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Let Me Start: Back to the culture wars

Republicans didn't do a very good job appealing to women in the 2012 election.
The dome of the U.S. Capitol Building is seen as the sun sets on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 7, 2013. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
The dome of the U.S. Capitol Building is seen as the sun sets on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, March 7, 2013.

Republicans didn't do a very good job appealing to women in the 2012 election. And once again, they're putting their far-right base over the interests of many women by pushing a strict new measure to limit abortion. The proposal will be introduced in the House of Representatives today and would ban all abortions after the 22nd week of pregnancy. It's the strictest anti-abortion measure in either house of Congress in over a decade. And despite their repeated insistence that they're all about jobs, the GOP is going back to the culture wars to give its base what it wants.

President Obama defended his administration's use of secret surveillance programs. In an interview with Charlie Rose of PBS, the president said the programs had disrupted terror plots at home and abroad, and he rejected the idea that they are simply a continuation of what liberals railed against during the Bush administration.

The White House is launching a campaign to sell Obamacare and make sure it doesn't turn into the train wreck Republicans -- and even some Democrats--are predicting. The campaign can't come soon enough--Obamacare isn't popular according to our latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll--and a trio of President Obama's most experienced campaign advisers will lead the effort.

Is Gov. Rick Scott rebounding in Florida?

With a week to go before the special Senate election in Massachusetts, Rep. Ed Markey is hitting his Republican opponent Gabriel Gomez in a tough new radio ad. Markey and Gomez have their final debate tonight.