burns movie when unemployed actors show up and have fun. >> yes, they do. >> and i learned there's going to be a "brothers mcmullen" sequel brought to you by tyler perry, as it turns out. see you back here tomorrow. stick around right now for chuck todd and "the daily rundown." >> mitt romney tries to close the deal. he's way ahead in the new hampshire polls and rolled out the endorsement of local favorite john mccain, so why did so many people showing up at this town hall seem so lukewarm? >> hold on, my turn. you've had your turn and now it's my turn, all right? >> my conversation with senator mccain just ahead. rick santorum raises a million bucks in 18 hours following his squeaker loss in iowa, but he's got a lot of ground to make up, and here comes the media scrutiny. and president obama bucks republicans with a recess appointment to the consumer

protection agency. how much does the white house relish a fight with congressional republicans? they are trying to pick it. it's thursday, january 5th, 2012. this is "the daily rundown" live from manchester, new hampshire, our home for the next four, five days. i'm chuck todd. let's get right to my first reads of the morning w.just days to go before tuesday's new hampshire primary, rick santorum is here making the case that he can overcome his biggest hurdle, electability, and make a surprise showing. last night he picked a crowd favorite comparing new hampshire's choices to the 1980 republican primary. >> don't buy the line that you have to be a moderate to be able to win the election. had new hampshire settled for george h.w. bush, ronald reagan would never have been president. it's so funny because iowa, bush won iowa, but reagan won new hampshire. >> and though he did not name mitt romney directly, it was

very clear the governor was santorum's primary target. >> i love this issue that i hear all the time. oh, this certain candidate is the most electable. what would give you that impression? when has that candidate ever run as a conservative and gotten any votes? never. so why would you assume that he's the most electable? is it because he raises the most money? we're doing okay. >> santorum's fund-raising is through the roof, at least for a few hours. he raised $1 million in 18 hours, and after his near win in iowa, half what have his campaign had raised the entire cycle. but his ad budget so far in new hampshire and south carolina has been a grand total of $37,000. by comparison, romney has purchased $1.5 million of advertising time in both of those states. now team romney also got a win

yesterday with rick perry's surprise tweet announcing he's staying in the race and headed to south carolina. >> this wasn't one of those hard decisions, you take a look and didn't do as well in iowa us a wanted to. this is a quirky place and a quirky process. >> did you go for a run this morning? >> i was out on the trail when it kind of came to me. >> well, there you go. sometimes your clearest thoughts are when you're running. there it is. that's a big help to mitt romney. he was a little concerned that all of a sudden it would just be gingrich and santorum fighting for the conservative vote that might not have been enough to split things up in south carolina. perry being there, divide the conservative vote three ways. romney can can win south carolina. still, not everything is sunny for team romney. with newt gingrich looking for revenge. romney has become the target of attacks, sustained attacks, for the first time this campaign season. in fact, this morning the ad gingrich promised arrived.

>> romney's economic plan, timid. parts of it virtually identical to obama's failed policy. timid won't create jobs and timid certainly won't defeat barack obama. >> but the ad is just that, a contrast, not a bash ad, and when should have been a big endorsement from new hampshire's favorite son, john mccain, fell a little bit flat yesterday. the two were jocular about iowa's romney showing. >> we forgot to congratulate him on his landslide victory last night. >> you would think we could get more than an eight-vote here in margin. >> landslide romney who comes to you tonight within an hour and a half sleep. >> fresh that have huge landslide victory in iowa, talk about a squeaker. talk about a squeaker. >> well, the martin and lewis routine was interesting, but they got surprisingly tempered applause in the first ral we mccain came out suggesting the campaign hadn't really managed to bring in the right group of

supporters which became clear when the questions began. >> i'm mark from occupy boston, and i'm from occupy new hampshire. would you refine your earlier statement from corporations are people to corporations are abusive people? >> now, let's get the facts, all right. there are two places >> those are facts, mr. romney. hold on, it's my turn. you've had your turn. now it's my turn, all right. >> that was question one, and then it just kept going from there with question after unsympathetic question. >> why did you want to hold people who could afford health insurance accountable in massachusetts but now you're okay the increasing costs for everyone else? >> i'm chinese and i'm american and i love this country. i hear all this degrading thing about china here and china there. it just doesn't make me feel good. >> now the troops are out of iraq, do you intend to form a military alliance with iraq to avoid further conflicts in the area?

>> as you can see, even when they went to a little kid thinking that they would get a softer question, the question wasn't exactly easy. aga again, the whole thing had the feel of they slap it had together really quickly, didn't quite get the crowd that they assumed they would get. didn't seem to tap into the old mccain forces that are still out in this state. finally, the president is clearly itching to pick a fight with congress, all part of that re-election strategy. he relished the opportunity to do it, of course, in the swing state of ohio announcing the recess appointment of that state's former attorney general, richard cordray, to lead the consumer financial protection bure bureau. >> for almost half a year, republicans in the senate have blocked richard's confirmation. they refused to even give richard an up or down vote. i'm not going to stand by while a minority in the senate puts

party ideology ahead of the people we were elected to serve. >> if the cordray recess appointment was one finger in the. adding three new people to the national labor relations board was putting the second finger in the eye, and the president also recessed appointed three. we'll get into the legalities of this and the politics of this later in the show, burks remember, this is all part of that re-election strategy that they previewed that they wanted to run against congressional republicans. all right. senator john mccain said there's no hard feelings from the 2008 campaign with romney, and he proved it by throwing his weight behind him at that town hall in new hampshire yesterday, and now i spoke with the senator after it, and asked him how he managed to put what was a pretty nasty rivalry aside. >> it's supposedly legendary, the little feud, between team romney and team mccain from last cycle. describe the sort of -- the soothing of feelings, when it began. >> right after the election.

mitt and ann came up and stayed with us in northern arizona no. doubt that he was one of the people that we seriously considered to ask to be a running mate. he came to arizona and campaigned for me in re-election and we spent quite a bit of time tonight. these things, when you're dealing with grownups, you understand a great deal of it, and you move on. >> i'll tell you though. i went quickly. here's what you said january 2008. to governor romney, your negative ads have set the tone, unfortunately, in this campaign. is that all just campaign rhetoric, or were you pretty upset at the time? >> i'm sure i was upset at the time. i was very upset in 2000 when president bush ran the attack ads that -- that he ran. you've been watching campaigns long enough to know that there's a lot of emotion associated in a campaign. you invest yourself into it, but at the same time at end of that, you want to do what's best for the country, and it was clearly what's best for the country in my view a long time ago for -- for governor romney and i to

develop a good relationship, and we have a good relationship. >> why did you go with him? >> i think he's qualified. i think he understands the economy. i think he understands job creation. i think he can -- and very frankly, a little straight talk, i think he has the best chance of beating president obama. >> do you blame newt gingrich for being pretty upset about these super pacs? >> it's tough when you lose, always tough when you lose. i blame frankly the united states supreme court, the citizens united decisions one of the worst in history. they are the ones that unleashed the floodgates of money, and i guarantee you there will be scandals sooner or later because there's too much money washing sglarnd have you advised governor romney maybe he should stay farther away from the super pacs? >> no, because it's the game that's being played. the parameters of the game were set by the united states supreme court and the scitizens united decision to their everlasting disgrace. >> would you be comfortable if santorum were the republican

nominee? could you support senator santorum? >> i support the process. senator santorum and i had a strong disagreement with earmark and pork barrel spending. we were opposed to and believed it caused corruption and senator santorum favored and bragged about it. a significant difference but whoever the nominee of the party is obviously i'll strongly support. >> you, governor romney seem to have a similar issue that you had at this point in time on the campaign four years ago, and that is getting over the hump with some conservatives. >> mm-hmm. >> that they may like you personally but they are not trusting. they didn't know if you'd be a conservative once you get into office. what's your advice to him because you had a pretty successful campaign for re-election where you had to push back on that. >> well, you know, we have a tendency during these campaigns to look at day-to-day snapshot. if this was two weeks ago and we would have said mitt romney is going to win in iowa with that strong and social conservative base we would have said that's probably not going to happen so already he's been able to make

some inroads. i was able to win south carolina. as you know, it's a very conservative state. i believe he can can, do, but i really believe that social issues are very important to our base, but to most everybody, the jobs and the economy, the state of america's economy is really going to be the overriding issue in this campaign. >> when you won south carolina, that seemed to be okay. >> yeah. >> you're probably going to be the nominee and one last fight in florida. he's got to win south carolina, you think, to end this a little bit earlier than maybe -- >> i think if he wins south carolina you could really see the light at the end of the tunnel. >> the town hall, were you surprised at questions? seemed a little more combative than we've seen at some other romney events. >> yeah, but kind of expect that with him being a front-runner. the only thing that is a little disappointing is when people are reading from something that's obviously been handed to them, and a town hall meeting, i like people to stand up and i don't read my answers to them so it's more better if they don't read

their questions, but, it's a free country, and i just hope that these occupy people will not disrupt the town hall meetings that the candidates really need to have. i think it's important to give all our citizens a chance. >> do you miss it? >> oh, sure, yeah. i love new hampshire, as you know. i love new hampshire, but some of the greatest experiences of my life were here in this state so i get a little bit nostalgic. look, life moves on, and i am still the luckiest guy that you'll ever interview >> i know you love the media so this is the last question. >> yeah. >> what did you think when your daughter said she was going to become a member of the media, let alone a colleague in my world? >> i sat down with cindy and said where did we go wrong? i am proud of my daughter. i am proud of her professionalism. i know she's in a very tough and very competitive business, and i hope she does well, and i wish her well. >> very quickly, arizona in

play? >> i think that if not this election cycle, the demographics are that arizona, colorado, new mexico, even texas will all be in play. >> and if republicans don't fix the problem? >> yes, yes, we have to fix our problems with the hispanics. >> and it starts where? >> it starts with a way to address the issue of immigration in a humane and caring fashion, at the same time emphasizing the need to secure our borders because of the drug cartels and the people who transport people across our border and treat them terribly. >> all right. senator. thanks. >> good to see you again. >> nice to see you. >> there you have it. senator mccain with an interesting pause there about the idea of arizona actually being in play in 2012. while rick santorum is trying to capitalize on his strong showing in iowa, can he maintain that

momentum here without the money and infrastructure of his main opponent? what's santorum's strategy post-iowa? that's next. game on. president obama makes those recess appointments almost intentionally provoking a fight with republicans in congress. he would love to see a lawsuit. the white house is gearing up for a very combative election year, but first a look ahead at the president's schedule. heads over to the pentagon today with a big unveiling of some tough defense cuts. you're watching "the daily rundown" live from manchester, new hampshire. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] capri sun has 25% less sugar

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rick santorum still bafnging in the glow of that iowa photo finish, but he has just five days to prove it wasn't a fluke. this morning in new hampshire, santorum said he's the guy voters can count on. >> look at who you trust when times get tough. look at who you trust in elections. when the hammer starts getting hit. you get ground down to your core. and if you have a solid core you can stand up to it. if you don't, the american people will know. >> ron car gee santorum supporter. after previously backing tim plaunt yes and he was once the chief of staff to michele bachmann on capitol hill. thanks for coming on this morning. >> good morning, chuck. >> let me ask you. what does he have to do here in new hampshire to -- to continue to make it seem as if he is

number two in the two-man race. >> well, he needs to continue just to be himself. he's a very sincere real person and just be able to articulate the conservative message. i'm interested in the debates this weekend. in the past debates, you know, he got about as much air time as some of the candidate spouses did, and he's not going to be front and center and i think people will take a fresh look at him often for the first time, and if he continues to have a solid debate performance he's having at the end of the stage for months, people are going say this is a guy who can lead the country and the conservatives will coalesce around his campaign. >> so you see these debates real as his make-or-break moment, that he has to -- the pressure is on him and he's got to sort of of stand out, and if he doesn't, he may miss his one opportunity? >> i don't think so. i think there's another activity that's happening this weekend in texas where there's a bunch of faith-based conservative leaders who are getting together to talk about can they coalesce as leaders of the conservative movement to get behind rick

santorum, and if they are able to put aside their prior allegiance and say santorum is the guy. that's going to really help catapult because what santorum needs to do is get this down to a two-person race as clear as possible so there's a clear cult between 75% who said no to romney can galvanize support behind him and if it stays fragmented and the moderate ring of the party will conquer as it did in 2008 with senator mccain. >> how difficult do you think it will be to coalesce the conservative movements? i was aware of what's going on in texas and i hear chatter in what i would call the conservative elite in d.c. thinking about trying to do this, but not 100% sold because there's still a lot of, for instance, gingrich folks in that crowd that aren't quite ready to give up on him. >> well, no question. i think new hampshire is going to be important to that standpoint as to can santorum continue to rise and follow up his great iowa showing with a solid performance. mitt romney is going to win new

hampshire. just a matter of is he going to be able to hold the 47% in polling in the last couple of days, or is he going to come down to earth and people can see there's a real horse race? newt keeps falling in the polls and i guess that will continue. he could very well struggle to be competitive in south carolina. i mean, newt knows in his own heart, in his mind that it's probably over for him, and i wouldn't be surprised to see by south carolina newt, you know, if he fails to really have a solid performance in new hampshire, could he get behind an exit and get santorum and help him be the consensus candidate for conservatives going forward. >> how about getting on ballots? we know santorum is not on the virginia ballot. he won't be on the d.c. primary ballot. delegates matter. indiana is tough that. deadline is going to be coming up. illinois is going to be tough. is he going to get on all these ballots? >> well, in virginia obviously the legislature is taking -- the

state assembly is taking a look at that, and we'll see what happens. if it becomes a protracted battle all the way delegate by delegate, you're right, mitt romney has an advantage because of the resources he has. santorum is catching up, but no way he's going to win a resource-intensive campaign. you think about it. there's 75% or 80% of the republican base will be voting in the primaries. they are true blue conservatives, and mitt romney is not -- does not fit their definition of conservatives, so if the republicans or the conservatives can coalesce behind santorum, the ballot access is -- will be overwhelmed by the fact that there's an outpouring of conservative support behind one candidate, but having a multiple conservative field is going to be the pathway for mitt romney to coast to the nomination. >> ron karhee, former michele bachmann chief of staff, thanks for coming on this morning. >> you're welcome.

>> this is newt gingrich holding a town hall in plymouth, new hampshire. town halls, of course, the way have you to campaign here in new hampshire. keeping an eye on all the campaign events throughout this state all day long. by the way though, mitt romney event this morning here in new hampshire and then heads down to south carolina with mccain and nikki haley. we'll get a check ahead of the day on wall street. the rundown coming up. president obama set town leash hundreds of millions of cuts in the military budget. in the last 25 years, how many candidates not named bush or mccain have won the new hampshire republican primary? tweet meet answer twaet chucktodd, @dailyrundown. the answer and more coming up on "the daily rundown." we'll be right back. my wife and i have three wonderful children

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investors hoping for a third straight day of gains in the dow to kick off the 2012 year. cnbc's becky quick, happy new year, becky. >> hey, happy new year, chuck. >> i think this is our first market rundown of 2012. >> our first time together, and you sound sick. all that running around caught up with you. >> i'm actually about 50 times better than i have been over the last 72 hours. take it away. >> looking at a day in the markets where we'll probably open down. but a little bit of a rough back and forth this morning because we got news when it came to the jobs picture. adp report was out and you know how important that is because it gives us a glimpse of what to expect for the big jobs report from the government. 325,000 jobs were -- okay. what we're looking at is the initial claims number. weekly jobless claims came out, 372,000 weekly jobless claims, down 15,000 from last week, a

very good sign and we got the adp number and the adp number is the big news of the morning showing 325,000 jobs created in deese bosnian serbs and that is much better than had been exp t expected. people were only looking for a gain of 175,000, so the question is does this tell us something about tomorrow's job report. adp is not a perfect indicator and even more questions this time around because in december, adp looks at private pay rolls. in december a lot of accounting issues so even the guy who runs adp told us today it may not be a perfect indicator this time around. doesn't have 100% confidence, but we did seat futures pick up a little bit. down 40 but were down 70 earlier. >> that has to be their highest number they have put out in a couple of years. >> yeah. >> literally, chuck, when i saw that number my chin kind of dropped and went, whoa, a much better number. >> sure they don't have an extra number in here. >> cross our fingers, see what happens tomorrow. that's a biggy. >> how about that. becky quick, cnbc. >> see you. >> talk to you tomorrow. well, it's officially an election year, did you know,

that and president obama is making it clear he's ready to rumble kicking off that re-election strategy we heard about about going after congress. a daily look over the fight of recess appointments when the senate is in proforma session. that's coming up next. plus, rick perry's reassessment lasted all of a few hours and one jog. now he's press ahead. what does it mean for the rest of the field? we're on per's trail in a few. you're watching "the daily rundown" live from manchester, new hampshire. we'll be right back. when you have tough pain, do you want fast relief? try bayer advanced aspirin. it's not the bayer aspirin you know. it's different. first, it's been re-engineered with micro-particles. second, it enters the bloodstream fast, and rushes relief to the site of your tough pain. the best part? it's proven to relieve pain twice as fast as before. bayer advanced aspirin. test how fast it works for you.

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ones, into account. six-term utah senator orrin hatch will indeed get a primary challenge, it looks like. dan liljenqist is officially in the race one month after leaving his seat in the state senate. we shall see what happens. they, of course, have that c convention process that whistles things down. if you don't get enough at the convention, enough support, then you would be off to a primary and congresswoman gabrielle giffords will attend a weekend vigil marking anniversary of the 2011 tucson shooting that left six dead and 13 injured, including the congresswoman. well, the rick perry campaign is following their candidate's lead mobilize foorg strong push in south carolina that they hope will give the texas governor some moemt momentum to get back in the race. carrie dann joins me on the phone now from austin, texas,

where the reassessment was supposed to take place. carrie, first of all, the governor is still in austin. when will we see him make his first visit to south carolina post-iowa. >> well, we will see him, chuck, during the debates in new hampshire. he's coming up your way and his press corps will be in tow, so he'll participate in both those debates. we'll see him sunday in south carolina. so it's -- the timing of this, as you said, was very surprising. this did not appear to be the plan on the ground in iowa when the governor made his announcement that he would be returning to austin to reassess his campaign. most of the staff on the ground in the room there interpreted that statement there to mean he would probably be bowing out in the coming days. what we were told by his staff after that announce mement is w the perry campaign wanted to do is make a data dive, deeply looking at the cross-tabs from the iowa caucuses, looking at demographics to see if they could translate the places he

was strong in iowa to the voters in south carolina. a process that should have taken more than nine hours. >> and the other head-scratcher to this is the fact that he's not immediately going to south carolina because from all of our own reporting, it was clear his strength was not debates. his -- which he himself admits. his strength in iowa, as he was going along, was the retail politics, so the sooner he could get doing retail, the better in south carolina. why wait until sunday? >> well, and that's -- that's a great question. what perry told reporters when we found him coming out of his hotel to head back to austin was that he was on a run the morning after the caucuses, and this kind of game to him that he thought there was a path forward in south carolina. it's still a little bit unclear. he told us he spoke with top aide joe alba, communications director ray sullivan and his family about this decision, but

it's unclear who exactly was involved in the process of of weighings the pros and cons and doing the scheduling for this. now there was staff that was preparing for a visit to south carolina on wednesday, before those caucus results came out. they do have the infrastructure there to do the retail than was the original plan, heading straight to south carolina so it is a bit of -- as you said a head scratcher as to why you participate in those two debates. >> it's fascinating and obviously a big boost to mitt romney who wants to keep the conservative vote split. carrie dann in austin, see you back up here, apparently not for another couple of more days. >> thanks, chuk. >> as we reported president obama went around congress to appoint richard cordray to head the new consumer financial protection agency. senate republicans were blocking his nomination for months and used a proforma session and the president said he used his constitutional authority to make a recess appointment and put cordray in the job while the

congress was out of town. a bare bones session has in place throughout the holidays to prevent the appointments and the white house says that's simply a sham. >> the only reason republicans in the senate have blocked richard is because they don't agree with the law that set up a consumer watchdog in the first place. they want to weaken the law. >> all right. well, we want to bring in two of our experts here. nbc justice courrrespondent pet williams and luke russert who covers capitol hill for us. luke, explain first, about a pro forma session, something harry reid start in the last two years of the bush presidency to prevent recess appointments and mitch mcconnell basically has forced harry reid to continue the practice during the obama presidency, but explain this pro forma business. >> well, chuck, what a pro forma session is essentially they will usually have one member of the senate or one member of congress

and they essentially bangt gavel. the floors open for maybe 0.3 seconds and that's considered for congress to be in session, and because they are in session, they can, in this case, they can filibuster any type of recess appointment. what republicans are very upset about here, chuck, is that they feel that recess, as it was defined by obama's own justice department back in march of 2010, was three days, and that if you ever had a true recess it was always accompanied with an adjournment resolution, that the senate would approve the house being in recess or the house would approve the sflat being in recess that. didn't happen in this case. president obama essentially took this very narrow window of what some republicans say was as narrow as seven or nine hours and appointed cordray, and they are very upset about that. they say it's an unconstitutional power grab. he's within his rights constitutionally from my research, and pete can opine on this more than i can, but the issue is on capitol hill. they say, look, recess has

always been three days. it's never been this short, and if you look back we talk to the historians here, every single one of these appointments, chuck, has been done usually in a recess that lasts ten days. john bolton is an example that have so this is a short window of this type of appointment. >> the legal aspect, first a few facts, george w. bush, recess appointments, 61 and barack obama 32 at this point in the presidency. so you heard luke saying that congressional republicans are using an obama justice department attorney's opinion, and the obama white house has been using a bush justice department's legal opinion. what's going on here, and what -- what's the -- the -- what's the legality here? >> well, first of all, the quick answer is nobody knows. the courts have never weighed in on this. there's been some attempts to challenge this in court but never been a definitive ruling. here's what the obama administration people say. they say the purpose of the language, 19 words on the constitution. the president shall have the

power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the senate. they say the whole point of that is when the senate isn't able to act on a nomination and then the president can make a recession appointment. they point to the language the senate itself used in going after the recess which repeatedly says no business conducted. so there was nobody there is the obama administration's argument. they couldn't have act on a nomination so, therefore, the president was within his power. so there's two questions here. what's a recess and that has to be decided by courts and the other question is this. did a vacancy hapg happen during the recess of the senate? this nomination has been pending for some time so that's another thing the courts will have to work out. is this only to use, like in the first 100 years or so of the country when the congress was only in session about half the year, is it only if a vacancy happens when the congress is out of town, unable to act, the president can can quickly act to keep the business going, or can it be used -- i think both sides are sort of pushing the words of

the constitution here, and the courts are going to have to decide who is right. as to who can bring a challenge, it will have to be something that mr. cordray does in his new job, somebody that doesn't like that ruling or whatever rule he likes up can come to court and say he has no right to do that job. >> anybody technically could have standing here to bring -- to bring a case? >> anybody who is aggrieved. i think the best argument is anybody who declares themselves aggrieved by something that this new consumer protection agency does. >> and luke, how many senate re republicans want to see a lawsuit? >> oh, i think every one of them to a "t," chuck, and i think you'll see republicans -- i spoke to one earlier yesterday, a member, saying that the first business that is defined by the consumer protection court should be challenged. the politics of this, president obama wants that payroll tax extension, i spoke to a high

ranking aide who said we'll remember this when we have the discussion about extending the payroll tax cut. didn't like the timing. interesting to see how the politics play out in the very crucial two months for president obama. >> that's for sure, and i think that's exactly what the white house wants to hear. they want this confrontation. any way, pete williams, luke russert, fascinating stuff. >> where's your new hampshire chic. ties are so 2011. come on. >> not yet. >> i'll wait for the weekend. see you guys later. >> take care. here in new hampshire it's really about the battle for second place. our political panel joins me next to talk about what could second place mean. and don't forget this sunday on a special edition of "meet the press" david gregory will moderate the debate before the presidential primary and msnbc this sunday, 9:00 a.m. don't miss it, as you heard from the santorum campaign. this might be make or break,

these debates. but first, as we go to break, the white house soup of the day. roasted red pepper. i got nothing today on that one. i could use a little cayenne pepper. the sneezing makes me feel better. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. my name is robin. i'm a wife, i'm a mom... and chantix worked for me. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these,

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and we're back at the panel here. sorry we're going to do our flashback, but we want more time for our panel. john harwood, cnbc's chief washington correspondent and susan parnlgs of course, washington bureau chief for "usa today" and michael sheer, "new york times" now. i still want to say both of, truly a media elitist, going from "the post" to "the times." all right, guys, want to throw

up -- we know who is going to win the new hampshire primary, but we're curious to see can santorum actually become a relevant player in this, into second place? not hey lot of polling coming out of here the way, like had a normal new hampshire week, but here is a cnn poll. ten days in december, romney at 47 and paul 17 and huntsman 13 and santorum 5. gingrich was at 12, by the way. january 3rd, first one -- they claim they did it right after the caucus results were starting to come out, same 47 for romney, 17 for paul, huntsman 13 and santorum from 5 to 10. susan, page, i think we heard from a santorum surrogate this morning that said the debates are everything for strum because it will be the first time that he'll be treated like a front-runner >> i think that's exactly right. he'll be in the middle. never in the middle on the debate stage. needs to do better than this to be pretty relevant. what strikes me about this, where's the iowa bounce, you know? romney's numbers don't move a

bit. >> right. >> santorum moves up, a pretty low base and erosion for gingrich. really true what jon huntsman said which is people in new hampshire look at results from iowa and say who cares. >> well, we'll see. i would argue that it might take 24, 36 hours to digest. we're in the field now and the new msnbc/marist poll will come out late friday, we'll have it late tomorrow. john harwood, you've covered many a new hampshire primary. even though we all think this one isn't going to close, doesn't it always close? >> to some degree and i'd go 72 hours to wait what the result is but you'll have the free media that sort of cascades out. you've got advertising. one of the questions for romney is going to be do they bet on a rise by santorum and go after him at all in paid television. if you're rick santorum i think he is a skilled debater. he's done well during the debates but now he's the focus of the attention, and i would think that he has an eye on two things at the same time. one is south carolina. one is here. you think he would -- he would

save some of the money that's coming in very rapidly for him now for south carolina and use free media, the debates in new hampshire to try to make it. >> funny you say that. we have a new ad tracking service that we do with spending and i think you're right and i think that's exactly what's going on here. they seem to be saving and conserving their resource. you know, mike, i want to play for this quote. santorum is enjoying this moment. you guys were both at the santorum event this morning. what he actually said yesterday in brentwood, new hampshire. >> how many pundits were right over the last six months about what was going to happen in this race? none. serially wrong. i mean, they are worse than weathermen. >> well, there you go. a little bit guilty, although in our defense, we knew it would be romney and somebody, right? we can say that. >> and the expectations are working in his favor here. we were just at this event this morning somebody asked him, you know about, how he's going to do. look, romney is going to win, but we're going to make movement. we'll have movement and go forward.

look, as long as he can -- can go forward, can do better and take that momentum into south carolina, that's probably -- >> i've got to fess up, chuck. i called an endless santorum drought, okay. >> drought. >> you did? okay. yeah. >> i'm going to -- >> what level, a tropical depression now, tropical storm? >> i think he has got some precipitation. >> that's all right. all right. stick around. i want to talk more about sort of the santorum pitch here in new hampshire versus what we will see in south carolina. trivia time, we asked the last 25 years, how many candidates not named bush or mccain not won the new hampshire primary, we do a little math, all the way back to 1880, the anticipate, just one, pat buchanan won the primary in 1996. george h. w. bush won it in 1998 and 1992. john mccain in 2000 and 2008 and george w. bush technically in the 2004 primary. remember, barack obama's on the ballot on tuesday as well.

we will be right back. you are watching t"the daily rundow rundown", only on msnbc. an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement available only with liberty mutual auto insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you the money for a car one model year newer. to learn more, visit us today. responsibility. what's your policy?

let's bring back the panel, michael saer, john harwood and susan page. the rick perry decision to stay in the race. i was at the mccain/romney rally talking to romney folks and they were giddy. >> well, it is fantastic news for mitt romney. he wants that vote fractured. some texas republicans i talked to yesterday said they thought it was anita perry, his wife and other family members who talked him into not giving up yet. you know, who knows what went through his mind. he gave all the signs that he was getting out of the race. >> every sign. >> i think his chances of actually catapulting back into the race in a serious way are next to zero. you never know until it plays out. >> the fred thompson -- >> that's what it feels like. >> fred thompson wouldn't get out, that left huckabee without

a clear field against john mccain, john mccain whips. what if mitt romney ends up winning iowa, we didn't think he would win, new hampshire but south carolina. >> one, two, three? nobody. nobody has ever done one, two. one, two, three. race is over if he wins south carolina, no need to go down to florida. michael shear, the newt gingrich attack ad up this morning is exactly how newt said he would do it, not personal, professional. >> right. >> is it going to work? >> it might. but we have to see is how much money does he put behind it, how much traction can it get and you know, ultimately, if the media attention is all focused now on trying to create this sort of two-man dynamic between the two people who actually won iowa, mr. santorum and mr. romney, then how does newt gingrich fit in and can he breakthrough? >> the name we haven't brought up in a long time, feels like forever, ron paul, exactly what we thought would happen if he didn't win iowa. >> he suspect here what is the strategy behind that? >> a caucus man, going caucuses all around the country.

he can't compete in the big primary. >> exactly. >> anyway, michael shear, shameless plug, go. >> "new york times" election app, new politics app, get realtime results on your phone, pick it up at the app store before the primary. >> all right. >> always end up here at the barley house restaurant on main street in concord, across the street from the state capitol. you can find hamburgers and politicians there >> i like it and mr. harwood? >> my shameless plug is for the iowa/new hampshire gauntlet, part of my life since 1984. i love it and the best book, chronicling that process, richard ben cramer. >> absolutely s mine is apparently you can download nbc news now on your xbox 360. wait till i get that new game for my kids. i'm gonna make them download that stuff on their kinect. that's it for this edition of the daily run down. tomorrow on the show, new hampshire senator kelly aantibiotic will join me in new hampshire. jobs, numbers day, you saw that mind-boggling adp number.

see what the breaking news is on this country the first friday of the new year, coming up, next on msnbc, chris jansing and company at 1ing cloo, andrea mitchell reports, agoering right in this seat. see you then. bye. what ? customers didn't like it. so why do banks do it ? hello ? hello ?! if your bank doesn't let you talk to a real person 24/7, you need an ally. hello ? ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. and then treats day after day... well that's like checking on your burgers after they're burnt! [ male announcer ] treat your frequent heartburn by blocking the acid with prilosec otc. and don't get heartburn in the first place! [ male announcer ] one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn.