so with some teeth so that the 1% who are not shielded on what is happening in the economy and what is going on in wall street is not countenanced. you have the recent disclosure f

you see it in the way they are going after republicans for what is seen as the republican agenda. you see it in the way that president obama is very enthusiastically engaging with his most enthusiastic supporters. this is the way the president will run for re-election. we're also seeing a little bit of how mitt romney, the likely republican nominee is going to run against president obama. we'll have a bit more on that later in the show. of course, before mr. romney can fully jump into a general election campaign against the president, he still has to dispatch his rivals for the republican nomination. at this point in the campaign that means mitt romney has to be showing that he's consolidating his lead, showing he is locking up the republican establishment. pretty much every single day now that means mitt romney rolls out a high profile republican establishment endorsement. last week it was former florida governor jeb bush. this week it was republican senators mike lee and marco rubio and former president george h.w. bush. getting endorsements like that, having high profile surrog

some examples from republicans, these are just republicans, self-identified republicans, the words republicans are usesing to describe the republican contest, ready? unenthusiastic, discourt ranned, lesser of two evils, painful, disappointed, poor choices, concerned, under wheel manied, uninl spiring a-- uninspiring. the favorability rating for mitt romney is 39%. john mccain was at 56, george bush was at 58, poor little bob dole was at 49%, that was worrying everyone. mitt romney is ten points below that. if you look watching republicans screw stuff up this long drawn out process of them try to choose their nominee has been fun to watch. but has this been more than just a comedy of errors for the republicans, there is a way they could turn this primary process and the mess it has been this year, to their advantage? for the general election? steve kornacki, senior writer with salon.com, nice to see you. >> thank you. >> is there a chance for the republicans to their vng, is there a way this works for them in. >> the good news that comes out of this is the republican nominee is not going to be

we focus so much on the republican race and the republican field is bad. it makes republican presidential field look like an nba all-star game. it's a bad field. i don't think president obama spends one real dime in missouri because i don't think it's a state they can win. that might help mccaskill. it's going to be a republican state and she's going to struggle. >> she needs president obama to get 47. she needs him to go get it. if he doesn't, then there's trouble. >> you saw her breaking with him on energy on the keystone pipeline. >> the question is if you look cable television ever in 2008 campaign, she was his main surroga surrogate. that's a problem. >> with the decision in maine by olympia snow, so goes control of the senate. we have virginia. nevada. you can throw in michigan. definitely ohio. it is clear. wisconsin. presidential battleground, new mexico even. the senate battleground are intertwined. >> we polled 12 states. seven of them have competitive senate races. that's got to be some kind of record. the overlay of the states with competitive

, the npr republicans are enrolled republicans. these people a probably enrolled affiliate's? >> guest: a mixture, i would say, of republicans and independents became independent because of their frustration with the social agenda. there would be a mixture. the starbucks moms and dads would be independence, but they might also be center-right republicans and center-left immigrants. it is a little tricky because the book is called the swing vote. i'm focusing of independent voters, but that is mostly who i talk to. there are also registered democrats and republicans to swing quite a bit here just haven't changed their registration or maybe they want to deal to vote in primaries. >> host: 20 percent of democrats across the country call themselves conservatives ideologically. something most people might not know. we should also point of quickly that we are using the word unaffiliated an independent energy. >> guest: i use the word independent to sort of be more accessible, but in most states the registration categories unaffiliated we

aloha hawaii republicans. while we await hawaii's results, the big story of the night is the deep south. in alabama and mississippi, former republican senator rick santorum of pennsylvania is the projected winner tonight of the alabama republican primary right now, how much percent of the vote do we have in there? sorry. 99% of the vote in there. rick santorum projected to win alabama with 35% of the vote. mississippi, rick santorum has been declared the winner tonight in the mississippi republican primary as well in terms of a vote that's in mississippi, 99% of the mississippi vote in. rick santorum projected to win with 33% of the vote. this has most of all, i think this is important to say, because i don't think it's the way it's being headlined right now, but this is most of all a bad night for newt gingrich. let's be honest. it has been a great night for rick santorum, but it's mostly been a bad night for newt gingrich. and as a courtesy to the winner tonight, i want you to hear first tonight from rick sa

republicans that could vote republican for a general but are going to vote republican primary scene this fundamentally though one of the reasons that mitt romney has been able to survive as all these other candidates have gone up and down is because of the professionalism of his staff a lot of professional republicans who go in and run top notch campaigns have sat out the cycle before work for romney so you've got a cast of bumbling fools who have second tier campaign organizations who can't quite get it together so they don't know how to harness a wave when they get new support they don't know how to fight back when they're under attack romney's campaign has been able to do that and that's why he's been able to stop the hemorrhaging but never writes he's always been at twenty five thirty percent popularity within the party and that's why he'll never go above it with the base they'll vote for him out of an obligation to the party just like they do when they pick their nominees since one thousand nine hundred eighty four there were only good two republican nominees that did not run at lea

republicans even, 42%.winner statistically for republicans. >> it's not a winner for republicans. talking about respect for religion, religious freedom, that's an argument they can make. or talking about mandates by the obama health care plan that seem intrusive or extensive or too much for the federal government. that's an argument they might be able to make. they were trying to make it yesterday, but rush limbaugh has hijacked that argument and made it about contraception. >> he's not exactly speaking for the church. i can't imagine that. it would be incredible. >> it's hard to imagine republicans thinking this. even rick santorum, who is comfortable talking about these social issues, wanted not to talk about this. wanted to dismiss it and move on to other things. >> he's getting into the jobs issue again where he belongs. >> where he ought to be and tries to be. >> john, you know, he's not the only one that said anything today. he's using the lingo of, oh, he's an entertainer. don't take it seriously. he