he still running? chris christie says no. but his travel schedule, his speech at the reagan library, only amps up the talk. it underscores the republican unease with the current field. and disaster averted until the next time. the senate strikes a deal to fund the government for about six weeks after abandoning efforts to refill fema coffers. so we're good, well, until before thanksgiving. and a legal move by the obama administration means we could have a supreme court ruling on the contentious health care mandate in the middle of the presidential campaign. is this a sign of how confident the white house is that they're going to win this case? tuesday, september 27th, 2011. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. let's get to my first reads of the morning. it starts with chris christie with a third quarter filing deadline looming friday, the republicans running for president are on a final fund-raising push. president obama himself is also doing it. rick perry is in washington this morning where he'll raise money at the willard hotel.

mitt romney held multi. fund-raisers in new york. no press, no pictures. he hid from the cameras so people didn't see him with donald trump. then there's the guy who repeatedly has said he's not running for president whose packed fund-raising schedule is raising some eyebrows. he holds the last of three fund-raisers in missouri today, then he'll fly to california for a keynote address at the reagan presidential library. he's calling that speech "real american exceptionalism." his aides say we'll use president reagan's transformative leadership to talk about how the u.s. role in the world is defined by who we are at home. then wednesday, chrissie gets an assist raising money from newly named hewlett-packard ceo and former republican candidate for governor meg whitman. thursday, off to louisiana and a campaign rally with governor bobby jindal. he's up for re-election this year. christie continues to say a 2012 run is not in his heart. this is what he said thursday. >> i appreciate all the

wonderful things you're saying about me, but when i'm in a hotel room in des moines and it's 5:30 in the morning and it's 15 below and it's hard for me to get up and go shake hands at the meat packing plant, the only one that's going to be in bed with me is mary pat, not you. >> well, there you go. one longtime friend, though, says he's giving 2012 another look and that friend is former new jersey governor tom caine. he tells the national review, "it's real. he's giving it a lot of thought. i think the odds are a lot better now than they were a couple weeks ago. he's not going to ease anybody. if circumstances change he won't hide it." an easy venue tonight to put an end to all of this renewed speculation. it's the reagan library, the speech. he can easily either say it at the beginning or say it at the end if he wants to end this speculation or not. it will be interesting to see how he handles it. meanwhile, the president heads

to denver, colorado, today, the last stop on a west coast fund-raising swing that the campaign hopes will net about $4 million. last night the president went hollywood, headlining a fund-raiser at the house of blues, a $250 person to get in. just $10,000 to get a picture with the president. his message to the soldout crowd -- i never promised you it was going to be easy. >> i never promised you easy. if you want easy, you wanted to campaign for barack hussein obama. what i promised was that there was a vision of america out there that we believed in. what i promised was that if we worked hard we could achieve that vision. what i promised was that i would wake up every single day fighting for you. >> going to delve into the president's relationship with hollywood later in the show. the president is also sneaking in some campaigning for his new jobs program at a town hall meeting sponsored by job networking site linkedin.

the president heard from people like retired google executive doug edwards, who asked what could be called a dream question if you're the president. >> my question is, would you please raise my taxes? [ applause ] >> so often the tax debate gets framed as class warfare. we're successful because somebody invested in our education, somebody built schools, somebody created incredible universities. we benefited from somebody somewhere making an investment in us. >> well, the president obviously loved having that question because it allowed him to make his case for what he believes is targeted government spending. of course this is what this campaign ultimately is going to be about. it's this vision of the size of government and how to fund it. all right. speaking of taxes and social networking, about five miles from where the president was

making his pitch in silicon valley, the three house republican leaders that like to call themselves the young guns talked up the virtues of social media and their job ideas at a town hall that was hosted by facebook. but this caught our eye. congressman paul ryan joined by the two others was skeptical about what the super committee can accomplish. here's what he said. >> one of the reasons i didn't want to go on the committee is because the budget process is just broken. the fact we have a select committee is testament to the fact that congress does not budget our money at all. but 12 people in congress are not going to cut a back room deal that are going to fix all of the country's fiscal problems, nor should they try. >> here's a leader of the house republicans calling the super committee a back room deal. i think that tells you where this super committee is headed. it is going to either meet the minimum requirements or is simply allow the cuts to happen automatically. if that's the message from house republican leaders, and paul

ryan is the voice on these fiscal issues, if that's what he's saying, we know nothing big is coming out of that committee. president obama heads to the mile high city today trying to recapture the campaign fervor he had more than three years ago. we're live in l.a. where the president held a fund-raiser last night. back to the linked in conversation because you interviewed this retired google executive who obviously has a pile of money and is willing to pay more in taxes. you know, was it a planted question? was it something he knew he was being cute si? what was his motivation? >> you know what, chuck, that was the first question i asked him because it just seemed too good to be true from the president's perspective. i said did someone put you up to this? he said absolutely not. he said i decided to come to this event last minute. he was invited to the event by someone with the dnc. we should mention that. but he said, look, this was a genuine question. it was something i really wanted

to know. when asked if he was actually pleased with the president's response he said he would have liked to have just heard him say yes, i will raise your taxes, i will fight for that until it happens. but he understands he says that the president needs to work with congress. we also asked, do you support an increase in capital gains taxes? and he said he does. he said he is paying tacks. he wouldn't tell us exactly how much he's paying. i tried to ask him that. but there's been a lot of criticism of the president from his base, saying he hasn't been fighting enough against republican, standing up to them. i asked him that as well. here's how doug edwards responded. take a listen. >> part of the reason is i asked the question is i wanted him to understand that there are people like me, a lot of people in my situation who feel that they could do more to help the country. >> so he feels heartened by this more combative president obama

that we have heard lately, chuck, and he feels heartened by the fact that he's feistier and sounds like he's standing up to republicans. he wants to see the president follow through with that. so it will be interesting to listen to the president's tone when he heads to denver, colorado, later on today, as we have been saying. the president seems now firmly planted in campaign mode. so we do expect to hear a combative president obama. chuck? >> that's for sure. kristen welker traveling with the president in los angeles very early. thank you, kristen. let's move to capitol hill. the government is going to keep running at least until thanksgiving. a late senate vote last night should keep the government funded for another six weeks. kelly o'donnell is our capitol hill correspondent. kelly, it does seem as if the obama white house basically intervened here and said, guys, relax, fema's fine till the end of the fiscal year, which is in now three days. just pass this thing and avert this crisis. >> reporter: well, it seemed that fema, which bails so many

people out of their disasters, really turned to congress to try to help them out of this one. and it came down to the fact that last week, chuck, you remember leaders in both parties were saying that the disaster fund to help people all across the country who have had these terrible calamities and the states they live in was running out of money. might be empty by monday or today. then all of a sudden yesterday fema said that it had $114 million, enough to get it through to the end of the week, which is also the end of the fiscal year. so come october 1st, more money is already scheduled to fill these accounts so they'll be fine. that changed the whole dynamic, and then late in the evening, there was sort of an expected vote, things got delayed, and then there was a lot of deal making and they decided okay, fema doesn't need this instant help. that means we can take off the table the whole contentious issue of trying to provide that extra funding by making cuts in other programs. so it was the kind of thing that got everybody worked up and then

the solution seemed rather calm. now it's not 100% over because the house needs to okay that. they're not here this week. the senate's gone for the rest of the week. but they can do it through a procedural move on thursday, and we don't expect any signs of red flags that it could be derailed. so it was one of those things that almost took us to the brink and then there was kind of a cooler head solution and everybody calmed down. >> for now. it's sort of a stay of government shutdown execution. >> reporter: exactly. >> november, here we come. kelly, thanks very much. all right. now to the biggest political story that hasn't gotten enough coverage, the obama administration signaling it's ready to help the fate of the health care law, a decision that could come down right in the middle of next year's campaign. pete williams, you've been looking at the spring, always speculated, that something happened over the last 48 hours as far as the justice department and this health care law and the appeals court process that made

you say we're about to head for the supreme court. what's going on? >> it's a simple question. what was the justice department and the obama administration going to do about the big high-profile decision that came last month in a lawsuit filed by florida and 25 other states in which a district court, federal appeals court, also said that the law is unconstitutional. this requirement that all americans buy health insurance. now, the obama administration had a choice. that decision was made by a three-judge panel of the 1 1 1t circuit court of appeals so the government could ask the full court of appeals to hear the case. if ha had been done, i don't think it would have gone to the supreme court. >> would have delayed it another year. >> they decided to jump over that, as they can, and it appears they'll want to go directly to the supreme court. there's already another case pending in the supreme court. that is one that came out of michigan, the sixth circuit court of appeals, which said the obama care is fine, they upheld the law. so now you have potentially two cases. it would seem very likely then that the supreme court would take the case up this term.

>> does it matter which case they take up? i mean, i guess it matters in the case of do you defend or do you go against the one decision or defend what are the court rulings. >> my guess is that the supreme court would take both of them and do what they call consolidating them. in other words, sort of roll them all up into one big ball and say let's look at both decisions here. now, by the way, we're assuming that the supreme court would take the case. let me just say -- >> why wouldn't they? >> there are other cases pending. there's one in washington in the federal circuit. there's sort of a late to the party issue here, which is is the way to look at this say it's a tax and if p there is a tax, there's a federal law that says you can't challenge a law that would -- >> delay to 2014. >> that's right. but many legal scholars are saying the supreme court is not going to say no if the foft comes in and says, look, the courts are striking down a

federal law, you ought to take this case, the odds i think are high that if the justice department asks them to take it, they will. >> time line. they take it, the courts fill the docket through the end of this calendar year. court starts october 1st. through the end of december. which means the earliest they could hear it is sometime in january. >> yes, january, february. but we're still looking at a decision -- it's going to be a complicated case. all the courts below have said this is a novel question. does it exceed congress' pow they're says every american has to go buy something? and that's a novel question. the supreme court's never answered that before. so i can't imagine that this is a decision that would come quickly no matter when it's argued. we're looking at probably toward the end of the supreme court's term, the usual train wreck of big decisions that come before the end of june. >> and we know there's going to be conservative calls for kagan to recuse herself. is there a precedent for that? >> the argument was when she was in the solicitor general's office, she was around when there were discussions about

this. she said she never took part in any decisions about how to handle this case, she delegated it to a deputy. i'm sure there will be calls for her to step down. >> sure. >> i can't imagine that she will. >> going to be quite interesting, right after the republican primary season is over. pete williams, thanks very much. up next, republicans are still looking for a candidate to fall in love with. is the party pining for a guy they just can't have? or is all the primary pandemonium leaving a spot open for chris christie to jump in the race? republicans' disarray kicks off a new season of speculation. and lights, camera, action. president obama goes hollywood but, like we told you, not everyone out west is dazzled by his star power. first a look at the president's schedule. -i love this card. -with the bankamericard cash rewards credit card,

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no question rick perry had a rough week, but his campaign can take comfort in this poll. he's still holding a significant lead over mitt romney. newt xwigingrich is the only ot candidate in double digits. at this time, rudy giuliani and fred thompson were leading the field four years ago. mark mckinnon, co-founder of the group no labels, mark, you wrote and rick perry that you were essentially shocked at how poorly he did in the third

debate. you kind of gave him a pass in one, willing to give him a pass in two had there been improvement in three. what's going on? is it his m.o.? you're a texas guy. you're an us is tin guy. is he just not somebody who likes to debate, likes to prep for debates? what's the deal? >> well, i think getting in late his campaign was overwhelmed. they're drinking from a fire hose. they were trying to do too many things. he had a big speech just three hours before his last debate. so i don't think they really understood what a priority that ought to be. but there's only a few chances in campaigns when you get to really change the dynamic and the debate is one of few of those. as i pointed out, other candidates i've worked for, including george w. bush, worked ferociously for debates, six months ahead of time. dick cheney was a maniac about his debate preparation. i think they get it now. listen, the perry campaign collapse story is quickly going to be followed by the perry resurrection story, because we need a new narrative, right? >> sure. >> he's not out of it, but he's got a lot of work to do.

i think they know that now. they just made it harder on themselves. >> and obviously it led to this renewed focus on somehow -- and you've got some big republican donor types, activist types who have been pining for chris christie for a year but think that this is their one last chance and that did perry give an opening to make this real. christie, you know, on one hand, they want us to take him at his word, but then you have tom caine saying one thing, giving a speech at the reagan library. i know marco rubio gave a speech there last month. but he can put an end to this if he wants to at a fund-raiser in missouri or at the reagan library. >> he can. the reality is certainly he's thought about being president or he would have ended the speculation a long time ago. i think he's thought about it in terms of 2016 or later when he, quote, said he would be prepared. as we know in politics, when there's an opening, you got to jump. just like barack obama did.

a lot of people said he should wait. but you don't get these openings often. if chris christie awants to be president, he ought toynamics w fortunes will change. his story he told in your clip earlier reminds me of a joe kennedy story talking to young john f. kennedy, you're thinking about running, it's a sunday morning, it's 20 below, you're supposed to be at a soup kitchen at 5:00. the question is not will you be there but do you want to be there. >> how do you overcome -- let's say his mind has changed in the last two weeks -- shoot, that clip's not even a week old -- and his mind has changed and he wants to do this. how do you explain away what you said all this year, which is, you know what, i'm not ready? >> i think he looks at the field and says you know what, i may not have been ready but these guys are less ready. given our nature and the state of our country, the president is

clearly not ready to deal with the crisis we face and i'm compelled by public service to jump in. i have an obligation to jump in and do my part and do the best i can. so, you know, and by the way, i think he looks at the rick perry thing and it can go two ways. he can look at it and say, gee, look how hard it is to do that and all the problems when you jump in late, but he can also look at it and say, i can do better than that. >> let's look at the reality here. is this about rick perry or is this still about mitt romney? i mean, the whole reason why we have rick perry in this race is because there was such a vacuum, particularly with the tea party conservative crowd who wanted an electable conservative to get behind and michele bachmann wasn't fulfilling that electable card. >> i think what voters want across all sectors of the republican primary is somebody who's big, bold, and brash. that's why perry got so much attraction because people see him as a strong leader. people don't vote on the issues. they vote on attributes, and the most important one is strength.

i'll bet in this environment that's more important than ever. that's why there's the huge attraction to chris christie. but then again, chuck, you know, people are never happy with the primary fields and there's a broad constituency across the ideological spectrum so nobody's going to make everybody happy. but ultimately, somebody will get up on that nomination stage and when they do, they have a cape and an "s" on their chest. >> if you're romney, how do you fix this? yesterday -- and it's a small moment, but yesterday the romney campaign played a little too cute with this whole donald trump thing and they created -- they promised the press he's coming through here, but they clearly didn't want the press to get a picture of romney with trump. but at the same time, romney wanted to meet with trump, probably to see if he could quiet down the criticism trump had issued a few months ago. but then he ducked. he was afraid of having the photo-op, which to me it's a small story that goes to the larger problem romney has. he wants to project some strength, show that he's not afraid to talk with the base,

tame he doesn't want to fend. >> that's the vulnerability and credit where credit's due. he's run a good, consistent campaign and learned a lot from losing. but at the end of the day, you can't fake these things. ultimately it shows who you really are. that's the concern about mitt romney is that he tries to have it both ways, tries to be too cute and ul maltly he's not the big, bold, brash leader that people are looking for in the republican party right now. that said, he may end up being the nominee. >> all right. mark mckinnon, keen observer of all of this, a texas guy -- hey, i saw you wear a hat on your daily beast column. i'm not seeing you in the cowboy hat, buddy. >> hey, i'm inside, man. >> fair enough. good to see you. >> keep kicking it. >> all right. a rare moment of optimism on wall street today. if you say so. we'll get rundown next. and the stars came out for

president obama's star-studded speech last night. plus, education nation. some of the neigh's most influential political leaders weighing in about the state of our nation's schools. first, today's trivia question. [ male announcer ] tom's discovering that living healthy can be fun.

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how much of this is due to last week's sell-off? >> a little bit, chuck, but the good news this morning, we're going to look over 200 points up this morning, a large part on

what's going on in europe, a lot of happy talk from germans and the greeks. whether they actually get a deal together, nobody knows. but of course, people take one little sent m and things look better. of course, the other piece of news today, the fact that the u.s. government will stay in business and isn't shutting down. people are looking at that as good news. we also just got some news ab20 minutes ago on housing and housing prices actually have gone up in the last month so that's great, including, by the way, in the city of detroit, a place that has needed it more than most. so we're looking at a big day, whether it stays that way, of course, we will never know. >> so the good news is about disasters averted. >> rather than better news. >> exactly. all right, andrew. thank you, sir. "the daily rundown" will be back in 30 seconds.

bottom of the hour now. president obama will be in colorado today after wrapping up a fund-raising sling that took him to seattle, l.a., san diego. the president will speak at a denver high school this afternoon about his proposal to reinvest in the nation's schools but also sneak in some more fund-raising. it's not just president obama who hears california calling. republican governor chris christie speaks tonight at the ronald reagan library in simi valley, the title of the speech, real american exceptionalism. 9:00 p.m. eastern, 6:00 p.m. on the west coast. and the opening bell, how about that? just rang on wall street.

investors are eyeing developments in europe's debt crisis, where officials say greece will get a new round of bailout funds in time to avoid default. so disaster averted for now. other stories making headlines. live p pictures of the washington monument where a close-up inspection is expected to get under way any moment. climbers will grapple down all four sides to examine from last month's earthquake, this as the national park service released new video taken inside during the quake. look at those pictures. unbelievable. a little change in the west wing. stephanie cutter, one of president's top adviser, will become the latest obama aide to the white house for a campaign. she will move to chicago to become the deputy campaign manager of the president's re-election campaign. egyptian officials say gunmen are to blame for an explosion that destroyed a gas pipeline in the sinai peninsula

overnight. the blast destroyed the section of pipeline that carries gas from egypt to israel and jordan. this is the sixth attack on the pipeline since mubarak was pushed out of power in february. as part of our education nation series this week, nbc news is tackling the challenges facing our nation's schools. just this morning you heard from former florida governor jeb bush and he was joined by his sister-in-law, former first lady laura bush. they discuss what's behind the nation's shortfalls and what parents can do to help. >> we don't start early enough. we don't have -- we have tolerance for kids that passed third grade without reading at grade level. we don't create an accountability system around our kids that's focused on student learning. a lot of times it's just about the adults. >> it's very important for parents themselves to be disciplined enough and organized enough that they help their children by school, by going to bed early if they're little children in elementary school or

getting their homework done and making sure they get their homework done, and then by actually going to school, introducing yourself to the teacher, and asking what you can do to help your child at home be successful. >> nbc's second annual education nation summit has been going on all week. we've gathered policymakers, educator, parents, and experts to engage in a conversation about the state of education across america. we'll have continuing coverage on all the networks on nbc all week. you can also check our website and watch some of these programs online. all taking place right there at rockefeller plaza. with deep pockets and millions of fans, no surprise president obama is trying to reenlist his celebrity army of supporters from 2008, but with some grumbling in the democratic ranks, will the same "a" listers turn out for the p this time around? ted johnson writes about the cross section of politics and entertainment for variety. he joins me now. ted, first i want to get at

something here. let's compare president clinton and president obama. we know that hollywood loves their democratic president. but who was more hollywood, clinton or obama? >> oh, definitely president clinton. in fact, when president obama took office, there was this initial kind of shock that he one bill clinton, he wasn't hanging out in hollywood, he wasn't cultivating relationships with stars, he wasn't staying at movie moguls' homes. he's had this kind of detachment from the entertain m industry that i think that a lot of even some of his big donors thought that he would just kind of repeat out here. and that just hasn't happened. nevertheless, they've kind of gotten over that. as you saw last night, you did see a number of celebrities turn out in support of him. >> but it was interesting. i asked that as the first question because how much does that influence the enthusiasm gap in hollywood for president obama that you see sometimes or

we simply only seeing matt damon here say something or someone else say something, then maybe making too much out of it? >> well, right now, that seems to be the problem that the campaign has, is when any one of these celebrities says anything negative about obama, it gets this big pop in the media and it gets a lot of attention. people like matt damon, robert redford recently, when obama abandoned the ozone rules, very upset about that, went and wrote an editorial about it. and the white house takes notice. as we saw at the correspondents' dinner, obama brought up disappointment from matt damon. >> making fun of his last movie. so, all right, walk me through last night. you went to as many as you could get into. house of blues you got into. what did you see? >> well, house of pblues last night was a big crowd, mainly young entertainment industry professionals, i would say.

jesse tyler ferguson was the emcee of that event. he's from "modern family." very much an enthusiastic obama supporter. but talking to a lot of people there, you know, the kind of consensus was that they really want obama to be a fighter. they want him to really take on the republican party. and that's kind of a change from just a couple years ago when the worry was that the messaging was wrong from the white house. now they're looking for a much stronger leader who's willing to engage the opposition. and i think you saw the president actually say some of that last night. he kept on using the word i'm going to fight for you, i'm going to fight for you, and that's something that was very pleasing to some of the donors who were out there. nevertheless, i talked to, you know, some young college students, and they said, boy, it's going to be a challenge just to get, you know, our fellow students just to get out there and work the phones and canva

canvass. >> ted, any hint from the older media moguls out there who have been longtime democratic donors? are they noting any fund-raising problems if for the president? >> not yet. we'll have a good indication from the fund-raising totals. but also i think that it's still somewhat early. i was talking to a major entertainment attorney, and he said that this is kind of de rigueur at this point in the process for democratic candidates. he said the same thing happened with bill clinton in the last cycle. then i talked to another major studio chief, and he said more than anything people want to see a winner. so that's why i think that it's not so much important right now, ice more important what happens a year from now if obama is still down in the polls and still facing this opposition. they could run into some problems. >> like every part of the democratic base, they're looking for the president to project

strength. ted johnson, covers the intersection of hollywood and politics as good as anybody. thanks for getting up early. >> thank you. well, our super tuesday political panel joins us next to break down the latest p perry pilon. wait till you see all this. and president obama gets testy while talking unemployment. and mitt romney gets spontaneously camera shy. but first, the white house soup of the day. we've been a little hard on our friends at the white house press. the president comes back tomorrow. so minestrone, a slight improvement over chicken noodle. need to step up the game. ♪ it's a new, new, new, new day ♪ every day is a new day on weight watchers. i don't see why anyone would want to do anything else. ♪ it's a new life for me pointsplus has got my back no matter what. it's a part of who i am now. ♪ yes it is i never saw myself here, i didn't,

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"the daily flashback," this day in 1994, they gathered on

the accepts of the capitol to sign the contract that was spearheaded by republican whip newt gingrich. it helped republicans win back the majority of the house that november. he's trying to recapture some of that momentum later this week unveiling his own for his presidential campaign. rick perry has been getting it from all sides. republican rivals eager to hit him while he's down. jon huntsman released a web video asking about those nukes and hitting perry on the answer to the policy question at last week's debate. the other republicans were also quick. >> our next nominee needs to understand the problems in the middle east, the problems with pakistan. >> with all due respect, it was not up to prime time. his performance, quite frankly, wasn't even on par with anybody on that stage. >> he would suggest that somehow we're hearless if we don't subsidize people to go to school, try to point at the

heartlessness of america, which i think, frankly, doesn't wash. >> the perry pilon. perry, speaking of p perrys, national political reporter for "the washington post." casey hunt is a political reporter for the associated press and jeff sellen is the national political correspondent for "new york times," the media elites right here. nbc, "new york times," "washington post," a.p. we'll stick it to everybody else. kidding. jeff, i want to start with the perry pilon. obviously it's easy to hit a candidate while he's down. what is perry's campaign trying to do to sort of calm everybody down many. >> one of the reasons they're trying to hit him is he's been up for so long. >> bring him down. 47 days old. i know that's a long time these days. >> a long time. what they're trying to do is take advantage of this gift he's given them, you know, and he gave it to them in very uneven sound bites throughout the last debate, you know, and really throughout the three debates

since september. but i think the perry campaign is sort of slightly bemused by all this. i mean, worried to the extent that it's hurting with the fund-raising. we're not sure how much it's hurting. he's going to some really small towns, which i'm a little surprised by. he was in shreveport on saturday evening for a fund-raiser, going to west virginia. those are second-tier cities for fund-raising. it shows he's perhaps struggling in some top tiers. what he's trying to do is calm the conservatives. he did phone calls with iowa and south carolina. >> i was going to say, our colleague from another network there, mr. handy. >> great south carolina reporting. what they're trying to do is really kind of get beyond this media and really conservative buzz and saying that, look, calm down, he's with you on most everything, he is still the same that you thought he was. >> they say they do know they have to perform better at the debates but they won't say whether are they bringing people in to bring debate prep. any evidence he did debate prep?

>> there is some evidence, although i think his folks have been bemused by people who suggest you need a briefing book that's a hundred pages high in order to prepare for these things. there's a certain element of let rick perry do what he does best, stand up and state in what he believes. i don't know if they think that's backfired. we'll have to see. they're still planning for the debate in new hampshire next month and another one in las vegas after that. >> he's now stuck in a position where i think the campaign thought if they were the front-runner they could slow down the number of debates and now they can't. mitt romney is going to say yes to any debate at this point. one aide joked they'd do four-hour debates. it's all fit into a chris christie speculation boom. he was always planning this week of fund-raisers and this speech to the reagan library, but now it all comes as, oh, the former governor of new jersey, tim kaine, says he's really rethinking. this is about rick perry and

mitt romney more than it is about chris christie. >> yes. rick perry came in in part because of the failure of mitt romn romney. now another christie boom. if you're christie, you have to be thinking rick perry is struggling pretty badly. can i learn all the material i need in the short period of time i have. i think perry's showing why it's so hard to get in so late and probably a cautionary tale for christie about what to do and how to handle this moment. >> how has mitt romney handled this right now? it seems as if the romney folks are ecstatic at the rick perry failure, one, but would be concerned if chris christie got in because that would suck up the, quote, establishment support that romney has been waiting to get. you know, "new york times" did a great story about all these major donors who have been on the sidelines. >> the romney campaign is frustrated by this. like, what's wrong with him? mitt romney would be just fine on taxes, on all these issues, you know, that are of a concern. but there's just this sense that

he is not connecting with voters, in the sense he's not quite as authentic. but the romney campaign is enjoying this period just fine. some people i talk to say they wouldn't mind if this speculation continues even further because it buys him more time. every time that -- you know, the amount of time we're talking about chris christie is a time we're not talking about mitt romney's health care plan. he has still not taken all these arrows at a debate himself. i think at the new hampshire debate he will. he'll be at the center. >> we thought about this a while and the romney people want to say we're in the same position john mccain was in in many ways, everybody was searching for somebody else, but mccain took all these arrows early and then sort of recovered from them. romney has not taken the hit yet. >> he hasn't. you've seen him coast through all these debates basically above the fray. he's gone after perry, but perry has been forced to respond to romney instead of the other way around. if you talk to their adviser, they'll say he took these arrows in the last campaign. part of the reason we're not

talking about him is none of this is new to us, we've seen it all before. whether that continues to hold through we have to wait and see. >> quote, unquote, old news. what has this done for perry and fund-raisi fund-raising? does this mean he won't hit $10 million? they've set that as a low bar. >> they have. they were doing well. they were at $15 million before. i assume they'd get the $10 million, but some donors say i'm holding back. people are saying i'm holding back or donors saying their friends are holding back because -- >> they want to see more. stick around. we'll talk about president obama and a contentious interview with b.e.t. that's after the break. in the meantime -- you guys got this easily, frank murkowski, whose daughter, lisa murkowski, is the senior senator from alaska. [ female announcer ] don't just moisturize, improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula goes beyond 24-hour moisture.

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let's bring back our panel.

the president has been doing this sort of reach out to the base tour whether it's with hollywood, african-american voters. he did an interview yesterday with b.e.t. there was one contentious moment with the interviewer, emet miller and he was asking the president you're not saying specifically to the african-american kid who's 16 years old in chicago you won't say i'm going to help you. the president didn't like the question. he said that's not what people are saying. pea are saying we're hurting. the question is how can we make sure the economy is working for every single person. the other thing i want to make sure you don't slip in there is this notion that african-american leaders have been critical. there have been a handful of african-americans who have been critical. they were critical when i wa we heard a combative president at the congressional black caucus dinner during the weekend. sort of enough of this beating

me up because it's convenient, get to work. >> to me it sound exactly like what barack obama was doing four years ago when he was trying to convince a lot of black leaders and democratic leaders that he could beat hillary clinton. what strikes me as odd is he's the president of the united states. he's been president for three years and he's making this argument. he to me sound exactly like or almost exactly like when i was urging people to get up off their couches and go register to vote. it's a similar thing. i think he's right. i don't think that the vast majority of african-american leaders are critical of him. but there have been a few very prominent voices who are critical and with good reason. look at the unemployment rate in the black community. >> there's a generational split in the black political leadership. the older generation, the ones who were involved in the civil rights battles of the 60s and even right after in the 70s they want the president to directly confront unemployment.

what are you doing to fix unemployment in the black community, the president never likes that. >> they want the president to use the terms black, unemployment and to pass bills that will affect blacks directly. he will not do that. he won't speak to that. his argument more or less is you know i can't do this because it's not good for me applicancally. we're for the first time seeing some slippage in the numbers among african-american voters. his campaign trail is focused on young people and minorities out to vote. he needs stronger black support. the fact that the maxine waters and cornell wests of the world are criticizing him is unhelpful right now. perhaps more so than three years ago. >> the whole re-election campaign is based on enthusiasm. we saw in many ways the hollywood conversation is about enthusiasm in the hollywood liberal community. it's about enthusiasm with african-americans and look in the difference in why north carolina's a swing state with president obama and maybe not

with a president hillary clinton. >> how do you get those young, new voters. people who never gone to the ballot box before to vote for you if they can't find a job. ton employment rate among african-americans is much higher than among the general population. youth in particular it's very -- it's really, really difficult. how he's going to convince those people that in fact they should get excited about voting for him. that's going to be an interesting -- >> before we get to shameless plugs. will chris christie give us a definitive answer at the reagan library. >> he will not. he's not running. >> you think a couple more days? >> he will not. this is good for fundraising and bottom line. >> casey? >> why would he? >> because if you want people to stop talk about it, you would. if you don't want people to stop talking about it, you wouldn't. shameless plug? >> the biggest college game of the week. >> it's for the big ten. it's not as cool as farmgeddon.

>> shout out to my grandparents who hosted me in michigan. >> are you a michigan grander? >> i am. >> check out "the new york times" a story about why chris christie is for romney and perry if he were to run. >> my shameless plug to my friends at politico. a friend of mine said your mom is part of the media elite wn i did the introduction. >> that's for yous in jones. that's it for this edition of "the dilly rundown." coming up next, chris jansing will speak to corey booker, the newark mayer. then at 1:00 "andrea mitchell reports." [ male announcer ] do you know how you will react

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