stick around for "the daily rundown" with chuck todd here in new york this morning. >> well, the president lays out his $3 trillion deficit package, but republicans didn't buy it. will president obama find navigating the tricky palestinian statehood issue here at the u.n. easier than trying to work out a deal with congressional republicans on his economic plan. we'll talk to jack lew live in studio. the white house is in damage control mode pushing back hard against author ron sus kind's new book which paints an unflattering portrait, were top officials misquoted? guess who else is in the new york, none other than the republican front runner, rick perry who plans to dip his toe in the israeli political waters today. it's tuesday, september 20, 2011. this is "the daily rundown," i'm chuck todd. good morning. let's get to my first reads.

in case you had any doubt that the president's speech marked the end of the governing season, white house communication director dan fire confirms it, we were in a position of legislative compromise by necessity. that phase is behind us. the president released his deficit plan and it was greeted with a thud by republicans. middle east peace may look more attainable to the president than selling republicans on his plans for the economy. the president laid out a $3.2 trillion deficit reduction package which includes $1.5 trillion in new tax hikes on wealthier americans. >> i will not support any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary americans. this is not class warfare. it's math. >> while congressional republicans gave an air of let's wait and see on the president's jobs bill, yesterday they did no such thing. they pounced.

speaker boehner made it clear he wasn't sold. >> i don't believe that class warfare is leadership. you know, we can get into this tax the rich, tax the rich, but that is not the basis for america. it's not going to get our economy going again. >> at ea time when it's spendin out of control, giving the federal government more money would be like giving a cocaine addict more cocaine. >> mitch mcconnell was equally blunt. he issued a terse two sentence statement saying the president's plan is not a recipe for economic or job growth. the good news is that the joint committee is taking this issue far more seriously than the white house. everybody can start pointing fingers as who started the campaign first, but the bottom line is this, we are in campaign mode. we are no longer in governing mode. the white house made that clear.

mitch mcconnell made that clear with his statement. this is all about defining the battle lines. joining the campaign which is going to be about who's responsible for this gridlock in washington. republicans are hoping the public blames the president and the white house believes they can run against a do nothing congress, but the bottom line is with 14 months to go, as dan fire said it, the phase that we saw in the summer is over. the campaign is on. for the second time in as many months, rick perry is planting himself within a five mile radius of the president. he will criticize the president's israeli policy at a 10:00 press conference. then he holds a noon lunch fundraiser at the harvard club. yesterday what was supposed to be a quiet fundraiser in washington heights turned into a political circus, complete with gate crashing by charlie rangel. we'll have more on that later. in a new gallup poll, perry

leads 31 to 24% over romney. when asked their preference as the field narrows to two front runners, republicans pick rick perry over romney by 10 points, 49-39. that is a fairly close margin there when you look at it. when we've seen these quote, two way races in previous years. perry is the favorite, but he is a front runner that can get caught. it will be interesting to see how this plays out. you're seeing that bachmann has faded. ron paul will certainly be a factor here. if you're mitt romney you want ron paul and michele bachmann to stick around as long as possible. when they get out, you see how close perry gets to 50. the journalist ron suskind is responding to criticism of his book "confidence men." it uses a lot of quotes from his

former team of economic advisers. he quotes peter orszac. he quotes another former obama adviser, christina romer who had her issues with larry summers and says summers was deliberately blocking her from meetings with the president at the time roamer told suskind, i felt like a piece of meat. there was the allegation that anita dunn is quoted as saying this place would be in court for a hostile workplace because it actually fit all the classic legal requirements for a genuinely hostile workplace for the president. there's an important clause missing, if it wasn't for the president. they're saying their words were taken out of context.

treasury secretary tim geithner it to play defense because he wasn't painted positively in the book. here's what he said. >> the reports i've read about this book bear no resemblance to the reality we lived together. no resemblance. >> the white house has been pushing back hard. they even suggested yesterday that suskind simply borrowed from the internet for portions of his book. here's what jay carney said. >> one passage seems to be lifted almost entirely from wikipedia in the book. i think based on that, i would caution anyone to assume that if you can't get those things right that you suddenly get the broader analysis right. that analysis is wrong. >> now, the wikipedia charge comes from a description of fannie mae, not in flowery language and suskind was asked to respond to those charges this morning on the "today" show. >> you've got to use a

combination of a certain number of words. they're not the same in the two sentences. the white house should be doing something better on wicky searches on a 500 page book. the white house should respond to whether the president is getting gamed by his advisers or not. >> ann curry asked him to defend his quote from anita dunn which he says was taken out of context. here's what he said. >> i let "the washington post" listen to the tape. there it is clear as a bell. >> let me get to that what's on tape. i understand what's on tape is the fact that she said "if it weren't for the president, this place would be in court for a hostile workplace." that's not the same as saying it's a hostile work environment. did you take liberties with that quote? >> absolutely not. >> let's get to the bigger issue here, why is the white house pushing back? one big reason is because the criticisms expressed in this book get at the heart of the president's political problem right now, that is the leadership deficit that is showing up in polls, where even

his -- some of his supporters, people who like him feel as if he's not showing enough leadership. you talk to supporters and campaign strategists for the president and they will tell you this is the biggest issue he has to overcome, this perception that he's not a strong leader, and so when you look at the book through that prism, you see why the white house is working so hard to push back. there's a lot of gridlock all over the east side of new york city, which means one thing, the u.n. general assembly is in town. president obama arrived in new york last night. has a full slate of meetings and events before delivering an address tomorrow. ron allen is at the united nations for us. ron, you got through the traffic. you got through the check points. what can you tell us about what's on the agenda today? >> well, it's a little odd talking to you about what the president is going to do. i'll give it my best shot. you were talking about campaign mode. this place provides the president with an opportunity to show campaign mode, if you will,

on the foreign policy side. that's all about israel. the issue that hangs over the meeting of the general assembly this time is the palestinian drive for statehood. it gives the president an opportunity to show he's a strong supporter of israel and that's what we expect him to do. as you know, there's a lot of doubts and skepticism in the jewish community in the united states about the president's commitment to israel. this gives him a chance to show his -- what he thinks of israel and show his support for that country. on the calendar today though, before that, he has a meeting first with the new leaders of libya. later he has a meeting with the president of afghanistan. later a meeting with the president or prime minister of turkey, but the palestinian issue is the big thing. no one expects this to be resolved one way or another. the whole process of applying to the security council for statehood can be dragged out for weeks or months. even though the united states may be forced to veto that

resolution or veto that effort this week, the lines are clearly drawn. again, the bottom line for president bottobama is that it' opportunity to show his support for israel. >> they hope this week would be a victory lap by libya. not so much. up next, we're serving trail mix. we're going to dig deeper in perry's plan to slam obama. mitt romney focuses on florida, while michelle balmman's former campaign manager says she can't make it past the iowa caucuses. the latest from the 2012 trail is next. the showdown over statehood, the u.s. works to head off the palestinian plan to formally request u.n. membership. first, a look ahead at the president's schedule, as you can see it's filled with lots of bilateral meetings. today is supposed to be the big day they were going to push on libya, but again, israel and

palestinian politics getting in the way of their best laid plans. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. coffee doesn't have vitamins... unless you want it to. new splenda® essentials™ no calorie sweetener with b vitamins, the first and only one to help support a healthy metabolism. three smart new ways to sweeten. same great taste. new splenda® essentials™. 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. ♪ we're off to a good start. but now it's time to go to the next level. ♪ so let's do a little detective work. pick up what we need. roll out...caulk...and install. and pretty soon, we're seeing the fruits of our labor right there at our bottom line.

more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. right now, owens corning ecotouch attic insulation is only $12.50 a roll. ♪ [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪ [ male announcer ] at northrop grumman, every innovation, every solution, comes together for a single purpose -- to make the world a safer place. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. [ 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.

her day with a tour of a packing company in iowa. she's trying to gain ground on her jobs message. alex moez in iowa. she joins me from the phone. the iowa or bust campaign seems to be pretty clear. alex, you know, walk me through the schedule of events today. >> that's right. she does have one event this morning. we are at the packing company. it's a family business that's

been around since the late 1800s. we expect her to push again the differences between her and president obama wanting lower taxes and separating herself from the speech he gave yesterday. >> how many people are you seeing show up there? do you feel like it's turning into a nice size event? >> we don't really see anyone here at the moment, just some reporters. that isn't going to start for another hour and a half or so, but we do expect her to get a fairly good crowd. yesterday, we really only saw the employees of the two companies. it depends. we expect her to get a couple handfuls of people here. >> alex moe, we'll be watching you. thanks. let me turn to the mitt romney campaign. he's turning his attention to florida. the republican candidates square off on thursday in orlando. garrett hake is covering the romney campaign. you're here in new york before you head down south.

mitt romney is coming back to new york in six days because he wants to pay homage to a tea party maker. >> this is the newest stop for republican candidates is to meet with the donald in new york city. michele bachmann did it. sarah palin did it, ate pizza. rick perry did it last week. romney, his campaign apparently requested a meeting a couple weeks ago. this is coming from the trump people. the romney campaign has not wanted to talk about this at all. he will be having dinner with donald trump. he gets to pick the restaurant but the donald will pick up the bill. >> you talked to trump's political adviser who was pretty cocky about trump's influence on the republican party primary. >> he basically told me that whoever trump decides to back is going to be the candidate. but oh, by the way, if he's not happy with any of these guys, he left the door open for trump to run as an independent, which would be terrible news for the

republicans because either trump would win or obama would win. >> a few small events, miami town hall tomorrow, faith and freedom event on thursday before the debate and cpac on friday before romney skips town. >> mitt romney is spending more time in florida and arizona campaigning, not just raising money, than the state of iowa. >> it seems to be the case. we had one stop in iowa and this will be the second in florida in the last few weeks. >> i think it's something people ought to be taking notice of. rick perry is in new york city with a meeting with the israeli americans. he'll be blocks away from president obama. the second time the two have essentially crossed paths since perry announced his bid for the white house last month. so rick perry, his message this morning on israel will be what? give me a preview? >> perry is going to hit barack

obama very hard during this event this morning in new york city. it's worth noting that this event was not on perry's original schedule. the campaign advised this press conference last speech fairly late yesterday afternoon. reporters were scrambling to get in place to cover it this morning. part of it is because perry was in town for fundraising events this new york. they have the peg with the union and the palestinian statehood. he's going to talk about the policy of apiecement in the middle east. the way the obama administration has treated israel has emboldined the palestinians to make these moves. >> he's going to bring up the arab spring. >> he said the president's foreign policy has been muddled. perry himself was coming under criticism for being muddled himself on foreign policy. some of his statements on

military intervention and the way we should treat our alleys have been conflicting. it gives him a chance to hit the president on things close to republican primary voters' hearts. what he thinks should be done about the issue of palestinian stayedhoo statehood. >> the president did an event last night. he's doing another event tonight after he does a bunch of stuff during the day, but rick perry had a special guest at a fundraiser last night? >> that's true. >> uninvited guest, i guess. >> yes. they did an event yesterday with hispanic business leaders. this was not supposed to be a public event. it was not on the schedule. when word of it leaked out, charlie rangel decided to stop by to have a brief but cordial meeting with the governor. >> on the campaign, thanks very much. our little impromptu whip around

this morning. we'll do more on that on "the daily rundown" as the campaign heats up. italy's market preview next. the budget battle lines. some experts are questioning whether the president's $3 trillion in savings are real. we'll talk to the budget director himself, critiques nex. which countries' flags are first and last respectively in the display of u.n. member states' flags along first avenue in new york city. tweet me the answer @chuck todd and @dailyrundown. we'll be right back.

do you have an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem? are you taking warfarin to reduce your risk of stroke caused by a clot? you should know about pradaxa. an important study showed that pradaxa 150mg reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin. and with pradaxa, there's no need for those regular blood tests. pradaxa is progress. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding, and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have kidney problems or a bleeding condition, like stomach ulcers.

or if you take aspirin products, nsaids, or blood thinners. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures, and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctors approval, as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion,stomach pain, upset, or burning. if you have afib not caused by a heart valve problem, ask your doctor if pradaxa can reduce your risk of a stroke. for more information or help paying for pradaxa, visit pradaxa.com. 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.

president obama isn't just modifying his message.

take a look at the contrast from the grand bargain he tried to negotiate with the house speaker over the summer. no more talk of adjusting social security or raising the eligibility age for medicare. his push has jumped from $800 billion to 1.5 trillion. the words of white house communications director dan fifer, jack lew is the director of white house budget and management. it doesn't appear as if the plan that was released yesterday is being seen as some sort of serious proposal to be compromised with congress. here's a "new york times" headline, obama confirms new hard stand for debt relief. no hard compromise. >> there's another article that goes through proposals the president put out yesterday that would mean reductions in medicare including med dare benefits. there are dozens of proposals in

this plan which take on sacred cows from agriculture subsidies to military health benefits. if you look at the overall plan the president put out, it's tough balance, it's balanced but asking for spending cuts and tax increases. the president has democrats saying that a plan that includes benefit reductions is something that they're open to. on the other hand, we have republicans saying anything with taxes is off the table. i think there's room here for this gap to be closed. >> my question is why not, if you were willing to have a plan that was markedly different from this one six weeks ago, what changed? >> if you look at six weeks ago, we were in negotiation. we were hoping we would be able to do something very big in the context of a very contentious political debate over the debt limit. when you go to bottom lines in negotiation, that's a very different context than when you put out your vision of what's the right balance. >> that's what we're looking at.

this is the president's vision of what, in a perfect world, he would like to have but what he came close with agreeing to on boehner is his bottom line? is that the way to look at it? >> i wouldn't call this a perfect world. we inherited a world with a deep recession, deficit out of control because of tax cuts on spending on wars around prescription drugs that wasn't paid for. the president came in determined to do something about it. in a world of imperfect choices, the president made the tough choices to have a balanced, fair approach. i believe the solution to this will be much more like what the president put out than anything the critics are pointing to. >> i guess to go back, is what he proposed with boehner, which you were in the room with, you and barry jackson, going through getting close to what you got to, is that the bottom line or is this the bottom line? >> i'm not going to negotiate bottom lines. yesterday what the president put out was a balanced approach, an approach that should lead us to serious deficit cut.

the president said yesterday is that's not enough. we need to go farther. we need to do 3 trillion. on top of the $1 trillion we did over the summer. that would bring the debt as a percentage of the economy to the low 2%. we bring our debt as a percentage of the economy to the low 70s and put us in a place where the world would look at the united states and say where on a fiscally sustainable path. i think that's an important goal. something where the president laid out a balanced, fairway to get there. i hope we can engage in the kind of communications across party lines to try to solve these parties. >> you're taking a different tone than dan fifer took. he says that's phase is over. >> he said we're not in negotiation right now. there's a joint committee that's organized. we offered that joint committee our view of the best way to do it. that joint committee is bipartisan. it has democrats and republicans on it. we offered our suggestions. i hope our suggestions help inform them on the path they're

taking. >> so we have some real deadlines coming but when you see language like that phase is over. you saw mitch mcconnell, he said you guys weren't saking this seriously, that feels like campaign rhetoric. that feels like it's not september 2011, it feels like september 2012. there are real deadline facing out, the payroll tax cut expires essentially at the end of the year. the bush tax cuts expire at the end of 2012. it does seem that everybody has said we're not governing anymore. >> the president last week spoke to a bipartisan session of congress and there was a broad sense that we need to do something about getting growth and jobs moving in this country. i am confident we will do something in that. the president said a plan, the congress should vote on it. that is in immediate need. we have this special committee with a deadline of november to finish its work and deal with the deficit reduction target. we also have at the other end

the threat that if they fail, in january 2013, cults across the board go in effect, including cuts in domestic programs that nobody thinks is a good idea. i'm convinced between now and then we come together. it will be good for the markets if it's now. we're going to need a lot of work between now and january. >> you make an argument that doing nothing would safety government a lot of money. if congress did nothing and let the bush cuts expire, they did nothing on an amt fix, nothing on the doc fix, nothing on the supercommittee, there's -- >> you put your finger on something that makes it complicated to do budgeting today. all of these things we can't afford, we pretend they go away but congress extends them again. we don't think it's right to raise taxes on middle class americans. we don't think it's right to have the reimbursement for medicare go to a level where

doctors won't be able to get reimbursed properly. we need to step up and do our work. we put in a plan that wouldn't raise taxes as that expiration would on middle class americans. we don't need the tax cuts for people earning over $250,000. we have left room to do a doc fix so reimbursement will be proper. it's making tough choices. it's a tradeoff. the president laid out the right choices for the country. i want to ask you about the ron suskind book. you're sort of not a part of it since you came in after the phase that he's reporting on. you were in many ways in a unique position at the state department to sort of watch all this. one portrayal is the president and the economic team was in over his head. the portrayal pushback is they didn't realize how deep the hole was. what say you? >> i have to tell you watching from the vantage point of the state department where i was worrying about things like

afghanistan and iraq at the time, i saw an economy that every day was in more trouble than anyone thought it was the day before. i saw an administration that responded quickly, aggressively and effectively to prevent the unraveling of the economy and what could have been a depression. i think the story of those first two years is not at all reflected in what i've read in the newspapers about that book. >> fair enough. jack lew, director of office management and budget. we'll see you back in washington. >> good to see you in new york. the opening bell rang on wall street. let's see andrew ross sorkin. italy, junk status. sounds like a devastating european driven day in the markets. >> i'm looking the futures, we're opening up much higher in fact. that comes despite junk status going from a plus to a. there is still a cloud overhanging europe. that story doesn't seem to be going away. another piece of bad news this morning though, new construction on homes down 5% are, month over

month, year over year. it's down 5en %. that's a drag on the markets. at the moment, they seem to be shrugging it off. >> there you go, sometimes you think you can predict and you get your hand bitten off when you try. >> you never can. >> thank you andrew. "the daily rundown" is back in 30 seconds. >> let's look at a few other stories making headlines. troy davis, the georgia man

convicted of mudder and sentenced to death has lost his last legal appeal before the execution. davis was gwynethed of murdering a savannah police officer and is scheduled to die via lethal injection. today marks the official end of the military's policy of don't ask don't tell that barred gays and lesbians from openly serving in the military. comes 17 years after the law was first enacted back in 1993. few interesting poll numbers i wanted to point out from today. winthrop poll of south carolina voters puts mitt romney within the margin of error with rick perry. perry leads romney in south carolina, just with 31% to romney's 27. meanwhile, that national gallup poll puts him ahead 31 to 24%. of course we told you that two

way trial heat had it as a ten point heat for perry. back to why we're in new york. central to this week's meeting of the united nations will be a request from palestinian leaders to be recognized as an interstate. the president sounded an optimistic tone on the issue. >> this time we should reach for what's best within ourselves. if we do, when we come back here next year, we can have an agreement that will lead to a new member of the united nations, an independent, sovereign state of palestine leaving in israel. >> andrea mitchell, walk me through what's going on. this was supposed to be the libya victory lap. the president is about to announce we're sending an ambassador there. this is supposed to be a try um fants case of how the world

works together. there's a good story to tell here no matter what vantage point you are from, europe, united states or united nations. >> unless you're moammar gadhafi. >> there has been two issues here. do they do this through the security council where they know the united states will stop them, but the question is how do they do it, or do they go to the general assembly and try to get observer status which the israelis were nervous about. two bad choices as far as the u.s. is concerned. which was better? >> there are a lost bad choices. going to the security council, the u.s. has the veto, the last thing the united states wants to do in the context of the arab spring is be the lone country standing up against the rest of the world. >> they could get a strong majority vote in the security council. >> they have to get nine votes of the 15 in order for it to pass. if they get eight votes, the u.s. doesn't have to exert its veto. it fails. that's the risk for the palestinians. they claim they have the nine

votes. >> they would love not to have to use the veto. >> exactly. nigeria, other countries on the security council are being pressured heavy, big time by the u.s. the other thing that the u.s. is trying to do is get russia and the others in the so-called quartet to try to get the palestinians back to the table with netanyahu. the palestinians have seen decades of negotiations. the israelis say yes, you've been stalling yourselves. it's a no win situation, but the bottom line, i guess, the profound point for the palestinians that the u.s. is trying to make is getting status at the general assembly or at the security council is symbolic and has repercussions, bad ones for israel and the united states but it doesn't give you a state. you can only get a state by negotiate ating borders and capitals. >> the message being sent this

week, president is meeting with netanyahu but not with abbas. >> once the palestinians back off, he'll meet with abbas. that won't happen as long as abbas is holding out for the big deal, the security council status. there is a down side to that fallback position in the general assembly. that would give the palestinians the seat on the criminal court in the hague. they could take israel to court on all sorts of charges against the israeli army. that would be a horrendous situation diplomatically for israel and the united states. >> it's going to be a difficult day. rick perry dipping his toe in. it will be interesting to watch. >> accusing the president of appeasement. >> republican primary. andrea mitchell, i'll see you at 1:00. >> what sort of implications could the palestinian proposal have across the middle east. mark ginsberg is the former ambassador to morocco.

he's the senior vice president of apco worldwide. let me start with this question, if the palestinians do this, do they have united support among the gulf states in the arab world to do this? >> they probably have what is -- what would be window dressing support, because most of the gulf states are wary of upending the negotiations largely because the united states is so opposed and the gulf states, united arab emirates, saudi arabia and other countries are concerned with palestinians moving ahead unilaterally, this further creates more instability in the middle east. >> this is the challenge, it's stability versus democracy versus freedom that everybody and this is the whole issue of the arab spring. from the vantage of israel, do they not look at what's happening in syria, egypt and

say on one hand they're happy about the democracy moves and then on the other hand, they feel less secure. >> you hit the nail on the head. they lost -- israelis lost the major ally, hosni mubarak who was the lynchpin for stability between israel and the rest of the world. turkey has turned aggressively against israel threatening israel with military action with the block aid of gaza. all the more reason why they are so fearful of the palestinian initiative at the u.n. >> you brought up the turkey issue. it seemed as if israel and turkey were very close to sort of settling this dispute over the flotilla, the death of the tushish citizens during the gaza incident. then it all came apart. what happened?

>> what probably happened is that netanyahu's government was unwilling and unable to say the words i'm sorry. i apologize. it infewer yalted the turks and the turks then went and essentially yanked their ambassador out and decided also to be far more aggressive against israel throughout the region. this came down to what essentially is something the israelis could have avoided had the coalition, which is far more right wing than i think most people realize. they undermine netanyahu's ability to negotiate ate with the turks. it was a terrible mistake on the part of israeli diplomacy in the region. >> i got to go here, but it seems to me this is the netanyahu, you hear this behind the scenes, my hands are tied domestically. >> his hands could be tied. sometimes within israel's own coalition, it takes leadership to say what's good for israel is far better than the sum of its parts within the coalition.

the prime minister did not do enough to try to prevent turkey from going off the reservation. turkey was the first muslim country in 1948 to recognize israel. >> thanks for sharing your views and coming on this morning. up next it's tuesday. it means it's super tuesday. this is one of the cases we're putting super in front of something and we mean it. it's here in new york with the latest on the campaign trail and more on the controversial new book that payments the unflattering picture of the president and his leadership on the economy. the president is away. the white house "soup of the day," it's international, it's french onion. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. we'll be right back. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk.

the original 100% lactose-free milk. wso to save money, i trained my dog and this cockatoo to play all the hits of the '80's woman: hit it, mr. butters. ♪ ♪ take on me... ♪ ....take on me ♪ take me on... anncr: there's an easier way to save. get online. go to geico.com get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.

is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. i could not make working and going to school work. it was not until the university of phoenix that i was able to work full-time, be a mom, and go to school. the opportunities that i had at the university of phoenix got me to where i am today. i'm mayor cherie wood, i'm responsible for the largest urban renewal project in utah, and i am a phoenix. [ male announcer ] university of phoenix is proud to sponsor education nation. because we believe an educated world is a better world.

she won't eat eggs without hot sauce. she has kind of funny looking toes. she's always touching my hair. and she does this dancing finger thing. [ male announcer ] with advanced technology from ge, now doctors can diagnose diseases like breast cancer on a cellular level. so that women, like kristy's mom, can get personalized treatment that's as unique as she is. [ kristy ] she's definitely not like other moms. yeah, my mom is pretty weird. ♪ while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec®, i can love the air®. yesterday's fund raiser to be

kept secret but the washington heights party was crashed by curious democrat congressman charlie rangel. >> i think he's the best thing going for president obama, but i'm a democrat. i guess i'm here for the same reason all of you are here, figuring out why he's here. isn't that so? >> well, ben smith is a senior political reporter pour politico, aaron lewis is co-editor of ted lideadline art. welcome, all. i'm going to start with ben. when i think of new york political moments, i think nobody is in his element more than ben smith. charlie rangel popping up with rick perry. you knew perry was there. describe the scene. >> it was outside a restaurant in washington heights, perplexed bypassers hearing perry was

there, saying mean things to perry. out of his cadillac pops charlie rangel. marches past the texas rangers who are all narnds their cowboy boots and the private security guards. hangs out there for half hour. perry shows up and sees charlie rangel. >> did they chat? >> he said welcome to my district. he was there to make rick perry feel comfortable. >> do we have any report of what rick perry thought of the visit? >> he didn't say. rangel said he was gracious as well as tall. >> is this quintessential charlie rangel? he's been in exile from the democratic community as far as the white house is concerned. >> in new york, charlie rangel is the democratic establishment. 22 terms in office, it's not as if anybody is going to chase him off the stage. one thing is does highlight is that when we talk about latino politics nationally, people are

thinking of mexican americans. if they're thinking new york, maybe they're thinking of puerto rican americans. rick perry, very smartly trying to make some inroads, contact. charlie rangel to sort of spit in the punch bowl a little bit. >> i want to get to israel, but as the mitt romney campaign wants to paint rick perry as totally unelectable, he's going to blow this, he's not going to play in the suburbs. when it comes to hispanics, perry seems to be more adept at trying to woo hispanics. >> sure. same of the same hispanic businessmen said he has pretty progressive policy as far as the children of immigrants, illegal immigrants and otherwise. that's good for perry supporters, good for outreach, he's clearly trying to work that angle. >> couple of polls out. i want you guys to help dissect.

new south carolina poll caught my eye, the winthrop poll, mitt romney was so close in second place. it felt as if in south carolina, they're as split as the national republicans. we have the gallup poll that shows it's 49-39. this whole thing feels like we're in the two person race. nobody has informed michele bachmann, ron paul and everybody else. >> you just did. i think south carolina is a bunch of different states when it comes to republicans. there are kind of more rural tea party republicans. there are more moderate business republicans there. some of that is showing up. i think that's a place where rick perry was supposed to take it by storm and ought to be his natural place. i don't know. you think he ought to be doing better. i think there's a sense he hamts closed the deal. >> one of the things i've been surprised at with romney is he's trying to emphasize florida and

arizona. he's nervous he can't beat perry in iowa and south carolina. does he have to try? >> i think so. look, it's such an unsettled field at this point. there's a school of thought that says the gop does not want mitt romney to be its nominee which is why they're flocking to perry, inasmuch as there's a conservative wing saying this guy is our guy. romney has to play strong and have a fair showing, i think in the months leading up to florida and arizona. any step, any area where he falls out of favor, any area where he doesn't perform well is bad for his campaign. >> romney is trying to create an anybody but perry movement. >> that's right. perry's moveme >> romney is slid fighting if you don't want perry, i'm your guy. >> three of you, i want you to stick around. we'll talk a little ron suskind

for a minute. we're asking, which can countries' flags are first and last respectively in the display of u.n. member states' flags along 1st avenue in new york city? the answers are afghanistan and zimbabwe. they are alphabetical. but try that to find that out today. you'll never be able to get to those streets. we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. sam: i'm sam chernin. owner of sammy's fish box. i opened the first sammy's back in 1966. my employees are like family. and, i want people that work for me to feel that they're sharing in my success. we purchase as much as we can on the american express open gold card. so we can accumulate as many points as possible. i pass on these points to my employees to go on trips with their families.

when my employees are happy, my customers are happy. vo: earn points for the things you're already buying. call 1-800-now-open to find out how the gold card can serve your business. i was told to begin my aspirin regimen. i just didn't listen until i almost lost my life. my doctor's again ordered me to take aspirin. and i do. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. [ mike ] listen to the doctor. take it seriously. or creates another laptop bag or hires another employee, it's not just good for business -- it's good for the entire community. at bank of america, we know the impact that local businesses have on communities, so we're helping them with advice from local business experts and extending $18 billion in credit last year. that's how we're helping set opportunity in motion.

the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪

ben, alex, errol, ron suskind's book, having to defend some of his reporting. here's one thing he said on "morning joe" this morning when with it came to geithner's pushback that everything in here

was not the case. here's what suskind said. >> the white house has real stuff to respond to. they it don't want to respond to that, includie ining carve elle someone needs to be fired. some are saying geithner is your guy. >> it is intriguing in all of the initial tell-alls coming out of the obama white house in one form or another, there is one consistent theme, geithner is it not portrayed well. >> things are not going well so the early -- everybody is looking at these very early decisions made in the first weeks and months and even before the administration. >> everyone is gone except geithner. >> he's left hoelg holding the bag in a certain way. >> what do you make of the white house, aggressive white house pushback on this book of suskind suskind's? >> you know this well, the white house convinced tim geithner to stay. they don't want upheaval in their economic team. they need him in place. they've been the guys that have been selling tim geithner on

staying at the white house. so anything that's going to undermine his position there is something that they are going to push back against. >> there seems to be also a protection they're trying to do of sort of the larger point of this book, errol, which paints a picture of a president and economic team that was either, at best, had no idea how bad it was or, at worst, in over their head. >> it seems as if the president is in over his head. they can't allow that to take hold with the electorate. the real target is not suskind itself but the republicans. they want it to be known they're tough and they'll respond. this a message from me to a message from the republicans running for president. >> shameless plug time. errol, we'll start with you. this is grading, a newspaper column anthology really fast. >> it's never been done before. the greatest newspaper klum columns. >> ever written. >> at the museum in washington. you're inviting. >> alex? >> if anybody wants to know what's really happening in the rick perry campaign, sasha

eisenberg i book rick perry and his egg heads, download it now. >> it's a fas nailting read. i agree. >> michele bachmann said she became a republican because -- was so deeply anti-american and it turned her around on liberal. it's true. she caused me to read it. it's a great book. >> how about that. my shameless plug is to fairfield university, the community last night was great host, fun event. fairfield stags, i promise you this. if you make the ncaa tournamen. coming jansing talks to jennifer granholm on her book and the state of the economy. then at 1:00 p.m., don't forget "andrea mitchell reports "ow. i want healthy skin for life.

[ 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. good