and coming film mamgers in this country. koerntd for mtv power of 12 this ch is focusing on the election. nice to have you. polls in alabama and mississippi are open in less than an hour while all eyes are on the south today. battling over the significance of the results. now, newt gingrich has put his entire strategy on the line. the southern strategy. rick santorum's camp says they're tamping down his chances and mitt romney says it's going to be doom if the fight north nomination goes to the convention. newt gingrich is leading the new poll 34rks%. mitt romney is in second place with 31%. and because that's within the margin of error they're basically tied. rick santorum is trailing at 24%. joining our panel this morning is bill arm stead. chairman of the alabama republican party. thank you for talking with us. as i mentioned, everybody sort of says everything is on the line. start by characterizing your electorate for me. what are voters in your state looking for, sir? >> well, thank you very much for having me. of course, in alabama as well as throughout the united states people are concerned about the economy and the jobs. we have no doubt that we can make an improvement over what we have now. so as the candidates have crisscrossed our state in the last two or three days i think one of them will have taken some momentum. we've had all three of the top candidates in alabama and they're all speaking about jobs and the economy and, of course, the fuel prices is another thing that we want to talk about simply because we're seeing a rapid increase in the fuel prices today. although when it gets to november, no one knows what's going to be going on at that time. but i think today alabama is going to make a strong statement as to who we think will be the favored candidate to receive the republican nomination. >> you say one of them is going to have the momentum. which one, do you think? at moments it's unclear to me at least. who do you think has the momentum at this stage? >> i think over the last two or three days all the candidates have been crisscrossing alabama. i think the one that has done more come paining than any others, speaker gingrich has been all over the state for one week now, he came in last tuesday and has been campaigning almost nonstop since then. i think he's made good impressions by coming in and do that. alabama like to feel like they're wanted and want to ask for their vote. senator santorum has been in several days. was here last night. of course, our presidential forum as well as speaker gingrich. governor romney has been in some but not quite as much. i think the more attention alabama has paid the more likely you're to get more votes. speaker gingrich is probably in the lead right now. just from that alone. your poll indicates that to be true also. >> some people think that by newt gingrich staying in the race it benefits mitt romney because he does haven't to go head to head with rick santorum. what's your take on that? >> absolutely. i think any time you're splitting a vote as some folks say is being split between senator santorum and speaker gingrich that that gives romney the mobility to continue to track and receive delegates because when it's all said and done, before the day is over, i think that all three of those will share a nice portion of our delegates. but perceived winner is going to be the one who gets the top vote. that's going to give them the momentum. i would say the three of them are not going to be two far apart on the number of delegates they receive but again, perception is everything. whoever comes out on top is going to be the one to get it. >> will cain, chairman. newt gingrich has been totally missing for a good month. is this primary criss-crossed around the country from kansas, colorado, nevada, wherever. we barely heard newt's name but now that alabama and mississippi are on the slate, what is it about newt that you guys find so a participating in mississippi and alabama? >> of course, he's our next door neighbor and we've seen a lot of them over the past and while he did take a backseat for a while he has stumped extentively here for alabama. you would think he was run fog governor here because of his campaigning, going to restaurants, going to church on sunday. he is showing up everywhere. he's got to do extremely well in alabama and mississippi just to stay in the race. >> no surprise that rick santorum is not a big newt gingrich fan. here's what he had to say about him. >> he will do well done here in south carolina, georgia. but he hasn't done well anywhere else. he hasn't finished second place since oregon. we need somebody to run across this country. >> it was kind of hard to hear the audio but the bottom line is that, listen, we need someone who can run across the country and newt gingrich is not that person. is everything on the line? is everything at stake here for newt gingrich? he's been talking a lot about the southern strategy. if he only wins one state or if he does not win one state, is it over? >> well, i think he says he's going on to the convention but, you know, in all reality if he doesn't win mississippi and alabama, i think it's a big bump in the road. i don't see how it goes forward. if he loses one he may go a little bit longer. if he loses them both, i believe he's out of the ball game and then it will be a one to one between santorum and romney. >> last question? >> hi, mr. chairman. you know, newt only got about 43,000 votes on super tuesday. there's been less than 5% of young americans who have voted in this primary season. what would you say to the 45 million young people out there to encourage them to actually get out to the polls and vote, particularly today? >> well, it's all about our future and the rung people have more at risk than anyone else. our objective overall is to defeat barack obama in november because he is a failed presidency. we have to look to see if next generation, what are we going to leave them? are we going to leave them a better country than we have now or are we going to continue to deteriorate as has happened in the last three years. the young people have more at stake than anyone else. i encourage the young people to get out. you're the ones that are going to benefit or be harmed as a result of this election. >> we'll have more information on that a little bit later this morning. chairman, thank you for joining us. appreciate it. see how it all turns out later tonight. coming up at oh we. >> pleasure to be with you. >> likewise, thank you. 7:30 eastern, we're going to talk to jackie cushman. that's ahead. first, look at the headlines. carlos diaz has those. what is that sigh for? >> it's not good news this morning. it's tough news worldwide. gas we're seeing the first major protest in response to sunday's massacre of afghan civilians by a lone u.s. soldier. hundreds of college students in jalalabad demanding an open trial. meantime, a high-level afghan delegation game under attack from militants while visiting the district where the killings occurred. the taliban is threatening to behead any americans in the country as revenge. stops in asia and the middle east, u.n. defense secretary leon panetta says it's a tragic reality. >> war is hell. these kinds of events and incidents are going to take place. they've taken place in any war. they're terrible events. and this is not the first of those events and it probably won't be the last. >> panetta goes on to say the shooting suspect could face the death penalty. now, just ahead at 7:15 eastern, soledad talks with former army psychiatrist dr. paul newhouse and why he says ptsd is likely not to blame in this case. egypt has brokered a truce between israel and palestinian militants in the gaza strip. ends four days of deadly violence. the worst outbreak in months. nearly two dozen people died in israeli attacks in air strikes in gaza which is response to a barrage of rocket attacks in southern israel. parts of southern louisiana hit hard by heavy rains triggered severe floods. 12 to 18 inches fell across the region in just a moatter of hours. lafy yet parish, runtd of people were trapped by flood waters and had to be rescued. there's a state of emergency in effect in lafayette and the st. landry parish. "a.m. house call" this morning, all of you meat lovers, beware. red meat can significantly increase your risk of death. researchers found that on average a daily serving of processed red meat increased the risk of death by 20%. one serving per day of unprocessed red meat still increased risk by 13%. the good news is red meat by half a serving a day can help reverse dangers. prime minister david cameron is about to get a taste of march madness. cameron is in the u.s. for a three-day visit and president obama is taking him to the ncaa first four tournament gain tonight in ohio between mississippi valley state and kentucky. the white house will be releasing the president's tournament picks tomorrow morning. and we have a spoiler alert. "the bachelor" gave out his final rose and a ring last night in the finale. but who did he pick, lindsay or courtney? >> the more challenging one. >> no, she's crazy. all right? i'll just tell you right now. courtney robinson -- >> oops, said that out loud. >> go back to the video. bachelor ben proposed to her. are they still together? no, they're not. they broke up. that's what they revealed in the "after the rose" special. but during "after the rose" special they got together and ben says he plans to marry courtney. >> can i just say if you're breaking up, getting together, breaking up, getting together on the show before the wedding, it's a bad sign. >> it's a bad choice because she's the crazy one. >> going out on a limb there saying that. >> i've been married a long time. i got a little bit of marital advice for people. breaking up, getting together, breaking up, getting together on national television, bad sign. thank you, carlos. still ahead this morning, going to talk about the fallout from rush limbaugh. the number of advertisers who are leaving his show now, over 100. but they're not stopping at rush. rush's show alone. there are other conservative hosts who are also feeling the effects. we'll talk about that. plus, our "get real" to morning, have a bread slip, pink slip. pre-game meal at olive garden turns out to a massive layoff for the entire team. my play list is mary j. blige, "real love." when i grow up, i want to fix up old houses. ♪ [ woman ] when i grow up, i want to take him on his first flight. i want to run a marathon. i'm going to own my own restaurant. when i grow up, i'm going to start a band. 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[ male announcer ] it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better. ♪ welcome back. new developments to tell you about in that terrible massacre of afghans allegedly at the hands of a u.s. soldier. afghan delegation house fired upon where the killings occurred and in eastern afghanistan hundreds of people protested over those murders. reports there morning that investigators are looking the medical history of the u.s. army staff sergeant who is accuse of killing 16 people including 9 children and 3 women. cnn has learned that he is a 38-year-old soldier. his name has not been released. apparently he was hurt in a vehicle rollover, regular car rollover, in 2010. he suffereded what doctors call traumatic brain injury. they judged him though healthy enough to start a tour in afghanistan three months ago. general john allen told wolf blitz ter suspect's medical history is part of the investigation. cnn's also learn that the suspect's wife and children have been moved to their home off base to washington's ft. lewis for their own protection. dr. paul newhouse, doctor of psychiatry at vanderbilt university. thanks for talking with us more this morning. >> good morning. >> i appreciate it. there have been conversations, as i mentioned, about an injury that this staff sergeant had to his brain, a car accident, apparently the car rolled. what do you think is -- and i get it you haven't examined him, but what is the likelihood that something that was a traumatic brain injury but allowed him to eventually be posted to afghanistan could be linked to this massacre of 16 civilians? >> i think it's pretty unlikely, soledad. i think his injury was probably not very significant and, thus, he was judged to be fit for duty. so i think we're going to learn over the next few weeks or months that this was probably unrelated to this incident. >> so when you start looking into the whys, are you saying there's a likelihood this is a person who is a sociopath? is this a likelihood of someone who just snapped? what is it? >> well, a sociopath or psychopath is somebody who isn't going to fit into the rules of something like the u.s. military and that kind of person would have been likely drummed out or released from the military many years ago. i understand this individual was -- had been in the army for quite some time. so i think a better likelihood is that this person suffered from some severe illness or mental illness that may have come on more recently and perhaps is linked to this terrible incident. >> would that severe illness be some version or some extreme form of ptsd? if you look at the rates correlated to the number of tours that a person has done, they map this out, if you have one deployment, one in ten have some kind of mental illnesses. two deployments, that number drops to one in five. three deploymentdeployments, ju in three. is that what you would be looking senate. >> post traumatic stress disorders a a cluster of symptoms. violence or violence against others is not usually considered part of that diagnosis. so i think it's more likely that we're going to discover that there was some either psychotic illness or delusional condition or some evidence that this person was more seriously deranged or impaired than we would typically see in ptsd. >> so the details of what we know happened in this attack or this early morning, walks off the base, goes house to house knocking on doors. eventually is able to enter a house. massacres the family. moves on to another house. and apparently ended upsetting some of the victims on fire and then goes back to the base and turns himself in. in that sort of nugget of the story, what sticks out to you as a psychiatrist? what do you want to know and what would you start asking about? >> right. so i would start from the position that mass murders of this type often are committed by people seriously ill and this is similar to what we have seen in the united states obviously with number of several mass murders over the last few years. for example, the virginia tech incident and if incident that occurred in arizona with congressman giffords. those individuals turn out to have given off a lot of signals of mental illness or severe illnesses before the incident. i think that's where i would be starting my investigation or my inquiries to learn what happened. >> there was a report that this staff agent apparently had a hard time integrating back to his family after his third tour in iraq and then able to start his fourth tour in afghanistan. is that something you've been looking at? >> i think we are in a new situation for the u.s. army. over the last few weers because we are now having a professional army with multiple deployments, multiple tours in the combat zones. this is something that the army has really not had a lot of experience with until the last decade or so. and previous engagements we were much more focused on single deployments, single period of times, but this is a new situation. so i think the army is really looking to try to figure out how to provide mental health services to people who really have multiple experiences like this. >> dr. paul newhouse is a professor of psychiatry at vanderbilt university. nice to see you, sir. thank you or your time. >> very welcome. still ahead this morning on "starting point," remember this name because this man could be destined to be a reality star. he's one of the cast member of this new show called "the shahs of sunset." is it going to be fabulous or a complete train wreck? it focuses on the children of iranian refugees who are living large in beverly hills. and it's getting "jersey shore" comparisons for good and bad and very, very gad. we'll talk about that. also, "get real," an entire football team is cut at the same time at an olive garden and left, dichd. tell you what happened to them. wee leave wassy will's play list dire straits, "money for nothing." ♪ [ male announcer ] the dodge journey was made to explore the real world. it has under-seat storage to bring everything, available seating for up to seven people to take everyone, and the grip of available all-wheel drive to go everywhere. think of it as a search engine helping you browse the real world. this march, get no extra charge third-row seating plus 0% financing on dodge journey. i'm giving you the silent treatment. so you're calling to tell me you're giving me the silent treatment? ummm, yeah. jen, this is like the eighth time you've called... no, it's fine, my family has free unlimited mobile-to-any-mobile minutes -- i can call all i want. i don't think you understand how the silent treatment works. hello? [ male announcer ] buy unlimited messaging and get free unlimited calling to any mobile phone on any network. at&t. that's "the show goes on," off of dorian's play list. he's good. he's fun. sharp guy, too. let's talk about our "get real" today which is kind of sad. fill up of your bread sticks because you're fired at the end of the dinner. they decided to cut the entire roster all at the same time during their pre-game meal at an olive garden in orlando, florida. it was opening day of the season. the players were planning to strike on a friday so the owner instead fired the first shot. all the owners, i believe, they only make like $400 per game. how much does a national football league player make per game would you guess on average? >> per game, i don't know. what minimum wage in the nfl is a couple hundred thousand dollars. >> they're broke after two years. i'm serious. >> no, that's true. that's a different story though. he gives them the chance to -- they could leave the union and resign with the team. but kind of like, if you're going the strike, you're out. they went ahead, some of the members, decided they would play the game. they played against the orlando predators. those who did not though decide to resign, quick the union and resign were stuck, they were completely ditched by the team. they had to rent a van together and drive back 17 hours in a van. apparently the strike ended the next day, saturday. >> hard core not even bringing them home. >> apparently one of the football players said, the team owner announced this, 20 really big angry guys. he took his life into his hands. >> wow. >> yeah. that's sad, though. all right. ahead on "starting point" this morning, he's moved all his chips into the south, so is it do or die for newt gingrich? we're going to talk to his daughter, jackie cushman. we'll talk to her about what her dad's strategy is now. and, plus, that's not adele, that's taylor swift. i have small children, i know this. she took home a lucrative prize. not all the g