in syria you re opening up a can of worms that i think the administration is very reluctant to do. a reformer he s certainly not. but a key player in the regional dynamic that we see unfolding. syrian president bashar al-assad definitely is. jenna: i only have 30 seconds to wrap it up. what should our policy be towards syria? reporter: i think the president s speech on libya a couple of days ago was a really good benchmark prism through which to view all this. the president s speech was by all accounts a very forceful defense of what the add minimum straying is doing in libya. but whether or not that example actually becomes translated to a more forceful stance on syria and iran remains to be seen. i suspect the administration is very forceful on libya because in the grand calculus it doesn t matter as much and syria and iran water a great deal. jenna: that s very interesting. we didn t even get to iran, i hope we can get to it in the future. thank you very much for your
involvement. 40% of republicans, 38% of independent dents which go to the point you were talking about, about the problem he seems to be having with independent dents at this moment. reporter: yeah he also has a problem with democrats on libya. most times if you look at other numbers and the other big issues he s getting approval of his handling of the other issues among democrats in the 70s and 80 percent. for him to get less than 80% among democrat is for libya is problematic. you can t just look at one poll or a couple of polls in the short run but they are troubling trends and i suspect one of the reasons why the administration is announcing an energy initiative, had the bull white house conference on bullying in schools. they are trying everything they possibly can to change the issues and find some kind of ground on which they can improve their numbers and get additional support from the american people. jon: at the same time when you look at the potential field of republican
always. thank you so much for joining us again. he is from the l.a. times. jon: for the latest reaction here in the u.s. to the situation in libya jennifer griffin is joining us live from washington. the debate, jennifer seems to be going on about whether to arm the rebels. reporter: it does continue in fact british preupz david cameron had to answer questions about it in parliament again today. his response was carefully worded leaving the door open to the possibility of arming the rebels under the current u.n. security council resolution. alternate the same time it allows all necessary measures to protect civilians and civilian-populated areas. in our view this would not necessarily rule out the assistance of protection for citizens in certain circumstances. we do not rule it out but we have to the taken the decision to do so. reporter: this is kp-pl exactly the same wording we heard from both u.s. ambassador to the united nations susan rice
officials have said about the president of syria and get your reaction to this. let s go ahead and take a listen. there is a different leader in syria now. many of the members of congress of both parties who have gone to syria in recent months have said they believe he s a reformer. jenna: a different leader, president al-assad came out today and blamed the united states and israel for the uprising in his country. who is this guy. reporter: quite frankly the secretary s comments are really telling. the obama administration are taking a very deferential stance towards what is happening in syria. the reason they are doing so is quite frankly syria matters a lot and libya doesn t matter quite as much, nearly as much. it s very hard to talk about vital u.s. interests that are implicated in the libya operation, which may be why the white house has been so forward leaning on it. if we talk about syria, and supporting the opposition, if we talk about a real international coalition to thwa
citizens. they re being presented with this in the high schools nowadays as a viable option for making money. school districts along the border are now inviting authorities into their classrooms to warn students about the risks of helping the cartels. students, as young as sixth graders, watch videos like this, which outline in graphic detail how cartel members burn the bodies of people who fail to deliver their drugs. we re very blunt. we will tell them the consequences that they can suffer there, which can be anywhere from just getting beat to death. reporter: el paso county attorney joanne ber bernau says the court system can be tough, too. the legal consequences are things that can face them and affect them the rest of their lives, an they re talking about jobs, obviously, college applications applications, scholarships. reporter: that scared straight program that s offered in local schools appears to be working because officials say they ve seen a sharp decrease in r