libya speech which you yes, he did. shows you how focused they are. all right. chris, errol, favorite new york channel i think i can say. thank you. thank you both. coming up, will police and firefighters turn on republicans in the latest republican union dispute? we ll see. you re watching hardball only on msnbc. we re with you when you re saving for your dreams. [ woman ] when you want a bank that travels with you. with you when you re ready for the next move. [ male announcer ] now that wells fargo and wachovia have come together, what s in it for you? unprecedented strength, the stability of the leading community bank in the nation and with 12,000 atms and thousands of branches, we re with you in more ways and places than ever before. with you when you want the most from your bank. [ male announcer ] wells fargo. together we ll go far.
important, but if they start losing control of the state legislatures, they start being in danger of losing the state houses, that s a real critical problem for the gop. chuck? chris look at ohio. we have talked about this. ohio, getting the referendum to repeal the law that the ohio governor signed this november, that is going to be a marquee, the super bowl of 2011. you know, what s interesting about this chris, i know you have talked to the same poll steriles that i have that talk about this underlying resentment that has grown from sort of underemployed or disappointingly employed americans with government workers feeling like they have it better, does that end up as the economy gets better then suddenly republicans own laying off workers. is that going to be tough for them to deal with? i think it potentially is. you know, it s an amazing thing to me. we can debate whether scott walker will ultimately lose or
sure jobs are available is the first thing i think about when i wake up in the morning and last thing i think about when i go to bed each night. errol, something that the white house folks have been trying to pound in our heads saying, hey, we know you guys are talking about japan and libya. and these are important stories. but we also know the swing voter is talking about gas prices and jobs. absolutely. he knows exactly what they re thinking about or wants to get on the right side of what they re thinking about in florida, in pennsylvania, in wisconsin, in nevada. it s not that hard to figure out. and look. the reality is, he s been told this all along. he blew a lot of capital. i don t want to say blown in the sense of wasted but spent a lot of political capital on the health care. he knows that and would do it again, i suppose. but now, for re-election, it is the economy and no other issue. all right. and chuck chris, very fast. really quickly, remember, he mentioned
unemployment rate developed by a tenth of a point going down a full point in the past four months. and republicans were a bit flum oxed on how to respond. how far does it have to fall before voters give the president credit for an economic recovery? it s probably the 2012 $1 million question. also, the backlash against the backlash. the assault on union rights is turning some traditional friends of the republicans into antagonists like cops and firefighters and increasingly likely that the restrictive law in ohio will be put to a vote in november 2011. have the republican governors gone too far? plus, remember that pastor, that extremist pastor in florida threatening to burn a koran? apparently he did it and a mob in afghanistan killed at least 12 people, most of them united nations workers. what may be the deadliest attack ever on united nations workers in afghanistan. and it s demography destiny. put another way, is the minority population growing so fast that president
ever on united nations workers in afghanistan. and it s demography destiny. put another way, is the minority population growing so fast that president obama simply won t need the same level of white support that he had in 08 to win in 12? finally, see if you can guess which possible presidential candidate now says president obama wants people to lose their jobs and be poor. the answer, in the sideshow. we start with the president and the economic recovery. the washington post chris salis is a political analyst and chris lewis for new york 1. thank you both. chuck. we have seen the numbers and what was interesting today was watching the response with the republican side. we know that president obama was cheerleading this one. he had something to cheer. here s what the president said about the numbers. we added 230,000 private