caught on tape. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. the politics of unemployment swirling today as president obama and the republicans try to spin the latest jobless numbers to their political advantage. while the president is highlighting new signs of economic strength, the republicans are spotlighting the unemployment level that remains unchanged despite solid job growth. cnn white house correspondent dan lothian has more in prince georges county in virginia. dan? reporter: wolf, the president came here today because he says rolls royce jet engines are helping to boost the economy. 140 new jobs expected here, another hundred at a plant in indiana. but it was also a chance for him to cheer the latest job numbers which he says proves the u.s. economy is on the right track. even though not everyone agrees. the u.s. employment picture is far from sunny. but the better than expected february job numbers seems to have pushed a few more dark clouds out of the way.
gas pump and casts a big shadow over obama s hopes for re-election. just a day after dismissing what he called loose talk of war with iran, he sat down with benjamin netanyahu. at the top of their agenda, talk that israel may soon attack iran s nuclear sites. jessica yellin working sources all day. take us inside three hours of talks and a working lunch later, what do we know? reporter: we re told the prime minister and the president within their three hours had 30 minutes when they were one-on-one. none of us will know really what they talked about when they were alone together. but the most pressing question, did they discuss red lines, and we are told by u.s. and israeli officials that that was not what the the two leaders sat down to talk about. that this was essentially a meeting to make clear to each leader where they stand on these fundamental issues of what it would take to press each other for an attack, but they did not ask each other fundamentally for the go-ahea
this volatile republican nominating contest. since the last debate nearly a month ago, rick santorum has surged into the lead in the national polls. but it s a mitt romney-santorum dead heat in one of the states that votes next, that s michigan. and the polls here in arizona suggest a late shift here perhaps in governor romney s favor. our chief political analyst gloria borger is here to get us started. gloria let s focus on the poll here today. we had a poll out yesterday that showed a relatively close rates here. but if you look at the nbc marist poll they show governor romney with a pretty big lead, a healthy lead here. a lot of debates within the campaigns about the number. but why arizona apparently shifting in romney s favor? well, first of all, very very fluid as you know. and there s been a lot of changes in the last four or five days. and the shift has been to romney. you can t say it s because he s got a lot of ads on the air. you could also say perhaps and this
their reputations. ? we dpin with a major retreat into what s turning into a surprise issue on this year s presidential campaign. the politics of women s health. in a ferocious backlash one of the nation s biggest players in the fight against breast can ter announced it will not cut off money tomanned parenthood. cnn s lisa sylvester has more on today s about face. reporter: the susan g. komen board of directors and ceo began with saying sorry. we want to apologize to the american public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving lives. we have been distressed at the presumption that the the changes made to our funding criteria were done for political reasons or to specifically penalize planned parenthood. they were not. the komen foundation, best known for its pink ribbons and 5-k walks, was under fire for changes to its grant policies that cut $600,000 in funding for plan parenthood. komen originally said it was because planned pare
we ll see more of you tomorrow morning as well. meantime, this is a pivotal day in the 2012 presidential race. the nation s first southern gop primary is happening right now in south carolina and the contest promises to be quite the cliff hanger. we ll get you the latest dramatic poll numbers in just a moment. but first, the two leading contenders in the state, newt gingrich and mitt romney, actually ended up campaigning in the same spot this morning. tommy s country ham house in greenville, south carolina. cnn national political correspondent jim acosta was there to see it all unfold. so, jim, for a while we thought the two candidates were actually going to be at the restaurant at the same time, but it didn t quite happen that way, right? reporter: it did not happen quite that way, that s right. mitt romney showed up about a half hour earlier than expected, trying to get the upper ham, i guess you could say, if i could try that pun one more time. and he made it he ma