>> wow. >> doesn't he, mika? >> he does. >> what did you learn, john? >> i learned that given the sexual climate, my 7-year-old and 4-year-old are destined for an episcopal nunnery. >> today is the pay dhai mika's book, "knowing your value" are out. tj, don't block her face. give it to your children and grandchildren, you say. willie, if it is way tooerly, what time is it? >> it is "morning joe." quit badger me. can a decisive win tonight destroy santorum's case for staying in this race? meanwhile, president obama keeps cruising in the jeep election mode. today, he is expected to take on and try to take down the ryan budget while his campaign launches a new tv ad that att k

attacks mitt romney by name. on this gsa officials, government speak here, folks, are out after a report finds that taxpayers bank rolled $800,000 worth of training in sin city. the story is more damaging to washington as it only reenforces the stereotype of washington bureaucrats who waste money. good morning from washington it is tuesday, april 3rd, 2012, a primary day. this is the daily run down, i'm chuck todd. get right to my first read of the morning, start in wisconsin. rick santorum claims the state suspect do-or-die. yes, it is. we all disagree. voters going to the polls in wisconsin, maryland and here in the district of columbia. three contests where mitt romney is comfortably ahead earthquake the romney campaign seems to be taking nothing for granted. >> take the next step in which is, which i need to you go out in vote. i need to you get out and vote are get your friends to do the same thing. >> santorum is counting on a rural turnout in yet another big industrial midwestern state to

keep his candidacy alive. >> i'm asking small-town america, rural america, rural america, rural wisconsin, to come out and speak loudly. >> you know, a quick look at today's primaries by the numbers. 39 delegates at stake in wisconsin it is a modified winner-take-all, 37 delegates up for grabs in maryland, another modified winner-take-all, congressional districts and statewide and washington, d.c. is fully winner-take-all, where santorum is not on the ballot. 16 delegates at stake there romney is just south of half of the 1,144 he needs win the nomination with 490 in our nbc community. santorum has less than half that number, sitting at just 203 delegates tonight. co-wing a couple of congressional districts tonight, maybe one in maryland, we will see. mitt romney wins wisconsin tonight there is no stopping him from getting to 1144. though santorum now acknowledges the odds of winning the nomination are against him, he argues that a prolonged fight

isn't bad for the party. stumping in wisconsin yesterday, he said a contested convention would be "a fascinating display of open democracy." >> i think this pry america the long ter goes, the bet ter is for the party. people even said, go to the convention would be dangerous. no i think it would be an energizing thing for our party to have, you know, a candidate emerge who this a -- who isn't the isn't the blessed candidate of the republican establishment. >> santorum is digging in for another month of campaigning. >> crisscross pennsylvania, the maps look better for must may. >> he is desperately trying to get may. a new quinnipiac poll out shows santorum is leading romney by six points in his home state, 41-35 among likely republican voters, single digits, folk, not good for santorum, especially if he loses tonight.

pennsylvania's primary is april 24th. the calendar says to sd primary day but the words and actions of the republicans and democrats alike have the feel of the general election today. in a 12:30 speech to newspaper executives at the associated press lunch.the president will strike back at the republican budget plan. promoted by the guy who has been romney's constant companion in the trail the last 72 hours, congressman paul ryan. according to excerpts of the speech, the president will say broad-based prosperity never trick reallied down from the success of a wealthy few it has always come from the success of a strong and growing mild class. this congress hal republican budge pet, however, is something different all together. it's a trojan horse. disguised as a deficit reduction plan, it's really an attempt to impose a radical vision on our country. it's nothing but thinly veiled social darwinism. it's antithetical to our entire history as a land of opportunity

and upward mobility for everyone who's willing to work for it. the white house is billing this as an important speechly build on the themes of economic equal that president began to lay out in december back in kansas, if you recall. by the way, this ap luncheon speech is historically a marker speech for presidents running for re-election n 2004, george w. bush used it to defend his iraq policy before the newspaper editorsing "we are changing the world for the better." every sitting president since calvin coolidge speaks there. romney speak there is tomorrow. rom think? trying to exploit what he believes is the president's biggest vulnerabilities, high gas prices. >> he somehow doesn't like the energy we have in abundance, coal, oil, natural gas. he has made it harder and harder for us to get those resources. >> today the team, team obama, is trying to respond, attacking romney by name in an ad for the first time this new tv ad is called "remember," airing in colorado, florida, iowa, nevada,

ohio and virginia. >> under president obama, domestic oil production's at an eight-year high. so why is big oil attacking him? because he's fighting to end their tax breaks. mitt romney stood with big oil, for their tax breaks, attacking higher mileage standards a reend newables. so when you see this ad, remember who paid for it and what they want. >> you see what they are doing there, a little bit of a response ad, actually, a lot of a response ad to the american energy association conservative interest group there and it's a little bit of an attack ad on romney. romney enjoyed having his name in the ad, it appears. he fired back. >> i think is a kind of amusing and actually troubling for the president of the united states to be looking for someone to blame. a lot of qual that's you look for in a president. blaming other people is not one of them. >> seated among oil drums for that fox news interview, by the way, romney anticipated the

charge that he has defended tax breaks for big oil. >> not sure precisely what big tax breaks we are talking about. what i like to do is to get the tax rate down so we are competitive with europe, for pete's sakes, get the tax rates down and eliminate a lot of the deduction and breaks and the special deals that a lot of different industries get. >> i'm guessing the obama administration would have asked for that backdrop for romney. and another response to a tv ad campaign by a c-- a conservativ group by the koch brothers. finally i president obama gave his first response to the supreme court oral arguments over the health care law, saying it will be uphechld the only surprise is that he went public with the strategy that we reported last week that the white house was going to fall back on if the court ruled against them. >> ultimately, i'm confident

that the supreme court will not take what would be an unpress depend -- unprecedented extraordinary step of overturning a law that was passed by a strong majority of a democratically elected congress. >> the president wand the court, hoe called a group of unelected people, about overturned the law. >> for years, what we have heard is the biggest problem on the bench was judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint. well, there's a good example and i'm pretty confident that this -- this court will recognize that and not take that step. >> interesting decision there by the president to quote conservative rhetoric about the courts and puts conservatives in a little bit of a box on this one. they criticized the president too hard because if they have ever used anti-judicial activism

rhetoric in their own political arguments it will look hypocritical. last night, mitt romney did his best to respond to the president. >> isn't this wonderful, to finally have a liberal talking about judicial activism? what the president is complaining about, however, is that the supreme court might actually apply the constitution to the bill that he passed. >> more proof that judicial activism is, of course, in the eye of the beholder. all right. polls are open now in wisconsin, maryland and the district of columbia. mitt romney is hoping tonight's result plus solidify his position as the presumptive republicanny. peter zappeder is live in milwaukee. i find it interesting that tonight, mitt romney has decided to be in wisconsin. rick santorum not there. says a lot. >> yeah, in fact, rick santorum will be in mars today, mars, pennsylvania, where he will spend the day with campaign events. smart guy. >> trying to raise some money in specifically in texas.

romney with a lunch event here today. tonight, be with what they call the grain exchange, a hotspot in this area. his campaign say these do expect a good day here but an adviser telling me a short time ago, make it very clear, santorum spent a lot more time in wisconsin than we have this is going to be a lot closer than the polls show, the same refrain we have heard routinely throughout the course of this campaign. chuck, you were pointing out bitter back and forth between team obama and team romney over the price of oil and higher gas prices. that adviser from the romney camp telling me today it is laughable for the obama campaign to try to shift blame for higher gas prices to the governor, governor romney. >> you know, peter, we have been talking about this idea that we know democrats are starting to get their apparatus together for the general election but now have hints that mitt romney is going to start feeling the comforts, fulif you will, of th united republican party, the

rnc? >> the problem they are going to face this fall if they don't coalesce sooner than later is the fact they will be up against this $1 billion obama campaign machine. the romney folks telling nbc news, confirming to nbc news, they will begin raising money with the republican national committee as early as this week. it is going to be some of those republican organizations as well as the campaign. that's significant because individuals who can only give $2500 will now be able to give up to $75,000 as they can give to some of those organizations that support republicans as well. they say it is significant. one of the aides to governor romney telling us that donors are ready in her words, to mobilize for november. but even as we say that, a lot of the folks we have spoken to here in the state of which is with us, where they rarely get a say in political primaries like this say they are making up their mind even at this last moment. chuck? >> we shall see. peter alexander, every time we think this vase over, something

happens. we have to be careful. is it time to release the real romney in the candidate's innercircle is reportedly split over whether to risk letting romney be romney. former governor john sununu will give us his take, a lively one. never too early to force him. and santorum's scorched earth strategy in wisconsin, a rough new ad, we are wondering why he waited so long to run what could have an an effective attack ad 60 days ago. a look ahead at the president's schedule. four walls and a roof is a structure.

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i am not in this race to further my political career because i don't have a political career this is not the next step for me this is about taking the experiences i've had in life, learn how to make tough decisions, knowing how the economy works and using that experience as a leader to help get our country back on track. >> well, mitt romney trying to offer voters window into his soul at a town hall in wisconsin, insisting his presidential bid is not just part of a political calculation. former new hampshire governor john sununu is a romney supporter and joins me now. >> morning, chuck. >> let me ask you -- i'm good. ask you specifically about what mitt romney said.

he has been in the national political scene, running for president for six years, ably, maybe longer, depending who you want to believe in that, trying to run for office going back to 1994, a pretty long political career, where you fall into a little bit of a trap there he says i'm not in there to make it a career, well, he has tried to -- been trying to run for office since 1994. >> you know, when somebody capable of accomplishing things like mitt romney is looks at the subject, his state, sees problem, you tithe your time, you give your time and effort to try to fix it. he is certainly comfortable in terms of having earned himself enough to enjoy life and now he is giving a little bit back. and i just admire him for that i know him quite well and i can tell you he is absolutely sincere when he says the only reason he is doing this is he wants to fix what's wrong.

>> now let's talk about this hand wringing that goes a lot is ano mouse. i know you how guys feel about anonymous advice but here is one piece of it. it says i think they have got to unleash him, referring to governor romney, take the bad with the good. i think he is trapped in his campaign. you hear people joke that mitt romney is the one candidate you would never say okay we are going to let the governor be the governor. they would never say let romney be romney. like it or not, they need to do that mortgage they put on a facade, the more people pick up on it. your thoughts? you give unvarnished advice. >> yeah, when you see anonymous in front of a quote, it means the person that gave it knows that they are going to say something that is so dumb they don't want their name associated with it. >> so, you don't buy into this -- this whole -- the campaign's not letting romney be romney? >> look, the governor -- when the governor gets on the stage there is no unleashing or holding him back t happens to all of us. we get on the stage and we say

what we want. >> i guess what do you -- even ann romney yesterday was asked about this idea and she sort of joked about it a little bit. yes, oh, where's the real mitt romney? but it seems to be something they are frustrated by this is a perception this isn't who he is. >> i know what people are trying to get at. they are trying to get at when you talk to governor romney in a small groups, he is engaging, he is funny, he's prankster but the fact is when you are running for president, you are running in a framework that saying you have got to convey a message and you got to stay on message. so i think the issue has been that he is probably too disciplined and been staying on message so well. so i think what you -- as he gets more and more comfortable in the process and frankly, the understand it or not, running for president is not an easy thing and getting comfortable with the constraints put on you

by time, by the fact that every time you twitch, it's on national television, he has probably been a bit overdisciplined. i think you have seen him get much more relackeded in the process the last couple of states that he has been through. >> i want to get to you respond, last-minute negative ad that the santorum campaign put up. it is a pretty rough one, let me play a piece of it and get you to respond. >> what if i told you this man's big government mandating health care included $50 abortions and killed thousands of jobs? would you ever vote for him? what if i told you he supported radical environmental job-killing cap and trade and the wall street bailouts? and what if i told you he dramatically raised taxes and stuck tax payers a $1 billion shortfall? one more thing. what if i told you the man i'm talking about isn't him? it's him. >> wisconsin's a swing state in the fall. how concerned are you that santorum chose to go this negative this late?

>> let me address the specifics in that ad, because that shut problem i have with my good friend, rick santorum. the $50 abortion issue is a lie. it is not true. mitt romney did not put that in his package that requirement was in the massachusetts process well before he became governor. number two he opposed cap and trade. that's life. he kept massachusetts out of the regional greenhouse gas initiative. number three, he did not leave massachusetts with $1 billion deficit. that's life. he left it with a surplus. four years of surplus and left it with a $2 billion rainy day fund. so, my problem with my old friend rick santorum is that he has let the pressure of this campaign let him resort to lies and he ought to be ashamed of t. >> if he doesn't whip wisconsin tonight, do you think it is time for him to go? >> it was time for him to go two weeks ago a. >> you believe it? >> he is hanging on with ego. i guess he wants to get to

pennsylvania. the problem he has in pennsylvania is he has to decide whether he can do well in pennsylvania and win a majority of the delegate there is or be awfully embarrassed by not getting the majority of the delegates. >> on veep stakes, your son, former u.s. senator john e. sununu wrote this in his column on the "boston globe" about the vp choice answered writes it -- the winning choice is the dull choice. a running mate the public already knows, warts and all. mondale, bush, gore, cheney, biden, go doll. what do you think? is he write? >> i think he has learned a lot from his father. >> i will leave it there. former governor john sununu, always a pleasure to have you on, sir. >> thank you. all right, will it be a super tuesday on wall street? we will get a preview next in the market run down. plus, bureaucrats gone wild? outrage over government spending the a federal agency whose job is to help taxpayers save money.

the white house acted quickly but it plays into a larger problem about government these days. first, today's trivia question. when was the last time the illinois republican presidential primary winner didn't also win wisconsin? the first correct answer will get a follow tuesday from us. the answer and more is coming up on "the daily rundown." my mother froze everything. i was 18 years old before i had my first fresh bun. the invention that i came up with is the hot dog ez bun steamer. steam is the key to a great hot dog. i knew it was going to be a success. the invention was so simple that i knew i needed to protect it. my name is chris schutte and i got my patent, trademark and llc on legalzoom. [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help people start their business and launch their dreams. go to legalzoom today and make your business dream a reality.

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that martha johnson, the political head of the gsa, political appointee, fired two of her top aides and submitted her own resignation to president obama. now, four other employees involved in organizing the event are currently on administrative leave, you can't fire them, they are not political appointees. the report found the agency spent over $800,000 on the las vegas conference in october of 20 2010. a quick reminder, the white house knew this was not a story you want to linger it could hurt them politically on this whole issue, especially now. it can become a larger story than it needed to be, but there is a bigger story here that is the bureaucrats in washington, this is -- this is who did this more than -- rather than the political appoint test, either not listening to the political appointees, which is smug hear in both types of administration. they ended up reenforcing the

conservative stereotype. you want government cut with a scalpel and not a meat axe, you can't be acting this way. this is why what these folks did may have undermined a lot of the folks argue keeping the government cut with us a scalpel. police in california revealed the gunman who killed seven people at a college in england monday was targeting a female administrator. three more people were injured in that shooting. police identified a former student, 43-year-old one goh as the suspected gunman. he's a korean national and a naturalized american citizen. new jersey governor chris christie is in israel, his first official overseas trip as governor of new jersey. christy is meeting with president smidge mony per res today, met with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu on monday. later in the week, christie will travel to jordan. violence erupted in lexington last night as the kentucky wildcats won the ncaa championship in new orleans. this he beat the kansas jayhawks

67-59, clinching their eighth title in their history. police say thousands of people took to the streets, several fires were set and a car crashed into an outdoor bar. one man was wounded by random gunfire and dozens were arrested. again, kentucky won and that is how lexington reacted. behind scenes in the badger state, a deep dive into how to watch the returns tonight in wisconsin. are demographic ease seines lit destiny of this race? and still to come, candidate confronted. mitt romney faced a tough question on religion and race at a town hall yesterday. wither going to get into it a little bit. you are watching "the daily rundown," only on msnbc. here toh my inner cowboy. instead i got heartburn. [ horse neighs ] hold up partner. prilosec isn't for fast relief. try alka-seltzer. it kills heartburn fast. yeehaw!

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in caucus states. come up short in the industrial midwest, michigan and ohio, even farther short in illinois. wisconsin, it is kind of ag, kind of industrial, where does it fall? we are going to do that deep dive and show you if demographics are destiny. but here is the basic break down how the delegates are awarded tonight, winner-take-all for 15 at-large delegates here. romney win by a vote, gets 15, santorum wins by a vote, all 15. the congressional districts are winner-take-all by cd, eight of them there in wisconsin. let's move on here. going to the map of the five largest counties. west testing out a new touch screen here today, folks, bear with me. five counties to watch, brown county, waukesha, milwaukee, racine, dane. romney only visited the three basic meet ya marks of the wisconsin, those three media markets. romney is going to dominate down here. i promise you there are at least five cds down here he is likely going to win and all of them are in this media market.

this is what our maris poll said in education, 34% of wisconsin republicans have a college degree. 66% don't. here's how it fell in those other three industrial states, ohio broke, 54/55. if you look at a place where education where santorum could do well. go our next graphic here. religion. obviously, as you know, any place less than 50% evangelical, good state for mitt romney. let compare. 39% of wisconsin republicans in our marist poll call themself evangelical. that looks like a state that could be mitt romney. now go to income, measured

75,000 in our poll, how to broke down in wisconsin. 65% of wisconsin republicans have an income of less than 75,000. 35% over. 100,000 break down in our exit polls. you can see where it slots in here, wisconsin income-wise, somewhere between illinois and michigan. moderate lay romney state. what does that look like here? we know romney won ohio by one, he won michigan bay three, won illinois by 12. if you believe that demographics are destiny, then it is going to be somewhere between five and ten, which, of course, our poll had romney up seven, smack dab in the middle, if that is what the turnoutsome the education could throw it off, but wisconsin does seem to be acting like a state that is slotted in demo graphically, for the most part, between michigan and illinois. not just geographic but

testimony graphically as well. what to watch for tonight? i think santorum, if he loses wisconsin, will still pick up potentially three, maybe four congressional district delegates, that still wouldn't be a lot tonight, expect a near clean sweep in maryland for romney, maybe one congressional district santorum can carry there as you know, santorum is not even on the ballot. now i got my market run down, becky quick is here. markets have already opened. what you got for me? >> they have opened. right now, not a super clear direction where they are head. dow down 15 points. see what happens the course of the day. chuck, we did get early numbers today. we have seen the sales figures for both ford around chrysler. the numbers are actually pretty strong. ford came in with sales up 5%. that is the strongest march that they have seen in five years. so very strong numbers from that company. also, chrysler came in with up 34% and the totals that it saw the highest for any month it has seen in four years. you would think that would be great news you expectations were

high, too. some people saying this 34% jump was a disappointment. keep that in mind. the numbers you are seeing like this still in some cases not making everybody happy. what you can take a look at, one stock that is very happy today, shares of apple, just watching it go by on the early ticks, $629, a new high once again. apple every day you look, looks like it is driving higher. chuck, i want to tell you about original carrier aladies and gentlemen jant air. >> i heard about this. >> you feel like you get nickled and dialed. >> i hate this. >> i hate this, too. the idea that they are now going to charge $35 if you want to check your luggage and store it in the bin above. by the way, you are not allowed to keep this luggage on your lap, you have to store it $35. if you thought they were already charging you for every single thing, think again. >> to charge us by weight, you watch. they are going to start weighing us and they are going to charge us per pound at some point as an extra quote unquote baggage fee there, how much extra

baggageself be claiming on the. >> i will blame my extra weight on the heavy shoes hurricane the shoes, if you look at the scale. unbelievable, boo, aladies and gentlemen jant air. boo. boo. boo thank you, becky. the big political panel, religion came up yesterday at a romney town hall. interestingly, he handled it, firsthandling it as a hecker but then he wanted to talk about it get more into it in minutes. if you but first, got to give you the white house soup of the day and the music told you what it is, chicken noodle. i can use a little myself. you are watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. [ female announcer ] women have made it the number one selling anti-aging cream undeniably. it creamed unbelievably a $500 cream and now women have made regenerist microsculpting cream also unscented. women love it. in original and also fragrance-free. whose non-stop day starts with back pain...

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will always be grateful for his friendship and his warmth. >> tough anniversary for a lot of members of the washington community. daily flashback to this day in 1996. a military plane carrying commerce secretary ron brown and 34 others that crashed near -- in croatia. brown, who was the first african-american to become commerce secretary and a former chairman of the dnc was leading a delegation of american business executives on a trade mission there. all right. mitt romney rarely gets pointed questions about his mormon faith when he is on the trail but yesterday at a town hall meeting in howard, wisconsin, a young ron paul supporter asked romney to explain his theology about race and interracial marriage. >> i guess a lot of people say, you know, your mormon faith may not be a concern in the election, but i think it might be as well as i found these verses from the mormon book.

moses 7-8 says -- >> why don't you give me your question. >> okay. well, in the mormon book, it says there were a blacking upon all the children of kanin. >> i'm sorry, we are just not going to have a discussion about religion in my view, but you have you have a question, i will be happy to answer your question. >> i guess my question is do you believe it is a sin for a white man to marry and appropriate with a black woman? >> no. next question. >> a short time later, romney asked whether he was in touch with regular folks and clearly wasn't down with that earlier question and he used the other question as a moment to defend his own faith. >> this gentleman wanted to talk about the doctrines of my religion. i will talk about the proofs my faith. i had the occasion in my church to be asked to be the pastor, if you will, of a congregation and i've served in that kind of role for about ten years.

and that gave me the occasion to work with people on a very personal basis that we are dealing with unemployment, with marital difficulties with health difficulties of their own or with their kids. most americans, by the way, are carrying a burned of some kind. >> my panel today, nia-malika henderson, lois romano and jackie kucinich. the elite media all represented here, except for "the new york times." whatever it s the old gray lady there. lois, doctrine verps suss practices, very interesting almost admission from romney, if you will. >> smart. very, very smart way to approach it 'cause he will talk -- he doesn't want to talk about what's in that book of mormon but he will talk about that he is devout and that he gives to his church and that, in fact, he went on to say during that that he mentored people, avenues counselor for a while, people have a lot of trouble. he is trying to personalize it,

maybe connect with the christian base and say let's not worry about that, you know, just like catholics don't particularly read the bible as much. >> they don't want to talk about go to the doctrine stuff, which nobody wants to -- people don't like to have that discussion. >> people consider themself religious and spiritual but not doctrinal. >> just had this discussion with governor sununu, the whole hand wringing being on, romney be romney, app romney joking, unzip the real romney what -- this seemed like a moment yes said i want to talk about my faith and i -- i have something in my head that tells me not to do it. >> he sort of laid it out what their strategy is, not to talk about -- >> you think it is a strategy?

he is good when he talks about his faith, connecting with regular folks in his parish and congregation and done that before in some debates and imagine he probably need it is a little bit more. >> supporters want to hear that, they want to -- >> they want to connect with him. >> they want to connect with him. i think that is part of it. >> 15 years of his adult life. he was not a member of the mormon church in boston, he was basically the unofficial head. it was his time there. and that is what he is trying to talk about. jackie, it strikes me as this narrative issue that the romney campaign, we all hate that word, far this ratty. but the whole who are you, the business man, is he a man of faith, grounded in faith, competent governor, did pragmatic governor, they have never settled on one, they just kind of do businessman because

they think it will help the conservatives, this religious one they have ignored. >> trying to merge the three people they talked about into one person and make them multidimensional i think has been part of the problem with the romney campaign, haven't been able to show off, he does have these other layers and explain them in a way people will connect with. they want to focus on the businessman there, they say, okay, too much businessman. now we have got to focus on this i think with the religion aspect of it, they just haven't figured out a way to talk about it without going to the dock trips and some of the things, more controversial things. >> here is a man who has been running for office for two decades and it is surprising that given this late in his career, given this late in his presidential campaign, that they have get growth figure it out. >> lois, you brought up another name in our break, we were talking about this mitt romney issue. >> what did i say? >> al gore. >> right. right. that goes to the issue of him not being comfortable in his own

skin so the campaign suiting him up to kind of take on aer is sewn nah that is more relaxed them put gore in jeans and romney wear jeans. why can't he just wear a suit? he is a businessman. he probably doesn't wear jeans anyway. ann romney had a role in the campaign, he county deliver himself on the personal side and she can say, look, i was married to this guy for 42 years, he's good guy, he stood by me when they had, when i had that and i think that they are overprogramming him. >> in the politico e-book, a man sitting with a lot of golf tips, and always thinking, really, you got to keep your head down, your arms straight. >> i think we are going to see a little bit more of the religion -- >> define it on their own terms? >> yes, very worried about it during the primaries because of the evangelical vote. >> i want to talk about the president versus the supreme court after break r when is the last time the illinois primary winner did not win wisconsin the

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i would just remind conservative commentators that for years all we've heard is the biggest problem on the bench is judicial activism or a lack of judicial restraint. that an unelected group of people would somehow overturn a duly constituted and passed law.

well, this is a good example, and i'm pretty confident that this court will recognize that and not take that step. >> all right. welcome back, all three of you. i've got to ask. this felt, jackie, like a dogfight to me. the president says the law that he signed into law is constitutional. surprisingly, his first remark is that he went ahead and sort of started to make the case of what he would say if it were overturned. >> right. this isn't the first time he criticized the court. citizens united, he wasn't very happy about that either. yeah, i think this is a little bit of a setup for what could happen maybe if it is overturned and what the white house is going to be saying. >> passing the judiciary is a conservative -- it's sort of a rite of passage for a conservative as a politician is to bash the judiciary and saying almost the exact same rhetoric the president is saying there. can they hit the president on this in any sort of way? >> i don't think so. i agree with what you all were just saying.

i think he was putting down his marker and putting it in place if he loses. this was a no risk thing for him to do because the court, after oral arguments, within 48 hours, they have a meeting, and everybody knows where they are. they do a preliminary vote. then the chief assigns everybody who's going to write what. so this was a total laying down the marker. here's what we're going to say, and we're going to fight this thing. this was judicial activism, back in your face. >> there were some folks that were arguing, this was unpresidential. he shouldn't have done this. presidents shouldn't do this. i guess i would ask you to up it, what if he had not answered the question? what if he said, i'm not going to get into that while the supreme court is deciding? what kind of criticism would he have gotten for that? >> i think he would have gotten less criticism. republicans are saying he is sort of putting his hand on the scale and trying to influence the judiciary branch here. but i do think this strategy is

clear. they want to shape this argument as early and as often as they can. obviously, this is going to come out in june. they'll have some months before november. but they're starting right now to get their troops out there to argue against this thing, which in some ways undermines this argument that he's confident. it sounds like they're preparing for a defeat in some ways. >> they don't want to have an argument about health care. if it's ideology, okay. >> they're also going to mobilize the people who will lose out on this, which is the parents who have to pay for insurance for kids 21 to 26. >> a little bit. i don't think they want to talk about it. i think they seem to be -- i've talked to some obama supporters who are saying, oh, i hope we don't have to talk about health care. shameless plugs. jackie, you first. >> this is truly shameless. susan page. >> that's why it's called shameless. >> she had a great profile of nikki haley in usa today. and as we know, nikki haley isn't going to be the vice

president. >> before you said it, i was pretty confident about that. >> my best friend in the whole world, alberto lopez, is going to take eighth graders to duke university for their first college experience. >> i love eighth grade. that's great. >> i have a great piece on anne romney on politico's website. >> it was terrific. not was, it is terrific. stay with us all day, all night. i'll be doing the boards all night. it is an election day. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." tomorrow on the show, we'll have the result from today's big wisconsin primary and maryland and d.c. too. coming up next on msnbc, kris jansing. have a great day. bye-bye. here's a look at the business travel forecast. all eyes on middle of the country, severe storms today. if you have afternoon plans around detroit or cleveland even

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i do think it's time to get behind governor romney. he was reminding me of the kenny