richard haass still with us.or npr and political commentator and analyst for abc news, cokie roberts. cokie, great to have you back on the show. >> great to be here. >> am i being overly -- >> that newt is saying next week? >> yes. >> maybe he's hoping that everybody will come and say, oh, no, newt, no, no, you can't do it, newt, stop. >> i don't think that's going to happen. >> i don't either. but a guy can dream. >> it could be. but as the race really starts to get down to two, it already has been, we have a new national poll out this morning from fox news showing president obama and mitt romney in a dead heat. each with 46%. mark halperin, overall, is that surprising to you that it's so tight? >> no. governor romney -- three things have happened. one, he is out of the nominating process. two, he has not made that many mistakes of late. and three, he's really done a good job of making this election about the obama economy for the last couple of weeks, and that is a winning message for him as people start to mee

we'll have more on that with the president on the council of foreign relations, richard haass, just ahead. >>> we asked you why you were awake. john has your answers. towering large over there, johnny boy, what do you got? >> derek writes, up due to bilateral hernia surgery and can't sleep. >> yikes! wow! all right. i've got nothing to add to that. thanks, john. thanks to this hardworking crew behind me for all their help this week with me, your guest host. i'll see you tomorrow. "morning joe" starts right now. >>> president obama once said he wants everybody in america to go to college. what a snob. kennedy, for the first time, articulated a vision saying no, faith is not allowed in the public square. to say that people of faith have no role in the public square? you bet that makes you throw up. i don't care what the unemployment rate's going to be. it doesn't matter to me. my campaign doesn't hinge on unemployment rates and growth rates. mitt romney agreed with barack obama on every single thing that he did. because he put it in place in massachusetts. it's the blueprint for obamacare.

the president of the council on foreign relations, richard haass and msnbc contributor mike barnicle and mark halperin. >> thank you guys for being here. obviously, mika, big news. >> yeah. >> that rick santorum's bowed out of the race or at least suspended it. but mike barnicle, there was one clip there -- of course, i know people think we cut every clip, but i think the one clip that was missing from that was, i think, the best speech in the entire republican primary. >> the speech where rick santorum talked about his grandfather who worked in a steel mill and his strong hands. it was a powerful moment for santorum. probably, i think, a moment that catapulted him into prominence. >> and, of course, the frustration was, jon meacham, that among a lot of republicans that didn't want myitt romney t win, that he didn't stay laser focused on that message and he just didn't channel the story about his grandfather and how his grandfather had won the american dream for his grandson and entire family. >> yeah. the conventional wisdom quickly became, as someone said, that he swung at every pi

>> richard haass, you just came back from the middle east. like to know where you went, and if the two candidates in the approximate t presidential race are part of the conversation overseas and how they are viewed. >> thank you for inviting this yankees fan. >> the second you stepped on the set, we took willie off. there's a one yankee fan maximum. >> glad to fulfill the quota then. >> yeah. >> i was in this trip saudi arabia, bahrain, and the united arab emirates. each country had a different focus. in saudi arabia, it was interesting how tense the feeling was about syria. about the sunnis in saudi arabia wanting to do something to protect if you will their kin in syria, the dominant issue. in bahrain, all internal. this is a country run by sunni minority. you have a shia majority. and the thing that always came to mind was northern ireland. you know, you have a minority overseeing a majority. you have divisions on each side. you have outside countries which have a role in it. and it's getting increasingly violent there. you move to the uni