we'll start with richard haass. richard? >> i actually would accelerate it.ays, i would have favored a faster program to begin with. i simply don't think as david himself hinted at in his response there that at the end of the day we are going to have the results that will justify this human and economic investment. so i actually agree with those like vice president biden who have been arguing for years that the united states should get down to a much smaller force much sooner. i simply don't think this is consistent with either our economic situation or the desire to place a greater emphasis on the asia pacific and it won't work among other things given that pakistan continues to provide a sanctuary to the forces that are attacking americans and afghanis. >> and i want both of our guests from washington to respond. dad, what would be the difference if we draw down a little earlier? would there be any difference in terms of the overall mission, impact, or success if you will? >> look, you can't have it both ways. if we are drawing down just a little bit, it me

and richard haass last night had his annual meeting. and he had to deliver his budget plan. and actually if he hits the jackpot -- >> that's plan b. >> that was plan a. i'm not going to tell you what plan b was. a lot of people hoping we don't have to resort to richard in his speedos in the car wash on the side of the road trying to get the cars to come in. >> way too early for that. >> let's just pray. >> i will be at work on monday after i win. because it's not about the money for me here. >> no. it's about the kids. >> it's about family. >> that was funny. >> you always hear the stories about the people who won whose lives went bad. cautionary tale. >> we will take that chance. >>> let's get into the news. i think the headline really is meant to be a debbie downer for my party. but, you know, we've got new nbc news/"wall street journal" polls out of wisconsin. and one more swing state where mitt romney is getting absolutely hammered by barack obama. >> yeah. why don't we start there. mitt romney and rick santorum are heading to wisconsin today, kicking off a final campaig

. >> richard haass just off a ten-hour flight. >> from brazil. he did the samba. >> was that fantastic? >> it was an amazing country. >> carnival. >> i'd like to hear more. and willie, did you have a good weekend? >> i can't remember. i'm sure it was great. >> are you not -- this is a huge week for mark haleprin. >> it is. >> for all of us. >> you know what he's doing? he's preparing his -- checking his lists and making sure, willie, everybody's invited to the premiere of "game change" thursday night. his partner, though, is doing some different kind of checking. checking to make sure all the coke shipments have cleared the keys and are making it up the east coast. >> why would you say that? >> because he's heilemann. >> so he'll be ready for the post parties. >> i have no idea what you -- >> 90% of all joking is true. >> march 10th, hbo. >> that is great. and exciting. >> sarah palin and her super pac guns blazing trying to give preemptive strike. that's the film, we'll talk about that with politico later. >> you know what i love about that is?

and richard haass, they want him alive.e trying to get at him and at this point they don't even know where -- they haven't heard from him for hours. so who knows. but give us the big picture on this story. >> as gripped as we are in the conversation we just had about trayvon martin in this story, france is gripped by mohammed merah, a french citizen of algerian defense. this is scary for the social fabric of france and potentially scary for the social fabric here. france is a country now of a growing number of muslim citizens of algerian and other descent. and this injects into everyone's mind the idea, oh, that person is arab one way or another, algerian, what have you, might he do something like this? this is the kind of thing that is corrosive to put it bluntly for any society. it's what's happening in france. this is a guy who was radicalized apparently by the internet. he made some trips over to the middle east, to pakistan, what have you. he comes back. and apparently, he does this mayhem killing jewish kids and killi

. >>> and we are back with anne-marie slaughter and richard haass. russia benefits from crisis, the price of oil goes up and china on the other hand benefits from international tensions being reduced and oil prices going down. but you thought that they don't quite behave that way? >> there's a gap between what you think chinese national interest would dictate and what chinese behavior is. china ought to be there shoulder to shoulder partnering with us to get iran to behave. the last thing china wants is the straits to be closed and a war which would drive the prices to 3, $400 a barrel. they are a major importer. china is not there with us. they are essentially sitting back and they are not putting pressure on iran much with sanctions or anything else or even with north korea. >> do they care if iran gets a nuke? >> well, i'm not sure they care if iran gets a nuke. but, also, this is short-term interests over long-term interests because in the short term they can be cut deal with iran and get cheaper oil and actually benefit from the fact that everyb