month. the good news, the unemployment rate fell to 8.2%. that's the lowest since february 2009, one month after president obama took office. and not surprisingly, republicans wasted no time in attacking the white house. mitt romney called it a weak and troubling jobs report and said, "millions of americans are paying a high price for president obama's economic policies." now, don't be shocked, president obama saw the glass half full. >> our economy's now created more than 4 million private sector jobs over the past two years. and more than 600,000 in the past three months alone. but it's clear to every american that there will still be ups and downs along the way and that we've got a lot more work to do. so let's cut through the political spin by adding some perspective. here's a look at the number of jobs in the usa since obama took office in 2009. now, we're not back to where we were, but we are objectively on the upswing. the great recession isn't over for many americans, but the trend still could be obama's friend. and a presidential election year, everything is political. and we can already see that this election will be fought on three fronts the economy, the middle class, and women, who were aggressively courted by both parties today. rnc chairman sharon day say, "president obama and his fellow democrats love to say they stand for women, but women can no longer stand for the obama economy." and the white house hosted a forum on women and the economy. president obama seizing on a similar opportunity. >> i do think that the conversation's been oversimplified. women are not some monolithic block. women are not an interest group. you shouldn't be treated that way. women are over half this country and its workforce. >> now, let's bring in james carville and elise jordan, columnist and former speechwriter for condoleezza rice. elise, starting with you, your party has a problem with women. polls show there's a 2-1 gap among women in swing states. and all the idiotic war on women rhetoric aside, it doesn't happen in a vacuum. there's been talk about planned parenthood, the personhood amendments, the contraception debate. what do you think your party can do to help bridge that gap back with women? >> i think what they did was a step in the right direction, by releasing -- doing an analysis on the numbers and showing how women have really suffered the most in this recession. so i think by focusing on an electing of pro-growth president who can help us, you know, improve the economy, i think that that's the way to do it. and also, i just would like to see some of these candidates step up to the plate when women are attacked. that romney, you know, i don't think romney has a woman problem, but it looks like he has a woman problem when he can't stand up to rush limbaugh. >> that's a great point. so the heart of your message is, it's the economy, stupid. and of course, james, that was your famous message in 1992. but here's my question for you. 8.2% is still significantly higher than the unemployment rate, 7.4%, under george h.w. bush when you ran clinton's campaign in 1992. so are democrats feeling a little bit of overconfidence right now? >> you know, i think they might be. and, look, i didn't think we were going to the produce 220,000 jobs a month that it was time to talk about progress in the economy. the second thing in the middle class. but people know we were losing 750,000 jobs a month when this president took office, so they're quite patient here. but i don't think these numbers are very good. i didn't think the numbers last month were that great. they were certainly better than anything we had before, and some patience required, but the president's right to say we need to double town and work with triple hard here. this has been a very, very, very tough recovery here. and it followed the worst financial crisis we've had since the great depression. and that's just a fact. and it can't be spun any other way. >> well, speaking of spin, elise, mitt romney gave his strong speech after winning wisconsin, and he tried to draw a very strong contrast. he's talking about barack obama's government-centered economy. here's a question. when he's going to such a play the base message, does that risk alienating general election voters at the same time he's trying to tie up the anonymous? -- trying to tie up the nomination? >> i think we'll just have to the look at the numbers. and the economy is really going to be such a huge deal in this election. and in '09, the white house said that if we enacted the $800 billion stimulus that unemployment should be at about 5.8% today. and we're just not there. and if those numbers look bad in august, september, october, obama really has a problem. >> james, i mean, do you think that governor romney could have a credibility gap if he keeps hitting these narratives hard, or is this just politics? >> i think it's a little bit of both. he has the lowest favorable of any challenger entering an election in the history of modern polling, i think i'm correct about that. and by the way, i think the obama people will point out his record in massachusetts, he had the 47th or 48th worst record in job creation when he was the governor of massachusetts. there's no doubt that this president inherited just a really nasty recession, maybe to some extent a depression, and this thing has been slow and it needs to be acknowledged. it's just tough out there for a lot of middle class families. >> particularly in the rust belt, that's why i want to ask you james about one bright spot in these numbers. american manufacturing seems to be coming back a bit. we've got 37,000 new manufacturing jobs. is that a good news for democrats when they face the rust belt fights in ohio and pennsylvania, or is that pain so deep it's not going to be sending a positive message about the economy anytime soon? >> i wouldn't call it good news, i would call it somewhat better news. but i think what the president needs to say is that why he has a jobs plan that has not been acted on by republicans. that's why we need to do more and that's why we need to get more of the work. i don't think any of this should actually be spun as good news. i think it should be spun as sort of challenging news. people know that. they give this president a great deal -- they cut him a great deal of slack in this. but i am not, even when the numbers are over 200,000, i don't think it's real smart to go out there and tout those as really good numbers. john, you and i are baseball fans and i know condoleezza rice is a sports fans, and you're only as good as the starting pitcher. and in presidential politics in an election year, you're only as good as last month's unemployment number. you don't know where it's going to go next month and you're kind of stuck with it. >> that's true. real quick, elise, can republicans win ohio and pennsylvania? >> maybe. >> maybe? >> time will tell. i'm not too sure yet. but i think they can if, you know, if the economy drops off. >> we'll see. >> this is an honest woman you have on here. >> we like honesty. well, the battle for congress is on. olympia snowe's seat is up for grabs. could an independent take it and shake up the senate? and then 100 years after the "titanic" went down, we show you amazing new video of the wreck. and the war on women, war on religion? maybe it's time to ask, war, what's it really good for? 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[ beeping ] ...to bring all the right results. it's the at&t network -- doing more with data to help business do more for customers. ♪ the race is on for control of the u.s. senate and one man in maine could be the deciding factor. now, democrats currently hold a slim six-seat majority, aided by two independents who vote with them. but there are 21 democratic seats open this year compared to just ten republican. the majority could come down to a single seat, which is why all eyes are on former two-term governor angus king, who's running as an independent on senator olympia snowe's seat. the latest polls show a commanding lead over both republican and democratic candidates. will king really stay independent or end up aligning himself with one of the parties. angus king is outfront tonight in the first national interview of his campaign. angus, thanks for being with us. here's my question -- >> john, good to be with you. welcome to maine. >> it's good to be there. with olympia snowe throwing in the towel, frustrated so much with the partisanship and polarization of the senate, what do you think you can accomplish up there by running as an independent? >> well, the way she left -- the way that she left the job is what really provoked me to run, john. because here's a senator with over 30 years of experience and seniority in congress, a great work ethic, integrity, and she said i can't get anything done, that's why i'm leaving. i heard that. and later on she talked about it being almost a parliamentary system in the senate, i said, we've got to try something different. we cannot continue to go down the road where we are, where it's all about partisan bickering and who's up and who's down, we've really got to try something else. that's why i'm going for it. i governed as an independent and i think i can go down and make some sense in washington as an independent. >> senator orrin hatch had this to say yesterday to politico, "we're probably going to lose the maine race because angus king is the most popular politician in maine. he'll caucus with the democrats, there's no question about that." angus, is he right or are you open to caucus with either party or neither party? >> well, he's right in the first half of what he said. that was a brilliant insight. at least i hope he's right. the second half, john, i can look you right in the eye and tell you i haven't made a decision. i'm not going to make a decision until i get down there. if i tell you right now i'm going to caucus with the republicans or the democrats, it defeats the purpose of what i want to do, which is steer a middle course and remain independent for as long as i possibly can. look, i'm not naive. i don't have illusions that i can go down there and mitch mcconnell and harry reid will put their arms around me and ask me how to solve these problems, but i think that i can go down and remain independent as long as possible. if it ends up that i have to join a caucus in order to be effective on behalf of maine, i don't want to go down and not be able to serve maine, but, you know, we're in sort of uncharted territory here. i've got a great app, john, i want to recommend to you on my iphone. it's called the usa manual. it's a 99-cent app. it's got the constitution, the bill of rights, great decisions, u.s. supreme court decisions. federalist papers. i went back and read the article about congress. i went back and read it and the word "caucus" does not appear and neither does the word "party." i want to be the pebble in the pond that starts a process of change. >> now, you were a two-term independent governor of maine. very rare thing, two-term independents. so out of all the skepticism you confronted going into office, what did you learn as governor that could apply to being an effective senator going forward? >> well, the first thing i learned -- well, i've got to back up for a minute. john, a lot of the articles that are being written now, an independent can't do anything, can't accomplish anything, all those same articles were written while i was running for governor as an independent. same stories. and by the way, and notice who they interviewed. i asked the question, can an independent be effective? they always asked the party people. what are they going to say, heck no! the main thing i learned from being an independent is, it's really great to not have to check with somebody before you make up your mind. i only want to be able to check with the people of maine. my deal is, nobody in washington tells me how to vote, except the people of maine. and that's a luxury -- i didn't realize that going in as an independent governor, how that was going to liberty me on how to make my decisions, not who's loyal to this party or that party or what the majority leader wants me to do, i was able to just call them as i see them. that was my political motto. sometimes i sided with the democrats, sometimes i sided with the republicans, sometimes they were both mad at me at the same time. but i was trying to make those independent decisions and that's, you know, this isn't some strange idea. the united states senate as recently as 15 or 20 years ago operated on the principle of people trying to solve problems. this lockup that we've got now is relatively recent. here's an amazing thing, john. you're not going to believe this. when ed muskie, the great senator from maine, moved through the clean air act in 1970, it passed the united states senate unanimously. i mean, think of that. those folks today couldn't agree on what time it is unanimously. >> that is true. governor king, thank you very much for your time and your first national interview. a navy fighter jet crashes into an apartment complex. we have dramatic video. and 100 years after the "titanic" sank, we take you to the wreck and show you what the ship looks like today. yesterday was major league baseball's opening day. attendance has been on the decline since 2007, but there's good news. which brings us to tonight's number. 334,424. that's the number of people who went to a baseball game yesterday. now, that works out to more than 41,000 people per game. it's great news for america's pastime. a new season is a time for new beginnings. even cubs fans can hope that this is their year. and the last six times kentucky won the ncaa tournament, as they did this year, the yankees have won the world series. bottom line, play ball. springtime is here. next sunday marks 100 years since the "titanic" sank, killing more than 1,500 people. as the world's most famous shipwreck approaches its centennial, experts are raising serious concerns about its conditions. earlier this week, erin spoke to bob ballard, the man who discovered the ship's final resting place more than 25 years ago, about its quest to save what's left of this ship of dreams. >> you know, i didn't go at it with some -- i was not a "titanic" groupie. i saw it as a challenge. but when i found it, it really spoke to me. and what spoke to me the most, you know, i'm down there in the submarine and i'm driving around and everything about the "titanic" is huge, the bow, the boilers, and i come across where all the bodies landed. and that stopped me in my tracks. see, after the "titanic" sank and it went to the bottom, hundreds of people were trying to survive. and they were freezing to death and they died. hundreds of people died. and many of them didn't have life jackets and all those bodies, people forget that, came raining down on to the bottom. now, the animals found the bodies, they ate the flesh, their bones were exposed, the deep sea's under saturated in calcium carbonate and dissolve, but everywhere you see are pairs of shoes that were attached to those bodies. >> so all the bones are gone, but the shoes are there. >> they're their tombstones and you see a pair of mother's shoes and next to her are her daughter's shoes. boom! i mean, that hit me like a freight train. and the moment i saw that, i said, you know, we don't touch this site. and i've been totally opposed -- you don't go to gettysburg with a shovel. you don't take belt buckles off the arizona. why can't the "titanic" get the same respect that those ships or those battlefields get? and when i started meeting with the survivors, talking to the ones that lost their loved ones, talking to the people that built the ship, belfast is doing an amazing exhibit. we're doing one at mystic aquarium, but what we're doing is we're telling the story not so much of the ship, this piece of metal, but the people that were on it, and the bottom of the ocean speaks to you when you're down there. it's amazing. i didn't expect -- i'm a scientist. i'm not supposed to be touched by such things. it knocked me off my feet. >> it was an -- >> very, very powerful experience. >> you think that this could be a museum. >> oh, it is already. the question is, there's no lock on the door. there's nothing protecting it. >> but how can you bring it -- you describe it so eloquently with the shoes, the mother and the child, but how can you bring that to -- >> by passing a law that senator kerry, just in the last few days -- so we're having our effect -- introduced a law into the senate to protect the "titanic." to give the old law teeth. we're hoping that other countries will sign it -- we only need two countries to sign it right now, russia and france. those are submarines that are going down there and doing the damage. >> you are a person who has brought these pieces of history to life. and the fact you can that turn that ship and the stories that we've all heard into that image is a pretty incredible thing. and i know you're going to be doing that possibly again with amelia earhart. you're talking about you have a 15-year-old daughter -- >> i have been asked by senator clinton to advise the team, rick gillespie and the tiger group are going out in july, and this new data has really collapsed the search area. so they've got a good shot and i wish them fair winds and a following sea. >> you were explaining how it happened, there was a picture from 1937 -- >> a picture from 1937, three months after amelia disappeared. they were photographing this island called gardner island, not even thinking about her, they saw a ship up on the reef, and everyone's looking at the ship, and over in the left-hand corner was a little something. and the secretary of state and assistant secretary of state, kirk campbell, gave analysts, real special analysts, this image. didn't tell them anything. >> cia? >> well, you never know. real good analysts that can see golf balls on a golf course from way up far, day gave them the image and didn't tell them what it was, and said, what is it? they did their crunching and they said, i don't know where you got that picture, but that's a lockheed electrolanding gear from the 190s. well, that was her plane. the search area that was thousands of square miles collapsed to a very small area. so i wish them luck. it's worth looking and it's being privately financed, so we're not wasting government money, and i think they got a good shot at it. >> with the save the "titanic" with bob ballard" premieres monday april 9th at 10:00 p.m. eastern on the national geographic channel. we're just getting word there's breaking news in the trayvon martin case. we'll bring that to you right after the break. ncer ] lately, there's been a seismic shift in what passes for common sense. used to be we socked money away and expected it to grow. then the world changed... and the common sense of retirement planning became anything but common. fortunately, td ameritrade's investment consultants can help you build a plan that fits your life. take control by opening a new account or rolling over an old 401(k) today, and we'll throw in up to $600. how's that for common sense? 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