once again, it was perry versus romney. this time, book club turned into fight club. romney was smoother. perry is not getting any better. look out, bachmann, here comes the other rick. plus, late last night, the house approved a funding bill to keep the government going. but by cutting funding for green jobs. does it stand any chance of getting passed the senate? and we're keeping our eyes on the market. following yesterday's plunge, can the dow avoid another tailspin today? it's friday, september 23rd, 2011. i'm chuck todd. this is "the daily rundown." let's get right to my first reads. and, of course, we're going to start with the republican debate. if rick perry's goal last night was to calm the nerves of republicans who wonder whether he is ready for prime time, he failed. perry and eight other republicans slugged it out a bit last night on stage in orlando. and the texas governor didn't have the best night with a string of unforced errors and a low energy second hour. he started on defense on social

security, pushing back on mitt romney's claim that he would end the program as a federal entitlement and let the states run it. >> the bottom line is, we never said we were going to move this back to the states. >> well, it's different than what the governor put in his book. just, what, six months ago. there is a rick perry out there that sang and almost to quote, it says that the federal government shouldn't be in the pension business. that it's unconstitutional. unconstitutional, and it should be returned to the states. so you better find that rick perry and get him to stop saying that. now -- >> well, perry tried to hit back a little bit. he brought up mitt romney's book, but he also enjoyed a jocular moment as he did it, in response on that hit. >> your hard-copy book, you said that it was exactly what the american people needed to have, that romneycare, given to them, as you had in massachusetts. then in your paperback, you took

that line out. so speaking of not getting it straight in your book, sir, that would be a good one. >> i actually wrote my book, and in my book, i said no such thing. >> so that was early in the debate. and that was a moment where perry seemed to have his hit ready, he had his hit ready on romney, decided that if it was going to be social security, it was going to go back and hit on health care. and then immigration came up. and it wasn't just mitt romney that went off rick perry on immigration. specifically, the issue of his support over the texas dream act, which essentially allowed children of undocumented immigrants in texas to get in-state college tuition. here's how romney and others piled on perry. >> i think americans just don't know sometimes which mitt romney they're dealing with. is it is mitt romney against the second amendment before he was for the second amendment?

was it before he was before the social programs from the standpoint of he was far standing out for roe vs. wade, before he was against roe vs. wade? he was for race to the top? he's for obamacare and now he's against it. >> there are a lot of reasons not to elect me or other people on this stage. but one reason to elect me is that i know what i stand for. >> just roll right into immigration. and then here is the immigration hit. >> i would build a fence on america's southern border on every mile, on every yard, on every foot, on every inch of the southern border. >> i want to reinforce what congresswoman bachmann said. i strongly favor 100% control of the border. >> we have to have a fence, we have to have enough border control agents to secure the fence. >> i think the fact he doesn't

want to build a fence, he gave a speech in 2001 where he talked about buying national health insurance between mexico and texas. i mean, i don't even think barack obama would be for buying national health insurance. >> well, that was a little moment there for rick santorum and perhaps was one of his better moments of the night. better debates of the night. and it came on a night that michele bachmann, somebody he is also trying to get ahead of in iowa, to get in from that second tier into the bottom part of the first tier. it was about as good of a way he could have done it. and he really seemed to hammer perry on the fence portion of things. it was a rough night for rick perry. the question is, did it hurt him as far as primary voters are concerned? we've seen in the past that the winners of these debates don't necessarily get the nomination. but you can't get crushed at these debates, either. and when you look at perry's direction on this from the first half of the debate, he was hanging in there. the second half of the debate, as you saw that awkward attempt

at hitting romney as a flip-flopper, that was a tough moment for him. few other stories from overnight. the big one being what happened with congress overnight. and the fact that the house did get a continuing resolution funding bill out. the question now, though, is after they pulled the green jobs initiative out, can it get to the senate? it was a very late night on capitol hill. means a lot of those republicans didn't end up getting to watch that debate last night. and so now we're going to turn to the senate. so what's going on on capitol hill this morning? the best person to check in with at this point, our friend, nbc's kelly o'donnell. so kelly, explain what happened last night in the house, and where things go next in the senate? >> well, chuck, it was a very late night in the house. they wrapped up a at ten minutes to 1:00 in the morning. and they were able to pass a measure that includes about $3.6 billion in fema funding for all those disasters. and it funds the government through the end of november.

the trouble is, it also cuts some programs in the green energy area. and fuel efficiency. republicans say it's some programs where the money hasn't been spent, it's been sort of sitting dormant, so they liked those cuts. democrats did not. it did pass, and now it's expected that the house will do some business today, and may leave town for the following week, because of the jewish holidays and a scheduled recess. the senate this morning will take up that measure quickly, and we understand from senior aides they expect there are not the votes to pass it. so what the house was able to do, having the -- kind of the embarrassing failure for leadership earlier in the week, finally getting it passed, and now the senate wants to try to crush it. that leaves us in a place where there's a question about what would happen to the disaster funding which could run out early in the new week, and what happens to keep the government funded. now, they have next week to do this. we're not at the 11th hour. but there really is yet another impasse over the classic divide, how much money should government be spending, the republicans and

the tea party influence says not so much, and democrats are saying don't hold hostage the victims of all these disasters by trying to make cuts. and, of course, senate democrats want to have about twice as much money for fema than the house republicans got through. so it is yet another gnashing of the teeth, and definitely a strong divide. senate democrats say they're trying to negotiate with the speakers' office in the early morning hours and so far have not heard back. >> now, kelly, other big action on capitol hill today has to do with some embarrassing hearings today on solyndra. this is that energy -- the solar company that the white house used as sort of a poster child for these ideas of green jobs. the executives of this company are going to come to capitol hill and do something that quite a few executives try to do when they come up to capitol hill hearings, they're going to take the fifth. then what happens? >> well, that makes for some drama, certainly, when you have the ceo and the top financial officer of this company hauled

before congress. we have seen other ceos in that uncomfortable position. we understand they will not answer questions, so then the hearing becomes about the nature of the questions being posed. that won't stop the members of the committee. it's a house committee on oversight and the energy section. and they're going to put those questions there. they want some of the documents released. they want to investigate more of what connections there might have been with the white house in getting and what caused this companyits shine a bright light of scrutiny they hope on the white house. but at the same time, looking at this sort of green area of solar jobs. some of the members on the republican side saying that this kind of failure, this huge failure after more than $500 million loan could really spell disaster for the broader solar industry. so this will be one of those moments where it's political theater and there will be lot of politics, but there's also the underlying argument of trying to expose what they say has been a failed policy by the white house of trying to support a company that just wasn't ready to

compete in the real marketplace. chuck? >> all right, kelly o'donnell on capitol hill. busy day. not an ordinary friday. thanks very much. let's go back to the republican debate. the dividing lines in the republican field for the president are growing wider as they tax and move to education and foreign policy. susan page is washington bureau chief for "usa today" and you were down there covering the debate. now, what was interesting last night was, rick perry really did struggle on a number of fronts. even when he had some prepared moments. for instance, here's the back and forth he had with michele bachmann on the whole issue of the hpv vaccine. >> here's the real issue. governor perry mandated a health care decision on all 12-year-old little girls in the state of texas. he gave parental rights to a big drug company. that big drug company gave him campaign contributions and hired his former chief of staff to lobby him. >> i got lobbied on this issue.

i got lobbied by a 31-year-old young lady who had stage 4 cervical cancer. the fact is, i erred on the side of life and i will always err on the side of life. >> susan, powerful rebuttal by rick perry, obviously well prepared, but the time line a little off. >> that's right. we know it's a well-established fact that he was lobbied by this woman for sure. but after he had signed it, he had a very -- as you say, he had a very good answer there. better answer than he had in the last debate on this issue. but he seemed to stretch the truth a little bit. and so that becomes the story this morning. >> you know, mitt romney, for his part, seemed to have a pretty good night. but there was one moment where he got shaken up a little bit. and it had to do with the education race to the top and the president's education secretary, arne duncan. here's the exchange. there's one person on this stage that is for obama's race to the

top. and that is governor romney. being in favor of the obama race to the top, and that is not conservative. >> nice try. let me tell you what i think i do -- one, education has to be held at the local and state level. not at the federal level. we need to get the federal government out of education. >> did governor perry say something that wasn't true? >> i'm not sure exactly what he is saying. i don't support any particular program that he is describing. >> again, susan page, it was i think less than 24 hours earlier he had praised arne duncan. and it goes to what rick perry was trying to do. it seemed like he had a strategy of trying to bring out the flip-flopping charge on mitt romney. and is while he scored on that moment, that was probably the only moment he was able to score on. >> right. you know, you showed earlier in this -- in your program the answer he gave that was clearly prepared about which mitt romney will we see tonight. but he seemed to get all

tongue-tied. it was late in the debate, and we have seen in all three debates that rick perry has participated in, he sometimes seems to flag as the debate goes into its second hour. that's understandable. these debates are tough for candidates. and you see over and over again, especially last night, the value for mitt romney of having gone through this process before, having participated in these debates. he really comes in meticulously prepared. i also think rick perry's challenge has made romney a better candidates in the debates. >> being the quick front returner, it means what he says gets scrutinized. he gave a peculiar answer on a foreign policy answer when he was asked about pakistan. here's what he said, susan. >> well, obviously before you ever get to that point, you have to build a relationship in that region. and that's one of the things that this administration has not done. so to have a relationship with india, to make sure that india knows that they are an ally of

the united states today, we don't have those allies in that region that can assist us if that situation that you talked about were to become a reality. >> now, the hypothetical had to do with somehow pakistan's nuclear weapons ending up in the hands of either the pakistani taliban or the afghanistan taliban and bringing in india had some people scratching their heads. >> the answer was a little bit of a muddle. when you're governor of texas, you probably don't have to have a policy toward pakistan. but if you're running for president of the united states, you do. and i think this is one of those things. you've got get up to speed fast when you're running for president. it is hard to run for president. most people who run, run more than once. and have months to prepare. we're seeing i think the effect of governor perry having gotten to this race late. that doesn't -- you know, one debate is not catastrophic. we're going to have several more debates before the end of the year. but these are the kinds of things that experienced

candidates learn to handle in a more fluent way. >> and a little perspective here. candidates that win the debates don't get the nomination. >> well, that's sometimes true. rick santorum has done very well in several debates. yet he is still down in -- at 1 and 2%. >> and joe biden and hillary clinton won a lot of those early debates in 2007. >> that's right. >> mike huckabee was a big debate winner. >> chris dodd was a debate winner, yeah. so as you say, it's one of the factors. on the other hand, you have to do well in debates. debates are important. and debates in general elections, if they're close, often turn out to be really pivotal. >> all right. susan page, washington bureau chief of "usa today" covering it. good to see you, susan. >> thanks, chuck. house republicans are practically sending an engraved invitation to the senate for a political fight. down to the wire once again in the fight to keep the lights on in washington, d.c. democratic party chair debbie

wasserman schultz joins us next. plus, perry's wild pitch. the texas governor is building his presidential campaign on his job-creating record. but some new numbers show the texas jobs boom might not be all perry's pitching it to be. first, a look ahead at the president's schedule. it's friday. got some interesting -- a bit of a slower day, but some big remarks on no child left behind. a big change in that. as we get into education nation next week, we're going to be talking about it a lot. you're watching "the daily rundown" on msnbc. i took refugem 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®. achoo! [ male announcer ] and common tissue can make it burn even more. puffs plus lotion is more soothing than common tissue, and it delivers our most soothing lotion for every nose issue.

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president obama took his jobs message to ohio yesterday, while the dnc takes to the airways with a new ad. >> you know that saying "when

the going gets tough, the tough get going?" well, america invented it and we've got to get going right now. it's tax breaks for the wealthiest that has corporate loopholes. tell congress, no more games, pass the plan. >> that is a new dnc ad and florida congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz is the chair of the democratic national committee. and joins me now. let me ask you, yesterday the president doing a -- and he sort of openly admitting he was there for political reasons to make a political point about speaker boehner, senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. you guys have this tv ad up. any concern that the more political it gets, the more dug in both sides get and then you can't get this bill through? >> well, i mean, i think the contrast from last night between the nine republican candidates duking it out on a stage and president obama barnstorming the

country to fight for his bill to create jobs and get the economy turned around is pretty clear. and that's, i think, an important distinction. that's what we're going to see throughout this whole election, chuck, is we're going to see the dramatic and stark contrast and what this election will come down to is a choice between a president who wants to fight hard to make sure we can improve the lives of the middle class and working families and republicans who want to, you know, embrace the tea party, an extreme agenda, dismantle social security and medicare as we know it, and have no new ideas to create jobs and no interest in helping the middle class. >> i understand the contrast you want to create for november 2012. but what about for this jobs bill in the next six weeks? >> well, it's -- we're two weeks from when president obama rolled out this plan, introduced the bill. monday he rolled out a proposal for the super committee on deficit reduction. and we hear crickets in congress. where is the movement? where is the republican

initiative to -- to have hearings on the president's american jobs act, to talk about how we're going to take up the bill? even if they don't agree with parts of it, it's time to move on it. is it not urgent? i mean, i think 9.1% unemployment is urgent. i think it's important that we show that we want to work together. the republicans, apparently, don't. >> what about the senate -- senate's role here? democratic control. would you like to see harry reid speed up the process, do things you want house republicans to do on the jobs bill? can't that be done in the democratic senate? >> we have two houses, and both houses need to move with deliberate speed on helping to get people back to work. absolutely. >> and do you feel as if -- you say deliberate speed. is that saying that you think the senate isn't moving fast enough? or you would like to see them move a little bit faster? >> well, see the difference between harry reid and john boehner, harry reid has said he's going to hear the president's jobs bill, that he supports the president's american jobs act. and john boehner has hemmed and

h howed and kind of supported it. and then backed away. and now nothing. so i am >> chair woman, i want to ask you about the solyndra hearings that are taking place, about the solar power company that got some -- department of energy money. it was the push for green jobs. has what happened with solyndra made you question whether this investment in green jobs, while maybe a good long-term investment, may not be the

short-term spark that democrats and the administration thought it would be? >> well, look. this green jobs program was a program that started in the bush administration. and so lynn dra so lynn dra is one unfortunate example. sometimes things don't work out. it's -- there are dozens of other examples of companies that have been able to take advantage of this green jobs program, make sure that we can start to wean ourselves off of our dependence on foreign oil, make sure that we focus on energy production and also on energy -- green energy jobs in this country. so i don't think we can just say one company failed, it didn't work out, and so let's wash our hands of the whole thing. >> and finally, state of florida, new poll out yesterday had the president's job rating at 39%. and same poll also showed mitt romney with a 7-point lead over president obama. yes, the president led rick

perry if rick perry was the nominally. but being down seven points in florida, not good right now. >> look, it's september before the election year. so i'm not too concerned about polls. what i think floridans should be concerned about, i represent hundreds of thousands of floridans and at the end of the day, they are going to have a very clear choice. i'll say again, between whoever they nominate for president, and president obama, president obama who supports shoring up social security and preserving it as a safety net, who supports medicare being a lifeline for seniors when they need quality health care, and the republican candidate, whoever it is, all of them embracing ending social security as we know it, because they want to privatize it, turning medicare into a voucher program, that's not going to play well no matter who is the republican nominee for florida voters. >> all right. dnc chairwoman debbie wasserman schultz, congresswoman from broward county, florida. good to see you. >> you too. all right. we've got some live pictures here. this is michele bachmann this morning addressing a crowd at

the c-pack conference in orlando, florida. the conservative political action conference. we have been saying all week, florida, florida, florida. the sunshine state could decide who wins the republican presidentelial nomination. all of the candidates who participated in last night's debate are speaking at the conference today. romney will be up in 15 minutes. but then he's going to bolt. he's not going to do the straw poll. we'll keep our eyes on the live pictures and sound and bring you any news as it happens. those whispers of a double dip recession are getting louder after the stock market plunged. this could be one of the worst weeks in wall street on history. feel like that's a dejavu. is it going to be long or short this week? plus, do you have your hard hat writ? a six-ton suppose of space trash comes barreling down to earth today. what are the odds it could hit you? but first today's trivia question. what former white house president is buried near the rose garden?

give me the answer at chuck todd@daily rundown. i'll have the answer and more coming up on "the daily rundown." just think of this. it will be about a tweet. i promise you. we'll be right back. that was a hint. ♪ ♪ [ country ] [ man ] ♪ gone, like my last paycheck ♪ gone, gone away ♪ gone, like my landlord's smile ♪

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well, it looks like wall street will kick off the day with a major hangover. the opening bell is just about to ring on wall street. cnbc's courtney reagan is here with the market rundown. will folks be long or short this weekend? >> it's really hard to say. but right now it's looking pretty red. we've got a little bit of a hangover effect going on from yesterday, because there isn't any economic data, so to speak of, here in the united states. we're going to kind of take the lead of our european and asian trading partners. it's probably going to be tough to recapture much of yesterday's losses. obvious times, you do see a bit

of sort of what we call a dead cat bounce after a day like yesterday, but that doesn't look to be the case. we're just opening here on wall street and it does look as if we are opening lower. at one point this morning, futures were actually decidedly positive. europe then went negative and our futures followed course, taking us lower, as well. the msci, it's this all-country world index that counts 45 nations, it's now in a bear market range. for the first time in more than two years. and this, again, chuck, is after this worsening european debt crisis and threat of u.s. recession or double dip erased more than $10 trillion from equities since may. so a lot of this really still hanging on the market. we'll see what we can do to make our way into the weekend. but so far it's looking very red. >> thank you, courtney. >> thank you. >> we'll be watching, i guess. could be ugly. "the daily rundown" back in 30 seconds.

few other stories making headlines. los angeles police are investigating a vandalism incident at the obama campaign's west l.a. offices. apparently someone shot bee-bee pellets and is threw an object at the office's windows. no word from the lapd on any leads. mahmoud abbas is expected to petition the united nations today to get full recognition to palestine as a nation. the united states has vowed to veto the move, but have asked for full membership. the u.n. and security council

must consider the risk. this could get committed up for a while. today could be the day that a six-ton bus-sized weather satellite plummets to earth. at least that is scientists' best guess. the satellite is likely to break up through and fall to earth sometime this afternoon or evening. by all estimates, north america is off the hook. satellite will probably land somewhere in the pacific ocean, right? that's the odds. scientists say it could hit australia. but the truth is, they don't know exactly where it's going to fall. there have been estimates that maybe it's western europe. who knows, maybe south africa. of pretty much they're throwing stuff on the wall. they just know it's not north america, which probably means watch out, kansas. well, rick perry's presidential pitch is focused squarely on one issue. >> jobs -- create jobs. creation of jobs. created over 1 million jobs. >> but with texas unemployment at its highest point in 24 years, where does perry's pitch

end and reality begin? you've been digging into this. and mike, all these numbers came out about the last two weeks. the timing couldn't have been worse for perry's campaign. touts this great record on creating jobs. but inside the numbers, it's a different story. >> it's not looking good. this is sort of a -- could be the elephant in the room for the perry campaign. because as you point out, this is the centerpiece of his entire message to voters. i'm a job creator, created over 1 million jobs. last three months, unemployment has been going up in texas. and highest point in 24 years, more than twice what it was when perry took office. and last month, most recent figures show a net job loss in texas. now, that's primarily public sector jobs. a lot of it due to cutbacks by local governments, but also cutbacks in state spending. and, you know, if this continues for the next few months, and there's some indications it could, it's going to be very -- you know, perry is going to have

some explaining to do. >> the toughest thing for any presidential campaign is when their strength gets turned into a weakness and when we're mentioning the texas jobs things, and it's all internally sometimes referred to the texas miracle he wants to pitch. because we saw what happened to mike dukakis back in ' 88. the bush campaign turned that strength into a weakness. >> well, you know, the perry response and people in state government say, look, this is the national economy catching up with texas. and it's -- >> is that true? >> yeah. no question. look, we're suffering a national aeconomic slow down. so of course it's going to affect -- >> second largest state. >> right, right. but, you know, you look -- you dig down. you know, you look at that job creation, the million jobs. one in four were government jobs, public sector. also fueled in part by federal stimulus funds. which texas got a big chunk. second in the country after

california. drying up. so, you know, look, every governor wants to take credit for that which goes well, as perry is doing. and not necessarily when things go badly. you know, the bottom line is, it's very tough to tie developments and unemployment and job creation to particular gubernatorial policies. >> the argument that he does make, though, hey, they have fewer regulation, their taxes are lower. so -- and, in fact, he says, yeah, they -- they steal businesses from other states. >> poaching. that's what -- perry's chairman of the texas work force commission used that where we have been poaching jobs from other states. depending on that. now, that may be good temporarily for texas. but nationally, it's not -- certainly it's not adding to the pool of jobs. and, you know, as i said, what's happening nationally is catching up with texas. it's going to make it difficult for perry to continue to hit this i'm a job creator theme if

jobs are drying up in texas. >> all right. mike isikoff, check in on it. we will look for more from you later today. we've got live pictures here. mitt romney addressing the crowd at the conservative political action conference in orlando, florida. we will check in and see if this is something that isn't just full-fledged some speech talking points that is of interest. we'll bring it to you. top executives for the now defunct solar technology company solyndra are facing tough questions about a government loan, the company's bankruptcy and whether they misled congress about the state of their business, the two company leaders made it clear they plan to plead the fifth when questioned today. congressman fred upton, chairman of the committee, had some tough words for all those involved in his opening statement a few minutes ago. >> it appears that we have a great heist of over half a billion dollars, and possibly even willing collaborators, maybe even co conspirators called the u.s. government, we

finally had to resort to a subpoena, and now the outright resistance of getting answers that both of you, our two witnesses assured us only last week you would provide. >> up next, our tgi friday political panel weighs in on the most awkward laugh line from last night's debate, and where the republican race goes from here. but first, it's a friday. the white house soup of the day, a rare non-fish soup of the day on a friday. don't think we're not paying attention there. white house mess guys. chicken noodle on a friday. mark your calendar. this sunday, a special edition of "meet the press" as nbc news kicks off education nation week. david gregory's guests will include the new york city mayor, michael bloomberg sunday on "meet the press." check your local listings. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. woman: saving for our child's college fund was getting expensive. man: yes it was.

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spaniel dog in a crate that he had seat belt ant all the way f. black and white spotted. and our little girl, tricia, the 6-year-old, named it checks. and the kids, like all kids, love the dog. and i just want to say this right now, regardless of what they say about it, we're going to keep it. >> well, it was on this day in 1952 that richard nixon showed the power of television. he delivered what came to be known as the checkers speech, defending himself against allegations of financial impro po pryty and led into how politicians learned to talk around the press. all right. now to our panel. malika henderson, for "the washington post" and "real clear politics" and msnbc political analyst michael steele, former chairman of the republican party. i want to start with what i think is the youtube moment of the debate last night that i'm

sure the perry campaign is cringing about today. and the only reason that the romney campaign isn't sending it around, it's about mitt romney. let's play it. >> i think americans just don't know sometimes which mitt romney they're dealing with. is it is the mitt romney that was on the side of -- against the second amendment before he was for the second amendment? was it before he was before the social programs from the standpoint of he was far standing out for roe vs. wade? before he was against roe vs. wade? he was for race to the top. he's for obamacare, and now he's against it. >> michael steele. >> get out of -- >> it was one of those, you just sit there and you're -- you know what he's trying to do. we've all been there. we can have our own technical

problems and stuff that goes down. but for rick perry, he didn't need that moment. this is third debate in a row where questions are starting to build, particularly among sort of i would say republican elites, whatever they are, but poll as you go. folks like him not -- >> very unimpressive moment. i think it damaged him. it was one of a series of damaging moments, certainly, that i think the culmination was the immigration points that he made. but on the border. but when you're in that moment and your brain freezes up like that, then you have to flip to another gear. and whip that bad boy around and show some dexterity and flexibility. what struck me about perry last night was he was wooden. he stood there pretty much in this pose. you could have replaced him with a cardboard cut-out and not noticed the difference last night. i thought it was an awful debate for him. he lost ground with a lot of grass roots activists out there, not just on the substance, but i think the total package fell

apart for him. >> erin, the campaign is sort of accepting the fact they didn't have the best debate. what are they saying? >> well, they're saying he's only been in this race for six weeks or so. >> total fact. >> and yeah, it is. but it's interesting, chuck, because perry was obviously trying to paint romney as this liberal flip-flopper. and romney was trying to show that perry rasclueless. well, it seems that romney got the better of him last night through some of these exchanges. >> you know, so, yes, mitt romney clearly performance wise had a good debate. you look at it and think swing voters will think he had a good debate. but he still hasn't to to deal with the pile-on on health care. if i would have told you a year ago we're going to go through six debates and there is yet to be a pile-on moment to see how romney handles the pile-on with all of the other candidates there, i think you would have been surprised. >> yeah, he has. and his answers so far are decent. this is a state issue in had massachusetts and i did what was

right for my state. but i think really the underlying issue that came out of this for perry is this whole idea of painting him as clueless. you heard privately from republicans that he was sort of bush without the brains. and now you see that seeping into these debates. romney, you know, saying, oh, i actually wrote my book. and a number of times he actually said something like, well, i don't really know what perry is talking about. or he doesn't sound like he knows what he's talking about. >> using it as a did he fleckive active mechanism. no child left behind. and romney said i don't know what he's talking about, even though -- actually -- he had hit him. i want to play another bite, speaking of romney, to show how i think this delicate balance he has of trying not to not alien ate the base, but at the same time, not ale enate the middle. >> do you believe that president obama is a socialist? >> let me tell you the title that i want to hear said about president obama. and that is, former president barack obama. that's the title i want.

let me tell you this. what president obama is a big-spending liberal. and he takes his political inspiration from europe and from the socialist democrats in europe. >> michael steele, very interesting how frankly romney is showing when you've been there before, quick on his feet, knew -- decided i'm not going to get into the name-calling business because that's not going to appeal to independents. >> that was a big-time answer. he was talking to the middle of the country, he was talking to independent voters last night. he was not going to get into the -- the meat grind that a lot of republicans have had out there about the president being ae a socialist. the name-calling and the tagging. he rose before it, stepped up his game, immeasurably for a lot of reasons. and i thought contrasted to perry, especially, romney had the opportunity to sort of grab back a little bit of that front-runner status by himself. >> erin, michael was tweeting about this. a lot of us were.

there were other candidates on stage that popped last night and the one in particular that jumped out at me is rick santorum. number one, he turned into mitt romney's wing man on immigration. >> that's right. going right after perry. >> clear. it was sort of stronger on it than romney was. made it more accessible answer. >> right. and he went after jon huntsman on foreign policy, as well. but as far as immigration is concerned, yes, perry took a lot of hits. but at the same time, he shows more conviction in talking about immigration than on any other issue. it's really strange. >> immigration the death penalty. >> strange, but that actually is a good general election. >> it's good -- good for the general election. the crowd booed. it's not good for this -- >> he's had some -- more booing moments than mitt romney the last two debates. go figure. all right. you guys stick around. weaver goings to have more on the other side. trivia time, we ask what former white house president is buried near the rose garden? the answer is the eisenhower's parakeet. report reportedly, gabby and pete were laid to rest on the white house

lawn. a lot of you guessed robin, a jfk bird is there, too. we'll check to see if robin is there. but eisenhower is the answer we were looking for. we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. all these give safe drivers a discount. but only allstate gives safe drivers more. a bonus check every six months they drive accident-free. so what's it going to be? eenie, meanie, miney... or more. shop less. get more. make one call to an allstate agent. today i own 165 wendy's restaurants. and i get my financing from ge capital. but i also get stuff that goes way beyond banking. we not only lend people money, we help them save it. [ junior ] ge engineers found ways to cut my energy use. [ cheryl ] more efficient lighting helps junior stay open later... [ junior ] and serve more customers.

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if you take our graduation exam and pass it and you pass it in the top quarter you're entitled to four years tuition-free at our university. you've got to be a legal resident of the united states of america to get that. >> there you go. mitt romney just a few minutes ago taking a swipe at rick perry describing the education programs romney championed as governor of massachusetts. hear him on this immigration stuff, michael steele. i remember when romney used immigration to go after mccain and giuliani. trying to prove conservative -- and it didn't work for romney four years ago. can it work this time? can you make rick perry seem not

as conservative as he is? >> i don't know if it's a question of making him seem not as conservative, but i think you have an ability with romney or at least the romney people have an ability to draw stark contrasts playing into the fears of the base about controlling and making sure that we're not, you know, keeping the border op as we did after the last time we talked about this. >> reminding the base, hey, remember the last time we had a texas governor in there? you didn't like his immigration stance either. >> absolutely. i think a lot of that is being plays out now. >> romney specifically used the term illegal alien. which -- >> old school formula. >> he wins, which is a term -- >> in the primary it will work. in the general election, the latino -- >> a final commonwealth of pennsylvania at end had a weird moment. all asked to pick a vp running mate from somebody on that stage. here's what was said. >> i would probably go with

speaker gingrich, who i have the greatest admiration for in all seriousness. >> newt gingrich would be the guy i would pick. >> i don't know how you would do this. but if you could take herman cain and mate him up with newt gingrich, i think you would have a couple of really interesting -- >> there are a couple of images i'm going to have a hard time getting out of my mind. >> all right. rick perry wants to mate newt gingrich and herman cain. >> yeah. >> i think it's because of their georgia roots. that's clearly what he's saying. >> funny, three people picked gingrich, three people picked herman cane cain and rick perry picked them both. >> who are the two candidates everybody fears the least on the stage. >> right. >> hate to say that, in a weird way, that's not good for newt and herman cain that everybody is picking them. >> it's true. made for an open moment.

this image of them mating up. >> don't ask, don't tell issue is -- >> well, no. funny, let's transition. there was a question where the audience reaction, again, like we've had in previous debate. the audience reaction was somewhat more surprising than anything asked or said. here's the question from a gay soldier. >> -- deployed to iraq i had to lie about who i was because i'm a gay soldier, and i didn't want too lose my job. my question is under one of your presidencies do you intend to circumvent the progress made for gay and less bobian soldiers man the military? >> i would say any type of sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military. >> erin, again, this is mostly, you're seeing this come from democrats. >> they love it. they take oust social issues the death penalty, let him do you shout-out at the cnn debate.

this one, we're seeing the cultural schism in this country and -- >> and debbie wasserman schultz you had on earlier talking about these debates. how these tea party activists making these comments are helping them with independents and they'll be fine in the general. >> women in the suburbs have always been sort of that if, on the social issues sometimes republican and not comfortable with the social issues. >> because that gay soldier is their son. absolutely. when you have a moment, booing a united states marine or officer, it really bothers a lot of people out there. particularly those voters right there in the middle. >> all right. >> my mom ho competed in the senior games this week won first place in the 50-yard dash and first place in the standing broad jump said she dusted the competition and is bragging. picked up her medals yesterday. >> wow. how about that. >> i am plugging my editor carl

cannon's morning note. sign up. >> i love it. >> i know. >> a big fan. always has a great historical nugget on baseball. >> exactly. >> and who i'm going with for lunch. plu plugging -- >> my boys on hot line, it's straw poll weekend. one in florida, one in michigan, and mackinaw island. we'll see. can ron paul sweep them both? that's it for "the daily rundown." have a great weekend. coming up, "jansing and co." and at 1:00, don't miss "andrea mitchell reports." bye-bye.

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