Guest: Dick Morris

"With many polls showing that President Obama is getting hurt because of rising gas prices, the Obama machine is now trying to persuade us that he's on the case. One problem: Gas prices have doubled on the President's watch and his administration has invested about $100 billion in taxpayer money on alternative energy products. The Department of Energy says one of its loan programs created 61,000 jobs; even if that's true, that's $570,000 per job. The President is correct in wanting 'green energy,' but he badly miscalculated how to get there. He's run up the debt even further by making speculative government investments that have not paid off. Mr. Obama's energy legacy is not good - he opposes the Keystone pipeline, his administration has made it difficult for oil companies to explore, and he has only become concerned about gas prices in this reelection year. In addition, his Energy Secretary, Steven Chu, seems to have no clue at all. The feds should be passing laws that constrain oil speculation and promoting as much energy competition as possible. That would drive down prices. There's also bad news for the 'drill, baby, drill' crowd - a new report says that over 36 years of increased oil production in the USA has not driven gas prices downward."

The Factor asked political strategist Dick Morris to assess the damage done to President Obama by high gas prices. "This is going to be very serious for him," Morris said, "and probably lethal. If the recession didn't kill him, the gas prices will because he has so clearly been on the record that oil is the fuel of the past, that we have to move on to renewables, that we shouldn't drill off the coast or in the Gulf. The United States now has the capacity to increase the global supply of oil so that we can completely control oil prices. The answer is, 'drill, baby drill!" Morris also declared that Mitt Romney has pretty much wrapped up the Republican nomination, saying, "There is now very little chance of a brokered convention."

Guests: Mary Anne Marsh & Kirsten Powers

On Tuesday's program Charles Krauthammer confidently predicted that Mitt Romney will ask Florida Senator Marco Rubio to be his running mate and that Rubio will accept. The Factor ran that proposition past Democrats Mary Anne Marsh and Kirsten Powers. "Of course Charles is right," Powers said. "Rubio is extremely popular, Romney would want to pick someone who energizes the base and Rubio is a Tea Partier, which definitely energizes the base. He's charismatic, he's handsome, and he's from Florida, which certainly doesn't hurt." But Marsh suggested that Mitt Romney could make a more sagacious choice. "Romney has a problem with women and Hispanics, so the far better pick would be Governor Susana Martinez of New Mexico. It would help with women and with Hispanics."

Guest: Rev. Corey Brooks

In a particularly gruesome period, even by Chicago standards, 49 people were shot in the city last weekend, ten of them fatally. The Factor spoke about the violence with Chicago pastor Corey Brooks. "These crimes are being committed by young men 25 and under," Brooks said, "who feel a sense of hopelessness and frustration. These are not necessarily all drug gangs, these are young men who feel they don't have anything to live for, who feel they don't have a chance in society. They are creating mayhem in our neighborhoods." The Factor lamented that violent crime on Chicago's south side has been an intractable problem for decades: "In the past 40 years tens of millions of dollars have been poured into your neighborhood by the state and the federal government to try and improve things. It doesn't seem to make any difference."

Guest: Jesse Watters

Jesse Watters saddled up and took his camera crew to visit college students on break in Panama City, Florida. He entered the No Spin Zone and reported that most of the students he spoke with seem to be disenchanted with President Obama. "66% of college students voted for Obama last time," Watters said, "but if you look at this tape he got slaughtered. Gas prices are killing these kids." Watters also reported on the impossibility of finding a quiet hotel room. "I wanted to get some sleep so I got a place that's $350 a night, but it ended up being ground zero for spring break. Then they gave me a suite because they felt bad for me, but there were mirrors on the ceiling and a Jacuzzi in my bedroom." The Factor excused the less-than-astute spring breakers, saying, "College kids have a license to be dopey.

Guest: Dennis Miller

The Factor was joined by Dennis Miller, who recently interviewed Rick Santorum on his radio show. "I dig a lot of what Santorum says," Miller opined, "but I think he goes out of his way to pronounce things when he doesn't have to. On this gay marriage thing, he ought to just come out and say, 'Listen, I believe exactly what the President believes' and leave it at that." Miller also commented on a report that two of Osama bin Laden's former wives got into a fistfight in prison. "There's nothing funnier to me than the jaws of life having to be used on two dames who don't believe in the efficacy of life. If they could get them out of the burkas and we could get a little jojoba oil in there, the whole thing would be scintillating." Miller then turned to the new Ben & Jerry's flavor "Appel-y Ever After," which celebrates same-sex marriage. "You know what that tells me?" Miller asked. "Steve Jobs is really dead because no one would be copping the name 'Apple' in an ice cream flavor if Jobs was still alive."

Guest: Juliet Huddy

Fox News correspondent Juliet Huddy watched footage showing Tom Hanks on stage with a man in blackface during a 2004 school fundraiser. "The theme of the evening was castaways," Huddy reported, "and during the auction a white parent showed up in blackface with a wig dressed as a native African. Hanks says he had no idea this guy was going to show up in blackface and that it was hideously offensive." Huddy also watched a tape showing TSA screeners hassling a 3-year-old wheelchair-bound boy. "Since this happened the TSA has changed some regulations," she said, "so it likely would not happen now. It's ridiculous, but these terrorists are creative. Why am I the only one who feels I'm okay going through with all this? They're not torturing us, they're making us safe!"

Patti Sarigianis, Bel Air, MD: "Bill, my husband and I turned into the Factor after a long 12-hour workday just in time to see the welfare guy who does not want a job. How comforting it is to know that we are working to support his lazy lifestyle."

Lorraine Barnicoat, Cape Cod, MA: "The entitlement mindset has taken root because progressives have systematically taken over the educational system and the media. Kids are indoctrinated at a young age."

David Cooper, Riverbank, CA: "Senator Rubio would be a good pick to run as vice president. Congressman Allen West would also be good."

Wednesday's Patriot: President Obama, who made a wry joke about his birth certificate when the Prime Minister of Ireland presented him with a formal certificate of Irish heritage.