>> we learned there's a new iphone app regarding mika. we'll get to that a little later. i also learned how hateful you are, willie. >> oh, willie. >> bosefus is not a university of alabama graduate. >> getting to the bottom of the sport. >> if it's way too early, what time is it? >> it's "morning joe." see you back here tomorrow. stick around right now for "the daily rundown" with mr. chuck todd. as rick perry falters, chris christie equivocates and michele bachmann faces some staff departures. it's herman cain that's surging. is there a mitt romney ceiling? why aren't we seeing better numbers from him? and if it's tuesday, somebody is voting somewhere. today it's west virginia. where democrats hope to hold on to the governor's mansion there. it may come down to a referendum on president obama. a democratic loss could have a more chilling effect on congressional democratic relations with the white house than scott brown's win.

after 18 days, the wall street protests keep spreading. they're popping up in cities in california to maine. even in kansas city. we'll take you there. it's tuesday, october 4th, 2011. this is "the daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. my first reads of the morning, today could be the day we finally hear from team christie once and for all about whether he is going to mount a last minute bid for the republican presidential nomination. behind the scenes, he's apparently gotten all the aid input he wants, all the donor input he wants. yes, there's been those reports that he's asked prominent republicans to hold off endorsing any current candidates. but at this point it's in his hands. some people think we may hear from him this afternoon. we'll see. in a new "washington post" poll in "washington post"/abc, almost half of republicans, 42%, say they'd like to see christie mount a bid. the poll also confirms rick perry's quick rise has been matched by an equally dramatic

decline in the last month. the main beneficiary, not mitt romney but herman cain. in the poll mitt romney is stuck at 25%. pretty much the same number he's had for a year. perry and cain are now tied for second sitting at 16%. ron paul the is only other republican to crack double digits. perry has lost almost half of his support in the last month, down 13 points from a poll they conducted in early september. where did those numbers go? herman cain is up 12 points. polling at just 4% a month ago. herman cain has an opportunity. but is he running a serious campaign to win the nomination or to just get some attention? nbc political analyst charlie cook weighed in on what cain might be up to. >> the senate might say you're raising your profile and selling books for down the road and speaking fees. but i think for a lot of these guys, this is more about having a platform to talk about issues that are really important to them. >> as we told you yesterday, cain's headed on a book tour.

he's spending, for instance, in the next week, half of his stops are in states that don't hold presidential primaries until after march 1st. a lot of free media. it's been working. that's why some of his aides are saying why stop now? meanwhile, remember a flavor of the month a couple months ago by the name of michele bachmann? a bunch of top aides are now quitting the campaign, raising some serious questions at her viability and the resources she has to mount a more serious white house bid. the campaign confirms to nbc monday that a pollster ed goaz will leave. andy perish is returning to bamman's congressional office where he was chief of staff. they said in a statement, given the changing caucus and primary schedule we will not be utilizing full time polling consultants and will concentrate heavily on retail politics in iowa. translation. we're not paying for anymore popo polls. we don't have the money to do that. ed goaz, if you have clients

elsewhere where you can make some money go elsewhere and make that money. finally, we have a coin flip race in west virginia. republicans in the last week have played the obama card in the governor's race. running ads tying the incumbent, democratic earl ray tomblin to the president. apparently it's working. if republican bill maloney wins tonight it will be further evidence obama is simply toxic in red states. you'll see democrats start running for the hills. look, this is west virginia. they've been spending all sorts of money. buying tv time in washington, d.c. they've been saturating all the markets in west virginia. this was their strategy all along. they felt they'd do it at the last minute. the democrat here, this is not one of those cases of martha coakley or david weappburn. he's had the endorsements of labor, chamber of commerce. they've won a very early voting campaign. in fact, their campaign says they're ahead on the early vote.

so a loss here only sits in one person's hands. and it's president obama. polls close in west virginia at 7:30 tonight. president obama has had a tough time selling his political achievements to a very frustrated elect rat. he's trying to sell his political vision instead. >> when you tick down which approach the american people generally prefer, they'll say mine. now, what they'll say is, he hasn't been able to get it through congress. you know, i'm the first one to acknowledge that the relations between myself and the republican congress have not been good over the last several months, but it's not for a lack of effort. >> missouri democratic congressman emanuel cleaver is the chair of the congressional black caucus. he's also a congressman from the state of missouri where president obama is going to be stopping by, although it's the other side of the state. he's going to be hitting st. louis for some fundraisers there. may i ask you to respond to the respond there and the tone that he has taken with congress?

when you look at his positions that he's trying to sell on this jobs bill, even on deficit reduction, he's got public opinion on his side. so then why can't he harness that public opinion and get it done on capitol hill? >> well, i think the public is angry because of the economy. i think it's going to be necessary for the public to weigh in on this, to make it simply palatable for the republicans not to support it. if the public really begins to push this, republicans are going to be very, very hesitant to stand up and say no to their constituents. the public is behind the president. the atmosphere right now is not conducive to the president getting the public to speak out. if that happens, i think you're going to see that legislation brought to the floor. >> now, it's interesting what you just said. you said the atmosphere is not conducive for the public to speak out. why do you think that is?

>> well, for a couple of reasons. number one, people are scared. they look at what's going on in europe, in greece. they look at the trade imbalance. they look at unemployment in their own country. they look at the -- the wall street protest. things don't seem at all settled. none of those things are the president's fault. but when you're in that office, people tend to throw that kind of thing on you. so while they embrace the president's policy position, i think it's just like i just don't want to say anything. i'm not that concerned. i bet if you check, the mail and the phone calls are down. it's counterintuitive that at a time like this the public would back out, but they do. >> it sounds like you're describing a case where you feel like the public simply just lost faith in washington altogether. how do you govern under circumstances like this? >> well, the public has lost

faith in washington. i think the approval rate of the -- of congress is 9%. i think that's extremely high considering how congress conducts itself. and i don't know whether we can fix this until the voters decide to fix it. you know, keep in mind that the house of representatives is the only office that you have to be elected to. so nobody got here through a coup d'etat. people are not willing to compromise. >> do you think the white house should take a different tact with congressional republicans? i know everybody's got an opinion. has he been too soft on them? has he tried to compromise too much? not enough? where do you stand on this? >> well, lately the president

has been very tough. the last two or three speeches he's given, i think the base stood up and said, that's the way we want the president to conduct himself. and i think, frank li, the country wants to see that. i think the country wants to see the president tough and convinced that the positions he's taking are right and the public will respond. so of late, i don't think anybody can criticize -- well, that's not true. people will criticize. but i don't think it would be legitimate. >> let me ask you this. there's this governor's race in west virginia tonight. democrat has been favored all along. the republicans at the last minute are using the president to try to pull and upset here. they pull the upset, you know -- you know how members of congress can react. how concerned are you that that makes it even that much harder for the president to unite democrats behind him to sell this with the senate? >> it won't be a good thing for sure. but i think that it'll be two

weeks of speculation in the news and then i think the congress will go back to its blocking of everything going on. at least the republicans will. but i would suggest that the president -- that that's not going to happen. i think the democrat is going to win in west virginia. and i hope that with every win, with democrats, that we become more and more energized. that's what we've got to have in the party right now. we've got to have energy. energy enough to knock on doors and to get independents over to our side. >> are you disappointed the president's not doing a big public event in missouri today, just stopping by to get money? >> you know, getting money is very important. i don't think that the president -- there was any intentionality to avoid the public. it was more, you know, i'm going to missouri for a fundraiser. and, frankly, i'm glad he came into the state. his poll numbers are not that

good. but they're in the 40s. i think as long as they're in the 40s, missouri's in play. keep in mind that mccain barely won. it was a photo finish in 2008. >> all right. >> so we have a chance to reverse it, i think. i'm glad the president's there. >> congressman emanuel cleaver, chairman of the congressional black caucus, thanks for coming down. next, we're serving up some "daily rundown" trail mix. jonathan martin, chris cillizza, coming up. herman cain is picking up steam. rick perry's problems pile up. the primary calendar is creeping up earlier and earlier. take me home, country road. voters who will decide where west virginia belongs today. red or blue. the results could shake up things here on capitol hill. first, a look ahead at the president's schedule in what's

in "the daily rundown" on msnbc. he travels to dallas for a speech talking about the threat of over 200,000 laid off teachers if this jobs bill doesn't pass. we'll be right back. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made.

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it's called blowing smoke. and if you don't have a really good sense of self, you can become overwhelmed by that smoke. and you could wind up, as the smoke gets thicker and thicker, losing your way. losing that inner compass. >> hmm. was that advice he was giving?

was chris christie doing some soul searching there? searching around as he considers a run for the white house? the new jersey governor is known for making slow, deliberate decisions. in this case time's not on his side. let's bring in jonathan martin, senior political reporter at politico and chris cillizza, managing editor of postpolitics.com. he was talking about -- >> it was generic. it didn't have anything to do with him. >> blowing smoke. >> i have a friend who -- >> do you like like me or just like me? >> what's fascinating, all of a sudden he has shut down the leaks. >> they've gone quiet. which tells me there is a decision looming either today or tomorrow. what i've been told is that -- this is not news, even. i think i'll be understanding we'll have some word before wednesday. of course, tomorrow's wednesday. >> right. >> i think basically what we're all finding is they've shut it down. which makes sense.

to jonathan's point, i think we're near a decision. i think what everyone's waiting on is for him to come to his people and say i want to do this or not. i think the case has been made to him. here's what would be good. here's what would be potentially bad. he needs to say, okay, understanding what i understand, i'm in or i'm out. i think that's what everyone's waiting on. i'm not even sure -- you know, i don't know that the people who we're talking to know. i think he still hasn't decided. >> that was one thing. hey, this is now in his hands. >> this is his life. he needs to decide. does he want to do this or not? >> everyone before the reagan library, they were giving off no, no, no. he's going to shut it down. he didn't because he didn't want to shut it down. >> it's him in the spotlight. >> all right. let's move on to your fabulous poll out today. >> oh, yeah. >> second best poll you can find out there. >> agree to disagree. >> there you go. it's actually showing the same -- in many ways it's deja vu all over again, jonathan martin, in this respect. number one, romney is sitting at

about 20 -- 25%? >> that's right. >> it's basically the number he's been at for a year. and we're on our fourth flavor of the month. >> right. >> we started with the donald trump surge. then we have the michele bachmann surge. rick perry surge. now herman cain. all of the perry sport didn't go to romney, it went to mccain. >> is he a place holder though for that support? if romney does get the nomination, the postmortem will be written as thus. the conservatives can never settle on one candidate. they split among three or four candidates over a period of months. look, if they can't settle around somebody, they being the conservatives, then romney is going to take this thing. i don't know who the most serious contender is now. it probably is still perry. obviously he's got to overcome these stumbles. >> what happens if christie doesn't run? herman cain in my opinion does

not have top ration. his communications director, he has no pollster, no consultants. some people say it's a good thing. >> i was going to say. in this kind of year. >> the question is does he have scale blt. >> he's not campaigning. >> it's the newt gingrich strategy. >> he's going on tv selling a book and going to places like kansas city. he's not actually running a campaign to win. >> the question is if christie does not run, is there a deciding period among conservatives where they say, look, herman cain is not going to be the nominee. michele bachmann is not going to be the nominee. we don't know perry is going to be the nominee. let's at least in sum get behind romney. does that happen or not? >> can we lift up at 30,000 feet and say what is herman cain representing that he is becoming -- people want to say he's a place holder. he's the nonpolitician in the race. he seems to be the one that will be the most blunt speaking of the crowd. but with an optimistic tone about him. not with a negative tone about him. and he has some business

experience. so, you know, that seems to be the model of what some republican voters would like to have. they just don't quite think romney has it. >> we had a similar moment back in april. first of may. he lost it. because he then said extreme stuff because he's obviously running for the first time in his life for the presidency. that's not an easy thing. so can cain stay on message here? to me, chuck, the important thing to watch in the next two weeks is this. what's perry's money report look like and how does he perform next week at the dartmouth debate. >> a debate he has yet to confirm. is that correct, chris cillizza? >> i believe. it is our debate. i believe he has confirmed. but i don't know that for sure. but i believe he has told us he's going to be there. that is my understanding. but not confirm confirmed. >> if he can find his footing at this next debate, i think perry's back in the game. >> is he bruce willis or not?

meaning "sixth sense." we look back at this thing. on the one hand it's amazing how quickly he's gone away and people are just -- >> remarkable rise. >> you say to yourself, did we see this again? jonathan brought up a good point. $18 million, you can grind it out. >> he's going to be the only guy if christie doesn't get in, he's going to be the only guy other than romney who has the grind it out potential. herman cain is just not going to have the grind it out potential, bachmann, none of these other candidates are. i still think we probably wrote the rick perry is the nominee, we may be writing the rick perry political obituary too soon. can rick perry afford -- i'll open up to you guys. can rick perry afford to skip our debate given the performance in the last debates? i don't think he can. >> the president feels he has no footing here politically. a number like that is sort of losing faith in his abilities. >> why didn't he answer the

question yesterday about is the country better off now? >> what's he supposed to say? >> one thing i notice in the poll, chuck, i think it's important. look at the erosion in strongly support. that's usually a base test that's gone from 30% to 18%. >> one last fast point on perry. don't forget. if he stocks 40 million in that, he can go beyond january next year. >> money solves a lot of problems in politics. >> this is how he's run elections before. he grinds it out. jonathan martin, chris cillizza, we could go all day. but they're playing the music. >> "thelma and louise," let's keep going! >> pedal on the gas. new term oil, european markets spooking america this morning. deja vu all over again. also, haunting wall street. protests against government corruption, social inequality. the campaign is turning into a nationwide movement. we should be paying more attention to it. if it's tuesday, the west virginia governor's race has

become all about a guy who's not on the ballot. president obama. first, today's trivia question, jonathan martin. which president was administered the oath of office by his father? give me the answer. the first correct answer will get a follow tuesday from us. i got it wrong. for fastidious ln emily skinner, each day was fueled by thorough preparation for events to come. well somewhere along the way, emily went right on living. but you see, with the help of her raymond james financial advisor, she had planned for every eventuality. ...which meant she continued to have the means to live on... ...even at the ripe old age of 187. life well planned. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you.

so on wall street, monday's big losses will likely exend into today as tier fears about greece and european debt continue to hover over the market. between europe and these domestic protests that started on wall street, spreading around the country, what's the impact of those also on the markets today? >> chuck, i'm the bearer of bad news as it seems like i always

am these mornings. looks like we're going to open lower in part because of news out of europe specifically around greece. there was this idea that the eu was going to be giving over $8 billion to greece which they need by november 1st. today it looks likely that that will be delayed. does greece go bankrupt? that, of course, is the big question hanging over everything. on the issue you were talking about domestically, i spent yesterday down at those protests. i'm not sure they're weighing on the markets. but they're definitely weighing on the minlds of ceos i've talked to just worried about what this means in the larger picture. two quick pieces of good news. ford reached a deal with the uaw this morning on their labor contract. that's a positive. of course, a lot of people looking forward later today to apple's announcement of its iphone 5. >> there you go. andrew ross sorkin thank you very much. anger at washington. now anger at corporate america. "the daily rundown" will be back in 30 seconds.

all right. we got some breaking news right here at the top before i tell you what's driving the day. governor chris christie's office has announced a 1:00 press conference in trenton, new jersey. i imagine that we will finally hear an answer then. so 1:00 today, chris christie having a press conference where he's likely to answer the question for one final time, yes or no on a presidential bid. all right. a few other headlines driving the day. president obama heads to texas today to continue his jobs plan sales pitch. house republicans say they will vote on parts of the president's plan but do not plan a vote on

the entire bill. the house will vote today on an emergency spending bill to fund the government for six weeks. the measure is expected to pass, be sent to the president before the midnight deadline. what's interesting here, actually the president lands right around midnight tonight. he may have to sign that bill before he goes to bed when he gets back from missouri. the opening bell has rung on wall street. world markets and dow futures were down again today after yesterday's big losses. a few other stories making headlines, friends of amanda knox are preparing to welcome her back to the united states after she was freed from prison yesterday by an italian jury. the court overturned her murder conviction. the girl's sister says she's shocked by the reversal and italian prosecutors are vowing to appeal. an alleged al qaeda terrorist goes on trial today in detroit. nearly two years after u.s. officials say he tried to bring down a plane with a bomb hidden in his underwear. the 24-year-old has confessed to the suicide mission and says he was influenced by anwr al awl i

awlaki, the american born terror leader who was killed by a u.s. drone strike in yemen on friday. as you heard from andrew ross sorkin, apple is set to make waves today with its latest version of the iphone. the company's new ceo, tim cook, is expected to unveil the retooled device. it's supposed to have a more powerful camera and faster e-mail and internet apps. and the white house turned pink in honor of breast cancer awareness month. there it is last night. the color change was first started by president bush in 2008 and will be that way all month long. well, what began as a loose knit protest against wall street and corporate greed is sparking other activism across the country today. marches and demonstrations have cropped up in dozens of states and more being organized as far away as australia and tokyo. mara schiavocampo is live for us in new york. i understand today is preparing for tomorrow. what's the big plan they have for tomorrow? >> reporter: yeah, absolutely, chuck. you're right about that. you know, the day is just

getting started here. in fact, a lot of those who have been spending the night here in this camp are still sleeping. they're getting off to a little bit of a late start. as you know, there are no official leaders here. but there is some organizational structure that's starting to emerge, de facto organizational structure if you will with some hands on volunteers that have taken on more of a planning role. they tell me today is really a planning day. they'll be having logistical meetings and the like. no big events or marches planned today. and all of this work is being done in preparation for tomorrow. tomorrow, they're hoping, will, in fact, be a very big day for them. they're planning a rally here in this park as well as a march. they are hoping thousands of people will join them including union members. several unions have thrown their support behind the protesters here, including the transit workers union, united federation of teachers and the like. so they're hoping that those unions will help swell their numbers tomorrow for the events that they have planned. now, yesterday, in fact, city bus workers announced they were going to be suing the nypd for

making them pick up detained protesters on saturday. 700 protesters were arrested trying to cross the brooklyn bridge and city buses were used to transport them. city buses saying they don't want to be used that way because they're in support of the protesters here and they will come out to voice that support tomorrow or at least that's what they're expecting here. those weekend arrests, those 700 arrests, really helped the movement gain a lot of visibility and steam. yesterday we saw protests all over the country. and we are hearing now of plans of protests to continue to take place all over the country and all across the world, as far away as tokyo, australia and canada. this movement definitely seems to be gaining some steam and visibility. chuck? >> all right. mara schiavocampo at the original protest site there that's been called on twitter occupy wall street. mara, thanks very much. back to politics. as d.c. football fans noticed over the weekend, the west virginia governor's race apparently is heating up.

ads running for bill maloney in the very expensive washington market which hits about 10% of west virginia. it might be working. >> a majority of america's governors are fighting in court to stop obamacare. but earl ray tomblin is implements obamacare in west virginia. obamacare will jack up taxes on businesses, destroy jobs, stop obama. stop tomblin from implements obamacare. >> nathan gonzalez has been tracking this race very closely. he joins me now. nathan, a week ago you were on this show saying democrats are favored. tomblin had all of the apparatuses behind him from labor and also chamber of commerce. right at the last minute the rga because they have no other money to spend in mississippi, kentucky, louisiana threw a whole bunch of money here to play the obama card and it

appears to be working. >> that's right. at the time just one week ago all of that was true. but there was this high number of undecided voters. republicans thought this is our time to go in and fill a vacuum, particularly in the d.c. market. as you said earlier, this ad is running statewide. with the public polling, we have one public poll that's out since then. it's showing that the numbers have closed. this is now an even race. there isn't any private polling because it's so late in the race right now and the parties can't make any strajic decisions. i think this has to be laid at the feet of the president. there was nothing else going on. tomblin had a man chin endorsement ad. senator manchin is incredibly popular. i don't think this race would close away from the democrats because of manchin. i think this does fall to the president. >> i know privately over the weekend democrats in their final polls saw closing there and started to get nervous, started saying, well, it might be a low single digit race. then you heard yesterday

starting to wonder low -- 50/50. going into election day today, the democrats are already ahead if you talk about the early vote. that organizationally they seem to put this so a republican win would mean the republican won election day. >> the question, though, is are those democrats that we know are voting because of the ballots, are they voting for earl ray tomblin? if we look at new york 9, a much different district, there were, you know, up to a third of democrats that were voting for the republican. so sometimes those early numbers could be a little bit deceiving. but i think that if -- if republicans win, it will be because of this last week and not because of the -- you know, the previous three weeks of voting. >> tell me this. there's been some -- a little bit of hand wringing back and forth wondering did republicans wait too long? if they come up short are they going to say to themselves they waited too long? of course, the republican argument is they deliberately waited this long to play the obama card because they thought if they did it too soon, it

would give tomblin time to respond. >> well, i don't know that they waited too long on playing the obama card. i know one of the concerns is that maybe maloney isn't well known enough. voters aren't familiar enough with him to make the change. they may be prime for change because of this obama argument, but they still -- it's a governor's race. people want to be comfortable with who they're electing as their top official. and so it might be a maloney issue that people aren't comfortable with him. i flesh this out a little bit more in today's role call article if people want to check that out as well. >> how about that. you're not in the shameless plug business. we'll do it as well. check on nathan's piece. it could be a later night than we expected. it's tuesday. somebody's voting somewhere. it's west virginia. nathan, thanks very much. >> thanks, chuck. as we told you earlier this hour, at 1:00 chris christie press conference. it will be at 1:00 where we will expect his announcement about the presidential race.

is it a go? is it a no go? do you announce that you're going to do this from trenton? our tuesday political panel joins us next. first, the white house soup of the day. by the way, a little correction. we were right. we weren't right. it was not chicken noodle yesterday. it was 15 bean. of course, one of my favorite. today, it's gazpacho. i can tell you this. broth is back. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. i don't want healthy skin for a day. i want healthy skin for life. [ 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. it's clinically proven to improve your skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. for healthy, beautiful skin that lasts. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. and for healthy, beautiful hair, try nourish plus haircare.

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the space above our heads is slowly being filled with flying hardware shot up there by the russians. >> is there any better way to put it than what david brinkley just said just then way back in 1957? on this day when the soviet union successfully launched sputnik.

the world's first manmade satellite. a launch which came as a surprise to americans kicked off the space race in earnest. space junk way back then. in an interview with abc news, president obama answered ronald reagan's famous question. are americans better off today than they were four years ago? >> i don't think they're better off than they were four years ago. we've been able to make steady progress to stabilize the economy. but the unemployment rate is still way too high. and that's why it's so critical for us to make sure that we are taking every action we can take to put people back to work. >> are you the underdog now? >> absolutely. >> susan page is washington bureau chief for "usa today." steve mcmahon, a democratic strategist. msnbc political analyst michael steele, former chairman of the republican party. all right, steve mcmahon. you're the democratic strategist. if president obama were your client how would you have told him to answer the are you better off now than you were four years ago question? >> four years ago -- >> you would have told him to say yes? >> i think he just gave the

republicans an ad. when you say the american public is not better off today than they were four years ago you're going to see that again and again and again. just like -- >> you think he should have made the case of saying as bad as it was four years ago -- >> oh, my god, yeah. >> he did earlier in the interview. >> if you look at the polls people remember what it was like four years ago when he came into office. what he needs to do is remind them of the circumstances then. they're far worse than what we're seeing today and the progress that's being made. acknowledge the progress is too slow. i think he probably wasn't thinking about that question in advance and if he had it to do over again he might want to take a mulligan and make the case i'm youth li outlining. >> michael steele, do you buy his argument? >> i do. it's going to make a great commercial. can't way to see it come fall 2012. i'll flip the script. i think what the president did was actually a moment of honesty. i think that's something that people also appreciate. that he is being forthright because of very much what you said. i know i'm in pain. i feel my pain. do you feel my pain? do you understand what i'm going

through? to sit there and acknowledge, yeah, it is tougher. you're probably not better off than you were four years ago is a -- an honest admission and acknowledgment. politically it's a problem, maybe. but how people respond to it, i think, is what it ultimately falls down to. >> michael still gets -- a criticism we have heard particularly from a clinton wing of the party says the president doesn't act like he feels the pain enough. is michael steele right? >> no. when was the last time somebody won the presidency saying things are bad. they'd be worse if i were not around. not since fdr. honesty is a great thing. you want to teach that to your children. i don't think you want to teach that to your presidential candidates. >> people are clambering for chris christie because he's authentic and honest. >> you can be authentic. the president has been authentic about the pain people are experiencing and the state of the economy and the fact that unemployment didn't peak at 8%, it went to 9.1%. there are some things you just

probably don't want to be doing because you're going to see it too often in the future. >> the underdog response he made were to these couple poll ratings. 42% is his record low approval number there. who will win in 2012? barack obama or the republican candidate? 55% said republican candidate. 37% said president obama. so i was harking back to somebody bill clinton said his reunion weekend, susan page, when he said, you know, everybody wants to compare barack obama to clinton '99 or clinton 2000 when he goes in 1995 i was the incredible shrinking president. he was referring to the "time" magazine cover that had him 2 inches tall. president obama feels like he's in that moment now. >> one of the interesting -- president obama definitely in a world of pain. one of the things i'm curious about, what does this do to the republican field? make them agree with michele bachmann who says we don't have to settle? >> it doesn't matter. anybody can beat him. >> go with our hearts? or does it make them want to win so much they see it in their

grass that they want to nominate mitt romney who they don't like as much but who they think has a better chance to win? >> that's an interesting -- republican voters in iowa and new hampshire, are they going to -- how are they going to react to the fact that they think anybody can win? >> i think they're going to react very differently. i think the iowa voters are going to settle on someone who they believe is an authentic conservative. who is going to carry that fight to obama next year. and the folks in new hampshire, i think, are going to look at it a little bit more pragmatically. and decide between someone like a huntsman, you know, romney or someone else. >> speaking of new hampshire, mitt romney sat down with the manchester union leader. new hampshire union leader now. excuse me. they've dropped the manchester part of it. for an ed board meeting. they televised it. joe mcclay versus mitt romney. not necessarily something you'd expect to see romney doing so well at. this is an interesting response. romney was asked about all of the debate responses where there's been some scattered booing. here's what he said. >> i have not made it my

practice to scold the audience and say i disagree with this person, i agree with that person. i don't know that cheering for executions is something i would agree with either. but i don't raise my hand and say, please let me talk. i want to tell everyone you shouldn't be cheering. >> steve mcmahon, every chance mitt romney has of making sure he gives a wink and a nod to the suburban moderate vote, he seems to take it. >> absolutely. my grandma used to say if it doesn't kill you it will make you stronger. she was talking about a virus. the republican party now is a little like a virus. the candidates on the right are challenging mitt romney. conservatives are falling in love with him. if he's able to defeat them and get the nomination he's going -- >> without having to -- >> right. he winks and nods as you point out, chuck. he doesn't actually go there. he doesn't say, you know, i think it's great when people get executed. he basically triangulates. he learned something from president clinton. he's doing it effectively. >> at the same time, i'm not going to butt in and tell audiences what to believe?

>> doesn't this reflect the advantages of having run before and seeing the muddle you can get into when you don't need to when you can stay quiet and stay out of the mix? the advantage of that. i think you definitely see experience talking there. >> susan, steve, michael, stick around. because it's chris christie time. the what if game. it will come to an end at 1:00. which means we've got five minutes to continue to play the game. trivia time. we ask, which president was administered the oath of office by his father? a lot of you guessed adams. that's what i did. it's not. it's calvin coolidge. in august of 1923 then vice president coolidge received word of president harding's death in the middle of the night. coolidge's father who was a notary public administered the oath of office by the light of a kerosene lamp in the family's parlor. there's one to grow on. we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. [ multiple sounds making melodic tune ] ♪

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i think he has more liberal positions that a lot of people don't know about yet. >> for example? >> well, his position on if you

hear illegally, that shouldn't be a crime. >> a lot of conservatives don't believe it is a crime. and i've talked to some people in new jersey who live there and they say he has a lot of liberal positio positions. i don't know all of them, but i think all that have will come out. >> well, there you go. herman cain and chris christie. let me put the question to you, michael steele. chris christie, if he gets in, he has taken some positions, as herman cain pointed out, rick perry found 0 out is very hard for the conservative electorate and the republican party to deal with. >> i think that's part of his consideration. he's seen what happened to perry on immigration, to huntsman on climate change, and certainly china, and christie generally lines up with those particular points of view. so it's going to be touch for the base, for example, to excoriate those individuals like romney and perry and give chr

christie a pass. so when you weigh it in total at the end of the day the press conference today will be one of i really appreciate the love but brother is not getting in. >> and you believe this also because he's doing it in -- >> you don't roll out your announcement in a press conference in front of a gaggle of reporters. >> you were an active guy back in -- >> back when i was young. >> no, even though you look youthful, you certainly were hanging around during the -- during the cuomo days. how much similarity do you see? >> he's taking the mario cuomo hand wringing and making it seem like it was -- >> what would cuomo have looked like in the age of twitter? >> oh, my gosh. mario cuomo didn't take himself out 15 times and then put himself back in. he took himself out once. sherman-esque doesn't seem to

mean anything anymore. >> susan page, if chris christie does jump in, is he competing with rick perry as the anti-romney or is he competing with romney as the other establishment? >> well, his strength, he has some weaknesses with positions he's taken but his strength is he can play in both fields but i do think if he does jump in, the race is to be against romney. romney is the tortoise in the race, slow and steady. we've had like three hares in a row. so i think we'll end up with two finali finalists and one will be mitt romney. >> go ahead. >> i think it's interesting because i understood the perry rationale. he said i'm the job creator. one out of every four -- >> but i'm also cheap. >> the unemployment rate is 9.4%, higher than here. violent crime is increasing three times the national average. he has no narrative. the he has these problems -- >> just being a straight talker. >> yeah, but come on. a straight talker? people want the economy, jobs and -- >> i agree. i think christie ultimately wants to put down a legacy of

turning around new jersey and make aing it a story for america and you don't get that done in 18 to 24 months. >> let's quickly talk about herman cain. the polls say he's a contender, a serious contend er. his campaign schedule says not. what do you say? >> is cain able? i think cain is very able but i'm surprised about the time off, the two weeks to go push the book that he's got out right the now. i think he is able. with the grassroots of the party, it's caught on. people feel freed up now. i don't have to be beholden to the others that have fall en. i can shop around. >> rick perry's campaign, how much in bad shape is it really? >> if you look at the "washington post" poll and consider the fact he's had the support in just two or three weeks, he's on life support. >> how has he handled this race?

>> he started out with this huge advantage which he's frittered away. i wouldn't count him out. he has lots of political skills. he has to deal with this immigration issue, though. mitt romney is hammering him about it daily. >> and what about this racial issue? how did herman cain and rick perry handle it? >> i think perry needs to step out and say, hey, the rock was the rock and we dealt with the rock. cain by raising it again raised his profile but once you raise it you don't back off of it. >> he backed off yesterday. >> he backed off yesterday. you have to stand there. >> where is everybody else on the republican party? why hasn't there been a broader denunciation? this is pretty outrageous. fun fact from the gallup poll, do you think there are more self-proclaimed liberals or tea party supporters? >> i will say liberals. >> tea party. >> tea party. >> 21% to 21%. who has more influence in american politics right now, no question. >> we've been talking about who can win a general election

against the president, there's a purple poll at purplestrategy.com. the states that flip back and forth. mitt romney loses to the president -- i'm sorry, defeats the president by two in those states and rick perry doesn't really compete. >> interesting. >> charter school up in philadelphia. they are doing a great job with kids, turning around lives and helping folks. they are doing a wonderful job. >> all right. thank you all. that's it for this edition of "the daily tomorrow on the show herman cain's campaign manager will be here in studio. we'll ask him the question we've been debating, what kind of campaign are they really running? and coming up next is "chris jansing & co." then andrea mitchell at 1:00. she gets a big guest, chris christie's press conference at 1:00. tune in. the you won't want to miss it. i needed more customers,

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