over the hump with mika instead offering. >> with me when i came on she used the word adorable. >> it was nice that you made a $10,000. >> before that. >> $10,000 donation to cure. it's a great organization for epilepsy, seizures. susan axelrod runs it. we appreciate that. >> "morning joe" and starbucks. >> sell it. >> we're in starbucks. >> this is in this world of great niche prodtsmorning joe," buy it, it gives $5 to the charity of your choice, education wise. you get to choose. >> donorschoose.org. >> to chuck todd coming up now. going to be an exciting show. a lot to talk about with the debate. if it's way too early what time is it? >> it's "morning joe." here comes chuck. that's right. another heated republican debate and everyone was piling on one man, perry. the texas governor was playing defense the entire time and even lost a crowd toward the end. did any of the other candidates

stop his momentum? we get the full analysis ahead. plus, president obama hits the road today traveling to john boehner's home state of ohio to promote air campaign for the jobs bill. in the rose garden we saw the theme he will be hammering on in the weeks ahead. >> this is the bill that congress needs to pass. no games, no politics, no delays. >> we'll talk about how he wants to pay for it coming up. and in an exclusive interview, iran's president tells nbc's ann curry the two americans imprisoned for spying, accused of it by the iranian government, may be released in days. those hikers for their families the long nightmare could be over. it's tuesday, september 13th, 2011. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. also this morning, a gun fight erupts in kabul targeting the u.s. embassy. we'll bring you the latest on that as well. my first reads of the morning. one giant topic, seven of the

eight republicans running for president left no doubt last night who they believe is the frontrunner right now for the nomination. rick perry found out the hard way as the tea party debate turned into a texas batch fest. mitt romney, he came out of the gate as the aggressor, no surprise there, starting the debate hitting perry on social security, but then the perry pile on continued from there. just check it out. every candidate got into it. >> do you still believe that social security should be ended as a federal program as you did six months ago when your book came out "return to the states" or do you want to retreat from that? >> i think we ought to have a conversation. >> we're having that right now. >> to have innocent little 12-year-old girls be forced to have a government injection through an executive order is just flat out wrong. >> there is no government purpose served for having little girls inoculated at the force and compulsion of the government. this is big government run amuck.

it is bad policy and should not have been done. >> congressman paul, you're from texas. does your governor deserve all that credit? >> not quite. i'm a taxpayer there. my taxes have gone up. our taxes have doubled since he's been in office. i would put a little damper on this but i don't want to offend the governor because he might raise my taxes or something. >> i am the only nonpolitician on this stage tonight. we need a bold solution, not one that tinkers around the edges, not one that allows the politicians to continue to pick winners and losers. >> in the four years i was speaker, we created, the american people, not me, created more jobs in utah than under governor huntsman, more jobs in massachusetts than under governor romney and more jobs in texas than in the 11 years of governor perry. >> for rick to say you can't secure the border i think is pretty much a treasonist comment. >> one month ago today that rick perry became a declared

candidate. last night, he looked like he's still not yet fully prepared for the barbs he's facing. he rocketed up the polls, he has surged up the polls, the number one target last night and if anything, he just seems slightly unprepared for the full court pile on that happened. he was ready on some specifics with romney, on social security, but what he didn't seem to expect was the fact that the other six candidates were going to jump on board as well. we'll have more on this debate in a few minutes. now, hello columbus, the president heads to speaker john boehner's home state of ohio today to sell his jobs plan. all 155 pages delivered to congress late yesterday. now rolling out the bill the white house also lined up unemployed stakeholders behind the president daring republicans to vote against them and it. and now we also know the quote pay fors in washington speak for the president's $447 billion plan. if it's passed as is, the bill would be funded by some familiar targets of the white house.

they would like to limit tax deductions for high earners, close some tax loopholes for oil and gas companies. tax hedge fund earnings as income, not capital gains, and change depreciation rules for corporate jets. all are provisions the president has tried to get passed his entire presidency without success. speaker boehner's office responded to the bill saying, quote, it doesn't appear to have been offered in that bipartisan spirit. one other aspect to the pay fors people have overlooked in a lot of the coverage this morning, jack lou, the budget director said if you don't like these, let the super committee deal with it. let the super committee find the $500 billion and we are now a few days away from when the president unveils his idea to find $4 trillion in savings over the next dozen years. finally, polls are open in new york's ninth district, special election to replace embattled democrat anthony weiner. one of two specials today that

test how bad the national environment is for democrats. the other in nevada's second district. democrats figure one would be a blow out and the other a nail biter. they thought it would be on their end of things. they didn't realize the blow out would be in nevada where republican mark amode is expected to beat democrat kate marshall and the nail biter would be in queens, new york, where democrat david weprin could lose to republican bob turner. polls close at 9:00 p.m. eastern in new york. 10:00 in nevada. democrats seem to already be preparing for what is going to be potentially an ugly night of results. let's turn back to the debate. did frontrunner rick perry hold his own or did the rest of the field put some cracks in his ar snowshower with me now -- armor? with me, gentlemen, let's start with the top of the card if you will. romney v perry on social

security. here's their back and forth. ron, i'll have you talk on the other side. >> the question is, do you still believe that social security should be ended as a federal program as you did six months ago when your book came out and return to the states or do you want to retreat from that. >> i think we ought to have a conversation -- >> we're having that right now. we're running for president. >> i'll finish this conversation. >> rather than trying to scare seniors like you're doing and other people, it's time to have a legitimate conversation in this country. >> the term ponzi scheme is what scared seniors. >> ron, that was early in the debate, that was a predicted exchange that they both campaigns seemed to telegraph was coming, how did they do? >> one of those candidates was poised, presidential and prepared and it wasn't rick perry. mitt romney obviously got the upper hand there. i actually think what's happened here, now we have two cofrontrunners. the national polls say that perry is ahead and sure he's ahead in the national polls but

as you know, chuck, this is a state by state race a lot of things going on, including the establishment quietly coming behind romney now. big doubts about perry and this is now a dog fight between the two of them. >> jonathan, did we know that was going to be perry's highlight, that was going to be the best moment for him during the debate? >> look, to me, the worst news perry got last night were not the attacks from the left via romney, it was the shots he got from the right from paul, santorum and bachmann. that's romney's best hope, chuck. that the undercard if you will, bloodies up perry on the right, on the cultural issues, on cronyism, on taxes and immigration and romney has a path to a plurality win. just real fast, i think ron makes a good point. this is not a national primary, it's a state by state primary. if the calendar includes ron's home state of michigan up high, add in a new hampshire and nevada caucus, romney is not in a bad spot, cluck. >> i would still rather be

perry, though, when it comes to the calendar at this point. let me play for you some of these undercard back and forths. here's bachmann v. perry on hpv. >> there is a big drug company that made millions of dollars because of this mandate. >> the company was merck. and it was a $5,000 contribution that i had received from them. i raise about $30 million. if you're saying i can be bought for $5,000, i'm offended. >> i'm offended for all the little girls and the parents that didn't have a choice. >> right. he believes what he did was right. he thinks he went about its wrong way. i believe your policy is wrong. >> you know, ron, was that exchange, sort of on one hand seemed semi prepared to go toe to toe with bachmann, when santorum piled on too, that i hate to beat up the boxing me metaph metaphor, seemed staggered. wanted the ref to say let's have

a standing eight count here for you. ron? >> yeah. got beat on two fronts. one he's not libertarian enough, forcing this government program on people, secondly he's cronyism. he even understated it. he got more than $5,000 from that company and his former chief of staff was a lobbyist for that company. so he was hurt two different ways and got slammed. >> very quick. >> chuck, it was very similar to the politics of pile on. recall the fall of '07 when hillary clinton came under fire on those drivers licenses, the entire sort of world seemed coming after her at that moment, similar last night with perry i thought. >> as we saw the night go on, perry just kept losing the audience, hpv didn't go over well and then there was the moment on immigration. here is that where perry just struggled on this front as well. >> that is the american way. no matter how you got into that state from the standpoint if your parents brought you there or what have you, that's what

we've done in the state of texas. >> i think the american way is not to give taxpayer subsidized benefits to people who broken our laws here in the united states illegally. that is not the american way. >> you know, ron, again, romney's campaign telegraphed they were going to hit perry from the right on immigration and he ended up getting help on that from bachmann and santorum. >> yeah. how is he not better prepared for those questions. how is it he walked into groans and boos from a tea party audience, which is what happened. it was really not a very good moment for him at all. >> and speaking of bad moments, jonathan martin and ron, there was sort of -- we put together a montage of what we're calling huntsmans greatist hits, should be called head scratchers, here they are. >> to hear these two go at it over here it's almost incredible. governor romney who called it a fraud in his book "no apology" i don't know if that was written by kurt cobain or not. for rick to say you can't secure

the border is a treasonist comment. >> if you're president what will you bring to the white house? >> motorcycle rider i would bring my harley-davidson and my motor cross bike. >> jonathan martin, last week jon huntsman appeared to understand what he had to do at his debate, he had a plan and went forward. at this one it seemed as if he was lost the whole time and didn't know how to read the crowd. >> i think he's trying to find it still. i'm not sure in a republican primary kurt cobain shoutouts are the way to go. he's got a much more dire problem and that is, given his poll standings, what are the threshholds going to be for these debates coming up and is he going to be in these debates. that is the big question now facing huntsman. >> quickly ron, how much new life did michele bachmann breathe back into her campaign? >> i think she brought in enough life in her campaign that mitt romney can sigh a sigh of relief he's going to have her around a little longer to beat up on perry. >> ron and jonathan. >> that's what romney needs.

>> always good to have you both breaking us down. thank you, both. >> thank you. up next, a gathering storm as president obama hits the road to campaign for his jobs bill. republican opposition over paying for the plan. it's getting louder. this was kind of predictable, wasn't it? plus iran's president tells our own ann curry the two american hikers will be freed in, quote, a couple of days. could their two-year nightmare be nearing an end? a look ahead at the president's schedule. it's high in the middle and round on the ends. ohio. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. ♪ ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution,

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the plan that i put forward,

the american jobs act, puts construction workers back to work, puts teachers back to work, veterans coming home and looking for a job back to work. this package, it's estimated, would help the economy grow by as much as an additional 2%. that could mean an additional 2 million jobs. >> president obama's touting his proposal to jump start the economy. he tells nbc's brian williams the plan offers congress a new opportunity to get something done. they have to figure out how to pay for it. former senators, ex-senators here, blanche lincoln and democrat from arkansas and republican john sununu former senator from new hampshire. thank you both. senator lincoln, let me start with you. first of all, is the president smart not to call this a stimulus plan? >> well, yeah. i think one of the biggest stimuluses we can do is ensure congress is going to do their job. the fact is, you know, the last stimulus that happened there were some growth that occurred from it, but the fact is, most

working families, i think small businesses, what they need is time and they need certainty. and they need to know what's going on out there. so whether it's regulations or other things that could really help us grow the economy, less regulations on small businesses, group that i'm working with, to, you know, to bring about less regulations, eliminate some of the redundancy in those kind of things, those are good efforts that will stimulate the economy because small businesses will reinvest in themselves. >> senator sununu, quickly how the president proposes to pay for his plan, limit -- i feel like i know these by memory because -- >> you do. >> it is exactly what they propose every time they're trying to pay for something and republicans have said no a democratic controlled house and senate couldn't pass a form of this. >> and the problem is, one, you describe, this isn't going to pass.

now, look, a few variations of that could conceivably pass, but the bigger problem is, credibility. the president stood up at his speech and said, i have this $450 billion jobs plan and it's going to be paid for. because i'm going to ask the super committee to find a way to pay for it. and that hurt his credibility. and then he comes out with the last list memorized by heart and undermines the credibility further not just with republicans but even with some of his own party. >> respond to what senator lincoln said about this issue of certainty. eve' never -- i've never before seen, the markets are reacting to the political instability in a way we haven't seen before. >> i think there's some truth to that, which in my mind, and i think there are others that share this view, is a reason to look even harder and be even tougher and more forthright about the long-term problems because let's just say, with the social security, it may be tough to do, but if the super

committee or congress were to come to some agreement to strengthen the finances of social security, whatever that might be, that sends a signal about stability, ability to tackle tough issues and that affect on business confidence and consumer confidence, i think would be more important economically than anything in that package. >> you said the key word, that's come together. people are expecting congress to recognize what they're going through out there in the hinderlands and come together. >> senator lincoln, the white house will argue, hey, majority of this bill is tax cuts. majority of this bill is seeing things through the prism of the republican view of how to stimulate the economy, which is to restrict payroll tax cuts, cutting some regulations now in a way that's been more aggressive than we've seen previous democratic administrations, so is the president going to get any points out of this from the public? does he almost need a fight with congress at this point? >> no. i think the last thing we need is a fight with congress. what i think we need is leadership. the president should get points

for coming to the table with a plan. more details that need to be there. tax cuts in some instances can be very instrumental. but i think without a doubt, is certainty. showing leadership that congress and the president are willing to work together, that nobody's so interested in winning the battle they're willing to lose the war. and that's what's happening. >> i want to jump -- you brought up social security. it's obviously become a point of contention inside the republican primary and i challenge you if you would have believed that six months ago the number one issue separating romney and perry would be how to deal with social security, the impact of that becoming a lightning rod and the phrase ponzi scheme become part of the political lexicon, describe the impact on lawmakers who actually, particularly the super committee, who are trying to probably come together in a way that we haven't seen before. the outside influences of politics have to have some impact, no? >> it has a little bit of an impact. i don't know that social security was front and center for the super committee -- >> i don't think they were going

to touch it. >> i don't think so. >> even less likely at this point? >> it makes it a little less likely. what this internal debate is really about isn't just the description that governor perry used, ponzi scheme, which is, you know, not the right thing to say, but the degree to which that shows, you know -- it's a judgment issue, right? is its right -- if you can't use the right language to communicate with people in your party it might be tough for you to use the right language to communicate with his rivals, his opponents take an opportunity to point out the flaw in the thinking and approach. that's what primaries are about. >> does this hurt the super committee's ability to sort of -- are we sort of just know have a two month shrinking window before the presidential campaign consumes everything?

>> the super committee, it's disheartening we have to give all this power to 12 members of the congress as opposed to using -- >> that should be here. >> but i think there's a good group there in the super committee and i think that they can do some good. i think they can come toeblgts and find some -- together and find some common ground they can go back and sell. people know social security is an essential program but we've outgrown some of how it's designed. >> the committee is going to put together a product. they're going to produce. >> they have to. >> scared. very scared -- >> sure. >> more than anything. >> it was well designed in that regard. >> the ex-senators. senator lincoln and sununu, thank you both. after two years in an iranian prison freedom could be hours away for the two american hikers. live in tehran, next. the taliban launches a sophisticated coordinated attack in downtown kabul. targeting the u.s. embassy there. but first today's trivia

question. what's so special about the senate desk located in the back row of the republican side, the one on the aisles and next to the chamber's most heavily used entrance if for senate geeks. they should know this. tweet me @chucktodd. the first answer will get a sweet follow tuesday from us. [ male announcer ] this is lara.

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some new information this morning about the fate of those two american hikers imprisoned in iran for two years now. ann curry sat down with iran's president mahmoud ahmadinejad today and asked him about those hikers' fate. >> translator: we tried last year to free one of the three persons. and we are also trying to make

arrangements for the freedom of the other two. i think these two persons will be freed in couple of days. >> nbc's ali ru zi joins me from ta rain. you have new information, you spoke with the lawyer, what more can you tell me? >> chuck, i'm not hearing you very well, but what i can tell you, what i can tell you we were in the interview with ann curry and ann curry asked the president about the two hikers and he suddenly gave this surprising news, that they would be released in a couple of days. in iran a couple days could mean 24 hours or 72 hours, but this time it really does look like their release is imminent. i spoke to the lawyer of the hikers and he told me that they're going to have to post $500,000 bail each. now, i asked them, these guys have been convicted, why are

they being forced to post bail? he said because this has gone to a court of appeal, different court. they have to give a judgment on it and because of that, they have to post the bail. this process could take a couple of days before they're freed, maybe three, maybe four days. but it does look like they're on their way out. >> and there's a price tag. ali in tehran for us, thanks for bearing with the technical issues. to wall street where futures are mostly flat ahead of the opening bell. cnbc's andrew sorkin joins me with the run down. >> it does look like we're going to open flat but it's been all over the map. all eyes on europe this morning, especially looking at the situation in italy. italy confirming that it's been in talks with china about having china come in and buy up some of its bonds. the market looking at that in a hopeful way but saying maybe this is just a little too shorm short term. the other thing, what's going to happen tomorrow, the prime minister of greece is going to be holding a conference call with sarkozy of france and

merkel of germany and that phone call, which was a lot of speculation in the past couple hours about that, the markets have been all over the map. whatever comes out of that, there is some hope maybe we will get a little bit of a reprieve. obviously, you know, going into the day, every day is looked one way and by the end of the day looked very differently. so still a seesaw. back to you. >> market whiplash. "the daily rundown" will be back in 30 seconds.

bottom of the hour. quick look at what's driving the day. president obama takes his jobs plan an the road again when he travels to columbus, ohio, home, of course, the home state of house speaker john boehner. we shall see if it -- any mention of the speaker in those remarks. the senate house select committee on intelligence about to gavel in on a joint hearing on the changing threat from al qaeda and other terror groups. usually when these committees happen, there is some surprising news that comes out of it. we will wait to see what that is. the opening bell just rung on wall street. dow futures down ahead of the trading day as the fate of u.s. markets looks again to the rest -- to rest in the hands of europe. all right. another surge of violence is rocking afghanistan's capital this morning. the u.s. embassy and nato headquarters came under fire in a coordinated taliban assault. there were no injuries at the embassy but local reports say an afghan police officer and two insurgents were killed. today's attack follows a massive truck bomb over the weekend that

wounded dozens of u.s. troops. president obama will be pitching his jobs plan as we said in john boehner's home state of ohio this afternoon. but yesterday, there was a surprise appearance at an on-line forum where the president talked about the bill and previewed the message he wants to get across to the american people. >> either congress gets it done or if congress doesn't get it done, people know exactly what's holding it up. and we're able to continue to apply pressure so that we can actually do what's right for the country. >> jeff johnson is a contributor to msnbc and thegrio.com. he was at yesterday's event in washington. so jeff, two things. tell me what the event was and tell me how surprised you were that the president popped in on it. >> sure. the event was sponsored in conjunction with the white house and interactive one. so there were several website, thegrio.com and once none were

two that were there. this is an opportunity to talk to senior-level white house officials about what the administration has been doing and what the administration is going to be doing moving in. so melody barnes was there, valerie jarrett was there, secretary of hud donovan was there and others, really answering some hard questions from the internet audience about, one, you know, what is hud doing around fha and not just african-american homeowners, but how will fha look going forward and how is this bill going to affect it. those kind of questions. it was a total and complete shock when valerie -- melody barnes introduced the president to come forward. he wasn't scheduled to be there. i think one, it showed the real emphasis the president has now on making sure that he is the head messenger on this bill, that he's not allowing other surrogates to be in front of him on this. we know that he's going to be in ohio, which is also my home state, that's in a great need as it relates to jobs. he's going to be in north carolina. i don't think we've seen him

really be on front of an issue like this from a message standpoint since the health care bill and i think many of his supporters are happy to see him, not just being willing to be on the front end of it but challenging the gop to step up. >> now, you said he wasn't just questioned about issues that were important to the african-american community but how did he address that per se? we know he's been getting some public criticism from members of the congressional black caucus. >> i think that he's been very consistent in saying look, yes, that there's some clear numbers as it relates to african-american unemployment. i think his messaging has been the same, which is yes, these are issues. here is how we're looking to do that. we know that african-american borrows more than any others, are in fha loans. there's fha support in this bill. many african-american young people in particular, are out of work and the pathway to work opportunities where $5 billion is going to be there for 16 to

24-year-olds, is going to affect a ton of african-american young people in communities. i think his messaging was consistent, but i think his tone was different in that he was letting african-americans clearly understand that i understand where you are, but please know, that this messaging that i've been engaged in affects you as well. >> all right. jeff johnson, contributor to msnbc, and thegrio.com, i urge folks to go over to the grio and check out your reporting on this meaning. thanks, jeff. well, scandal has plagued college athletics for decades but as more schools are penalized for infractions it begs the question where does the true problem lie, with the student athletes or system? taylor branch is a pulitzer prize winning author, one of the great historians we read and you are tackling in the new edition of "the atlantic" the shame of college sports and you said you sort of -- i don't want to say stumbled upon the issue this wasn't your intention to dive into it and you dove into it, why? >> i did it as a lark between books and it was a much bigger subject than i thought.

i was passing college sports fan growing up. you see all of these scandals, say you got to get to the bottom of it and the more i -- there are many, many colorful stories, i got to go to the alabama/auburn game last year, but the problem is, that we're not asking the right question. the right question is, how do we justify depriving college athletes of the money that they -- >> i was just going to say, the thesis seems to be it's right here on page 82, i would say down here, when you say the tragedy at the heart of college sports is not that some college athletes are getting paid, but that more of them are not. that we have designed a system where -- and you were very careful said i don't want to use plantation analogies and things like this, because there were good intentions at the beginning, but it's run amuck. >> it's absolutely run amok. the real question is whether or not professionalized sports and genuine education can coexist. but we avoid that question because we're pretending that the problem is dirty athletes

getting money under the table. the ncaa never says exactly what principle, states of principle they shouldn't get the money. they have no vote, no representation. you can't really justify that. and so they just say they do it by fiat. >> if you have a music scholarship, i say this because i experienced this the college, i had a music scholarship. my teacher played for the national symphony he got me paid gigs. that was not in violation of my music sol scholarship. something like this, if somebody gets, say, a college quarterback, a paid gig to run a camp at their high school, that would be an ncaa violation. >> oh, they would go nuts over that. even worse, if you were a scholarship athlete and you came -- up for the idea for facebook while at college the ncaa would say facebook is profiting all your money from facebook was because of your perso persona. >> could have played college football never would have gotten

facebook off the ground. >> it is to some degree a plantati plantation, but because people don't want to state the reason for this, that these kids earn all this money, they work 50, 60 hours in sports and they also try to have a separate career as students. instead of getting credit for that, they're expected to be monks and get no money whatsoever and the adults get all the money. >> so i guess what's unclear and what's always been unclear is who is the governing body here? frankly is its u.s. congress that grandfathered in some of the anti-trust clauses that allowed the ncaa this power, is its ncaa, or as we're seeing, particularly with the football schools who bailed out of the ncaa years ago on tv contracts on football, not on basketball, and who may go to a super conference and bail out ncaa in basketball which pettryfys the ncaa. >> there are problems in principle as i just said. there are problems as you just said of practicality. the football schools revolted. they're creating these super

conferences in dizzying realignment. soon they're going to have a football playoff. the ncaa won't be part of it. if they can do a football playoff they can do a basketball playoff and that takes 700 -- that's all the ncaa's revenue. so they're petrified about this. the whole system is teetering and it's teetering in part because it doesn't have a proper foundation. we're all pretending the problem is the poor athletes. >> who's in charge. >> no one is in charge right now. the ncaa pretends -- whenever you see a final penalty like in the miami case or the ohio state case or last year's unc case, the ncaa says that the colleges self-impose the penalties. the colleges say they did it because of the ncaa. kind of comes out of a twilight zone because nobody really wants to take responsibility for depriving these kids of the money they earn because it can't stand up in court. >> taylor branch, it was, obviously, i'm a huge college football fan. i devoured this article. incredible history of the ncaa here in their power or "wizard

of oz" like lack of fitting they were kansas, kansas city. anyway, taylor branch, pleasure. honor to talk with you. picking on perry, go back to politics. the texas governor is licking his wounds this morning after being hit from the right and the left and the right again last night. plus how president obama is casting an unwanted shadow over today's special congressional elections. our super tuesday panel will be here next. but first, white house soup of the day. one of my favorites because i like to say, ribollita. [ barks ] [ cat meows ] [ woman ] ♪ i just want to be okay ♪ be okay, be okay ♪ i just want to be okay today - ♪ i just want to know today - [ whistles ] ♪ know today, know today - [ cat meows ] - ♪ know that maybe i will be okay ♪ [ chimes ]

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white house after signing an agreement granting limited autonomy to the palestinian authority. you have no idea the back story behind getting them to shake hands on camera. it's worth reading up on. back to the debate, rick perry struggled last night, fending off attacks many from the right this time including a hammering on the hpv vaccine that he mandated via executive order as governor. this morning on the "today" show, michele bachmann doubled down on the attack. >> it's very clear that corny capitalism could have likely been the cause, because the governor's former chief of staff was the chief lobbyist for this drug company. i had a mother last night come up to me here in tampa, florida, after the debate, she told me that her little daughter took that -- took that vaccine, that and she suffered from mental retardation thereafter. >> national political reporter for "the washington post" and for the associated press and steve mcmahon a democratic

strategist. casey hunt you're on the trail a lot with these folks. let me start with michele bachmann coming out swinging. could mitt romney have telegraphed this better? >> i doubt it. you know he had all of these folks taking shots at him from the right, particularly bachmann go after him both on the idea na the government is interfering, called it a government injection, the hpv vaccine and corny capitalism and merck. something clearly resonated with the tea party audience down there last night. >> and she could be a media consultant the way she put those things together in 30 seconds. like an ad. i was thinking, you know, probably going to see that footage again as an ad. >> i was going to say at first glance didn't seem like she was ready to engage. it was clear to me picking her spot when in a comfort zone of hers. in their comfort zone, rick santorum, perry was in his comfort zone last night and after the debate, he said this to the christian broadcasting network. >> maybe the campaign strategy camp in iowa and talk about hpv

and immigration all day long. >> i certainly did tonight, parental rights is huge. and certainly a government -- governor who says that he thinks his policy was right to basically tell every 11-year-old girl we expect you to engage in sexual activity and, therefore, the government's going to require you to get this vaccine is the wrong message. >> perry, i think we knew we were going to be talking about a state mandate at this point in the primary campaign. we just thought it was going to be about a health care mandate in massachusetts not a vaccine mandate in texas. >> big problem for rick perry. bachmann, santorum the candidates piled on him while mitt romney's biggest opponent in new hampshire where he's trying to win, jon huntsman told a variety of weird jokes and not very strong. perry has a series of stronger opponents going after him in iowa while romney in new hampshire has huntsman who's not catching on right now. >> steve mcmahon, you watch this like you said as a media consultant, sometimes first before putting your democratic hat on.

put your media consultant hat on. were you surprised how unprepared perry seemed to be? he seemed ready on social security and he knew he would have the crowd with him. the economy thing he was okay on. then it just seemed to -- >> he struggled with the immigration question and how you sort of square the idea that you're going to give state benefits, taxpayer funded benef benefits, to the children of illegal immigrants knowing the tea party activists and republican activists in general are anti-immigration. i was surprised he wasn't prepared for that. he's the governor of texas. you would think immigration would be an issue he's very nimble. the idea the alternative was give them this benefit or put them on the government doll the way he tried to frame it is not quite -- doesn't quite ring true. it is the government doll. taxpayers pay for the education that those kids are getting. i, by the way, think he did the right thing but i'm a democrat. >> does seem as if perry is trying to set up a potential contrast down the road with romney, saying i'm going to own all of these things, i'm going

to own ponzi scheme, doesn't shy away from the phrase, goes ahead and says -- he'll say it himself during answers, he's not moving away from that. he owns his immigration stance. he didn't call -- he called the executive order a mistake on the hpv, but didn't call -- it's not a full retreat on him. it seems to me that is -- that's the lesson at least he took away from mitt romney, '07. >> sure. i think you've seen recognition that he needs to soften some of the rhetoric. he did have extra things to say this time about social security other than a ponzi scheme. he's strongly standing by all the things he laid out in his book and like you said, hpv and also immigration. he's saying just because you have a different last name doesn't mean we're going to treat you differently. that's something that could potentially resonate with independents down the road. >> most importantly for mitt romney, another debate where he, you know, he was in the ring in the center ring but it wasn't him -- he wasn't the target. >> yeah. rick perry was overwhelmingly the target not just from his opponents but also the

moderators focused on him as well. rick perry, and the moderator -- let me come back to opening something which you said. hillary clinton might be president right now if she had chosen to reverse her view on iraq to some stance. >> always a time you have to reverse. >> i'm not sure rick perry on immigration, hpv, social security, one of these he may want to consider. he's back tracked a little bit right now. i think he's changing that view. >> there's a rule in politics if you're going to pick a generational -- engage in generational warfare which what is social security is, you want to be with the generation that votes all the times, senior citizens. >> that's a tough one. casey, steve. we're going to talk about actual elections taking place after the break. ourti trivia, what's special about the senate desk located in the back row of the republican side, the one on the aisle next to the chamber most heavily used entrance? well it's simply -- i was told this by our senators, it's the candy desk.

it's not just -- but it's the republican candy desk. apparently there's a democratic candy too. senator george murphy started the tradition of keeping a supply of candy in his desk back in 1965. it's been a staple of the senate ever since. senator mark kirk is the current keeper of the candy desk. we'll be right back with more from the super tuesday package, you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. ering su, but it was getting expensive. so to save some money... man: looks great, hun... woman: ...and we're not real proud of this. man: no...we're not. woman: we...um... teen: have you guys seen captain stewie and lil' miss neptune? dad: did you look all over the place? under your desk? all around? teen: uh, they're fish, they live in a bowl. dad: what're gonna do? anncr: there's an easier way to save. anncr: there's an easier way to save. teen: whatever. ncr: 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

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let's bring back the panel. steve, we were just talking during the break. new york nine, special election. yes, it's anthony weiner's district but it was chuck schumer's district. >> yeah. >> this is where schumer made his name being sort of the sunday press conference guy and just knew how to use this queens district, archie bunker's district by the way. before that geraldine ferraro. what's going on? >> democrats have only held this

seat for 88 years. >> so it's not a big deal. >> first of all, i'm not giving up on the democratic candidate. turnout can make a difference in these things. >> i was going to say we were in this situation in 2005, ohio two was a special democrat -- there was a republican seat in cincinnati. >> yes. >> ultimately you had a bunch of voters who never voted democratic, couldn't do it. that could happen. >> this may be -- it probably has less to do with partisan politics and democrats and republicans than it has to do with washington. is it working, is it not working? and who's more representative of fundamental change? and in a district that's been held by democrats for 88 years the republican comes along and says, i haven't been near any of that stuff. washington doesn't work. stand with me. it's a powerful message and incumbents everywhere should be very, very concerned because it's working across the board in a nonpartisan way. >> in the d triple c is a finely tuned political machine campaign apparatus. we've seen this in special elections in the past. the nrcc is not very good at special elections.

they've had a rough go and always needed environment. that to me even exponentially shows how bad the environment is for democrats. nevada 2 should have been right in the wheel house of democrats essentially stealing a seat in the special. >> sure. i mean, the track record they had over the course of the last couple years for democrats they've won special election after special election, pennsylvania, new york, you name it. so for this to suddenly go, you know, the seat we thought was safe, says a lot about barack obama and just how difficult -- >> is it the exclamation point on a really crummy summer for the president and democrats or a sign more like what steve said, of this is a tumultuous, crazy political environment. >> we heard -- we heard a lot of antiincumbent talk in 2010 but 2010 was really anti-democratic. i think right now if the election were today the republicans would gain more seats i think so right now obama is going to try to reverse the numbers for the party overall. >> all right. >> so today the mad ira jv field

hockey team is playing its first game and anna mcmann is playing her first game on the hockey team. >> a very, very prestigious high school. very nice. casey? >> not to take it back to college football but i got to plug here, michigan. >> it was great. two mediocre football teams playing a very good game as we fought on twit beter about that >> the fact check feature goes through debates and shows you who tells what truths, half truths, nontruths. it's worth checking out. >> i'm playgrounding my two fantasy football teams. i'm the high point total in both leagues. wes welker in one, tom brady in the other. i'm quitting. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." coming up next we'll have chris jansing and company. then at 1:00 don't miss "andrea mitchell reports." we'll see you tomorrow.

temperatures are really the only problem out there today. we're not going to see much in the way of rain or thunderstorms. cold front going through the great lakes make it a little breezy but that'll be about it. then detroit, possibly a stray storm for you but i don't think you'll have any big airport delays. east coast looks okay. still very hot in texas. on the west coast some scattered storms near arizona. ♪ ooh baby, looks like you need a little help there ♪

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