give a great. >> we will be honored tonight at her event for cure. >> be an honor to be there. >> cureepilepsy.org. >> mom, dads, understand the great impact you can have on your children. harry belafonte's life was shaped when he was 5 years old his mother said he has the impact to change the world for good. >> stick around right now for chuck. the president is getting back on his bus pushing for passage of at least part of his jobs bill. kicks off a three-day tour through north carolina and virginia, which, you guessed it, key, if not the key 2012 states. mitt romney has a bank roll? he polls best against the president yet three out of four republican primaries look add somebody else. the bat tool defend romney in the primary and for the general

begins in earnest. this weekend, the "occupy wall street" movement went global. too big to ignore. washington tries to tap into the anger and will it work? we'll hear from a leading progressive voice in the house. it's monday, october 17, 2011. i'm chuck todd in the middle of it. let's get to my first reads of the morning. the president leaves the white house for a three-day bus tour through virginia andn north caroli carolinanic. the latest effort to combine campaigning. taken him to eight states and d.c. to pitch his jobs bill. when the president arrives in asheville, north carolina, he touches down in a state he won in 2008 by just over 14,000 votes where unemployment is at 10.2%. his approval rating sits at 42%. in virginia, unemployment is below the average but his approval is hardly any better,

45%. on a tour, the president will channel the frustration of anti-protest wall streets now a month old that have spread to four continents this weekend. $4 billion of damage was done in rome after rioters who broke away from a peaceful protest smashed windows and vehicles. if obama were to lose ohio, florida, indiana and new hampshire, four states that he's underwater right now, but when either north carolina or virginia and hold everything else, he's above the 270 threshold that he needs to win re-election. if he somehow lost pennsylvania, as well, and won both virginia and north carolina, he gets ovover 270. the point is, this has been the ma mantra for the obama campaign for the past year is find as many paths to re-election that avoid ohio. ohio is a state they're just not

sure they can win under many circumstances that it's going the way of missouri. in that case, find different paths. virginia,nic n north carolina, s the state we're up all night with. welcome to the next phase of the presidential campaign and the race to define mitt romney, obama campaign is already trying to do it, getting a jump on it partly because rick perry's ffi for almost 20 years for the senate and governor of massachusetts and lee was a pro-choice, progay rights and proenvironmental candidate. time and time again he shifts and you get the feeling no principle too large for him to throw over in pursuit of political office. >> actually, have you read jon huntsman sr. comments, they are

very effective. watch the white house borrow it if romney is the nominee. listen to what he said. >> mitt romney is a great businessman, i have a lot of respect for him. he had been more of a wall street executive. i had been more of a main street executive. >> those two words, wall street. obama campaign says they plan on running against wall street trying to channel. in american politics when things are down, it's all about trying to channel the blame. that's what campaigns are about. trying to put the blame on somebody else. the republicans want to put it on president obama and president obama and the campaign wants to put it else where and wall street and tying mitt romney to wall street. the question is, how much is the wall street message going to damage him? very interesting to hear herman cain say and word it the way he worded it yesterday. finally, speaking of cain, the scrutiny cometh. found out being in the spotlight

brings the tough questions. started with his favorite phrase, 999, which the candidate was forced to admit would raise taxes for some americans. >> some people will pay more, most people will pay less. >> who will pay more? >> the people who spend more money on new goods. the sales tax only applies to people who buy new goods. >> cain was forced to defend these comments that he made on saturday in tennessee. >> we'll have a real fence. 20 feet high with barbed wire. electroified. with a sign on the other side that says, it can kill you. then i get criticized, mr. cain, that's insensitive. what do you mean insensitive? what's incensensitive is when t when to the united states across our border and kill our citizens and kill our border patrol people. that's insensitive and i'm not

worried about being incensensit to tell people to stop sneaking into america. >> so, those remarks, david gregory asked herman cain to explain those comments yesterday. >> that's a joke, david. >> that's a joke. >> that's a joke. >> that's not a serious plan. >> no, it's not. >> you got a big laugh out of it, that's not what you'd do. >> i also said america needs to get a sense of humor. that was a joke. >> you saw the comments in tennessee and you saw his response there. you decide whether it was a joke. cain was shakier when tested on foreign policy. says he does not believe the war in iraq was a mistake. >> i don't agree with the president's approach to draw down 40,000 troops and, basically, leave that country open to taxpayer rant. i would want to leave american taxpayers there if that's what the commanders on the ground suggested and i believe that's what they are saying. >> so, more troops in iraq? finally, cain who has been reluctant to name names did talk

about his model supreme court justice. >> i believe that justice clarence thomas, despite all of the attacks that he gets from the left, he basically rules and makes his decisions, in my opinion, based upon the constitution and solid legal thinking. >> well, there you have it. herman cain under the microscope. at times he was very nimble and other times came across a little naive and some of the ways of washington which may explain why he has become so popular among those who are looking for somebody that is not of the political class, that does not look like they're part of the system. all right, moving on. one month ago today that demonstrators first marched on wall street to protest corporate america's run away greed. gone from a few hundred people to the full-scale takeover affa lower manhattan park with groups stationing themselves in groups around the country and now around the world. president obama spoke about the

movement yesterday at the dedication of the martin luther king jr. memorial. >> those with power and privilege will often call any cry for change as devisive. any change are unwise and destabilizing. dr. king understood that peace without justice was no peace at all. if he were alive today, i'd believe that he would remind us that the unemployed worker can rightly challenge the excesses of wall street without demonizing all who work there. >> nbcmara schiavocampo joins us. the most we heard him talk them up, if you will, since they started. how much of that resonated with the folks you talked to on the ground? >> you know, one of the questions that they have been asked since the beginning here

is what do you want? they tend to get frustrate would that question now because they have been asked that for a month. what they want is to raise certain issues to the national level. when the president speaks about what they're doing here and the causes that they identify with, they identify that as an accomplishment of a specific goal that they have set forward, which is to raise issues of inequality, of economic inequality, bank bailouts and things like that to the national level. when it's addressed by the president, that's as high as it can get. in terms of what is happening here today to mark this one-month anniversary. some talk of getting a cake, but no big events are planned here. if you look at what happened in the last month since they set up camp here, an awful lot has transpired. this camp started out with a couple dozen protesters and a grass roots unorganized movement and now almost like a little village. hundreds of people who were staying here and they have a ton of service. everything from a 24-hour medical center to free food to a library where people come and

borrow books at will. this weekend they had a very big weekend which the organizers say really marks how quickly this thing is growing and spreading and getting support. thousands gathered here in times square for what was dubbed an occupation party. it made times square look like new year's eve. the crowd caught organizers off guard. they thought the whole thing would be over in an hour and hour after it started t was still just getting started and moving forward, trying to determine the best ways to keep this momentum going after a global weekend of protest that showed they have an awful lot of support. >> mara in lower manhattan covering the original protest spot. thanks very much. of course, the protest movement when it came to money and government started about two and a half years ago with the tea party. what's their future if mitt romney does end up with the republican nominee, does that spell the end of the tea party as we have known it. john writes about it for "huffington post." you may get a compelling case

the tea party, if mitt romney is president, might just go away, whether they like it or not. >> yeah, i think that it won't go away, necessarily. you know, the way we framed it was, will it kill the tea party and by that i mean, will it end it? will people sit on their hands in 2012 and romney's the nominee? no question that a romney nomination and a romney campaign will dampen enthusiasm among the base, the grassroots, the tea party folks, but i think a lot of them that i talked to are pragmat pragmatic. the question is, how many? >> snl joked about the pragimatism over the weekend. here's what their mitt romney said about pragimatism. >> i don't think they dislike me, i think they just want to exhaust their options. before anyone goes home with mitt romney, they'll take one last lap around the bar to see if there's anyone better than me. barack obama made america say, yes, we can.

well, i think i can make them say, yes, we can live with that. >> you know, is there a split? it seems to me there is a split in some parts of the tea party. some are like, all right, that's who the nominee is going to be. let's try to make him the best possible tea party representative that he can be, but then there's another part of the tea party that says, not yet. >> i think the problem is that there's nobody that stepped forward to really capture these people, nobody that really stepped forward to capture them. >> doesn't that explain herman cain, though? isn't his rise because he does resonate. i think when you look at this field of candidates, that's fair to say. >> also explains michele bachmann, explains rick perry and the problem with cain is he has as much as perry and bachmann. when the tea party folks look a little closer, he was on the federal reserve, i think, of

kansas city. they're going to have some problems still. >> it did seem he had two issues that he struggled to defend in the last debate. one you brought up the fed and greenspan as a model, that doesn't resonate with the original tea partiers. people upset with the fed and upset with certain monetary policies and the second thing was t.a.r.p. >> pretty much point blank supporter of that. i think his tax policy, the reason people like it, peggy newnan was correct to say that he was the only one willing to throw the whole tax code out. i think he's going to have some trouble defending that, as well. >> the tea party has a lot of money. two or three different organizations that are most closely associated with the tea party, if you will. how will they spend their money? >> well, i think that's a good question. i think if romney is the nominee, you'll have grassroots people who will go out and work on his behalf and others may not. the people that don't and the

groups that you mentioned, tea party patriots, freedom works. i think what they'll do, i heard them say this, they'll focus on the senate because they want to regain control of the senate. if romney becomes the nominee. >> they feel they can use that to push romney, but nothing in the republican primaries. >> i haven't heard them say that. jon ward, provocative piece, interesting to see, look at your e-mail inbox for the last couple days to see how provocative it was. jon, thanks very much. coming up, calendar chaos. february last time was the topsy-turvy month when it came to the presidential campaign. so many states trying to move up their primaries to january. february could leave the campaigns out in the cold. anyway, but, first, a look ahead at the president's schedule. it's a busy start of the bus trip. starts in asheville, north carolina. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool

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one month in the occupy wall street protests are gaining p popularity and support but what the movement is supposed to accomplish. with me now, raul co-chair of the progressive caucus. he joins me now from tucson. protests took place in tucson this weekend, right in your home district. did you attend any of them? >> i went and visited with the occupiers that were there at the park and talked to them and found that it's a cross section of america. this is not some fringe element, this is a cross section of america concerned about issues

with very common sense opinions about things and i think what is going on across this nation is necessary. it is peaceful. and it is a counterpoint to the lack of discussion about fairness in this country and certainly in our economic policy. so, for me, it has been a necessary activity that is going on around this country. >> now, is it, some of it, one of the criticisms that they received, even from president clinton is saying, what are your demands? what is it that you want? you brought up fairness and it does seem to be the overall umbrella theme here. do you think that the movement needs to get more focused? >> i think this movement is going to develop as it goes along. i think it is, it is prezump ch tuous of any officials to ask them or demand them to give us a

prescription when, quite frankly, in terms of congress and certainly the house of representatives where i served, we provided no prescriptions to the concerns that they have. so, i believe that by drawing attention, drawing the contrast with what's going on and insisting on fairness, to me, that's enough right now for us to pay attention. >> i know you have submitted your version of what you think should be the deficit reduction, the package put together for the super committee on behalf of the progressive caucus. let me ask you this. there's been some reporting that house democrats are, the three house democrats on this committee would prefer that the automatic triggers happen because they're not happy with any of the proposals that are circulating. >> well, you know, i've heard that. i think it is imparaative that the american people know that there are choices out there.

the progressive caucus to the super committee was savings of $4 trillion. up to $7 trillion, if you let the bush cuts, bush tax cuts expire on schedule. and we did it in such a way, it's reflective of the budget we proposed. it's reflective of the public option that caucus wanted in the health plan that would have saved $61 billion. and we reinvest in things like education and jobs and immediate job creation and, so, we feel we prevented a very common sense protest that is going on. it is our way, quite frankly, to occupy the minds of congress. to say that there are some choices out there. sticking with the same pigeon hole and trying to make decisions around the sage pigeon hold that special interest, corporate america have put us in will limit our ability to do what american people are asking for and our budget says, here's not only an alternative, this is

a wise, sensible way to go forward. save money rbs balance the budget and, yet, not hurt the american people. >> it does seem as if that there is some cautious support, even coming from republicans on more infrastructure spending and you hear about it through the idea of the long, you know, doing the long-term transportation bill. is that about the best we can expect to come out of congress where there's agreement on new spending that it comes through this transportation bill and that's about it? >> i hope not. i really do. but that's, you're correct in that assessment. but i hope not. i hope we're going to think big and then we have to act big and we have to put something out in front of the american people so that they know that their congress, their elected officials are responding to the urgency of the situation. i hope we go much further than that. >> let me ask you on one of the ideas that is in your submission to the super committee calls for

putting the health care option into the plan when it kicks in in 2014. how do you pay for that? >> it's part of an open and competitive market. the public option is out there so that people have an option, just like medicare for all, would be a concept. that people have an option. what we believe and that's what the $61 billion comes from. it's that people will then have a choice. private insurance will then for a competitive situation in which rates and premiums will reflect that competition. if an open and competitive free market is what everybody talks about and we all support, the public option in the health care reformat would guarantee that kind of competition and that kind of free market and consumer choice. people can get the best deal. right now, it is, it doesn't provide that kind of competitive edge that any free market requires. >> congressman raul, chairman of the progressive caucus, thank

you for getting up early. >> thank you very much. up next, we'll get a check at how wall street will kick off the week. the calendar chaos for 2012 could spell a very long, cold winter for the republican presidential contenders. we'll explain why. meanwhile, president obama set to leave for north carolina any minute now. we're live in asheville with a preview of what awaits him there. which oscar-winning actor spent his early years managing the asheville community theater with his wife? the first correct answer, the answer coming up on "the daily rundown." my mother froze everything. i was 18 years old before i had my first fresh bun. the invention that i came up with is the hot dog ez bun steamer. steam is the key to a great hot dog. i knew it was going to be a success. the invention was so simple that i knew i needed to protect it.

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nchlthsdz on wall street earning season is getting under way.

bertha coombs joins me with the market rundown. looks like if you read some reports, tim geithner is finding an audience in europe. >> we are getting mixed messages out of europe when we had the g-20 finance ministers out there, the sense is we'll have something for you, something definitive by the time the eu ministers meet in brussels by next weekend. now, angela merkel spfs spokesperson, chancellor of germany. germany is really the key to the fix for the european debt crisis says, hey, don't get your hopes up, this is a permanent fix right now. this is still going to be a process. so, those mixed messages have dialing back on hopes. economic data. the u.s. manufacturing index, little disappointing, industrial production was right in line and nothing really to write home about. a slew of earnings this week. we have a fifth of the s&p 500 reporting. this morning we heard from citigro citigroup. they topped a bit and wells

fargo disappointed and a huge deal in pipelines, chuck. a $21 billion deal with kinder morgan buying out el paso energy. the largest pipeline company with 67,000 miles here in the u.s. >> all right, bertha coombs, thanks very much. "daily rundown" is back in 30 seconds. just about the bottom of the hour now, president obama begins a three-day bus tour through virginia and north carolina today. the trip is all about the jobs bill, but also about 2012 with the president hitting two

states. he turned blue in 2008 and then he needs, if he is going to somehow find 270 without ohio. one month since the start of the occupy wall street movement that has spread across the country and around the world. the group that started it all in new york say they had close to $300,000 donated to help their efforts. your cell phone bill is about to get a little consumer friendly. wireless providers to better inform you of those surprise fees on your monthly bill. you'll get some text messages letting you know when things are starting to get over the limit. all right, other stories making headlines. funeral services are being planned for one of indy's car most popular drivers. dan wheldon was killed. 15 cars was involved in the pileup. tonight's season ending banquet has been canceled. u.s. allegations about an

iranian backed assassination plot have made their way to the u.n. security council. president obama calling for the toughest possible sanctions over an alleged scheme to kill the saudi ambassador. iran denies any connection to the plot and denying access to the suspect. secretary of state hillary clinton was on hand over the weekend celebrating the tenth anniversary of her husband's global initiative. lady gaga stole the show was chwas streamed with what she called her marilyn moment. was also marking a month late, two months late, actually, his 65th birthday. oh, good grief. back to the president now who's flying to north carolina to kick off a three-day, two-state campaign for pieces of his jobs bill but for also pieces of 270 electoral votes.

kristen is live. the theme, though, a little bit different. tell us about that, kristen. >> hi, chuck. that's right. the tleem heme of this trip, according to the white house, the president is focusing on his jobs bill. as you know, it didn't pass the senate last week and now get broken up into bits and pieces. the president will push for a $35 billion to put teachers and first responders back to work. so, that will sort of be the aim. there will be six stops along the way throughout north carolina and virginia and he'll speak to some folks at schools, community colleges and also a fire station, just to name a few. then he will make a few unplanned stops so he can get up close and personal with the people here. of course, all this underlines how important north carolina and virginia really are to the president's re-election strategy. no democrat had won these two states for decades until president obama did it back in

2008, in part, thanks to an influx of people who moved here from the north. professionals, minority voters here. now, some of those younger independent voters have really soured on president obama in part because of the dismal economy. republicans know it, chuck. they smell blood in these two states. they are already waging a serious re-election battle in these two states. in fact, the rnc will hold a conference call a little bit later on this morning to talk about that. these are two about nine states that republicans think they can win back in 2012. of course, the white house very aware of that. so, they are taking this region very seriously, as well. they are calling this a trip for his jobs tour, but, of course, 2012 overshadows all of it, chuck. as you mentioned, we will likely see a lot of the similar themes play out that we saw during his bus trip this summer when he traveled through the midwest when you were there, chuck, to witness that. chuck? >> all right.

kristen welker, as we're watching the president go up the stairs of air force one. i think he'll be there in about 45 minutes. thank you, kristen. asheville, of course, interesting that he's starting there. the blue dot in a very red part of north carolina. in 2008, the presidential primaries were won and lost largely in the month of february. 29 states in the state of washington waulg, held primaries in february in that year and this time around, just five states. whose campaign can withstand the february break and come back strong and who will wither away in february cold. mark murray joins me now to wade through the nuts and bolts. this is, this is unbelievable and, in fact, short sided, i think, by some of these january states. but we can get am to that in a minute. look at this january calendar as we have been pointing out. we know iowa is going to be the third and we've got south carolina, and you've got florida on there and we know new hampshire is going to wedge its way somewhere in there if they don't decide to write themselves

off by going into november. >> we are football fans, we know about the bye week, we'll have a bye month. >> maine, colorado are caucuses. >> they're caucuses. when you get to february 28th. those caucuses begin at the beginning of the month. primaries in arizona and michigan. >> that's it. >> that's it. >> then we go into super tuesday where a lot of southern states are holding their primaries. >> this year super tuesday is in march. look at this calendar from february 2008 and look at it now. so, in 2008, every y mean, the big one was super tuesday. then we had the week later w ia potomac tuesday. we try to name every tuesday. the week after and then right after this, we had mississippi. >> it was hawaii and wisconsin and then mississippi actually came in march.

but obama won the nomination in february in 2008. this time around, february this time when you look around, it looks like that march -- >> just unbelievable. >> remember in that 2008 that march to april period. >> six weeks of blankness and going into pennsylvania, it allowed hillary clinton to regroup. she started getting her mojoe back and changed the race. february has the potential to be that for now and we'll have the early states and all of a sudden you have this dead period, this bye month that you don't know what kind of momentum you'll have going into super tuesday. >> so at this point, the question is, who will need, who can survive the bye month. when you look at what romney is doing, he is clearly planning on a campaign that takes him, just in case. >> you and i talked about it many, many times that january 31st race in florida still very important. you know, romney wants to be able to win it. rick perry, that would end up on

paper, at least, provide you the momentum going into those other contests. you don't know how momentum could change if there is a big story or some type of momentum stoppage before you head into super tuesday. >> doesn't this mean then that because of this gap, as decisive, unless romney or somebody swept, essentially swept january, the incentive then is to stay in the race no matter what. >> absolutely. of course, you'll have to have the money to fund tv ads and withstand what is going to happen. you know, you'll have to spend a lot of money on super tuesday, but, exactly. all of a sudden if mitt romney decides not to play in iowa, you'll see the possibility that somebody will win iowa and mitt romney, potentially, wins and no one knows how mrararch will pla out? >> essentially, starting in march, then we start seeing it is more of a national came pain

than it's ever been. the bye month of february, i love it. up next, our monday political panel, the battle to define mitt romney it's fully on. how will the massachusetts governor try to convince governors. how will his rivals try to convince them he's not. but, first, white house soup of the day. it's lentil. lentil soup is only good depending on what you flavor it with. a little pork, little beef. lentil soup on its own. throw in some red or white meat and it's good stuff. ahh, one.

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rebuild because of game-related sports coverage the quake of '89 was the first major earthquake to have its initial jolt broadcast live on american television. gives me chills today just thinking back to that moment. the battle to define mitt romney began this weekend in earnest. jon huntsman sr., whose son happens to be running for president, told "new york times" he worked for three romneys. a liberal, conservative. >> i don't think any american is impressed when they see governor romney and all the republican candidates say the first thing they do is roll back wall street reforms and go back to where we were before the prices and let wall street write its own rules. >> major garret, susan paige and archer davis former democratic congressman from alabama, welcome. the battle to define mitt romney

is on and sort of a bunch of battles. obama wants to define them as a wall street guy. some conservatives want to define him as not a conservative. >> romney has not gone on the air with all this money he's got. which he will do eventually to try to define himself and respond to some of these attacks. he's defining himself as a turn around artist and someone who worked in the real world. what is interesting for me, for romney and obama, their opponent is each other. they are ignoring the rest of the republican field, who tells you who the white house thinks is going to get the nomination. >> there is white house frustration you can hear it in david axelrod's interview over the weekend, they feel as though the opponents, the republican opponents haven't made the case that he wanted. here was herman cain yesterday on "meet the press" in a very friendly way contrasting himself in a very friendly way. >> more of a wall street executive and i have been more

of a main street executive. >> could david plouffe have written that line any better? >> probably not. i think without the obama administration and the white house will do with romney is one of two things. mitt romney is not new. he is the same politician he's always been. someone who has adapted and changed and shifted, depending on the race he's running. means he's unreliable. that's also a conservative criticism. remember, in the 2008 campaign that you and i covered, barack obama was no stranger to wall street or wall street money or members of administration. tim geithner, ben bernanke, many people in this administration still have the chief of staff, connections to previous jobs with firms that are big players on wall street. this is not an easy game for anyone who is embedded in the washington culture to play. it won't be easy for the obama administration and not easy for mitt romney. >> congressman davis, i thought it was interesting in president obama's remarks yesterday he almost praised the protesters but then said, you know, you

know, martin luther king would have said that you could criticize wall street without demonizing. >> well, this is what the white house is doing and i think we've seen it for several months now. they are doubling down on, let's rally the base, let's get the democratic party fired up and they may not like the word demonized, but let's paint the republican party as the captive for wall street. they know that mitt romney is going to be a far more formidable opponent and romney has been very good in the debat debates. >> he already looks the part. >> two years ago, you couldn't imagine that. the guy has improved his game enormously. the white house is doing a lot of what the george bush camp did to john kerry back in 2004. it became obvious that kerry was breaking out. they started to define the guy very early and it paid dividends. a change artist on his political position, start to define the guy as two-time the business establishment and some of it may

pay dividends later. >> as the obama campaign tries to do that, you have some the american cross act is out with some new ads, a new ad trailing the president today in north carolina and virginia. here's a part of it. >> he raised our hopes. he seemed to understand. >> the last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of the recession. >> but, today, he's different. >> the president proposed tax increases. >> $1.5 trillion. >> $1.5 trillion in new tax revenue. >> president obama's latest way is still the wrong way. >> i personally don't believe we ought to be raising taxes. it won't solve the problem. >> i'm exhausted at defending you, your administration and deeply disappointed. >> american crossroads is responsible for the content of this advertisinadvertising. >> susan paige, as the white house goes after wall street, the is this is the pushback. >> this is a devastating ad because it goes right at the voters who elected barack obama who wanted to, who believed he was going to change the way

washington worked, who believed he understood something about their lives and now feel what a terrible couple years they had in terms of the economy and is he doing anything to make things better? to use the woman who spoke up to him at that meeting, i mean, that is tough stuff. >> it is trying to sell a tax argument that doesn't resonate with the public. >> it doesn't resonate to the public, but my experience has always been when you use a politician's previous record, expectations, promises and rhetoric against him, that is very difficult to deal with. that ad is going to be a part and parcel of what republicans are going to need. not attack obama personally. probably be more respectful to him. >> sympathetic disappointment. >> other point, on romney, as the white house steps up to the tax on romney, that will help romney in one sense. all right, they are afraid of him and that may create some magnetism, little bit of magn magnetism romney has lost or not been able to develop. >> when we come back, we'll pick

this up. we ask which oscar-winning actor spent his early years managing the asheville community theater with his wife? the answer, charleston heston. they moved to asheville after world war ii where they earned $100 a week managing the asheville play house. we'll be right back. coffee doesn't have vitamins... unless you want it to.

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let's bring back our panel. major garrett susan paige and congressman davis. i want to go to the backdrop of everything going on right now is a occupy wall street movement. we've got this jobs bill they're all fighting and the president on the trail. it is all interconnecting. what's been interesting is watching them get it back. here's eric continantor yesterd

>> do you stand by that comment about mobs? >> i think more important than my use of that word is the fact that there is a growing frustration out there across this country. and it's warranted. too many people are out of work. but where i'm most concerned is we have elected leaders in this town who frankly are joining in an effort to blame others rather than focusing on the policies that have been brought about the current situation. >> i'm going to go to the politician first and then you guys. that's a sign of a politician worried about where this is headed, isn't it? >> sure it is. i'm going to say something is probably heretical for a former democratic congressman to say. occupy wall street is not going to help barack obama or the white house. occupy wall street is a sustained critique of the way washington and wall street have been run. barack obama doesn't run wall street but it's kind of hard to escape running washington, d.c. when you're the president of the united states. you can be the insurgent only when you're out of power and

you're trying to change things. and occupy wall street, there are some on the left who do like the fact that maybe we have a set of enforcers now, a lot of tea party, emerging democratic party, but that can't be helpful thor a president whose case next year has to the got to be that things are turning around, we're a stronger country than we would be if i weren't president. a movement that is attacking the way america's being run is not good for barack obama. >> this is the backdrop now to the jobs bill in the super committee. >> it is the backdrop. i would say it's a conversation that's happening organically in american cities and on the streets. it is sort of a call for washington to pay attention. to pay attention exactly to what? it's not quite clear yet. >> you think it could mean that a month ago you and i would have bet no way they would try to get something done. >> i do believe there would be -- because you listen to the rhetoric from house republicans, please, mr. president, let's break this up into small parts, vote on things that we agree on. there's a hung theer that you dt

see two months ago. not to -- >> to find something on the scoreboard. >> something they can boert point to, job creation, and is not only a republican idea but something they can share. >> the house republican leadership is reiding polls nap seems to be clear. they realize they are starting to take on, the water they're starting to take on is actually the public's -- could end up punching them as well as the president. >> look at the "time" magazine poll. 54% of americans support the idea of the favor in view of the occupy wall street movement. twice as many have a favorable view of the tea party. being against wall street is a winning formula. it could be complicating for president obama. one of the biggest problems is that his own natural base pretty discouraged now. if this suck seeds in getting them a little more energized, it seems to me that could be a big help. >> it's all about painting romney as mr. wall street. i've got to show you this photo now making the rounds on liberal

blogs. look at this. it's mitt romney back in the bane capital days. boston cloeb fo globe photo. you look at it, it's money stuffed in their pockets. looks like an snl skit, congressman davis, not a real photo. probably a joke photo but that's the image that the white house wants bs to paint of mitt romney. >> mitt romney will get beat up and attacked. four years ago he was not good in the debates. when mccain went after him and giuliani went after him he usually tended to shrink the way perry has this year. romney is a better counter puncher. he is thinking about he's going to maneuver that stage a year from now against obama. >> shame ms plug times. >> ten fiscal facts and graphics. if you want to understand the debt deficit and spending patterns and tax patterns of this country, tremendous one-top

resour resource. >> truly shameless plug. new hampshire press association gave the awards, best news story for the concorde. >> and who is ben. >>? >> he could be a relation. >> he could be a relation. her son, folks. congratulations. >> thank you. >> hank williams jr. ratified the stereotype about country music, brad paisley and his wife were part of the wonderful special pbs and sesame street did on hunger. a conservative white guy from tennessee singing at is this ed the daily rundown." coming up next, chris jansing. endless shrimp is our most popular promotion

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come soups that you'll love getting to know. new slow kettle style soups from campbell's. extraordinary taste sensations crafted from premium ingredients. slow kettle. new from campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. good monday morning. i'm chris jansing. occupy wall street is plexing its muscles big time. now with more than 900 cities around the world joining the cause, occupy