gas pump and casts a big shadow over obama's hopes for re-election. just a day after dismissing what he called loose talk of war with iran, he sat down with benjamin netanyahu. at the top of their agenda, talk that israel may soon attack iran's nuclear sites. jessica yellin working sources all day. take us inside three hours of talks and a working lunch later, what do we know? >> reporter: we're told the prime minister and the president within their three hours had 30 minutes when they were one-on-one. none of us will know really what they talked about when they were alone together. but the most pressing question, did they discuss red lines, and we are told by u.s. and israeli officials that that was not what the the two leaders sat down to talk about. that this was essentially a meeting to make clear to each leader where they stand on these fundamental issues of what it would take to press each other for an attack, but they did not ask each other fundamentally for the go-ahead, which is what we're talking about when we talk about these red lines. so the topic of red lines was not the purpose of this discussion. but many of the very fundamental topics of the iranian nuclear issue were all covered during these three hours of talks, john. >> and jess, it's a very important relationship. president obama promising the united states would always have israel's back but he is publicly saying give diplomacy and sanctions more time. the prime minister not even mentioning sanctions in his remarks from the oval office. how difficult is it resolving this issue when these two leaders clearly have friction in their own relationship? >> reporter: well, there's clear differences between the two men, and all sides insist that the personality differences aren't the issue here. what the fundamental challenge is is that there is a difference in policy. for the u.s., the question is about timing. that as you say, the president believes and administration officials believe there is space and time that there is up to a year to know when iran should start, if they should start developing a nuclear weapon, they have a year's lead time know and be able to strike if that's the decision and the president has made it clear he issal to use military options if it should come to that. israel believes they have less time because they are smaller and have less of a military ability to strike and that is the fundamental difference. but all sides are minimizing that difference now and projecting unity to the world because they want to look as if they are as close to on the same page as possible so the rest of the world can press ahead on sanctions and other actions against iran, john, and press other options so that the military option is the last one they might have to resort to. john? >> our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin. other major international story, senator john mccain today called for usair strikes on syria. during an impassioned speech this afternoon, he said military intervention now the only way to stop the blood shed that's claimed at least 7500 lives in the past year. a senior pentagon official tells us leon pa net at that time feels u.s. intervention could make things worse in syria at this time. i spoking to senator mccain a short time ago. >> if you talk to folks at the pentagon, they say they share your goals but getting the united statesen involved that way will put too many civilians in syria at risk. how would you answer that? >> my answer is right now, in case they missed it, there's thousands of people being massacred by thanks and artillery used by bashar assad. i heard that same argument when we decided to go into bosnia, and i heard the same argument when we went into coso vo. so if they want to disregard the continuing massacre ha in the view of many could go on for months or even a year or more, then that's their choice, but please don't tell us it's because they're worried about casualties. they're going on as we speak. >> you remember how tough it was at the time to get international support for bogs nia and kosovo, sir. should the united states act alone if that support does not exist in your view? >> i don't think soaps because i think it would be extremely difficult to do that. i think i would face that -- my answer is i think i would face that eventuality once i got there, what the united states can do for a change is lead, is lead. and make sure that we work with the arab league, with other countries, the saudis have already said they want to send arms to the resistance in syria and so have other countries. and we saw what could be done in libya. so, it's one of these things that you can always find reasons not to, including quote we don't know who they are. i heard that in libya, in tunisia, heard that in egypt. but the fact is, massacres are going on. the united states is sitting by and not doing anything about it. >> are you going to take thanks and artillery that are in residential neighborhoods, that would involve a lot of risks. would it not be best if you're going to do that to put covert boots on the ground to find them and track them. >> i think there are many things you can do. in other countries as in libya might be willing to do that. we have precision guided bombs. we've proven that on many occasions, most recently in libya when our allies were using precision guided weapons. i want to repeat, john, you will find a thousand reasons not to do the right thing. every time we've been involved, i've heard the same excuses, and in this particular case, if we want to stand by and watch syrians being massacred in the most brutal and incredibly genocidal fashion, then that is a decision we can make. but please don't tell me we can't do it. we can if we have the will. >> a provocative proposal tonight from the senator mccain. thanks for your time. >> thank you, john. to the red hot presidential race. only hours away from the first poll openingses of super tuesday. ten states hold contests tomorrow, more than 400 delegates at stake. the biggest contested prize is ohio where a brand-new cnn orc poll shows romney and santorum tied with 32% each. of newt gingrich leading big in his home state of georgia and santorum holds a tiny edge over romney in the tennessee numbers. romney predicts he'll win the nomination if he can carry ohio and several other states. his election eve message focused on jobs. >> what i know is the economy. i spent my life in the real economy. i understand why jobs come and why they go. other people in this race have debated about the economy. they've read about the economy. they've talked about it in subcommittee meetings. but i've actually been in it. >> once comfortable ohio lead now gone. rick santorum barnstorming across the state fighting for every last vote. >> growing up, having to fight for everything you got, is exactly the kind of person that we need to have. not just in the white house with the big problems that are facing this country. but in this election, someone who doesn't think you can buy it, someone who knows you can't buy it. you got to earn it. >> cnn national political correspondent jim acosta is in zanesville, ohio. mitt romney signed sounding like a confident campaign heading into super tuesday. how do they define the stakes? >> they are feeling it in ohio. you heard governor romney at an event in youngstown saying if he could win ohio, he feels he could win the gop nomination. that is not something you say on super tuesday unless you're feeling pretty good. why not in the they've erased a double digit lead from rick santorum in the last week. you'll appreciate this as somebody who crunches the numbers. they feel like they're going to win the lion's share on super tuesday. they have targeted some of these states by congressional district going into places in atlanta, knowing they won't win the state of georgia but feel they can pick up delegates by doing well in some of the suburban areas in that crucial state on super tuesday. and something else that the romney campaign has been saying, an adviser earlier today telling reporters they're telling members of congress, republican members of congress up on capitol hill, asking the question, who do you want on this ticket? do you want mitt romney or rick santorum? eric fern strom at romney advisers said rick santorum would be like cement shoes for republicans also on that ticket. it's all part of the romney message they're the only campaign ready for primetime in this campaign. >> jim across ta live for us on the trail. thanks so much. let's take a closer look at the stakes. our chief political analyst gloria borger is here. the states filled in are the states we've already had. you see more romney red than anything else. santorum purple in the middle. romney expects to win massachusetts and vermont, he expects to win virginia. he thinks he'll win out here in idaho, question mark about this one, maybe ron paul, maybe mitt romney and here's the biggest battleground tomorrow, the state of ohio. if romney wins, as he says today, i'm the nominee. do you buy that? >> i think if he wins ohio, it's sort of the beginning of the end if you will. you can make the case that he's won five going into this. if he wins ohio, bellwether in a general election no, republican presidential candidate has ever won the presidency without winning ohio. i think he needs to win ohio. it's interesting to me is in talking to people in the campaign, i think they're feeling better and better about tennessee which is a southern state and you know, romney in 2008 did not win any southern states when he was going for that will nomination. it would be very important lift to him to win the state of tennessee. >> especially because people will write off virginia saying santorum, gingrich not on the ballot. >> he won't get any credit for na. >> take a different look at the race. let's bring up the del map instead. here's where we are going in, governor romney with the lead. if you play this out, and you just go through this here, if romney wins these states here, i gave santorum tennessee in this calculation. oklahoma goes to santorum. i'm not sure about north dakota. we gave it to romney. if you look at it here, even if we give that state to ron paul, this is somewhere in the ballpark where governor romney could end up tomorrow night. a long way ahead of his rivals. >> then he begins to become the prohibitive favorite. what we've seen already, you've seen prominent conservatives, eric cantor, a leader in the house, tom coburn, senator from oklahoma, republican, very conservative, going into the romney camp. so what i think you would start to see is this question of inevitability or electability sort of coming to play. and romney would have the momentum that he wants and you know, nothing succeeds like success, right? so you keep winning. you keep winning. that's what they want to be talking about tomorrow night. they could easily win over half of the delegates. tomorrow night. and we're going to be talking about popular vote as well, but if they win over half the delegates tomorrow night, i think they're going to say, you know what? we're the big winners here. >> it does get hard even though that's a long way to 1144, especially with three other people in the race, it gets hard to make up the gap as you go forward. big night tomorrow. newt gingrich needs a victory in georgia, his home state to keep his campaign alive. our new poll indicates he's likely to get it, he leads 47% to 24% with santorum at 159%, ron paul at 9%. campaigning today in the neighboring state of tennessee where polls indicate he's running third, the former speaker took swipes at his favorite targets. >> the elite media was fascinated with rush limbaugh and should he have apologized. i kept coming back and saying the apology i worry about is barack obama apologizing to religious fanatics while they're killing young americans. and so let's start. i want to give you my commitment. i will not apologize as commander in chief. >> stand by for more on tonight's top story. despite hours of white house meetings, there's no sign the united states and israel closer to findsing ground on stopping iran's quest for nuclear weapons. and later, incredible pictures from the international space station show the beauty of nature and the work of human hands. prairie, minnesota. in here, the landscaping business grows with snow. to keep big winter jobs on track, at&t provided a mobile solution that lets everyone from field workers to accounting, initiate, bill, and track work in real time. you can't live under a dome in minnesota, that's why there's guys like me. [ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ helping you do what you do... oh dear...tter. oh dear! ohh dear... i'm not sure exactly what happened here last night. i was out helping people save money on their car insurance. 2 more! you're doing it! aren't they doing great?! hiiiiiii!! come sweat with me! keep going richard. keep sweating!! geico. fifteen minutes could save you sweat! sweat! fifteen percent or more on car insurance. have 46 grams of whole grains... mmmm. ...and a touch of sweetness. you'll be delighted to discover how good they taste. get your free sample of quaker oatmeal squares on facebook. ♪ [ male announcer ] offering four distinct driving modes and lexus' dynamic handling, the next generation of lexus will not be contained. the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. ♪ more now on the critical talks today between the united states and israel and the impasse between these two friends when it comes to iran's nuclear program. president obama promised the united states would always have israel's back but also made clear it was not in his view time just yet to move toward military options. >> even as weise will continue on the diplomatic front, we will continue to tighten pressure when it comes to sanctions. >> now, prime minister netanyahu never mentioned sanctions in his remarks and made it clear israel would act alone if he believed it was necessary. >> israel must reserve the right to defend itself. and after all, that's the very purpose of the jewish state to restore to the jewish people control over our destiny. >> let's get important perspective from fareed zakaria. the prime minister of israel did get the president of the united states to say all options including military options are on the table but did we resolve anything else? prime minister netanyahu says if i decide to act, il act. >> i don't think we've resolved very much. the situation remains very, very dangerous because you have a situation where you have an enormous amount of pressure being placed on iran without a diplomat tract. the president talked about how he thought diplomat sit would the succeed. we have to diplomatic track with iran. the israelis continue to say they reserve the right to act and all the while, oil prices continue to go up. we have all this pressure on iran. they haven't moved. prices of oil continue to go up and israel reserves the right to do a military strike. this doesn't strike me as a successful conclusion to the problem. >> and for better or worse, and i suspect worse is the answer. this is playing out in the middle of a presidential campaign in which the president's republican critics have been quite vociferous in saying he's too soft here. paul begala calls foreign policy the potential wildcard in the campaign and says in this standoff, oil prices could skyrocket and terrorism against american coz spike overseas and here at home. the political fallout is difficult to predict. is one thing prime minister netanyahu is counting on president obama facing so much criticism from the right. >> he does not have the much cover to try and initiate some kind of diplomat sit, secret unofficial tract two, whatever you may call it but any of the kind of diplomacy that has tended to resolve these kinds of problems in the past, the opening to china, things like that. the minute that were to happen and if it were to leak, he would be pilloried on the right. so he politically is fine where he is. he can go further right and he'll be fine. you know, he can be even tougher on the iranians but he doesn't have any space to go or to try negotiations to try diplomacy. and yet, it's difficult to see how you resolve the crisis without trying diplomacy. >> and if you're looking around the world trying for diplomatic help, trying to toughen the sanctions, for example, you would have to look to russia. president putin, it will be president putin coming back into power after running a campaign in which account anti-americanism was front gronk can president obama, can the united states count on help from russia? >> putin is a very practical guy. he is not going to do this out of the love of his heart but he will do it if he sees that there is a deal to be made, if there are advantages for him in doing it, and russia is looking for ways to assert itself on the international stage. if russia can be kind of the crucial broker in a deal that involves you know inspections in iran, i think they would go along with it. the real window that is closing is that the israelis know that if they act between now and november, they will have the unqualified support of the american administration. because it will be politically impossible for the obama administration to do anything but support an israeli strike. >> come november, if president obama is re-elected, frankly, even if there were president romney, it all changes because at that point, the president is not under political pressure, is not running a presidential campaign. and can take a somewhat more less political view of the situation. and i think the israelis understand american politics very well and they understand that between now and november, were there to be an israeli strike, they would be in much better shape with regard to the crucial thing they care about, which is america's unqualified support of that strike. >> very important point there, fareed, thank you. >> pleasure. members of the u.s. military about to get a break at one u.s. airport. just happens to be the one closest to the pentagon. stand by for details of a new program that could make it easier for men and women in uniform to get around. later, a player who sees nothing wronging with offering cash bounties for hits that injure other players. score did ♪ ♪ with a free-credit-score-dot-com ♪ ♪ app that he had ♪ downloaded it in the himalayas ♪ ♪ while meditating like a true playa ♪ ♪ now when he's surfing down in chile'a ♪ ♪ he can see when his score is in danger ♪ ♪ if you're a mobile type on the go ♪ ♪ i suggest you take a tip from my bro ♪ ♪ and download the app that lets you know ♪ ♪ at free-credit-score-dot-com now let's go. ♪ vo: offer applies with enrollment in freecreditscore.com™. at liberty mutual, we know how much you count on your car, and how much the people in your life count on you. that's why we offer accident forgiveness, where your price won't increase due to your first accident. we also offer a hassle-free lifetime repair guarantee, where the repairs made on your car are guaranteed for life, or they're on us. these are just two of the valuable features you can expect from liberty mutual. plus, when you insure both your home and car with us, it could save you time and money. at liberty mutual, we help you move on with your life, so get the insurance responsible drivers like you deserve. call us at... or visit your local liberty mutual office, where an agent can help you find the policy that's right for you. liberty mutual insurance, responsibility -- what's your policy? welcome back. here's kate bolduan with the news you feed to know right now. >> happy monday, everyone. let's get to s