senator marco rubio. and elijah cummings, ranking democrat on the house oversight and reform committee. plus, dana bash and jeff zellny of the "new york times." i'm candy crowley, and this is "staft of the union." the economic headlines were ominous. retail and car sales are strong. but initial jobless claims falling since last year have jumped about 6% in the last three weeks. march sales of existing homes fell 2.6% and factory output slipped in march. then there was this iffy forecast for europe from the managing director of the international monetary fund. >> we are seeing light recovery blowing in a spring mind, bwind we're seeing some dark clouds on the horizon. >> if, as the economy goes so goes the election, then it was a worrisome week for the president's re-election team. joining me now president obama's senior re-election strategist david axelrod. good to see you. >> good to be here again. >> let me show you and our viewers the nbc news/"wall street journal" survey this week on who has good ideas to help the economy. and it said president obama 34%, romney, 40%. how do you account for that? >> i account for it by the fact that people don't know mitt romney very well yet. they see businessman. they hope he has new ideas. but, candy, i think here is the point. when they find out what his ideas are, slashing taxes at the top for the very wealthy, cutting wall street loose to make its own rules, cutting the investments we need to education, research, development, energy, they're going to think this is very familiar. we tried this. this was a big failure. >> but on on the other hand, he has been pummeled for the last six months, and you all have joined in when you found an opportunity to do so. i think people are pretty aware that he's a multimillionaire -- >> but the truth is he hasn't talked -- he's been very critical of the president. one of the most interesting things in polling this week was in your own poll and it was people were asked -- who supported obama is it a pro obama vote or anti-romney vote. 75% said pro-obama. only a third of ronl's vomney's said they were voting for him. it was the lowest number you have recorded in all the time you've been doing this. he's run a purely negative campaign. so he hasn't really been eager to spell out these ideas. when he does, i think people will judge them for what they are, which is backward looking and a repeat of what got us into this mess in the first place. >> a last poll for you, this is on how things are going in the country today among all americans. 43% said, well, 57% said badly. it's better than before. but if 57% of the country continues to say things are going badly, how steep of a climb is that for getting a president re-elected? >> i think people problems we had deep problems that welled up over years that are going to take a while to deal with, and they want to know we are moving in the right direction. it is hope nfl the last quarter in terms of job creation was the best we've had in six years. the last quarter in manufacturing was the best we've had in two two decades. the last thing people want to do is go back to the same policies that bankrupted the country, punished the middle class, and put our economy into a tailspin. >> let me move you to a lot of headlines we have seen in the past week. the gsa scandal, the secret service scandal. let me ask you personally, you spend a lot of time with these guys during your time in the white house. did this stun you? >> yeah, i was surprised by it. you know, people being what they are, you're never totally surprised in any organization. things can go wrong. i must say in my experience the secret service has been completely professional, so impressive. i always felt like they were willing to do anything to protect the president and the people around the president, and so this was really disappointing. obviously we have to get to the bottom of it, but those problems should not denigrate the efforts of so many who do such a good job. >> did you ever get a cultural party hearty kind of feel from them. >> i may be too old to pick up a whiff of that. i generally went down and collapsed in my hotel room. i didn't get a sense of that, but honestly, what i got a sense of was very intense concern about the safety of the president, the people around him, very, very professional. but this was disturbing obviously. we have to get to the bottom of it. six people have already separated from the secret service as a result of it. i think we will get to the bottom of it. >> let me ask you in the broader sense, so you have got the gsa, the secret service scandals, you have had sort of an ongoing thing about government money that was given to solyndra, solar power company that went bankrupt and how they got the backing that they did. you've had fast and furious, the atf scandal that eric holder has been working on. do you think that the totality of that hurts the president? >> do i think that the gsa problem is concerning? yes. and the president was furious when he learned of it. obviously we've revamped the whole operation as a result of it. but is it emblematic of our administration? absolutely not. candy, we've imposed new strictures relative to waste and inefficiency and fraud that have saved tens of billions of dollars on travel, on printing, on leases, on fraud. our health care fraud unit over the justice department and in hhs has recovered over $10 billion. those prosecutions are up 70%. we are saving taxpayers money all the time. >> to the extent that this is -- that these are scandals as we see them in washington, do you think, and i want to play quickly for you this is self sessions, a republican, and what he had to say. he was talking specifically about gsa and the secret service. >> i don't sense this president is showing that kind of managerial leadership. >> if you take this, is it fair to say, listen, the president is a guy in charge? >> people will judge him based on his record. i think in your own poll he had a big edge in strong and decisive and all those leadership qualities. part of it is we've been through some big things. we ended a war, dealt with an oil leak of epic proportions, we've brought bin laden to -- we've been involved in a lot of things that required very strong management, very strong leadership, very strong coordination and oversight, and i think people will judge him on the totality, not these stories. >> if this were happening in a republican administration, would you be one of the first guys out there going hey, this guy is in charge. >> maybe but the story that is stick are the one that is emblematic of an organization. every once in a while someone does something wrong at cnn. >> i don't think that's ever happened. >> not you, of course. >> no. >> and then the question is how do you deal with it? do you feel with it firmly, do you learn from it, do you put in systems to prevent those things from happening in the future, and the answer is yes. we've been more aggressive on demanding efficiencies and attacking waste. >> it's come to light since last july leon panetta, the defense secretary, who has a very tough job, it's cost the government $860,000 to fly him back and forth every other weekend or however often he goes to his home in california. does that disturb you at all. >> leon's family is out there. i understand that. he's serving the country. he's also the defense secretary and that puts some certain security risks around him that almost no one but the president endures. is, you know -- >> tight government times you can see how people might look at this, certainly they're you're rivals, this is a lot of money. most people when they get a job move to where the job is. >> understood but leon is doing an important job for the country, really a service to the country at the age of 73 after a long career. he followed bob gates at the request of the president. i don't think people are going begrudge him going home and seeing his family. >> i want to give you a flash from the past with a couple of sound bites from the president in the campaign. >> what we need is a comprehensive immigration approach. >> i want to solve the problem, not use it as a political football. we've got to fix a broken immigration system. that's a priority i will pursue from my very first day. >> the president at other times during that campaign which i covered fairly closely said i'm going to get immigration reform in first. >>er. now we're almost four years in and he has said, okay, i'm going to get it in the first year of my second term. why should the hispanic community or the country at large believe it's going to happen next year? >> because the president has tried to get it. he has initiated those actions and here is what happened, candy. i was in the room when he called together republicans and democrats who have been active for immigration reform in the past. to his credit, president bush pushed for immigration reform. in the senate 11 members supported it. they were there along with democrats and the president said i will work with you to get this done. not one of those republicans was willing to stand up and work with him to pass a bill. we tried to pass the dream act through the conversation. it was blocked by the republican -- >> isn't that the nature of washington? >> the nature of washington is not monolithic opposition to everything the chief executive wants to do as a political strategy and that is what happened here. it was disappointing. i believe when the president wins re-election in the fall, there will be a new opportunity to get this done. hopefully we can get something done before hand, but to say because you have an implacable group of republicans in the congress who simply aren't going to let that move, that the president hasn't kept his promise is a little disingenuous. >> how can he keep his promise if he gets re-elected in january if as we think may happen, you will see a smaller margin in the senate for democrats and -- >> i think a lot of republicans in congress want to cooperate, know better, but they're in the tl thralls of this reign of terror. the republican party has really moved out of the mainstream. the president is winni ning amo moderates by 4 1 points. i think these folks will recognize when they lose the election that that was the wrong path to take and now is the time for a season of cooperation. we're not going to agree on everything because that's why we have two political parties. but we shouldn't reflexivelj disagrdi disagree on everything. >> joe manchin said i am just waiting for it to play out. i am not jumping in one way or another. i am worried about me. i've said it's not a team sport. you need to go out and work for yushz. do you have anything you'd like to say to the senator? >> well, look, he'll make his own judgments. i think he was very candid there. his concern is about his own political well-being. he's running for the senate in that state. we didn't win the state the last time. it's going to be a tough state for us again, and he's making a political judgment about himself. i would hope the country's interests would enter into it and that ultimately he will be supporting the president. and obviously a lot of people are -- in all that poll talk we didn't mention the fact that we're nine points ahead in your poll, six points achead in that nbc poll. the president led on 11 of the 13 attributes including advocacy for the middle class which is really central to this election. >> thank you. i just have to add our poll of polls had it at a dead even race actually but when we put all the polls -- >> so do you think your poll was inaccurate? the cnn poll is inaccurate? >> i would never attack our pollster. >> well, i wouldn't either. >> thank you so much for your time. >> okay. marco rubio joins mitt romney tomorrow in the battleground state of pennsylvania. is it a job audition? my exclusive interview with senator rubio is next. >> three, four, five, six, seven years from now if i do a good job as vice president -- i'm sorry. as a senator. >> you all got that, right? jen's car wasn't handling well. so i brought it to mike at meineke. we gave her car a free road handling check. i like free. free is good. my money. my choice. my meineke. florida senator marco rubio is a rising star in the republican party and a tea party favorite. his cuban immigrant background may be appealing to latinos, a group ma mitt romney needs if he wants to win the presidential election. i sat down with senator rubio yesterday in miami. first of all, thank you for doing this. >> thank you. >> let me start out with a florida question i want you to write large in terms of the romney campaign. in 2004 george bush won 56% of the hispanic vote here in florida. in 2008 president obama won 57%. so roughly even. right now given the positions that mitt romney has articulated that he stands for in terms of immigration and other issues, do you see him pulling these kind of numbers this year? >> i expect him to do better than how we did in 2008, but you have to work on it. i think what those numbers show -- >> right now today he couldn't pull those kind of numbers. >> the election is not today. i think we just got out of a primary cycle shall aand that's we're going to have a primary cycle. i think what those numbers explain is what i know instinctively to be true is that americans of hispanic descent are swing voters. the number one issue in the hispanic community is economic enpowerment. >> when you look at how hispanics feel about it, that's 40% gap between hispanics who say they favor president obama versus mitt romney. candidate romney has said he's for e-verify, making employers go through a system to check to make sure their employees have papers. he's for self-deportation which is basically making life so miserable for illegals, no benefits, no jobs, they self-deport. he's talked about, of course, supporting a fence. against in-state tuition for the children of illegals and he's against the dream act. that just does not seem to me to be an agenda as regards illegal immigrants that can win him a vote. >> in notion that how in order to appeal to hispanic voteders you have to support illegal immigration is just not true. >> but this comes across as anti-immigrant. >> i think governor romney is doing a good job of it, and here is my suggestion. you have to talk about what you're for. what i have said consistently is that the republican party is and must become and continue to be the pro-legal immigration party. we have to make very clear we support legal immigration. the vast majority of americans of hispanic -- >> but the problem with immigration -- i think everybody support legal immigration. that's part of the american drel. >> it does matter how you talk about the issue. it starts by recognizing that the vast majority of people who are in this doesn't illegally didn't come here to steal from the american government. they are doing what most people would do if their children were hungry and their family were suffering. that is just about anything you have to do in order to provide for your family. you go down to homestead, florida, here and you talk to migrant workers that may be here without documents. they would tell you they wish there was a functional guest worker program. the reason they can't return to their country is they're afraid they won't be able -- >> they haven't been talking about guest worker programs really so much as they have been talking about fences and in-state tuition being denied to the children of illegals who, as you note in your bill that you're working on, had absolutely -- very little choice in coming here. is that a sustainable poe sisit? >> you have to have immigration law. that doesn't mean because you support the laws you don't recognize the humanitarian aspects. for example, the case of the children you have just outlined to me is very real. we have a case in florida of a young woman who came when she was 4 years old. she's the valedictorian of hr high school. she's a 6.8 gpa. been admitted to dartmouth to study molecular biology and she has a deportation order. the vast majority of americans would tell you it doesn't feel right to deport her. >> your plan as you're working on as i understand it suggests that these children of illegal immigrants that were brought here illegally could, if they went to college and got a degree or to a vocational school and finished those courses, could achieve legal status, correct? >> right. >> not necessarily citizenship. although they could go on and get citizenship in the regular order of things, correct? >> it allows you to get an immigrant visa through one of the existing programs. >> but you could stay in the country while you're waiting for your nonimmigrant status as well as for u.s. citizenship, correct? >> correct. >> the presumptive nominee mitt romney had in this to say. >> i would indicate i'd veto the dream act if provisions say people who are here illegally, if they go to school here long enough, get a degree, that they can become permanent residents. i think that's a mistake. i think we have to follow the law and insist those that have come here illegally ultimately return home, apply, get in line with everyone else. >> which would seem to put him at odds with what you're suggesting. >> it doesn't. what he's describing is the existing imgratmigration system how the dream act would circumvent it. it allows you to get into the immigration process. this awards a nonimmigrant visa to these kids. at some point in the future they would have no more or no less rights than anybody else. they wouldn't be getting any preferential treatment. they are like any other holder who decides to access the legal immigration system. >> his point it seems to me is he thinks people ought to go home and apply and not stay here and that's been.conservative criticism of this plan. which is, gee, it just sounds like a two-tier path way to citizenship. >> i think what he was describing was the dream act and the dream act does create a special pathway to zocitizenshi. but so does yours. >> no, it doesn't. in there's two pathways. there's a nonimmigrant visa path way which exists for people who are going to be here for defined period of time. >> that you would give to them. >> and they could renew that. but you can never turn that into residency and then citizenship. >> this year we're offering again our path to prosperity. >> paul ryan put out a budget that was passed by the house. would you be comfortage if you were running this year running on the specifics of the ryan budget? >> understand that the house is going through the process of defining the specific cuts. i think there will be specific disagreemen disagreements. >> do you disagree? >> there's nothing to compare it to. where is the democrats' budget? if we put the president's budget for the vote i predict maybe one, maybe no democrats would vote for it. i think it's unfair to attack the ryan budget when they don't have a budget of their own. let me say this about the ryan budget, it's a serious endeavor to deal with the pressing issues of our country. here is where the demagoguery comes in. let me be clear about my position. i will never support any changes to medicare that would hurt people like my mother who is on medicare today. >> in addition to the medicare changes he suggests, there are also cuts in many domestic programs, deep cuts because there are very few things that you would describe as tax increases, to hunger and nutrition programs. it's going to make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to claim child tax credits. the system becomes more complicated for them. is that the sort of values that you would run on? >> that's the recommendation of a committee in the house. that has to be fully vetted and debated. i'm always wary and i