it makes m sad. willie, you know what else makes me sad? >> what's that? >> that we don't have three more hours. >> let's do it tomorrow. >> it's "morning joe." stick around for "the daily rundown" hosted today by the great andrea mitchell. welcome to the aarp, mr. president. barack obama turns 50 today. he celebrated last night on friendly ground, a hometown fund-raiser in chicago. nationwide polls, though, show the grueling debt fight left him with some serious battle scars. another fiscal fiasco, congress leaves washington without first resolving a stalemate over funding the faa. that leaves thousands of workers out of a job and airline inspectors working without pay. secretary of transportation ray la hoahood is our guest this morning. >> and the muslim holy month of ramadan has not slowed the fierce syrian crackdown on

anti-government protests. activists report six more deaths in nighttime raids overnight. it's thursday, august 4th, 2011, and this is "the daily rundown." i'm andrea mitchell in for chuck todd today. let's get right to our first reads of the morning. the white house doesn't like us calling it a pivot, but president obama is trying to put the debt fight behind him and focus now on jobs and his campaign message. here he is last night in his hometown of chicago. >> the thing that we all have to remember is, is that as much good as we've done, precisely because the challenges were so daunting, precisely because we were inheriting so many challeng challenges, that we're not even halfway there yet. and when i said change we can believe in, i didn't say change we can believe in tomorrow. not change we can believe in

next week. we knew this was going to take time. >> and his former chief of staff, rahm emanuel, now chicago's mayor, of course, does have the president's back after mitt romney ripped chicagoan the obama record, rahm struck back. >> 1.2 million people today have a job because he didn't listen to conventional wisdom like drafted by then ex-governor mitt romney. who suggested that detroit should just, meaning the auto industry and all the related industrial base of america, should just go bankrupt. when he was governor, massachusetts was 47th out of 50 in job production. in case he forgot that, i'd like to remind him of that. so when it comes to chicago, i'll get him a groupon discount on the seats of the idea festival for theext jobs. >> romney and the rest of the republican field are looking forward to next week's iowa straw poll. the first test of their

organizational strength in the first caucus state. so is t upcoming straw poll a make or break day for republican pridential hopefuls? you bet it is. mark murray, nbc's political director and is here for the first look at first read. we see a big change with tim pawlenty's campaign pulling radio, tv ads off the air and focusing on organizational strength but it really doesn't show that he doesn't have the resources to do it all. >> no one has more to gain or lose from this straw poll than tim pawlenty does. the reason they're diverting their resources, they have finite resources. remember that fund-raising report showed himith just $1.4 million cash on hand. they're trying to get people to come out and signal their support for pawlenty. >> he also lost his top adviser, al hubbard. he was well regarded in republican circles, former george w. bush white house economic adviser, and hubbard close to mitch daniels in

indiana, republican, he's now left. that's a loss on the domestic policy side. >> that's why this straw poll is so meaningful to pawlenty. tim pawlenty needs some very good news to really turn the narrative that the wind is at his back and he can make a run in iowa and also against front runner mitt romney. >> now, speaking of romney, romney less to win or lose in iowa, focusing in new hampshire and elsewhere, but romney is now under attack from all the other candidates. >> right. romney, he's not making a big organizational play in ames, but we've seen sarah palin, you saw rahm emanuel, jon huntsman has been very critical, but that's what the position of the front runner is. that's why it's always very difficult when you are the front runner, particularly this far out from the contest, as we saw in the summer of 2007. hillary clinton, when she was the front runner, when mitt romney was the front runner, that didn't turn out so well for those candidates. >> what about huntsman, we saw

him in new hampshire a little awkwardly shaking hands, retail politics new hampshire style and the guy had no idea who he was. that's going to happen, it's early on, but what play does he have to make in iowa if any? >> it's all about new hampshire. he also wants south carolina and florida. but huntsman is in need of some good news. all the polls show him around single digits, that he just hasn't caught on. today in politico there's a damaging story about divisions and internal strife in that campaign. >> is that sort of a john weaver all drama? >> there's a lot of drama associated with any type of campaign, but it's never good when it's coming out, particularly this early in a campaign. >> okay, mark murray. on to ames, only nine days away. i know you'll be out there with chuck and the whole msnbc team. thanks so much. and with the debt deal now complete, top democrats are set to pick their members for the new super committee which will be selected in the next two

weeks. i sat down exclusively with nancy pelosi to ask whether she will be appointing democrats who can compromise or will produce more deadlock. >> really i think that the american people are ready for us to talk about something other than the process of how we continue the conversation. they just want to see with meat on the bones some tangible job initiatives that we can work in a bipartisan way to achieve. >> the american people want to see jobs, they want to see the economy improve, but a lot of democrats, your members, the leader of the congressional black caucus, feel that this deal is a bad deal and it will lead to a slowing of the economy. congress man cleaver called it a satan sandwich. you added on that it's a satan sandwich with a side of satan fries. >> it's a bad deal. it's a bad deal, but it's a done deal, as my colleague, steve israel says. it's a bad deal but it's a done deal and it's time for us to move on.

it's the basis on which we are going to proceed and we have to get on with it. we've got to go to thetable, do the best we can in a balanced, bipartisan way to kprcreate job reduce the deficit and take us into the future. just talking about how we got here and our points about this bill, don't get me started. >> let me get you started a little bit. was the president a bad negotiator? did he give away too much? >> i don't think so. >> why not? >> i think the president was great. but again, what is the point of talking about what is finished. on every -- anything that happens around here, any one of us could have done it better, right? we could have written it better, whatever its. but the fact is the president wanted a balanced bipartisan agreement -- >> but he didn't get a balance. there's no taxes in it. >> that's right. nobody knows that better than i, or perhaps some do, but i fully appreciate that. but again, this is about how we

go to the next step. jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. we get sort of -- it's like a cottage industry here in washington, d.c., that we have to talk about, what we did, why we did it. it's horrible in realtime and now we're going to continue to talk about it. >> but it was a turng point, many people feel. i've covered coness many years, and have never seen it quite as poisonous. i wanted to ask you about this, this moment. this was the night before john boehner walked away from the grand bargain. you're in the oval office with the president and the vice president. you look angry. >> i don't even remember this, but i'm not angry -- >> it's a white house photo, as you point out. >> yeah. >> you can see the back of harry reid. what do you think you were saying to the president? >> i think what i was saying to the president is we've got to end this. we've got to end this. we had the negotiation -- as i look at this picture, the

meeting was coming to an end since the vice president is standing. >> bringing back bad memories? >> no, it's just we've got to end it. whatever it is, everybody knows what the ante is, now let's just end it. >> and the opening bell will soon be ringing on wall street, which means it's time for a market preview with cnbc's michelle caruso-cabrera. thanks so much, michelle. >> hi good, to see you. >> good to see you. >> weekly jobless claims. nancy pelosi says she is now focused on job creation. we learned this morning the number of people filing for unemployment last week was 400,000. that is now 17 weeks in a row that we see 400,000 or more people filing for unemployment. and that is generally too high for economists. they say that means that we're not going to move the unemployment numbers any time soon if we keep seeing those weekly numbers. right now it looks like the markets are going to open lower, sharply lower. that's because we had all this distraction in washington about what was going on related to the

debt ceiling, they have real problems, really actually paying their bills over in europe and this morning a couple of european officials have raised their hands, said uncle and said things are worse than what we thought and we're going to have to do a lot more emergency measures to actually get things done. so we're getting pretty worried about what is happening over there. so right now things look negative, but we'll see. right now people are piling into gold as well because they're pretty nervous about what's going on. back to you, andrea. >> michelle, just quickly, 400,000 a bad number but it's edging slightly downward and the four-week average is also slightly downward. >> i guess you could say that, but remember last week we had 398,000 and then it was revised up, so there was a point where we thought, okay, that number is getting better, but now think of it more like a tab low at this point. >> so no way to predict the big monthly number tomorrow. >> the big number is tomorrow and there's a lot of nervousness

about that number. right now it could surprise to the upside. that would be great, wouldn't it? >> we could use some good news at the end of this horrible week. thank you so much, michelle. unfinished business. thousands of american jobs are up in the air today because of another congressional funding fight, incredibly this one not resolved before they all left town. >> we need both houses, end your vacation for a couple days, get off the beach, get out of your mobile homes or whatever you're traveling in, come back, pass a bill. >> transportation secretary ray lahood isn't in his mobile home. he joins us next. first, a look ahead at the president's schedule today. not much on as he celebrates his 50th birthday at the white house today. there will be a toast from senior staff this afternoon and then a big party at the white house, not at taxpayer expense, with family an friends tonight. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc.

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this is a lose, lose, lose situation that can be easily solved is congress gets back into town and does its job. so i am urging the house and the senate to take care of this. this is an example of a self-inflicted wound that is unnecessary. >> we got rid of the debt ceiling debate. that's off the table, but now a new partisan fight gripping washington. in their rush to get out of town for the august recess, lawmakers chose not to extend the faa's operating authority. it is a political decision that is sidelined some 74,000 workers and is now costing the government more than $200 million a week in lost tax revenue. with me now, transportation

secretary ray lahood. thanks for joining us. >> good morning, andrea. >> first of all, what about safety? let's talk about the consumers, first of all. safety, you've said, will never be compromised but you've already asked these inspectors, dozens of safety operators working without pay to keep working without pay and keep on the job. how long can you expect them to make that kind of sacrifice? >> well, these people will make the sacrifice as long as it takes, andrea. they're dedicated federal employees. their number one priority is safety. they went to work today using their own credit cards, traveling on their own credit cards, they're not being paid, but they believe in the safety work that they do. and thousands of people will board airplanes today in america and around the world and fly to america. it will all be safe. hundreds of air traffic controllers are guiding planes in and out of airports. flying is safe. we will never compromise safety in the airlines. and our people are so dedicated

to their work that they would never compromise safety. that's why they're on the job not being paid and that's why we say to congress, you come back from your vacation, you're getting paid, and help us pay these american workers. not only the faa workers, but the construction workers. this is not the way to treat the american worker, particularly when we have such high unemployment. if we want to bring the unemployment workers down, let's put 70 thus thousand people back to work. that's the way to put the talk with the walk -- the walk with the talk about putting people to work. and congress gives great speeches about jobs and putting people to work. well, the way to do it is to pass the bill, come back to washington, come back from your vacations for a couple hours. you're being paid, let's help pay american workers. >> mr. secretary, you were a republican congress member from illinois. i mean you know this place better than anyone. how do you explain the fact that

this is not just about the airports. i mean there is a partisan fight, house versus senate. this involves everything. house versus senate, democrat versus republican. there's a union issue there that the republicans say was stuck in by the democrats. i mean it is so convoluted it is a classic mess and this is exactly why in the latest pew poll people say when asked about congress, disgusted, ridiculous, messy. nobody has a good feeling about this. >> absolutely not, particularly the people that are laid off, particularly the people that aren't get a paycheck today, particularly hard-working construction workers when they're right in the middle of a construction season at airports all over america and they want to do their job during the season. this is their bread and butter season. this is where they make their money. congress is off on vacation. they need to come back, pass the bill. they have done it 20 other times, andrea. they have passed bills 20 other times. come back, pass the bill, put

people back to work, pay our people, pay these dedicated public servants, pay the construction workers. let's get american workers back on the job and -- >> let me ask you this. you know this deal better than anyone. you've been on both sides of pennsylvania avenue. the house, the republican house is in pro forma session, so they are coming back every couple of days, whatever it is, to just gavel down so that the president cannot make recess appointments. it's all convoluted. so the house is technically available for a couple of hours to just pass something. so you basically have to reach an agreement where there would be a short-term extension and some unanimous consent agreement from the senate. isn't there any way to pressure them down to doing this? >> well, that's why i'm on your show this morning, andrea, and we appreciate the opportunity to get our message out for congress to come back. what they do is they come into session. they say the pledge, they say a prayer and then they go back on their vacations. and we're saying come on, say the pledge, say a prayer, and

the prayer shouldn't be in the unemployed workers. the prayer should be pass the bill so that american workers can come back to work. it's easily done. they have done it on 20 other occasions. there's a procedure for doing it. come back to washington, pass the bill, let's get american workers back to work, let's put all talk about creating jobs, all the talk about job is now the one priority, let's make it a priority today. pass the bill, american workers go back on construction sites and hard-working, dedicated safety workers at the faa go back to work. >> mr. secretary, are you on the phone with congressman micah and senator rockefeller and schumer and harry reid? when you look at where these small airports are that the republicans clearly were targeting harry reid, they were targeting jay rockefeller, you know, the house knew exactly what it was doing. everybody is playing the game here. are you on the phone with them

behind the scenes to try to come up with an agreement short term or long term? >> absolutely. i was on the phone with senator reid on three or four occasions as late as 7:00 last evening. we're going to continue the conversations. frankly, senator reid is trying to be very, very helpful here. he gets it, even though his airport would be one that wouldn't receive the essential air service money. he says i want to get people back to work on building the to your at mccarran airport in las vegas. that means as much to him. getting people back to work, he really is putting the action where his words are. he's working very hard on this, and i have been in conversations with other members of congress. come back off your vacations where you're receiving a paycheck so americans can receive a paycheck. so these construction jobs can go on, so our hard-working faa employee can say go to work. >> well, we're going to stay on this as are you. >> thank you. >> thank you so much, secretary lahood. >> thank you, andrea.

coming up here at noon, contessa brewer will speak with faa administrator, randy babbitt. the world's largest human tragedy is only getting worse. first, today's trivia question. in honor of the president's birthday, how many american presidents have turned 50 while in office? tweet us @daily rundown with the answer. the answer and much more coming up on "the daily rundown." stay with us.

there doesn't seem to be yet a global recognition of how severe this crisis is. we're seeing just a fraction of the engagement and the level of resources after the haiti earthquake, for example. despite the fact the number of people at risk now exceeds the total population of haiti. >> that was testimony during yesterday's senate hearing on africa's growing famine. the crisis is only getting worse. the united nations has now

declared three new regions in somalia famine zones and suggested that the crisis will spread to all of southern somalia in the next several weeks. nbc's intrepid kate snow joins us from ken gentlemyakenya. i understand you were just some somalia and are now back in kenya. the administration says it's trying to wave restrictions on refugee aid groups working with the terror group in somalia. is that working? are the rescue groups that you were with getting through and getting to the people who need the help? >> reporter: right, andrea. you're definitely right. the idea is to loosen the restrictions so that maybe they can get into somalia. i'll tell you in practical terms, most of the large scale ngos, non-governmental organizations that you know, care or the world food program, they are not feeling comfortable going into somalia, and that's

because, as you know, there is an insurgent group that controls much of southern somalia and it's simply not safe to be there. where we just went was a town just across the border in somalia. it is under the control of government troops. it's under the control of the transitional government of somalia, and that's why, frankly, we were safe going into that town. we had military escorts the entire way. but what's interesting is that town has seen very little aid because it just became a government-controlled town make a few months ago, so there are a lot of starving people there. we went in with a convoy this morning run by a canadian and a u.s. ngo. i believe it's the first time western aid has gotten into that town at all. there were two large trucks that we went in to cover, two big trucks filled with sugar and oil and flour, all the basic essentials, enough to feed 14,000 people for the next two weeks. >> and that is just a drop in

the bucket when you talk about the way this thing is spreading. this is the worst tragedy on earth. and it doesn't seem as though the whole world is mobilized. you're there and the aid groups are there, but what more can be done? >> reporter: yeah. the world food program says it's costing 9 to $10 million a month just to feed the people who are here in kenya, the people who have fled somalia and walked by foot for two, three, four weeks to get here. those folks alone it's costing 9 to 10 million a month. they don't have that kind of money. everyone is telling us they need more resources from governments around the globe. the u.s., of course, being the biggest funder of the world food program to date but they need more. everywhere i've gone somalis are coming up and saying, please, tell america we need more. we don't have enough food. i literally was talking to a

woman who had six grandkids and she said my grandchildren are starving. andrea. >> kate snow, just appalling. we've been showing the pictures of your trip as you've been talking to us on the phone. kate, be careful out there and thank you so much for everything that you're doing as you report from kenyasomalia. >> reporter: thank you. >> coming up at 1:00 today we'll have more on this ongoing tragedy with the director for mercy corps, one of the witnesses at that senate hearing. coming up next here, shocking news about the number of people right here in this country who need help putting food on the table every day. the united nations is now also condemning syria's murderous crackdown, but why won't the international community do anything to stop the human rights violations by the regime? this is "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. ♪ ooh baby, looks like you need a little help there ♪

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bottom of the hour now, i am andrea mitchell in for chuck todd today. here's a quick look at what's driving the day. tropical storm emily is sliding into haiti and the dominican republic at this hour with winds of 50 miles an hour and torrential rains. the danger is even greater, of course, in haiti because there more than 600,000 haitians are still living in tent cities without permanent shelter 18 months after last year's devastating earthquake. and here at home, the searing heat reached 114 degrees at little rock. missouri and kansas also expect to hit triple digits today. secretary of defense leon panetta will hold his first press briefing since taking over at the pentagon today at 2:30. and the opening bell has just rung on wall street. investors are hoping to build on yesterday's modest gains. the first time that the dow closed up in nine days. and other stories making headlines now. new numbers show just how hard americans are being hit by this tough economy.

there are more people in the u.s. relying on food stamps than ever before. nearly 46 million americans are receiving government assistance to feed their families. the hardest-hit state, alabama, which saw 120% surge in stamp use. a full 36% of the state's population in alabama now receiving government food aid. in the wake of a salmonella outbreak, the usda announced meat giant cargill is recalling 36 million pounds of ground turkey. the cdc reports one person has died of salmonella poisoning in california. at least 76 other people have gotten sick across more than half of the country. speaking of turkey recalls, congressman david wu has finally made his resignation officl. the oregon representative announced last week he would resign over accusations that he had, quote, an unwanted sexual encounter with a teenage girl but he stayed on to cast a vote on the debt debate. now he's gone. new york city mayor michael

bloomberg is taking an unprecedented step to help young minority men in new york. he plans to use $30 million from his own foundation to expand and improve job placement, fatherhood classes and probation serves helping young black and latino men in new york city. and syrian activists are claiming that security forces shot and killed six anti-government protesters last night. this is the latest incident in an increasingly violent uprising that has killed 1700 civilians since it began i march. "time" magazine's deputy editor joins us now. bobby, thanks for joining us. >> any time. >> this situation, it's so appalling, but the fact is a lot of people are asking why has not the international community mobilized. we saw the security council finally yesterday issue presidential statement, quote unquote, condemning syria but not a security council resolution. they don't have the votes for that. so a statement is something but

it's certainly not going to have great impact on the assad regime. what is the difference between syria and libya, where the u.n. and nato and everyone, including the u.s., moilized. >> several things happened in libya that have not yet happened in syria. in libya, you had rebels who actually seized a large part of the country, drove away the government troops, set up some sort of a transitional government. in libya, you had the neighbors, the arab league, calling for international intervention and you had a vote on the united nations security council that allowed that. in syria, you've had violence but the protests have been scattered. the regime has done a very efficient job in getting them down. but we're getting closer and closer, because no matter how hard the regime seems to clamp down, people are still rising up against it, despite all the violence, despite, as you said, 1700 people killed.

the sanions regime is getting tougher and tougher against syria but the arab league has not yet con km out and condemned. in the arab street people are very upset but the governments have not yet spoken against assad. until that happens the rest of the international community cannot really go beyond where it is now. >> people are frustrated here in the states. the obvious abuses in syria, that the u.s. is not doing anything more. leadership just two days ago, secretary clinton for the first time met with u.s.-based syrian dissidents. but the bottom line is also riyadh and the rest of the capitals come out against assad as they d against gadhafi, that's not going to change anything. >> that's exactly right s. >> so far the other arab countries would prefer assad to what they don't know in terms of an insurgency?

>> there's some of that. there's also alarmat the just general unrest across the middle east. they have already seen what happened in egypt and tunisia. so if you're king abdullah in saudi arabia, you don't want any more instability, you don't want these things coming closer and closer home. the arab league is also within itself in a bit of a state of flux. egypt has a new face now, tunisia has a new face now. so among the sort of old arab establishment, saudi arabia and other countries in the gulf, there is a sense that we need to hold on now. we don't want major regime change and also we don't know what comes after assad. assad has done a good job in portraying for the arab league, portraying his opposition as islamists, as criminals, and some of those people are believing him. his own people know better. i think the rest of the world is beginning to learn that that's not true.

but in the palaces of riyadh and elsewhere, there is concern that you take assad out of the picture and syria then collapses into ethnic and sectarian fighting and it becomes a huge chaos, into which they will then be drawn and they have to go in d intervene. so at the moment they don't want to rock the boat. >> bobby ghosh, thank you so much. appreciate your coming in from "time" magazine. coming up next, we have our powerhouse panel here to break down all of the day's political news. but first the white house soup of the day. i never thought i'd say this, chicken tortilla. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. you've been stuck in the garage, while my sneezing and my itchy eyes took refuge from the dust in here and the pollen outside. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. it's the brand allergists recommend most. ♪

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this is one of the biggest and deadliest of the swamps. 100 men are looking for cheney goodman, but the plain fact is 1,000 men might not disclose whatever secrets lie under the

green slime. this is backwoods mississippi. >> daily flashback on this day in 1964 when the remains of three missing civil rights activists were found. the murders of the three men galvanized the nation. al all-white jury convicted -- rather acquitted 12 of the 19 men indicted on federal charges of violating the victims' civil rights after local officials refused to prosecute the murder case. it took 41 years for one of those acquitted to be brought to justice. he was the only man to serve more than six years in jail for the crime, later memorialized in the film "mississippi burning." and before a friendly hometown crowd in chicago, president obama tried to separate himself from the debt ceiling battle that has turned even more voters against washington. >> we know we've still got a lot of work to do on the economy. now, i hope we can avoid another

self-inflicted wound like we just saw over the last couple of weeks. we don't have time to play these partisan games. we've got too much work to do. >> nia is a political reporter for the "washington post," kara lee from the "wall street journal" and bill burton, founder of priorities usa and father of oscar. >> most importantly. >> the most important baby. carol, first to you because i was reading your pool reports at midnight. you got back very late from chicago. you were the representative for all of the rest of us as the pool reporter for the white house. >> yes. >> press corps in chicago. tell us -- >> well, jennifer hudson sang happy birthday. the president was in a really good mood. he hadn't been out of washington for over a month and hadn't been

home in even longer. he was met on the tarmac by mayor rahm emanuel, which is a first, his former chief of staff. the crowd was energized. he was very excited to be there. he made a couple of jokes about turning 50 today. he said he's going to get his aarp card today. the message was essentially i know it's been tough but stick with me. he said at the end he got hoarse and was yelling into the microphone as many people remember from the campaign and saying that as long as he can have a rough week in washington and he knows that these voters have his back, and that remains to be seen, but he certainly hopes to. >> bill burton, if you were trying to spin this from the white house pressroom right now, which you are not, the fact is that the initial estimates that unemployment would come down to 8% or below, that is not going to happen. that's inoperative. in fact some suggest it will be hovering around 9%.

we have new jobs numbers coming out tomorrow. we've seen how giddy and happy the economic adviser is that he's going to be leaving after tomorrow and going back to chicago. but this is a very hard turn to make. basically the president was saying last night, well, i never told you that change was going to be easy. that's a pretty bad bumper sticker. >> well, that he what he said on election night as i remember being in grant park that night. the economy is in tough shape. but at the end of the day -- >> aren't people going to blame him? >> at the end of the day i think people will look at the mess that the president inherited but more importantly look at what the fewer is for our country and compare the vision of the president versus whoever the republican nominee will be. people will have a choice. do they think that republican will do a better job than president obama or do they think president obama has a better vision to keep growing our economy, keep creating jobs and moving us in the right direction. >> and he is going to have a bus trip next week when presidents or candidates get in trouble since 1992 and the success of

the clinton-gore bus trips. they hit the bus tour across america and that reconnects them. it's an image they prefer to sitting in an oval office photo op with nancy pelosi and harry reid and fighting over the debt ceiling. >> exactly. it's their humble image and you get to see america. john mccain did that when he was in trouble in the summer of 2 2007. >> is it going to work for barack obama? >> i think the danger for this president us do voters start to tune him out. does he start to sound like charlie brown's teacher in the sense that he is basically talking about the same things he's always talked about. investing in infrastructure, payroll tax cuts, and that's what he's been talking about for quite some time. but the question is does he have the political capital to get those things done. if you look at the debt ceiling fight, it doesn't seem like he has that political capital. >> and it's not just political capital, it's capital capital. because with the full pun intended, there's no money. you can't spend anything on

discretionary spending. discretionary domestic spending is the first thing that's going to be hit along with defense if this new committee doesn't do its job in ten weeks. a huge challenge. and if that trigger is pulled. >> right. everything that the president says that he wants to do to help grow the economy and create jobs costs money. the faa fight, there's a spending battle in there too and he's going to have a real hard time getting anything like that through this congress. >> and you can't create jobs or grow the economy that quickly with small band-aid approaches like one reform that he and nancy pelosi and everyone else are talking about is patent reforms. well, that's great, but that's not going to change the unemployment numbers, bill burton, before november. >> well, what the patent bill does is it offers an opportunity to create an environment where jobs can be created. some 270,000 jobs could be created through that. the faa fight is important in the sense that what you see in the house is the republicans who

are stopping that. they slowed down the debt fight and are slowing everything down. since republicans have taken control of the house what they haven't done is what voters sent them to do, which is produce jobs, help create an environment to create jobs. but boehner and his membership has not produced any bills that would actually help to create jobs. >> well, hold that thought. we will continue in just a moment. the panel stays with us. but first, trivia time. i've been looking forward to this. in honor of president obama's birthday we asked how many u.s. presidents have turned 50 while in office? the answer, seven, including barack obama. the others are james pope, franklin pierce, ulysses grant, grover cleveland, theodore roosevelt and bill clinton, and they all aged. a lot of gray hair by the time they turned 50. we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. this is s to stay ahead of her class. morning starts with arthritis pain... that's two pills before the first bell. [ bell rings ] it's time for recess... and more pills.

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once you get to washington, there's only so long you can go. i mean, there are a number of people there whose tray tables are not in the full upright and locked position. >> austan gooslbee, chairman of the council of economic advisers for two more days, and as jon stewart put it "giddy as a schoolgirl" about getting out of dodge. let's get back to our panel. it's clear that gooslbee has one of the toughest jobs in washington, going back to chicago to be an economics professor at the university of chicago business school. but it is a very big climb for them to do anything on the economy short term. >> yeah, and this is going to be the question of this campaign. you see mitt romney. his slogan so far has been obama's not working, meaning he's not working on the jobs front and that he's not working for the country, and you see him out there really trying to channel the anxiety that people have about the economy. >> and carol, mitt romney, who is getting slammed by first sarah palin for being so wishy-washy about the debt ceiling debate, and now a slam

by rahm for taking on chicago in an ad. >> well, i think that the white house certainly didn't mind mitt romney coming out against the debt ceiling bill this week. that helped the president frame the debate he wants to have over the next 18 months, by saying, even to democrats who are unhappy with the deal, hey, would you rather have cup, cap and balance and mitt romney, or you know, a deal that cuts the deficit but tries to preserve some of the party's priorities? >> and for the president, this climb to try to, bill burton, reframe the debate and say he's not part of the problem, he's part of the solution? >> well, i think it's a fight. at the end of the day, it's going to be a tough fight for the president. and as you've read any number of places, there is going to be historically high unemployment, there is historically low consumer confidence, and the president is working to fix those things and has been creating jobs, but there's going

to be a real fight. >> there's a new jobs number tomorrow and maybe there will be good news for them. shameless plugs. nia-malika. >> the recovery of my best friend's mother, mrs. lopez, who fell down the steps, is recovering nicely in the great state of south carolina with her son and i just want to send my wishes to her. >> god bless. that's great. good shout out. carol? >> i'm going to push my jobs agenda. my favorite younger sister just moved to washington, d.c., and is looking for a job in events planning, so everybody out there -- >> we'll start making calls. sister act. we love it. okay. and i already did oscar. you can't do oscar. >> okay. well, then, i'm going to plug a website i call www.prioritiesusaaction.org. >> well, we'more on that to com. thank you, bill burton, carol lee, nia-malika. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." we've had so much fun today. we'll see you there, but first, we'll see you at 1 okay. coming up next, chris jansing

and company. then at 1 okay, don't miss "andrea mitchell reports" with you know who. see you later.

good morning to you. i'm peter alexander, in today for my friend, chris jansing. thousands of furloughs, millions of dollars already lost, and a partial shutdown of the faa. this could have easily been prevented, but yet again, congress cannot agree. >> this is a lose-lose-lose situation that can be easily solved if congress gets back in to town and does its job. >> if congress really believes in the words that they're saying about jobs, creating jobs, putting people back to work, stop your vacation, come back to washington, pass the bill. >> feels like deeja vu all over again. waiting for congress to act, but this could take a long time