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February 15, 2012 | | SUPER TUESDAY With Rick Santorum surging ahead of Mitt Romney in the polls, the former frontrunner is returning to defend his home state of Michigan, which votes on March 6. On Tuesday his campaign bought up nearly $1.3 million in airtime, and the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future is bankrolling a new ad attacking Santorum. Romney also wrote an op-ed in The Detroit News defending his early opposition to the auto bailout—and calling himself a "son of Detroit." The Daily Beast's Ben Jacobs on the chinks in Santorum's armor that Romney can exploit: his "liberal" voting record in Congress, long Beltway tenures, and a fondness for earmarks. PROMISES President Bashar al-Assad says Syria will hold a referendum on a new constitution on Feb. 26, but even as he made this seeming concession, his forces increased their bombardment of opposition towns. Assad had said in January that the referendum would take place in March, but it's unclear how anyone could vote amid the worsening crackdown. The shelling of Homs is now in its 13th day, and regime forces raided Hama, firing on residential neighborhoods with anti-aircraft guns. Assad's forces even raided neighborhoods in Damascus. France is negotiating a new U.N. resolution that would create humanitarian corridors to aid civilians caught up in the violence. NOT GOOD The pharmaceutical company Roche is telling hospitals that there's a fake version of its cancer drug Avastin floating around American markets. This was discovered after counterfeit vials were shown to have none of the active ingredients that combat cancer. The FDA is investigating, though it's unknown just how much of the fake drug is on the market—and whether any patients have been using it. In regard to the packaging, the fake drugs apparently don't look much like Avastin: some of text is in French, and the numbers are all wrong. The incident is part of a growing trend, once thought to be confined to developing nations, of fake drugs in the U.S. BLACKLISTED Uh oh. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will announce "key nuclear achievements" Wednesday. Iranian news reports that the progress will probably be that the uranium enrichment plant, Fordo, located inside a mountain, is "fully operational." Meanwhile, in an unprecedented move that will cripple Tehran's financial systems, the European Union, working with the U.S., is seeking to get Iran kicked off a financial clearinghouse that facilitates the nation's overseas oil sales. SWIFT, or the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is used by major banks across the world for wire transfers. Though Iran's largest banks have been sanctioned by the EU and U.S., they've been using SWIFT. The clearinghouse is expected to listen to the U.S. and EU, and take action with a formal ruling later this month. DIPLOMACY Leave it to Vice President Biden to give a straight-talking toast to China's vice president, and likely future leader, Xi Jinping. "As Americans, we welcome competition," Biden said during a State Department lunch. "But cooperation, as you and I have spoken about, can only be mutually beneficial if the game is fair." Biden went on to lecture Xi on China's artificially depressed currency, jailed Chinese dissidents, and opposition to a U.N. resolution on Syria. President Obama made similar points during his meeting with Xi, though more diplomatically. Further complicating Xi's visit to the U.S., several rights advocates say a top State Department envoy on religious freedom was blocked from entering the country shortly before Xi's visit. Today Xi meets with Congress.
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 China's Not the Bad Guy by Zachary Karabell  What Syria's Assad Wants by Salman Shaikh How PBS Got Cool by Jace Lacob, Maria Elena Fernandez
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