plus their recent trip to afghanistan. rapid increasing gas prices. how high and how long? with former ceo of shell oil. i'm candy crowley. and this in is "state of the union." the afghan government says the man who killed two american soldiers inside a highly secured afghan government building is an afghan intelligence officer. president hamid karzai has offered condolences to the families of the four americans killed since news that u.s. personnel apparently inadvertently burned copies of the koran at an air base in afghanistan. karzai called for calm but insisted the u.s. must prosecute those responsible for burning the muslim holy book. joining from me kabul, ryan crocker. mr. ambassador, let me ask you, first, the u.s. over more than ten years has spent half a trillion dollars in afghanistan, almost 2,000 american lives have been lost, and the american people wake up this morning to find that two high military officers sitting inside a secured afghan government building were murdered basically by someone who was, you know, freely walked into na building and the burning of the u.s. flags, two soldiers killed in trying to combat protests. why in the world shouldn't americans be waking up saying we've got to get out of there? >> well, candy, a terrible event, strongly condemned by secretary panetta and others. general allen and i are just back from the ramp ceremony for the two fallen heros in which we saw them off on their last journey home, so we all feel it out here. that said, and as president obama said yesterday, we remain committed to a partnership with the afghan government and people as we seek to achieve our shared goal of disrupting, dismantling and defeating al qaeda and strengthening the afghan state and we're doing that so that afghanistan can never again be the refuge for terrorists who would strike the american homeland. >> i understand that but the question is, why do we still have this relationship with a government that is either too weak or unwilling to do some of the things we need it to do so u.s. troops can come out? i think it took five days for president karzai to get out there and say to the folks on street, calm down here. he's demanding the prosecution of military officials. it just doesn't seem like the best atmospheric for putting together some of the agreements you're going to need from the karzai government. >> thigh we need to bear in mind that the afghan security forces, throughout this whole process, have been seeking to quell these demonstrations. they've done so with loss of life on their side as well as some of the protesters, and they have been defending u.s. installations. so they are very much in this fight trying to protect us. and i'd also point out that president karzai's statement today was by no means his first. president obama, in his statement yesterday after he spoke to general allen, praised president karzai for his calls for calm which he's been doing almost since the beginning. look, candy, this is hard. i opened this ambassador here more than a decade ago and there was nothing, no institutions new york ministries new york police, no army, no nothing. coming back after almost a decade, while the challenges are huge, the achievements are pretty considerable, too, and the stakes again, as i said, remain high. if we decide we're tired of it al qaeda and the taliban certainly aren't. >> one of the thinged that we're told from our reporters in afghanistan is that today's sunday, that there were attacks in the north, seven more u.s. personnel injured how does this end? this is the sixth day of the violent protests. >> candy, i've soon this kind of thing before when i was ambassador to pakistan. religious sensitivities run very, very deep in this part of the world and several times while i was there we saw countrywide violence. at a certain point it tapers off and i think we're all hopeful that the appeal for calm that president karzai made today and he did so with the backing of the entire political leadership of the country will create a condition in which this diminishes. there were some tough attacks up in the north. the rest of the country, though, was pretty calm today. >> and yet, mr. ambassador, nato and the u.s. have pulled all their personnel out of the afghan ministries. so basically you have a situation here where the u.s. is working with a government but we don't trust the security inside the ministries of that very same government. we won't put u.s. personnel in there because we don't think it's safe. how do you reach agreements under that kind of tone? >> again, you just keep pushing ahead. the very prudent step that general allen took yesterday mirrors my own. i pulled embedded civilians out of the ministries. tensions are running very high here and i think we need to let things calm down, return to a more normal atmosphere, and then get on with business. and doesn't mean that we're not doinged by now, we are. with both military counterparts and civilian counterparts. again, these are terrible tragedies. and very worthy of the condemnation they received. but this is not the time to decide that we're done here. we have got to redouble our efforts. we've got to create a situation in which al qaeda is not coming back. >> we have heard over and over again that from various u.s. officials that this was inadvertent, they did not know, in fact, that they were burning the koran when they emptied out a detainee library essentially. what i'm wondering is, privately, does president karzai accept this was inadvertent? >> candy, both privately and publicly president karzai said he recognizes this was an inadvertent mistake. >> yet calling for the prosecution. >> that was very early statements. we have said on our side that there's an investigation under way and people will be held to account. >> finally, could i ask you a slightly different note, do you think that the continuing presence of enemy sanctuaries, particularly for economy in pakistan is undermining -- >> i i there's no question the safe haven have been and remain a problem. it's difficult for the afghans and ourselves and our nato allied to decisively defeat an enemy who can take sanctuary and maintain its headquarters in another country. we've been clear about that. we've been public about that. pakistani government needs to take action for their own sake as well as afghanistan's and ours. >> u.s. ambassador to afghanistan, ryan crocker, thank you so much more your time this morning. after the break, president obama seems confident about his re-election chance but was will rising gas prices get in the way. obama campaign senior adviser robert gibbs joinsus. >> late, secretary of state hillary clinton emerges in a new interview as the president's biggest advocate. we'll have that later in the hour.it us [ ding ] oh, that's helpful! well, our company does that, too. actually, we invented that. it's like a sauna in here. helping you save, even if it's not with us -- now, that's progressive! call or click today. no mas pantalones! whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ sure. what flavor? 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[ cheering ] [ tom ] i wanna see that again. ♪ joining me now is robert gibbs, former white house press secretary and a senior campaign adviser for president obama. re-election campaign adviser, i guess i should say. i want to continue a little bit in this talk about afghanistan, what's going on there, and play for you something that newt gingrich said on friday. >> candidly, if hamid karzai, president of afghanistan, doesn't feel like apologizing then i think we should say good-bye and good luck. we don't need to be here risking our lives and wasting our money on somebody who doesn't care. >> now i imagine that in a lot of ways gingrich is voice what a lot of people are thinking at this point, the koran was burned, we think inadvertently by u.s. personnel and in response four u.s. military personnel are dead, including two sitting in an office in an afghan interior ministry. doesn't that capture the public mood like, what are we doing there, let's just get out? >> i think it's important to understand why we went and that is to as ambassador crocker said, make sure al qaeda doesn't have a safe halven. we were told al qaeda's gone. >> can dirk letdy let's be clea. they don't have a safe halve tonight plan a terrorist attack like on 9/11 that killed 3,000 americans. we disrupted a large amount of al qaeda's network, as you know bin laden is dead and what the president's trying to do now is get us to a point where we can hand off the security of afghanistan to the afghans and that we can bring our troops home. i think what he's trying to do is diffuse the tension that's there and you know, quite honestly, i'm not sure many people are looking to newt gingrich for foreign policy advice. if there's a problem on the lunar colony, he'll be among the first we call. >> back at him. let me move you to some domestic issues. right now gas prices. and the president has said, and a lot of economic advisers and gas expert as degree, there's very little that a president can do to immediately effect what's go on at pumps. it doesn't mean it doesn't get ow on the campaign trail, i want viewers to take a listen to this. >> under our administration we will drill for oil in alaska. >> anybody who tells you that we can drill our way out of this problem doesn't know what they're talking about. >> i think the easiest decision this president has faced was whether or not to build the keystone pipeline, and he flunked that easy question, it's unbelievable. >> there is no silver bullet. there never hassen. so it's clearly on the political agenda. a lot of the economists i talked to said $4 is the magic number, one the national average gets to $4 a gallon, it's already there in some places it begins to affect the economy. people have less money that their pockets and businesses, overhead goes up so they don't want to hire. >> sure. >> we're look agent fragile recovery that might get hit soon. does the president have anything left in his quiver that he can use to bring some of this down? >> well, look, as you mentioned, candy, oil is a global commodity it's at the whims i aworld using more and more oil and because of the demand pushing that price up. what the president talked about this week is we have to employ an all of the above strategy. we cannot have 2% of the world's oil, use 25% on a daily basis and think that the only thing we can do is drill. that's not going to solve our problem. but you had rick santorum mention drilling in the arctic, about a week or so ago the president approved more permits to explore drilling in the arctic. we just signed an agreement with mexico to develop areas in the gulf of mexico that span the two countries' border. we're doing all that we can because we're using less foreign oil than we have in the past 16 years and drilling more and producing more than we have in the past eight years. >> some of the republicans argued that all of the things were set long before the president came to office. >> don't they always say that, candy? those are the same people, i'm sure when gas hit a record high 2008 were blaming george bush. don't look hard for that video because it's not there because there are a series of people that want tell you there are easy magic bullet solutions to the problems that we face. we know that's not truz. >> the president last year did let loose some of the strategic oil reserves. >> candy, i'm no longer in those mote meetings. i know the white house will look at every available option in the short term and long term. we're not going to magically make this problem disappear. we have to increase domestic oil production, increase exploration for natural gas. this is the president the first in 30 years to approve a new nuclear reactor. we have once in a lifetime fuel efficiency standards. all of these things are what we need to make progress on a problem that's been with us for decades. >> on the campaign trail, and this is a brief sound bite, i want to play something that president obama said this week. >> my presidency's not over. i've got another five years coming up. we're going to get this done. >> so, you guys sitting back at the re-election thing, it's done. >> i'm glad the president thinks we're going to went. i'd be worried if he didn't. but obviously, look, this is going to be a close election candy. there's a lot of people working very hard to make sure that the president gets back. >> listen, we asked -- quinnipiac had a poll out asking, do you think president obama deserves to be re-elected, which may be why this five more years may be premature. right now 45%, only 45% of people say yes, he deserves to be re-elected, 50% say no. it hasn't changed since november, why is that? >> they're going to be -- there's 100 different polls that will tell you 101 different things. i think every poll i've seen in the last three months shows you the terrific damage that the republican primary is doing to the republican candidates. >> numbers have gone down. >> people like mitt romney are watching their approval ratings and their favorable ratings with independent voters, their unfavorable ratings skyrocket. in his home state of michigan a poll showed him trailing the president in what should be a battleground state by 16 points. it's because they're rushing to the right to try to convince conservatives that they're conservative. >> democrats and the dnc have been taking a little time looking at rick santorum. size him up for me as a possible rival to president obama. >> look, i think, you know, i don't think tuesday's going to be a clarifying event in the republican primary. i think because of the way delegates are apportioned, this is going to go on for weeks and weeks and i think he's got a legitimate chance to be the republican nominee. he's clearly somebody who has a very different economic background than mitt romney. he's somebody that is, you know -- >> blue collar. >> blue collar, he's from pennsylvania. not worth $250 million and i assume his wife doesn't have several cadillacs. i think he clearly brings a little bit different challenge but i will say this, if you look at their economic plans and look at the economic plan that mitt romney put out this week, in many ways they are very much similar in the sense that they have tax cut plans that would add trillions and trillions to our debts and deficits. not one of the candidate is serious about controlling the deaf set. >> robert gibbs, thank you for joining us. after the break, president obama seems confident about his re-election chance but was do rising gas prices get in the way? certainly we'll be continuing to talk about that with our next up and that in fact is senator john mccain and senator lindsey graham t yosa it was greek. mmhmm. so is it greek or is it yoplait? exactly. okay... 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[ male announcer ] start asking real owners. treat yourself to the ultimate sleep experience and save up to $200 during the tempur ergo savings event. plus visit tempurpedic.com for full details on our five day, five year special financing offer. don't wait. the tempur ergo savings event and five year special financing ends february 26th. tempur-pedic. the most highly recomended bed in america. joining me to talk about the state of the republican presidential race as well as the latest developments in afghanistan, former republican presidential candidate and romney supporter, senator john mccain and senator lindsey graham who has yet to pick a horse in this horse race. thank you, gentlemen, both, particularly after your long trip for joining us this morning. wi i want to play something for you, jeb bush, people think he ought to get into the race, something he said about the race itself. >> i think, though, it's important for the candidates to recognize, though, they have to appeal to primary voters and not turn off independent voters that will be part of a winning coalition. >> basically, senator mccain, let's start with you, would jeb bush has said and is saying is that he thinks he's candidates have been pushed too far to the right to actually appeal to independents and we see that in a fallout of the number of independents that are moved back to president obama. have they moved too far to the right? >> well, i think that these continuing debates and the tenor of the debates, which have turned into mud wrestling, certainly raised the unfavorables of the candidates. i don't think there's any doubt about that. then throw in the quote super pacs where one casino mogul will inject $20 million into a political campaign, most of it in negative campaigning, than is predictable. the united states supreme court's disgraceful decision on citizens versus united made this possible. the united states supreme court displayed a level of ignorance and arrogance that i don't think is with precedent. >> senator graham, let me put up for our viewers a graph, head to head polls president obama against those in the race. basically it's president obama 51, 52% and everybody in the race right now, santorum, gingrich, paul, romney, all around 42 and 43%. is this not a sign, since they were polling better before, that this long race and the tenor of this race that senator mccain is talking about, have come to hurt the republican party? >> i think the number to look at is the president's re-elect number as you mentioned before. yeah, primaries you bruise people up and your negatives go up. eventually there will be a one-on-one contest to talk about the president's pathetic budget, the budget he's going to accepted to capitol hill got not no votes last year. every time you get your garfield up it's because of president's ain't action. his offshore drilling plan by the obama administration opens up a whopping 3% of offshore drilling, areas subject to offshore drilling, and they take off the table 50% of areas already leased for offshore drilling. this will be a big i'ssue. i like our chances, we've just go to get the primaries behind you. >> senator mccain, and the same yes yes to you senator graham, do you see a possibility of a brokered convention or knight in shining arm that comes in next month or the noex wrap this all up? do you see either of the two scenarios? >> no, i don't. could i mention also the pipeline? once the president canceled the pipeline the prime minister of canada said they would be selling their oil to the chinese. interesting. i don't see a brokered convention. almost every time there's been contested primaries people predict it. the system doesn't lend itself to it. i'm confident mitt will do well on tuesday night in arizona and in michigan and hopefully that will move this process forward so we can concentrate on the real adversary. >> how about new entries in march or april. >> no. >> somebody that can come in -- >> there are only ten states left where you can still have your name on the ballot. these things are always talked about but i have -- the system is really set up so that it almost precludes that entirely. >> senator graham, do you see any possibility of a brokered convention, and while i have you here, would you like to peck a horse in this horse race? >> well, i appreciate the invite. but, no, i don't. if romney had lost michigan and he's not going to lose michigan, but i think he's going to went both states. let me tell you, governor romney is a better candidate today because of the primary process. south carolina, newt beat romney. he beat him bad. he just dominated the state. he dominated the debates. but by the time florida came around romney took it to the field and he's getting better and better. so the upside of the primary process is our front-runner, mitt romney, really is sharpened his skills and i think that will pay dividends if he gets the nomination. >> both stand by. after the break we are going to turn to afghanistan. the burning of the muslim holy book and the fallout that has followed. czar d karzai has called for calm. secretary of state hillary clinton has choice words for president obama's critics. what's this? 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senator graham? >> well, the strategic partnership agreement that we're trying to negotiate with the afghan government is very important. it's the last card to be played. what we're trying to do is have an enduring political, economic, and military relationship. the hope is after 2014 to have somewhere around 20,000 troops, several air bases, special forces units and air power so the taliban can be permanently defeated the afghan security forces will always have the help of the u.s. american military to ensure that afghanistan never fails. this episode with the koran burning is terrible to watch. ambassador crocker is guided right, keep your eye on the ball, is it very sad that four americans would lose their lives because of an inadvertent burn everythingi ing of the koran. there is a lot of sensitivity to islamic religion but it's a dangerous place. they're not choir boys being held there. president karzai's insisting that we turn over all 3,044 prisoners to the afghan legal system as part of the strategic partnership agreement. i cannot agree to that. the legal system in afghan is immature and porous and he's insisting stopping night raids. . we're putting afghans in the leads in night raids. general allen says continue night raids. i will be backing up allen. we're not going to turn everybody everybody in the prison to the afghans at this moment. they're not ready for that. but we need a strategy ex-partnership agreement. and the koran burning shows a world in which we live, a world in 2012 in which people can lose their live because of inadvertent burning of a holy document and things have to change in the middle east. >> senator mccain, looking at it, most americans, as i asked ambassador crocker, wake up and there's this inadvertent burning of the koran by u.s. personnel on the base and then there are riots and protests, violent protests for six days, two americans are murdered inside the interior building. can you see why americans go speed up this withdrawal and let's get the heck out, it's been half a trillion dollars, 2,000 lives and 11 years. when is enough enough? >> i can certainly understand the anger and frustration and sorrow that the american people feel. and this is a terribly unfortunate situation there. i also think we have to take the long view and that is that a strategic partnership agreement -- by the way the original idea was senator graham's -- is the way that we can leave afghanistan but in a secure environment, and a chance for a democratic government to remain in power. look, they just saw the united states leave iraq completely and iraq unraveling. if we had a strategic partnership there and a residual force -- which this president did not want -- things would be a lot different. they watch what happens in the middle east and they are starting to make their own arrangements because they have to remain in the neighborhood. and we still continue to have this very looming problem that ambassador crocker pointed out and that is sanctuary in pakistan for the taliban and others. but have no doubt, if afghanistan reverts to a chaotic situation you will see al qaeda come back and it again be a base eventually of attacks on the united states of america. >> i have two more countries i want to cover here, if i can the couple minutes we have left. senator graham, first to you, i want to talk about egypt which is not allowing i think about seven americans to get out of there because egypt, the egypt military government's wanting to try them, ngo folks, nongovernment organization, including secretary lahood's son. when will we -- when will this come to some fruition? the administration says we're talking. when is this over? >> well, i'm hoping it will be over soon. they're being charged under ngo law, a holdover law from the mubarak administration that clamped down on any efforts to spread democracy. the army did not bring this case. it was brought in the judiciary and it's a politically motivated case with no foundation at all. the ngos have done a great job over there helping the egyptian people. here's the breakthrough on the ground. senator mccain and myself and our delegation met with the muslim brotherhood. they got a large number of votes. they're going to be conservative, islamists judge them by what they do, not what they say. while there they issued a statement condemning the ngo law, promised to reform it in the future and that was a positive sign because the muslim brotherhood the largest bloc in the parliament said they don't like the law, they think it's unjust and unfair and they want to change it. that should give everybody the political cover they need to let our people come home. >> senator mccain, i've got 30 seconds left. i wanted to ask you about benjamin netanyahu, coming over here next week. i'm wondering whether you believe the relationship between president obama and prime minister netanyahu is complicating the u.s. longstanding relationship with israel. >> i think so. and i think that prime minister has every reason to be upset. the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff calls iran a rational country and the senate security adviser go to israel and then leak that they are trying to urge the israelis not to attack iran, that clearly weakens the israeli's position vis-a-vis iran, and in a region twher have numerous enemy dedicated to wiping them off the map. i understand why relations are in very bad shape right now. >> thank you so much. senator john mccain, senator lindsey graham, thanks for joining us. after the break, secretary of state hillary clinton on the violence in afghanistan and campaign politics. and later, will $5 gas be the norm in the coming months? 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[ female announcer ] live the regular life. phillips'. ...we inspected his brakes for free. free is good. free is very good. my money. my choice. my meineke. secretary of state hillary clinton was in morocco earlier today where she sat down with cnn foreign affairs reporter to talk about the outrage over the koran burnings in afghanistan and her assessment of the 2012 presidential election. >> president obama's apology has become controversial. obviously newt gingrich and others have made that's poll part of the campaign but other experts in afghanistan are saying this apology sends the wrong message, it gives the taliban the excuse to go against us, to help use our enemies against us, and also a lot of the attacks that are happening against americans, these horrible attacks, seem to be in retaliation for something the u.s. is taking responsibility for. >> well, i find it somewhat troubling that our politics would inflame such a dangerous situation in afghanistan. i well remember during the eight years of president bush's administration when something happened that was regrettable, unintentional, as this incident was, president bush was quick to say, look, we're sorry about this, this is something that you know we obviously did not mean to do. that's all that president obama was doing. and it was the right anything to do, to have our president on record as saying you know this was not intentional we deeply regret it. now we are hoping that you know voices inside afghanistan will join that of president karzai and others in speaking out to try to calm the situation. it's deeply reget gretable but now it is out of hand it and t. needs to stop. >> you said yesterday president obama will be re-elected. it raised a lot of eyebrows. it's not really the secretary of state to say anything about an election and it seemed to be kind of a campaign statement. >> well, remember the context of it, you know. i was asked whether the comments in the primary campaign some of which have been quite inflammatory, represented america. and i represent america. and i know what happens in campaigns, i've been there, done that. and i know things are said that you know are not going to be t into practice or policy but i needed to point that out to the audience. probably you know my enthusiasm for the president got a little out of hand. >> no political juices flowing there? >> well, you know, i'm trying to dampen them down. i'm trying to have them taken out, you know, blood transfusion. but you know, occasional think rear their heads. >> does that suggest maybe going back in at some point? >> no, no, it just suggests i want what's best for my country. >> more of the interview on cnn's security clearance blog. the politics and economics of high gas prices. politicians sure know how to get applause. >> give licenses to people to a. proved to drill and get our oil and gas out of the ground. >> time to end taxpayer giveaways to an industry that has never been more profitable, doubled down on clean energy industries that have never been more promising. that's what we need to do. >> will those solutions work? we'll talk with a former oil inside, john hoff mihofmeister o once ran shell. ♪ [ multiple snds ng melodic tune ] ♪ [ malennounc ] at northrop grumman, makthworld a feplace. th's value performance. northr gruan. not in this economy. we also have zero free time, and my dad moving in. so we went to fidelity. we looked at our family's goals and some ways to help us get there. they helped me fix my economy, the one in my house. now they're managing my investments for me. and with fidelity, getting back on track was easier than i thought. call or come in today to take control of your personal economy. get one-on-one help from america's retirement leader. joining me now, john hofmeister, heads up the nonprofit citizens for affordable energy was not at the moment affordable. i want to talk about gas prices and, first, show our viewer -- show our listeners where it is. right now the national average for gasoline is $3.67 a gallon. that's just the national average. there are many places where it's selling for $5 a gallon. so, let's start out with basic questions. how high is it going to go? >> with some basic questions. >> crude oil is $109 today. that's up about $10 just in the last two weeks. and it's going to get worse, candy, because what has changed dramatically from before and nobody talks about it are the actual statistics of china's demand. ten years ago four million barrel az day. last year nine million barrels a day. by 2015, 15 million barrel az day. >> they're competing in the world market for oil, which naturally -- or will be, which naturally drives up the price of oil. >> they have played their ace on us. what they have done, they have granted loans, $120 billion in loans, in the last three years alone to state-owned oil companies so they get first oil. that oil is not going to come on the global trading market. our demand is down 6% year-over-year, and prices are skyrocketing. it's going to stay that way, and it could get worse in 2014, 2015 as well. >> well, can you translate $120 per barrel oil crude or 130 into a price at the pump? >> in the more expensive states like california, new york, and some other places, it could get beyond $5 a gl later on. i don't know if the national average would get to $5, but it could. in addition to the crude oil price, there are three refineries closing on the east coast. that's going to put the middle atlantic states and new england and even greater jeopardy of having to bring in high cost emports from elsewhere because these refineries are closing because they can't make money. what we need is a fix-it plan. >> and let me ask you how long you think these prices will stay elevated. i know it's very early. usually prices go up in the summer. we see that because demand is higher, et cetera. how long do you think these high prices $4, $5 a gallon will last. >> in 2011 we paid the highest average price throughout the year in our history. 2012 will beat that average price of 2011 by some factor. 2013 could get even worse. we really have to get on with fixing the problem and i would take four different steps. one, we use 20 million barrels a day every day in a full economy in this country. we only produce 7 million. we used to produce ten. let's go back to ten. we know how to produce ten. we have the oil to produce ten for decades to come. two, pay attention to what the u.s. energy security council is talking about, which is turn our natural gas into methonol andeth nol with the flex fuel engines. that could deliver about four million to five million gallons a day equivalent. we're now at 15. if we then use higher efficiency vehicles to save two, that's -- we're at 17 equivalent, and if we use oil that's in canada and mexico, three million barrels a day, we're at 20. we could tell opec to take a hike, and that's what we should be doing in this process. how long would it take? between now and 2020. we could be on our way, and that could well be an all in all the above type plan. the president hasn't been specific. we have to get specific about it. we've got to stop the blame game from happening, and the people who represent the citizens of this country have got to get their act together because we could be in gas lines in addition to high price if we don't fix this problem. >> let me play it for you something that secretary geithner said earlier this week about what the administration might or might not do. >> there's a case for the use of the reserve in some circumstances, and we'll continue to look at those and evaluate that carefully. >> talking about the strategic oil reserve, which the president tapped into last year. it's supposed to only be there for sort of national security reasons, but nonetheless, presidents are known to tap into it for high gas price reasons. how much would that help if he would let loose some of that oil? >> very little. you can't take the reserve down far enough without jeopardizing national security and just a million or two million here or there, it's not going to make a big difference. people should not underestimate that right behind china is india. india is going for four million barrel az day to seven million barrels a day demand. that's ten million barrels a day, and the world seems stuck at about 88 million barrels when we need to be getting to 96 or 98 million barrels. that's the big problem. it's a game of math. even if we're using less and paying more or headed for gas lines, that's not good for the economy. i worry about the future of the economy under this high price scenario. >> right. high gas prices always undermine the economy. thank you so much. always appreciate your time. >> after the break, roll out the red carpet because we're bringing you the winners of d.c.'s oscars. first, this honorable mention for best cameo in a political speech. he is not running for office. we don't even know his name, but you can call him the sleeper candidate. can you enjoy vegetables with sauce and still reach your weight loss goals? 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[ laughter ] ♪ ...we inspected his brakes for free. free is good. free is very good. my money. my choice. my meineke. with a nod to tonight's academy awards, we pulled political gold from the past your for this week ae campaign trail. the envelope please. 6. >> governor romney called it a fraud. i don't know if that was written by kirk cobain or not. >> i want to be the president who embark on a grateful dead-like concert tour around this country. >> best impression of a stand-up comedian? mitt romney. >> the gap between his promises and his performance is the largest i have seen, well, since the kardashian wedding and the promise until death do we part. >> my son had a motorcycle, which i would ride on occasion, rarely. >> can you get on one? >> no. with the helmet maybe. dukakis style. >> for best choreography, hands down michelle bachmann. busting a move with iowa supporters. it was rushled she was joining "dancing with the stars," but, darn it, she denies it. most ironic campaign moment. newt gingrich. >> pleased to find yourself using one word and one word only. >> cheerful. [ laughter ] >> best debate exchange, ron paul and rick santorum. >> he is a fake. [ laughter ] >> i'm real, ron. i'm real. >> congratulations. >> thank you. >> maybe that explains why ron paul was the recipient of one of the most passive-aggressive handshakes of the campaign. most over used campaign catch phrase, say it with me. >> 9-9-9. >> 9-9-9. >> the plan so fine they named is 9-9-9. >> i thought it was the price of a pizza when i first heard it. >> best single moment to bring down a campaign belonged to rick perry. >> i would do away with education, the -- commerce, and let's see, i can't the third one i can't. sorry. oops. >> best unintentionally funny campaign ad, herman cain and his chief of staff. ♪ i am america one voice united we stand ♪ ♪ i am america >> and best parody of an unintentionally funny campaign ad goes to cain's number one fan. stephen colbert. ♪ ♪ >> congratulations to all our winners. thank you for watching state of