but given the fact that mitt romney has the name id and the money manage, he should be talking away with every state. but he's not energizing the base, not rallying conservatives, not rallying the tea party groups. he's the one that had the advantage here. but he's not winning over the hearts and minds of americans and rick santorum is. >> is this a relief that jeb bush is not going to be entering this race? >> that's not a factor. it's not something that we've considered. rick is running his own race. he's doing very well -- >> you're not concerned about late entry after a candidate like jeb bush, people out there on the right said they wanted someone like him to throw his hat into the ring to give a contender to president obama. he'd have the power. >> rick's running his own race. what we're expecting to happen in short order is this is going to be a two-man race between mitt romney and rick santorum. what's going to happen is the real conservative, rick santorum, will come to the forefront. we're urging conservatives and tea party groups to rally behind the conservative candidate in rick santorum because we need someone like him that will fight for limited government and reduce spending, not someone like mitt romney who is the prototype for obamacare. who stood for cap and trade and supported the wall street bailouts. those issues will be taken off the table if we elect mitt romney. we can't do that. we need someone like rick santorum who will fight for reduced spending and limited government. he will do that. >> alice, coming off of last night in illinois and now getting this jeb bush endorsement, the romney camp seems to have a lot of momentum moving forward, as you say, there's still a long way to go. however, it could start this parade of other voices coming out to urge your candidate to drop out of the race and newt gingrich was first to lead this charge. take a listen to him last night. >> governor romney had a pretty good day today. i think he took a step towards clearly proving he was the front-runner. senator santorum did not have a particularly good day. this is the third time now he's tried out an industrial midwestern union state and not succeeded. >> alice, granted, newt has his own campaign issues. but talking about how your candidate is doing and like he brings up, in those industrial states and talking about the financial disparity between the santorum campaign and the romney campaign, do you guys have the momentum to take this all the way to tampa like you want? >> we certainly do. we're at the halfway point. this is the halftime of this long process. no one has gotten near the 1,144 required delegates. we are on tapped to do that. we've got our own map. you have to consider the fact that if this does go to an open convention, rick's got the advantage. the convention is going to have more conservative-leaning people as opposed to the regular primary voters. and that will sway in his favor. we've got many unbound delegates out there. those will go to the conservative candidate in rick santorum. we're optimistic. we're a far cry from this -- anyone receiving 1,144. we feel that we'll give mitt romney last night. but as he gave us mississippi and alabama last week, we're looking ahead. we're doing well in louisiana. we've got rick's home state this pennsylvania coming up on our primary calendar. we're encouraged. this is a marathon, not a sprint. we're going to continue to do what he's been doing. get out there and reminding people he's the conservative candidate. heck not afford to elect a moderate to go against barack obama. we can't do that. mitt romney in particular, coming bon the anniversary of obamacare, we wouldn't have obamacare as we know it if it were not for mitt romney. he wrote the prototype for that and he advocated for it being on the national level. we have him in part to thank for having obamacare. we need to make sure that people understand that and rally behind rick santorum who is going to repeal and replace obamacare. >> alice stort, great to have you on with us this morning. a little construction work going on behind you there? >> we're at the gettysburg location. they're breaking down the event from last night. >> they need to be a little more quiet around while you're skyping. thanks so much, alice. joining me is alicia menendez, tony fratto and john ralston. as our own mark murray. mark, let's talk about how this changes the dynamic with jeb bush coming out to give his endorsement to mitt romney. it answers a lot of questions about where this race is going. >> thomas, i'm not sure it changes the dynamic. but it's almost a cherry on top of his victory in illinois last night, very good news for the mitt romney campaign. but as alice was just mentioning to you, mitt romney hasn't had a problem with the republican establishment. they've been behind him. important to note that jeb bush's father has already endorsed mitt romney. but i was actually struck by jeb bush's statement where he said that it's time for the republican party to unite around mitt romney. as we've seen, polls have shown that this republican primary season has taken a toll on its candidates, including romney. romney only has about $7 million in the bank. so you're seeing people saying, look, it's time to end this race. let's go to the general election. >> cherry on top, as you're saying. politico reporting today that party leaders have counseled mitt romney to focus more on the president, less on the people around him. the republican infighting. can mitt romney stay on message, get into april and through april, slow, steady, gaffe-free? >> he has not shown any message disciplined to date. it would behoove him to return to a focus on the economy rather than some of the social issues he's been dragged into. the more the republicans go back and forth between themselves, the less voters like them. >> tony, i want to talk to you about rick santorum, last night asking his supporters to stay the course when he gave his own form of a gettysburg address after losing illinois. take a listen. >> so i ask each and every one of you to join us, to saddle up like reagan did in the cowboy movies. we're going to be back here in pennsylvania and we're going to pick up a whole boatload of delegates and close this gap and on to victory. thank you all very much. >> tony, how does he rehone the message, not to just get evangelicals on board and those are more socially conservative republican views, but more independents that want to get behind his message to see him go forward and be on mitt romney? >> if he wants to do that, he really needs to do it and talk much more strongly about the economic message. it's going to be a tough climb for him at this point even if he takes some delegates out of pennsylvania. pennsylvania's a lifetime away from now. it's a month away. there's a lot between now and then. it's a tough challenge for him and people are consolidating now around romney and we're seeing that with the bush endorsement today. >> john, newt gingrich was coming out last night throwing some rotten eggs toward the santorum campaign yet he didn't pick up any delegates. however, he's got the biggest casino magnet in sheldon adelson cutting checks to his super pac. why does adelson continue to keep gingrich going in this one. it looks like gingrich is more and more like the little engine that can't. >> newt gingrich has received $16.5 million, that's the right number, from sheldon adelson and his family. they go back all the way to 1995 when adelson was in washington lobbying on the jerusalem embassy act and he and newt gingrich bonded over israel. after newt left the congress, adelson and he became closer. and adelson gave him about $7 million for his pac at the time. israel is the big issue there for adelson with gingrich. but i can't imagine that those checks are going to keep flowing when gingrich is finishing in fourth place in the latest contests in illinois. i just don't see any more money coming from adelson, although i will say, thomas, that for most of us, $16.5 million might be a lot of money. for a guy with $25 billion, not so much. >> yeah, it's a night out on the town. as we talk about the money, romney, gingrich, both spent more than they collected in february. santorum ending the month with about 2 million bucks. as this goes on, the candidates becoming increasingly reliant on the super pacs that have formed behind them. but this money, will it continue to be unlimited or will it begin to dry up as candidates look less viable? >> as candidates look less viable, it will continue to dry up. but on the flip side, as it becomes clearer and clearer who will be the nominee, we all agree that's most likely to be mitt romney, you'll also see his supporters beginning to double down on his race, more money flowing in, that becoming competitive once again. >> tony, you agree with that? >> i do. it's going to have to stop at that point. at that point, newt gingrich becomes less something like a nominee and a lot more like a nuisance. i think even newt gingrich for his own sake will not want to continue that. >> our political power panel this morning, thanks to all four of you. i appreciate your time. so there's still a lot on the agenda this morning. this specifically is catching attention of a lot of people across the country. calls for a police chief to be fired after the death of a florida teen. plus, what the victim's mom is saying about the alleged shooter and potential charges. to france, the suspect in a schoolhouse shooting remains in a stand-off with police. what the suspect has told police about a possible surrender. we take you there after this. h. let's go. from the crack, off the backboard. 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[announcer:] conocophillips. 14 clubs. that's what they tell us a legal golf bag can hold. and while that leaves a little room for balls and tees, it doesn't leave room for much else. there's no room left for deadlines or conference calls. not a single pocket to hold the stress of the day, or the to-do list of tomorrow. only 14 clubs pick up the right one and drive it right down the middle of pure michigan. your trip begins at michigan.org. welcome back, everybody. in the next hour, naacp leaders are holding a meeting with local florida residents looking into past alleged abuses by the sanford police department as the outrage grows over a young african-american teen's death. they're demanding the chief police in sanford be fired in the wake of trayvon martin's shooting, allegedly by a self-proclaimed neighborhood watchman three weeks ago. grief now snowballing into complete anger. this morning, despite the promise of grand jury and federal investigations, trayvon's family is in new york where they will participate in a million hoodie march later today demanding justice for trayvon. earlier on the "today" show, his mom said she can't eat or sleep until the alleged shooter, george zimmerman is arrested. >> this guy has not been arrested. i just feel like the sanford police department decided to decide if he -- they decided on the scene to be the judge and jury. i just want this guy arrested so he can be brought to justice. >> just to recap, 17-year-old trayvon, by all accounts, a beloved and model teen was shot and killed while walking home from a 7-eleven, carrying skittles and an iced tea. a horrifying incident that was all captured on 911 tapes. >> 911, do you need police, fire or medical? >> maybe both, i'm not sure. there's just someone screaming outside. >> is it a male or female? >> it sounds like a male. >> you don't know why? >> i don't know why. i think they're yelling help, but i don't know. >> you think he's yelling help? >> yes. >> what is your -- >> there's gunshots. >> the alleged shooter, a self-appointed neighborhood watch leader remains free, yet his conduct, yet his motives, they're being questioned. >> something's wrong with him. yeah, he's coming to check me out. he's got something in his hands. i don't know what his deal is. >> okay, just let me know if he does anything else, okay. are you following him? >> yeah. >> okay. we don't need you to do that. >> he had no intention of getting back in his truck doing what the police instructed him to do. he kept pursuing trayvon martin. >> nbc's ron allen and joy ann reed join me live now from sanford, florida. ron, i want to start with you. bring us up to speed with where the case stands right now. >> we were just at the scene of the crime and there are some investigators from the state law enforcement division who were here. the first time we've seen them at the scene. they are stepping up their part of the investigation. the justice department, as you reported, is also going to become involved in this as well, the fbi. so that is encouraging to people in this community who feel that they've been betrayed by the local police department. there is a long history of animosi animosity, if you will, between the black community and law enforcement here. and some people see this as not an isolated incident. the bottom line is that the investigations seem to be stepping up a bit. it's going to take some time. there's a long series of town halls and protests planned by this community trying to keep this on the agenda. >> as we talk about this being such a tragedy, it is launching a larger conversation for that area. joy ann, we know you're going to be attending this 12:00 p.m. meeting following a packed naacp town hall held last night. let's talk more about the tensions between the police department in this area and the sanford community as a whole. >> right. thomas, the incident that happened a year ago is resonating now with people who are looking at this incident as the continuation of a pattern. in that previous incident, the son of a police lieutenant got into a fight with and beat up a homeless man outside of a bar. he was then not arrested. actually the only way that that incident came to light was that the video leaked on youtube. when the young man was questioned by police, he was not detained after he had called his father and the commander on the ground, the person who was the lead officer, negated the idea of taking him into custody. so there is a sense among a lot of people here that people who have some ties to the police get preferential treatment. there was also an incident in 2005 in which a security guard shot a black teenager and killed him. so there are just various instances where people here feel that the police or police connected to them get preferential treatment and the people within the african-american community are not valued, their lives are not respected. >> talking about the history and with the pressures that are mounting, not just only from the community but from the media pressure, the spotlight that's being put on this now, ron, what are the chances that george zimmerman will be arrested because of police pressure? >> it's hard to say, thomas. but i think those 911 tapes are the key to this case. they were just released over the weekend. and remember this incident happened some three weeks ago. and nobody was really paying attention to it back then. the tapes really reveal a lot about what happened. the last part of the tape that you played where the dispatcher tells zimmerman not to follow the guy, that we can take care of this, essentially, that for many people is the most damning thing. zimmerman claims self-defense. people ask, how can you claim self-defense if you pursue someone and apparently initiate the contact because by every account, the young man was trying to get away, he was trying to go home to where his father and his father's fiancee were living, about 70 feet from where he died. that's the heart ft of the case. because those tapes are public, that's why there's so much anger and so much pain here. i have to believe that law enforcement has to respond to that in some way. >> ron allen and joy ann reed, thanks to both of you. we'll talk more about this. joining me now is charles ramsey, he is the police commissioner of philadelphia. he was also d.c.'s police chief during the d.c. sniper shooting case. sir, it's nice to have you on with us this morning. as we talk about this and more of the details come to lightning, certainly it's a nightmare scenario for any parent. in law enforcement, this is certainly serious for them to face, considering what the community is now thinking about how they handled this. we've got a young black man walking on the street minding his own business, yet seen as suspicious by others and now this is the result. what's your reaction to the circumstances as we unearth more about this case? >> well, first of all, let me offer my condolences to the martin family. i can't imagine what they are going through right now, losing a child. i don't have a case file. so i don't know everything that took place. but i do know that this is beginning to take on a life of its own. and it's very important that the people responsible for the investigation get to the bottom of this as quickly as possible, that there be good lines of communication between the public and the investigative agencies. so that we can somehow keep this from getting beyond where it is right now in terms of people getting involved in this particular case. you've got a lot of information spinning around, some may be fact shl, some may not be factual. >> george zimmerman, the man who allegedly pursued trayvon martin, he's on tapes with police. but he's basically being told to back off but he didn't. he kept pursuing trayvon. police say that he's made some 46 calls to police over the past 15 months. we have a sample of that. i want to play it for everybody. >> is he white, black or hispanic? >> black. >> what do they look like? white, black or hispanic? >> black males. two black males in their late teens. there's two suspicious characters at the gate of my neighborhood. i've never seen them before. i have no idea what they're doing, hanging out loitering. >> can you describe the two individuals? >> two african-american males. this gentleman was walking in the neighborhood. i've seen before on trash days, going around picking up trash. i don't know what his deal is. >> is he white, black or hispanic? >> he's black. >> sir, as you hear this and learning that he's had this contact with police over the last 15 months, again, this self-appointed watch commander for his neighborhood, is this a guy that's looking to be a hero or an overzealous vigilante? >> i don't know the answer to that. we have neighborhood watch in many of our communities and they work very well with police. the bottom line is that police undergo hundreds of hours of training. much of that training revolves around use of force, whether verbal persuasion or deadly force, for that matter. citizens don't get that kind of training. that's one of the problems when you look at gun laws and people being able to purchase guns and there's no requirement for any kind of training or anything and then you wind up with a tragedy and we wonder why. he's not a police officer. he is a civilian. and we train people that are involved in neighborhood watch, if you see something, call 911, let the police handle it. >