>> it's "morning joe"." root for the giants. stick around now for chuck todd. breaking news. a burst of january hiring. nearly 250,000 new jobs were added. it beat expectations by almost 100,000. unemployment drops to its lowest rate since february 2009. we'll have the full deill jus i details just ahead. as promised donald trump endorses mitt romney at his glitzy hotel the same day his campaign was on damage control. who needs newt gingrich tearing you down? plus defense secretary leon panetta warns israel could be planning to attack iran in the coming months, before the summer, frankly, before its nuclear program advances any further. we'll go live to tel aviv for the latest.

it's friday, february 3rd, 2012. this is "t"the daily rundown."" i'm chuck todd. reports of two kidnapped in egypt. we're going to go to cairo for the latest update on that. let's begin with the first reads of the morning. we begin with the big news out of the labor department. the unemployment rate dropped to 8.3% after the economy added 243,000 new jobs in january. the gains were almost across the board, led by the business service sector, construction and manufacturing. it's the fifth straight month we receive the unemployment rate go down from more than 9% in september to more than 8.3% today. in the past few months the employers have added an average of 2,100 jobs every month. and as we saw this month, nc "wall street journal," polled those numbers, the american public is actually feeling the improvement. the right check number is the highest it's been since may

before the debt ceiling debacle was up. americans h are more optimistic about the future. 30% of the people believe the economy will improve. only 17% think it will get worse. of course, we saw the president's approval rating on the economy tic up. these numbers just continue to move downward, and that unemployment rate moves downward. it really does put the republican messaging, romney's messaging in a very awkward position if this trend continues. of course, the report about what's coming next with growth over the next year being not as good as some would have hoped might temper this a little bit. we will see. turning now to the republican race and the one-day return, apparently, of the donald trump side show. the endorsement itself lasted just seven minutes. in trump fashion, the drama stretched all day with early reports that newt gingrich was

the endorsee. >> is romney going to get one? >> i don't know. >> are you hoping for one? >> i'm just watching in amazement. >> why is it amazing? >> because some people have this knack of gathering attention. >> well, when mitt romney and ann romney did appear with trump, trump tried to turn the event into a nonspectacle. he turned it uncharacteristically brief. >> he's smafrmt he's not going to continue to let bad things continue to happen to this country. governor romney, go out and get them. >> and romney did his best to downplay the drama as well. >> there are some things you just can't imagine happening in their life. this is one of them. i spent my life in the private sector, not quite as successful as this guy, but successful nonetheless. >> well, the campaign quickly put out a very long list of the

romn romney's other endorsement and tried to ignore the circulating clip real of the past less than complimentary names the trump has called the governor, including these. >> mitt romney is basically a small business guy, if you really think about it. he was a hedge fund. he was a fund guy. he walked away with some money from a very good company that he didn't create. he would buy companies, close companies, get rid of jobs, okay? i wasn't in love with the job he did in massachusetts. he wasn't popular. he was a one-term governor, didn't have high approval ratings. romney has been missing in action. he hasn't done a damn thing. >> what was the romney campaign supposed to do when trump came to them and said he was ready to endorse. this was one of those situations where they were stuck having to say, well, if we turn you down, who knows what kind of thorn you're going to be and perhaps vegas is the best place to do it and it's the fastest way to make

it disappear. but the department carats have done their buena vista to push the trump story. even white house press secretary jay carney enjoyed weighing in from the podium. >> tis the president seeking th endorsement of donald trump? >> you know, i'm not going to comb over that question. >> whoa. >> also following on, newt gingrich and rick santorum, two guys we haven't heard from very much this week. >> i believe we should care about the very poor, unlike if t govern mitt romney. >> out of touch much? who's hurting the most? finally, as the candidates stump ahead of tomorrow's nevada caucuses, romney sat down with a friend of this show, generals ton face to face out there and

offered a maea culpa for his "i don't care about the poor" comment. >> i think it was a misstatement. i misspoke. i said something that is similar to that but quite acceptable for a long time, and, you know, when do you, i don't know how many thousands of interviews, now and then you may get it wrong, and i misspoke. >> and romney tried to better defend his relationship to his own personal wealth. >> i think as we look over our history, there have been people who have had success, whether it was j.f.k. or f.d.r. or teddy roosevelt. i don't think america has come to a point where people would be penalized because they were successful. finally, nevada by the numbers. the caucus tomorrow night or afternoon, depends on the hour. get ready to stay up light to find out the final results. here's why. four years ago romney won in neve with 51%. ron paul finished second with 14%. romney's secret weapon was the mormon vote.

44 cast ballots, 11,440 were mormons. he won 95% of those mormon voters. the mormon vote alone made up almost 50% of romney's vote total digging further into the 2008 entrance poll totals. mormon, unlike some of the states is that have voted so far, only 24% of voters called themselves evangelical christians. 52% were urban, and only 18% decided in the last three days, the testament to the importance of organization in nevada. tomorrow night there are 28 delegates at stake, and at 5:00 p.m. local time the parties will publicly announce the results of the caucus from nevada's 16 smaller countku counties. at 5:00 p.m. the local results will be announced. and at 7:00 p.m., results from

clarke county. a special caucus is being held at none other than the add elson education complex. let me just tell you, every county was allowed do their own rolls. the whole process in nevada, it borders, frankly, on a little bit of a joke, but we shall see. we will follow the results. we'll have entrance polls. we'll see if the party can make sure that the totals are believable and that there are no shenanigans. all right. turning back to the big news of the morning, the unemployment rate falls to 8.3%. it's the lowest in almost three years. mark zandi is always the guy we turn to on jobs day. he's the chief economist. anything here that this seemed across-the-board good. anything in here that you think is a warning sign? talk about the long-term unemployment, but take it away. what do you see? >> nothing. i mean usually you get a lot of cross currents in these jobs, something good, something bad, something for every everybody,

but this was positive. they were broad-based across a lot of industries. number of hours increased. it was really excellent news. it shows that the job market is definitively gaining traction. >> you know, there was some speculation over the last couple of months that as flank i the public's perception of the public's economy improved, and we receive that in polling, yo would see that long term. some folks took themselves out of the job market. go back in and that would end up increasing the employment rate. what's going on? are people not going back to this? is this an issue where more of these folks are trying to start their own small businesses? what can't accounts for that? >> good question. you're right. as you look at the last essentially years there's been no labor growth at all. thing what may be happening is because we have such a high rate of unemployment, wage growth is very weak. it's barely keeping pace with inflation, so a lot of people

were deciding maybe it's not the time to go back in. i'm not going to get a job that pays enough to cover all my extensions, gasoline costs, child care, all that. it's not going to be until unemployment comes down further that we get wage growth that people start coming in. so that may explain it. but there are a lot of things going on that are making it very difficult to determine where the labor force is going and where it is now. >> you talk about number of hours worked in wage growth. these are, i assume the numbers you look at to see if this is going to snowball. over the past five months there seemed to be a little bit of an increase, particular hi in terms of the number of hours worked. do you anticipate this is going to keep going at this point? >> i think so. it's not going to be straight line obviously. there's still going to be ebbs and flows. there's still going to be issues. europe issue, foreclosure crisis. we have fiscal policies to make with regard to the payroll tax and the ui and bush tax cuts. there's a lot of hurdles to get over. but, yes, it feels like to me businesses are starting to

engage. they're very profitable. it feels like they're starting to decide it's time to go and a light switch is going on. you know, every month isn't going to be like this one. we're going to have tough months ahead. but, in general, yes, we're moving in the right direction. >> a colleague of mine tweeted about something you said earlier this week. you indicated that if there was no change in where we are in the economy, unemployment rate, et cetera, if they stay exactly the same, don't improve and don't get worse, that you thought it was a condition that meant the president gets re-elected. is that a fair assessment of that takeaway? it's based on a tweet, that's why i wanted to ask you the full context. >> i can't hide, no matter where i am. >> that's right. >> you're going to find out. yeah. my sense is that if we create 150, 200k per month, ton employment rate is roughly where it is today, somewhere between roughly 8%, 8.5%. that favored the president.

you know, it's very close. it's going to boil down to individual states because, you know, this is electoral college. mate boil down to a metropolitan state in florida like miami. but, yeah, thing the president would win re-election under those circumstances. >> mark zandi. i always appreciate you make time for me on these monthly jobs fridays. thank you, sir. >> thank you. still ahead, we'll get team obama's take on the brand-new jobs report, but they can't do it until the 8:30 hour. plus, two americans kidnapped in cairo has violence has been erupting in the streets and police clash with protesters. we're going go live to cairo for your all the latest there. from the keystone pipeline to payroll tack hike, escalating between coleman and planned parenthood. we're headed there. first a look at the president's schedule. he's going to arlington county fire station where we expect him to make some remarks about the

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before we go to the u.s. senate for our interview with the senator, there's breaking news out of egypt where two tourists have been kidnapped. both are reportedly u.s. citizens. we go live in cairo. what can you tell us about this kidnapping? >> reporter: good morning, chuck. what we've learned so far from egyptian security officials as well as the tour operator who owns the company, that i were traveling to a very popular tourist destination, st. katherine's monastery.

their bus was taken by three armed men. they were taken by them. we understand the security officials are in negotiations with senior members of that tribe to try to secure their release, but for the time being, no idea what the demands of the bedouins are. chuck. >> this was slimly a tribal thing. it wasn't anything to do with the larger issue of what's going on inside egypt right now with the government and the protests. >> reporter: we don't have any reason to believe that it was politically motivated. we do know that there has been a contentious relationship in the past between tribes and security forces. these types of kidnappings have happened in the past. just this week 25 chinese were kidnapped and were just released. we'll certainly learn more in the coming hours. >> let's talk quickly about the soccer riots. do we know -- we know there are more protests going on about it. any other motivations going on

here about what may have sparked this riot beyond the match itself? >> well, we haven't learned much about the actual soccer riots, but certainly the tension that built up between the police and the security forces and protesters has now spilled over to cairo for the third day in a row. clashes have erupted between security and the protesters. they're trying to make their way to the ministry interior. they're trying to push back these protesters. the situation remains very tense. already reports of casualties. three reports of egyptians having been killed in the past 24 hours. gives you the sense of kind of mistrust between them in the country, chuck. >> that sort of fledgling new government there. thank you for reporting to us in cairo this morning. now to domestic politics. republicans on the hill are saying there's a project that

could create thousands of jobs immediately. the keystone pipeline. the senator is with me now from capitol hill. and, of course, it's been his home state that has been sort of the lynchpin here, if you will, of whether or not to delay this. will it me ask you this when it comes to the keystone pipeline. obviously there was some -- there were some attempts to put political pressure on the white house. it backfired. the president made his decision then to say, can't do it now. was there too much pressure? did this become too much of a political hot potato? in hindsight do you regret the move of attaching this attempt to speed up the process? >> no. i think the only hot potato, if you will, that political pressure was in the president's mind, this one's kind of a no-brainer now. you know, the problem has been solved in nebraska. that was the only area where there was difficulty over the route, but that's been solved.

now the light sthould be green. now the problem is the environmentalists don't want the oil sands development in canada. on the other hand, part of his base, the unions want to build the pipeline. so the president is punted. really there's a lot of democrats that support this, there are republicans that support this. really it should be a no-brainer. it should be an easy call on the president's part, but, you know, this is about november. it's not really about national interest in my judgment. >> well, i guess why not say -- instead of making it a -- you know, speeding up to 60 days. why not have it done in at least 120 days, 150 days or even 180 days in the summer where then, you know, he couldn't say you didn't give us enough time? >> well, he's had three years.

it's so obvious what he's doing. it's been pending and pending and pending. keep in mind the state department months ago with the problem in nebraska still called this the preferred route. well, if we solved the problem in nebraska, why isn't this even a more preferred route. it has nothing to do with dates. it's the president counting votes and not wanting to irritate a part of his base that he thinks he needs to get re-elected. >> i'm always shocked when politics happen in washington, d.c. senator, i want to move on a couple of different things. yesterday there was a couple of amendments on the stock act that th did not get voted on. any lawmakers who became lobbyists forfeit federal pemgs and insurance plans. this was a rand paul idea. could you support something like

this? if you want to support this, fine, but you're going have to give up your government benefits. n i don't p lobbying.do having said that, that just makes no sense. let me give you a good example. i'm enormously pro-life. i feel strongly about that. i have a 100% voting record. let's say i sieve another term in the senate or another one and i'm in my 70s. let's say the pro-life community comes to me, national right to life and says, look, you've been such a great advocate, would you be willing to try to help us bring a more pro-life agenda to our nation. i'd love to do that. i'd love to do that. i would be prohibited really because i'd have to forfeit my pension. and so this sounds kind of good, you know, you look at it and say, boy, i'm all for that. then you start thinking about it. well, wait a second here, i might want mike to try to go out

and get a more pro-life agenda passed, and so i think some of these things, you know, they're populist and they get a lot of energy, but the reality is it doesn't make a lot of sense. >> do you think there's too much lobbying, though, and do you thing it's too easy for -- i mean the real issue, i've always heard has less to do with the lawmakers and more do with the congressional staff. >> you know, here's what i would offer. if you look at it this way, for example, again, when the catholic church comes to me to talk about an issue, you know, i'm catholic, i listen to them. sometimes i agree. sometimes i don't agree. but i take that into account. when an individual comes to me and says, you know, i want you to tax the rich more, i listen to that. i may not always agree with it. when a company comes to me and says, look, here's the ramifications of that decision, i listen to that. i just think the important thing is that you operate in a way where you say, look, i've got an

open door policy and i'll listen, and that has worked well for me through the years. >> one final question on afghanistan. we heard secretary panetta sort of preview what may be the nato plan going forward chrk is to scale back or maybe get rid of all combat operations by mid to the end of 2013, sort of a year earlier than the 2014 deadline. are you comfortable with that? >> you know, i have been. i haven't second-guessed the president on this call. it's been over ten years that we've been there. there just is a point at which we need to ask that country to be responsible for itself -- its own security. you know, maybe we can support that in different ways. we're more wary. this is the time we've got to push the agenda where we say, look, you've got to bin pendant, stand on your own two feet, we can be there to support you, but we really want you to move in that direction. >> senator mike johanns,

republican from nebraska. thank you for coming on the show. >> thank you. how does wall street react to the numbers? the run down is next. plus israel may attack iran as early as may. first today ice trivia question, who was the last sitting member of the house of representatives to win a presidential primary or caucus? tweet me the answer @chucked to or @dailyrundown. that answer is coming up on "the daily rundown." we'll be right back.

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we're just a minute away from the opening bell. time for the market rundown. all right, becky. i assume this one shocked a lot of folks on wall street.

>> it did. the jobs, jobs, jobs report we evening been waiting for all week. it with us no disappointment when we got the numbers job. the numbers for jobs created, 243,000. that was well above expectations. they were only looking for 125 to 150,000. that's the biggest gain since april of last year. the unemployment number also dropped to 8.3% and that was a big surprise too. the 8.3% is the lowest level we've seen in almost two years. and just about every metric of this jobs report came out better than expected. average hours worked was up by 0.2%. the numbers looked good. we're going to be opening by about 115, 120 points on the dow. big surprises all the way around. the other big event that's happening, chuck, you know it's the super bowl. that's an advertising bonanza. this time they're affecting 111 million fans to be watching.

that's great news for the advertisers, and they've been paying premiums. this time the average 30-second spot for the super bowl ad is $3.5 million. that's up from $3 millionful that shows you the strength of the advertising market but also shows you what they will pay to get that many eyeballs in one place. i know you'll be watching. >> iowa, i'll be watching and i good for the home team. i believe that super bowl is being played on nbc. >> it is whochl are you gunning for, anyway? >> don't get me started. >> come on. tell. >> boston, new york, boston sports mentality of this country drives me crazy. >> you've got to vote for someone. >> i'm voting for eli. i do like eli manning. >> me too. me too. >> fair enough. >> can he win without the giants winning? is that possible? >> no, he can't. >> see you tomorrow.

"the daily rundown" will be back in 30 seconds. a few other stories making headlines today. supporters of planned parenthood are flooding the organization with donations trying to fill the financial gap left after the susan g. komen foundation announced it would cut off grants it used for breast examsnd other services. mayor michael bloomberg is among those donors. he pledged a quarter of a million dollars.

the bill bars lawmakers and their aides from using nonpublic information for insider trading. the house is expected to vote on the stock act later next week. by the way, there were so many amendments in the senate, an absurd number of amendments. pentagon sources are telling the nbc news that the u.s. is growing increasingly concern that israel will attack iranian facilities sometime soon, possibly april. our chief correspondent is live in israel, live for us in tel aviv. it feels like, richard, over the last 48 hours the obama administration, leon panetta in particular, is sending the signal, it's if but when there's a military confrontation with iran. >> reporter: itwants to go on t record saying to israel not to do this. there is deep concern from washington that israel might launch some sort of attack on iran's nuclear program without

telling the united states, without giving it any kind of warning, and that that attack could take place any team between now and the springtime. and i've heard different months. i've heard june, i've heard july, also april. so with that looming and that increasingly taken to be a serious threat, we're seeing white house -- we're seeing pentagon officials mostly in private but then also the defense secretary making a few public statements telling the israelis try to back it down, don't do this, let the sanctions work. but the israelis -- and this is what we're hearing here in tel aviv, are responding by saying we can't wait forever. they see the iranians rapidly advancing their nuclear program. it's all a matter of your time frame. the israelis think that the iranians are about a year to a year and a half from developing a testable nuclear weapon. but they worry that a year and a half might seem like a long way out, but they worry if four,

five, subscription months go by that the iranian program could be so vonsed that it reaches a point of irreversatility where even an israeli air strike wouldn't slow it down, let alone stop it. that's what the israelis are saying. we understand the sanctions, we would like the sanctions to work, but we can't wait forever, and that's what the israelis are saying and they're saying it quite publicly. >> richard, how did you interpret the intelligence report next week? this is why you sit here and try to put sometimes one plus one together and see if you are coming up with two. when the intelligence report by the u.s. intelligence community to capitol hill and congress indicated that the iranians are planning a way to strike at the united states, to strike at the united states militarily, you put that out publicly. what are you trying to say? >> i think you're trying to warn the public and the u.s. intelligence community has been burned so many times, i think they are going out of their way to tell the american people and tell members of congress what

the potential risks are. i eesk spoken to a lot of military analysts, pentagon officials about the situation in iran, and they basically lay out four see scenarios how this cou develop. it's important that iran is facing serious sanctions. the iranian economy is effective will i being strangled. so with the world's community hands around iran's throat, iran has four different ways of trying to get out of the situation. iran could, one, just roll over and say, we don't want this nuclear program, inspectors can come in, and iran has made that clear even today, that's not an option. option two would be to try and have some sort of crisis in the gulf, some sort of conflict limited in nature in the strait of hormuz that would drive up the price of oil and cause all the different parties to get to the table and try to any geesh yat out of this. that would carry serious risks because if there were a conflict in the straight of hormuz, the

u.s. would respond militarily, so that option doesn't seem likely. the third option i was told is that the iranians could try to release pressure on iran by opening a valve somewhere else, by sparking a conflict here in israel, in gaza, along the israel/lebanon border, perhaps the area between syria and israel to try to have a diversionary conflict. and the fourth conflict is to try and just delay, to promise more negotiations and continue building. and that's the one the israelis are coming out and saying, we won't accept that. we'll allow it to go on for a little bit longer because there is still some breathing room, but not too much. >> richard engel, thanks for laying that out. we know we're going to have more reporting from you all day and, of course, tonight on the nightly news with brian williams. up next, our political panel

plays the nevada expectations game. we've got bizarre budding ranch stuff for you, i swear. by the way, don't miss a special super bowl issue on sunday. "meet the press's" david gregory will interview three men who have a big stake in the big game. it's massachusetts governor deval patrick. new york city mayor michael bloomberg. and indiana governor mitch daniels, who, of course, is host of governor of the super bowl. but first the white house soup of the day. look who is a patriot fan. it's new england clam chowder. they're not doing manhattan clam chowder. they could have done manhattan clam cloud der. what did the white house pick? clearly a pats fan. we'll be right back. century global nomad ♪ ♪ home was an airport lounge and an ipad ♪ what did the white house pick? clearly a pats fan. we'll be right back.

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in 24 hours nevada gets to have their field. but despite mitt romney's rough week, trying to recover from his gaffe about poor people, he still managed to snatch donald trump's endorsement, support he somewhat awkwardly accepted. >> there are some things you just can't imagine happening in your life. this is one of them. being in donald trump's magnificent hotel and having his endorsement is a delight. >> i'm sure delight. deedee myers, former clinton administration press secretary, nbc's white house correspondent, my partner over there, one of my partners, mike. i'm going to get to romney in a minute. nevada business, every county gets to have its own poll opening and closing time? >> we didn't have anything to do

with that. that's local. >> you're taking no responsibilities? >> it is -- >> he just threw the republican party under the bus. >> they had a prime time spot in january, they wanted to move to february, and you get what you get. >> well, no. they were getting edged out. in their fairness, they actually picked a better day potentially. >> okay. potentially. >> let's talk about mitt romney. mitt romney trying to sort of explain the donald trump endorsement. this is what he said to our friend john ralston. >> i'm happy to get endorsements across the country. chris christie, governor bob mcdonnell. >> governor christie is going to be insulted when he sees this. >> i won't agree with all of them. they may have some differences.

>> mike viqueira, where is it in this? >> dare we say the big tent. this doesn't so much help romney as it doesn't help gingrich, you know what i mean? if romney as we all thought 24 hours ago or 36 hours ago, if trump were to endorse gingrich, i think that would help gingrich a great deal. he's sort of taking that away from gingrich more than anything else. the election is going to be won or lost independence. it i don't think that's the kind that are eventually going to end up with barack obama. >> as newt gingrich finds out, if you get into bed with donald trump, be careful. he can bite you. here's newt thinking i'm the only guy who wanted to go to your debate and gave you a press conference and made you look like a legitimate figure. mitt romney ran out the back door, didn't want to be seen with you? >> i know he got left standing

at the altar. the fact of the matter is that for romney, you can see the tight-grinned look on his face. he's standing there very stiffly. he knows that down the road there's going to be questions about well, do you associate yourself with fees, trumpian comments. to your point it takes a lot of the steam out of the newt engine. >> democrats are very happy about this, probably more so than mitt romney. >> and romney didn't have a choice, as you guys point out. but it's always about donald trump. when it's convenient for him to make a spectacle of himself, h'll do it it. he'll do it over and over. it's one more wild card he doesn't need to deal with. >> because of the weird law where we can't talk about it ton 8:30, i'm going to hold after. secretary solis, thanks for coming on this morning. let me ask you this.

is there any part of this report you're unhappy about? >> well, you know, i continue to believe that we're on the right path, and this shows me that we are in a mode for a good recovery here, but we still can't lose sight of the many people still looking for work and i continue to be concerned about the local government because we continue to see a loss of jobs there. that's why the president is out today to talk about incentivizing, hiring up of veterans and firefighting service and forestry service and police service. so wi still have a lot to do and we still have to extend that payroll tax because we're not out of the woods by any means, chuck. >> you said what the president was going to focus on, because the one thing that's been a consistent negative jobs number in this report has been the public sector, if you will, but the issue, of course, has been funding for local and state governments. so -- and there's obviously not the political appetite on capitol hill to send more money down to the states.

is that right? >> well, i would tell you that i think there is an appetite, though, to help our veterans, because these young men add women have come back from two, three, four tours of war and we owe it to them to provide them with security and employment. so i think that the president's on the right track. i think there is bipartisan support for that, and i hope that we can see that through. but, todd, what i want to say is looking at this report, yes, it's a good report. but looking at the three months, there's been 3.7 million private sector jobs added and it continues to be encouraging, encouraging signs of manufacturing, in energy, in health care, in all the sectors that we saw almost across the board that were suffering in the last two years, now we see unemployment two years ago that was up at 10%, now at 8.3%. >> so you expect, looking at the way the job growth was, looking at the extension of hours, you expect more growth to continue. you expect a snowball, if you

will? >> i'm not in a position to say that. i'm just reflecting on what evidence has been shown already in terms of job growth. it shows that people are finding employment, and i'm encouraged by even some signs where we saw a big drop in the unemployment number amongst different groups that have been suffering the most like african-americans and latinos. >> secretary solis, labor secretary hilda solis, thanks for coming on this morning and sharing your views. >> thank you. >> all right. let me do one more quick thing on jobs with you guys. what do you say if you're a republican this morning, michael steele? >> i think what you say is congratulations to those americans who have gotten work over the past month, butamentale still weak and the debate is how do we make sure those who have gotten their jobs back keep their jobs well into the future in light of the cbo report that came out yesterday or the day before that said we can take

unemployment downstream if we don't get it right. so i think there's a lot for republicans to talk about here. >> all right. we've got important issues to get to after the break including what is the bunny ranch owner going to do in nevada? believe it or not, very active. >> i thought you were going to ask me what the bunny ranch is. >> trivia time. we asked you who was the last sitting member of the house of representatives to win a pr presidential primary caucus? >> dick gephardt. >> good answer. he also won the crucial missouri primary. it's listen 48 years since a republican member of congress, sitting member has won a presidential primary or caucus, so history is not yet on rand paul's side. we shah see. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. wake up!

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let's bring back the pam because i've got to have an excuse to play the bunny ranch sound byte. in all honesty, it's nevada. it's a little circusy. it makes florida look normal. i know my state gets treated like it's a kooky state.

we had to get an interview with them. anyway, i want to play a part. >> the bunny ranch club is more important to ron paul than donald trump to mitt romney. who cares about donald trump. go home. stay in new york. i don't care about your arrogant -- >> you know, it's funny though. >> he's got that right. >> he does. dee dee, the mitt romney dominance among the mormon vote, which is a quarter of the electorate does make it sort of an uphill battle. >> yeah. it's a disorganizational state. he'll do very well among that sector. >> mike viqueira, by the end of february, even if these caucuses are not very well organized and this nevada thing is a bit of a joke, there are a bunch of swing

states. he may be able to say at the end i won states like colorado, missouri, arizona, michigan, all in the month of february. that's going to sound pretty good and -- >> and geographically ideologically he can point to the fact that he's got this rich dad history, this variation and support all across the republican department. on the bunny ranch thing, is it a little ironic that it's in a mormon state that we have the bunny ranch giving endorsements? >> it's a little odd. one more thing that caught my eye. it's friday. we're having a little fun. "game-changer," the movie is coming out. john mccain was asked fe he plans on watching the move since it's mostly about the sarah palin decision and john mccain's decision to pick sarah palin. here's what he said. >> it will be a cold day in arizona when i watch that movie. >> whoa. >> michael steele, i mean does

that tell you everything you need to know about how he feels? >> that just sums it up totally. >> about the whole experience, thing. but i think more to the point, i find it interesting that i found the more fascinating story to be the hillary clinton story with game challenge and how her campaign started out and got totally derailed by the other side. >> you know, dee dee, there was always more from the losing candidate. they always talk more. >> it's from the people who talk the most. it was a fully researched show. mccain is bitter. he's bitter about the experience. >> you do sense he's not happy with that panel. that he knows maybe he made a -- >> he could never admit it. but somewhere deep in his soul he clearly feels that way. i've got to say with that trailer, ed harris looks an awful lot like mccain and julianne moore looks like a fantastic sarah palin.

>> i don't know. >> you need to get to the bottom of that. >> i've got to wikipedia that. shameless plug. >> shameless plug. ali wineberg, welcome back to the white house. >> i got a piece on how to win ugly and still lose the independent vote. >> does that have to do with mitt romney? >> and ms. mire? >> i think it's going to be great year for women. we've seen it between susan coleman planned parenthood. >> great for women or great for -- >> i mean great politically. there's a lot of women running. there's 11 women running for the senate which is a record number. we're going to have more turning out. they have doubled. >> john boehner may not be non-white male, correct. >> it's entirely possible. >> thank you all. that's it for your this edition of "the daily rundown." tune in tomorrow for msnbc's all-day coverage of the nevada caucuses because we have no idea

when some of the polls close. we'll have the results and analysis when they finally let us know when the polls have closed. w coming up "jansing & co." coming up at 1:00, don't miss "andrea mitchell reports." bye-bye. ♪ you and me and the big old tree ♪ ♪ side by side, one, two, three ♪ ♪ count the birds in the big old tree ♪ ♪ la la la [ male announcer ] the inspiring story of how a shipping giant can befriend a forest may seem like the stuff of fairy tales. ♪ ♪ you and me and the big old tree side by side ♪ but if you take away the faces on the trees... take away the pixie dust. take away the singing animals, and the charming outfits. take away the sprites, and the storybook narrator... [ man ] you're left with more electric trucks. more recycled shipping materials...

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