Transcripts For MSNBCW Morning Joe 20120206

giants won the super bowl. it was a horrible nightmare. that sounds like a patriots fan. and just for you mr. t.m. stone, here's much more coverage of the super bowl win. "morning joe" starts right now. ♪ . >> brady, barring a defensive foul, the game ends here to the end zone! he can't get it -- incomplete. and the new york giants given last rights by many in december are the super bowl champs in february. all right. 6:00 on the east coast. >> wow, what a game that was. >> apparently it was. good morning, everyone. it is monday, february 6th. i did hear screaming erupting from my living room downstairs. welcome to "morning joe." with us onset we have msnbc and "time" magazine senior political analyst mark haleprin. and host of msnbc's "politics nation" reverend al sharpton on board at 6:00 this morning. >> willie geist, congratulations, and congratulations to alex. >> is that your team? >> that's my team. it's been my team since i was a young boy. >> wow. that had to be big last night. >> we'll get to the news now. >> that had to be big for you last night. >> it was huge. it was huge. we had everybody lined up. the 2-year-old had an eli jersey, 4-year-old daughter had the knicks jersey, put my wife in a paul jersey. >> victor cruz. >> that was the play of the game. mario manningham, an incredible catch. not just to get the ball, but to get two feet in and not a bad throw either by eli. eli threw for almost 300 yards and a touchdown, led him on this drive right here. the patriots let the giants score on that play. bradshaw thought about sitting down at the 1-yard-line and letting the clock run down so the patriots would have no time. but you're a football player, your instincts take you into the end zone. this is the last play of the game. his back foot, 65 yards into the end zone. number 87 right there had a shot to catch it but did not. eli was the mvp of the super bowl again, put himself up there now in the upper echelon. not just in the current nfl quarterbacks but all time with two super bowls. >> most importantly, ahead of his brother. >> he's got more super bowl titles. >> he's got more super bowl titles than his brother. also, everybody talks about belichick and brady, these guys are revered as god's gift to football. and here you have tom coughlin who can't get through a season without the new york papers killing him. coughlin has won his second super bowl and i've got to say i'm happy for the guy. >> two super bowls, wins at the age of 65. the better part of a decade defending his job and hearing he's got to be thrown out. this was as recently as a month ago. they were calling for his job a month ago and now he'll be in the hall of fame and be recognized as one of the great coaches of all times of the giants. >> the hug at the end too. he and belichick -- >> yeah. >> belichick's not warm to a lot of people. but you can tell there's great respect between those two guys. >> no, that's not how he handles rex ryan, for example. a lot of respect. it was a great game. >> reverend, what did you think? >> i loved it. i saw the first part. i was doing my radio show the second, but had the tv on. and it reminded me of 2012 politics, the republicans had it in their hand -- >> here we go. >> mark haleprin. you won't take this wonderful moment and make it ugly, will you? >> no, giants played great. dramatic plays like that, but consistent throughout the game, fourth straight super bowl i'm told by friends of the sports bureau, giants win down at halftime. >> yeah, wow. what a game. >> it sounds like an incredible game. >> you have no idea, but your family were all fans, as well. >> they were all screaming downstairs and watching and apparently madonna was quite good too. >> did you see madonna? >> no, i didn't. >> was she good? >> yeah. >> okay. >> you like madonna? >> she was great. >> so madonna -- >> she was good. >> i saw something at the end of your show -- >> that was not her fault. can we get to the news now? we've got nevada to cover. >> i've never gotten madonna -- >> newt gingrich goes on an incredible display of lack of self-awareness. can i move on? >> go ahead. >> are you sure? >> i don't get madonna, but go ahead. >> can i say one more thing? >> what? >> and this as a tv consumer, not enough cut aways of giselle. down the end when tom brady's driving, i felt like as a tv producer, i would -- >> really? well, she was praying. >> giselle cam. >> she was praying. >> the last play, the camera angle of the last play and the one we keep seeing over and over -- >> yeah, they're replays. >> i'm telling you, when you're 9 years old, they teach you to do tip drills. >> knock it down. >> but they tipped it up just a little bit higher. there was another angle that showed the guy was, you know, a split second away. >> not that revealing. >> well -- >> there is an angle from behind the ref that shows down low. here's another angle. >> thank you for that. >> it's a little bit higher. >> 87 needs to get there. there's a split second difference. >> you know, the one thing i did see was president obama's live interview. >> oh, i missed that. >> well, i'll tell you all about it. as the republican contenders battle for the nomination, president obama's making his own case for a november win. and speaking to nbc's matt lauer, the president reflected on comments he made to lauer three years ago where he said his presidency would be "a one-term proposition" if he did not turn the economy around. >> i deserve a second term, but we're not done. look, when you and i sat down, we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. in fact, we had found out just a few days before we sat down that we had lost that month 750,000 jobs. now we're creating 250,000. we've created 3.7 million jobs over the last 23 months, the most jobs since 2005, the most manufacturing jobs since 1990. but we're not finished. >> he would be finished if he had the right opponent. and i found his republican opponent last night. >> you did? who is it? >> clinton eastwood. >> oh, god. >> clinton did a commercial for him last night at halftime -- i know that was -- >> i love america. does that make it -- is it -- >> at halftime we need to go forward. and i could started screaming, yes, obama, we're at halftime, we need four more years. >> that's interesting because i was thinking it's halftime, we need to put in another quarterback. >> you watched the wrong game. there was no replacement quarterback. >> i actually saw that commercial. >> did you see the commercial? >> yeah, it was great. great ad. >> shows how easy it is. >> didn't you like that? >> yeah, it was great. it's all in the execution. it's unbelievable. >> it's not true, but -- >> what do you mean it's not true? >> i think a lot of people who live in detroit would argue they have not turned it around, that they have not recovered. if you walk the streets of detroit. it's not -- i'm not taking a shot at detroit, i'm saying people who live there. >> they have a long way to go. you're right, it's not true. >> but it is true. you look and see what's going on -- you look at american manufacturing. >> thanks to the president with the car industry. >> he saved the -- >> but we believe -- we believe that things are turning around -- >> thanks to the president. >> detroit is still struggling. >> things are turning around. look at this guy. >> thanks to the president. >> and the auto industry has turned around thanks to president obama. >> yeah, it's all good. >> just like eli won last night, cam newton will be the new -- it'll be a new start for president obama. >> you want to politicize everything. my love of america and my love for clint eastwood. >> i agree with willie. let's hope it's the first quarter in detroit rather than halftime. >> that's all i'm saying. >> i'm telling you what, detroit people, i know we have been promising we're going to adopt you for four years, we're going to adopt you. >> don't say things unless you mean it. >> i find myself cheering for all detroit teams now. i love the fight of that city. >> that's what you and president obama have in common. >> i love the fight of that state. >> there you go. >> there you go. >> poor thing. you guys just want to politicize everything. i just want to love america. go ahead. >> i saw the clint commercial and made me tired because, yeah -- >> are you serious? are you serious? >> no, shows how execution can pay off. and the republican field. >> i don't even know who -- execute who? i don't know what you're talking about. january's unemployment rate of 8.3% is the lowest in america since april of 2009. >> there you go. >> more good news over president obama's three years in the white house, unemployment reached as high as 10.1% before dropping back down, but the so-called real unemployment numbers which republicans are not talking about, measures of people have stopped looking for work and measured at 15.1%. and another sign of the poor economy, the labor department's noting that college graduates working in low-skilled jobs is now at 20%. and of course, al sharpton this weekend, this is what you started hearing mitt romney talking about. i mean, it's tough for the president. listen, i've been cheering these unemployment rates going down since they've been going down and i've had people attacking me, but i'm cheering for america. i think that's great news people are getting back to work. but we still have a long way to go -- >> a long way. >> and the president's walking a tight rope. he won't say look what i've done, things are getting done, and so many americans hurting out there. >> you and i agree on that. there's many americans hurting and are devastated. but i think the argument that the president is making in my judgment correctly is that you cannot deny going from 750,000 jobs a month to adding 250,000 a month is not a turn around. now, has it turned around enough? no. but you've actually seen the unemployment numbers begin to dip again in many communities that needed it. this has been the biggest dip in unemployment, and i think we're headed in the right direction. the question is whether it will continue. and romney's argument because i think he will be the nominee is going to have to be that he could do an even better -- >> we could've done better. >> he's going to have to lay out how he would've done that. >> mark haleprin, one of two things can happen here. i think i may have read this in the "times" this past weekend. you can be the ronald reagan president, he can be where ronald reagan was where unemployment's going down and things keep getting better or can be like george h.w. bush where things go down, the numbers go down, then they go back up. i mean, we keep hearing economists talking about how, yes, this is a false spring, things are going to get worse in the future. but, i don't know, looks like the momentum is -- it may be pushing these unemployment numbers below eight. and doesn't the white house feel if they get below eight, the reelection's theirs. >> if you look at the george h.w. bush example, it took him to lose the best politician any of us have ever seen in bill clinton and a three-way race with ross perot. >> and one other thing. if the growth they experienced in the fourth quarter after the election had come in the third quarter. >> he would've won. >> bush would've won going away. bush lost because of a bad economy right after the election, we found out the economy had grown at 4%. so much of this we talk about in the end just doesn't matter. what matters are the big things, these economic growth, unemployment, et cetera, et cetera. >> and there's a new poll that was tweeted last night that was quote worth the read. shows president obama up over mitt romney by a lot. >> which poll? >> abc news washington post. >> okay. >> it's filled with good stuff for the president, head to head against romney and it's strong on almost every issue. romney's going to have to do a lot if he's the nominee. >> is axelrod still polling for abc? >> no, he's not. >> i joke about it, but again, last time i said this other polls followed. abc news, "washington post" polls always have about a 3%, 4%, 5%, tilt the president's direction. there are others that go the other way. >> there's a lot in here to read that tells you the current state of play, including mitt romney's been hurt by the republican process. again, plenty of time for him to recover. but you can see why both the economic news and the current polling trends are making the white house very happy. >> and romney has had despite some wins, terrible couple of weeks. >> but despite the fact you think the super bowl is the only news, he did win nevada over the weekend. >> well, we think he did, they've only counted 14 votes out there. >> they finished this morning. >> did they. >> by the way, i think the republican party, and i'm sorry, dear people of nevada, i know you won't like this need to tell the nevada gop if you can't run your caucus any better than this, you are not going to be one of the first in the nation. what a disgrace. that this state which scratches and claws to be first in the nation was as disorganized -- it was a third world country as far as vote counting goes. i'm dead serious, they need to either in nevada needs to come forward with assurances this won't happen again or they need to strip them of their special status. it was a disgrace. they embarrassed themselves. >> well, newt gingrich, of course, despite falling far short in nevada is dismissing any speculation he's going to drop out of the race. in a rare press conference, very long one, following saturday's caucuses, the former speaker vowed to continue through the convention while ramping up his attacks on mitt romney. >> there's one story that came out today that i just want to put to rest hopefully for the next few months. i am a candidate for president of the united states. i will be a candidate for president of the united states. we will go to tampa. what happens is every primary day or caucus day the romney headquarters in boston sends out the rumor that they believe i will withdraw, which is their greatest fantasy, i'm not going to withdraw. i'm pretty happy with where we are. and i think the contrast between governor romney and me is going to get wider and wider and clearer and clearer over the next few weeks. >> i'm pretty comfortable that when you come down to it as we go state to state to state, a pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase, candidate of the establishment is probably not going to do very well. and i'm happy to have that debate with governor romney. and i will debate him one-on-one anywhere, any time that he's willing to stand up and explain his record without the kind of gimmicks he used in florida. >> all right. >> he was on "meet the press." >> he was. he also "face the nation." >> let's watch what he said on "meet the press." >> how personally nasty is it between you and governor romney? have you lost personal like and even respect for him? >> i think that's basically an irrelevant question. governor romney's running a campaign he thinks is right for him, i don't think it's a good thing to do. in south carolina we set an all-time record for turn out. i'm going to be running a campaign of big ideas, big solutions. i'm trying to draw people into politics, not carpet bomb them out of it. we just have a fundamental disagreement about the responsibility somebody running for president should have to the american people. >> and so -- let's talk about mitt romney, mark haleprin, who everybody keeps beating up and he deserves to be beaten up for a lot of stupid things he says. but as far as just performance goes, these people keep winning. they just keep winning. nevada, yes, a lot of mormons in nevada, we've heard that, but he's been organizing that state for four years. a huge win in florida that nobody's talked about because of his unfortunate choice of words about the poor. but you've got to say, these people know how to execute and know how to win these -- now, they've got very weak competition. and they're giving less votes now than four years ago, but they're still winning. >> it'd be fascinating to see if mitt romney was running against someone who had his level of organization and campaign competence. he doesn't. he's got some contests this week where he could stub his toe. >> another debate? >> there's one coming up in a couple of weeks. but tomorrow, colorado, minnesota, missouri, he'll do well in colorado, but the other two, he could stub his toe a bit. but right now, there's no obvious scenario for anyone to even challenge him this month. and the key will be if he can put it away in early march or not. >> willie, he's playing against -- and i'm not talking about these other candidates personally. but if you just look at organization, look at the ability to win the national campaign, he's playing against a bunch of minor league prospects. i mean, there's no jeb, no mitch, no paul ryan, no mike pence. there are no national conservatives out there. >> his primary competitor is a candidate newt gingrich who is being allowed to continue to run by one person who lives in las vegas and is a billionaire. >> who newt didn't organize. >> right. >> he hasn't organized -- >> what i'm saying is the moment he says enough's enough, you're not going to win, it's over. he's relying on one guy. on the other side for romney, you do have to keep asking about enthusiasm. we hear it anecdotally. four years ago in nevada, he got 22,000 votes, something like that, saturday in nevada, he got 15,000 votes. they still didn't go out for the guy who is most likely among this group to beat president obama. >> i will tell you, mika, one thing that came up this past weekend and over the past week, the politics of abortion and contraception -- >> well, we should talk about that. >> i will tell you this, the obama administration regardless of how you feel about those issues really, really stubbed their toe politically. >> overstepped. >> they overstepped their bounds with the catholic church. that is -- i'm stunned they did it for political reasons because catholic voters are the ultimate swing voters. you had yesterday across america from a lot of pulpits catholic priests, even progressive catholics blasting them. we'll talk about that in must read. >> symbolic of how this is erupting is the news at the end of last week where the head of the susan g. komen foundation reversed her decision and gave planned parenthood the donations they were revoking because planned parenthood is under investigation. and it's their policy not to give money to institutions that are under investigation. but there was such a backlash that -- >> in the mainstream media. in the mainstream media there was. coming up, daniel malloy will be here, niall ferguson, ezra klein, and the baltimore ravens' michael oher. we have todd santos with a check on the forecast. >> good morning to you, friends, and a great morning for travelers across the country again. fairly quiet weather wise, a few areas across the northeast. what shows up green on the radar, a light snow flurry here and there. beyond that, you've got to look hard to find clouds in the northeast extending from new york city back toward pittsburgh. just about the mid to lower 30s by late this afternoon, more 50s and sunshine showing up on the map. the one area you might not see too much sun and temperatures below average, south florida, mainly south miami we'll see some of the heavier showers, we'll continue to keep a close eye on it. not a chance for development over the next days, but may get wet along southern regions of 95. meanwhile, some snow showers back through western colorado. we'll be back with more "morning joe" coming your way next. right now it is 33 degrees in central park. today my journey continues across the golden state, where everyone has been unbelievably nice. mornin'. i guess i'm helping them save hundreds on car insurance. it probably also doesn't hurt that i'm a world-famous advertising icon. cheers! i mean, who wouldn't want a piece of that? 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[ male announcer ] now there's a mileage card that offers special perks on united, like a free checked bag, united club passes, and priority boarding. thanks. ♪ okay. what's your secret? ♪ [ male announcer ] the new united mileageplus explorer card. get it and you're in. 26 past the hour. let's take a look at the morning papers. we start with one from our parade of papers. "los angeles times" says californians have until today to join a multi-state mortgage settlement with some of the largest banks. banks will be required to help struggling homeowners by providing billions of dollars in aid. the settlement would apply to those who have already lost their homes to foreclosure. it's part of an aggressive push in the effort to prop up the housing market. and from the "new york times" -- and this, my gosh, this is so dangerous. >> a big story. >> this is grim. egypt's military-led government says it's going to put 19 americans on trial. the nonprofit workers are accused of using foreign financing to stir unrest in the country. secretary of state hillary clinton warned that egypt is risking losing $1.5 billion in the u.s. aid if the situation isn't resolved, and of course, a personal note on this our good friend ray lahood's son is among the americans that are being held and facing trial. and mika, this is bad. this is a really ominous development from an egyptian government that has been an ally for a very long time. >> they're under a process of massive upheaval right now. >> well, massive upheaval and trying to stoke anti-americanism to gain a foothold in that country. not wise. not wise at all. >> time now for politico. >> the chief white house correspondent there is mike allen with a look at the playbook. good morning. >> good morning, guys. >> the "new york times" had this piece over the weekend and you're doing more reporting on it on where shelly adelson is, the billionaire who as i said is keeping newt gingrich's campaign afloat. also being courted by the romney campaign. how does this dynamic play out? >> he has kept single handedly newt gingrich in the game. as soon as sheldon adelson pulls the plug, newt gingrich's campaign is over. he's going to keep giving money as long as gingrich needs it to remain viable. but he's not going to fund some crazy kamikaze mission by gingrich all the way to the convention. if gingrich is in it, and we expect him to stay in it at least super tuesday, march 6th, he'll keep giving money, but here is the big news, that he also is going to give to mitt romney if he's on his way to becoming the nominee. the ultimate, hedging his bets, keeping gingrich in the game for a while and then switching to romney. >> the romney campaign has been talking to adelson behind the scenes. this is not a new thing. they said you ride this out with gingrich and come around to us when you're ready. >> that's exactly right. and sheldon adelson has been very generous in the jewish community. a number have come up to him and said, what are you doing? and he said a friend in need, i'm giving him money. a funny line saying mr. adelson was anxious not to be perceived as anti-romney. it's a little late for that after these weeks and weeks of torture by newt gingrich financed by adelson. >> you've got another story up on politico about mitt romney dumping his florida debate coach. a lot of people thought those florida debates were what began to change the momentum. why is he getting rid of the debate coach? >> well, joe scarborough put his finger on it down in south beach. it was the credit that the press was giving the staff for the revival of mitt romney that irritated a variety of people in romney world, including one mitt romney who would -- he was asked about the story about his debate coach on the "today" show said, well, advisers think the work of advisers is very important. brett o'donnell had worked for michele bachmann. he had been working for the romney campaign for weeks and weeks and weeks, but all of a sudden when romney started doing better in debates, there were press stories about him as the debate coach suggesting that he was responsible for the turn around. he thought he was going to get a gig preparing governor romney for debates for the rest of the time. instead he was told last week according to this remarkable story by jonathan martin and maggie haiberman was told he'd be paid for his work so far, but wouldn't have a formal role going forward. >> you were on that story a week ago today in south beach where the leaks came out and said, wow, the staff has turned this around -- >> they needed to fire somebody. i'm not sure if the ship didn't run into an iceberg and they found a deck hand and threw him -- >> of you never know what really is going on -- >> i would fire the guy in charge of the campaign and stare at everybody else saying i'm looking forward to the stories. but if you want to throw a deck hand over, you can. but somebody needed to go. this was a big mistake. >> mike allen with a look at the political playbook. thanks so much. coming up, with less than a minute left in the game, bradshaw scores one of the strangest touchdowns in history, sitting down and falling back ward into the end zone. full highlights of the game and post game reaction when we come back on "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. capital one's new cash rewards card gives you a 50% annual bonus! so you earn 50% more cash. according to research, everybody likes more cash. well, almost everybody... ♪ would you like 50% more cash? 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[ female announcer ] nature valley granola bars, rich dark chocolate, toasted oats. perfect combinations of nature's delicious ingredients, from nature valley. ♪ nature valley granola bars, nature at its most delicious. welcome back to "morning joe." you'll be glad to know, we're going to dig deeper now into the super bowl get granular and specific. >> we'll all be better for it. >> the new york giants probably up still celebrating another super bowl title. they were only 9-7 in the regular season. they come back, win the division, and storm through four victories in the playoffs. tom brady's wife who we're going to show one more time, giselle, was in the news after urging friends and family to pray for tommy as she said in an e-mail chain that was linked to the new york post. first quarter, strange start for the patriots on their first offensive play. tom brady throws it away to avoid the sack. unfortunately, he threw to no one. the refs talk it over and throw a flag. a safety. if you had a safety to open super bowl scoring, you made a lot of money in las vegas. giants got the ball back, e lli makes the most of it. touchdown pass and victor cruz gets to do his salsa dance in front of the world. giants take a 9-point lead. giants jump out by nine points at the end of the first quarter. tom brady hits aaron hernandez here, second year tight end runs over new york giant on the way to the end zone. patriots score 17 unanswered points, 17-9 lead, giants kick two field goals to cut the lead to two and this was the drive. eli gets his chance backed up deep and the play of the drive. a beautiful throw, beautiful catch, and mario manningham, the wide receiver out of michigan keeps two inbounds, they reviewed it for quite a while. he got them in. there was no getting around it. that set up eli manning taking his boys all the way down, and a strange play as the new england patriots decide to let the giants score so they can get the ball back with enough time. bradshaw was just confused as the seas parted. goes in the end zone, failed two-point attempt, tom brady gets the ball back with 57 seconds left and here's the last play of the game. one more time, mark haleprin not satisfied with his angle. we have another one, the ball falls, the giants win the game. tom brady denied again by the new york giants, 21-17. that's his second super bowl mvp award. after the game, eli manning against the packers threw a hail mary of his own at the end of the first half said he was holding his breath on the sideline as tom brady launched the last pass of the super bowl. >> i knew there wasn't much time, but these guys with new england, they're never out of it. tom brady's a tremendous quarterback and, you know, they did a great job converting on a fourth and 16 and all of a sudden they throw one in the end zone, it's up there. you know, that's nerve-racking. we completed a hail mary this year, i was hoping another one wouldn't be completed tonight for them. great job by them doing some great things. >> two super bowls in four years for eli manning. and giants defensive players tuck, showed up for a live edition of "late night" with jimmy fallon. >> it's 10-9 in halftime, that's not much of a lead. what does the coach come in -- throwing garbage cans against the wall? come on, guys. >> i don't know if coughlin can even pick up a garbage can. >> oh, my gosh. you had the crowd on your side. they loved you going in. is that motivation? all you need? >> we're in indianapolis and obviously this is peyton manning's town, but everyone's just -- but everyone just kept telling us, man, they definitely didn't want brady to win in indianapolis. >> is there one thing you think of to make you go that extra level? to give you that extra fuel? >> i think it's our teammates. >> each other, man. >> each other, man. we kind of coin the slogan for ourselves this year is all in. and it's about 11 guys playing as one. >> you guys are sweet. they love you. come on. >> i love you guys. >> an unexpected moment, the game on the nfl network, tom coughlin saying good-bye after the interview, look who rushes in to hug him. yes, that's flavor-flav. tom coughlin has no idea who that is. gives him a pat on the back. figures he's got a giants jersey on -- i don't think he's wearing a clock, maybe that's why he didn't recognize him. on the other side, he was hoping for his fourth super bowl win which would've put him in bradshaw montana league. three super bowl titles, but none since 2004, so perhaps the end of this -- the best team of our generation, the new england patriots, maybe the end of the dynasty here. >> we shall see. mika's must-read opinion pages. keep it on "morning joe." [ male announcer ] we know you don't wait until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ that right now, you want to know where you are, and where you'd like to be. we know you'd like to see the same information your advisor does so you can get a deeper understanding of what's going on with your portfolio. we know all this because we asked you, and what we heard helped us create pnc wealth insight, a smarter way to work with your pnc advisor, so you can make better decisions and live achievement. ♪ he's basically declared war on the catholic church, and that's the language of archbishop dolan of new york. and i think you're going to see a severe reaction to the idea of a radical obama administration. the fact is what you're saying is there cannot be a genuinely catholic university, there cannot be a genuinely catholic hospital that, in fact, it will have to be subordinated to the rules of a secular government. >> and the rare times i agree with newt gingrich. >> you agree with newt? >> that was "meet reacting to the obama administration decision to offer their employees birth control under the new health care law. in the "wall street journal," we'll get to the must reads now. peggy noonan writes this. it's a fight the president can't win. president obama just may have lost the election. the president signed off on a health and human services ruling that says that under obama care, catholic institutions including charities, hospitals, and schools will be required by law for the first time ever to provide and pay for insurance coverage that includes contraceptiv contraceptives, abortion-inducing drugs, and sterilization procedures. if they do not, they will face fines in the millions of dollars. or they can always go out of business. in other words, the catholic church was told this week that its institutions can't be catholic anymore. mr. obama carried the catholic vote in 2008, they helped him win. they won't this year. and guess where a lot of catholics live, in the battleground states. there was nothing for the president to gain except perhaps the pleasure of making a great church bow to him. enjoy it while you can, you have awakened a sleeping giant. >> reverend sharpton, a lot of people are going to focus on the abortion side of this and on the contraception and the sterilization, those specific issues, but this is a much larger issue. for clergy, for members of the church who have to be wondering if the provt can do this to the catholic church, can they not do this to any church, right? >> no, i think that it's going to be of concern, but i think you have to have the reverse argument. and that is if i want to seek employment and have employment in a church, but that i disagree with the dogma and theology of the church, do i have the right to be protected by law? and i think that with the obama administration is saying that you do not have to follow the church organization to be an employee of the church -- >> that's fine. >> you think this is a good decision? >> i think if we're going to have a church and state, we're going to have a separation of church and state. whether i would personally agree agree with the decision or not. do i have a right to make that law? >> do other clergy you know -- >> a lot of clergy i know disagree with it, but they disagree with a lot of things, doesn't mean you don't take a principle position. this is based on principle. >> mika, well, you go ahead, mika. >> let me ask you to respond to this because i think it's very complicated. obviously, you know, they're getting money from the government. having said that, the catholic religion believes certain things. they believe it to be fact, and so you're asking them not to be catholic if you impose these regulations on them. this is a letter from a lawyer for the conference of catholic bishops and he says that people of good will may reach different judgments about the morality of different actions whether related to sexual conduct, immigrants' rights, participation in war and so on, but the right to free exercise of religion means that the government must accommodate the faith-based judgments of churches and people rather than overrule them. that is the real battle line. >> so -- so -- >> do you agree with that? >> well, i would agree with that. and you have a lot of people, a lot of catholics who are actually pro-choice. >> sure. >> who were offended by this decision. the very idea that a centralized government, a centralized state can reach out and tell the church that kathleen parker put it this way, that you have to forfeit your most fundamental beliefs, hospitals, charities, et cetera, it is a -- i'm going to say, it's a staggering staggering decision by hhs. this is -- i understand about the politics of abortion for the left. i can't believe that the federal government would step in this way. you're catholic, tell me what are your thoughts. >> it's wrong, i agree with you. i really don't think -- i think it's an overstep. >> even though we may disagree, let's be clear what we're talking about. we're talking about where you put government money. if i'm a person that works in one of these institutions, i have a right to say the government that i disagree with my employees and want to exercise that. otherwise why are you putting government resources here. are you allowing government resources to be used based on the church? >> here is the danger with that argument. and i've heard the left bring up this argument over the past weekend, and it is a dangerous argument to make because the same federal government that can stay because we give you money, we can stomp on your religious liberties to the right is the same federal government that in the future can say to the left because we give you money, we can stomp on your religious liberties. >> if you're giving the catholic church money, if you're giving a catholic hospital money, you should be aware of how it's going to be used. it'll be used in the way the catholic hospital believes, respects what the -- >> how is it stomping on their right? what about the right of people who don't agree with the theology or whoever? >> well, if you don't -- if you were offended by the theology of the catholic church, then do not work for a catholic institution. if you were offended by the theology of reverend al sharpton's church, you probably should work for another church. >> or reverend al sharpton shouldn't ask the government to give me the money if it violates -- >> that's a dangerous argument because the same federal government that can force people who are pro-life to go a different way can four years from now, when there's a very conservative government turn to other hospitals and say, if you provide contraceptives -- if you provide abortion services, then you cannot get federal money. that argument goes both ways. and so this is -- it's very dangerous to say we can stomp on somebody's religious liberties that run these hospitals and these schools and charities if they take federal money because what can be used to excite liberals and people that love abortion rights can be used against them four years from now in a romney administration or even two years from now. what if mitt romney decided, hey, you know what we're going to do? if you get federal money, you cannot provide contraceptives, you cannot provide sterilization services, you cannot provide medication that or pills that lead to abortion. what would the left do? it's the federal government using its power. no, we're staying with this. using the power to stomp on the religious liberties of the catholic church. but under a republican administration, it could be stomping on the liberties of people who are pro-choice. >> this is a tough issue and not an abstract issue. and an enormous amount of care is given by catholic institutions. i think the administration will at least tweak what they've decided before the election. >> all right. we'll continue the conversation -- >> let's talk about nancy brinker, as well. >> just politically, pennsylvania is now officially in play. i say pennsylvania's in play for republicans. they've got a chance to win it this year. >> we'll be right back with much more "morning joe." i want healthy skin for life. 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[ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? this guy's amazing. ♪ three years ago, a newly elected president obama told america that if congress approved his plan to borrow nearly $1 trillion, he would hold unemployment below 8%. it hasn't been below 8% since. this week he's been trying to take a bow for 8.3% unemployment, not so fast, mr. president. this is the 36th straight month with unemployment above the red line your own administration drew, and if you take into account all of the people who are struggling for work or just stopped looking, the real unemployment rate is over 15%. mr. president, america has also had enough of your kind of help. >> top of the hour, welcome back to "morning joe." that was the winner in nevada over the weekend. mark haleprin and reverend al sharpton are still with us, and joining us now from washington, columnist for the "washington post" and msnbc contributor ezra klein joining willie, joe, and me. good to have you on board. >> we have a lot to talk about. >> we are. right into politics. >> we've been pretty rough on romney for the last couple of weeks. >> yes. >> and so the first hour, he wins nevada with 3% reporting -- >> yeah. >> and we show clips of newt for 15 minutes. >> it's my fought. they were delicious. they were so -- >> romney's doing a pretty good job. >> he is. >> he's winning. >> his campaign is. >> he's winning despite sticking his foot in his mouth over and over and over and over again. >> that's true. i'm not sure that's what a sign of. >> mark haleprin, what's that a sign of? he's running against a weak field? >> yeah. >> what's the field? >> you've been following presidential campaigns for a very long time. it's hard to tell how good they are because joe frazier is fighting allen from the princeton boxing club. rate how good -- you like that, willie? like that analogy? so you can't tell how good frazier is because the princeton boxing club, allen comes out like this. >> princeton has an exceptional boxing program. >> were you a joe frazier fan? >> ali fan. >> i figured it. whatever. >> it's a weak field. i think of all the things that happened on saturday, the one that has to give most pause. and the turnout -- >> the party needs -- if the party's not fired up to participate in a contest like that, then they're going to have a hard time doing well in the general election as both made mention in their speeches saturday night, they want to be strong there. if they can only turn out 35,000 for the caucuses, that means they've got a problem. >> also the front page of papers, egypt confronting the united states, very ominous sign right now. a year after the arab spring. things turning decidedly in a bad direction. >> iran in the news. >> iran in the news. >> syria in the news, willie this past weekend. the slaughter continues in syria, and unfortunately, the russians and the chinese have given assad a license to murder with impunity moving forward. and the international community will sit by and do nothing. >> hillary clinton came out with strong language against cho. now the white house talking to other countries about what else they can do or else they're going to standby and watch this continue. yesterday after it was blocked, more bloodshed, more civilians killed in the streets. >> and conservatives are saying what happened to the reset with the russians? and if the u.s. had gotten the russians onboard, the u.s. would not have stood alone. but to not have russia stand with the united states, there's a real problem with the relationship they've put in so much time. >> it's terrible, and you look at egypt. and the fact is, egypt can basically thumb their nose at us now, and we can say we're not going to give you billions of dollars, the chinese will give it to us. >> egypt and what you're saying about russia. they could have easily said china's going to do this in the security council, we don't have to. it was a purposeful statement in terms of the syria vote. and i think when you look at egypt and this, a lot of americans are looking at, well, wait a minute, what are we looking at in terms of global politics? >> if the chinese expect to be treated as a responsible player on the international stage instead of basically the -- those who inherited a regime that killed 50 million of their own people, they're going to have to move past things like this. it's just deplorable what the chinese and the russians did while the slaughter continues up in syria. another big story we're watching, which could be potentially very good news for the obama administration and for homeowners and people who had their homes foreclosed upon is that there is a deadline today for state officials to come forward for a huge settlement. a landmark settlement to address foreclosure abuses. they're waiting for one more state that's holding out. california has returned to the negotiating table. and of course, the housing market has been really a steady stream in this economy story that we don't talk about enough. but it certainly could impact the race as it impacts the economy. >> in doubt about it. let's bring in ezra klein right now. good economic numbers coming out on friday. 8.3% unemployment. we really had bookends. at the beginning of the week, the cbo put out some downright depressing news about the length of this recession, the depth of the national deficit and our debt problems, end of the week, though, we all had reason to be happy. unemployment going down. and it looks like a pretty good outlook moving forward. >> yeah, those were very good numbers. the thing you want to keep worrying about is europe, greece is having trouble coming to a bailout agreement today. right now the economy has shown a real desire to recover. sort of a natural need to replace homes, replace autos, and it's beginning to sort of rip through. we get some of the bad economic news out of the way, we should see a real recovery. i want to say something on the romney clip we showed on the way in here. you can believe obama's stimulus did a good job, bad job, that's a different argument. but that fact always annoys me so much. the obama administration probably made a mistake in sort of predicting where unemployment would be, but when they made that prediction, we thought the economy was shrinking at a rate of 4%, it was actually shrinking at 9% we found out later. the recession that was before the obama administration came in, was twice as bad as we thought at the time. so i always think of the folks that use that and you see it among politicians, it's just a dishonest way of going about the economic argument. the real argument is we should've had a bigger recovery package, not if you have a problem that's twice as large as you thought the fact that your small solution didn't work to not discredit solutions in general. >> i don't know i'd call it dishonest if you're using the words that came out of the administration's own mouth. but the argument you made is an argument that the obama administration can move moving forward. saying we didn't, of course, they can point the finger at bush in general. so how does -- and feel free to respond to what i just said, but also, talk about the delicate dance this president makes though. you're just in such a terrible position if you're a politician in the middle of a deep recession and things start to turn around. because you don't want to say things are going too well because then everybody out of work is going to look at you and say you're disconnected. but you don't want to be the malaise president either. >> they're not that good -- >> what does the president do over the next six to nine months? >> he hopes, right? whatever else he can do. i think the basic way to look at this election is if jobs are coming in at about 150,000 a month, that's probably an even odds bet, if they're coming in at 200,000, he's probably the odds on favorite, and 250,000, as we had last month, he's going to win easily. i'm not a big messaging guy. i don't think campaigns matter that much. obama has lately opened up a six-point lead on romney, obama's up 51%, and the more they hear about mitt romney, the more they dislike him. more than that for obama, the economy. and by the way, that is why i try to emphasize things like the depth of the recession, not in obama's favor or not. what's important that if either come in, folks have a real understanding of where we've come and what's going on. and what i don't like about the republicans sort of taking on this 8%, that is a political mistake by the obama administration. i don't think they can get out of it. but it is a problem that we discredited things like stimulus, payroll tax cuts in sort of this effort to have this campaign. at some point, mitt romney may win this election and he's going to need to be able to have solutions. and if he does have another recession coming from europe, for instance, but taken any type of stimulus off the table in an effort to beat obama, that's going to be bad for the economy going forward. >> reverend? >> no, i think he's absolutely right. i think you cannot in any way play down the fact that when the stimulus was presented, we thought we were at a 4% downturn. it was more than twice that. now, i agree, joe, that's going to have be an argument in the campaign, but it's a legitimate argument that mitt romney's not dealing with. the other point i think he's going to have to deal with is given the global politics. you started this segment talking about his foot in the mouth. americans are looking at egypt, syria, do we think this guy's competent enough to handle all this when hep can't run his own campaigns? i think romney's got a real problem. and then the next couple of weeks with no debates, no drama, a lot of the social issues, including what the issue of what you just raised about the catholic church. including voting see presentati suppression. 5 million people may not be able to vote because of these new laws. a lot of things taking center stage in the next couple of weeks. >> a lot of liberal thinking on this set. let me ask you a question -- >> never too early. >> they started suppressing -- >> oh, you know what? i don't want to have this debate. this is -- holy cow. >> other side. >> we need some caffeine, let's have the debate. >> no, i don't want to have this debate. >> stump for mitt romney if you have to. >> i don't think i can. >> you have to. you have to. >> well, so -- okay. he is beating a very weak field right now. >> you -- >> i can -- >> i can give mitt romney some love here. >> can you do an argument for mitt romney? i've got to say as a conservative i can't. >> in a field in which there's an enormous amount of pressure to move far to the right and his policies have moved far to the right, he has pulled some pretty good people around him. glen hubbard, vin weber, an economic policy team that has advocated many times in the past for a massive mortgage refinance program, argued for carbon tax, simpson/bowles commission. the hope with mitt romney is that he's just playing a game here and the advisers are really where you want to take the cue. >> so, ezra, you're not helping. >> ezra, you're not helping me at all here. you're making it even harder for me to defend mitt romney. >> that's not helpful? >> well, it's helpful if you're a progressive who writes for the "washington post," not so if you're a small-government conservative. >> that's an issue, right? it's an issue where we've come to the point where those issues are progressive. what about a mortgage refinancing program is progressive? what about moving some taxes away from work on to carbon to get down carbon pollution is progressive? that's just good policy. the fact that it's become progressive, it's a problem for republicans. >> if you have your world view -- >> which part of my world view is needed there? >> the fact that you want the federal government to step -- you think the prob with the president's policies are that his stimulus programs weren't big enough. >> but wait, wait, wait -- >> i was talking about your arguments. and as far as carbon taxes go, it might shock you, but a lot of americans when you have unemployment at the rate we have, a lot of americans don't think a carbon tax right now makes an awful lot of sense. >> but you're -- >> you asked a question. i'm going to answer it. and i don't want this to be cross-fire, but fueled by the government. every social ail you believe need to be handled by the federal government. there are about 50% of americans who think the federal government has a too large a footprint in their lives. i happen to be one of them. and ezra, you can't just say my way or the highway, how could you debate anything i disagree with? i understand. maybe half of america shares your world view, the other half, most clearly, does not. >> this is where we get into trouble here. because you need to make these as a policy argument instead of saying, oh, this is left, this is right, this is what half of america believes, mortgage refinancing either makes sense or it doesn't. but not because it's left wing position or right wing position. it was the original position of the senate republicans it is now the position of glenn hubbard and christopher mayer. there's a question as to whether we should do it. and this is where politics does become cross-fire instead of an actual argument about how to govern the country when people say, oh, that's a left wing position, i don't need to deal with it, i don't need to worry about whether we have to think about it -- >> i can say either you believe the federal government needs to take a more activist role in our lives, or you don't. i think the federal government's powers have expanded and i think over the past decade in a way that frightens me and americans. i don't know whether that's left or right, but i don't want the federal government involved in even more things. >> this is i think the point. these are all positions i named out that are held by or have been held very recently by a set of republican advisers. not one of the positions -- give me a second to respond here, joe. not one of the positions would in any serious way increase governmental control over the economy. helping people to refinance their mortgages is not a big-government program. changing the tax structure because you want to do less taxing on work and -- does not change the aggregate amount of government control over the economy. that's sort of the point. we can have discussions here that are about the best way to deal with the current fiscal burden we have. and those are the ones i'm talking about. we're not talking about new regulations, not talking here about the health care foreign bill, not talking about financial regulation reform. when we talk about simpson/bowles, a plan you've spoken about quite positively, we're not talking about increasing government control. we're talking about saying if we need to close a fiscal gap, taxes are still on the table. those things are just questions about pragmatic governments. >> what happened to mitt romney? >> i don't know what happened to mitt romney. a few of mitt's advisers support and he wants to talk about it. >> i guess so. >> i was asking you to stump for him. what happened? >> it's very hard to stump for mitt romney. and the reason it's hard to stump for mitt romney is you don't really know what mitt believes. >> still? >> and at the end of the day, there is a basic elemental question on whether americans think the federal government's footprint has expanded too much. and it goes -- it goes back to these hhs policies. >> sure. >> and do you want the federal government to be telling religious institutions what they have to do? what you have to compel them to do? and this is a good example of something that's not left or right. i guarantee you, there are a lot of progressives in the catholic church that say i'm pro choice, but i don't want the federal government telling my church what it must do. >> i think this will help those on the right, this move by the federal government, by hhs. >> so let's continue this mitt question. it seems to me even after some big wins, it seems to me that mitt still is not closing the deal with conservatives, though ezra, like some of his advisers. >> he's going to give speeches in the next few weeks on economic policy. they're going to flesh out some of the things he's talked about already. and that will be a big moment to win over conservatives, but also the general election if he's the nominee. and we'll see if he can build abroad center right coalition off that. >> will he make any hay off this hhs opening? >> yes, but he hasn't yet. >> he talked about on saturday night, if i remember correctly, and he'll certainly as i said before, it'll give him a chance to build up his credit with the social conservatives and catholics in the swing state. >> and ezra, he has your support at least of his advisers. he can take that to cpak and that'll be big. reverend, if you could say some nice things about his advisers next. >> i would love to support his advisers. i'll even go to colorado and support mr. romney. i want romney. i think that he's the one that we can beat easily. >> they're just doing a terrible job here. ezra klein, thank you. >> no one defended him. dannel malloy, niall ferguson, and michael oher. up next, chuck todd joins the conversation. you're watching "morning joe" brewed by starbucks. 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[ alarm blaring ] where the cost to repair your home, replace what's inside, and stay somewhere else if you need to are covered. because you never know what lies around the corner. to learn more, visit libertymutual.com today. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. what do you mean? >> well, he's pretty much a unidimensional candidate. he talks about being the ceo, the businessman. i'm not sure that's the greatest qualifications for being president of the united states. the president of the united states is the commander in chief, executes the laws and tries to motivation the american public to make changes that are necessary. it's not necessarily a ceo type of position. >> all right. 23 past the hour. rick santorum -- >> rick santorum going after mitt romney. we can't get anybody to support -- >> can you believe ezra? >> what? >> my way or the highway. my world view. that's it. i only thought -- >> it was kind of like, you've got the left and you've got the right and you've got my view. >> i love ezra. >> i don't understand, everybody doesn't agree. i know at least 50% of the people don't agree with me and that helps me sharpen and refine my views. and i know i can be wrong once in a while. >> i was hoping someone would stump for mitt for me. >> is he still on? >> no, he's not. >> he's not here to defend -- >> stop. someone who needs to defend himself, as well, nbc chief white house correspondent and political director -- >> he's the worst. >> and host of "the daily rundown" chuck todd. >> i'm right, you're wrong. that's how it starts. i don't know what the topic is, but i'm right. >> you're here -- >> that's the attitude, actually. what about the super bowl? what do you think? >> i like the chevy ad. i thought the apocalypse ad was good. oh, the game itself? >> what about the clint eastwood ad? i loved the clint eastwood ad. >> yes, you did. >> and mika hated it. >> i didn't mind, it just felt like an attempt to come up with a cool sequel after they wowed everybody with m&m. if it was their -- i guess i viewed it in terms of that. and, i liked the concept. but i thought it could have been executed a little bit better. that's just my opinion. >> i thought it was great. >> now he's questioning clint eastwood's acting chops. wow. wow. >> i'm not criticizing eastwood. good grief. >> mika, why don't you like this? >> i'm sorry. you're not going to like me. i'm not going to say it. >> you're wasting time. >> no, you don't want to hear what i have to say. >> i thought it was tiring, fake, contrived, and quite frankly, if one of the republican candidates could perform like that, they'd probably get more people. >> so you don't think things are going to get better in america. >> oh, please, stop pandering -- >> at halftime, we need another four years. >> by the way, one thing i love about the ad is i just heard what reverend sharpton said. everybody with different political views viewed it within their prism. of, oh, yes, that's what the republican message should be. or that's a president re-elect ad. if that's the message out of it, you've got to give them credit for finding that line. >> that's nice. >> it's a hopeful message. >> good. >> sees america turning around. kind of like charlie daniels in '79. >> did bill belichick come out for his 11:00 p.m. news conference. and he's going all the way to texas, right? >> going all the twa way to tex. so what happened, man? they got 3% of the precincts in right now and a big win for mitt? or much ado about nothing? >> i think it's a combination of both. obviously he's got to keep going and winning big. he was -- that's necessary. i think it's the way gingrich responded to it and deciding to do this 11:00 p.m. press conference, obviously it was 8:00 p.m. there. going about it that way. if this was the new newt, he was angry and it was clear he's not going anywhere for a while. so if you're romney, you watch that and realize you're dealing with a dangerous guy, right. you're dealing with an opponent who is holding the broken glass bottle. and he's, you know, he may cut you just for any reason necessary. >> but if you keep winning the fights, though, doesn't that make romney look good in the end? every week he has a 2 to 1 victory over this guy? >> absolutely. and especially if he gets to go back at the end of february and look at the list of states he won. and even if the processes are sort of odd. clearly nevada's not ready to do this. in that turnout. by the way, turnout should be another factor for the first five states, turnout was down. that's not something even or down, only one place was up. that's not a good pitch to your public saying hey, enthusiasm's behind us. i do think it's a little bit of conservatives not happy with the field. i think that's why you've seen somewhat of a tepid turnout in all of these things. if he gets to go along and say i've won colorado, minnesota, nevada, arizona, and michigan, that sounds like a really good february. even if you quietly say but don't pay any attention in how we count the ballots in nevada, don't pay attention to the process in minnesota or colorado. >> and if you're beating again, allen, with a princeton boxing glove that goes at you with a unitard on. is that going to get you ready for the olympics? >> you couldn't stump for him -- what would you have him do? >> i would go to pennsylvania if i were mitt romney. and i would talk about nothing but this hhs decision. and it's not about abortion, it is about the federal government overreaching. it is about the federal government getting involved in every part of our lives, trying to get involved in banking, trying to get overly involved in energy taxes, trying to get involved in faith and in religion and i would challenge the media who i think correctly put a spotlight on what happened down at ground zero this past summer. those ugly, ugly pictures of people trying to stop a religious organization from doing what they thought was in the best interest of their fa h faith. and we talked about the first amendment a lot. i would go to pennsylvania and i would -- >> but those people are not going down to ground zero with government money, joe. if the government has a limited amount of resources and you have church "a" saying i'm not going to allow certain things because of my dogma and you have group "b" saying i will allow these things that are legal, the government should support the ones that will let people do whatever they want to do legally even if they disagree with the dogma. we can't act like you can say give it to me, i'm going to do it my way and the government not say you can't do that because there are others that we can give the resources to that will not do that. >> you're saying the same thing that i've said before -- you're bringing in the same exact argument. the same federal government that can punish the catholic church and force the catholic church to do things that are against their faith is the same government that can turn around when there's a conservative running the white house and a conservative running the house and senate, they can turn around and say all hospitals, all health care providers, we're going to put on the tightest abortion controls in your lifetime. and if you get federal funds, we're going to basically be able to squeeze you so abortion becomes harder to get than ever before. >> but abortion is legal. you can't -- the government can't come in and say we're going to impose something on you -- >> sure it can. >> where is the law -- >> it can now. >> and i can go to court to challenge -- >> and you've got the roberts court that tells you that it is rational for the federal government to regulate abortion services and contraceptive services and sterilization services. again, i understand that this is president obama and there are a lot of people on the left that are going to support him no matter what he says. i understand very well that abortion is a very contentious issue. it's why we don't bring it up here because there's always more heat when you talk about abortion. this, though, is a dangerous precedent, most americans, most catholics are going to agree by the end of the debate it's a dangerous precedent. and i predict that the president's going to back down in one way or the other. chuck todd, you know i've always said pennsylvania is fool's gold for republicans, they -- you always hear in august, oh, republicans are going to win pennsylvania. and then they shrink away on october 27th going, no, we never thought we could win pennsylvania. i think -- >> that voice. >> i think this hhs decision, this ruling puts all of those blue collar catholics in pennsylvania on the line now. they could vote republican for the first time in a long time. >> well, i would look at it. and when you say pennsylvania, i look at it more when you think eastern iowa, think parts of wisconsin and michigan, don't forget, it's a large catholic vote in the midwest itself. catholics are more divided on this than we've seen in the coverage, as well. this isn't as -- you know, it may feel like a smart left right issue, but catholics are split on this too. i don't know if it plays as politically easy for -- >> you think catholics are split on this issue? >> if you seen some of the -- i've seen some surveys that shows a split on this. and usually has to do with how active of a catholic you are versus cultural -- >> it is convoluted within the catholic church. >> nothing is black and white on this issue, number one, and number two, even with inside catholics because you have cultural catholics, active catholics. so i would just caution on that. >> chuck todd, thank you very much. >> i know the leaders of the catholic church and priests were speaking out against the federal government imposing these new mandates. >> we'll see chuck on "the daily rundown" right after "morning joe." on tomorrow's show, david axelrod joins us. keep it right here on "morning joe." 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[ female announcer ] join for free today. weight watchers online. finally, losing weight clicks. hey, welcome back to "morning joe." it's fascinating. we're talking about this hhs decision. and i -- actually it'll be interesting to see where the polls come in. i don't think it's going to be split down the middle with the catholics. a big supporter of the president, the second this came out, this was pretty black and white for you. >> yes, but most people i know who are catholics would not agree with me. so i have to say it's interesting what chuck says. >> you go to an interesting catholic church then, because almost every catholic i've spoken to is offended by this. >> i don't like it. i have to say. >> and we were just talking in the break, again, forget the ideology, politically -- the politics of it, this seems like a really curious decision, does it not? >> it'd be fascinating to do focus groups in michigan, pennsylvania, ohio, with reagan democrats, catholics and say explain it to them and ask what they think. >> i think the politics of it is tough. but i don't think it was a political decision. i think you've got to deal with -- >> i don't think it was either because it doesn't make sense politically. let me ask you a question, reverend. >> here comes the curve ball. >> no, i'm curious, let's say -- we've talked about abortion, i know you've said a lot of religious leaders you've talked to are concerned about this. what if the church you're associated with gets federal funds for a nursery school or outreach and the federal government -- hhs department or the attorney general issues a decree that because you get federal money you have to start performing same-sex marriages. what are people in your church going to say about that? >> they would probably disagree vehemently. but here in this case because i had this discussion -- >> you think this is different? >> they're not telling them what they must do, they're telling them what they cannot ban. and that is a totally different -- nobody's telling them what they have to do. they're saying -- >> hold on a second. mark, they're telling them they must provide contraceptive services. >> no, they're saying you cannot tell someone working there you cannot use certain services because of the theology of the church. which means you have to provide -- you cannot remove that from people's -- >> okay. >> you just won't admit you're in a really tough position here. >> stop. >> you can admit it on the air. >> it's a tough, but right position. >> hold on. >> hold on, hold, no. when you force the catholic church to provide these services, you -- >> which are legally available to the people that work there. >> -- legally available. >> but same-sex marriage -- to say i have to do a sacred ceremony. here, you're talking about something if she's a catholic or not a catholic that believes she wants to use a contraceptive, she has the right by law to have that. you cannot say because i'm a church, i'm going to take -- >> what if the obama administration said if you are a service provider of a church and state where same-sex marriage is legal, you must perform same-sex marriage or you lose your federal funding. >> if they said you must do what? >> you must provide the service of same-sex marriage. if you're in massachusetts and you're -- >> but it's a different argument because the church could then say that in a religious marriage, now you're dealing with me performing a sacred ceremony -- >> well, that's the same thing for catholic -- >> no, it's not. you're talking about hospital -- >> no, let's talk about. mika, abortion, contraceptives, sterilization, does that not go to the heart of what the catholic faith believes in? >> yes. >> that is sacred. >> absolutely. black and white, what they believe to be true. i hate to get into some language here that can be seen as extreme, but they believe that abortion is murder and they believe it is a fact. so -- but even more to chuck's point, i would say that the convolution here or the argument will be like my mother with the pope, there are people in the catholic church who don't agree with some of these things who will be supportive of the obama decision. >> right. right. but i think as you go, again, as you go to not new york and washington, but as you go to pennsylvania and michigan and where blue collar catholics live, i think a lot of them would agree with you more than say perhaps your mom. >> my mom. >> we'll be right back. >> i'll argue this one, joe. you take care of willard, i'll argue. this is an rc robotic claw. my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller. over the last three years we've put nearly 100 million dollars into american education. that's thousands of kids learning to love science. ♪ isn't that cool? 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[ male announcer ] michelin knows it's better for xerox to help manage their finance processing. so they can focus on keeping the world moving. with xerox, you're ready for real business. ♪ well, i'm just kind of curious what he would think knowing. joining us now dannel malloy of connecticut. really good to have you on the show. >> nice to be here. >> what do you make of this controversy? the hhs decision and whether or not it's a good one. >> i've been watching this discussion this morning. i don't know whether you know this, but 28 states have the same rule. and i know you've been saying go to pennsylvania. the problem for governor romney, if he goes to pennsylvania to talk about this, he's going to have to explain why he had the same requirement in massachusetts. so, you know, more than half of the american population lives in states that currently require that. >> we keep having democrats that are actually coming out and just making the situation so much more for mitt romney. so much more difficult for mitt romney. >> well, listen, you can't have your cake and eat it too. >> so you're saying -- >> massachusetts -- >> when mitt romney was governor, they had the same requirement? >> yeah, and actually it's required by -- well, we'll use the term romney care. >> is it really? >> yeah. >> which may be why mitt romney is not going to rush to pennsylvania. >> no, he's on both sides of that issue. >> of course. >> where are you on it? >> where am i on it? >> yeah. >> first of all, there is a church exemption, so you have to acknowledge that. so no person who is employed directly by the church has to have that extension of benefits -- >> so it's only -- >> the absolute church, but hospitals, colleges, preschools, does it apply there? >> i don't know about preschools, it certainly does apply to hospitals and universities. >> colleges. okay. but if you work for the church itself, you do have that exemption. >> there's a religious church exemption, that's it. >> mika was asking -- what do you think of it? >> i think it's the right rule. >> really? >> yeah. let's look at the issue of contraception. contraception is to prevent a pregnancy from taking place for someone, for instance, whose health would be challenged -- >> contraception -- >> that's the easy one. >> let's talk about the harder one, sterilization and the possibility of medication that induces abortion. >> i know more of this from the contraception side, reviewed documents in the last few days when this became an issue. and the document didn't speak -- and i apologize for this, specifically to sterilization. so i'm not as mindful on that. but let's say, i think there's an interesting position here. if it's a legal -- if it's legal to be sterilized by your option, then why does a hospital get to decide that you can't be? when do we -- where do we draw that line? and i notice you also had a conversation about the moneys that support institutions. most of the money flows through medicaid. and it's not as if we're writing out a check to st. john's hospital in minnesota for operation of the hospital, it really is a medicaid reimbursement. and what they're saying is if we're going to reimburse you for medicaid expenses, you have to provide the full list of legally provided services. >> with religious exemption, which is why the same-sex marriage doesn't apply -- >> isn't it a case that most of the 28 states with a similar rule have exemptions broader than the administration has proposed? >> i don't think so. certainly not the case in georgia. certainly not the case in massachusetts. certainly not the case in most of the other states that i've looked at. now, understand under this plan or under this new policy, things like the morning after pill are also exempted. so there are exemptions built in here. i don't think, you know, let's get the document out and go over the details. because i'm telling you 28 states already require it under their romney care plan. >> romney care. under their romney care -- >> doing quite well this morning. >> he's got the talking points. let's talk about the economy. obviously now is not a great time to be the governor. not only of connecticut, but any state, the economy's gone down, revenue coming into states, obviously down, unemployment has been up over the past two years in most states. what are you seeing on the on tt lines in your state of connecticut? >> we created about 9,400 private sector jobs in the last year. we have gone from a high of 9.3% un. employment to 8.2. last week from the labor department, that has not been broken down. >> what sectors have you seen grow that take you from 9.6 to 8.2? >> financial services showing strength in the insurance and here in connecticut. the manufacturing is taking off. any number of -- we have 80 aerospace companies in connecticut with the manufacturing location and ares are coming in for those products. that's where the growth is. >> it's very important. >> new housing in downtown hartford and a full-service starbucks. what is that now? >> it's this crazy thing. starbucks in downtown hartford. >> we are brewed by starbucks. >> i know you are. i had some. they are not open on saturday and sunday and not during events. lame. >> that's not lame. give them a call. call howard. >> so how are tax revenues doing? are you getting more tax revenues there or is it flat? >> sales tax is strong. apparently getting stronger. that's a good indication of what's going on. some weakness in fourth quarter filings and payments. we think that was a result of the year before people having moved income into 2010 because they were not sure bush tax cuts were moved into 2011. we will have a better idea in april. >> just project forward, you talk about the receipts. overall where you think the economy is headed in terms of growth rates and the ability to generate new jobs. >> all of the talk there was about the european crisis. if we can avoid a major default in greece and portugal, if we can avoid that, we are in great shape. it's moving in the right direction and it's foreseeable that unemployment can get below 7.5%. i'm a supporter of the president, but there is a strength. it's hard to keep americans down. >> come on. >> i like that. >> i do too. maybe i'm a sucker for it, but you have clint eastwood talking and the manufacturing jobs and all the steel. >> i like it for another. >> it was exciting. >> president obama saved the automobile industry. that's why i like it. a million people employed in the auto industry in the united states and republicans wanted it to go down. >> very good. thank you. >> you are cheering a political party and i look at it and i cheer america. that's fine. i want to say this though whether it's president obama or whatever. we will let the voters sort this out, but doesn't it remind you of 79-80 that they thought this was the first time they had a recession and things will never get better. they did get better. sometimes the economy is too big and we are too good to hold down. regardless, we come back. >> first of all, don't assume i don't appreciate the things reagan d. he was a great communicator. you are right. you can't hold america down. look at what we overcame this past year. the situation in japan with the tsunami and wrecking the manufacturing for a period of weeks and months. we still do it. the final quarter, we did better than everything was preticketing. >> i love america and you love america. >> stop it. that's ridiculous. i don't call for clint eastwood. nice to see you. >> we can work on the starbucks. >> more "morning joe" in a moment. >>. >> the giants do it again and the super bowl rematch. highlights straight ahead on "morning joe." r ] we know you don't wait until the end of the quarter to think about your money... ♪ that right now, you want to know where you are, and where you'd like to be. we know you'd like to see the same information your advisor does so you can get a deeper understanding of what's going on with your portfolio. we know all this because we asked you, and what we heard helped us create pnc wealth insight, a smarter way to work with your pnc advisor, so you can make better decisions and live achievement. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists, and our pediatrician gets all the information. everyone works as a team. and i only need to talk to one person about her care. we're more than 78,000 people looking out for 70 million americans. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. a farewell long awaited. goodnight, stuffy. goodnight, outdated. goodnight old luxury and all of your wares. goodnight bygones everywhere. 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we talked about getting a diamond. but with all the thank you points i've been earning... ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates. ask good morning. it's 8:00 on the east coast. a live look at new york city. we have the reverend al sharpton and mark halprin. >> that must have been big. >> it was huge. the 2-year-old and the jersey. 4-year-old daughter. >> that was the play of the game. >> mario manning ham with an incredible catch not just to get the ball and not a bad throw. sneaking it in there. eli threw for almost 300 yards and the touchdown. they let the giants score on the play. bradshaw thought about letting the clock run down and when the patriots get the ball down, your instincts take you into the zone. tom parady gets the ball back. >> 65 yards to the end zone. number 87 right there. a shot to catch it and did not. eli was the super bowl mvp. not just the current quarterbacks, but all time two super bowl. he's got more super bowl lilthss. >> and also everybody always talks about belichick and brady. god's gift to football. tom kaufman can't get through a season. he won a second super bowl and i'm very happy for the guy. >> wins at the age of 65. he spent the better part of a decade and he has to be thrown out. a month. >> calling for his job a month ago and he will be recognized as one of the great coaches. >> there is no doubt about it. >> we good? the one thing i did see was president obama's live interview. >> i miss this that. >> the republican contenders battle for the nomination. president obama is making his own case for a november win and speaking to matt lauer, the president reflected on comments made where he said his presidency would be a one-term proposition if he could not turn the economy around. >> i deserve a second term, but we are not dumb. when you and i sat down we were losing 750,000 jobs a month. we found out a few days before we had lost that much. now we are creating 250,000. we weighted 3.7 million jobs in 23 months and the most jobs since 2005 and the most manufacturing jobs since 1990, but we are not finished. >> i found his republican opponent last night. >> who was it? >> clint eastwood. >> oh, god. >> he did a commercial at halftime. >> clint at halftime. we need to go forward. i started screaming yes, obama. we are at halftime. four more years. >> we need to put in other quarterback. >> there is no replacement for that. >> i saw that commercial. >> did you see the commercial? >> great ad. >> shows how easy it is. it was great. it's all in the execution. it's unbelievable. >> that's not true. >> what are do you mean it's not true? >> a lot of people who live in detroit would argue they have not recovered if you walk the streets of detroit. i'm not taking a shot at detroit, but that they turned it around. >> right that it's not true. >> you look and see what's going on and look at american manufacturing. >> thanks to the president. thank you. >> we believe that things are turning around. >> they are. things are turning around. look at this guy. >> and the auto industry is turning around thanks to president obama. cam newton would be there. if it weren't to president obama, we would not finish the next half. >> you want to politicize everything. my love for clint eastwood. he put on a great commercial. >> that's the fishing n detroit rather than halftime. >> i'm telling you why. detroit people, i know we have been promising we would adopt you for four years, we will adopt you. >> don't say it unless you mean it. >> i find myself cheering for detroit now. >> that's what you said. >> there you go. >> there you go. >> poor thing. you want to politicize everything. i just want to love america. >> it makes me tired. >> it shows how execution can pay off. >> execute who? i don't know what you are talking about. >> january's unemployment rate, the lowest since april of 2000. more good news. over president obama's three years in the white house as high as 10.1% before dropping down tolt so-called real numbers that republicans are not talking about. measures people stopped looking for work. another sign of a poor economy and the way the labor department noted and low skill jobs is at 20%. al sharpton this weekend, this is what you started hearing mitt romney talking about. it's tough for the president. listen, i have been cheering these unemployment rates going down since they have been going down and people attacking me. i think that's great news and people getting back to work. we still have a long way to go. the president is walking ail tight rope. look what i've done. things are getting better and still so many americans are hurting. >> we agree on that. many americans are devastated. the argument the president is making is that you cannot deny going from 750,000 jobs a month to adding 250,000 jobs a month is not a turn around. has it turned around enough? no, but you have seen the unemployment dipping in many communities that needed it. this is the biggest dip and we are headed in the right direction. the question is whether we will continue in romney's argument because i think he will be the nominee, he could be better. he will have to lay out how he could have done that. >> one of the two things will happen. he can be where unemployment is going down and be like george hw bush where they go down and then back up. we keep hearing economists talk about things will get worse in the future. i don't know. it looks like the momentum may be pushing the numbers below 8. doesn't the white house feel if it gets below 8, the election is theirs? >> it took him to lose the best politician you have seen and a three-way race with ross perot. >> if the growth, it has been in the fourth quarter and bush would have won going away. people forget bush lost because of the economy after the election. it was at 4%. so much of this we talked about and it doesn't matter. what matters are the big things that these economic growth and unemployment have. >> david axelrod was worth it. i can see how he likes it. doing particularly well on the question and who understands the economic problems. >> which poll? >> abc "washington post" news. it is filled with good stuff for the period head to head against romney and strong on almost every issue. romney will have to do a lot if he's the nominee to be in a better position? >> is that the live poll? >> no, he did not. >> joke about it, but last time i said this, other polls follow. abc news and washington press polls always have a 3% to 5% poll tilt the president's direction. others go the other way. >> there is a lot to read that tells you the current state and romney has been hurt. plenty of time as a republican, but you can see why. >> romney had despite wins, a terrible couple of weeks. >> despite the fact that you think the super bowl is the only news, he did win nevada over the weekend. >> we think he did. they only counted 14. >> they finished this morning. >> they did? i think the republican party and i'm sorry dear people of nevada, you need to tell the nevada gop if you can't run your caucus any better than this, you are not going to be one of the first in the nation. what a disgrace that this state that scratches and claws to be first in the nation was as disorganized? it was a third world country as far as vote counting goes. nevada either needs to come forward with assurances that this won't happen again or they need to strip them of their special status. they embarrassed themselves. >> newt gingrich despite falling short is dismissing speculation that he will dropout of the race. in a rare press conference following saturday's caucuses, he vowed to continue through the convention while ramping up attacks on mitt romney. >> one story came out outside that was similar that i want to put to rest for the next few months. i am a candidate for president of the united states. i will be a candidate for president of the united states. we will go to tampa. every primary day or kau caucus day, the romney headquarters in boston believes i will withdraw. that is their greatest fantasy. i am not going to withdraw and i'm happy with where we are. the contrast will get wider and wider and clearer and clearer over the next few weeks. >> i am comfortable as you come down to it, a pro gun control and pro tax increase of the establishment is not going to do well. i'm happy to have that debate with governor romney and will debate him one on one anywhere, any time he is willing to stand up and explain his record without the kind of gimmicks he used in florida. >> all right. >> "meet the press." >> he was. also face the nation. >> let's watch what he said on "meet the press." >> how personally nasty is it between you and governor romney. have you lost personal like or respect for him? >> that's basically an inrelevant question. he thinks that is right for him. i don't think it's a good thing to do. we set an all time record for turn out and i will run a campaign for big ideas and solution. i will draw people in and not carpet bomb them out. somebody running for president should have with the american people. >> let's talk about mitt romney who everybody keeps beating up and he deserves to be beaten up for stupid things he said, but as far as performance goes, these people keep playing. they just keep winning. a lot of mormons in nevada, but he has been organizing the state for four years. a huge win in florida that nobody talked about because of his unfortunate choice of words. you have got to say these people know how to execute and know how to win. they have very weak competition. and they are getting less votes than four years ago, but still winning. >> if romney was running against somebody with his level of organization and campaign confidence. he doesn't. he has confidence where you could. >> there might be another debate? >> there is one coming up in a couple of weeks, but tomorrow, colorado, minnesota and missouri. he will do well in colorado, but he could stub his toe. there is no obvious scenario for anyone to challenge and the key is if c if he can put it away. >> if you look at the title win a natural campaign, he played against the minor league prospects. there is no mitch or paul ryan and no mike. >> his primary competitor is allowed to continue to run by one person. he is a billionaire. >> he will say enough is enough and it's over. he's relying on one guy. he pointed to it. you have to keep asking about enthusiasm. you hear it and mitt romney, i guess he is the nominee. you have 22,000 votes. something like that. you have 15,000 votes. in a race where republicans want nothing more than to beat president obama. they didn't go after the guy who is likely to beat president obama. >> plenty of games why israel is likely to attack iran. also, his life story inspired the book and movie, the blindside. the baltimore ravens michael orr will be here on set. first let's go for a check on the forecast. >> we are tracking the showers through florida and a chance for heavy rain at time, especially to the south of miami. it moves off towards the south and east. it will be one to watch on the southernmost boundary. boston with a beautiful day for travelers. that story for a good stretch of the country. today and tomorrow. lots more "morning joe" on the way after this. the employee of the month isss... the new spark card from capital one. spark miles gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. the spark card earns double miles... so we really had to up our game. with spark, the boss earns double miles on every purchase, every day. that's setting the bar pretty high. owning my own business has never been more rewarding. coming through! 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[ female announcer ] only from aveeno. i don't think israel made a decision on what they need to do. they like us believe iran has to stand out on the nuclear weapons program. we mobilized the international community in a way that is unprecedented. they are feeling the pinch. they are feeling the pressure, but have not taken the step they need to diplomatically to pursue peaceful nuclear power and not pursue a nuclear weapon. israel will be concern and we will as well. our goal is to resolve the issue diplomatically. we will not take any options off the table. >> 23 past the hour and joins us to talk about the issue. senior research fellow at oxford and stanford university, neal ferguson. the latest issue, he outlined and argues against five reasons israel should not attack iran. that will we go through them? >> double negatives. neal, a lot of policy makers concerned about a possible attack after a decade of war. what are they missing that you think makes it important for us to consider attacking iran. >> you hear why this shouldn't happen. there will be a huge backlash. the arab will turn into a winter and the price of oil will go through the roof. the regime will be strengthen and what does it matter if iran gets a weapon? it will be a more stable and responsible player with nuclear weapons. i heart that argument. when you look closely at the arguments, they fall apart. >> what about the threat of iranian retaliation? that's number one. if we attack iran, they will attack back. >> the thing to remember is assuming the united states does not leave israel in the lurch, there was a huge amount of naval power converging. with american support, even if it's only naval support, there is not a lot iran can do. the thought of iran lashing out through the satellites and the supporters in countries like that is just a reminder of what exactly iran is. i don't think we should be intimidated by threats, they expose iran for what it is. >> the entire muslim world. we can see how you can make that argument if we attack iran. anyone who know this is knows it is other arab countries that fear iran goating nuclear weapons as much. >> irans isolated itself and it is on the side of the syrian regime. if you look at surveys in sunni countries, iran is unpopular. they might be crocodile tears shed. that's always the case when israel takes any action. in reality, not many people in the shiite world give a hoot about iran and the saudis who are key players for a reason that it will come to. encouraging the israelis to take action. the last thing was the nuclear armed iran. >> we should all think of this if we are watching the candidates talk about positions on this. you fear a double dip recession and say the world economy will be dealt a death blow. >> you have to imagine the impact and we go up because even rumors of the strait of hormuz being closed had that effect. although things may be picking up and emphasize maybe because i don't share your enthusiasm, they are not picking up in europe and even if you look at china. there is a lot of downward pressure right now. i don't think the spike in oil prices would be catastrophic and with them on site, they have the capacity to counteract a spice in prices. i don't think this is the death blow that some people say. >> professor, good to see you this morning. we look at a couple more on your list, the nuclear iran. you would agree that the united states and the stomach for war is not what it was ten years ago. the american people watching this, how would this play out and say israel went in first. what would be the united states's role and what would happen next. >> we have seen president obama's preference for being the back seat of the car in the case of intervention in libya. he is not somebody with george w. bush's appetite and the abandonment of the afghan operation. after the iraq operation was closed down. you can't expect president obama to be enthusiastic when the chairman told him they have launched air strikes that. is plausible between now and november. on the other hand, if you really want to step aside and the problem is without american support, the israelis cannot achieve the military objective and can't necessarily cope with the iranian backlash. if they step aside, that will be disruptive and also make obama look more like jimmy carter than he does. my sense is that he will reluctantly have to support the israelis if they take action and that's what the advice would be from his military commanders. the american people given a choice between inaction and a disaster and coming in on the side of israel are likely to go for option number two. you guys love thinking about the politics, this will be the hugest call if they take action. he has to make up his mind quickly about the politics. >> i'm confused about what the think the best and worst case are if you think iran reacted. >> in terms of the best case, they will simply not be able to with stand a combined israel-u.s. operation. they don't have that much military capability. the best case is that air strikes will be successful in setting back the nuclear program. the worst case is that the u.s. sits on its hands. then we are faced not only with the prospect of a nuclear armed iran next year, but the principal ally. the stakes are high here. not that i'm a huge enthusiast, but i just got back and there is no doubt the israeli government is clear and will not tolerate a nuclear-armed iran. >> thank you so much. your article in the new issue of "newsweek" magazine. his life inspired the book and movie the blind schltd mich bli. michael orr joins us next. 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[ male announcer ] buy a waterproof pantech element for $249.99 and get a 4g burst smartphone free. only from at&t. in what passes for common sense. used to be we socked money away and expected it to grow. then the world changed... and the common sense of retirement planning became anything but common. fortunately, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. take control by opening a new account or rolling over an old 401(k) today, and we'll throw in up to $600. how's that for common sense? big mike, they call us best right here. let's go. come on. >> wow! >> that was a scene from the oscar-nominated film the blindside based on michael orr's life story. joins us now is offensive lineman. from homelessness to the blindside and beyond. it's a pleasure to have you on. >> thanks for having me on. >> this is like a double-blind spot. >> what? what are you talking about? >> they told you about football. thank you. >> to watch movies. oh, it's a blindside. >> i know what the movie is about and it's a true story. >> i'm not sure it's a true story. i guess that's a question. >> it's interesting. a lot of people saw that had have written about. why did you then put out the book? >> when it came to writing the book, i thought it would be overkill. everybody thought they knew my story. i wrote it because i started getting so many letters and just people from everywhere saying how it changed their live and the positive influence it had on their lives to change. i wrote to give people like me that were in my shoes ten years ago to let them know that anything is possible. whatever they want to do. they can do it if they put their mind to it. i didn't write it to correct anything from the movie or tell people that this was true or not. >> the movie wasn't exactly accurate? >> they missed a few parts. i think i am a little more intelligent than it came off on screen. >> did it bother you when you were watching the movie or did you realize this is hollywood. >> football was all i had growing up and that's the reason i'm here today. that's the reason i have only seen the movie one time. i love sports so much that the way it made me look on the field and a little bit in the classroom and stuff like that, but it was a great story that inspired a lot of people. >> mike has to be from hollywood. he is a diplomat. >> he's just being nice. >> you said two things. this idea he was stumbling around the football field. the first time he walked on the field, he was the lest player who ever lived. he was smart as hell. >> come on, mike! come on! who made this? >> i like this guy. >> he knows. he's okay. >> the general idea of the book and the film were correct? >> you talk about where you came from. >> just to go back to let people know as well, i have always had a strong drive to succeed even before i went to the private school. i feel like i have been the same guy and wanted to do better and not wanted to be caught up in the trap of growing up and going to school and dropping out and getting involved in drugs and violence. i never have been a part of that. i feel like i was successful before the blindside or anything like that. i had a drive to be successful in life no matter what. even if it was on the football field or having three or four minimum wage jobs i wanted to live life the right way. >> where do you think you got that drive from? >> it goes back to watch iing michael jordan. i was a big fan of watching him and i never had anybody tell me to go to school and i didn't see them go to school and work every day. watching michael jordan and i was a big fan of the cowboys watching the sports teams on tv. that was the only role model i had. that's why i said i didn't like the sports part of the blindside. i loved sports since i was 7 years old. >> you knew what you were doing from the beginning. michael lewis's book, was it accurate? >> it was about tit for tat with the movie. >> he wrote his own book for a reason. >> what is it that you hope that somebody in your position years ago, that's remarkable. >> it is a remarkable story. >> what's the one thing you wanted to take away from your book? >> just if you put your mind to it, you can do anything you want to do. first when i wrote this, if it sells 1,000 copies and reaches one person who purchases the book, it will be a success. it has done thousands and thousands of times what i thought it would do. it's through so many people. just them taking things and earning from it, get something out of it and hopefully getting them the drive to succeed. >> you know, he wrote this thing when he was there. you know what should read this? it will inspire them to pick themselves up off the floor and do better next year. i think it would be good if tom brady and giselle read this together. they can read it together. book club. >> then they can do an e-mail circle. >> e-mail circle and prayer requests to read this book. they too can beat the odds next year. >> i talked about how intelligent michael was. he picked the patriots. >> maybe you did eat blue after that. >> the patriots knocked us out of the playoffs. we wanted him to win and you always want the team thabeet you to win the championships. >> those guys keep winning. >> it's great to meet you. >> nice to meet you as well. thanks for having me. >> michael o her. >> good luck. >> david axel rod joins us tomorrow. more "morning joe" straight ahead. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] offering four distinct driving modes and lexus' dynamic handling, the next generation of lexus will not be contained. the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. ♪ so i'm glad it's with fidelity. they offer me one-on-one guidance to help me choose my investments. not just with my savings plan here at work. they help me with all of my financial goals. looking good, irene. thanks to fidelity, i can stay on top of my financial future, huh? good one. why, thank you. whether it's saving for retirement, college, or anything else, contact a fidelity investment professional today. >> yeah, mike. he's a great guy. >> so sweet. >> a smart guy and apparently they set him up in that movie. >> they have holes in it. >> they just exaggerated? >> a little bit. a smart guy and a dominant football player. >> it's like a game changer. they just make up swaths of history. >> the headline is saying california has until today to join a settlement with the largest banks. the settlement would apply to those who lost their homes to foreclosure. it's part of an aggressive push by the obama administration to prop up the market. up next, the other football highlights. it's time for the "morning joe." >> fox actually ran demanding chelsea -- i tell you what, it was a heck of one. >> next with "morning joe" football frenzy. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about the cookie-cutter retirement advice ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you get at some places. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 they say you have to do this, have that, invest here ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 you know what? 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[ laughter ] ♪ >> welcome back to "morning joe." from manchester city club, he is out there to look star spangled in marketing and management for soccer in the usa. what a weekend. of course fox the network runs chelsea man u. i sat there and getting worried. they can't afford people like you. this game picked up fast. >> that was a goal that was supposed to put chelsea up. they keep coming back and fourth penalty in two days. >> two games. >> the penalty and they didn't stop that one quick. incredible fight back there. a really weak penalty. >> roughly need to look at this again. >> not a penalty kick, but he puts it in. the hair plugs, those are the most remarkable hair plugs. >> this is a beautiful cross and a header by i think roger calls the mighty mosquito. >> defending the great goals. >> no doubt about it. your side of course had a great match yesterday taking care of the short orders. >> the kwup semi-final and the game they have to win. johnson looked like he had the penally and a great start for them. this was important. he played for fulham. the three points you had to pick up and it wasn't again. you managed to do that. a snowy day and hard day, but this guy probably you look in slow motion. that's an under statement. not again. >> thank you so much. >> a nice finish. >> roger wanted to show them the michael jackson statue. >> so relevant. >> it is so relevant. arsenal scored a touchdown yesterday. they won 7-1. they destroyed them. >> they scored except the coach. it was seven goals and -- >> the hat trick? >> he's about 22 goals in 24 games. the first in five, but blackburn had a lot of trouble, i think. this guy here got the goal and the game. a big win for arsenal and took the pleasure off of him and seven goals always helps. they score the seventh goal. the deflection here. >> newcastle is the roughest fan base and they won and beat aston villa. they are in great shape. liverpool is going to be playing tottenham. that is a great match. >> that's a huge game. they are pushing for the fourth place position here. a good way for the audience. >> talk about what you guys are doing. the need to do this for sometime. you are checking up for the boys and girls club or putting soccer pitches across america. >> probably a great relationship. big soccer manager now. they are good for the city kids against america. his own family and the fields got them over. go to where soccer is played and the kids need some to play they have nowhere to play. >> soccer is the people's game around the world and america is more middle class and upper middle class. this hopefully brings soccer to everybody. >> you can't hit it. the kids want to play soccer. >> yes, they do. >> the new york ambassador as well. that's wonderful in lexington. fantastic. these kids have to get milestones. >> thank you so much. >> we will look at the monday business forecast. the larger low pressure and showers towards the bay area later on this evening. south florida looking at the heavier showers and potential delays north in d.c. seems to be back towards boston and flurries in towards minneapolis. today is gonna be an important day for us. you ready? we wanna be our brother's keeper. what's number two we wanna do? bring it up to 90 decatherms. how bout ya, joe? let's go ahead and bring it online. attention on site, attention on site. now starting unit nine. some of the world's cleanest gas turbines are now powering some of america's biggest cities. siemens. answers. spark card from capital one. spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. 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