House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has announced he is endorsing Mitt Romney to be the Republican presidential nominee. McCarthy becomes the second member of House Republican leadership to do so, after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) announced his endorsement of Romney on Meet the Press on March 4th. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) has not waded into the race.

McCarthy will also act as the California Statewide Chair for the Romney campaign.

"After a long and grueling primary, it is clear that Mitt Romney is the best candidate to face President Obama and fix the mess of his one and only term," McCarthy said in a statement. "Republicans need to unite and work together if we plan to take back the White House and put in place policies that will get our nation back on a path to prosperity by reducing taxes, shrinking government, and empowering the private sector. I am proud to support Mitt Romney and urge my fellow Republicans to do the same."

People have accused President Obama of flip-flopping on issues like gay marriage (his stance is "evolving") and keeping the prison at Guantanamo Bay open (he tried, but ran into opposition in Congress). But the really fundamental flop for him is on the individual mandate, the subject of tomorrow's oral arguments before the Supreme Court.

American Crossroads is out with a video highlighting that today, showing Barack Obama in his own words arguing with himself before the Supreme Court.

When Obama was running for president, he spent months campaigning against Hillary Clinton with the biggest distinction between them (besides Iraq) being the mandate. Clinton's team argued fiercely that the only way to cover everyone and control costs was with the mandate. Obama, however, likely realizing the general-election politics of requiring people to buy health insurance, disagreed and said it was possible to cover everyone without it.

Crossroads' tag line in the video is "Obama was right on the individual mandate...before he was wrong."

Of course, then by that standard, Mitt Romney is still wrong, because he defends the mandate for Massachusetts (though he now argues it is OK for states to make those decisions at a local level and not federally). And wrong, too, would be the Heritage Foundation, which first floated the idea of a mandate and became the conservative alternative to the plan then-First Lady Hillary Clinton put forward in the early 1990s.

Politics moves to Supreme Court – oral arguments begin on health care… Three days that will determine the legacy of a president … what, who, when, and how to watch (or listen) … Owning ‘ObamaCare’ … Santorum wins Louisiana, but then lashes out with his ‘bull%&!#’ moment … Eight days that could mean the end to the GOP primary … Another Obama hot mic moment on the international scene.

*** Day One at the Supreme Court: For the first time in several months, the top political story won’t be taking place on the Republican campaign trail, or at the White House, or on Capitol Hill. Instead, today’s top story occurs over at the U.S. Supreme Court on the issue that took up much of 2009 and 2010: health care. There will be three days of oral arguments, and today’s topic is over whether the Supreme Court can even hear the case at this particular time. “The justices will hear 90 minutes of argument about whether an obscure 19th-century law — the Anti-Injunction Act — means that the court cannot pass judgment on the law until its key provisions go into effect in 2014,” the Washington Post notes. “It is the rare issue on which both sides agree: the Obama administration lawyers and those representing the states and private organization challenging the new law argue that the Supreme Court should decide the constitutional question now.”

*** On the docket: Tomorrow is the main event, when the justices will hear arguments about the constitutionality of the individual mandate. On Wednesday, they’ll discuss whether the health law can still exist if the individual mandate is found to be unconstitutional, the so-called “severability” issue, as well as whether the federal government can force states to increase Medicaid spending. (Here’s the court’s day-by-day rundown. The court will also provide audio and transcripts no later than 2:00 pm ET for the morning sessions and 4:00 pm ET for Wednesday’s afternoon session.) Here’s how the Wall Street Journal sums up these three days: “In taking up President Barack Obama's health overhaul Monday, the Supreme Court wades into an issue that not only could sway this fall's elections but also could help define for generations what Congress is and isn't entitled to do.” So, that's all, just the fate of the president's re-election and the limits on Congressional power, but beyond that, nothing major.  Seriously, though, how important is this case: “The six hours of planned debate is the most on a case in 44 years,” Bloomberg/Business Week notes.

*** Who to watch – all eyes on Justice Kennedy (and Scalia): More than any other justice over the next three days, all eyes will be on Anthony Kennedy, who’s considered the Supreme Court’s swing vote. The Tampa Bay Times: “Frank Colucci, a political science professor at Purdue University Calumet and author of a book on Kennedy, said the health care case will test the conflict inherent in the justice’s thinking over the years: his belief in judicial limits on federal power but a recognition of the practical conception of commerce. ‘That sets up the two main arguments in this case,’ Colucci said. ‘The people who want to strike down the mandate will give an argument that if you allow this to stand, there are no limits on what Congress can do. The people who want to uphold the mandate will say you can’t strike this without undermining the foundations of the federal power to regulate commerce that the court has accepted since 1937.’” But also watch Antonin Scalia. NBC’s Pete Williams writes in his preview: “[E]ven the opponents of the law say the vote of Justice Antonin Scalia may be in play. He has joined the court’s majorities in past decisions that read the Constitution’s commerce power very broadly.” Here’s who’s doing the arguing for both sides: For the administration: Solicitor General Donald B. Verilli Jr; For opponents of the law: Paul D. Clement, solicitor general under George W. Bush and partner at Bancroft PLLC. Clement, by the way, is considered one to watch as a potential Supreme Court nominee under a Republican president. Just askin’: but does the mandate really rest on wheat and weed? 

*** Owning ‘ObamaCare’ and Romney’s test: The Obama administration made a decision on Friday to own the term “ObamaCare.” It had been used as a pejorative by Republicans, but the White House has made the decision to embrace it and not let opponents have a word that they only drive as a negative. White House senior adviser David Plouffe noted on Meet the Press Sunday that, in 10 years, health care will be a positive and cited polling that people don’t want to re-litigate it. We can report that last part came from Democratic polling Plouffe has seen; he was NOT citing any public polling on this specific issue. By the way, if you’re Mitt Romney, and you basically have eight days to wrap up this nomination before Wisconsin April 3^rd, what’s the last thing you want in the news? But if you’re Rick Santorum, it’s do-or-die time on health care for him. It’s a topic he wanted front and center. If he can’t change the momentum now, with health care front and center, he can’t do it.

*** Santorum wins Louisiana, trails in the delegate count: As expected, Rick Santorum won Saturday’s Louisiana primary -- and it turns out he did so easily. He beat Mitt Romney, 49%-27%, with Gingrich finishing in third place with 16% and Paul with 6%. But Santorum’s decisive victory in Louisiana netted him just five delegates, according to Louisiana’s proportional rules: Santorum got 10 delegates, Romney five, and another five were unallocated. That brings NBC’s delegate count to Romney 490, Santorum 203, Gingrich 137, and Paul 34.

*** The 50% evangelical pattern continues: Once again, perhaps the best way to explain why Santorum won Louisiana and not, say, Illinois, is by looking at the evangelical vote. As has been mentioned, Romney has WON every state so far (where there has been exit polling) where self-described evangelical Christians make up less than half of all GOP primary voters. But he’s LOST every state where evangelicals make up more than half of all GOP voters. And what was the percentage in Louisiana? 61%. Given this obvious pattern, the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza has projected how the remaining contests will play out. Romney will probably win: RI, DC, UT, CT, NY, NJ, MD, DE, CA, WI, NM, and SD, while Santorum will likely win AR, KY, NC, WV, IN, TX, PA (not a state where there’s a majority of evangelicals, but it’s Santorum’s home state), NE, MT, and OR. Is it that simple?

*** Santorum loses his cool in Wisconsin: Yet the day after Santorum won Louisiana’s primary by a greater margin than Romney won in Illinois, the former Pennsylvania senator lost his cool -- becoming frustrated with reporters asking him to clarify his remark that Mitt Romney is the worst Republican in the country to take on President Obama. When he was pressed by reporters following him in Wisconsin, Santorum said, “On the issue of health care. That’s what I was talking about, and I was very clear about talking about that. OK? Come on guys, don’t do this. I mean you guys are incredible. I was talking about Obamacare, and he is the worst because he was the author of Romneycare.” But when he faced the same question again, he used a profane word and accused the media of "distorting" his speech: "Quit distorting my words. It's bull%&!#" And Santorum is now raising money off of the question raised by a New York Times reporter, claiming a New York Times reporter tried to, um, “bully” him. Speaking of meltdowns, Newt Gingrich called President Obama’s statement on Trayvon Martin “disgraceful” and “appalling,” contending the president was bringing race into it by saying his son would look like Martin. These are the words of someone in the last throes of a campaign.

*** Eight days until the race could be over? Don’t forget, there are eight days to go in what could be the most pivotal race yet. With a win, even by a hair, Romney would put this race away. Santorum needs a “win on the road,” so to speak, to show he has a legitimate chance at this thing. Here’s a look at how the ad spending is breaking down there, as of Friday evening: Restore Our Future PAC - $2.2 million; Romney $737,000; Santorum $40,000

*** Another Obama hot mic moment: President Obama was caught yet again in an international situation with a hot microphone. This time, he was caught telling Russia’s Medvedev that he needs “space” from Russia on missile defense. “This is my last election,” Obama can be heard telling Medvedev, per NBC’s Shawna Thomas Kristen Welker, and Alicia Jennings. “After my election, I have more flexibility.” To which Medvedev responds: “I understand. I will transmit this information to Vladimir.” Obama: “On all these issues, but particularly missile defense, this, this can be solved but it's important for him to give me space.” An administration aide says the president wasn't saying anything nefarious as others are trying to imply; He simply was noting reality, that this year isn't the best time to discuss and negotiate missile defense, because it's an election year, and there are a lot of other items on his agenda. Still, it makes the president look like he’s acting with politics in mind first. At least Obama wasn’t talking about Israel’s Netanyahu again. Geopolitically more significant, might be that the exchange affirms what most suspected that the person really in charge in Russia is Vladimir Putin.

*** On the trail: Romney, in California, holds an event in San Diego and raises money there, as well as in Redwood City… Santorum is in DC… Gingrich stumps in Delaware, and wife Callista is in Wisconsin 

Countdown to DC, Maryland, Wisconsin primaries: 8 days
Countdown to Election Day: 225 days

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*** Monday’s “The Daily Rundown” lineup live from outside the Supreme Court: NBC’s Pete Williams, NBC’s Savannah Guthrie and American University Prof. Steve Wermeil on the start of oral arguments today… Rep. Scott Rigell (R-VA) and Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA) on what Congress can do to help unemployed veterans and this week’s series of events for Hiring our Heroes… More 2012 news with The Washington Post’s Dan Balz and former DNC spokeswoman Karen Finney.

*** Monday’s “Jansing & Co.” line-up: Chris welcomes MSNBC’s Rev. Al Sharpton, Rep Corrine Brown (D-FL); New York Times’ Charles Blow; The Atlantic’s Molly Ball; Washington Post’s  Nia-Malika Henderson; TheGrio.com’s Alexis Stodghill; Law professor Robert Schapiro; and veteran Ida Stanley focusing on ‘HIRING OUR HEROES.’

*** Monday’s “MSNBC Live with Thomas Roberts” line-up: MSNBC’s Thomas Roberts talks with Santorum Strategist Hogan Gidley, Jonathan Capehart, Sirius XM Radio’s Mark Thompson, Perry Bacon, Doug Thornell & Susan Del Percio. 

*** Monday’s “NOW with Alex Wagner” line-up: Alex Wagner’s guests include New York Magazine’s John Heilemann, The Daily Beast’s Patricia Murphy, The Nation’s Ari Melber, Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson, and The Huffington Post’s David Wood.

*** Monday’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports” line-up: Andrea anchors from Havana; Joining her: Chris Cillizza, NBC’s Chuck Todd, NBC’s Pete Williams, National Journal’s Kristin Roberts, Former Defense Secy William Cohen, George Weigel and Cuba Foreign Minister Josefina Vidal.

*** Monday’s “News Nations with Tamron Hall” line-up: Joining Tamron today: Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver, Joy Ann Reid and Toure on the Trayvon Martin case, Pete Williams on healthcare law, AB Stoddard and Jimmy Williams, and Jon Soltz from votevets.org

“Mitt Romney remains his biggest foe, but Rick Santorum is increasingly confronting an even more daunting obstacle: a rising chorus of Republicans calling for the divisive presidential contest to end so the party can turn its full attention to defeating President Obama,” the New York Times says.

ROMNEY: Today, the AFL-CIO is calling for the resignation of a current National Labor Relations Board member in a matter involving an adviser to Romney. Per a press release, “The report of the Inspector General of the National Labor Relations Board into allegations of improper conduct by NLRB member Terence Flynn confirms a pattern of ethical violations that are nothing less than shocking. The report details numerous instances of then-chief counsel Flynn funneling confidential information about the labor board’s activities and deliberations, including attorney-client privileged information, to two former NLRB members who have been actively engaged in a relentless campaign to undermine and discredit the NLRB through legal and rhetorical challenges to the agency’s activities. One of the former NLRB members who received confidential information – former Chairman Peter Schaumber – is co-chair of the labor policy advisory group for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign. 

SANTORUM: National Journal wonders if the real end to Santorum’s campaign would come in Pennsylvania, losing his home state to Romney.

The New York Times: “3-day marathon awaits lawyers in health case.”

The Washington Post: “A calm before deliberations” over a photo of the Supreme Court.

Wall Street Journal: “Health law heads to court: Justices hear challenge in case that broadly tests boundaries of federal power.”

The New York Times: “The Supreme Court on Monday starts three days of hearings on the constitutionality of the 2010 health care overhaul law, an epic clash that could recast the very structure of American government. But it begins with a 90-minute argument on what a lawyer in the case has called ‘the most boring jurisdictional stuff one can imagine.’” More: “Indeed, the lawyer, Paul D. Clement, who represents the 26 states challenging the law, said this month in remarks at the Georgetown University Law Center that the first day’s arguments are ‘a kind of practical joke that the court is playing on the public.’”

“The U.S. Supreme Court opens today its historic review of President Barack Obama’s health- care law, three days of arguments that might result in the president’s premier legislative achievement being found unconstitutional in the middle of his re-election campaign,” Bloomberg/Business Week writes.

AP: The monumental fight over a health care law that touches all Americans and divides them sharply comes before the Supreme Court on Monday. The justices will decide whether to kill or keep the largest expansion in the nation's social safety net in more than four decades.

AP on the politics: “The Supreme Court's ruling on the constitutionality of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul is likely to shake the presidential election race in early summer. But the winners in the court will not necessarily be the winners in the political arena.”

Msnbc.com’s Tom Curry looks at the potential aftermath of several possible scenarios.

The Obama campaign has announced its top staff who will be accompanying Vice President Biden on the trail: “Sheila Nix has been named chief of staff to the vice president; Scott Mulhauser has been named deputy chief of staff; Sam B. "Trip" King III has been named political director; Amy Dudley has been named press secretary; Nora Cohen has been named deputy director of advance; and Virginia Lance has been named scheduler.”

The DCCC has a new web video -- which features actor Martin Sheen -- that’s entitled “Stand Up for Medicare.”

Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

Health care overhaul supporters rally on the sidewalk outside ongoing legal arguments over the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on March 26 at the Supreme Court.

Updated at 6:45 p.m. ET After the first day of oral arguments in challenges to the landmark 2010 health care law, it seems clear that Supreme Court will not let a procedural tax issue stand in the way of deciding the constitutionality of the law.

“If there were any members of the court who were looking for an off ramp – who did not want to decide this case now during an election year, this would have been the way to go,” said NBC's Pete Williams after hearing the first day's arguments. But “none of them seem to want to take that,” he said.

At issue Monday was a law called the Anti-Injunction Act. Does that law require that those who challenge the penalty for failing to buy insurance actually pay the penalty first? That won’t occur until 2015, after the insurance purchase requirement takes effect.

The question hinged on the justices accepting the contention that the penalty is effectively a tax.

After hearing Monday’s argument, Williams reported that “there didn’t seem to be a single member of the Supreme Court that bought that argument.”

“I don’t believe there’s a single justice on the court who believes that it’s a tax. End of that question. So we’re obviously going to go on to the main event which is the individual mandate which will be argued tomorrow,” Williams said.

Monday’s argument was the prelude for the main event: Tuesday’s two hours of argument over whether Congress has the power to require that almost every American purchase health insurance.

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli told the justices, "This case presents issues of great moment, and the Anti-Injunction Act does not bar the Court's consideration of those issues."

Read the transcript of Monday's oral argument

One justice, Samuel Alito, focused on the apparent inconsistency in the government's argument that the penalty is not a tax, under the terms of the Anti-Injunction Act -- and yet the government also will claim in Tuesday's oral argument that when Congress created the individual mandate and the penalty for failing to buy insurance, it was acting under its constitutional power to tax.

Art Lien/AFP/Getty Images

This courtroom sketch by Art Lien shows Solicitor General Donald Verrilli speaking to Justice Antonin Scalia on March 26, 2012 as he argues his case before the Supreme Court.

Verrilli said, "Congress has authority under the taxing power to enact a measure not labeled as a tax ... ."

In a question to Verrilli, Alito said, "Today you are arguing that the penalty is not a tax. Tomorrow you are going to be back and you will be arguing that the penalty is a tax. Has the Court ever held that something that is a tax for purposes of the taxing power under the Constitution is not a tax under the Anti-Injunction Act?"

Verrilli replied, "No, Justice Alito, but the Court has held... that something can be a constitutional exercise of the taxing power whether or not it is called a tax."

Click here to listen to that exchange between Verrilli and Justice Alito

He said, "the nature of the inquiry that we will conduct tomorrow is different from the nature of the inquiry that we will conduct today. Tomorrow the question is whether Congress has the authority under the taxing power to enact it" and the precise words used in the law don't have a crucial effect on that question.

At least two justices, Stephen Breyer and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, seemed to accept the government's contention that the penalty was not a tax, with Ginsburg saying "this is not a revenue-raising measure, because, if it's successful, they won't -- nobody will pay the penalty and there will be no revenue to raise"

Click here to listen to that exchange between Long and Justice Ginsburg

Since the plaintiffs challenging the ACA had not made the Anti-Injunction Act argument, the justices appointed lawyer Robert Long to argue for the position that no one can file suit against the ACA’s individual insurance mandate until after the penalty on those who fail to buy insurance has been assessed.

As soon as President Barack Obama signed the ACA into law, several states and private organization filed suits to overturn it, arguing that the Constitution gave Congress no power to force people to buy insurance.

Long pointed out in his brief that the text of the ACA says the penalty imposed on people who don’t purchase health insurance shall be “assessed and collected in the same manner as taxes” -- so it is effectively a tax.

Long also said if Congress had wanted to create an exception to the Anti-Injunction Act in this case it would have done so when it passed the ACA in 2010.

 Related: Individual mandate will be in Supreme Court spotlight

He argued that for the Supreme Court to decide now on the constitutionality of the ACA “would be contrary to the policy that courts avoid deciding constitutional issues unless it is necessary to so do.”

Art Lien/AFP/Getty Images

This courtroom sketch by Art Lien shows attorney Robert A. Long speaking March 26, 2012 as he argues his case before the Supreme Court.

nd it would premature, he said, for the court to act since it’s possible that Congress “could amend or repeal the Affordable Care Act at some point before penalties are assessed and collected, beginning in 2015. An amendment (to the law) could avoid the need for this Court to decide the constitutional issue presented in this case.”

But despite those arguments there’s tremendous pressure on the high court to resolve the uncertainty over the health care overhaul now -- since many of the provisions of the law are interrelated and the court itself has created the expectation that it will finally settle the constitutional issue.

Recommended: Health care ruling could send fight back to Congress

Arguing the case on Monday for 90 minutes were Long, Verrilli, and former Assistant Attorney General Gregory Katsas, now in private practice, representing the state of Florida and other states and the National Federation of Independent Business.

NBC's Pete Williams contributed to this report.

FRANKSVILLE, Wis. -- What started as a good day for Rick Santorum took an abrupt turn on Sunday after the GOP presidential candidate grew frustrated with reporters asking him to clarify his remark that Mitt Romney is the worst Republican in the country to take on President Obama.

During his final campaign stop of the day here, Santorum said of Romney, “Pick any other Republican in the country, he is the worst Republican in the country to put up against Barack Obama." The comments, Santorum would clarify, were in reference to the similarities between Romney's and the president on the issue of health care. It is a common critique he levels against his chief rival, but never has the former Pennsylvania senator called Romney the "worst Republican in the country" to go head-to-head with the president.

When pressed by reporters to clarify his statement, Santorum said, “On the issue of health care. That’s what I was talking about, and I was very clear about talking about that. OK? Come on guys, don’t do this. I mean you guys are incredible. I was talking about Obamacare, and he is the worst because he was the author of Romneycare.”

But the questions struck a chord with Santorum, and when he faced the same question again, he used a profane word and accused the media of "distorting" his speech.

However a press release sent out from the Santorum campaign shortly after the rally here seemed to double down on the candidate's comments. "Rick Santorum spoke plainly and clearly that of all the Republicans in the field, Mitt Romney is the worst possible candidate to take on Barack Obama, because Mitt Romney authored the blueprint for Obamacare and the issue of healthcare would be off the table," the release said.

Santorum has done a lot of clarifying lately, with recent comments suggesting Obama would be a better choice than Romney in a general election and saying the unemployment rate will not affect his campaign. In both cases, he accused the media and his opponents of taking his words out of context. But in both cases, the Romney campaign used his own words against him.

Sunday's remarks were no exception, with Romney spokesperson Ryan Williams telling reporters, “Rick Santorum is becoming more desperate and angry and unhinged every day...He’s panicking in the final stages of his campaign.”

Before his last event, Santorum had been all smiles on the trail the day after receiving nearly double the amount of support Romney did in the Louisiana primary.  Along with two rallies today, the GOP hopeful also fit in brunch at the Machine Shed and, for the second time in as many days, a few frames of bowling. In an earlier rally in Fond du Lac, WI, Santorum drew an overflow crowd.

But by Sunday's end, Romney advisers were using the hash tag "Tantorum" to draw attention to past instances of the former senator losing his cool. The response blasted out by the Santorum campaign no mention of his use of a not so family friendly word.

Santorum heads to Washington, DC where he will spend Monday before returning to the Badger State later in the week.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney is recovering in the Intensive Care Unit of Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church, Va., after undergoing heart transplant surgery Saturday.

In 2010, Cheney had a Left Ventricular Assist Device implanted for treatment of end stage heart failure. The former vice president has been on the cardiac transplant list for more than 20 months.

Although Cheney and his family do not know the identity of the donor, they says they will be forever grateful for this life-saving gift. Cheney's family says he is thankful to the teams of doctors and other medical professionals at Inova Fairfax and George Washington University Hospital for their continued outstanding care.

It was a tough week for Rick Santorum, suggesting that it would be better to elect Barack Obama than an "Etch-A-Sketch" Republican like Mitt Romney and then walking it back.

Now he's out with an over-the-top apocalyptic web video in the vein of every zombie movie ever made, depicting a stark world with vacant streets, boarded up buildings, and empty children's swings -- all caused by a president's "failed policies" particularly toward Iran.

The video even flashes an image of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and President Obama.

Santorum spokesman Hogan Gidley called it "absurd" to think the campaign is comparing President Obama with the Iranian leader.

But that's not the only eyebrow raising aspect of this ad, titled "ObamaVille." It is supposed to take place in a "small American town two years from now if Obama is re-elected." At one point, a man is pressing a gas nozzle against his head. At another point an imagine of a man in an orange jump suit is quickly followed by one of a baby in a crib.

"If Ahmadinejad gets a nuclear weapon, then we're obviously going to deal with the fallout and coverage of that," Gidley said defending the ad. "All we're going to be seeing is images of him and the president. We were trying to illustrate that."

He said it is the first in a series of ObamaVille ads. It's the work of senior strategist John Brabender.

The week started with a Romney win in Illinois, but his celebration was derailed by a gaffe by a staffer. Tonight, it's the Battle in the Bayou with Santorum the favorite in the Louisiana primary.

Edited by NBC's Jay Rankin

SHREVEPORT, LA -- Mitt Romney said Friday afternoon that President Barack Obama should “apologize” to the American people for policies that the Republican presidential hopeful says have created “deficits that are too large” and “jobs that are too few.”

The remarks, delivered at the foot of a natural gas rig in northern Louisiana one day before this state’s primary, took the president to task over delaying construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada through the United States into Texas.

Thursday, Obama said he would speed permitting for construction of the southern half of the pipeline.

“This week he’s been taking credit for the lower half of the Keystone Pipeline being built.  If I’m president, we’ll get the upper half built,” Romney said amid applause.

The Friday event was held in an area that has seen a flurry of natural gas exploration of the so-called Haynesville Shale, which runs underneath northwestern Louisiana and east Texas.

The setting seemed chosen at least in part to answer Obama’s own two-day tour this week of key swing states where the president defended his administration’s energy policies amid rising gasoline prices.

“I’m reminded of another tour he took at the beginning of his administration.  Remember, he went around the Middle East and apologized for America,” Romney said, referring to a series of trips during 2009 that included a speech in Cairo that drew criticism from conservative corners of the foreign policy world.

“I think he’s got his tours backward,” Romney continued. “On his tour of the states here, where he’s been taking credit, he should have apologized for his policies.”

The event also marked the second time in one day that Romney addressed the shooting death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, a story that has ignited a national discussion about race and gun laws.

Calling Martin’s death a “terrible tragedy,” Romney told reporters here in Shreveport that it was appropriate for the district attorney to have called a grand jury investigation into the Feb. 26 shooting in Sanford, Florida.

The shooter, an armed neighborhood watchman, has not been arrested. 

“Our hearts go out to his family, his loved ones, his friends,” Romney said about Martin's death. “This shouldn't have happened.”

In a written statement, Romney earlier called for an investigation into the shooting.

Romney’s statements came on the same day that Obama made his first comments on the case. Speaking to reporters from the White House Rose Garden during his announcement of a nominee for president of the World Bank, Obama said, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

Two years ago today President Obama signed the health care reform act into law, leading up to one of the most intense votes in the history of Congress.

Then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi worked furiously to gather the necessary votes – all from Democrats – to pass the unpopular Senate version of Obama’s top domestic priority through the House. Democrats had just lost their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate thanks to the election of Scott Brown in a Massachusetts Senate special election, giving them no choice but to pass the Senate bill.

It was late winter in 2010, and centrist Democrats from politically divided swing states were on the spot, Pelosi and Obama both pleading for their support, lest the controversial bill die in Congress.

Two votes they targeted were freshman Reps. Tom Perriello and Glenn Nye, from the purple state of Virginia. After being coy for weeks prior to the vote, Perriello would eventually support the legislation, though Nye would not.

They would both lose their re-election bids in 2010, an election cycle defined by Republican-fueled backlash against the new law.

Two years later, both Perriello and Nye –although they took opposite sides on the legislation – agree in arguing that the law was never properly debated; they say the heat of the moment hijacked thoughtful consideration of the bill.
 
While there are popular elements of the health care plan, a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 42 percent of Americans would like to see the entire law repealed.

Perriello and Nye have since rebounded from their losses and are both still involved in politics. Perriello works for the liberal think tank Center for American Progress. Nye, a former foreign service officer is a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund. NBC News reached out to both men to ask for their recollections of one of the most hotly contested pieces of legislation in years.

Perriello was quick to say he had no regrets about his vote , saying: “It was the right thing to do, 85 million people now get free preventative care, 2.5 million young adults can now stay on their parents plan until they’re 26. You can see it’s already starting to work.”

Democrats had grumbled during the fight in Congress over the law that their party’s messaging effort was suspect at best. Perriello said the rhetoric of the battle shifted the discussion away from cost and delivery – the crux of the issue, in his view – and toward the bill’s political ramifications. He conceded the vote probably hurt him in his bid for a second term, but he asserted he was “done in more by the bad economy than anything else.”

The spring of 2010 was one of the more charged political environments in recent congressional memory. Tea Party groups on the right and liberal groups on the left staged massive rallies on Capitol Hill, and members of Congress received death threats over the health care law.  In one instance, Perriello’s brother discovered his gas line had been cut during the middle of the day in an act of vandalism, according to Albemarle County Fire Marshal’s Office

Like Perriello, Nye blames a vitriolic atmosphere surrounding the debate for suppressing any discussion about substance.

 “It was a very complicated bill,” he said. “There were elements that I liked but the debate grew so heated that we could no longer have a reasonable discussion about effective change.”

Nye still has no regrets about “voting no with my constituents” but said he regrets that “the debate showcased deep divisions in the country that made people extremely distrustful of government.”

Nye agreed that the poor economy was probably the biggest single factor in his losing re-election; however, he said a failure of messaging on the healthcare issue by Democratic leaders significantly hurt the party’s prospects in 2010.

“People were saying that the health care law was socialism. However, if you vote against an individual mandate, you’re essentially saying that you the individual are not responsible for your health and instead it should be left up to the state. They [Democratic leaders] never effectively made that point, that the mandate empowered the individual more than the state. It really hurt us,” he said.

Monday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about the constitutionality of the health care law. The debate is starting to resurface but the intense vitriol of the spring of 2010, as of now, does not seem to be making a return.

There’s still aggressive messaging surrounding the law, though, and it’s a centerpiece of this year’s presidential campaign.

A super PAC affiliated with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA), for instance, produced a new web video today depicting “Uncle Sam” going to the doctor’s office with a doctor sternly saying, “You’re living on borrowed time. Get rid of Obamacare.”

And the Department of Health and Human Services, the cabinet office in charge of carrying out most of the health care law, is up with a separate video that’s heavy on human emotion and light on stats and figures. Labeling their campaign as the “MyCare” series, the HHS ad portrays the stories of three women whose lives have benefited from the health care law.

White House press secretary deflected questions about President Obama’s relative low profile on the two year anniversary of his landmark health reform law.

Republicans were quick to note that Obama didn’t make any public statement in commemoration of the law, but the White House rejected the idea that it considers the law a political liability.

When asked by a reporter during the daily briefing whether the White House considered health care reform to be a “political liability,” Carney exclaimed, “No!”

He referred the reporter to a documentary-style video, posted by the president’s re-election campaign, which goes through a brief chronology of the legislation and features testimony from the president and Vice President Biden.

Carney also noted that the White House issued a report Friday detailing the aspects of the law that have already been implemented, peppered with testimony from individuals who say they’ve been helped by some of its provisions.

That report was accompanied by a written statement by the president: “Today, two years after we passed health care reform, more young adults have insurance, more seniors are saving money on their prescription drugs, and more Americans can rest easy knowing they won’t be dropped from their insurance plans if they get sick. The law has made a difference for millions of Americans, and over time, it will help give even more working and middle-class families the security they deserve.”

But while the president did appear publicly today, he did not make a live comment on the law, instead announcing the nomination of Dartmouth president Jim Yong Kim to be World Bank president, in addition to commenting on the Trayvon Martin shooting case.

Meanwhile, some of the Republicans seeking to unseat Obama said the absence of a public event commemorating the law’s signing proved the White House was seeking to distance itself from a politically unpopular policy. (A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll found that Americans oppose the law 52-41 percent overall, with 67 percent believing the law, or at least the individual mandate portion, should be repealed.)

Campaigning in West Monroe, Louisiana today, Rick Santorum said of the law’s birthday: “There's a reason he's not saying anything about it. It's a horribly unpopular bill, because it robs people of their economic freedom and forces them to do things that are against their own religious beliefs.”

And Mitt Romney, whose Massachusetts health care plan the Obama re-election campaign has characterized as the basis for the president’s plan, penned an op-ed in USA today called “Why I’d Repeal Obamacare.”

Speaking in Metairie, Louisiana at an event titled, “Repeal & Replace Obamacare,” Romney said that the president was not making public statements on the law “for a reason: Most Americans want to get rid of it and we’re among those Americans, I want to get rid of it too."

The Republican National Committee has also been staging a weeklong messaging campaign against the law, hanging a banner on their Washington D.C. headquarters that said, “Happy Birthday Obamacare!” And RNC spokesman Sean Spicer wrote in an email Friday that the president “doesn't want to defend” the law.

Carney today said the bill was not more popular because its benefits have been obfuscated by big-dollar ad campaigns against the legislation, and that the administration was more focused on implementing the law than it was countering attacks.

He lamented “the amount of money spent in the propaganda PR wars on this issue, 3-1 at least spent against the affordable care act and efforts to mischaracterize and mislead Americans about what it is.”

As First Read wrote earlier, a Kantar Media Campaign Media Analysis Group study found that supporters of the health care law had in fact been outspent 2-1 by opponents of the law, not 3-1 as Carney asserted.

Oral arguments begin at the Supreme Court, President Obama goes to Korea, the Battle in the Bayou, Mitt Romney on Leno and Vice President Biden campaigns in Iowa.

Special thanks to editor Wayne Dennis.

PORT FOURCHON, LA -- Newt Gingrich said while he believes President Obama is a Christian, the president conducts himself in a way that would fuel suspicions that he is a Muslim.

Asked by a reporter following a speech on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast Friday if it concerns him so many people in the country believe Obama is Muslim, Gingrich said it was the president’s problem.

"It should bother the president. Why does the president behave the way that people would think that [he is a Muslim]?” Gingrich said. ”You have to ask why would they believe that? It's not because they're stupid. It's because they watch the kind of things I just described to you.”

The former House speaker had already told reporters at the Port Fourchon Operations Center he finds it “very bizarre that he is desperately concerned to apologize to Muslim religious fanatics” and is at war with the Catholic Church.

Gingrich did note this afternoon: “I have said publicly several times that I believe Obama is a Christian. He went to a Christian church for over 20 years. He was listening to the sermons.”

Earlier this week in Lake Charles, LA, the Speaker passed on the opportunity to correct a man who told the crowd Obama is a Muslim even though later that day he told a reporter he does believe Obama to be Christian.

But today’s comments on Obama’s faith also come just a day after Gingrich referenced “Obama’s Muslim friends” on a radio program.

Gingrich was asked on “Sandy Rios In the Morning radio show” about the press going over the details of Mormonism – Mitt Romney’s faith.

“First, look you need to understand the elite media is in the tank for Obama. They’re going to do anything that helps re-elect Obama. They’re totally committed to Obama. It is just astonishing to me how pro-Obama they are,” he responded. “You think you’re going to see two pages on Obama’s Muslim friends? Or two pages on the degree to which Obama’s persistently apologizing to Islam while attacking the Catholic Church? Do you see anybody in the elite media prepared to see say, ‘Gee, you know this is kind of odd that we really worry a lot about the Quran and nothing about the Bible?”

COCONUT CREEK, FL -- Vice President Joe Biden slammed Mitt Romney on Friday for trying to "dismantle" entitlement programs upon which seniors depend for financial security and "dignity."

And the criticism didn't come without an Etch-a-Sketch joke.

"Gov. Romney supports cut cap and balance, which is yet another demonstration that there's no daylight between Gov. Romney and Republican leaders on the most important issues facing this country," Biden said of the former Massachusetts governor's backing of GOP plans that Biden said would harm the elderly and middle class. "And not even Romney's etch-a-sketch can change that. You're not going to be able to do that. I mean he may buy a new one but he can't do it."

Continuing a week-old role as an aggressive campaigner for his ticket's re-election, Biden spoke at an "adult condominuium community" in Coconut Creek, where 18 percent of the population is over 65. There, Biden accused Romney and other Republicans of aiming to "dismantle" Medicare.

"Make no mistake about it: If Republicans in Congress and their amen corner of Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich -- if anybody can get their hands on the keys to the White House, you will see Medicare ended as you know it," he told several hundred attendees.

Biden specifically accused Romney of supporting a "cut, cap, and balance" strategy that amounts to "cutting Social Security," "putting a cap on what we ask the wealthiest Americans to pay in taxes," and "balancing the budget on the backs of seniors and middle class Americans."

(Romney was among the many Republicans to sign onto the so-called "Cut, Cap and Balance pledge favored by conservatives during last summer's debt limit fight.)

The vice president, who frequently mentioned caring for his own parents, cast the preservation of Medicare and Social Security as about maintaining seniors' sense of self-worth as well as intergenerational bonds that tie them to their children and grandchildren.

"Folks, it's about dignity," he said. "It's not just about health."

Although today marks the second anniversary of the Affordable Health Care legislation signed into law by the president, Biden only obliquely mentioned some provisions of the controversial bill. (Before he spoke, however, the legislation was praised heavily by Florida Rep. and DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz.)

METAIRIE, La. --  Mitt Romney marked the second anniversary of the passage of President Obama's controversial health care reform law by labeling the legislation the "centerpiece" of a failed presidency, and calling for its immediate repeal and replacement.

"You’ll note the White House is not celebrating Obamacare today," Romney opened his remarks in this New Orleans suburb. "They don’t have any big big ceremony going on. The president is not giving speeches on Obamacare and that’s for a reason. Most Americans want to get rid of it and we're among those Americans, I want to get rid of it too."

In an editorial this morning in USA Today, Romney went further in his assault, ripping the law as a "unfolding disaster for the American economy, a budget-busting entitlement, and a dramatic new federal intrusion into our lives."

The law's anniversary, and the opening next Monday of arguments before the Supreme Court to determine its constitutionality, have thrust health care back into the national spotlight. For Romney, that spotlight represents both an opportunity and a challenge. The national health law was modeled, in large part, on Romney's own Massachusetts law, which Romney has defended as right for his state, while simultaneously describing the federal law as a massive government overreach.

Fully convincing hold-out conservative voters that his opposition to the federal law is genuine and that he would fight for its repeal would be a victory for the Romney campaign, but each day his opponents can remind those same voters of the link between "RomneyCare" and his defense of a mandate in Massachusetts and "ObamaCare" is another day with an albatross around Romney's neck.

Today, Romney tried a new tack, linking his opposition to the national law to his recently updated rhetoric on economic freedom, calling the law "one more example of a president pursuing his attack on economic and personal liberty," and vowing to introduce market and state-based reforms in its place.

He even went so far as to invoke the religious freedom-birth control debate.

"This is a piece of legislation that is very different than what people were told when it was being sold by the administration,” Romney contended. “We learned some other things about it in the past few weeks. One was that the Catholic Church is being told that they have to provide insurance that covers morning after pills, sterilization and contraception despite that fact that these very features violate the conscious of the catholic church itself. So the legislation not only is expensive, not only will cause people to lose their coverage that they wanted in some cases it also intrudes upon religions liberty. it's amazing how many things are wrong with it. I've got a whole list here."

Romney laid out his own vision for health care reform without a federal law, including -- including changing the tax structure to be more favorable to individuals buying their own insurance, block-granting Medicaid back to states and fighting "out of control" malpractice litigation -- quickly drew return fire from President Obama's campaign.

“It’s been six years since the Massachusetts health reform law passed, and it’s amazing how far Mitt Romney has come in his beliefs," Obama campaign press secretary Ben LaBolt wrote in a statement. "It’s bad enough that he no longer stands by his only accomplishment as governor, but it’s worse that he thinks its ok to let insurance companies to write their own rules while leaving seniors and Americans that get sick to fend for themselves even if it means bankrupting them.”

The pro-Mitt Romney Super PAC has paid $803,000 to a small polling firm that is owned by the senior partners of a prominent Republican consulting company that does the polling for the Romney presidential campaign, according to the campaign finance reports.

The overlap between the two polling firms, located right door to each other in Alexandria, Va., is the latest example of the close and sometimes hidden connections between the presidential campaigns and the theoretically independent Super PACs that are backing the candidates.

It is also a closeness that includes the news media: Under an entirely separate arrangement, the nationally known firm doing the polling for the Romney campaign, Public Opinion Strategies, also conducts half the polling for the NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll overseen by Public Opinion partner Bill McInturff and Democratic pollster Peter Hart. 

The latest filing by the pro-Romney super pac, Restore Our Future, show five payments totaling $449,000 last month for “survey research” to a company called NMB Research, listed at 206 N. Fayette Street, in Alexandria. This is on top of five previous payments to the same firm of $354.500.

Virginia corporate records show that NMB Research was incorporated as a Limited Liability Corporation or LLC, but they provide no information about who the owners or partners are. But one clue is the N. Fayette street address. It’s the building next door to Public Opinion Strategies, one of whose senior partners is Neil Newhouse, the chief pollster for the Romney presidential campaign. 

An NBC researcher who visited the address found a sign instructing that all mail and packages for the offices of NMB Research be delivered next door at 214 N. Fayette, the street address of Public Opinion Strategies. 

Federal election laws bar campaign and so-called “independent expenditure” groups such as super pacs – which are unfettered by limits on campaign contributions-- from “coordinating” their operations, including sharing their polling results.

But the Romney presidential campaign, the Romney Super PAC, and Public Opinion Strategies all dispute that any “coordination” or sharing of polling data is taking place. 

“Our campaign follows both the letter and the spirit of the law,” said campaign spokeswoman Andrea Saul.

“We do our own polling and it’s exclusively for us,” said Charles Spies, counsel for Restore Our Future. 

Public Opinion Strategies partner McInturff confirmed that he and Newhouse are both partners in NMB Research—an entirely permissible arrangement, he said, so long as the two polling entities do not share the data they collect for their respective clients.

“Like many firms on both sides of the aisle, we recognize the strict federal election laws that apply to our business, which includes work for candidates, political parties and independent expenditure/issue advocacy groups,” McInturff said in an email. “The FEC [Federal Election Commission] rules specifically permit firms such as ours to establish internal firewalls designed to keep our candidate work walled off from the services performed for other types of clients such as independent expenditure groups. In order to follow the law, we have implemented the appropriate FEC firewalls to keep our work for candidates and independent expenditure/issue advocacy groups separate and compliant.”

Fred Wertheimer, who heads a campaign watchdog group that has been urging the Justice Department to investigate “coordination” between the presidential campaigns and super pacs, acknowledged that FEC regulations do “probably” permit the NMB arrangement as described by McInturff.

But, he said, this only shows “the absurdity” of FEC regulations—and the interconnections between the presidential campaigns and Super PACs (which, because they can take unlimited amounts from wealthy donors and corporations, have been financing most of the negative attack ads during the GOP presidential contest.)

"This is an example of common consultants being used by both the campaign and Super PAC,” Wertheimer said. “It’s clearly an example of coordinated activities.”

As for Public Opinion Strategies’ statement that there is a firewall between the two polling firms, Wertheimer said: “There is no such thing as a firewall. How do you know what is going on within an organization? There is no monitor or enforcement. “

The close ties between NMB Research and Public Opinion Strategies is hardly the only example of the blurry lines among consultants working for the campaigns and the Super PACs. 

According to its latest report, Restore Our Future has now paid a total of $456,750 for survey research to another Alexandria consulting firm, Target Point Consulting, that has also been getting payments from the Romney presidential campaign. (Like Public Opinion Strategies, its founder recently told the New York Times that his firm has a “firewall” between those working for the Super PAC. Restore Our Future has also paid $1.9 million to Podium Capital Group, a Beverly, Ma. LLC, set up last year by Steve Roach, a former Romney presidential campaign fundraiser, who now performs the same services for the Romney Super PAC.

But consultant firms serving two masters in this campaign isn’t unique to Romney, either. The latest report filed by Priorities USA Action, the Super PAC backing President Obama, showed $28,000 to Peter D. Hart Research Associates. That’s for the services of veteran Democratic pollster Geoffrey Garin, president of Peter Hart Research, whose founder Peter Hart oversees—along with McInturff—the NBC News Wall Street Journal poll.