jeff pearlman, author of the book "sweetness rsh and i standing the song. >> i learned not to be allowed within 25 miles of the white house, never mind running for president. >> mika? >> i learned sweetness was friends with the refrigerator but was concerned with the attention he was getting. >> very good, mika's mom, a huge fridge fan. >> we had our picture on the fridge. >> we loved the fridge. >> we'll see you tomorrow. next is "the daily rundown" with chuck todd. hit mitt, mitt romney takes fire in the latest republican debate while his opponents try to shake things up. romney avoids looking shaky. is the clock running out for rick perry or anybody to make this a close fight? one guy who's trying and coming the closest, herman cain. he joins us live in a few minutes.

especially meanwhile the right's favorite tough talker lines up behind romney, chris christie makes his pick. does that mean he'll be romney's pick for a running mate. wait until you hear what he told nbc news exclusively. a story that seems ripped from a spy novel. a u.s. citizen confesses to taking part in a plan to assassinate the saudi arabia ambassador to washington using hit men from a mexican drug cartel. we'll have the latest details on the justice department's shocking announcement. it's wednesday, october 12. let's get to my first reads of the morning. we want to get to the herman cain interview. mitt romney is looking more and more like the man to beat. he's picking up the endorsement from chris christie, established republican, couple more this morning. the only problem is somebody forgot to tell the electrorate.

thanks to a unique feature to this debate, the candidate to candidate questioning, romney found himself on the defensive, attacks he by and large seemed to deflect effectively. watch. >> your chief economic adviser, glen hubbard who you know well, he said that romney care was obama care. how would you respond to his criticism of your signature legislative achievement? >> we have less than 1% of our kids that are uninsured. you have 1 million kids uninsured in texas. 1 million kids. chris christie said the problem with obama care, he spends an extra trillion dollars and raises taxes. raising taxes is one of the big problems something we didn't do in massachusetts. >> note the christie name dropping there. he cited his venture capitalism

experience. >> some might say because of your past employment with bain capital of more of a financial engineer, breaks down businesses. >> my background is quite different than you described. we started staple's. we started the sports authority. we started bright horizon children centers. we started a steel mill in a farm field in indiana. >> meanwhile herman cain found out with surging poll numbers comes scrutiny and attacks. specifically on his 999 plan. which would eliminate the current tax code and replace it with a 9% flat tax, 9% corporate tax and 9% sales tax. a plan which got 24 mentions at last night's debate. >> my top priority is 999. jobs, jobs, jobs! >> i thought it was a price of a pizza when i first heard about it. >> when you take the 999 plan

and you turn it upside down, i think the devil is in the details. >> we're not going to give the federal government, nancy pelosi, a new pipeline for consumers to get hammered by the federal government. how many people are here for a sales tax in new hampshire? there you go, herman. that's how many votes you'll get. >> cain embraced the attacks and went after romney's economic plan. >> can you name all 59 points in your 160 page plan? >> herman, i've had the experience of my life taking on tough problems. i must admit that simple answers are always very helpful, but oftentimes inadequate. >> last night, both cain and romney struggled to defend their past support for t.a.r.p. the bank bailout that remains poisonous among conservatives. hear how they handled it. >> my experience tells me we were on the precipice and we

could have had a complete meltdown of our entire financial system. action had to be taken. was it perfect, no. >> the way it was administered is where it got off track. they were discretionary in which institutions they were going to save rather than apply it equitably which is what most of us thought was going to be done. >> in 2010, we saw a lot of republican lawmakers get hit hard in primaries on supporting t.a.r.p. some speculate that one of the reasons john thune didn't run is because he didn't think he could get by in a republican primary for supporting t.a.r.p. the thing benefiting cain and romney is the chief competitors here, namely rick perry, also was a t.a.r.p. supporter. jon huntsman a t.a.r.p. supporter. rick santorum may be pure on this and he's yet to catch fire. while romney may not be a sure thing, rick perry isn't making it easy for conservatives to

rally behind him. last night was an important moment for perry. he didn't seize it. he struggled to stand out on stage vertually disappeared for much of the debate. when asked to explain his jobs plan or lack thereof, here's what perry said? >> i'm not going to lay it out for you tonight. mitt's had six years to be working on a plan. i've been in this for about eight weeks. >> this was a debate only about the economy and perry didn't seem to be ready for that. he didn't have to deal with immigration questions. he didn't have to deal with hpv questions and he still struggled. let's get to the man who was center stage last night. joining me now is herman cain, businessman, former godfather's pizza ceo. thanks for coming on. let's dig into 999. as you know, you were pushing back on this last night, bruce bartlett, a former reagan and bush official had this to say about your plan at the new york kiems. at a minimum, the cain plan is a

distributional monstrosity. the poor would pay more while the rich would have their taxes cut. i want to focus in the state of florida, mr. cain, you could have people paying a 15% tax on consumer items. this is tough for people making under $50,000 a year. >> well, chuck, this is why -- first of all, the fact that i got attacked so much, and my plan got attacked so much last night, that's a good thing, because it gives me an opportunity to correct some of those misperceptions. here's what a lot of people missed, including bruce bartl t bartlett. we'll be happy to share our analysis. we're working on that now, because there's so much misinformation. start with the 999, every worker pays 15% payroll tax. now they're going to pay 9%. that's a 6 percentage point difference.

the 999 plan replaces payroll tax, capital gains tax, corporate income tax, personal income tax and the death tax. five taxes we replace with those three. we start with throwing out the current tax code. >> mr. cain, everything you've described only benefits those with very high incomes. what do you do for the family of four that makes $50,000 a year? they're not thinking about a death tax. they're not benefits from capital gains taxes. >> let's take your $50,000 a year family of four scenario. okay. >> okay. >> today under the current system, they will pay over $10,000 in taxes, assuming standard deductions and standard exemptions. eight gone through the math. $10,000. with 999, they're going to pay the 9% tax on their income, so

that's only 4,500 dlrs$4,500 d.z if you go and look at what they -- how much of it they would probably spend on sales taxes for new goods, not used, used goods, they don't pay sales tax, they are still going to have money left over, chuck. so what i asked people to do. go through the math for your situation, because not all situations are the same, and for most people, they're going to have a net-net tax decrease because we've expanded the base. >> now, how do you handle this issue with demand? by essentially raising the price of new goods and having so, instead of going back to the state of florida, instead of a 6% sales tax, you're looking at a 15% sales tax.

that could cause sticker shock and actually pull back consumers from buying goods which then of course hurts the economy. >> okay. you raised two questions here. let me take them one at a time. the first one is the sales tax in the state of florida or any other state, i'm not addressing that. that's going to be there whether we have the old system or the new system. so let's not muddy the water with that. that's a totally situation. now, when you look at the sales tax and the fact that we are taking out imbedded tacks that are built into the goods and services in this country, prices will not go up. they will not go up. >> but will they go down? >> people who are stretching that -- they will probably go down. we simply can't predict how much they would go down. remember, in everything that we buy today, there areembedded

taxes. one of the great features on the first nine, a business can deduct its purchases and capital investment. only purchases made from companies here in the united states, it levels the playing field. this way, our products don't have those imbedded taxes in it. because of competition, the prices will actually go down. >> all right. you predicted that if -- now that you're in the top tier, you were going to get more questions. i promise you this is not a pop quiz about foreign leaders. i want to go into some things you've written. this is something you wrote in 2005. saying, arguing there was no housing bubble. you wrote this in 2005 in business and media institute. coverage of the bush economy reads like a collection of democratic party press releases calling a strong economy everything from strong or volatile or dicey. that kind of ignorance makes homeowners feel their most expensive possession can turn

worthless. that won't happen. housing situation, that did happen. it only happened within three years. what did you miss in 2005 about the housing bubble? >> what i missed in 2005 was just how bad fannie mae and freddie mac had distorted the housing market. that's why i said what i said in '05 that i further learned later in terms of fannie mae and freddie mac. i honestly did not realize just how bad it was, just how bad the whole bonding and derivatives thing was and we were on the brink of a total financial meltdown. i learned later on by looking into it deeper that the situation was a lot worse than i thought in 2005. >> well, in 2008, this is september 1st, 2008, another column you wrote about the economy, and it reads as follows.

you wrote the supposed failure of bush's economic policies has been a constant theme of the zks since the 2006 elections when the democrats regained control by convincing enough of the voters that the economic sky was falling and the war in iraq could not be won. they plan to continue those themes right through election day on november 4. economic sky was falling september 1, 2008. 15 days later, the lehman brothers collapse. we know what happened after that, a total near sky is falling moment. so how -- i guess i would say this, how do you reassure voters that despite all the experience you're running on in the business community, your time on the fed, you missed the housing bubble and you missed the economic collapse? >> well, it's real simple, chuck. i have economic advisers working with me now who spend time studying these various analyses. when i wrote those papers, i was

only responding to reports that i like everybody else, was getting through the media. those kind of public reports. >> which turned out to be right, by the way. you were criticizing those reports, but they turned out to be right. >> well, yeah. but what i'm saying, is i'm going to have -- i will have people around me who are going to help me do deeper analyses on some of these things, okay. yeah, i missed some of these things. i'm not perfect. i'm very quick to say i made a mistake or i missed it. but i didn't have sophisticated analyses helping me to draw the conclusions that i was drawing at that time. remember, i have admitted the housing bubble and the economic meltdown of 2008, it was much worse than i ever realized until the lehman brothers situation started and until more and more was revealed about the depth of the problems at fannie mae and freddie mac. i admit i didn't know all the details about those situations.

>> you served on the kansas city fed back in the mid '90s. any regrets on your support of the lowering of interest rates in hindsight? >> not from what we did in the 1990s, because in the 1990s, our mission was price stability. we did a good job under the circumstances in my opinion of being able to keep it in check and keep it under control. that's very different than the situation today. i don't agree with a lot of the policies today. but this fed has been forced into it because of a $14 trillion national debt, foreigners are now getting leery about buying our debt. that's why they've continued to do all these crazy things they're doing. our credit has been down graded. we didn't have those dynamics back in the 90s. we were able to keep prices pretty well under control. >> how would a president cain

respond to these allegations about iran? >> president cain would respond to these allegations about iran by first asking all of my intelligence sources to come this, asking the joint chiefs of staffs, getting everybody that knows something about this situation to come in, let's take a look at the complete picture, let's take a look at all of the data and then make a decision. i can't say what i would do sitting here based upon just the news reports. what they did is inexcusable. what we do about it would require some very careful consideration. >> all right, mr. cain, i have to leave it there. thank you for coming on. >> chuck, i enjoyed it. thank you. "the daily rundown" will be right back. woman: ...and we're not real proud of this. man: no...we're not. woman: we...um... teen: have you guys seen captain stewie and lil' miss neptune? dad: did you look all over the place? under your desk? all around?

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>> the idea that you would assassinate a diplomat, that is something for the whole world, every nation in the world will be outraged that they would violate such international norm, in addition to obviously being a crime to assassinate anybody. and in the process, probably have killed scores of americans. >> vice president joe biden, that was this morning on the "today" show on what the u.s. calls an iranian backed plot to assassinate the saudi arabia ambassador. an iranian born has confessed to his involvement in trying to hire a mexican drug cartel to carry out the killing. iran was ready to spend $1.5 million. iran calls the allegations baseless. evan coleman is an analyst. evan, on the face of it, we're reading the details of this.

it's a page turner in the way it's a page turner before i go to bed and read a novel. how confident are you in the justice department's case. >> the doj doesn't bring charges like this overnight. they don't bring it unless they have a tremendous degree of confidence in what they're saying. that being said, we have to see where is the beef. we have to see what the actual evidence is, particularly the evidence linking senior members of the iranian revolutionary guard corps and the quds force to this, i have no doubt that manssor arbabsiar was involved in something. they have recorded conversations. the question was who was sending him out to do this. was this something he was doing on behalf of a rogue commander or was this part of a plan? there's a couple of factors here. you have the money factor. it's difficult to imagine that someone is running around with $1 million for a plot like this and isn't well financed and isn't well connected.

at the same time, you wonder, the revolutionary guard corps is much more capable than a lot of other adversaries the u.s. has faced, particularly like al qaeda. why couldn't they do this themselves? why did they have to outsource this to a drug cartel. these questions have to be answered. >> how likely are there rogue elements inside iran at this point that would maybe not tell the upper elite about this and go off on their own? >> well, look, there's a lot of competing power factions in iran. the revolutionary guard corps happens to be one of them. the revolutionary guard corps has its own economy, they have their own economic interests. you have people in there that are, number one, very, very ardent, iranian nationalists and people that don't always agree with the idea of cooperating with the united states, even if it seems to be in iranian's best interests. i think it's definitely a very serious concern and especially if you have the idea that there are people within the revolutionary guard corps that

are willing to risk war with the united states in order to achieve some kind of bizarre objective. i mean, you would hope that those discussions are taking place right now amongst the iranian officials, but you know, their response is not exactly heartening. they're dismissing this outright. let's hope that's just their public face. >> how important for the u.s. public diplomacy-wise and in the middle east that they come out with more details proving this link. >> it's essential. ever since the yellow cake incident a few years ago with iraq, the u.s. credibility used to be golden. now it's not. iran often charges the u.s. with fabricating facts. i think it's up to the u.s. now, particularly the justice department to prove its allegations. i mean, we need to prove these allegations. we need to show countries like russia and china on the security council that have been reticent to put more sanctions on iran, reticent to take more action

against iran that this is not a conspiracy, this is not a joke. this is a very serious terrorist plot. if iran can be tied to this, if it is the work of senior officials within the iranian government, whether or not it's the revolutionary guard corps or other agencies of the iranian government, there have to be consequences for this. this is a very, very serious incident. state sponsored terrorism risks war. >> beyond treasury sanctions? >> exactly. this is an act of war if it can be proven. >> all right. evan coleman, terrorism analyst. thanks for bringing clarity to this. >> thank you. up next, we'll get a preview of what's driving the markets. it's slovakia is my guess. senate rejects the president's jobs bill opening a new front in the fight over job creation. missouri republican senator roy blunt if there's any room for compromise and what he supports. nbc news exclusive with mitt romney and chris christie.

is that the republican ticket sitting there side by side, what christie is saying about the number two spot. how many vice presidents in u.s. history has resigned? tweet me the answer @chuck todd @msnbc. chloe is 9 months old. she is the greatest thing ever. one little smile, one little laugh. honey bunny. [ babbles ] [ laughs ] we would do anything for her. my name is kim bryant and my husband and i made a will on legalzoom. it was really easy to do. [ spits ] [ both laugh ] [ shapiro ] we created legal zoom to help you take care of the ones you love. go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. her morning begins with arthritis pain.

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wall street stocks are trying to recover. russ sorkin joins me with the run down. >> slovakia, how bad? >> they are looking up because there's a sense slovakia is going to come around. they voted the bailout package down. they may actually vote in favor of it later this week. >> just a revote?

>> it is a revote. it's like t.a.r.p. maybe second time will be the charm. other things people are looking at, rim, the parent company of blackberry, their stock down because there's an outage on blackberry. mine not working since 1:41 last night. pepsico coming out with better than expect the earnings. alcoa disappointing on the other end. mixed bag, but the futures are looking up. >> you just explained to me why i did the battery trick wondering why i couldn't get my blackberry to do anything? >> that's what happened. outage, north america and south america. we don't know when it's going to come back online. >> iphone sales go up again. "the daily rundown" will be back in 30 seconds.

a few other stories making headlines. wall street protesters on the move. they're taking their demonstrations to the homes of jpmorgan chase, they're calling out well known millionaires as the san francisco movement spills into that city's financial district. an israeli soldier held captive could be free in a matter of days as a result of a prisoner swap. glaud sha leet was seized in 2006. 1,000 palestinian prisoners will be released. benjamin netanyahu negotiated. the supreme court will take up the latest case involving

privacy rights. county jails violated his constitutional rights by strip searching him after being arr t arrested after a traffic mine. there was no reasonable suspicion he was hiding drugs or weapons. mitt romney got a significant endorsement from new jersey governor chris christie. jamie gengel got the exclusive. she sat down with both men after the announcement. >> governor christie, i guess this means you're really not running. >> i've meant it all along. this should put it to rest. i want to see mitt romney in the white house in january 2013. >> did he promise you anything? >> absolutely nothing. >> vice president christie? >> no. >> no? >> he didn't promise me anything. >> governor romney would he be on your short list? >> of course. he may take himself off the list and say he would have no interest, but the truth is, governor christie is one of the leading figures in the republican party.

of course, anyone who becomes our nominee is going to look at people like governor christie and say that would be a terrific person to have on the ticket. >> would you think you would be a good match? >> we're great friends. we agree on a whole host of issues. we spent time together over the last year getting to know each other better. i've asked his counsel on policy matters. we're sympathetic on the issues that matter today. >> do you think you would be a good match? >> i don't know that i would be anybody's good match in that regard. that kind of thing is up to the person who is the presidential nominee to decide who they think is the best person for them, most importantly the best person for the country. >> what do you give his chances against barack obama? >> he's going to win. >> no question? >> i wouldn't be with him if he isn't going to win. >> i'm going to give it one more shot. vice president christie? >> he's an extraordinary person. i'm delighted to have him on my team. >> there you have it. we shall see. let the speculation begin.

where were all those denials from chris christie that we used to hear. president obama's job bill is dead on arrival after it failed to garner the 60 votes needed. leaders on both sides of the aisles accused each other ahead of the procedural vote. >> republicans think if the economy improves it might help president obama so they root for the economy to fail and impose every effort to improve it. >> this whole exercise by their own admission is a charade that's meant to give democrats a political edge in an election, it's 13 months away. >> i'm shocked. that there's politics going on on the floor of the united states senate. roy blunt is a republican from missouri. he joins me now. senator, let me ask you this, what is going to pass, the united states senate before the end of the year that economists will say will help the economy short term?

>> well, not much. not much, chuck. i think we're going to pass these trade bills late tonight. that will help. that will begin to have impact in the short term. it will really begin to have impact about a year from now. the president should have sent these bills up to us earlier. i think the country is essentially in an economic holding pattern until they see who they decide we're going to be for the next 25 or 30 years. the president continues to talk about more regulation and higher taxes and higher utility bills. health care bills that are unknown. that slows down private sector job creation and we're just not seeing much happening in the senate. not controlled by my party, but i think the senate is just at a stand still for all intents and purposes. the trade bill may be the exception that proves the rule that we're not doing anything that doesn't absolutely have to be done and that's unfortunate. >> that is a sober assessment. an economic holding pattern.

do you think your party should put together a bill that tries to deal with the short term? i mean that's clearly what the white house's intention was trying to do. there's a stagnation in the economy. your party hasn't introduced a bill saying this is what we would do short term to try to jump start the economy. should you? >> i actually think we do have a jobs bill. it's been introduced. we would love to vote on it. it's a bill that senator portman worked to put together. i've been involved in that. we would love to vote on that. we're not going to wind up voting on our bill in any meaningful way in the senate because this is a senate that's chosen not to do meaningful things. i think if the president was really serious about passing a jobs bill, he would be here talking to members of the house and senate in big and small groups about what does it take to get this done instead of out giving speeches in politically competitive states. it's clear what he's trying to

do. i have harry truman's old office in the russell building and his desk on the floor of the senate. what the president wants to do is say this is a do nothing congress. what he's forgotten is his party controls half the congress. he's not giving us anything that even democrats really want to do. >> let's talk about simply the payroll tax. is that not going to get exte extended? >> it very well might be ex tended. it's not the thing i'm the most excited about. there are pieces that you might be excited about. things that encourage returning veterans to have an advantage at the hiring desk or things that look at the georgia plan where people who go -- still on the unemployment rolls get assistance. we might extend the payroll tax, but at the end of the day, that weakens social security and what this proves is once you start having people not pay into the social security fund, at what point do you say we're going to

stop that holiday on paying into this fund that's going to be in big trouble. it gets a lot of support because everybody pays into it that eventually draws out of it. >> let me ask you a political question. i know you've endorsed governor romney in the republican race. you know, on one hand, it looks like romney is the runaway front runner until you look at the polls. what's your advice to governor romney to try to win over conservatives who no matter what happens, rick perry collapses, they move somewhere else, they're not moving to him. what's going on? >> i think they will move to him. i think he's the best candidate to win in november. ultimately this election is going to be a discussion about the economy. >> why aren't they with him now? >> it's pretty early. i think when people focus, they're going to focus on the economy and who is best prepared to do it. i think he's the best candidate. i'm not against anybody else. i'm for governor romney. he's either the first or second choice of a big majority of

republicans. what you need to worry about is who is going to be the first choice of americans in november. i think republicans eventually decide that that's governor romney and he is the best person to handle the economic challenge we face. he needs to keep talking about that. that's why he's been so good at these debates. he's talking about what the american people know is the number one problem facing the country today. >> i'm going to have to leave it there. senator roy blunt, republican from new jersey. >> good to be with you. >> the hump day political panel joins me next. we're going to talk about newt gingrich's bull worth moment. the president jobs bill goes from here. the white house "soup of the day," roasted red pepper and tomato. i'm going to say roasted red pepper and tomato. why not. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc.

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>> he's a man who has served for 25 years in the house of representatives with great distinction. >> there it is, it's the daily flash back to this day in 1973 when president nixon announced house minority leader gerald ford as his pick for the vice presidency. it's part of our trivia question. there was probably no one more comfortable at the debate last night than newt gingrich who seemed to channel a inner bulwark that republican speaker john boehner praised as 98% of what the party wanted. >> congress couldn't figure out how to get the debt ceiling done with a president that showed zero leadership. they adopt a truly stupid bill.

the first person to fire is bernanke. the second person to fire is geithner. in both the bush and obama administrations, the fix has been in. if you want to put people in jail, i want to second what michelle said. you want to start with barney frank and chris dodd. >> ruth marcus is a writer for "the washington post." and we have a senior editor for the national review. let's quickly dispense with newt here. is newt gingrich a serious, thoughtful guy, or is he the cranky muppet with the old guy that used to criticize the show. >> i think he's a very fluid person. he's got a detailed knowledge of a lot of policy areas. he doesn't have a great sense that he's going to be president and he has to say things that are responsible, doable and that sort of thing. >> ruth, is he response snibl. >> the cranky muppet slot may be

up for grabs between newt gingrich and ron paul. >> the two of them together. go ahead. >> and you spend more time with the muppets these days than i do. >> i do. >> he's saying completely outrageous things. to some extent, he recognizes he needs to be outrageous in order to get attention, because not his poll numbers are not going to be what gets him attention. the notion of putting chris dodd and barney frank in jail is silly. >> newt gingrich had nothing to do with the policies of the '90s. >> one statement is not connected to a public policy position held five minutes before. there is a play for newt gingrich in this field right now. >> there is? >> there is. >> i thought he was trying to be joe biden, the serious guy who may be a less experienced guy would want to tap as vice president. >> also competing for that herman cain position right now, competing for where is the energy in the electorate in the

republican party? it's in the activist wing of the republican party. he's got to get traction in that group. there's still room. he's creeping up slowly in the polls, not making huge strides. if newt gingrich can get traction, he can be the guy that can be the alternative to mitt romney. >> i want to put this up. headline in bloomberg said it. romney in debate shows he's a front runner. he entered a cautious front runner. not prone to mistakes who has yet to win at least 70% of his party." >> looking at that table, it seems as though some of the other candidates romney decided was going to be the nominee and just quit. mccain gets the nomination without getting a majority of the votes in the primaries. romney is on track to do that. 70% of the folks are with other people. as long as they are not with one

other person, he can still win. >> it is amazing his number doesn't move. i mean, look, i'm going to tease our nbc "wall street journal" poll. it's unbelievable how his number doesn't move. >> it doesn't move but it doesn't go down. he has been the tortoise. in a different way than i think senator mccain was four years ago. he was up and down and down. >> mccain was like his political career. amazing highs and amazing lows. >> romney has been steady. i have to say, i do not come from this as a perspective of a huge mitt romney fan. i've written about his flip-flops in the past. his performances have been consistently good, i thought particularly good last night. >> john put it really well. harlem globetrotters. do you see any hillary clinton evidence here? >> no. >> why is romney not hillary clinton circa 2007? >> there's no intensity in the

base of the party. that is the challenge. the battle for the heart and soul in the republican party is going on in the tea party wing, the social conservative wing. your poll pointed out people want to share the nominee's values. they don't share mitt romney's values. that's something romney has to wrestle with. he may get the nomination, but he needs intensity. that coupled with conservatism. >> we're going to talk about herman cain and whether this is a trial balloon that's going to pop. we asked how many vice presidents in u.s. histories have resigned? the answer was two, spero agnew, we mentioned him in the flashback. you have to go back to 1832, when john calhoun resigned the vice presidency to become a senator from south carolina. how about that? that's how badly the vice presidency used to be thought of, you would actually want to be a u.s. senator instead. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. citracal slow release...

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he not only rolled up his

sleeves, we rolled up our sleeves, our pant legs, we were in our gym shorts working like the devil. we have proposed things the people in the congress have supported who are republicans. we have gone out of our way to make sure these are things that are mainstream proposals. >> mike feldman, ruth marcus, and ramesh. ruth, i have heard this talking point for three months now. we have put together something republicans for years would have accepted, but the question they cannot answer at the white house is which republicans did they pick up the phone and talk to to see if they would support this version of it, and they don't answer that question. >> and it will be interesting to see what happens now that it has barely assembled a majority of democratic senators, when it's sliced and diced where republicans will be, and i think it's very interesting that even on the things that we think are maybe most hard for the republicans to resist, that is

tax cuts, continuing the payroll tax -- >> you just heard roy. this is not some tea party conservative senator out there. he doesn't want to do it. >> and he has a substantive argument against it and governor romney last night was very noncommittal on the payroll tax cut. this is going to be a fascinating conversation to watch. >> there's an electorate out there who is fed up. they're desperate. they would like something. they would like a short-term boost of something, and it doesn't look like washington is going to produce it, no? >> and one thing i find interesting about this is normally the parties have certain kind of agreement about the politics of specific issues. they'll know -- they'll think an issue is hurting one side and helping another. this is one of those issues, obama care is another, where there was a total divergence. the republicans feel no pressure politically to do anything. >> you know, mike, i thought it's a great point, and, in fact, you know, it's a

conversation i have had with some folks inside the white house who say you guys aren't talking to the same swing voters. >> roy blunt in a moment of candor said this thing may have to wait 16 months. that's the fulcrum around which this election is going to be fought. can we wait 16 months to get something done? there was a plan on the table and it did get a vast majority of democrats, no republican voted for it, it would have put 2 million jobs m play in 2012, added 2% to gdp and the republican position right now on the whole is we've got to wait. the american people are at their limit, and if that is the issue, if that is the train of the election, there's no sign we're going to fight this election on anything other than the economy. with the president and democrats pushing forward trying to a.d.d. jobs and the republicans saying, wait, that won't work -- >> although the republicans will vote for the trade parts of this at a higher rate. >> and some elements of the package may pass. the question is who is going to be there trying to produce jobs? >> go ahead. >> there is some skepticism and rightfully so among the

electorate about whether anything will really make a difference and specifically whether whoever is president is going to be able to make a difference in this environment, both because the economy is so bad and the politics are so gridlocked. >> i want to go back to 2012. rick perry and herman cain. rick perry seemed to disappear last night. what happened? >> when he wasn't apparently asleep during the debate, it was as though he was running for governor of texas. it's one thing to be running for president of texas. it's one thing to talk about your regard, it's another thing to take every issue back to energy and texas and have nothing else to say. >> and you don't show up with an economic plan. how did herman cain handle himself last night? >> i thought herman cain did not wear well as the evening went on. i was a little tired of 999. >> a one-note job. >> and i thought governor romney was particularly effective when herman cain thought he was going to get him with name your 59 points in explaining why simply having a tax plan -- first of

all, his tax plan doesn't make sense to me, but simply having a tax plan even if it did make sense is not adequate to the mu mu multiple situations facing the country. >> is romney rising because of perry or is he rising because he's not a businessman. he's not an elected official and never has been and was a businessman and it seems people are, okay, fine. >> it sounds good and he blows past the hard question and gets back to his talking point. how many times did we hear 999 last night? but herman cain is occupying a space right now in this race. he's a pylon and he could get knocked over and someone else could occupy that space. >> my shapeless plug is "the washington post"/bloomberg debate. if you missed it, you can see it

on washingtonpost.com and my colleague, karen, did a particularly good job. >> and i love the precedent of candidate/candidate questioning. ben ginsberg, it's coming, every debate. >> my lovely bride april has been married to me for nine years today. thank you so much. >> mazel tov. >> a piece in the "new york times" sunday magazine about the fight for the heart and soul of the republican party, the establishment versus the tea party and social conservatives, and dicker sonl's recap of the debate was great. >> my shameless plug is to always tivo the third hour of the to do show. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." tomorrow we have a new poll. coming up next, chris "jansing & co." then at 1:00, don't miss "andrea mitchell reports."

she'll speak to anita hill. bye-bye. here is a look at your business travel forecast. i'm bail karins. we have rain moving up the eastern seaboard and thunderstorms in parts of the midwest. we could have travel delays especially in the afternoon around areas like new york and boston. this morning in d.c. detroit and chicago, a chance of showers developing during the day also. along with minneapolis with a chance of storms. have a great day. [ husband ] you ready for this?

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