KEITH OLBERMANN: The president, rising in the polls and accepting the bowing and scraping of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker today, while Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum squared off for an old-fashioned class war in the GOP. One that — unbelievably, as you saw — features a new Santorum ad in which he is nearly spattered by some mixture of brown stuff.
Fifth story on the "Countdown" — while Santorum and Romney unleash their latest round of negative ads, we start with President Obama.
Arriving at Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport, the president shaking hands with Wisconsin's union-busting Republican governor before accepting a Milwaukee Brewers uniform from him. You know, they might need him to bat clean up with all the changes there.
Scott Walker later tweeting, "Greeted the president and gave him a Milwaukee Brewers jersey with 'Obama 1' on it." Thanks.
Walker also claiming a bout of stomach flu kept him from accompanying the president to a Master Lock factory. The president insisting there he would work toward — to reward firms, like Master Lock, which bring jobs back to the U.S. from China.
(Excerpt from video clip) BARACK OBAMA: When we've got an even playing field, I promise you, nobody is going to out-compete America. We've got the most productive workers on Earth. We've got the most creative entrepreneurs on Earth. Give a level playing field, we will not lose.
OLBERMANN: The presidential playing field that once seemed so tilted towards the GOP, apparently leveling out now in the president's favor. Half of American adults approving Mr. Obama's job performance in the latest CBS News/New York Times, and CNN/ORC International polls. Mr. Obama's best showing since Osama Bin Laden was killed last May.
The president's senior campaign strategist David Axelrod seeming pleased, though not overwhelmed, by those numbers.
(Excerpt from video clip) AXELROD: We don't get exhilarated by good numbers and we're not devastated by bad poll numbers, we just keep our — we stick to our knitting and keep going forward.
OLBERMANN: Also going forward, the latest round in the GOP ad wars. Mitt Romney's super PAC "Restore Our Future" hoping to restore the governor's now-vanished lead with a fresh attack on Santorum.
(Excerpt from video clip) WOMAN: Santorum voted to raise the debt limit five times and for billions in wasteful projects including the "Bridge to Nowhere." In a single session, Santorum co-sponsored 51 bills to increase spending and zero to cut spending. Santorum even voted to raise his own pay and joined Hillary Clinton to let convicted felons vote.
OLBERMANN: The Santorum campaign fighting back with an preemptive strike against Romney's penchant for a negative campaign, one that seems to have ignored the new meaning of the word "Santorum." Google it.
(Excerpt from video clip) MAN: This time Romney is firing his mud at Rick Santorum. Romney and his super PAC have spent a staggering $20 million brutally attacking fellow Republicans. Why? Because Romney is trying to hide from his big-government Romneycare and his support for job-killing cap and trade.
OLBERMANN: Trying to hide from that frothy mixture. Fox News channel showed Governor Romney that ad this morning and gave him a chance to claim that he'd wiped his hands of any mudslinging, or of any "santorum."
(Excerpt from video clip) MITT ROMNEY: My campaign hasn't run any negative ads against Rick Santorum. His campaign ran attack ads against me in South Carolina, and his PAC did so in Missouri. So, I'm not saying we won't finally go after the guy.
OLBERMANN: You already have, with evident need to do much more. The latest Quinnipiac poll showing likely primary voters in Super Tuesday state Ohio now favoring Santorum by seven percent over Romney. The governor also having trouble rallying lower-earning Republicans to his cause, although he's doing fine with the one percent.
The Wall Street Journal reporting that in eight past GOP primary or caucus states, Romney did better than Santorum in counties where the overall incomes were higher than the state average, while Santorum overwhelmed Romney in counties with incomes below the state average. And, that's right — after accusing the Obama administration of trying to wage class war — the GOP seems caught in a kind of class war of its own.
As for Santorum's chances going forward, his poll leads notwithstanding, David Axelrod seeming less than impressed.
(Excerpt from video clip) AXELROD: I don't think the average working person in this country is going to look at his policies and say, "Yeah, that's the ticket for me. That offers great hope for me." Secondly, I think that many of the positions he has taken on social issues are quite divisive, not widely shared.
OLBERMANN: Perhaps not, although they have secured Santorum a very unusual endorsement from David Mustaine, singer and guitarist with the heavy-metal band Megadeth. Telling the website MusicRadar, "When the dude went home to be with his daughter when she was sick, that was very commendable, and just watching how he hasn't gotten into doing these horrible, horrible attack ads like Mitt Romney."
Meanwhile, not to say Newt Gingrich has become utterly irrelevant, but he campaigned at the San Diego Zoo. Would you elephants and pandas like to live on the moon?
For more on the GOP's internal class warfare and Romney's struggle with Santorum, I am joined now by the news editor from Salon, Steve Kornacki. Good to see you, Steve.
STEVE KORNACKI: You, too.
OLBERMANN: I'm sorry, I have to start with the Santorum ad — is it possible that was not ignorance on their part, that they're going all sort of meta on us?
KORNACKI: I've been wondering today if there's a way — if there's a family-friendly way to poll the question of how many people in this country actually are aware of the other meaning of this word.
And one thing that I remember, actually, was — if you can think back to December when Santorum was campaigning out in Iowa — they did the Pizza Ranch, this Christian-conservative-owned pizza chain out in the Midwest. And, I think it was the owner who said he wanted to name a salad after Rick Santorum, in his honor. The Santorum salad.
And a reporter talked about going up to the owner afterwards and asking, "Are you aware of the other possible meaning?" And the owner — absolutely no idea. The reporter said, "it was one of the most awkward conversations I ever had." But I actually wonder if this is one of this almost, like, red state/blue state things, where the red states just don't know about it.
OLBERMANN: But, I'm not asking whether or not the people who will be enticed to choose one of these two candidates for president know about it. I'm wondering about whether or not Santorum's people — if Dan Savage had directed a Rick Santorum ad, this is what it would have looked like.
KORNACKI: Right. You've got to imagine whoever actually, physically put the ad together for Santorum got it.
OLBERMANN: On the advertising front — where is the Romney cash advantage being used? Is he just sitting on all of it, because it doesn't seem like there's much going up against this?
KORNACKI: Well, right now, we're seeing it in Michigan. I think you know he's committed about $700,000 through next week. There's still a week to go after that. They're playing hard in Arizona. Santorum doesn't look like he's going to contest Arizona. Now, they're also looking to Ohio and some of these southern states.
I think — what I look for are two things. One, the negativity, I think, is going to intensify. You have your sort of first salvo here from the Romney campaign. I think you're going to see a lot harsher stuff coming out. And I think just the number of spots that are in circulation is going to go up too, in the days — in the weeks ahead.
OLBERMANN: Steve, The Wall Street Journal thing is fascinating, the idea that Santorum is doing better much better than Romney with voters who are not doing well, and Romney is doing well with voters who are doing well. Does that, indeed, suggest a kind of internal GOP class warfare, for all the times the various candidates have used that term about Obama?
KORNACKI: Yeah, it's a strange type of class warfare though, because the message that I'm sort of discerning here is that Republican voters basically are okay with a top one-percent message, but they want a bottom 99-percent messenger.
Because if you look, on paper, at what Romney is proposing and you look what Santorum is saying, I would argue that Romney's platform is actually slightly less hostile to the middle class than Santorum's. And, if you can remember back when Gingrich was going after Romney on the whole — calling him "vulture capitalist" and that sort of thing, Santorum actually rallied to Romney's defense there.
So, if you're behind Rick Santorum and you're a Republican, you're signing off on a very sort of one-percent-friendly economic agenda, but there's something about being able to relate to Santorum, I think, versus not being able to relate to Romney that's really driving this. And I wonder if that bleeds over to the general election.
OLBERMANN: How does that tie in with what you wrote earlier this week, that Santorum had one decided advantage over his rivals in that he was a competent candidate?
KORNACKI: Well, I just think - I say that in comparison. Think about the conservatives who have sort of stepped forward so far and been the consensus alternative to Mitt Romney. You had Herman Cain, who could only say "9-9-9." Rick Perry couldn't string together a sentence to save his life. Newt Gingrich who, as Joan Walsh at Salon said, "His baggage has baggage."
And now you have got Rick Santorum. There's nothing dazzling about the guy, but he can complete a sentence, he knows Romney's vulnerabilities, he can parry with him in debates. Maybe that's all it takes, if the party's in the mood not to go with Romney.
OLBERMANN: And he doesn't step on a rake ever six seconds, only every 60 seconds. So I guess that, by comparison, makes him good. Briefly, on the president's new polls, they suggest what?
KORNACKI: Well, I mean, this proves the old saw about just what a good economy does to a president's approval ratings. I mean, you've seen the unemployment rate drop for five straight months, get five straight — if we get five more months of news like we just had, really this Republican nomination becomes worthless at that point.
OLBERMANN: Steve Kornacki of Salon. Always a pleasure sir, thank you for coming in.
KORNACKI: Sure.
