lot of fond memories for a lot of people who remember those takeoffs over the years. >> show up on time tomorrow. >> if it is way too early, it is "morning joe." now stick around because we've got chuck todd and "the daily rundown" starting right now. the dirty dozen just 12 days left until the debt limit deadline. how will the president and house leaders find 217 votes? what it's going to take to get past this impasse. who do house republican freshmen distrust more? the senate or the president? speaking of the senate, can the gang of six turn into the gang of 60? everybody wants to be a hero. but are enough senators ready to bring this to an end? and t. the final one. after 30 years of space shuttle missions, "atlantis" comes home for nasa's final shuttle landing. how long before the u.s. finds a new way to go where no one has gone before?

good morning, it is thursday, july 21st, 2011. yes, 217 is the majority right now that you would need to pass something in the house because there are two vacancies. anthony weiner and dean heller. to my first reads of the morning. we're in the same place we were three months ago. nobody has a debt plan that can get passed in the republican-controlled house. and there's more and more talk on the hill that the only way for house republicans to eventually support any deal is for them to watch the markets actually reacting well take a dive. you can count the tracks this process is working on by the number of meetings scheduled, announced and unannounced. just yesterday, for instance, democratic leaders met with the president at the white house. then it was house republican leaders at the white house. then it was pelosi,boehner and

canter. this isn't exactly high-speed rail. >> right now there are multiple trains heading toward the station. some of them may continue up to the last moment because we need to be sure that that failsafe option is there even as we pursue aggressively the possibility of doing something bigger. >> look, here's where things stand. there are three different big deals out there. number one is what the president and speaker boehner and eric cantor are negotiating, which is, yes, a big deal that is separate from anything the gang of six in the senate is working on. and then of course there's mcconnell-reid. one thing that's going on in the last 24 to 48 hours, is any deal that's mcconnell-reid that includes this idea of sort of the disapproval vote, giving the president more power to raise the debt ceiling, that thing has grown to the point of almost being toxic with some house republicans. in fact, they hate it so much, they may prefer to negotiate with the president directly. but for the white house, getting

the 217 means making a deal acceptable to at least some of those houses with 87 new members. the man who's made himself their standard bearer, majority leader eric cantor put it this way. >> one-third of the republican conference and one-quarter of the entire house of representatives are freshmen, they're new. many of them have never served in public office before. >> yes, we have to have 218, which is the majority number of votes in the house to get something passed. but i think at the end what the result will be is a vote that tries to deliver one, on the fact that we don't want to see the united states default, and two, that we are actually bringing real change. >> that last part of this. there is something going on here. there is going to be a big deal. does it happen though before the markets tank or after? there's also a little bit of an alpha dog issue here. everyone lately wants to be the savior, whether it's the speaker and the president -- they're the

ones of course that are actually probably the two biggest players here. you got the gang of six which of course is feeling heroic of late. mcconnell and reid have been poo-poo'ing all the other options because they believe their best way would be the best way to save the republic from default. you get the drift. of course, there are those house freshmen republicans who like to remind you we wouldn't even discussing this if it weren't for their electoral success. the "wall street journal" endorses much of the gang of six plan with a caveat -- calling it a conceptual break-through with too few details. still, that's a big piece of the conservative opinion elite breaking in favor of gang of six. that tells you something. something might be afoot but the question is, is it going to happen before august 2nd and before the markets have to react. finally, a headline david plouffe can't be happy about. in an interview with kansas city

tv station yesterday the president, asked about 2012, framed it saying it is a referendum. listen. >> who do you think in the republican field could beat you? >> ultimately, i think that i will be judged based on the american people believing that i'm fighting for them. if next november they feel like i've been on their side and i've been working as hard as i can and have been getting some things done to move us in the right direction, i'll win. if they don't, then i'll lose and that's not to say that the other candidate is irrelevant but it does mean that i'm probably going to win or lose depending on their assessment of my stewardship. >> there it is. the president says that the election is going to be a referendum on himself. i can imagine how the white

house campaign team is going to spin this a little bit and they'll say something like, well, of course, it will be somewhat about the president, but the idea of two visions is still going to matter and it is still going to be a choice at the end of the day. we'll see, that's a classic washington gaffe when somebody accidentally speaks the truth in one of those spin sessions. at the end of the day, the house republicans, specifically the handful of moderates that are still there, will be key to passing a plan to raise the debt ceiling. with me now, pennsylvania congressman charlie dent, co-chair of the tuesday group, coalition of center right republicans. he's also one of the few house republicans who represents a congressional district that both john kerry and barack obama carried these days which means you're in a swing district of the likes and representing from the opposite party. we're not seeing much these days. congressman, let me ask you. you see all these plans out there -- gang of six, these compromises that you hear. what do you like, what do you dislike? >> well, first let me say this.

default and downgrade are not an option. that's very clear. i think at the end of the day we all understand that we have an affirmative obligation to govern. we're going to have to come to an agreement. i think the gang of six has presented a proposal that's worthy of very serious consideration. i mean i like the general outline. i need more details but again, that's not a debt ceiling plan. that is frankly dealing with fiscal reform and the long-term debt and defenicits of this country. i think at the end of the day though you'll probably see something like an intermediate deal. what i mean is perhaps something closer to that biden framework. i'm not sure just how much in debt ceiling increase and how much in spending reduction but maybe somewhere on the order of $1 trillion. and again, the question is how much time does that get you on the debt ceiling. it wouldn't take you through the election of november 2012. >> walk me through this. how real is this issue of sort

of distrust of some of these house republican freshman when they hear these dire warnings from wall street, from the treasury department, about default and this idea that they don't quite believe what they're hearing. how real is this have you noticed in the caucus? >> i think most members of the republican conference, whether freshmen or upperclassmen, they all understand this is very serious matter. people are worried, they're concerned and default and downgrade are not an option. so i think that again there's been an education process for those newer members particularly that as a majority party in the house that we have an affirmative obligation to govern. that means we'll have to move the bill. i believe that's important once we get through this cap trade debate in the senate, everyone tells me over there it is not likely to pass but we have to move another plan. i think we have to move it rather quickly and i suspect something closer to the biden framework is where this will end up. but again i'm not in the room so i can't say definitively what that next plan will be.

>> our serious is this issue of your conference being so unhappy with this idea of the mitch mcconnell plan that in many ways it almost set things back a little bit? the mcconnell plan, i think everybody sees the mcconnell plan as a last-ditch effort. that's certainly nobody's preference. but at the same time no one's prepared to dismiss the mcdonnell plan because if it's the only option on the table and if it avoids default and downgrade it may be the only plan available. so again, not desirable. we end up surrendering a lot of our authority to -- we, the congress, surrender a lot of our authority to the president. and then we are able to vote on disapproval issues. i don't think that's where anybody wants to be. but at the same time i am not ready to dismiss that idea. >> in the nbc/witho"wall street journal" poll this week we asked should republicans back off their pledge not to have any revenue or tax increases in any sort of compromised deal.

62% said republican leaders ought to step back from this pledge and should agree to some tax increases. if that's what it takes to get a deal. are you a part of that 62%? >> well, no -- what i want is tax reform. the gang of six has laid out a plan that says let's lower marginal rates and elimb nat the ant and close the deduction breaks and loopholes. i think a lot of us are there, that we want to see those deductions eliminated, many of them eliminated, breaks and loopholes closed but in exchange we see lower marginal rates. i think that's where most of us are on the republican side of the aisle and want to keep this as close to revenue neutral as possible. >> but if it's not, if revenue goes up and if a lot of members of the senate, even a handful of republicans are, you can support something like that if overall rates are coming down? >> let's see what the spending

reductions are. i'd like to keep this revenue neutral if possible. but we'll also balance that against any spending reductions that would be contained in the final agreement. >> how hard would it be to win the election if there was default for you? >> i suspect for every member of congress it would be extremely difficult. be very difficult for the president. hey, if there were a default and a downgrade, i believe that would reflect poorly upon everybody in elected office, whether you're republican or democrat or president or member of congress. so i really just don't think that's an option that the american people want us to act. they want us to lead and they do believe we have an affirmative obligation to govern and i think we have to prove to the american people we can do that. >> all right, charlie dent, pennsylvania republican, one of the 49 members "the tuesday group," almost 50 members have a coalition of center right house republicans. thanks. >> thank you, chuck. up next -- so many plans, so little time. everyone wants to claim a piece of the victory pie but no one

can agree on the recipe. amid new signs today the gang of six plan might pick up some momentum, we'll talk to a huge supporter of that deal. still to come -- the debt debate gets personal. but first a look ahead at the president's schedule. it's not the public schedule we all care about. it's all these behind-the-scenes meetings that we want to find out more about. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc.... whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain. way to go, coach. ♪ way to go, coach. you could save a bundle with geico's multi-policy discount. geico, saving people money on more than just car insurance. ♪

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the government's already running on borrowed money and increasingly, on borrowed time. with just 12 days to go until potential default, there are new signs that a short-term

extension may be an option, but only if the larger deal comes later. democrat from delaware senator chris kunz, do you feel as if harry reid and mitch mcconnell want to see the gang of six come to fruition on the senate floor? >> well, i can't speak for leader reid and senator mcconnell but i know there is a growing chorus of senators who are joining the gang of six. there's more than 30 as of midday yesterday who signed a bipartisan letter of support. it is a tough, big balanced bipartisan deal that includes some very hard choices and six senators, three democrats, three republicans, who dedicated the last six months to hammering out this framework i think have done a very hard and very good work. at this point that is our only path forward for dealing in a responsible way with our record

deficits and debt. the mcconnell-reid framework is an equally valuable and necessary way to get past america's impending default crisis, as you said, just 12 days away. the two aren't necessarily linked but we need to deal with them both at the same time. both s&p and moody's last week gave us dire warnings they might downgrade america's debt rating even if we get past the default crisis of the next 12 days if we don't deal with our deficit. i think that we need to embrace the kind of structure the gang of six has put together to make some very tough choices in the year ahead. >> does it concern you that the only people that seem to be negotiating with the president right now are members of leadership? i ask this because i want to play something senator mark kirk, republican from illinois, said to me yesterday. >> most of the groups, for example, under vice president biden, et cetera, were run by the loyal partisans of both parties, and that is a recipe

for long-term failure. >> where do the non-members of leadership, which of course if you're in leadership, you're partisan. your job is to either stay in the majority or get the majority. that's why you get elected by your peers. but is that -- is senator kirk right? that's a recipe for long-term failure? >> i think the only way forward is for us to begin at the center and work our way outward. i agree with senator kirk that we need to engage the broad middle of both the senate and the house. it is partisanship that has ground this institution to a halt. in my nine months here i've been struck at just how divided things are and how rarely we have constructive bipartisan conversations and how few meaningful pieces of legislation are able to get passed, the constant filibusters that the other party is using to slow up the workings of the senate. in my view exactly what's most promising about the gang of six and the dozens of senators who have now publicly supported it is that it began with a

bipartisan group not ordained by leadership but folks who sat down and thoughtfully negotiated a framework for some very hard choices we have to make here in order to get america's budget and economy back on track. >> not every member of your party is happy about the gang of six. here's what congressman emanuel cleaver, member of the congressional black caucus, had to say about it. >> we are an anti-gang group. we are trying to suppress the growth of gangs. we think they are not healthy for washington. >> and in fact, what he was saying about it also tied in a little bit to this poll result that we got in our nbc/"wall street journal" poll when we asked should democrats compromise on some cuts to social security and medicare in particular in order to deal with the deficit. and majority said democrats should not come off of that

stance. senator coons, what do you say to leaders of the progressive wing of your party who are just apoplectic, frankly, that social security, medicare and other government funds to poor americans are on the table here? >> well, chuck, i'm not happy either that this is our only path forward. but i really think this is our only option. what has started as a high-stakes game of poker over the last six months between the senate democrats and the house republicans over the budget and the path forward turned into a game of russian roulette when the ryan budget was put out. the republicans in the house put out in the ryan budget an extreme budget that would make significant cuts and fundamentally alter medicare as we know it. the gang of six proposal will ask us to make some significant sacrifices. but in my view, it is a progressive value to fight, to strengthen and sustain medicare and medicaid and on a separate track social security for the long run. and to ignore the fact that we have record deficits and we have

to get republicans to the table and get them to be willing to make revenue a part of the solution is to ignore our current fiscal reality. as you heard from congressman dent who was on before me, one of the things about the gang of six that has broken some of this logjam is it's getting republicans to say the word "revenue" as part of tax reform. i think if we can get shared sacrifice, if we can get a mix of savings from across pentagon spending, domestic discretionary spending, entitlement spending and revenue, we've got a much better chance of sustaining those elements of the progressive legacy that we all want to see sucks seceed going forward. >> do you think harry reid is right, there's not enough time to make gang of six happen? >> there is enough time to put some of the elements of the gang of six into the mcconnell-reid vehicles that's going from the senate to the house and help us, i pray, avoid default, but it will take months for the framework that gang of six has hammered out to then get turned

into legislative action that will actually achieve real spending reductions and stabilize our economy. >> senator chris coons, freshman democrat from delaware, thanks for coming on this morning. all right. over and out. the end of an era at nasa and the end of the line for thousands of workers. we're going to talk to an nbc legend and someone who's been covering nasa from the very beginning. plus, naked no more. a big change for those controversial full-body scanners. but first, today's trivia question -- who was the last incumbent democratic member of congress to lose re-election in the state of california? tweet me at chucktodd or@daily rundown. i'll have the answer coming up on "the daily rundown." we'll be right back. boy, i'm glad we got aflac huh.

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that was the final touch touchdown of the space shuttle program occurring just before dawn at 5:30 eastern time at kennedy space center. jay barber is live with me now at kennedy space center in florida. jay, when is the next time we're going to see a rocket that can leave here and come back with the stamp of nasa on it? >> well, we'll see rockets with nasa on it but the next time we'll see astronauts going to space is no earlier than 2014. the company space-x out in california is trying to get nasa's permission to deliver

cargo to the international space station this year. if they can do that they can launch astronauts to the space station in 2014. that's three years from now. also -- they're closing in on us, chuck. we have some funny noises. >> they're really going to shut this down quick! >> yeah. but anyway, you know, they say this is the end today and i want to say quickly, we have astronauts -- america has astronauts on-board the international space station. we'll have them there. they'll be riding a russian s h soyuz there and back but that won't be until 2014 or 2015 and there is a special flag that they left up there that flew on the first shuttle for the new crew to go up there and get. >> i'm going to get in trouble with my producers for keeping this going, but the space shuttle program, how much more of a success should it have been? why is it that we went 30 years

without basically getting newer vehicles sooner? do you look back on this and say it was a massive success or do you say, boy, it was a good success but it could have been bigger and maybe the two disasters of "challenger" and "columbia" set things back in a way that we'll never get that time back? >> it was a good success but it could have been a better success. i think that's the answer to the question, chuck. we learned so much and people don't realize today -- they like their gps, they like their cell phones, they like their medical techniques to decide what you have as a threatening disease. all the good things that came out of the program. scientists tell me a very important thing. they say, jay, if we had not gone to the moon in ""apollo,"" had we not had the space shuttle or space programs for the past 50 years, we would be 50 years behind in science where we are today. so stop and think about that. >> that's a good way to end it,

jay barbree. you better not be going anywhere. just because we aren't launching the space shuttle doesn't mean we don't want you right here with us at nbc and msnbc. >> thank you, my friend. thank you, my friend. up next, after a week of monty pythonesque drama in the british parliament, rupert murdoch returns to the united states. is that phone hacking scandal following him across the pond? plus, keeping the faith. our "the daily rundown" look at the lives in the caucuses. why beliefs could make or break republican presidential hopefuls? watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. for driving safely.othing truth: at allstate, you get a check in the mail twice a year, every year you don't have an accident. the safe driving bonus check. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate.

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this time is the federal aviation administration. if congress can't pass a reauthorization bill by friday, some faa programs will shut down. the house and senate are fighting over union rights and federal funding for small airports. air traffic controllers and safety inspectors would stay on the job but about 4,000 of the faa's 32,000 workers will likely be furloughed. the tsa is changing those controversial airport body scanners. replacing them with more generic body images. they've been testing out the new software at a number of airports, including reagan national here in washington, d.c. they will change all of the scanners soon nationwide. i guess we don't have to worry about wearing clean underwear. after two days of high hacking drama, british parliament is on summer recess until september. that doesn't mean there will be any pause in the widening investigation into the scandal or for the man at the center of it all, rupert murdoch. nbc's martin fletcher is in london. martin, what's the latest on all this? i understand rupert's coming

here. >> he's already there, chuck. he arrived yesterday and it was quite a welcome, by the way. his new york apartment, the paparazzi welcomed him as he got out of his black vehicle with his wife, called out "nice lift, wendy." "nice lift." so the slap heard across the ocean. >> what is it that we can expect parliament is going to do in september when they come back, when it comes to this scandal, sort of where is the investigation now and where does it go forward? >> it seems to be strange that after this dramatic session, emergency session in parliament yesterday they went on holiday, on vacation today until september 5. but that doesn't mean, by any means, the investigation is over or even paused because the key investigation at the moment is by several parliamentary committees, judicial committees, also of course the police are investigating and even daily news corp operations are having their own investigations.

there's a lot of investigating going on while the parliament is away. when they come back they will insist on what yesterday was said was a transparency between that relationship, the media and the government politicians. that's the key in britain today. it's long been a thorn in the side of the british way of life, this cozy relationship between the power institutions. if this comes to a halt, that would be something. but not many people are betting on it, chuck. >> martin fletcher in london with the latest on this. let's see what happens with brew pert a rupert and where he turns up here in the united states, if he goes public at all. we've heard that faith can move mountains. but can it move voters in this iowa it is doing just that. while faith may lead to victory in the hawkeye state, as nbc explains it, it may not lead to the republican nomination. >> reporter: for iowa republicans, you got to have

faith. take michele bachmann. at an iowa church two weeks ago it was more sermon than stump speech. >> jesus is part of every part of life, including law, including politics. >> reporter: bachmann's not the only one. >> for me my faith is very important to me. it influences all that i do. >> if you believe your rights come from your creator, then it is time for us to stand up to washington. >> reporter: the message has come in the past. in 2008, mike huckabee, a baptist minister, won the caucuses handily. in 2002008, 40% of iowa caucusgs say they were religion conservatives but that has jumped to 60%. just 1 in 5 registered republicans in iowa participate in the caucus so intensity matters. in 1988, pat robertson's army, as they were called, propelled the evangelical pastor to a surprise second place finish

ahead of vice president george h.w. bush. >> probably most stunning story of the evening so far is the strong second place showing on the republican side of pat robertson. >> reporter: showing how much things have changed since bush's 1980 iowa victory. >> i'm overjoyed at this expression of love and support from people here in iowa. >> reporter: but bush's son, george w., a born-again christian, proved a champion of religious conservatives especially in moments like this iowa debate when asked to name his most influential philosopher or thinker. >> governor bush, philosopher-thinker, and why? >> christ. because he changed my heart. >> bachmann, a favorite of the tea party and evangelicals. is what some call the teavangelical, putting her in a strong position to win iowa. >> that's the real goal. that's the real treasure. >> reporter: that is, unless someone like texas governor rick perry enters the race, another tea didn't vange lchlical, leada

prayer service at reliant stadium on august 6th, just a week before the iowa straw poll but the pulpit is not necessarily a launching bad to the gop nomination. since 1998 only two have gone on to be the party's pick. >> iowa is one of those rare states not in the south with a wide evangelical population. there's only a couple of states outside the south with an evangelical population higher than 25%. with or without faith, iowa winners have only had a 50%-50% getting the party's nomination, meaning there's still plenty of room for the mitt romneys of the world who are choosing not to play very hard there. we'll see if he continues that pledge. up next, breaking down all the big political stories with our powerhouse panel coming up.

the florida fight in the house and how the blood sport of hockey just made its way on to the campaign trail. but first, white house soup of the day -- anything but capitol hi chili today. chicken chili. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. somewhere in america, a city comes to life. it moves effortlessly, breathes easily. it flows with clean water. it makes its skyline greener

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daily flashback -- on this day in 2009, prosecutors in cambridge, massachusetts dropped a disorderly conduct charge against harvard professor henry louis gates jr. gates was arrested at his home five days earlier igniting a little bit of a racial firestorm with president obama giving this story national attention when he accused police of acting "stupidly." the controversy eventually ended a few day later with a beer summit at the white house. feel forget at the president conference where the president answered that question it was supposed to be about health care. moving on to the fight in florida. no, the sunshine state, not the

primary, not the presidential race -- but this fight apparently between a constituent and a member of congress -- and two members of congress. congressman allen west and dnc chairwoman wasserman-schultz. he lives in her district. after she called him out on the floor, he e-mailed her you are the most vile member of the u.s. house of representatives. he have proven repeatedly you are not a lady, therefore should not be afforded respect from me. to which she responded on air with my colleague andrea mitchell. >> it is not surprising that given the pressure that the republicans are facing -- i mean they're defending ending medicare as we know it. it's not really surprising that he would crack unthe pressure of having to defend that. >> jeff johnson is a contributory msnbc and thegrio.com and jackie kucinich

covers politics for "usa today." welcome to you all. jackie, i know you have covered capitol hill quite closely in some of your previous -- with some of your previous employers. describe the level of this spat, sort of what we saw go on here. is this sort of par for the course in 21st century congress? >> i think so. at this point someone says something and they raise money off of it and everybody gets upset and then they raise more money off of it. it seems like in recent history at least this is kind of how it's been -- how it's getting done or how these kind of side show type things happen. he sent this e-mail but he also cc'd pelosi, speaker boehner -- cantor, i mean. this was not intended to be a private e-mail. >> one point of clarification -- dnc wants to make it clear debbie wasserman-schultz is not raising money off this.

we can let others decide whether that encompassed the dnc or not but when we see this -- i look back and i think, "you lie" and joe wilson and all this stuff, in a weird way isn't all this attention only encouraging members of congress to act outrageously because they can raise crazy money? >> yes. we forget it was only a couple months ago we talk about the need for civility in this town. >> when was this? >> i think it was state of the union because we were sitting together. >> oh! it was a long time ago. was that this year? >> it was this year. i think that lasted two or three news cycles. one of the things about this is that they can really raise a lot of money. allen webb was a pretty good fund-raiser when he ran in 2010, he raised double what his opponent raised and you see here with this he immediately upped the request for funds. will definitely raise his profile. for democrats it feeds into this

narrative they have about tea party members being outside the mainstream, being extreme, and it also i think underscores another problem that republicans have and that's a woman problem. there are not a lot of women you see in leadership there and i think because it was from allen west -- the man to a woman, it does have this undercurrent of sexism to it. >> jeff, i want to go to something that she just brought up in regards to the whole issue of the face of the tea party. i've talked to some people who consider themselves members of the tea party and they cringe at allen west and joe walsh. we've seen him and chris matthews go at it earlier this week. it bothers them this is the face because it is going to marginalize them so they wouldn't be taken seriously. >> sure. the tea party has been constantly dealing with the image of being crazy as opposed to substantive.

if i was a substantive tea party member, whoever those people are, i would also be concerned that this continues to be the face of the crazy tea party member that only lashes out on an emotional level, doesn't deal with substantive policy issues especially at a time and place when the country needs reason as opposed to insanity. >> we're seeing a little bit of sort of a side show atmosphere regarding michele bachmann and this issue of her health. yesterday she made the decision to release a statement from the house physician saying that she's got this under control. what was interesting to see how some of they are opponents on the republican side responded. here's tim pawlenty last night. >> i don't know enough about her particular medical situation to comment. i just don't have enough facts on that and certainly would defer to the judgment of the medical professionals. but setting that aside, all of the candidates i think are going to have to be able to demonstrate they can do all of the job all of the time.

>> i think it is mostly a side show, greta. i've observed congresswoman bachmann. i've never seen her have a medical condition or impairment that would seem to be a concern. >> we put those bites together because one was earlier in the day, jackie, and one was later in the day. felt like he was walking it back. mitt romney by the way, his statement's even more interesting. there's a lot to read into it. "there's no question in my mind michele bachmann's health is in no way to be an impediment. we'll campaign in various states and express our viewers." >> speaking of iowa. >> i realize mitt romney only has one opponent in his mind. michele bachmann. >> i think she's handled it as well as it can be hand. she came out fairly quickly, yeah, i have these headaches. not a big deal. i've learned to deal with them. that's all you can really do in this situation. i think it actually humanized her a lot, frankly. 1 in 6 women have migraines. 30 million people are affected

by this. they're not saying oh, she's weak, they're saying, oh, i have headaches, too. how are tim pawlenty and mitt romney handling this? >> tim pawlenty -- the direct criticism of her said she wasn't offered the job because she could have these blinding headaches at a critical moment during her presidency. then he walks it back. the same thing that he did when he said obamney care, then he said, well, i wasn't really saying that. again, at some level if you have all of these men, whether herman cain, tim pawlenty, who are jumping on michele bachmann criticizing her, it does humanize her and you do wonder if there's going to be a backlash and almost a hillary clinton moment when she's in new hampshire and she had all of these men attacking her and that she starts to be a more legitimate figure in the race. >> before we go to break, jeff johnson, react to this new ad from tim pawlenty. watch.

>> faced an opponent experts can't be beat. you fight, you bleed. to cam back we need a leader with a proven proven record, n rhetoric. join me and prove the experts wrong. >> wow! think about that. he's already running the oh, my god, everybody's written me off. he's doing "miracle on ice." do you believe in miracles. jeff johnson, do you believe in miracles? can tim pawlenty use hockey to do well in this iowa straw poll? >> quickly? an ad like that to me i don't think sends confidence, sends desperation. in my eyes, in gender, one, the poll numbers don't support it and, two, i don't think he's in a position to say he will create a miracle. the u.s. hockey team had skill.

i think there's something he's lacking within the campaign that allows him to create that kind of miracle and feels force. >> stay here. we'll talk debt. trivia time, who was the last democratic incumbent congressman to lose re-election in california? the answer was gary condit. in 2002, condit lost the democratic primary by a wide margin to dennis cardoza, in the missed of the chandra levy investigation. [ man ] i got this new citi thankyou card

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[ man ] so i used mine to get a whole new perspective. ♪ [ male announcer ] the new citi thankyou premier card gives you more ways to earn points. what's your story? citi can help you write it. let's bring back our panel, jeff johnson, miss henderson and jackie. the stunning talk was not any of the meetings at the white house and no pizza partiy ies with jo

boehner. whether letting the tax cuts would violate the grover northrop pledge and said no. what do you think? >> i think a lot of people read that and said, it doesn't? this changes the debate because they've been harkening back to this pledge, i'm not going to increase taxes. >> jeff johnson, it does feel there's a softening here, republicans have to move somewhere. did grover give them cover? >> he gave them the largest loophole they could possibly get. puts them in a perfect position to say what we said this was it actually isn't. >> a loophole, can you top that? >> that's just great. they're obviously reading this editorial and reading the polls, republicans say, even they say they have to raise revenue somehow. i think we will see a switch

from this whole idea of raising revenue to talking about tax reform. >> if rates go down and it happens to increase revenue, this won't violate his pledge. time for shameless plugs. >> i will do a selfless shameless plug and recognize joanne reed, the new managing editor of thegrio.com. >> and brilliant. >> i will plug beach vacations. i just got back from cancun. i'm encouraging everyone. >> in a good mood. >> i'm encouraging everyone to lay on the beach for hours and hours at a time. >> except if you're in new york city today, there's a disgusting reason you don't want to go to the beach. >> i will plug des moines register, their databases as iowa gets closer, caucuses and straw polls, really good and helper. >> they're going to be a good net paper, aren't they? that's okay. all right.

it's a good type of plug. thank you all. that's it for this edition of ""the daily rundown." tomorrow, on the show. senator s claire mccaskill and kate hutchinson. [ male announcer ] this is lisa, who tries to stay ahead of her class.

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