romney. >> that is big. what did you learn. >> never cross mika. never. >> you can just stop right there, period. >> show over. >> i learned brian williams sits in his office in front of a bank of monitors. if he sees a conversation taking place that he feels worthy of his opinion, he will come with his own chair. >> and it was a war of choice. >> elective. >> but he did not go to tavis's position that george bush was a liar. we also learned that sometimes when you try to salute these guys who were carrying the burdens of this country on their shoulders, not everybody wants to stand and salute. we at "morning joe" stand and salute. thank you, president obama. thank you, president bush. if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's "morning joe." stick around for "the daily rundown" with chuck todd. this monday morning, president obama is focused on one thing, selling his jobs bill. it all begins today. rose garden address, new tv ads

and a bill that officially heads to congress. we'll tell you why he's calling it an insurance policy against a double-dip recession. plus another republican debate tonight and another bout between governors perry and romney. perry still leads the latest polls but he'll have to defend his stance on social security, something he gets started on this morning. meanwhile, tim pawlenty throws his support behind romney. and how bad are things for democrats? they're having a hard time defending a special election house seat in queens. it's monday, september 12th, 2011. this is "the daily rundown," i'm chuck todd. let's get right to my first reads of the morning. first, reports an explosion killed one person at a nuclear site in southern france. according to their nuclear agency, there's been no leak of radioactivity. the blast happened near a furnace and does not include any reactors. we'll bring you more as this story develops. all right. now, to the domestic news of the

day. consider today the first day of the rest of the fall. the president gets down to business of selling his jobs plan and republicans go after each other again, meeting in their fifth debate but only second since rick perry got in. this morning the president pitches the american jobs act at a rose garden event with people he says would benefit from the bill, including teachers, veterans and small business owners. tonight he formally sends the bill to congress. and later this week, he takes the message on the road to the presidential battleground states of ohio and north carolina. in ran interview with nbc's brian williams, the president raised the stakes of the debate with a new argument for passage. >> when you look at what independent economists are saying about the american jobs act, my jobs plan, uniformly what they are saying is this buys us insurance defense a double-dip recession and it almost certainly helps the economy grow and will put more people back to work. >> insurance against a

double-dip recession. it will be interesting to see if that makes its way into formal remarks later this morning in the rose garden. we also know the democratic national committee is up with tv ads -- passage of the jobs bill is basically the opening shot of the president's re-election bid. now to the republican side, the nomination could come down to florida, that early primary state, and the fight for the nation's most important swing state kicks off in earnest tonight. mitt romney and rick perry take their battle over social security to tampa for what is officially the tea party debate. romney's campaign has already distributed thousands of fliers to likely republican voters in the area asking, quote, how can we trust anyone who wants to kill social security? expect to hear more attacks like this one tonight. >> our nominee has to be someone who isn't committed to abolishing social security but

is committed to saving social security. our seniors have the need of social security. i will make sure that we keep the program and we make it financially secure. >> perry previews how he will defend his position in a "usa today" op-ed writing, we must have the guts to talk about its financial condition if we are to fix social security and make it financially viable for generations to come. just a slight shift in language there. one of romney's surrogates tonight, 2012 dropout tim pawlenty who endorsed him this morning. >> the next president is going to have to lead on the economy and jobs in a historic way and there's one candidate in this race who's unmatched in his skills and experience and talent when it comes to turning around this economy and growing jobs and that's mitt romney. i'm proud and excited to endorse him for president of the united states. i believe he's going to be our party's nominee and i think he's going to be a transformational and great president for this country. >> pawlenty is traveling with romney down to florida. he'll be a surrogate at the

debate tonight. by the way, keep an eye on michele bachmann. the one-time top tier candidate who's struggling to stay in the same oxygen, if you will, as perry and romney. says she is prepared to go after perry tonight. the tea party debate. this is her people. be interesting to see what she has to say. finally, a pair of special elections tomorrow give us a look at the national political environment. and it's not good news for democrats. u.s. ninth congressional district, they are going to the polls for the seat of democrat weiner and congressman dean heller will be replaced. he was appointed to the senate when john ensign resigned. if the national environment weren't so bad for democrats -- new york 9 is the one that's competitive. al gore carried it with 67% of the vote and barack obama won by 11 points with 55% of the vote.

there's a lot of local issues at play in both districts and democrats can find an excuse here or there about this. yes, the arcane nominating process gives you nominees that weren't picked by the voters, particularly in new york state. republicans learned the hard way how that works. that said, you can't deny the president's abysmal approval ratings in both districts has led to where democrats are running uphill. the question is, is this an exclamation point at what was an abysmal summer for the president and a really bad august, or is this a sign of more things to come? team chicago is keeping an eye on both of these races. all right, four days after unveiling it, the president will send his jobs plan to congress later today and will also be speaking in the rose garden urging lawmakers to pass the bill. kristen welker is live at the white house. tell me about the event, everybody is invited, and what the president is going to say. >> reporter: hi there, chuck.

that's right. a lot of people will be standing with the president, firefighters, teachers, construction workers, veterans, all folks who the white house argues will benefit from the american jobs act. we expect the president to come out and argue that, look, there are a lot of ideas in this act that have contained bipartisan support in the past, so congress should pass this plan. you know, we've seen a fiestier president obama as of late so we'll be watching his tone this morning. he is taking his plan to the american people. we saw him do this in virginia on friday, he'll be in ohio tomorrow and north carolina later this week, all battleground states. you know, he's gotten some criticism from members of his own party who say he hasn't been fighting enough. congresswoman maxine waters one of those people. she came out after he unveiled his plan last week and said she liked this fiestier tone so we'll have to see if that keeps up. we'll also have to see how republicans respond. so far republican leaders have said, look, they are open to considering some of the plans in

the american jobs act. i spoke with some folks on capitol hill, some republicans, who say we understand that americans are frustrated right now, so we want to be open. we want to at least consider what the president has put forth. chuck. >> all right, kristen welker at the white house for us this morning. kristen, thank you very much. that brings us to new york. president obama spoke exclusively with brian williams, the anchor and managing editor of nbc's "nightly news." brian, you had him at a unique moment saturday, the day before all the commemorations for 9/11. after the unveiling of his jobs bill. he's got the terror threat in the back of his head. can't imagine the complicated mix of things inside his head. >> well, that's right. it was a -- it was a saturday afternoon at the white house. his wife and daughters had been at the u.s. open the day before. he and his wife had been to section 60 at arlington that morning. they had just done a public service event at a soup kitchen. and yet there's brennan, the

national security adviser, kind of around in the west wing. the mechanics, the machinery of government were all there. so you're absolutely right. and he knew that he was a day away from one of the emotionally toughest days of his administration, and yet we talked about the threat level, and i showed him that day's new york papers, but we also had to talk about politics. we have a bit of it for you here. i asked him about the polls, 37% and no one need tell you these numbers, chuck, approval rating of his handling of the economy. 44% approval rating overall. >> one of the things that i learned very early on is not to worry about polls because if i was worrying about polls, i wouldn't be sitting here interviewing with you. as i recall when i was running for president, i was down about 30 points around this time in my first run for the presidency. the truth of the matter is the american people have gone

through the worst economic crisis since the great depression. and they are understandably impatient. and i can say to them, look, all the actions we've taken have been the right actions. if we hadn't taken those actions, things would be much worse. but the bottom line is unemployment is still at 9% and there are still a lot of folks hurting out there. my job as president of the united states is not to worry about my job. my task is to worry about their job and their economic situation. >> did you watch any of the republican debate? >> you know, i didn't watch my own debates, much less somebody else's. >> mitt romney, quote, the president is a nice guy. he doesn't have a clue how to get this country working again. your reaction? >> i'm not going to start reacting to republican rhetoric in a presidential campaign. let them decide who it is that is going to be their standard bearer an we'll have more than ample time to have a debate with them. >> what do you make of rick perry, who i guess is the front

runner. >> well, he's been the governor of a big state and, you know, there's no doubt he's a credible candidate, as is mr. romney and a whole bunch of other folks. >> the tea party here to stay? >> you know, i think the strains that you're seeing in the tea party are a permanent part of the american political landscape. we've always had a anti-federal government bent in a chunk of our population. that's nothing new. i do think that the extreme position that you hear that says government has no role to play in growing our economy, that the federal government has no function to play in building a strong middle class is absolutely wrong. i reject that view. and i think the vast majority of americans reject that view. i think having social security and medicare and medicaid,

programs that provide a social safety net for people, that is a vital role for our government. >> so, chuck, it gets interesting from there in a portion of this that we're going to air tonight for nightly news. i asked him about harry truman and i also say what do you tell the americans who voted for that guy on the poster with the word "hope" and that question sparked, i think, people will agree, sparked something in him in the answer. so it was, as you pointed out, it was an interesting conversation. >> you know, brian, and you can feel threads of him testing out what his re-election message is going to be, particularly talking about entitlements and it was interesting how easily he talked up rick perry's credentials and took a pass at all things mitt romney. i don't think that was an accident. did you feel as if he was sweating? if you know what i mean by that,

that just the pressure -- it's been as bad as august '09 was for him with health care, august '10, the shellacking in november of '10, he's at a low point in his presidency, i don't think anybody would disagree with that. did you sense it? >> well, i don't spend the time around him that you do and i don't know him well enough. but in talking to people who do, they say this, and i don't know that this will be enough. they say that his confidence in barack obama the campaigner is enough to kind of get him through, motor through this period. the problem is barack obama the campaigner last time didn't have to campaign on a 37% handling the economy number as he's going to have to this time. so no one need tell you, you can be the best campaigner ever, but if you're carrying a bad record up a hill every day to get people to decide on you again, against a formidable gop

candidate and a well-financed campaign, well, that's a race we're all going to cover. >> that's for sure. all right, mr. williams, thank you very much. >> sorry to take your time on "morning joe." >> no, please. >> i just cruised in here and destroyed your segment. >> that's okay. it was turning into quite the conversation there and probably needed a little disruption. all right, mr. williams, thank you, sir. you can see more of brian's exclusive interview with president obama tonight on the nbc "nightly news." check your local listings. you heard his tease, the answer to the "hope" question. i'm looking forward to that. the democrat special election winning streak is all but certain to end tomorrow. in this political climate, democrats are voting for every vote in what should have been a slam dunk race in a borough of new york city. is this a sign of things to come or an exclamation point on what was a disastrous summer. the fireworks in florida. the republicans take their social security debate to perhaps the most critical battleground state of not just

november 2012, but of the primary battle as well. first a look ahead at the president's schedule. the big one is the rose garden event. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. [ female announcer ] improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] only from aveeno. ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪

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it may be monday but tomorrow is tuesday and that means somebody is voting somewhere. special elections in new york and in nevada a couple of house races that do still us something about the national environment. while congressional candidates are the ones on the ballot, voters may have president obama on their mind. the deputy editor of the rothenburg political and david was. erman is the house editor of the political report.

gentlemen, i can't think of two better people to break this down with. first of all, i knew i'd have both of you on talking about a house race a month ago, the day before september 13th, i just assumed we'd be talking about nevada but we're talking about new york 9. bob turner, david wetbeg your pardon. a month ago this was surprisingly close. now nobody believes the democrats are going to win. >> we wouldn't have imagined when the anthony weiner scandal broke that democrats had to push for his resignation, but democrats couldn't have believed that a special election in new york's 9th district in the middle of new york city and queens and brooklyn would be this competitive. it's a sign of the times. back in may when democrats saw president obama over 50% in public approval, and now it's these white ethnic working class voters giving them problems.

>> tell me a little about bob turner. is he a classic rockefeller republican? is he a peter king republican to put knit terms of new york republicans? who is bob turner? >> i think that's what's interesting. david talked about the massachusetts reference. usually in special elections we have one terrible candidate and that's the reason why, but bob turner is no scott brown. he's not regarded as a strong candidate. he's an executive and is responsible for help getting the jerry springer show produced way back in the day. >> that's his badge of honor. >> but this race has really turned and this has become about weprin and they put him on the defensive early. you have an orthodox jew losing in a jewish community. >> losing to a catholic. and they have been using the mosque, the ground zero, the controversy about having a mosque and the fact of the matter is it wasn't necessarily a mosque, it was a muslim community center and it was

going to be within a stone's throw of ground zero. >> that's not an -- as a republican that's a pretty hot button issue but special elections are all about getting out your base. >> what is the base? the base is what? is it a pretty -- is this coming down to israel? >> well, look, bob turner is getting a third of democrats in this race. so as nathan mentioned, you know, we're getting out -- democrats are trying to get out their vote, but if one out of every three voters is going for turner, then who knows what their turnout operation is like. >> nathan, let's move quickly to nevada 2. this is a special election, dean heller. harry reid's political machine. the democrats had the state wide elected official. the republicans, they were okay with their nominee, but they weren't thrilled with him. this looked like it had all the makes of a dccc pulls a special

election out of their hat. >> republicans have gone one in seven over three and a half years. they were tired of that losing streak so they went in heavy, they went in early. the nrcc started their ad at the end of july they went on the air. >> that is pretty early for them. >> and they had the advantage of having a very cheap media market. they could go into reno and define the race, define kate marshall. >> did the democrats walk away? >> because the nrcc defined marshall to a point where they put her in a hole that she couldn't get out of later. >> i've got to put up this stat just on the spending. david wasserman, nrcc has spent half a million dollars. american crossroads. half a million dollars. the dccc, zero. >> what we've seen in nevada 2 is a complete absence on the part of democrats because they recognized early on in the polling here that it just was ringing up no sale. in this kind of climate when obama is at 40%, democrats are

not going to win. >> so they decided not to waste their money. >> it's a way smart on democrats' part to try to cut their losses in this situation. the problem is their losses are bleeding into democratic districts right now. >> nathan, are we overrating the republican chances in new york 9? i have ohio 2 in my head. i remember all the momentum in 2005 where democrats looked like it was a very republican district and at the end of the day a lot of people still pulled the r ballot. are we going to see that tomorrow? >> the nervousness is the democratic get out to vote effort is going to be superior to republicans. but if the public polling is correct and turner is winning 30% of the democratic vote, i think he has the momentum and it's going to be too much to make up when tomorrow comes. >> is this the first time we're seeing jewish democratic voters picking a republican? the threat has been there for a long time but this is where they could be pulling that? >> well, in new york 9 there are different jewish democratic voters than there are elsewhere. but this is exactly the kid of

districts where democrats are beginning to show signs of wear and tear. >> all right. nathan, david, you guys will be up late watching that one. maybe not too late, who knows. although new york's polls close really late. thank you both. it looks like we could be in for another wild ride on wall street today after overseas markets dropped sharply on new worry that say greece will default. more broken record when it comes to greece. we'll get a market preview next. plus the president's pitch for his jobs bill. first today's trivia question. what code words did 19th century senators use when ordering pages to bring alcohol? tweet me @chuck todd and at dailyrundown. the answer coming up on "the daily rundown."

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we're just a few moments away from the opening bell on

wall street and let's check in with courtney regan for the market rundown. this feels like it's going to be ugly. >> reporter: i think it is, chuck. i think i accidentally wore the right color because i think we'll see more red arrows on wall street, just continuing that downdraft that we saw on friday when the dow tumbled 303 points. we're below that 11,000 mark to open. we'll more than likely open down around 150 points or so in the next couple of minutes because we had these worries about europe's spreading debt crisis that still is at the forefront of all investors' minds. reports say that germany is now prepping plans to shield its banks from the impact of greece defaulting on its debt. a greek finance minister over the weekend said the country has cash to operate until next month but then that could be it. so on sunday the greek government announced a new property tax to try to please euro zone policy makers who threatened to withhold the payment that they desperately need. greece plans to collect the tax

through electricity bills to make sure citizens pay it quickly. they already also the ppc utility company as a vehicle to collect municipal taxes. so not surprisingly, power utility workers are vowing to take action or sabotage the tax, but the fact is they need the money somehow. and then we're getting these separate reports that say moody's could cut ratings on france's biggest banks, so as a result all of the banks trading lower by 9% or more. as you can imagine, chuck, definitely having an impact on our financial stocks here as well. >> all right. proof that all local politics is global in the financial world. courtney, thanks very much. "the daily rundown" will be back in 30 seconds.

bottom. hour now, quick look at what's driving the day. president obama will make one more pitch for his jobs bill -- actually a lot of pitches, but it begins in the road garden later this morning before officially sending the bill to congress. the dnc is up with tv ads in battleground states all over the country selling the jobs bill. republicans looking to unseat the president gather in tampa, florida, tonight for a debate co-sponsored by the tea party express. it's the first presidential debate to official carry the tea party name. look for some potential fireworks between romney and perry and potentially perry and bachman. the opening bell was rung on wall street. investors are keeping a look tt european debt crisis.

deja vu all over again but it only means worse things for the stock market. a few other stories making headlines. we've got new information on that nuclear explosion in france. france's nuclear safety agency says it was a furnace that exploded at a nuclear waste treatment site. it killed one person, injured four others. the agency insists there is no risk of contamination. saudi gadhafi, son of the ousted leader moammar gadhafi, has fled to niger. he reportedly fled with a convoy that crossed the border yesterday. libya's new government has demanded he be returned to stand trial. now listen to this story. when gadhafi was still in power, china reportedly met with his regime about a possible $200 million arms deal. that was a government-controlled arms company. according to documents obtained by canada's globe and mail newspaper, arms manufacturers were prepared to sell gadhafi weapons and munition which would

violate the embargo the chinese government voted for on the u.n. security council. the chinese government says such a deal was never approved. a new book out this week gives a rare look at the life of former first lady jackie kennedy. the book comes from conversations jackie recorded with presidential historian arthur schlessinger less than a year after her husband's assassination. listen to one thing she said about her husband's thoughts on lindon johnson succeeding him in the white house. >> bobby told me this later, and i know jack said it to me sometimes. he said, oh, god, can you imagine what would happen to the country if lyndon was president? so many times he would say it or if there was ever a problem. >> fascinating look at a member of the kennedy family that still intrigues today. let's move to afghanistan. a massive truck bomb rocked a u.s. military base in afghanistan over the weekend.

the taliban attack timed to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11. nearly 80 american troops were wounded. atia is live in kabul. now concerned were officials there about some sort of commemoration reprisal on american troops going before this attack happened? >> reporter: well, hi there, chuck. you know, the officials here really didn't talk much about it but it was obvious they were very concerned that the taliban, the insurgency here might attack u.s. bases in afghanistan, a spectacular attack to just prove that they're still here, they're still fighting the nato and u.s. forces. and in fact in that attack that you mentioned that happened, just southwest of kabul, it's the same district that we just talked about last month, because that's the area that 30 american special operation forces were killed in that helicopter attack. this time taliban suicide bomber brought a truck full of

explosives to the perimeter of a combat outpost in that district. they detonated outside of the perimeter, injuring 77 americans and killing two afghans. but according to a u.s. official here, the americans had non-life-threatening injuries and many of them will be heading back to the post very shortly. >> all right, atia, thanks very much. well, president obama took his jobs bill to the people and his first stop was richmond, virginia. >> the reason i'm here in richmond, because to make it happen, every one of your voices can make a difference. every one of your voices will have an impact. >> the bill will be sent to congress today and the president will continue his tour promoting it in boehner country, ohio tomorrow. we're joined now by the man the president called a history maker in his speech friday, former

virginia governor dug wilder. governor wilder, i always like to hear from you because you never pull any punches. so i understand you spoke with the president over the last few weeks. you ran into him during his vacation. i'm sure you got a few words in last friday. what's your advice been to him about righting this ship? >> well, chuck, you are always on top of demographics and you make no mistake here. the president does have to right the ship and i spoke to him at martha's vineyard, he was there for his vacation and i was there for something else. but i did say to him this, that virginia is the key to your election nationally. he did not disagree with me. and i prepared that when i spoke with him in richmond, and i told him that virginia's demographics have changed so much themselves that it's almost microcosmic of a mix. no one wins virginia with just one party vote as you know that, so you have crossover.

the best speech that i heard the president make during his time of challenging the republicans, for showing what could happen in america was when he spoke to the u.s. conference of mayors in miami in 2008. he spoke to all of the concerns that he is now addressing in terms of building bridges, building infrastructure, rebuilding our cities, that they are not the enemies of metropolitan growth. the unfortunate thing is that moneys that were pumped in originally did not go to that. i think the president recognizes that he has to reconstitute that connection with the people of america, and i think he's doing that, and i think he can do it to the extent that he repeats it, it's good. >> i want to pick up on something you just said. so the original stimulus, and i've heard this from other local elected officials, both current and former, who said that maybe the intention was there, but

whether you want to say there's no such thing as shovel ready or because of the speed with which the administration said the money had to get out, the only thing mayors could do was simply repave roads. >> and not only that, but as you know, chuck, a lot of that stimulus money went to states and they used it in their already existing budgets. they did not reconstitute or redirect their budgets to accomplish many of the things that the president spoke of. now, no need to cry over that, that's spilled milk. the question is now what can you do to show that you are saying to the american people that you recognize the need. speaking in terms of issues you've got to identify them to the extent of what you're talking about. jobs, employment. none of that is going to change. and how you bring that about in terms of people knowing that if they vote for you, you can bring it about. i think the republicans

recognize that they have got to meet the president somewhere long the way. they're not crazy, they know the american people are demanding somebody look out for them. >> and when it comes to -- you know, virginia, on one hand, this is a state whose unemployment rate is near full employment, hovering just over 5%. >> you're absolutely right. and when you consider we have a great deal of defense spending, particularly in northern virginia, and we have a great deal of military installations in our state and when you have a low tax base and low tax rate that we have, we are doing better than most states. that's why i'm saying it's so important for the president to do well here. is it going to be a tough sell? yes. can he do it? yes. then you've got to have that compounded a bit by the senate race. that's another horse that we'll

talk at some other time. >> i was just going to say you brought it up. you brought it up really quickly. on that senate race, you're known as a democrat who doesn't always -- isn't always a sure bet to endorse a democrat in a general election. are you a sure bet to endorse kaine over allen? you've been open to supporting george allen in other races. >> well, i have never openly supported a republican. however, i am not always supported openly democrats, you're absolutely right. i've talked to governor kaine and as a matter of fact spoke with him just last week. we're going to be continuing to talk. i hope that there will be opportunities for us to make certain that we're all on the same page. we will see. >> so you're not there yet with tim kaine. is that what you're saying? >> i didn't say i wasn't there. i didn't say i was, though, you're right. >> governor wilder, it's always

a pleasure to talk with you. thank you, sir. >> thanks, chuck. thank you very much. we'll be right back with our panel for a preview of tonight's gop slugfest. last time it was mitt romney versus rick perry. will tonight be the night that michele bachmann makes a last stand and says, hey, it should be a three-person fight. first, the white house soup of the day and it's corny, it's mushroom and leek. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] this is coach parker... 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. ♪

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president george w. bush told the u.n. general assembly that the u.s. was prepared to act militarily against iraq and wander if necessary the u.s. would act without the united nations. well, tonight in tampa, florida, the republican presidential candidates square off in their second debate in five days. expect another food fight over social security, among other things. jamal simmons is a principal at the raven group. did we get it right? >> you got it light. >> lois row mano and we'll be joined by jennifer reuben who writes for "the washington post" but we've got a little traffic issue this morning. lois, let's start with you and the president and this pitch that he's going to make today, sort of the first -- the second full-throated pitch. with brian williams he called it an insurance policy against a double-dip recession. in an odd way i think that almost raises the stakes for passage or non-passage of this bill. >> i think it's all about the passage for him. what his whole strategy is relying on is emotions, is

getting the american public to a point where they start getting angry with the republicans for stone walling it. they want the republicans to drag it out in congress and they want all that to happen, because i mean it was almost like this subliminal weird thing he was doing during the speech where he kept saying pass this bill, pass this bill. he's trying to get the american people in this frame of mind where he says it's armageddon if he don't pass this bill. what's interesting if we haven't heard a word from the republicans yet. >> jamal, it does seem rinse have said they'd like it piecemeal. they'd take this piece, that piece. they are not interested in handing him a giant win, per se, but at the same time, they do -- the leadership reads polls. to me eric cantor and john boehner, they get it. they know they're a little bit under pressure here but is the president setting himself up here for a fight with congress that really only as someone said to me when you lie down with a

dog, don't be surprised you get fleas. >> he's already got fleas. the reality is he's been in bed with this dog since the day he got inaugurated. for a lot of democrats in the country, i was just down in broward county, people are ready to see this president fight. so he's sort inform a place where he wins if he loses. if he fights hard enough. >> i've heard this, win-win supposedly. but boy -- the lack of accomplishment, though, if you don't get it done. yes, they own it. but so does he. >> but the question that they're trying to put to the american people is either you are for improving the economy and having jobs or you are against improving the economy and having jobs. a lot of democrats believe republicans have placed a bet they continue to undermine the economy, that will go to their political benefit. if the american people make that judgment that's what they're doing, they'll be in a lot of trouble. >> lois, as we found out during this debt ceiling deal, the republican leadership still fears reprisals from the base more than swing voters. >> right. they're worried about the obstructionists and the tea

party. that's what they're still going to have to worry about. but at a certain point i agree with jamal that if this message the democrats are trying to convey gets to the american people, i think even some of those tea party types are going to have to move a little bit towards the center. you can't just -- you know, when i was out with michele bachmann, people weren't quite getting the irony where, you know, she was criticizing the president but yet not voting for the debt ceiling to be raised so they could get their benefits. so once they make that connection, i think it could be a problem. >> they learn something. the american jobs act. i mean that's it. simple message. >> finally a message. >> the affordable health care act that might reform patients rights. oh, sorry. >> it was simple. for the first time they kept it simple. >> stick around. we'll be joined by jennifer reuben in a minute to talk about the debate tonight. trivia, we asked what code words did the 19th century senators use when ordering booze from the

pages. the answer? they ordered cold tea. by the way, this just didn't happen in the 19th century, it happened in the 20th century too. coke cans, it wasn't coke. we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. just one phillips' colon health probiotic cap a day helps defends against occasional constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating. with three strains of good bacteria to help balance your colon. you had me at "probiotic." [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health. you had me at "probiotic." now there's no need to hold back. new revolutionary scope dualblast

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well, from adversaries to allies, mitt romney just introduced his newest national co-chair, former minnesota governor and former presidential rival, tim pawlenty. here he was just moments ago. >> i have standing right beside me or right behind me here the co-chair of my national effort, just announced this morning on fox news, tim pawlenty is going to be chairing my -- [ applause ]. >> there you go. jamal simmons, lois romano, and joined by jennifer ruben, writing for the "washington post." jennifer, i'll give you the first words there. a coup to get the first dropout to endorse you -- level of

importance? >> a two on a scale of zero to ten. he did not exactly burn down the barn when he was in the race. of course, what is significant that there hasn't been a single governor, even though rick perry was head of the rga, who has come out and endorsed him. i think that's significant. in part because i think it shows he hasn't been able to capture the establishment side of the party to go with the tea partiers. and partially because i think it may reflect on his personal qualities, his personal relationships with other politicians. >> i know you've been tough on perry and some of your -- in some of your writings, but let me counter that and say there were a lot of new republican governors elected who didn't have establishment support. i'm thinking rick scott comes to mind, in particular, who -- and nikki haley who thought i'm not going to play the establishment endorsement game. >> right. well, we'll see whether those people come out and endorse anyone else. it is significant, i think, around this time, george bush jr. had a whole pack of these guys, about 20 of them.

and i think it's noteworthy that he hasn't foraged those types of relationships and loyalty that other politicians have. >> for governors in the past, as jennifer pointed out, have been this powerhouse. dole versus bush in '87. bush went for the governors, dole went for the senators. we know how that turned out. in '99 bush went for the governors, mccain went for the senators, the senators weren't big mccain fans then either. if the governors did rally, it could be formidable. >> i think that they're not rallying because there's an elect ability issue still out there swirling around him. >> him being rick perry. >> yes, rick perry. he's come out strong, he's a good-looking guy, articulate, seems to know the issues. he's shooting from the hip a bit. no one wants to make the al gore dean misstake and getting out ad become embarrassed. i think everyone's holding back to see what will happen. >> he has a self-destruct

button? >> exactly. >> jamal, i've put this question to team obama and they're split. do you want a strong perry as your opponent that comes out and just continues this surge and isn't stopped, or do you want a romney who has to claw his way to the nomination but after going a little too far to the right in their mind to get it? >> you know, at this point, i'm becoming way more worried about mitt romney. mitt romney is running such a disciplined campaign. whenever you see him on television, he's talking about the president, talking about the economy. he doesn't get ruffled -- didn't get ruffled about bachmann, isn't ruffled by perry. he's sticking to the game plan. and i think that makes it dangerous when you get to a general election. >> tonight is going to be pile on rick perry. michele bachmann is telegraphing the hit. we know mitt romney is telegraphing it with flyer. let me pose another devil's advocate question. while swing voters watched this debate and get very impressed with mitt romney, base voter are

still not making the connection to him. they like this tliration wiflir perry. >> i talked to the form erm governor of new hampshire. he said the electorate who's going to vote in the primaries, they want ideology, but they are petrified, his words, of this president. i think electability ranks very, very high, even among conservative voters. >> i saw, 75% among republicans in the cnn poll that's out today said beating obama matters more than position on the issues. a higher number -- >> i think part of what romney is doing is showing a sample of what a flyer from obama would look like, what an argument would look like in order to send a message to the base. this guy is not going to be able to do it in the general election. >> low i, we know romney want to hit perry from the right on some issues. the issue he's going to do it with apparently is on immigration. >> well, that's an interesting issue because he's going to have to show that he's really protected those borders. and i would imagine that rick perry is going to even go to the

right of mitt romney on it, don't you think? >> that's tough. i don't know. we'll see. romney tried this immigration attack from the right four years ago, and it sort of backfired on him. >> yeah. you look at whatever primary voters are trying to pick an electable candidate for the general election, it's never quite this. >> i agree. shameless plug, jamal? >> i thought moore house college would beat howard university. we lost in the fourth quarter. we did rank number two in "washington monthly's" best liberal arts college this month. >> lois? >> great piece on "the daily beast" web site from an anonymous professor saying that we are not educating our kids for careers. >> shocker there. jennifer? >> i'll go with the football, too, stanford, hey, look at -- wasn't even close. are you a stanford -- >> my husband is a stanford alum. i love him so i'll root for stanford. >> wow. stanford. i thought florida state-miami. wow. okay. they have luck on their side, pun intended.

that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." we'll see you back here tomorrow. coming up next, "chris jansing and company," the president's rose garden remarks on the jobs bill. this monday, a nice, tranquil weather pattern. still summer-like in spots. 80s new york to washington, d.c. detroit in the 80s along with chicago at 85 and sunny today. very hot in texas once again. dallas near 100. minneapolis, enjoy the warmth while it lasts. 87. [ woman ] jogging stroller. you've been stuck in the garage

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