"new york times" opinion piece calling his former employer togsic atogs toxic and destructive. wolf blitzer is off. i'm candy crowley. welcome to our viewers in the u.s. and around the world with. you're in "the situation room." puerto rico isn't often a hotbed of american politics but certainly is right now sunday's republican presidential primary looming. 20 delegates are up for grabs and as mitt romney and rick santorum will be the first to tell you, every one of those delegateses koubt es counts. jim acosta is watching it unfold for us in san juan. you had the opportunity to see both of these candidates, jim. >> reporter: that's right, candy, and it's going to be interesting to see how this plays out, because naturally mitt romney has been given sort of the advantage here in puerto rico. s' got the endorsement of this territory's governor, luis fortunio but the governor welcomed senator santorum to the island when he arrived earlier this beak. i have to tell you what everybody is talking about here on this island is this language controversy that flared up when rick santorum talked to a puerto rican newspaper and said that the territory's adoption of english as one of its main languages would be sort of a condition for statehood. that immediately created a backlash, one of santorum's delegates announced he was withdrawing his support for the former pennsylvania senator, and then on his way out of the island, rick santorum said, well, he really didn't mean that. what he really meant is he wants english and spanish to be the main languages of this island. but this is also an issue for mitt romney as well, at the cnn debate in jacksonville, in january, mitt romney said english should be the official language of the united states, so the question of course goes, well, if english is the official language of the united states and puerto rico becomes a state of the united states, doesn't that also mean it would have to adopt english as its official language? we've been going around and round on that issue. another complicating matter for mitt romney, honestly, candy, is the fact he's run ads targeting rick santorum's past support for sonya sotomayor, when she was placed on an appellate court so that could be a problem for mitt romney here. the governor, luis fortunio does not agree with mitt romney on that issue. it's going to be interesting and sort of amazing as you said a few moments ago not only every delegate and state counts but even territories in the primary battle. >> jim manage in with us. i bring in senior political analyst ron brownstein into the discussion. let's take this one thing at a tile. first of all i didn't think of puerto rico as saner to uhm territory. i thought of it as romney territory. this whole language things seems to be an odd place to be dropping that. >> it has been mitt romney territory and as jim said we're worrying whose territory puerto rico is a statement about where we are. yes, i think it is unusual place for santorum to find himself in that water but not unusual in another sense. this has been an extraordinarily, increasingly diversifying country, extraordinarily white republican primary. 14 of the 16 states with exit polls, 90% of the vote has been white and a lot of that white republican vote are the elements of the white community most concerned about immigration, most concerned about assimilation, most concerned about issues like english as an official language and you've seen almost the magnetic pull of that, that constituency on both romney and santorum, and it gets a little more complicated when they get into states or territories that are diverse. >> jim, have you been able to see anything or talk to anyone that leads you to believe that puerto rico at this point is favoring one or the other? whose territory is it? >> well i mean if you consider the fact that mitt romney has the endorsement of this territory's governor, you might assume that is an advantage for mitt romney but as we've seen throughout this campaign, endorsements haven't always added up to victories for mitt romney, and that may be the case here, but i will tell you, though, there are signs of his organizational advantage, financial advantage, he is running spanish language radio ads here in puerto rico, touting the fact that craig romney, his son, actually speaks spanish. he also has a letter to the editor in the puerto rican newspaper that is in spanish, so he's really sort of blanketed the state in ways that rick santorum hasn't, but the fact that rick santorum invested so much time here, he spent 48 hours in puerto rico, when the illinois primary is coming up on tuesday, it just goes to show you that rick santorum is thinking about how every delegate counts in this race. he watched those other territories a couple of weeks ago go to mitt romney. those territories in guam and the mariana islands, they offset all of the gains that santorum had in the kansas caucuses. he learned from that mistake and that's why he came to puerto rico. the fact he invested so much time here makes puerto rico kind of an open question as to where this is going to go, when you talk to people on the ground here, you really hear two different sides. you hear people saying yes, mitt romney has an advantage here, but that sotomayor ad did not play well here. >> jim acosta on hardship duty in puerto rico. i know you've got to go. we appreciate it. let me follow up one thing on puerto rico. i remember it being important when hillary clinton, so we did this four years ago, it isn't the first time in the lime light. puerto rico is the gateway to illinois if you will. >> yes. >> that's what happens on tuesday, and it would seem to me if there's some startling result in puerto rico, and by that i mean that rick santorum wins, that then dominos in illinois? >> i think it will be surprising, having spent several days in a controversy about english only if santorum does win puerto rico and the question of how much in illinois is the question. candy, the grooves in this race are cut pretty deep at this point. mitt romney has won nonevangelical voters in every state there has been an exit poll except for georgia. santorum has beaten him among evangelical voters in nine states. look at evangelical versus nonevangelical, college and non-college and you can guess who has the advantage. illinois is fascinating. it leans in the romney direction but not as decisively as new york, new jersey, california, the coastal states. it's enough to keep santorum in the game but probably enough romney still has the edge. >> it's interesting because with the other thing we're learning from the exit polls and entrance polls when we have them is that the turnout really has mattered but specific turnout. >> yes. >> if romney can't turn out his folks up state, which i'm assuming is where he'll plant himself. >> right. >> up towards chicago, and then santorum to the rural and farm areas, this really could be a toss-up place which we originally thought oh, illinois, romney. >> absolutely. it is closely balanced. if you looked on the calendar, states like maryland, delaware, connecticut, new york, new jersey, california, 35% of the vote or less is evangelical. you have to think romney is a strong favorite given he's won non-evangelicals except georgia. you look at arkansas, kentucky, strong for santorum. wisconsin, indiana, illinois, north carolina, turnout is likely to matter a great deal. with 41% of the vote last time being evangelical in illinois, you'd still have to give the edge to romney. it has a big population that's more upscale, that managerial wing of the party that's comfortable with him, but again, saner sum within reach there. >> i know just quickly you wrote an article in the "national journal" this week stronger but not secure. >> yes. >> as a description of where the president is in this election. how does he get secure? >> i don't know if he does. first of all in a more polarized country it's harder for a president to get secure. the question is whether it's possible any more to be president of more than half the country, given how divided we are and whether we will see someone get up to the 59% or so that ronald reagan did. the key for the president is economic improvement. the big thing that changed in our poll, heartland monitor poll, 67% of americans expect the economy to do better over the next year than it is today and that is the tailwind lifting him. you're also seeing an important separation here, white collar americans are becoming more optimistic relative to blue collar americans. they're beginning to feel that they're seeing their 401(k)s improve, housing values improve and the president in '08 ran much stronger among white collar whites and blue collar whites and will likely need the same pattern to resurface if he wins in 2012. >> ron brownstein, thank you. >> thank you. it's been a year since the start of the syrian revolt and the bloody crackdown that has taken thousands of lives. even as assad's assault on dissents grinds on. this video said to be from besieged idlib province shows the ambush of a syrian tank but the regime continues to target civilians here, shelling in the battered city of homs, as the ground shakes, voices call to god and cry out in pain. homs has been the epicenter of this revolt and videos have shown many acrotrocities apparey committed by security forces. cnn has obtained some of the most disturbing footage yet, about a dozen family members apparently killed in one house in cold blood. cnn's arwa damon filed this report. we should warn you, it shows graphic violence. >> reporter: the men crouch as they move across rooftops. crawling through holes they smashed through the walls. it's taken nearly a week to get this far. to reach a house on the sectarian fault line that runs through homs. "we're rescuing the bodies of the martyrs" the voice on the video narrates. they've heard a sunni family has been killed. what they find shocking beyond description. the first body that of a woman. in the room next to it, bodies crowded into a back corner, as if they were trying to hide. the dead child's face, a mask of fear, blood splatters the wall. "let the world see" the voice ex-claims "look at this massacre in one house." he curses the shia, the alawats. the video shot in the neighborhood of sabib early in february. "oh look, people, look" he says, overcome with emotion as he curses the regime and the world. the camera shows more bodies slaughtered in the bathroom. suddenly on another floor a tiny -- the child cries out, clearly terrified. he comes into view, having to crawl over a body lying in the doorway. he must have been hiding for days. "don't be afraid. you're safe now. don't make a sound" one of the men tells the boy. it's not known who killed his family or why, but the men who found the bodies are sure this was a sectarian massacre carried out by thugs allied to the regime. >> arwa damon joins us from beirut. in the end you sort of answered the question that now it looks sort of increasingly like a sectarian war rather than a rebellion against the government, and in the end, does it make any difference? >> reporter: well, candy, what the activists are saying is that the sectarian undertones to all of this are beginning to increasingly rise to the surface, and they're very fearful that they won't be able to control people's desire to want to carry out revenge attacks. a lot of what we were hearing on our recent trib to babamed in homs and in baghdad before the sectarian blood letting there began and the phenomenon of kidnappings for troits, aloites kidnapping sunnis and vice versa and trading. doesn't matter if there are the sectarian undertones. it does when it comes to how the country is going to stabilize in the future, at the end of the day the population is going to have to confront these emerging devi divisions and that would be a concerning development. if the war in syria takes on a greater sectarian nature you can almost be certain it is going to have a bigger spill on effect to iraq, already dealing with sectarian divisions and lebanon, too, as well. >> and would it also make it more difficult, because we know that various countries are looking at ways to try to get aid to some of the rebels. if it becomes more of a sectarian fight, doesn't it give the world a chance to walk away from it? >> reporter: absolutely. it most certainly would be raising a lot of questions as to what sort of individuals is the world potentially arming or aiding, and that is one of the big concerns, as the international powers try to debate and continue to remain divided on how to tackle the situation in syria. the opposition is very splintered at the microcosmic level, yes there's a certain degree of organization but as you move on up, you really see that beginning to disintegrate, and one of the big challenges has been finding viable opposition leadership to speak to, when it comes to trying to determine what sort of aid should be sent in to syria and so far really, candy, all political efforts, all diplomatic efforts have fallen fairly flat. >> arwa damon in beirut, thank you so much. walking out the doors and wl blowing them wide open. a former goldman sachs executive calls the company toxic and more. the controversy over contraception goes equal opportunity. proposed regulations on men and viag viagra. first rush limbaugh, now bill maher. are liberals getting a taste of their own medicine? o [ male announcer ] say goodbye to "ho-hum," and hello to "whoa, yum." use campbell's cream of chicken soup to make easy enchiladas, cheesy chicken & rice, and other chicken dishes that are oh...so...whoa. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. is this where we're at now? we just eat whatever tastes good? like these sweet honey clusters... actually there's a half a day's worth of fiber in every ... why stop at cereal? bring on the pork chops and the hot fudge. fantastic. are you done sweetie? yea [ male announcer ] fiber one. agents, when it comes to insurance, people feel lost. that's a dead end. don't know which way to turn. this way. turn around. 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[ male announcer ] we are insurance. ♪ we are farmers ♪ bum, ba-da-bum, bum, bum, bum ♪ a long time goldman sachs employee has called it quits, but not before ripping the corporate giant to pieces in a scathing opp ed on his way out the door. mary snow has the explosive details. >> reporter: goldman sachs is nobody for being shrouded in secrecy with rare public glimpses into the firm at congressional hearings like this one on the financial crisis and that's why it's so unusual for a goldman sachs insider to resign from the firm through a blistering "new york times" opp ed piece. greg smith an executive director quit after 12 years writing "the environment now is as toxic and destructive as i've ever seen it." he writes "the company puts itself first, ahead of its clients," saying "it makes me ill about how callously people talk about ripping their clients off. over the last 12 months i have seen five different managing directors refer to their own clients at muppets." they out if back "we were disappointed to read the assertions made by the individual that do not reflect our values, our culture and how the vast majority of people at goldman sachs think about the firm." william cohan who wrote a book about goldman sachs "money and power" said for an insider to do this is unheard of but not surprised by the content. >> so much of what he's written about is familiar to me and familiar to the clients who know goldman does this. they don't like this but goldman tends to put itself before its clients. >> reporter: some on wall street question smith's parting words. >> i think the whole epiphany concept is hypocritical. odds are things are not very different now than they were in 2000 or 2001 or whenever he began his career. >> reporter: the ceo of goldman sachs did address the company's image in an interview with christine romans in 2010. >> we'll survive only by putting our clients first and the interest of the broader community first but there certainly is a rise in the suspicion that something is broken here, and that we just don't have those standards and the industry and goldman sachs have a lot of work ahead of itself to make the kinds of changes, not just to convince people but to make the kinds of changes that are warranted, from the lessons of the last several years. >> reporter: the question is, what impact will this have? one client is the state of california. goldman sachs helps the state sell bonds. a spokesman for the state treasurer says there are no plans to alter the relationship but says "the state of california is not a muppet when it comes to bond sales and a relationship with banks." the california treasurer's office adds that even though it's a goldman sachs client, it hires independent financial advisers to help make decisions. in the bigger picture, though, former federal reserve chairman paul voelker says there's a dramatic change from firms focusing on profits and away from clients. mary snow, cnn, new york. the latest casualty in the firestorm engulfing conservative radio talk show host rush limbaugh, may be the liberal comedian bill maher getting heat from republicans and democrats for his own recent inflammatory comments. lisa sylvester joins us with the details. like a goose and gander story. >> bill maher and rush limbaugh couldn't be further apart on the political spectrum but they're both under fire for comments they've made recently and raises the question, when does comedy go too far? for bill maher there's a thin line between comedy and controversy. maher used a crude obscenity to refer to sarah palin, a tweet during tuesday's primaries took direct aim at the south, "toothless tuesday, too tight to tally." maher has taken on gop candidate rick santorum whose children are home schooled. >> he wants them locked up in the christian madrassa, the christian family room, not out in public with reason. >> reporter: even for comedy it's out of bounds, sher ye jacoby says is. >> making fun of a candidate's family or religion is downright nasty and calling women names that no woman should be called, then you've crossed the line. >> reporter: republicans are holding up maher as a counter example to rush limbaugh with. limbaugh used derogatory names to refer to college law student after she spoke out in favor of women's access to birth control. >> it makes her a slut, right, makes her a prostitute? >> advertisers have since been fleeing limbaugh's show and in that controversy's wake bill maher. he recently gave a $1 million campaign contribution to the pro-obama super pac. now there are calls for the money to be returned and david axelrod a key player on president obama's re-election team has backed away from an appearance on maher's show. >> you've got him as now a clear supporter of president owe bamo gave $1 million to the super pac that promotes president obama. that makes him a bigger target. dave axelrod who was supposed to be on his show is no longer because he may be too hot to handle. >> maher has shown no sign of backing down and on his march 9th show defended free speech, even when it comes to rush limbaugh. >> i don't like it that people are made to disappear when they say something or people try to make them disappear when they say something you don't like. that's america. sometimes you're made to feel uncomfortable, okay? >> right, thank you. >> maher remains a bull's eye for the right, limbaugh for those on the left. we've reached out to priorities usa action, the super pac t