in ohio, secretary clinton won ohio. this could play out for awhile. that is not a problem. it was not a problem for the democrats for years ago. barack obama emerged as the nominee and is now the president. when people make a big deal and say we need to come together -- let's find out who is the toughest. that is why you play the game. let's see who wins. whoever wins will be ready for the championship game. >> what does mitt romney need to do to connect to voters more efficiently? -- effectively? what does he need to do to connect to voters in your district? >> just get out there and talk with the voters. i had the opportunity to sit down with the governor for a few minutes in a private setting. he comes across great in those settings. when people get a chance to talk with him, that is always good for any candidate running for office to go out and meet people and let them see who he really is. the other thing voters will connect with is that you can tell governor romney truly cares about his family and wife and kids. that connects with republican voters, a lot of voters. h

than barack obama, rob portman has the same pragmatic managerial affect that mitt romney has and he won ohioch is the most important swing state in the country, he won that state with 57% of the vote, 82 out of 88 counties in a close race might be able to help mitt romney win ohio. that would be if he could pass and just do that that would be a success for a vice presidential pick. >> and let me point out that if you really wanted to also embrace the tea party, fiscal conservatives and fire up the base, you could also go with wisconsin's favorite son, paul ryan. >> you certainly could do that. and it's a name i think you'll hear mentioned a lot. it's not clear that paul ryan would even help mitt romney win wisconsin, and to be honest the way the obama campaign is going to portray it mitt romney is running with paul ryan anyway, talking about romney/ryan. there might not be that much benefit to doing that. >> john heilman, the game changer himself, thank you. >> up next in our briefing, politicizing the court. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on nbc. i told you like a gajillion times to

if he loses here, and it looks like he will, he will not have won ohio or illinois or michigan or wisconsinwhere the manufacturing base has been. what about wisconsin for santorum? >> it looks like rick santorum is trying to bowl his way to victory in wisconsin. i don't think it's going to work. it's beginning to remind me a little bit of the monty python movie, the holy grail. you remember the scene where there's the knight and they keep chopping his arms and legs off. >> keep going. you're warming up the crowd with all of this. just keep on going. you're hot, buddy. you're hot. keep going. >> as the knight shrinks, he keeps saying it's a mere flesh wound. i think that's where rick santorum is right now. at this point, the players, meaning media players, the republican party players and increasingly the voters, i think, are deciding and among the republicans that the race is over and it's time to turn their attention to president obama. i think for dignity's sake, rick santorum is trying to stay around at least until pennsylvania. he better be careful what he wishes for there, ed. that's m

we know romney won ohio by one, he won michigan bay three, won illinois by 12.f you believe that demographics are destiny, then it is going to be somewhere between five and ten, which, of course, our poll had romney up seven, smack dab in the middle, if that is what the turnoutsome the education could throw it off, but wisconsin does seem to be acting like a state that is slotted in demo graphically, for the most part, between michigan and illinois. not just geographic but testimony graphically as well. what to watch for tonight? i think santorum, if he loses wisconsin, will still pick up potentially three, maybe four congressional district delegates, that still wouldn't be a lot tonight, expect a near clean sweep in maryland for romney, maybe one congressional district santorum can carry there as you know, santorum is not even on the ballot. now i got my market run down, becky quick is here. markets have already opened. what you got for me? >> they have opened. right now, not a super clear direction where they are head. dow down 15 points. see what happens the

almost perfect i have no doubt john kerry won the election in ohio ok no john kerry won the election in ohio john kerry would be brothers of certainty to say that those exit polls were so far off. just didn't happen something else happened so the yang folks are harassing maybe are getting d.o.t. to harass me with a plan is fired at ten in the morning i'm tired at like two thirty that afternoon and said it was investigating this company instead of putting it putting the brakes on what's going on they're actually writing letters of recommendation for that company wrecked yang correct and saying that you're removed correct tom feeney fingerprints are all over this now yes literal fingerprints literal fingerprints i mean read the public record read the public record i don't want anyone to take my word for anything brad get the documents and we have records and when you read a memo from nelsonville secretary to him stating that mr feeney wants this letter signed today and this letter is a recommendation for yang enterprises and the following day after mr hill executes his letter of recomme

if he loses here and looks like he probably will, he will not have won ohio, illinois, michigan or wisconsinl of where the manufacturing base has been. this of course is where santorum has been trying to score very well. what about wisconsin for santorum? >> looks to me like rick santorum is trying to bowl his way the victory in wisconsin. i don't think it is going to work. it's beginning to remind me a little bit of the monty python movie "the holy grail." remember the scene where there's the knight and they keep chopping his arms and legs off -- >> keep going, howard with, you are warming up the crowd with all of this. just keep going. you are hot, buddy, you are on the stump. keep going. >> as the knight shrinks and loses limbs and legs he sae keeps saying it's a mere flesh wound. i sort of think that's where rick santorum is right now. at this point, the players, meaning the media players, the republican party players and increasingly the voters, i think, are deciding -- ang republicans, that the race is over and it's time to turn their attention to president obama. i think for dignity s

ohio state won yesterday in one semi. they trailed by as many as 13 but rallied against the favored buckeyes. eight minutes to go. it's layed in, kansas down by just a point. then ohio state, can't do it. williams buford blocked by jeff whitney, elijah johnson taking the rebound. kansas defeats ohio state 64- 52. they advance to the final four for the first time since winning it all four years ago. the other semifinal kentucky facing louisville, eight plus minutes, wildcats up two. michael gilchrest, kentucky in front by four. just over a minute left, kentucky by five. wildcats attack instead of sitting back. anthony davis, anything you throw up he can just dunk. he had 18 and 14 boards. kentucky beats louisville 69-61 to earn a date with kansas. talk about a showdown full of history. >> kentucky and kansas, i mean, you know, rupp and allen and nate and all of they. rupp grew up in kansas. we stole him, i guess, i don't know, but it should be an exciting ballgame. >> it's a dream for these kids to play in the biggest stage

ohio. no republican in modern times has not won the presidency without carrying ohio. then you see romney would be in striking distance. could he windows 95 there? president obama say thinks the auto bailout will put michigan in his column. three states on the map, new mexico, virginia and iowa. can president obama keep virginia in the democratic column? if he does, you could come down to a race that comes down to tiny iowa and tiny new hampshire. this is just a hypothetical. but you see this, 266 to 262. the winners of new hampshire, romney thinks that's his stake. i can give you 266 and an election night we're waiting maybe, we have to call carolyn in iowa to help us out. right now, the polls show president obama with a healthy lead. however, if you go state by state, you could get a map that looks like that, which is a tough battle from now until november. >> nen who thinks, john, that this race is all sewn up in either direction, they are mistaken. it is wide open right now. it will be fierce. it will be intense. and it will be is ugly. i have no doubt about that.

rick stan ror wum kwouf gone on and won the ohio primary. getting back to the question why this was so difficult for rick santorum, i would imagine he was tasting it during certain moments of this campaign, that he was very close to being on the verge of knocking mitt romney out of this race. and he came ever so close every time he got that opportunity and just never really got that point. i think that's part of the reason why this is so difficult. but to hear that long speech in this room here in gettysburg and to not hear the words i'm not getting behind mitt romney or i'll do whatever i can to see mitt romney elected president of the united states, you can't really emphasize that enough. that is a pretty big predicament for the romney campaign. they want santorum in their worner. they need rick santorum, maybe more than santorum needs romney at this point. >> i just got off the phone as i said with the national campaign spokesman who said it is not an inevitability that this endorsement is going to happen. we're scheduling meetings. we ha

ohio. no president has won without winning ohio. smart pick, right? >> would help in ohio.hink he is going to win ohio because the top issue in ohio is jobs and the economy. it is true in lorraine county, where there is 8.7% unemployment, people are looking around for some leadership. i think mitt romney has a good opportunity to win. broemd won last time. >> would he have a better chance with portman on the ticket? >> i don't think so. i am going to help him all i can. i think the key thing is going to be who has the better plan. and when you look at the record, obama administration and what mitt romney is offering, which is a new way to approach the economy and new way to get jobs going, i think he is going to get independent voters, moderate republicans and moderate democrats that voted for president obama to look to him. >> i want to get to some of the proposals in a minute. want to ask about this. every politician has an ego. yours, i have known you a long time, is considerably smaller than others that are around. that's a compliment. i want to ask you if this bothers

we too wanted to believe that the great battles were won not by regulars, but rather by militia. they came out of kentucky and ohio and tennessee and won the war for us. now, our militia did play a fairly significant role, but all the major battles at least the land battles were fought principally by regulars and to a lesser extent the indian allies. number four, kentucky rifles were the game changers that won the war. there was not any such thing as a kentucky rifle in those days. there were 4,000 federal weapons manufactured at the federal arsenal at harper's ferry that were rifles. those were distributed to some regular units. most of the rifles were manufactured by private companies working in pennsylvania to many specifications. this was in fact the pennsylvania rifle. now, there were some militia, particularly in the west who brought their rifles. the vast majority came unarmed the. most of the firepower in the war was artillery or muskets. rifles played a decidedly minor role. the reason we think they played a major role was because of a popular song called the hunters of kentucky which enjoyed a great deal

ohio's a key battleground state. no republican in modern times has won the presidency without carrying ohio. i think he's got a good chance. if you want to go to florida, i don't think marco rubio, the republican senator from florida, by romney's definition, is necessarily ready to be number two, vice president of the united states, and obviously had to be ready to be president, god forbid in an emergency. i think, and others disagree, i think the former governor of florida, jeb bush, who is very popular in florida, florida key battleground state, someone who speaks spanish, can appeal to the latino vote out there, i think he would have a shot. but we'll see if the romney folks decide that he's going to be vetted fairly. i would say those two guys have a very good chance of being at top of the list. >> i think jeb bush is a good choice. i think one thing's for sure, they won't be taking any risks after what happened with sarah palin. wolf, thanks for now. when we come back, the obama campaign fires back at candidate romney in the form of ben labot, the campaign secretary for president obama,

john kennedy lost ohio in 1960, but since 1964, no democrat has won the presidency without going to ohiore's one state that is key that both candidates will be going back and back and gabbing, it is the state of ohio. >> we will keep an eye on ohio indeed. even though mitt romney is not officially the gop nominee, no doubt are people running around the scenes making their list of vp candidates and checking it twice. bob mcdonnell's name keeps popping up. what is he saying about his chances? >> everybody who is mentioned say i'm not interested or i won't take it. they all aren't telling the truth, shawn. they are all very interested. 1960, a little john kennedy, they offered it to lyndon johnson. they said he was the senate majority leader. go ahead and offer it to him. he did take it. everybody wants to be vice president even though they don't admit it. bob mcdonald is a happy conservative. he has a military background. he's a long time reservist. he showed he could carry northern virginia. i think he is on the short list and virginia is a very important state with their lektorial votes,

ohio. both won by the president in '08. now they are tossups when they show everybody the new nbc battleground map. how important are these two states and what does it mean, the strategy of it all if the obama campaign wants to start there. >> it's not surprising those are the two states the obama campaign would pick to kick this off. these are states like you said that obama did win in 2008. i think ohio will be a very interesting race. half of the electorate is working class white voters. that is an area both mitt romney and president obama have struggled to connect with. that race will be particularly interesting and says quite a bit about the strategy the campaign is looking at moving forward. >> as we talk about the strategy, the president's stops on the 5th will be at two colleges as he continues to do what he did before, court the youth vote. this comes as gop super pac. american crossroads just released this ad. take a look at this. >> obama! obama! >> all right. the celebrity president but driving home the point it

michigan, where romney won by 3%, 3.5%. 42% in ohio. that one-point victory, 49%. so here, advantage romney. let's go to income. we made the cut at 75,000. lower income is 65%. higher income 35% split. 100,000 is the exit poll split. look where wisconsin slots in, in between illinois and michigan again, not quite as low income as ohio. what does that mean? here are the margins. romney won by a point, most evangelical, lower income, less college educated. illinois, a lot higher income, a lot less evangelical. romney won by double digits. what's the wisconsin number going to be? if you were to do this like spreads, thomas, you would make romney a five-point favorite, and you would say, i wouldn't be surprised if it's somewhere in this range, five to ten points, if demographics are destiny. but turnout is a whole other story. >> nbc political director chuck todd. always a reminder, you can catch chuck every morning on the "the daily rundown" at 9:00 a.m. on msnbc. >>> breaking news from washington, where former vice president dick cheney was just released from the fai

ohio. no republican has won the presidency without wing ohio. >> i think he's going to win ohio and the topohio is jobs and the economy. it's true in lorraine county whereby the way theray 8.7% unemployment and people are looking around for leadership so i think mitt romney has a good opportunity to win in ohio. >> he's being coy. he's not saying yes and not saying no. >> they never say yes. >> portman is obviously someone they think is on the short list. i don't think romney himself knows yet. they're going to be extensive vetting. they want to avoid the mistakes that mccain made the last time. >> oh, absolutely. look, i think mitt romney faces some of the same problems that john mccain faced, for example. he faces a huge gender gap and a gender gullch. he faces conservatives and he's got to unite the conservative base and this is a very different environment from 2008 and it's a better environment for republicans and mitt romney is facing an incumbent president in a very iffy economy and the republican party will be a parody in terms of money so it's not as much as they would need a hail

ohio and virginia both key swing states and the president won both of the states in 2008. what we're learning about the campaign is they will slowly ramp up the campaign. >> tell us about vice-president joe biden already taking shots at mitt romney. >> reporter: he gave this speech earlier this morning. he's trying to maintain this sharp contrast between president obama and his republican rival. take a listen to this. >> governor romney, i think is counting on collective amnesia of the american people. america knows we can't go back to the future, back to the foreign policy that would have america go it alone. >> reporter: a cnn/orc poll shows 52% of voters think president obama is better suited to be the commander in chief. you have to compare that to romney's 36%. >> speak of the presumptive nominee, what is mitt romney up to today? >> reporter: mitt romney is out and about fund-raising. this will be critical for him. he was in new york holding a fund-raising breakfast, about 1,000 donors there. the bot throm line -- bottom line, a source tells us he will bring in about

ohio, virginia. if you had to pick four states to pay attention, to pick those. a couple of interesting states to watch is north carolina. the president won there in

ohio. no republican in modern times has not won the presidency without carrying ohio.ld be in striking distance. could he windows 95 there? president obama say thinks the

. >> bret: he won a trifecta in early february, colorado, minnesota, missouri, the same night. after coming close in michigan and then ohioucial wins for mitt romney. santorum won alabama and mississippi. and cruised to victory in louisiana. >> we are still here. we are still fighting. >> bret: but in the end, santorum's battle with the g.o.p. nomination ended in gettysburg. 14 days before the state he represented for 16 years went to the polls. let's get reaction now from senior political analyst brit hume. good evening. what about this campaign? >> i think that santorum did the right thing for himself and his family. i'm sure the campaign is in debt. he is probably going into his personal savings. he has a big family. a lot of mouths to feed the kids' schools to think about. he did wise thing politically. he was in real danger of losing pennsylvania. republican-only race from this primary, again having lost it so badly in 2006. having been left for dead. he has revived his political fortunes. he is back as major figure in the republican party. if he were to lose that state again, it would have undone a lot of what he ac

republicans are confident about ohio and no republican in modern times has won the presidency without carrying ohio and romney would be within striking distance. can he win somewhere else? michigan, he was born there, but again, prove it would be my message there. president obama thinks the auto bailout and the difference is there, we'll put michigan in his left column. three states on the map, new hampshire, virginia and iowa and essentially a dead heat race here. it can come down, can president obama keep virginia in the democratic column? if he does, you could have a race that comes down to tiny iowa and tiny new hampshire and this is just a hypothetical, wolf and i have a 266 to 262, the winners of new hampshire and romney thinks that's his state and let's make that red just for the sake of argument and i can give you 266 and on election night we have to call carolyn in iowa to help us out. it's april. right now the polls show president obama with a healthy lead. however, if you go state by state, you could get a map, wolf, that looks just like that that could be a tough battle fr

won by nearly 9 points last time around. that leaves us with four remaining states. florida, ohiossouri and pen pens who -- henpennsylvania who's electl votes would call the nomination. >> the states obama won under went a change in the electoral votes they have. a net loss for the blue states of 6 electoral votes. >>> thank you. all coming out of the map there. >>> here is something a lot of people ask when it comes to air travel. what is the worst seat possible on an airplane? is it the middle the back or where do you go if you have kids? we will talk about the exact seat assignment you do not want and that is coming up next. >> just take the car. >>> here is your word of the day. it is all scrambled up. something we talked about today. can you figure it out? no, not yet. >> time now for the good, the bad and the ugly. first the good. according to airline passenger surveys, there is a good seat in coach. it's seat in the front by the aisle. awe the way in the back next to my screaming kids, the worst. a young woman spilling bright purple yogurt all over president obama. this hap

won the senate. so -- and that's especially true in central and southern ohio. so you have a -- you know, we talk about america divided, ohio was divided. it's cuyahoga county against just about every other part of the state. >> hi, ken. who would you say was controlling the distribution of drugs mid -- that sub channel -- not the users, the distribution. who was controlling that mid '60s, did it change late '60s, early '70s. and i know they weren't part of campus activity, but when does the mafia -- and the growth in the '60s and '70s -- did you see any connections there early? >> well, my impression is, and i'm certainly no expert. well, one could argue that heroin was a family arrangement, you know. right out of the corely owns. many of the drugs, particularly marijuana, had -- it's home-grown. at the university of kansas, ditch weed will become a local crop. parts of ohio, megs county gold, as we call it. so those types of narcotic crops are hard to control. it actually makes it much harder to crack down on it. now, of course, in my book i discuss oddsly, as

and you've talked about this on the show -- in 2010, republicans won everywhere around the country talking about jobs. what they did in ohio collective bargaining rights, women's rights, voters' rights. and the voters saw, these people around on my side. these are people that want to undermine democracy, take away women's rights, and they're going after workers and going after the middle class. the collective bargaining issue, the first time in american history, i believe, that collective bargaining was actually voted on in a statewide ballot. it was clearly an issue whose side are you on? and if you're on the side of the middle class, if you're on the side of people who aspire to join the middle class, you voted to preserve collective bargaining rights. if you're for tax cuts for rich people, you voted and you don't like collective bargaining rights, you'd be against the minimum wage. that stuff goes together. and when people evaluate candidates -- and that's why this year, the people that opposed collective bargaining rights are still on the ascendency in ohio. >> ohio senator sherrod brown running for re-election in ohi

ohio, colorado and nevada. and the bad news for mitt romney is that president obama won all seven of those toss up states in 2008. the first two obama campaign rallies are now scheduled for saturday, may 5 in, where else? ohio and virginia. if you don't live in one of the battleground states, you will be watching all of the campaign rallies this year on tv. rush limbaugh took one look at the new battleground map today and of course, saw it through rush colored glasses. >> joining me now are crystal ball, a democratic strategist and ari melder, a correspondent for the nation and msnbc contributor. we have the big map, the big map should be on the wall there. that's the wallpaper of the show for the rest of the year. because we can never repeat this enough, ignore those polls of the whole country, where they show them tied or they show obama ahead by a couple of points, it all comes down to this map, the toss up states, there's nothing toels think about. >> and we spend a lot of time in the republican primary talking about the fact that the national polls don't matter, you have to look state by state. it's the sam