morning. >> he's kind of scolding us for not having mentioned it earlier in the show. how could you to get today is the first day of hannukah? >> then when he gets trapped what did we learn about donny deutsch? >> he blames his 4-year-old daughter. >> seriously. kind of a stephen king novel where you have him holding up the kid as a shield. >> shameless. that's what we learned. hannukah is on tuesday. also, arianna huffington brought great cookies. >> i love it. julia, what did you learn? >> i learned donny doesn't know a damn thing about hannukah. >> exactly. all right. i learned, willie, once again, way too early. what time is it? >> we'll see you back here on monday. stick around right now for chuck todd. accusations, charges fly at last night's republican debate. just not between the two actual front-runners mitt romney and newt gingrich. does romney's restraint last night prove those negative ads

are working well enough? he picks up one of the most coveted republican endorsements of the cycle south carolina governor nikki haley will back him. her state's primary is just weeks away. >> and congress figures out a way to keep the lights on, sets the stage for the deal on the payroll tax holiday extension. anyone surprised that it took the usual 11th hour shenanigans again? it's friday, december 16th, 2011. this is "daily rundown." i'm chuck todd. let's get right to my first reads of the morning. if you were looking for a slugfest in sioux city last night the two leading republicans disappointed you. mitt romney, who has spent days trying to raise doubts about newt gingrich in interviews and advertising stood next to his rival on stage and barely engaged him. in fact, each time the front-runners got a question designed to get them to spar with one another, they shifted the focus often to president obama. >> this president doesn't know how the economy works. >> i believe i can debate barack obama. >> a foreign policy based on pretty please? you got to be kidding.

>> in seven, three-hour debates barack obama will not have a leg to stand on. >> it's president obama we got to be talking about. he has unveiled himself as a president that's not the right person to lead this country. >> our only opponent is barack obama and we need to come out of this process remembering beating him is what we collectively have to do. >> in the only veiled reference to their feud this week gingrich poked fun at himself for a now familiar word first used in the "new york times" interview of mitt romney. >> i sometimes get accused of using language that's too strong so i've been standing here editing. i'm very concerned about not appearing to be zany. >> but last night even the wedge issue that has dominated romney's attacks on gingrich over the last week, paul ryan's medicare plan and his deal with

democrat ronwi wyden actually turned into a kumbaya moment. >> governor romney deserves some credit for figuring out a way to make this workable. >> governor romney do you want to respond to that compliment? >> yeah. thank you. i hope people understand just how big today is for this country. >> so why the kumbaya? the romney campaign knows newt usually gets the best of his attackers and believes negative ads like these on the air in iowa are working. >> gingrich was fined $300,000 for ethics violations. >> he is demonstrating himself to be the very essence of the washington insiders. >> it's about serial hypocrisy. >> the problem? political insiders. newt gingrich supported increasing the federal debt ceiling $1 trillion and billions in new earmarks. mitt romney raised business taxes 20%. >> and gingrich hinted at how he would respond at the debate if he was under attack in this new ad that he released in iowa

yesterday. >> we want and deserve solutions. others seem to be more focused on attacks rather than moving the country forward. that's up to them. >> this is not to say that romney and gingrich didn't come away completely unscathed. getting hit repeatedly by the other candidates on stage. >> protect the sanctity of marriage, protect the sanctity of life. that's my view. i've had it for many years. >> he personally as governor issued gay marriage licenses. i don't think that is an accurate representation. >> i want to make it very clear. i have been a champion of protecting traditional marriage that continues to be my view. >> michele bachmann a one-time iowa front-runner now trailing badly was the biggest aggressor all night getting into testy exchanges with gingrich over his private sector work for freddie mac. >> when the speaker had his hand out and he was taking $1.6 million to influence senior republicans to keep the scam going in washington, d.c.,

that's absolutely wrong. >> what she just said is factually not true. i think sometimes people ought to have facts before they make wild allegations. >> bachmann also hit gingrich on his record on abortion. >> he had an opportunity to defund planned parenthood and he chose not to take it. that's a big issue. speaker gingrich said that he would actively support and campaign for republicans to got behind the barbaric practice of partial birth abortion. this was not a small issue. >> sometimes congresswoman bachmann doesn't get her facts very accurate. >> bachmann even tangled with the other guy that's leading in iowa, ron paul, the candidate many believe could pull off the upset. the subject? nuclear weapons in iran. >> we ought to really sit back and think and not jump the gun and believe that we are going to be attacked. >> i think i have never heard a more dangerous answer for american security than the one that we just heard from ron paul. and i'll tell you the reason

why. >> i think this have another war in the name of defense is the dangerous thing. >> what did we learn? david gregory and i are going to get into it in a few minutes. but one thing, that paul moment might be one of those that suddenly he has a ceiling that hardens again. he was suddenly getting a lot of the folks that were getting turned off a little bit by the gingrich/romney fighting. does that end up blocking and stopping that surge? finally shutdown averted again. congressional negotiators signed up last night on the trillion dollar spending deal that funds the government for 2012. just hours before tonight's midnight deadline. neither side wanted to see an escalation. by yesterday lawmakers were striking a more conciliatory tone. >> there is no need to shut down the government. look, i've been here for a while. this is not the first time i've seen year end work get knotted up. i think everyone needs to step

back and take a deep breath. >> now, there is still no deal yet on extending the payroll tax holiday. that is set to expire at the end of the month. but this does begin that process and they might get that done by monday or tuesday. one of the more notable lines came early from rick perry who was trying to play on his underdog status. >> there are a lot of folks that said tim tebow wasn't going to be a very good nfl quarterback. there are people that stood up and said well he doesn't have the right throwing mechanisms or he doesn't, you know, is not playing the game right. and, you know, he won two national championships. am i ready for the next level? let me tell you i hope i am the tim tebow of the iowa caucuses. >> david gregory, an interesting way to sort of reintroduce yourself. but actually there is something else here. he is playing to the evangelical base in iowa and tebow is very popular among evangelicals. >> that is true but tebow even

now has a bigger record of success than rick perry does in this campaign so far. tebow has actually won how many in a row, six in a row coming from behind. perry has yet to demonstrate he can come from behind. a nice analogy. i might wait to make it after you won iowa. >> yeah. >> that's for sure. let's get to what we didn't see last night. mitt romney, who was scathing on wednesday did nothing last night when it comes to newt gingrich. so, clearly, either they made a strategic decision not to do this at a debate or maybe something has changed. >> a couple things have changed. i do think it is a decision not to make it at a debate because they experienced the previous debate how well gingrich can operate as a counterpuncher. romney looked testy in that previous debate. it was not as smooth as he was last night. two, other people are really stepping up to do it for them. there are no high profile supporters of newt gingrich who knew him. you have establishment figures who were really starting to drive up those negatives and

look what happened on the stage last night. it's better for bachmann and santorum to take gingrich from the right than for mitt romney to do that when later on in the night he had to talk about being pro choice at one point taking on ted kennedy. >> you know, it's interesting. before the debate newt gingrich did all of these interviews with iowa media and some of them got very personal. but he did talk about how hard it's been for him not to be aggressive in responses. here's what he said in one interview with iowa's pbs station yesterday. >> the first reaction when somebody attacks you or somebody lies about you or somebody, you know, hits you in the kidneys politically, your first reaction is to hit back. well, my campaign is based on the idea that i'm not going to hit back. >> this discipline he is trying to show and he is almost saying, hey look, i'm trying to show discipline. >> but he hasn't. this week the biggest thing that stands out is that bain capital rejoinder that he had. >> he said yesterday he regretted it. >> right. just to remind people that bain capital, mitt romney,

reorganizes companies, there are layoffs. and the issue of the freddie mac money, gingrich says, well, i'll give that money back if you, you know, restore the jobs that you had as part of bain capital. a lot of conservatives say laying people off of companies to make them stronger is the core of capitalism so gingrich allowed himself a nice retort instead of thinking through what damage that could do. like you said he later regretded it. >> today i feel like the mitt romney campaign is acting like they are the front-runner. they got a huge endorsement, nikki haley, south carolina governor. she is already on this morning on fox explaining why she did it. >> today is the day that i am throwing all of my support behind mitt romney for president. >> why? >> you know, this was something that when i look at the focus of what every family cares about it's jobs, the economy, and spending. what it comes down to is how do we get every person a job? how do we make sure our economy gets back ontrack?

and the only way we're going to do that is to go with someone that's done it. not talked about it but actually done it. >> 2000 when you were covering bush-mccain everybody said mccain can't win south carolina. coming out of that he couldn't win south carolina and going into 2008 it was this, you know, boy, if he could somehow win south carolina that will erase doubts. mitt romney has the same sort of perception about south carolina. he didn't do well there four years ago. this is a big endorsement. >> it is a big endorsement because the governor of the statd is part of the establishment but she has more tea party support behind her, which could certainly help romney. you know, it may also raise expectations for romney that if he under performs there could hurt him a little bit further but i agree it is important. >> this is what front-runners do. >> exactly. they start to -- >> that's why it's like i know we call newt gingrich a front-runner but it is one of those cases, okay, he is leading in the polls, a leading conservative. romney is still acting like the front-runner. >> i think there has been a change and i think the change in the course of the week, earlier

this week we were talking about our poll, "the wall street journal", nbc news poll and it showed the negatives for gingrich among his electability issue, independent voters, all of that. i thought that kind of recast how even conservatives were starting to talk about him. and conservatives attacking gingrich as a big government conservative. the ann coulters and glenn becks said they couldn't support him. i think that does matter and represents an important part of the party. >> one other big story i think we are seeing play itself out, we all knew it was coming, is the role of the super pacs. i want to put up these figures from our nbc news tracking service we have. the amount of money, we have romney and his super pac $5.6 million total that's been spent in iowa. that was perry and his super pac. romney, $3.2 million. gingrich spent $233,000 in iowa. that super pac is the one doing the dirty work. mitt romney is technically not airing any negative ads. huge role. >> shock and awe. this is a bigger strategy for

romney that goes beyond iowa, which is he is not going to fold up his tent. he doesn't have to live off the land. he has thought this through, knows his liabilities, he can go the distance. can gingrich is the big question. >> what do you got sunday? >> we'll talk to michele bachmann. we'll have more to announce later in the day but bachmann is making the big run for iowa and had a good debate last night. we'll be watching. >> david gregory, thank you. >> thanks. >> all right. over and out. the last remaining troops will be leaving iraq in the coming days days. is the iraqi government ready to stand on its own or will iran step in and fill the power vacuum? so much more to show from you last night's debate. could ron paul pull off an upset in iowa? a look at the organization that could make him the big spoiler. first a look ahead at the president's schedule. one big live event today. makes a speech at the 71st general assembly of the union of reformed judaism. we'll be right back. people with a machine.

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i wish great things for this country after we leave, both iraqis and u.s. service members have sacrificed a lot to get to this point. >> this has been a really hard last eight years. you know, all the innocent men, women, and children who have been lost in this terrible war, you know, we had the best intentions and i hope that iraqis know that. >> the u.s. forces on their way out. money, guns, and good intentions, will it be enough to help the iraqi government fend off a sectarian civil war? our middle east expert with the wilson center joins me now. robin, it's striking to hear the

u.s. soldiers saying i hope the iraqi people know we were here with good intentions. the fear this week, the malaki visit, i was talking to others, shows just how the u.s. pulling out, that somehow that iran is going to fill this vacuum of becoming iraq's closest ally. >> well, iran has made an enormous role already and changed the dynamics between these two countries and the tensions. but the fact is once the united states withdraws some of the old tensions between those two countries who fought an eight-year war. >> you do think it will rise up? >> i think it will. i think the difference between arabs and perfectisians will be much more visible. iran is also very heavy handed in iraq trying to enforce its inferior commercial goods trying to take over the center of learning and saying it's iran not iraq. that there are a lot of long standing differences between these two countries that will emerge. iran is clearly one of the big winners out of the u.s. intervention in iraq. >> it does seem financially they are throwing a lot of money in iraq. it's not like we haven't thrown, the united states government

hasn't spent a lot of money there as well. but with the u.s. pulling out and getting reports that there still may be five hours of power a day sometimes in baghdad is there going to be a resentment toward the u.s. that lingers a little bit longer? >> i think so. and for $1 trillion, the problem is the rewards are not very visible yet. whether it's the fact that there are daily hardships including large scale unemployment, the fact there are deeper sectarian tensions than there were before we went in, that the government looks increasingly like it's led by a strong man who has his own secret prisons and is clamping down on sunnis the way the sunnis once clamped down on the shiites is not going to create the kind of legacy that we had hoped for and, of course, for $1 trillion, the benefits to the united states don't look that visible either. the fact is of the 12 oil deals, all but one of them have gone to the chinese, russians, south koreans, the british, and the dutch. and so the hopes that iraq could pay for --

>> pay for our costs, the united states government costs, vice president dick cheney said it very early on, that's the way it was going to be paid for, right? >> absolutely. i don't think we've gotten a penny out of this. >> let's talk about iran. there was a couple -- it was somewhat startling to me in this white house for the president of the united states when he called for, well the iranian government needs to give back the drone, first of all, it was a public acknowledgment of the drone. they don't ever like to acknowledge the drone program even exists sometimes and here it is publicly saying that. why did he -- is there something we don't know? why did he do it publicly? why did he say it publicly like that? >> maybe he wanted to put the onus on the iranians the fact they weren't cooperating with the united states rather than the focus on the fact the united states was kind of snooping on iran. >> i was going to say can't the iranians say this is confirmation that, you know, the united states government was violating its air space? >> that is exactly what it said. the fact is the united states is now acknowledging that it was snooping on iran looking at its nuclear program. >> this wasn't a drone gone wild

that was doing work in afghanistan. >> that's right. and the real question, now, and i think it's going to be one that haunts the intelligence community is does iran have the technology or the ability to cease control through technology or, you know, of a drone, and does that have a long-term impact on what the united states can do in terms of monitoring all kinds of activity in iran. and we don't know the answer yet. >> this morning there is breaking news. we're still getting a lot of the details. but apparently the russian government stops some radioactive material that apparently was on its way to iran. you were talking off camera about this. what kind of pressure could this apply to the russians to be more cooperative with the united states government and the p 5 plus one folks in trying to get tougher sanctions on iran? >> well, this is a major development first of all that someone was trying from russia and we don't know who to take material that could be used by iran for a nuclear program. the issue is the russians have been holding out along with the

chinese in terms of diplomatic -- >> more serious -- >> serious sanctions that would squeeze whether it's on the central bank of iran or cutting off oil and gas supplies and the real question is does this put more pressure on russia to kind of cooperate because they have found -- >> it is coming. the rumors had always been and maybe here is some proof that it's coming from inside russia. >> absolutely. and this is at a crucial juncture particularly with congress now trying to take -- cease the initiative on u.s. policy from the administration and impose sanctions on the central bank that there's clearly a portion and there may be a greater push now for some kind of international action. >> we thought the republican rhetoric on iran was hot last night. it's going to get hotter i think today. robin wright from the wilson center thank you for coming in. >> thank you. >> wall street snapped a three-day losing streak and we end the week on an upswing. there are some jobs numbers out that may indicate so. today's trivia question?

we told you it's like friday "new york times" cross word puzzle which has six letters. jon kyl has the shortest legal first and last name out of anyone to ever serve in the united states senate. four current senators have just eight letters in their name, actual given names, legal names. who are they? tweet me the answer to chuck todd@daily rundown. it's the "new york times" cross word pattern. monday was an easy question. today a very hard one. nyquil (st uffy ): hey, tylenol. you know we're kinda like twins. tylenol: we are? nyquil (stuffy): yeah, we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. tylenol: and i relieve nasal congestion. nyquil (stuffy): overachiever. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. [ daniel ] my name is daniel northcutt. [ jennifer ] and i'm jennifer northcutt. opening a restaurant is utterly terrifying. we lost well over half of our funding when everything took a big dip.

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that showed jobless claims had dropped to 380,000 people thought maybe that was one off. seeing them at 366,000 has people saying this has real legs and maybe we can eventually start chipping away at unemployment numbers. maybe the bigger issue and the reason the dow is going to open up by probably 70 points today is because there is no crisis du jour in europe today. so that has nowhere for some of the bears to be focusing. no crisis today and that is a pretty big deal. because most days we do get something. there was a vote of confidence in italy today. that could have been the big problem if they got the vote of no confidence. nobody expected that to happen. when that vote came off as expected that was a sigh of relief. we've been watching some of the bond prices in europe and they've been coming back down. you know, when they trickle up to or when they start getting up around 7% is when it really gets to a big problem because that is the type of number that they're going to need a bailout there. the yields have been coming down today so that is something to look forward to.

we also have consumer inflation numbers. after yesterday we saw producer prices where those numbers were unexpectedly hot. that made people start thinking okay. maybe the inflation is going to be creeping in on the consumer level and that would be a concern. twaech it wasn't an issue. the prices came in flat from a month ago. that is good news too. the idea that we're not seeing inflation. there was also an ipo that priced at the high end of expectations today. zynga which i don't know if you play any online games. >> maybe. >> this is a company, maybe, maybe, that got a lot of benefit from alec baldwin who was playing that words with friends. maybe they got a little bump out of that. the ipo came in pricing at the high end of expectations at $10. >> zynga to you. all right. becky quick. >> see you. >> cnbc news. see you monday. next, russian officials say they seized radioactive material bound for iran. what's going on there? up against a midnight deadline congressional leaders strike a deal to avoid a government shutdown. dejavu all over again.

will the rank and file members go for it? plus, rick perry's last gasp play for iowa. the governor kicks off a 42-town bus tour today. right there with him. you're watching the daily rundown only on msnbc. if you think tylenol is the pain reliever orthopedic doctors recommend most for arthritis pain, think again. and take aleve. it's the one doctors recommend most for arthritis pain... two pills can last all day. ♪ tdd# 1-800-345-2550 you and your money deserve. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, that means taking a close look at you tdd# 1-800-345-2550 as well as your portfolio. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 we ask the right questions, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 then we actually listen to the answers tdd# 1-800-345-2550 before giving you practical ideas you can act on.

tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck online, on the phone, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 or come in and pull up a chair.

and video chat with up to 9 of your friends with the galaxy nexus by samsung, or get the samsung stratosphere, and for a limited time, get twice the data for the same low price. verizon. a few other stories making headlines. as we noted earlier russian customs agents had seized radioactive material they found in the bags of a passenger headed to tehran. now, agents say they found 18 individually wrapped pieces of metal containing a radioactive isotope known as sodium 22. it's not clear whether this was actually material that could be weaponized. penn state assistant coach mike mccreary is testifying today in the case against two of penn state's top officials. gary schultz and tim curley are accused of perjury and failing to respond appropriately to allegations of child sex abuse involving jerry sandusky.

23-year-old bradley manning has a pretrial hearing at for the meade in maryland to determine if he should be court-martialed on charges of endangering national security. the army private first class is accused of stealing thousands of classified government documents and releasing them to the now famous website, wikileaks. finally, some sad news. christopher hitchens, long-time author, columnist has died after a long battle with cancer. as a contributor to "vanity fair" and "the nation" he was known for his biting sattire, became a popular author with the book "god is great" quite the war correspondent. congress has doonldged a year-e government shutdown thursday night. leaders reached a tentative agreement on a trillion dollar spending bill to keep the federal government open for business despite progress on that front of course lawmakers still have to cut the deal on extending the payroll tax holiday. kelly o'donnell is nbc's capitol

hill correspondent. all right. so part one is done. but the payroll tax front, i guess what was interesting last night is they agreed to the year-long spending deal, not some sort of band-aid to get them through the weekend. >> well, it's a glass half full kind of morning around here. they did agree on this 1200-page spending bill. it covers lots of agencies and as you pointed out the negotiators, the people who were neck deep in this, worked through the evening and finally reached a deal and then it comes to the house and senate floors today. we expected it to pass with bipartisan support. that averts the shutdown. so that's one of those crisis moments where everybody looked into the abyss and then stepped back. they worked it out. now, on the payroll tax cut extension, that's a tougher sell because the house republicans believe they've already passed a full payroll tax extension which includes the unemployment benefits for a full year. what was offered last night is an idea that's coming from the senate side of having a

two-month extension so there would be no lapse on january first or in the first week of the new year in terms of people seeing more in their paycheck taken out for taxes or a lapse in benefits for those on unemployment. so they came up with this two-month idea but so far getting kind of a tepid response from house republicans. the urgency as you know, chuck, isn't quite as great because they've got a bit more time to deal with that. the government shutdown was a today event and so they appear to have that wrapped up. so, you know, one of those things. can they reach an agreement on something when there are things like that oil pipeline in the mix? >> right. very quickly, the two-month extension, a harry reid idea? >> coming from the democratic side. i don't know if it was reid's personally but he would certainly be one who thought it was a way to do it because you could agree, both parties could pick things that were easy to pay for it but it only gave them enough money for two months to cover the extension of the cuts and the benefits. >> and they lived to fight another political day i guess as well. kelly o'donnell on capitol hill.

you get to go home tonight. maybe. >> i hope so. >> thank you, kelly. all right. in iowa rick perry hitting the road today heading off on a bus tour through the state. no more debates for him. first stop of the day? cherokee, iowa. nbc news embed on the perry cane carrie dann is on the phone in a few minutes. she'll be hopping on the perry press bus to join the campaign's road trip. this is rick perry in his element, carrie dann what the perry campaign has been promising. just wait till he's on the trail. >> that's right, chuck. the big question now is whether it is too little too late for rick perry. the response from the first day of the bus tour, i think the campaign thought was good. they had good crowds at two different events leading up into this debate. they knew they needed a good debate tonight. a lot of the voters i talked to expressed concerns about perry's past debate performances. they said we think he is getting better but wanted to see a good performance. team perry thought they got it last night. they thought they had a good line with their tim tebow analogy to the famously

christian quarterback who is very popular here in iowa. and, you know, they're focused on perry's faith. that first rollout tour we did here in iowa and south carolina and other states was focused on jobs. perry was america's jobs governor. on the side of the bus that perry is driving now the word jobs is on there but the first word is faith. it's the faith, jobs, and freedom tour. >> very quickly, carrie, how many megachurches is he going to hit on sunday? >> i think we'll see him in church. he did two services last sunday. it was a surprise appearance. he talked a lot about the sermon actually last sunday was about redemption and understanding one's role in god's bigger plan. you could see perry nodding the whole time. >> all right. carrie dann on the perry trail. carrie, thanks very much. now let's go into the guy that's ahead of a lot of these folks. a little bit of a surprise. ron paul. he's flying out to los angeles today where he'll tape "the tonight show" with jay leno but

will be back in iowa by wednesday to continue an aggressive ground campaign. now joining me anthony terrell. a lot of folks have been talking about how paul is sort of more old school caucus organizing than any of the other campaigns. explain it. >> right. well, chuck, he has a ton of volunteers here in iowa. he only has about five paid staffers in the state along with three other consultants but besides that when people show up to his campaign events, tons of volunteers are registering people to be republicans, which is very important for dr. paul. he is hoping that for new voters to come in and help him win here in iowa, which is the same day vot voter registration state. >> a couple other nuggets that you learned on the trail. he is obviously going to do multiple tours but i find it interesting that he continues to do one foot iowa one foot new hampshire when it's pretty clear if you look at some of the polls and you talk to some of the campaigns, if paul did an all

out iowa strategy he could pull this off. why does he keep bouncing back and forth here? >> he's hoping to hit both states, chuck. he's pulling pretty well in both states. he thinks he's got a pretty solid ground game in iowa. he is going to new hampshire monday and tuesday before he comes back to iowa on wednesday and thursday. he has about 20,000, what the campaign says 20,000 secured votes here in iowa and if you look back four years ago, there is a little over 80,000 people who voted for republicans. so the paul campaign is pretty confident here in iowa and hoping for another, a top three finish in new hampshire to go forward. >> and quickly on the financial front, paul's got a lot of money and he is doing something today that will be familiar to paul fans four years ago. tell me about it. >> right. he is holding a money bomb on the anniversary of the boston tea party. four years ago they raised $6.4 million in one day. the campaign hopes to raise $4 million today to go into these early primary states. >> all right. anthony terrell, we'll be watching that and watching you

on the trail. >> thanks. up next we're rounding out the week. what a crazy week it was, right? with our political panel. but first, it's friday. it's that time of the show. white house soup of the day. look at this. you thought -- i saw coconut and i thought that crab coconut. no. coconut sweet potato. as if sweet potatoes aren't sweet enough. throw in some coconut. you're watching the daily rundown only on msnbc. when you have tough pain, do you want fast relief? try bayer advanced aspirin. it has microparticles so it enters the bloodstream fast and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. it's proven to relieve pain twice as fast as before. bayer advanced aspirin. ♪ it's nice to see you [ male announcer ] this is your moment. ♪ this is zales, the diamond store.

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i am honored, honored to be given the opportunity to return to public service as a 65th secretary of state of the united states of america. >> daily flashback to this day in 2000 during the short bush transition with colin powell becoming the first person to

formally accept a cabinet post in the new bush administration. powell became the first african-american secretary of state in u.s. history at the time of his swearing in. all right. why did mitt romney keep his powder dry last night? he is letting ads like these running in iowa do his work for him. >> newt has a ton of baggage like the fact that gingrich was fined $300,000 for ethics violations or that he took at least $1.6 million from freddie mac, $1.6 million some of it just before the housing market collapsed. >> everything that gingrich railed against when he was in the house, he went the other way when he got paid to go the other way. >> it's about serial hypocrisy. >> you realize it's both romney and paul hitting gingrich now. karen finney is an msnbc political analyst and former communications director for the dnc. republican strategist kevin madden served as mitt romney's 2008 campaign spokesman. he remains a supporter today.

melissa morano as senior writer for "newsweek" and the daily beast. welcome all. i think the story i feel is not getting covered right now is the fact that newt gingrich doesn't have any money because he is clearly taking a ton of it coming on the air and the response has been as much as he can but has barely gotten to $300,000 in ads. >> i think in this cycle what you're seeing, a lot of people haven't spent that much money. it's so fast moving that everybody is capitalizing on earned media and that's what he's doing. but i also think you're seeing on the money front a hesitation to support him. i mean, i think the base of the party, the money people, are worried about his viability and his electability. >> he's not gotten the surge in internet donations. trust me, if he did, we would see a bit of it. >> exactly. >> kevin madden, explain. i'm not going to -- i don't think you're on every single call of the romney campaign but

explain why wednesday -- >> i'm not. >> candidate romney throws the kitchen sink at newt gingrich in multiple interviews. thursday night, last night, he stepped back. why? >> well, i think every candidate right now has to recognize that voters are getting their last impression before they make their decision and to go into the caucus or they go into the ballot booth. and i think what you really want to do is make the case about why you would be best to prosecute a case against barack obama on the number one issue in the economy. so i think the debates right now, opportunities with retail campaigning, the most important message and most important impression you can leave with the republican primary voter is that you represent the republican party's best chance to beat barack obama. >> so the fear was he didn't want to look negative last night. >> i don't think it has to do with fear. i think this is a strategy written by the confidence in the government's resume and message that he has against barack obama. >> karen finney, it didn't mean though that gingrich still didn't come under a little fire but it came from other folks and mitt romney came under a little fire but it came from other folks. i want to play for you the back

and forth that romney had and he had to defend this whole changing views. he had an interesting response on how he defended changing views. here's what he said. >> like ronald reagan and george herbert walker bush and others my experience in life over what, 17, 18, 19 years has told me sometimes i was wrong. where i was wrong, i've tried to correct myself. >> it was a combative exchange, the one combative exchange he had and it wasn't with anybody on stage but chris wallace. >> absolutely. >> who i think they have an interesting relationship those two. >> hopefully they'll work it out. >> we'll see how that works out down the road. >> was that a bad response? >> no, it wasn't. actually what is interesting is newt gingrich actually has a version of that response as well when he's talked about the fact that he's changed his mind on certain things. what was interesting, though, about stylistically with mitt

romney and newt, clearly they're trying to make their closing arguments but also trying to figure out what works best for them. we know mitt romney doesn't do well when he's on the stage trying to make the attack. i think he was better doing it in interviews where he doesn't have newt gingrich there. newt gingrich actually comes back with pretty good quick ones despite him saying oh, i'm going to be a nice guy and not fire back. so i think it was actually strategically a good decision as well. >> lois, the tag front-runner is something we in the media always want to find. okay. who is the front-runner? for the last week we've all said okay. newt gingrich is the front-runner. the polls show he is the front-runner all this time. i don't know if we're waking up this morning and mitt romney looks like the front-runner again. he gets the big endorsement in south carolina. looks above the fray. his ads seem to be doing real damage to newt gingrich. >> i think it is because we all think he has some staying power and newt is slipping a little bit. and all these guys, they don't want to be the front-runner. they asked romney this week and he goes, well, he is now. i'm the underdog you know? that guy is leading me.

i'm just coming in here. but i think romney has looked very steady in the last few days despite newt trying not to be negative. and there's a lot coming at newt. i mean, i think he is suffering under the -- >> more than people realize like last night. kevin madden, super pacs just how they've changed the game. at this point in time, four yees ago the campaign you worked on and were paid by had spent over ten, maybe up to $11 million at this same point on television ads. now the actual romney campaign has spent just over a million. the super pac is up to $3 million. >> you know, it used to be that campaigns were very hierarchy in nature. you had the rnc and candidates really driving the message and the activity in the states and now because in a post citizens united world a lot of that has been smashed these things are a little bit more competitive and you're seeing these super pacs with a lot less bureaucracy, very easy decision making going on up in the -- >> is it like each candidate has their own personal political party structure? >> yes, they do. >> you were at the dnc and your job was to do the big negative

so the candidate could be positive right? >> we didn't have the super pac last cycle so we had to do a little more with air cover but now everybody can have their own little group. >> all right. karen, karen, kevin, stick arou. trivia time. we asked, at six letters, jon kyl has the shortest legal first and last name of anyone in the senate. four current seine stores eight letters in their given names who were they in the answers senators roy blunt, kay hagen, mark kirk and john reed, yes, known as jack, but his legal name is john reed. there you go. thanks to the inspiration on that from the folks at smart politics. you are watching "the daily rundown," only on msnbc. ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fruit and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8. hey, hey, hey, hey.

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let's bring back the panel. okay, the wildcard in this primary battle in iowa in particular, but maybe for the long haul, is ron paul.

now, you got a taste of ron paul's -- when ron paul has a view that is sort of out of the conservative mainstream on foreign policy, think of the best of ron paul from last night. take a listen. >> why were we flying a drone over iran? why do we have to bomb so many countries? we need to only go to war with a declaration of war and carelessly flouting it and starting these wars so often. everybody wants to be a powerful executive and run things. i, as a president, wouldn't want to run the world. the executive branch spends the money and tough gravel to the executive branch. >> favorite supreme court justice? >> from my point, they are all good and they are all bad, because my country -- >> ron paul was very animated. i get the sense that the romney -- i get the sense that the romney strategy is the better ron paul does, the happier they are in iowa. is that fair? >> i think there is -- well, i think there are a lot of voters that may have problems with newt

gingrich or rick perry or some of the others in the race and -- >> that don't support mitt romney either. >> that park themselves in ron paul's candidacy and a lot of that is because they -- it's absent an argument about elect ability. instead, it has a lot to do with some over the issues he talks b. >> protest vote or -- >> correct. >> you get the sense there was some of the conservative commentators last night on fox, seem to say, oh, paul really hurt himself. do you buy that? >> no. i think that anybody who is for paul has been for paul. >> sure. trying to broaden. >> he has a niche group and i mean, the real question for me is why doesn't anybody take him seriously in the guy came -- did so well in the straw poll, he is doing well now, but the media doesn't cover him seriously. >> karen finney, i had somebody say to me yesterday, if ron paul whips the iowa caucuses, the iowa caucuses died, the end date. no it was -- i mean, which of course, drives the paul folks

crazy. you people, all of a sudden, you will chicago the rules again, hurts the relevancy of the caucuses in if four years? >> i think they have been hurting a long time and i think a lot of people have been gunning for the iowa caucuses. >> shameless plug time? >> www.romney. >> another ad he doesn't have to go negative in, he has a super pac? >> exactly. >> i would like to wish my beloved farmer, clifford holmes a happy 90th birthday. lives bartel itsville, oklahoma. >> great way to remember the troops this holiday season is the uso, a lot for military families here at home, a lot of whom are on food stamps, having a hard time this christmas, go to the uso website and be a christmas elf. a shoutout to my system who is recuperating, very brave decision, pulling for you. my brother-in-law, you better be treating her like a queen.

all right. that's it for this edition of daily run down. >> that's a threat. >> have a great weekend. see you right back here next week. up next, chris jansing and company, then, of course, andrea mitchell at 1:00. bye bye. loing like that. i look fine. just a little trouble with a bargain brand cooking spray. i told you like a gajillion times to use new and improved pam. it's 70% better than that bargain stuff. see? look i gotta go. pam helps you like pull it off. so i used my citi thank you card to pick up some accessories. a new belt. some nylons. and what girl wouldn't need new shoes? we talked about getting a diamond. ♪ ...i flew us to the rock i really had in mind. ♪ [ male announcer ] the citi thank you card. earn points you can use for travel on any airline, with no blackout dates.

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