from the presidential election and at a turning point in the campaign. considered a boxing match, today was the day political equivalent of when the referee brings the fighters into the middle and says, shake hands, come out fighting. the president phoned mitt romney congratulating him on clinching the republican nomination. governor romney went over the top in delegates last night. both campaigns described the conversation as cordial and brief. gloria borger is here as we start the conversation. i want to start over to the magic wall for a minute. why was the conversation brief. a lot of work to do. the blue states leaning or solid for president obama. the red states leaning or solid for governor romney. 247-206, advantage, obama. a half dozen toss-up states. an easier path for the democratic incumbent. a very competitive race. some numbers getting better for romney. look at the washington post abc poll. 52% to 41%. the president still is liked by more voters if you will. if
up first, president obama is imposing new sanctions designed to make it harder for rogue regimes to crack down on their own people. speaking at the holocaust museum he drew on the lessons of history saying it is imperative to never forget and never be silent, he said, when there is evidence of mass killings, human rights abuses and other atrocities. with allies and partners we will keep increasing the pressure of the diplomatic effort to further isolate asad and his regime so those who sack with asad know they are making a losing bet and will keep increasing sanctions to cut off the regime from the money it needs to survive. is it enough? the new steps from the president, syria continues to violate a cease-fire it negotiated with the united nations and as the president spoke so he had sudan attacked south sudan and fred townsend is in new york with us tonight with the external advisory board for the cia and the home atlanta security department. announce the the new boar
nomination is his, if he pulls off an illinois upset. spring nearly sprung. what the heck is this? no joke. more in an a foot of snow on the ground in flagstaff, arizona. more on the way, too. bizarre. a major late winter storm shutting down the interstate 40 for nearly 200 miles. in nebraska and oklahoma, the trouble is tornadoes. look at this. storm chasers captured this twister in the town of willow, oklahoma. reynolds wolf is tracking all of the severe weather. dozens of occupy wall street demonstrators arrested in ugly pictures in lower manhattan. they re trying to reoccupy the park. and how sweet it is. the sweet 16 is set after 11th seeded north carolina state, upseeded georgetown. up next for n.c. state, kansas on friday. we begin with breaking news from france. three people, two children, have been killed on a shooting outside of a jewish school in toulouse, france. several people were reportedly injured by this gunman. security has been ordered tightened a
big time around the world wherever you look. the dow posting its best day in more than two and a half years with a rocking 490-point gain. that puts the dow back in positive territory for the year. above 12,000, which is a psychologically very important level for the 401(k) s in this country. the nasdaq and s&p up more than 4% as well. why? well, it began with america s top economic man bailing out europe which is on the verge of bringing down the economy. former new york stock exchange floor trader, obviously, it was ben bernanke working with other central bank chiefs around the world. this is europe-related? this is definitely europe-related. there s more to it than that. but futures were roaring very, very early as a direct of ben bernanke, the federal reserve s move to effectively lower the cost of gaining access to u.s. dollars. kr? because u.s. dollars, that s the world s reserve currency. that s what the euro zone needs for their banks and financial institutions to p
but overall that idea that the fed thinks that there are still significant downside risks, kyra, that has people unnerved. stocks are down. oil is down big. gold is down, as well. so, you re seeing a real movement out of some of these commodities and stocks today on this idea that the economy is not out of the woods yet, kyra? we ll look for the numbers in 28 1/2 minutes, thanks so much. the threat of a new government shutdown an intense round of voting rejected a spending bill and the move surprised even the republican leaders. kate baldwin joining us now from capitol hill. so, kate, the government due to run out of money at the end of the month. tell us what is happening behind the scenes. here we go, again, kyra. quite a blow for house republican leadership last night. in a vote, the final tally 195-230. 48 republicans, almost 50 house republicans joined with an overwellming majority of house democrats to reject this bill. this measure, just to give a little bit of b