hillary clinton the secretary of state saying the regime for syrian president s bashar al-assad days are numbered. martha: leland vittert joins us live. what are the latest on the diplomatic efforts going on here? any good developments? there is one big piece of news now coming from russia. the united states and its allies spent the entire weekend blasting moscow for sticking behind the syrians. it appears as though things have chained a little bit. just today the russians announced that they would not sell syria 40 fighter jets that had been promised for delivery some time this year. that is significant. this is the first time the russians have really come down and publicly penalized the syrian regime and bashar al-assad who they have been so supportive of and protecting at the u.n. the war games did not help. they blasted off ground to ground missiles, also sea to
senator marco rubio. and elijah cummings, ranking democrat on the house oversight and reform committee. plus, dana bash and jeff zellny of the new york times. i m candy crowley, and this is staft of the union. the economic headlines were ominous. retail and car sales are strong. but initial jobless claims falling since last year have jumped about 6% in the last three weeks. march sales of existing homes fell 2.6% and factory output slipped in march. then there was this iffy forecast for europe from the managing director of the international monetary fund. we are seeing light recovery blowing in a spring mind, bwind we re seeing some dark clouds on the horizon. if, as the economy goes so goes the election, then it was a worrisome week for the president s re-election team. joining me now president obama s senior re-election strategist david axelrod. good to see you. good to be here again. let me show you and our viewers the nbc news/ wall street journal survey
falling since last year have jumped about 6% in the last three weeks. march sales of existing homes fell 2.6% and factory output slipped in march after rising in february. then there was this iffy forecast for europe from the managing director of the international monetary fund. we are seeing light recovery blowing in a spring wind, but we re seeing some dark clouds on the horizon. if, as the economy goes so goes the election, then it was a worrisome week for the president s re-election team. joining me now president obama s senior re-election strategist david axelrod. good to see you. good to be here again. let me show you and our viewers the nbc news/ wall street journal survey this week on who has good ideas to help the economy. and it said president obama 34%, romney, 40%. how do you account for that? i account for it by the fact that people don t know mitt romney very well yet. they see businessman. they hope he has new ideas. but, candy, i think here is the p
rhetoric certainly is getting sharper. and there are seven major candidates now but after seven more days, will some of those candidates start falling by the wayside on the campaign trail? that s coming up in our strategy session this hour. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we re here in dubuque. a bit chilly but no snow. it s getting ready, a week from today, the iowa caucuses. you re looking at live pictures from dubuque. this will be the first state to have an impact on the 2012 presidential campaign, and it s all happening here in iowa. the republican caucuses candidate are out on the campaign trail today. they re scrambling to cover as much ground as they possibly can. newt gingrich slipping a bit, but still among the leaders. he s ready to roll across the state by bus. he ll join me live here in dubuque later this hour for an in-depth interview, but let s begin with cnn s jim acosta, he s in des moines, the state capital. iowa certainly very much up fo
exercises near an entranceway to key pass way to the world s oil. the war games will go on for ten days. the big concern here is about one-third of the oil actually passes through that strategic checkpoint. brand-new pictures showing the maneuver getting under way. it could bring iranian warships klous close to u.s. ships. here is a former state department senior advisor and principal at bc international advisory. this is a very important situation right now. what are we likely to see with this military exercise that the iranians are now developing that will carry on for ten days? it s a pretty remarkable event because it s in the straits of hormuz but it is south outside the persian gulf. iranians are trying to push the envelope that coincides with the