biggest primary days on the calendar. now he is focusing entirely on president obama, sharpening his attacks and making the troubled economy issue number one. >> all of the thousands of good and decent americans i've met who want nothing more than a better chance a fighting chance, to all of you, i have a simple message. hold on a little longer. a better america begins tonight. [cheers and applause] four years ago barack obamas today he would us in front ever greek columns with sweeping promises of hope and change. but after we came down-to-earth, after all the celebration and the parades, what do we have to show for 3 1/2 years of president obama? is it easier to make ends meet? >> no!. >> is it easier to sell your home or buy a new one? >> no!. >> it is still about the economy and we're not stupid. [cheers and applause] rick: michael barone is a senior political analyst at the "washington examiner". he is a fox news contributor and joins us this morning. michael, this wasn't tampa but this sounded an awful like an acceptance speech, didn't it? >> it did, rick. basically mitt romney is doing what barack obama did four years ago in june 2008 when he spoke in st. paul, minnesota and claimed victory in the fight for the democratic nomination and tried to set up a, a theme for the general election and obviously what you saw from mitt romney was an echo of the clinton war room slogan of 1992. it's the economy stupid. and you saw an echo effect of that question that ronald reagan asked at the single debate between him and jimmy carter in 1980. are you better off than you were four years ago. which by the way was a steal from a franklin roosevelt fireside chat in 1934. rick: i guess when it's good people keep stealing it. the governor said the last few years are the best barack obama can do but it is not the best that america can do. michael, as everybody predicts this will be one of the naziest races in years, a sign that governor romney will take a page from ronald reagan and take the high road? >> i wouldn't characterize. romney's speech as particular nasty one in terms of political rhetoric? i didn't spot allusions to negative personal charactertics of the incumbent president. he was talking about issues and about principled issues economic issues. on issues how big government should be. should we continue to vastly expand the size and scope of government. reasonable people can take either side of that argument and mitt romney was making his stab at, arguing that we should not increase the size of government. we need to hold it back if we're going to have economic growth. rick: the laser beam focus on the economy, no mention of health care. nothing about the abortion. nothing about contraception. nothing about same-sex marriage last night. are social conservatives, michael, going to get any of their issues heard this time around? >> not very much, rick. i think basically, if you look at all the public opinion polling, if you go to focus groups, if you ask people what's on their mind, they're primarily concerned with economic issues. foreign policy issues, cultural issues like abortion that played a bigger role in past elections, just seem to have been largely swept aside and in voters views because we've had a pretty subpar economic performance as compared to the long era of prosperity and economic growth from 1983 to 2007. rick: word from the gingrich camp that the former speaker will announce that he is ending his campaign sometime within the next week or so. what did newt gingrich get from all of this, michael? >> well, newt gingrich i think thought he could be president. i remember being out here just steps away from where i am now in the fox newsroom in washington with newt gingrich in early november of last year. he said he thought mitt romney had a glass jaw. he would knock him out and he seemed very confident he would be elected president in november. so unfortunately for newt gingrich he is the glass jaw in the contest for the florida primary turned out to be his own and he's, what he got out of it is that, you know, a chance to talk to voters across the country. some good debate performances but a disappointing outcome and one that, you know, some within the organizations that he has formed over the years and sources of income may have dried up on him. rick: michael barone with the "washington examiner", fox news contributor. always good to get your insight, michael. thanks. >> thank you. jenna: we'll take you to north carolina now where former presidential candidate john edwards is in court and facing more testimony from his former chief aide and former good buddy at that. edwards' attorneys are getting, going to get their chance to cross-examine andrew young today. he is the prosecution's star witness and yesterday he detailed edwards' relationship with his pregnant mistress rielle hunter and the attempts to hide their extramarital affair but andrew young is facing credibility issues of his own. jonathan serrie outside the courthouse in greensboro with more on this. jonathan, what are the some of the problems facing andrew young as a witness? >> reporter: jenna the bottom line is credibility as you pointed out. this after all is the man who initially claimed he was the father of edwards' illegitimate child. then after a falling out with the former presidential candidate he writes this tell-all book. well the defense is likely to seize on this during cross-examination. listen. >> they need to attack andrew young's credibility as much as possible, preferably by trying to show as many inconsistencies between that testimony and either other statements he made, maybe things he said in his book. anything they can do to say not only is he not a trustworthy guy but point to things where he might have been lying in court. >> reporter: andrew young claims it was edwards' idea for him to claim paternity of the child. he said during the campaign edwards wanted to deflect any media scrutiny of the affair in hopes of not jeopardizing his bid for president. jenna: as you point out that's what young says now but back then he went through plenty of hoops to try to keep his friend's affair secret. what was his motivation then and maybe a little more on his motivation now, jonathan? >> reporter: the motivation seemed to be two-fold n court yesterday he said basically the reasons why two-fold. first of all he believed that edwards would make a great president. he believed in his candidacy but there was also a level of self-interest as he put it, quote, i wanted my friend to be president. being friends with the most powerful person on earth, there are benefits to that. jenna? jenna: jonathan serrie with more out of north carolina as we get it. jonathan, thank you. rick: well the government's been saying for some time now that its bank bailout program will actually make a profit for taxpayers but a new report says not so fast. fox business network's liz macdonald joining us now. liz, good to see you. taxpayers are they going to get any of their money back from the bank bailouts? >> they may not. just a week and a half ago, rick, the treasury department is out with a new report that taxpayers could break even and see a profit on what is called the tarp bailout of the banking system but a new report from the special inspector general for the bank bailout program at treasury is a sharply-worded report saying not so. taxpayers could actually lose $60 billion on the tarp bailout. treasury has been saying that look it, we have stablized the financial system. we prevented financial collapse and saved a million jobs but the special inspector general saying too much positive top spin from the treasury. this echoes a earlier gao report that says the same. a widely-held misconception that the tarp would make a profit to the new report. no concrete plan from treasury to get banks out of tarp and we see hundreds of banks still in the tarp program. rick: do we have a list of deadbeat banks and worst offenders? >> the worst offenders is general motors, aig and al ally financial. gm still owes $27 billion. 40 billion owed to tarp. ally financial not public and still struggling, owes 15 billion. we own 77% of the aig. both of those companies, their shares are underwater. taxpayers have yet to break even on the shares. that is why treasury is still holding onto the stocks. back to you. rick: i wonder if they will get a call from check shun agencies. liz macdonald, thanks very much. >> sure. jenna: the battle over illegal immigration reaching the highest court in the land as the supreme court hears arguments today on arizona's controversial immigration law. one. toughest laws in the entire country. we have a live report from the supreme court coming up. rick: also met at that world peace -- meta world peace learn his punishment for throwing at that elbow. what it means for his team in the playoffs. jenna: a mad cow case in the heart of california's darely land. what you need to know next. >> i'm really questioning if we should eat this right now. that is scary. 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[ kyle ] it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah, we are. no...we're not. ♪ the allstate value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. rick: an update now on a story we brought you earlier this week. we now know the fate of the meta world peace. that is the basketball player for the l.a. lakers who threw that brutal elbow. arthel neville has the story. >> it was so brutal i can't stand to watch it. meta world peace suspended seven games which could cost him close to $350,000. even if you're rich it has got to sting. here it is. hear is the blow that got him in trouble. unnecessary roughness in the nba. a vicious elbow to the head of oklahoma city's james hardin, giving hardin a concussion. happened in sunday's game in second quarter of the lakers double overtime victory. world peace got elected from the game. he claims the elbow was a overzealous overcelebration of the dunk. elbow and explanation left lakers star kobe bryant confused. he said, hard to get into a guy's head to know exactly what happened in a situation like that. i haven't really spoken to him about it. you have to really ask him. what does world peace have to say for himself? he doesn't speak to the media about the incident but posted a statement on the website, ron artest.com. here it is. i apologize to the oklahoma city thunder fans and okc organization. i look forward to getting back on the floor with my teammates and competing with the lakers for the lakers fans. this is his 10th suspension in the past decade. he will lose nearly $348,000 in salary either the rest of this season or next season. it depends how long l.a. stays in the playoffs. james hardin is recovering but he has not been cleared to play again. by the way lakers general manager says he does not condone world peace's actions the lakers play sacramento tonight. playoffs start saturday. rick: ron artest is the guy that went up into the stands a few years ago. >> reporter: he has done quite a few things. rick, i'm making sure you always maintain your well-based your manner that you do. rick: i will do my best, arthel. thank you very much. jenna. jenna: mice to have arthel part of our team to see rick stays in line. thank you, arthel. a new case of mad cow disease the first in five years. the infected animal discovered in the heart of the california's dairy country. the usda says the cow is not headed for our food supply and stresses that american dairy and beef products are safe. still two major south korean retailers immediately suspended sales of u.s. beef. one has lifted the suspension. infected animal was discovered because of safeguards and testing put in place. >> they got more information about the situation. i have, became actually quite a bit more comforted at the fact that actually the surveillance systems we've got in place work and that gives me a great deal of comfort and i can't wait to get home this evening for a nice juicy steak. jenna: some confidence there. joining me dr. stephen gardner with new york methodist hospital. a steak for all of us tonight, dr. gardner. >> i like steak. jenna: this is one cow in one area. how concerned should we really be? >> in past nine years we had four cows have been affected, none going to the food chain. we have no cases of mad cow in humans. in the world, 29 cases. figure chances are better eating that steak than fish contaminated with mercury. jenna: this was not part of the food supply but it is a dairy cow and we drink milk and eat cheese. why does that matter?. >> milk does not cause the disease. it can not be spread from milk. it is spread either eating a diseased cow, spread through cannibalism i hope nobody is into in the audience. jenna: i hope not either, dr. gardner. i wasn't expecting that. that is one of the ways this could be spread? >> that is one of the ways and blood transfusions and tissue transplants. those are the only ways it can be spread. if you keep the cows out of the food chain you will not have mad cow. jenna: what causes it? >> it is a protein. what the protein does. it is not virus but gross in peculiar shape. the body doesn't clear it. it destroys the brain, eyes, or cows walking around or not walking around hitting themselves into the wall. jenna: some of the folks they saw with this cow. it passed away and it is interesting when they describe what happened to this cow they say it was spontaneous case. they don't really know -- >> spontaneous means mutation as opposed to him eating something. he didn't get it from eating but his body had a mutation like cancer that developed it. jenna: that can happen suddenly? >> that can happen. i'm a little suspicious about that reasoning. i would like to make sure it is not from eating contaminated food. that is our main safety. jenna: that is one of the concerns when there was a outbreak of mad cow disease in europe they say the cows were eating feed made from other cow by-products. that is one of the ways this disease was spread. how confident are you overall in our safeguards, not only with mad cow disease but some of these other serious food-borne illnesss? >> i don't think anybody will get mad cow disease in the united states. with the other disease i'm a little bit nervous. with agri terrorism this is big area we have to look for. spoilage, look at all the salmonella contamination of salads and things like that. more worried about that than mad cow disease. jenna: gives us perspective. dr. garner we'll continue to see if we hear more about this. >> no hotdogs that aren't kosher. jenna: maybe take the steak instead. dr. garner. nice to see you. rick? rick: news of another cow and this guy apparently got a little hungry. where else do you go if you're on the run and need some grub? mickey. did's. the cow named darcy turning up at a drive-through in mcdonald's in brush, colorado after escaping from a nearby pen. we think the cow ordered chicken mcnuggets. will not order a big mac at mcdonald's. something from a sci-fi film. futuristic robots giving paralyzed people the power of mobility. some promising new research you have to hear coming up. more fallout from the prostitution scandal at the secret service. more agents learning their fate as congress investigates the problem up on the hill. juan williams, mary katharine ham squaring off in a fair and balanced debate. that's coming up next. rick: well new fallout from the colombian prostitution scandal rocking the secret service. two more agents have been fired. another permanently losing his security clearance and two more were cleared of any serious wrongdoing. a live look at capitol hill where homeland security secretary janet napolitano answerings tough questions about the possible threat to the president's safety and national security. she says the president was never in any danger. >> the agents are informed as to what the intel is, what specific, country-specific measures need to be taken. and again, in this instance, mr. chairman, there was no impingeing on the security of the president and no access to any secure information by the people involved. rick: joining me now for more on this mary katharine ham, a writer at "the daily caller". she is a fox news contributor and fox news political analyst juan williams is here as well. nice to see you both. mary katherine after the president did the slow jam of the news last night with jimmy fallon then he talked about this secret service scandal and talked about this and said it was a couple knuckleheads. on the whole the guys do an amazing job. 'nough said? >> i agree with his sentiment we don't want to look down upon all the guys and who work in the secret service and women who work in the secret service who are mostly great people that put their lives on the line. that goes without saying. maybe addressing first time on jim any fallon's show and using term knucklehead didn't treat it with seriousness it should be treated with. it came off flippant. i like to see janet napolitano taking questions from someone other than jimmy fallon or a late night host of the this is a problem having prostitutes along with the secret service advance team and somebody we would to all know about. rick: juan, what do you think about the president's response to this and what do you think about the hearings on capitol hill? do they serve an actual purpose or is it political theater? >> no i think it is a real purpose. to pick up on what mary katherine was saying there are serious issues that need to be addressed. you have to think back for a second what happened with the secret service there is little bit of a pattern here. the state dinner intrusion. people think back to that. there have been some other small incidents that haven't gotten enough attention in the media. the secret service, those are really up standing strong individuals. i used to cover the white house so i had a lot of interaction. mark sullivan i think is a terrific guy as the director. i don't think these are people who would be engaged in the kind of behavior that would lead to potential threat to the president or to any of the staff. i mean it is a long line of people that are protected by the secret service. so the hearings are important. but as to the gym my fallon thing, to me republican haves to be very careful about overreach and saying oh, this is evidence that the president did something wrong or that his lack of leadership. i don't think that is going to sell with anybody. rick: what do you think, mary katherine? is there a problem here, potential problem for republicans if it seems like they're piling on? >> i think republicans are naturally more careful about democrat and piling on services like the secret service or the united states military when it comes to these incidents and making those symbol of those organizations. so i do think they need to be careful about that. i agree with senator grassley called for a ig investigation whether or not anybody from the advance team was involved because the white house lawyer cleared them. i like to hear more about that. here is what political threat for the president. whe