dope and playing basketball. >> fair enough. >> we'll see you back here tomorrow. stick around for "the daily rundown" with chuck todd live from mexico. see you tomorrow. from russia with tough love, president obama and vladimir putin meet face-to-face in mexico to talk about the deadly violence in syria, and the fragile world economy. but it's the moments where they weren't talking that caught everyone's attention. mitt romney's road trip makes its final stops in michigan and romney finally responds on the trail to the president's immigration order. but are there new reasons to doubt romney's dreams of winning over more hispanics? plus, 40 years after they changed the course of history, hear what woodward and woodstein have to say about watergate and what was going through president nixon's mind. good morning from los cabos,

mexico, it's june 19th, 2012. luke russert, good morning to you, sir, back in washington. >> good morning. it is a great tuesday, chuck. and i know you're warning hard -- working hard down in mexico. but leaders are trying to present a united front today as they work to prevent the european debt crisis. but chuck, it's the meeting between obama and putin that's generating the headlines. >> well, there's no doubt the big news out of here, we knew it was going to be sort of where did things stand between russia and the united states on the issue of syria. now, one thing i'm going to get into the body language here in a minute. but let's get what they're publicly saying about syria on the record. here's what they said. >> we discussed syria where we agreed that we need to see a cessation of the violence, that a political process has to be

created to prevent civil war and the kind of horrific deaths we've seen over the last several weeks. >> from my perspective, we've been able to find many commonalities. >> let me fill in some of the blanks. they had a two-hour meeting, the two delegations, where syria took up a good third of the meeting. and there was a big debate back and forth. of course, the united states and president obama is pushing this plan that would push -- that would figure out a way with russia's help get assad to leave power. and what the united states is proposing, have russia get involved in that. that doesn't mean they want to overthrow the regime right away. it could be more like yemen. and apparently what putin was pushing back on, okay, if i signed on to that, what does the aftermath look like? apparently what the russians kept coming back to the united states with, look at egypt. the vacuum that gets created in

these situations isn't necessarily -- isn't necessarily an improvement, or at least that's the argument that the russians are making. now, for his part, mitt romney was asked about where he stands on syria, and i think it's worth getting him on the record on that. here's what -- where romney is on syria right now and it's highly critical of the president. >> what the president can do, in my view is to lead with our saudi friends and turks, which like us believe assad must go, and encourage them to provide armament to the insurgents in syria. this is a high priority for us. we should be working very aggressively to try and see a change in leadership there and open up syria to more participation by the sunni majority. >> of course, all the kerfuffle yesterday had to do with what was striking body language, if you will, luke, where the two of them sat pretty stone-faced. it wasn't just putin who has a reputation of being stone faced at some of these things, but president obama. little eye contact was made. they were doing the simultaneous

translations. president obama regularly calls foreign leaders by their first name. he didn't do that. and it was just a stark contrast from the very personal relationship, it was clear that president obama and dmitry medvedev the former president had. when we started bombarding them with questions, luke, about this, they sort of panicked about this. they hadn't really seen how it played on television. and they said no, no, no, you're overreading this, don't read too much into it, this is the way putin is, but they were sensitive enough, they made sure at the opening session of the g-20, somehow while cameras were rolling, president obama went over to putin, and sthey shareda laugh. >> there is always that picture of at least one laugh in the moments of tension between russian and american leaders. chuck, the president also expressed some cautious optimism after the weekend elections in greece. let's take a listen. >> the election in greece yesterday indicates a positive

prospect for not only them forming a government, but also them working constructively with their international partners. in order that they can continue on the path of reform, we are going to be working under your leadership with our european partners and with all countries to make sure that we're contributing so that the economy grows, the situation stabilizes, confidence returns to the markets. >> chuck, it may be the most important factor in president obama getting relengthed. is there any sign that something substantive will be done in the eurozone today at the summit? >> no. and they made that clear that that wasn't going to be the case. though yesterday during the briefing, the white house said -- the europeans are still working toward what they're having their own separate meeting by the end of the month, where they will unveil their plan going forward. that has to do with not just dealing with greece but also coming up with a more unified, regulatory system to cap -- to deal with this banking crisis,

particularly what's happening in spain and the fear is this contagion. so i think what you're going to hear today, luke, out of the quote, unquote, communique that comes out of the g-20 is language that's going to feel awfully familiar. you know, the countries degree that europe has the capacity to do this themselves. we stand to be there for europe to help them do this. they will find a long-term solution. and the rest of the g-20 nations also agree there needs to be a growth strategy, as well as a fiscally -- fiscal strategy in order to prevent a global recession. because that is the real concern. the asian members of the g-20, as well as other latin-american members of the g-20, all of them have seen their own economy slow, just like ours, all thanks to europe, luke. >> chuck, thanks so much for joining us this morning. enjoy yourself on that working vacation. we'll see you again in our next half hour to talk a little watergate. this morning, mitt romney wraps up his five-day battle

ground bus tour in michigan and a state romney told supporters last night he believes he can win. but romney's bus tour has been overshadowed by the president's decision to ease deportation of some young illegal immigrants. at a rally in iowa monday, romney addressed immigration for the first time since the president's announcement. >> he was going to deal with immigration, he said, in his first year. he was going to focus on that. did he do anything on immigration while he had had a democratic house and senate? no! >> no! >> this is a president who has said one thing and done another. >> missouri senator roy blunt is romney's chief liaison to the senate and joins me now. good morning, senator blunt. >> good morning, luke. how are you this morning? >> good, sir. last night, marco rubio, who has been the gop leader behind the scenes, at least, on immigration, had this to say about the president's recent announcement and what it did to his plan. >> we have some very compelling human stories like the case of

these young people who have been here their whole life, grown up he here, brought at a young age. it feels weird to deport a valedictorian who has been here since 4 years old. >> you look at polling recently, executive order easing deportation rules approved 64%, disapprove, 30%. but mitt romney still declines to say whether he would overturn this immigration order. i asked ron johnson, your colleague from wisconsin this three times yesterday. he declined to answer. i'll ask you. why won't any republicans stand up and say this is the wrong thing to do, let's overturn this order? why are you guys continuing to hold on to it and saying well it should have come earlier at some point? >> well, it should have come earlier if the president wanted to lead. he could have led when he had control of the entire congress in the first half of his presidency and didn't do that. but what we're doing here is we're looking at all these things. i think, luke, the president is the wrong way. you can't decide you just don't like the law because you're president. the president decided he didn't like the defense of marriage

act, so he told the justice department not to enforce it. he decided he doesn't like the immigration law, so rather than make a legislative proposal and change the law, he says we just won't enforce the law. i think that's totally unacceptable. my view would be that we need to deal with these in the order they need to be dealt with. we need to secure the border, and once you do that, you can decide much more easily what to do about the other two elements or what do you do with people who came to the country illegally and what are the real work force needs of the country. the president hadn't led here. this is clearly a political strategy. i don't know if it will work or not. but i think when people begin to think about him just deciding he by himself can decide which laws he likes and which laws he doesn't like rather than try to get them changed, i don't think that's going to last as a good thing for him up until election day. >> so senator, is it fair to say then that you support the president's order, but you don't support the use of executive power to obtain it? >> no.

it's not fair to say that. i don't support the use of the executive power to obtain it. and i think what marco rubio has said, and i'm not sure what the rest of that quote would have been. but every other time i've heard him make that quote, he said, and this kind of thing makes it harder to really go back and solve the problem. any time you complicate the regular system by throwing something in that's outside the constitution, outside the way laws are made, you don't make it easier to solve this problem in the future. you make it harder to solve this problem in the future. >> so very quickly, then, you don't support the order then? you do not support the order? >> no, i don't support the order. i don't support the order. i support immigration law that secures the border first, and then looks at what do you do about people in all circumstances who got here illegally, and what are the real work force needs of the country? and that's the only way you can actually do this, if you want to legislate. >> i want to transition to another topic, which is going to

be talked about a lot in the next week, especially when the decision comes down from the supreme court, and that is health care. you came under fire from a well-noted conservative pundit, michelle malkin saying, quote, republicans surrender us for obama for suggesting he would reinstate parts of the president's health care law. senator roy blunt of missouri, vice chair to a st. louis radio station that twoings with weeks ago he supports keeping three obama regulatory care pillars. children up to age 26 and their parents health insurance policies which he called the infamous unfunded slacker mandate. coverage regardless of preexisting conditions and closure of the medicare drug entitlement. who needs enemies when you've got republicans surrenderists for obama waiting in the wednesday? are you in favor of the health care act or do you have to repeal the entire thing? >> i think in all likelihood, the court may repeal the entire thing. i don't know what will happen next week. you know, i listened to that

interview pretty carefully, because i didn't think that's what i said. and it wasn't what i said. on the radio interview. what i said was, i was for, among other things, keeping people on their parents' insurance until they're 26. that was my bill. i was a house member. i was for it then. it's a way to get several million people who choose not to have insurance covered who don't have much cost to the system. the other thing -- >> so it would be wrong to call that an unfunded slacker mandate. >> well, i wouldn't call it that. it's not unfunded at all. people pay for it when they pay for their family coverage. my view, it doesn't add much to family coverage for the very reason that, luke, people your age and a little younger don't have insurance often is they think they're not going to need it, and they're usually right. but by covering them, we cover -- most states -- a lot of states now cover until 26. all states, i think, cover until 22. so i don't know if there's a

difference here, you're not a slacker at 22 but you are a slacker at 23? probably not. i think we need a system where people can buy insurance across state lines, where there's more transparency, where you own your own insurance, and you buy it with pretax dollars just like the biggest company in america does. those are the kinds of changes i think we ought to make to the current system. plus medical liability reform and others. but we'll all know sometime in the next few days what the court says. my view of that is -- >> we will. >> three questions. one is it constitutional, two, is it a good idea. and three, can we afford it? and if the answer to any of them is no, we shouldn't do it. >> well, certainly a big decision coming on the horizon. roy blunt, best friend of steny hoyer. i won't say that in election year, though. >> good friend of mine. good to see you. >> be well. house democrats running into a few bumps in the road. up next, the democratic congresswoman taking a lead in the fight to take back the house. and still to come, chuck's interview with the reporters who

exposed watergate. what they're revealing now about the scandal and a president obsessed with keeping power at any cost. first a look ahead at the president's schedule, doing work in mexico. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. working lunch. a closing ceremony. i'm sure the olympics do it better, though. the medicare debate continues in washington... ...more talk on social security... ...but washington isn't talking to the american people. [ female announcer ] when it comes to the future of medicare and social security, you've earned the right to know. ♪ ...so what does it mean for you and your family? [ female announcer ] you've earned the facts. ♪ washington may not like straight talk, but i do. [ female announcer ] and you've earned a say. get the facts and make your voice heard on medicare and social security at earnedasay.org.

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democratic leader nancy pelosi gives her party better than 50-50 odds of taking back the house. but with the recovery stalling and people griping about the president's messaging, is that too optimistic?

donna edwards, co chair of the democratic congressional campaign committee's ready to blue program, working to win the 25 seats democrats need to take control of the house and joins me now. good morning, ms. edwards. >> good morning, luke. >> question for you. this morning in the hill, david wasserman, house editor for the cook political report said, quote, democrats are way off track of where they they'd to be to regain the majority, very respected voice in terms of the seat counting. he cites the fact the economy's improvement the has also helped republicans, and somewhat helped the president. how do you see a pathway to 25, especially after redistricting? >> actually, i think redistricting was a wash. and in fact, i think we're going to do very well. i definitely see the 25 seats that we need, and then some. i mean, here's the thing. every one of these districts is going to be won district by district, not national races. it's going to be what's happening in a district, what's happening in a statement. and we've got great candidates out there running, 75 in

competitive districts across the country. and i feel very confident. >> but is it fair to say it's a stretch to win back those seats? >> i don't think it's a stretch. i do think it's hard work. and we never thought it was going to be easy. it's hard work. and we know that to reelect the president. and also to get out there in every single district we need to regain the house. and so much is at stake. the president laid it out, two different visions we really see. and he needs a democratic house and senate. i mean, i just think -- clearly, the president is on the pitcher's mound, but he needs a team on the field. and democrats can regain the house to make sure he has that. >> immigration is an issue at the forefront now, especially after the president's order last friday. mitt romney said this about immigration last night on fox news. >> the president, i think, made a mistake by putting out there what he called a stopgap measure. what i can tell you is, those

people who come here by virtue of their parents bringing them here, who came in illegally, that's something i don't want to football with. it's a political matter. >> nevada, florida, virginia, how much of this -- does this order coming right now in the middle of june help the president politically and helps you guys' chance of taking back the house by getting more latino voters to show up to the polls? >> i think that mitt romney's comments are almost laughable. i mean, republicans in congress had a chance to give the president the votes that we needed to make sure that we could actually have a dream act that embraces these young people who have grown up in communities all across the country. and i think the president made a bold and necessary move. we can see it in every congressional district across this country, and in some of our key states. those latino voters understand that president obama and democrats in congress are standing by their side, and want to embrace. young people who have gone to

school, done everything we have asked them to do. and for all intents and purposes, they're american children who want to participate in the american dream. i'm just really excited and i've actually heard the excitement from people across the country about the boldness and the courage that the president demonstrated in the face of republican in action. >> republican inaction. >> but it's fair to say it helps you politically. >> all things are about politics, and how political consequences. the fact of the matter is, the president did the right thing at the right time. and to the extent that it has a political benefit, i say more of it. >> coming up in the house, on the legislative calendar by mr. cantor is a vote to increase or temporarily extend the bush tax cuts. some of your colleagues over in the senate, the democratic side, said that they don't want -- they would like to see the extension of the bush tax cuts unless there is some sort of grand bargain that supports higher taxes. do you see the vote on the

extension of the bush tax cuts as one that could be potentially damaging to you getting -- those 25 seats? i mean, it's a very easy vote to say so-and-so voted to raise taxes before an election. >> well, the fact is, those bush tax cuts are meant to benefit the top 1 and 2% of our country. the millionaires and the billionaires. and it's really clear. mitt romney and republicans in congress stand on the side of the wealthiest of americans who spent a decade, this last decade, getting tax breaks. and i think it's time for the middle class to benefit. i don't support extending these tax cuts for the wealthiest of americans. i think we can do this. we have obligations to take care of -- deal with our debt and our deficit. but also to innovate and invest, to create jobs, to grow our education, our economy. and you can't do that by continuing a policy, a failed policy, of giving tax breaks to the wealthiest americans. >> maryland congresswoman donna edwards, thanks so much for joining us.

you're going down in the softball game tomorrow night. the female journalists are going to win. >> not a chance. >> good to see you. still to come, msnbc's own chris hayes will tell us why he says the elites have returned our -- ruined our country. and political conventions, the crazy hacks, sign-waving, the balloon drop. who could resist, right? some prominent democrats are saying they're not going to go to the convention. we'll explain why. but first, today's trivia question. name the current senator who was once a member of the senate watergate committee. tweet us at @dailyrundown. the answer and more coming up on "the daily rundown." go back. it's an old-school one. that's my hint. not once in my life

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we're watching this morning. president obama's nominee for ambassador to iraq, brent mcgurg has pulled out of consideration. it was revealed he engaged in an affair with a reporter in baghdad. eric holder is scheduled to meet with congressman darrell issa chairman of the house oversight committee. that could postpone a contempt vote. issa is demanding he turn over more documents related to operation fast and furious. an atf investigation allowed guns to end up with suspected gun smugglers. top west virginia democrats, senator joe manchin, tomlin and nick rayhol are dodging a democratic convention in september. all three face challengers in the fall and president obama is highly unpopular in virginia and hence don't want to be in the same building. next more with chuck traveling with the president in mexico, and chris hayes joins us. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. don't go anywhere. and crowd cheering just you know walking,

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40 years later, the watergate scandal and president nixon's legacy cast a long and perplexing shadow. chuck todd is back with us from los cabos, mexico where easy covering president obama's g-20 meetings. you recently spoke to bob woodward and carl bernstein about their reporting and legacy of watergate. very interesting stuff. professor todd, the floor is yours. >> all right. thank you, luke. what was interesting about it, i was going to get a couple sound bites for your typical package. we ended up sitting around a table and just talking at length and it was perfect for "the daily rundown" but we began talking about the fact that when it came to nixon and what he was trying to do, it was a total power grab, but it wasn't an ideological power grab. take a listen. >> well, what it was, and this is something that people have

spent 40 years debating and will spend another 40 or even more, it was the effort by nixon to retain power at any means, with any means. and what carl and i have done is tried to say, well, how do we divide the various nixon wars up? and there was a war on the anti-war movement initially. it was very annoying for president nixon to have this group out there that was mobilizing, and getting quite large, and we don't like the vietnam wars. >> the important thing is, this was all, up until the war against history, a massive campaign of espionage and sabotage. covert, illegal, unconstitutional, dominated and engineered by the president of the united states. the president of the united states saying about some information inside a think tank, the brookings institution that

he thought would enable him to blackmail his predecessor. and he says, break in, i don't give a damn how you get that file out of there, i want to break the safe. get into that safe. the president of the united states. >> we had nixon on the record in hundreds of hours of his tapes not justifying, but explaining what he was doing in the oval office in the white house. and every time, it's do something illegal, screw somebody, get the irs on larry o'brien's taxes who is a leading democratic. get the fbi on this person. >> you know, one of the other things that woodstein shared with me, as more of the nixon tapes get released, they both obsessively listened to them, and they both compared it to what was learned on lyndon johnson, and what disappoints

them is how politically focused nixon was, and how much there was a lack of policy focus. take a listen. >> one of the things that comes through like thunder is that nixon misunderstood the presidency. that the presidency is an opportunity for a leader to do good. you think of -- what's the job definition? of being president? and it is essentially to define the next stage of good for a majority of people in the country, develop a plan, and get there. you listen to these tapes, and there's no such discussion. >> the whole point. >> others say oh, yeah, his predecessors had tape recordings. look at what's on lyndon john n johnson's tape recordings, not all the time every moment, but there is talk about policy. there is talk about real things. there's not just talk about retribution, vengeance. the same with the limited number of kennedy tapes.

that exist. this is an event that is generous, totally exceptional in our history. that, yes, nixon had some real policies. some decent policies. an opening to china. histor historic. and yet he surrounded everything he did with this tent of illegali illegality. and he's always in that tent. and that tent is always defining his presidency, even as he tries to do legitimate things. that's the difference. >> you know, one thing we just don't know, unless you really had a chance to put nixon on the couch, luke, is did nixon act this way simply because he thought this is what cost him the presidency? did he think things were done in such a way to cost him the president see in '60 that he was never going to allow this to happen again and he would just do whatever it took, because he always assumed his opponents were doing whatever it took.

but, again, we'll never know, because nixon never did put himself fully on the couch. >> it's fascinating stuff. and i think the enormity of it is so loss lost on my generation, so i appreciate you getting it on tv. professor chuck todd. good to see you, my friend. be well. >> all right. the 99% blames the 1% for economic inequality. middle america blames wall street. and it seems millions blame congress for the gridlock and dysfunction. how did we get here? that's the question posed by an author of a new book "twilight of the elites" joining me now, author chris hayes, host of "up with hayes" on msnbc every saturday and sunday and author of this book. congratulations on getting your first book out there. >> fantastic, thank you. >> so take us in a broad sense. who do you blame for the problems? who is behind this, in your view? >> what i think we have seen is, this cascade of institutional failure and elite failure over the course of the decade. let's remember, the iraq war, we

watched katrina drown the city of new orleans on national television. >> dissipated. >> after talking about watergate, during watergate, there was a sense in the country we were under going a crisis of authority in which faith in our institutions was at an all-time low. and organizations like gallup and general sources started polling on it and it turns out in retrospect that was a high water in faith in institutions. in fact, the low point in faith in our pillar institutions and that's government and the private sector accident, things of the left and right both tend to have distrust towards. what i think we have seen is a tremendous amount of elite failure. the folks running our pillar institutions make decisions that are either incompetent or corrupt or both. and it's produced this real sense of betrayal amongst a pop list in which we can no longer trust the people in charge to do what's right. >> you have an interesting theory here. you say my proposed solution for correcting the excesses of our extreme vision of mer to go raes is quite simple.

make america equal. you will over time produce a system with horrendous inequality of opportunity. >> meritocracy we constructed in the last or 30 or 40 years. we won't bar based on gender or race. barack obama is crowning achievement of that. at the same time, we tell ourselves there is this neat divide between equality of outcomes and equality of opportunity. and we're not going to worry about equality of outcomes. that's okay, as long as there is this level playing field. but over that time of period in which we have adopted this model, we have seen not just rising equality. this is more important, but under covered. declines in social mobility. it is harder now -- the odds are longer if you start out at the bottom of the income scale to work your way to the top than they were 20 or 30 or 40 years ago. >> and middle class incomes have dissipated in the past decade of the. >> middle class incomes have declined. so the meritocracy is not

delivering on its central promise. its central promise is a possibility of mobility and not delivering that. >> i don't think anyone would doubt you're certainly left-leaning, supportive of the president here and there. but 2008, president wins election, huge margin in the senate and house of democrats. everybody knows that there were -- there was tremendous -- shall we say questionable practices on wall street that led to this huge economic downturn. here we are, four years later, there's not one high profile arrest. the reforms in place a lot of people say are too watered down. how does that sit with you as someone who is very much a vocal proponent of getting this president in office? did he turn his back on the calls? >> i think the handling of accountability for the people embedded in the fraudulent system that was wall street is one of the biggest black marks on the first term. he's appointed eric snyderman, there's this task force, so far hasn't delivered. we have seen more baseball players brought before juries

for lying about steroids than we have seen wall street bankerses brought before for a financial crisis that has destroyed about $8 trillion in wealth. think about that. >> we'll hear from jamie dimon again, and it was pretty cordial last week. >> absolutely. and this gets at the key point in the book, which is that the country has this inequality of accountability. we have a country that puts more people in prison than almost any other industrialized democracy. it is remarkably punishing on the bottom. if you're looking for work and been long-term unemployed, there is not a lot of help four. very punishing on the bottom. if you're foreclosed on, we're not giving you help. but it is remarkably forgiving on the top. people that trumped up the false wmd of iraq. they still have jobs, they still getting to and talk about foreign policy. we don't hold our elites to account. and to the extent we do that, it creates this deep sense of frugs trace, anger and betrayal and distrust among the populis. >> how do you hold the top to

the law? >> it's a good question. i think in some ways, particularly with wall street, they have grown so powerful, they have loosed themselves from the bonds of the social contract. and i think that part of the problem is mobilizing constituency among people who do have power to call for that kind of accountability. >> interesting. chris hayes, the author of "the twilight elites: america after the meritocracy." i would love to have a conversation with you about private prisons, a whole show on that. and you can watch "up" with chris hayes every saturday and sunday at 8:00 a.m. eastern on msnbc. coming up, john kerry answers a casting call to the white house. and the subtle but sure change in mitt romney recently. and who is winning the war of words on immigration. all coming up. but first, the white house soup of the day. mushroom and leek. that's a great one. more of a winter soup, though. i don't know why they're having it in june. but still pretty darn good. and don't forget, you can always follow the show on facebook. you're watching "the daily

rundown" only on msnbc. zack brown, taking you out. two days in a row. ♪ ♪ free as we'll ever be with , or treat gas with these after you get it. now that's like sunblock before or sun burn cream later. oh, somebody out there's saying, now i get it! take beano before and there'll be no gas. he doesn't look like a heart attack patient. i was teaching a martial arts class and it hit me. we get to the emergency room... and then...and then they just wheeled him away. i had to come to that realization that "wow, i am having a heart attack." i can't punch this away. i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone. so be sure to talk to you doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i'm a fighter and nowadays i don't have that fear. [ male announcer ] learn how to protect your heart at i am proheart on facebook.

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[ electricity crackling ] [ gasping ] so get allstate. you could save money and be better protected from mayhem like me. [ dennis ] mayhem is everywhere. so get an allstate agent. are you in good hands? a brand new poll shows nearly two-thirds of americans favor president obama's immigration policy. so what does mitt romney do to stay in this debate and court hispanic voters? let's bring in our panel today for tuesday, mike beadum, heritage action for america, an advocacy group the sister organization for the heritage foundation. alex wegner, the host of msnbc's "now," a wonderful program. and politico's senior congressional reporter, my friend of three-and-a-half years, manu raju. did i get the pronunciation right? he hasn't corrected me for three years. i want to start with the immigration debate. and it's important to put in the broad context, not on the tip of

anyone's tongue until friday. new poll from bloomberg, immigration policy, 64% agree, 30% disagree. independents back the decision by better than a 2 to 1 margin. mitt romney is still not necessarily said if he would repeal this act. roy blunt who i had on the show earlier said he was, in fact, against it. but i'll throw this out to you, manu, 64%, the president has been able to shift the narrative from which is all about the economy the last few weeks and being able to get some high ground on immigration. >> and remember, he had a really bad week last week. he's had weeks of really bad headlines and not just the economy, but other issues, as well. and you know, this is something speaks to a very rapidly growing demographic of latinos who are going to be hugely influential in the election. the question for the president right now is, you know, how -- whether or not this -- remember, latinos are not single-issue

voters. they vote on the economy, as well. he needs to be able to sell this to them as something that, you know, look, if i'm -- if mitt romney is president, this kind of policy, you know, may not go into effect. he may repeal this, and i'm different in this way. >> mike, how come mitt romney hasn't come out and given a clear position on this? >> well, i think, look, the key on this point, there may be some short-term advantage for president obama on this one, but it also feeds into a narrative that's an executive who has no respect for the proper constitutional separations of power. you have obviously the obamacare ruling which the supreme court will come town on. the unconstitutional appointments, and now you have on this issue a president who has made a policy that may be popular, but has no respect for the appropriate roles of the executive. >> can you frame the debate that you guys are kind of vague on whether you support the order or not, but you would say well the process by which it was obtained is flawed. >> i think you can. let's take an example. imagine if a republican president came in and said, look, we have some income tax rules in this country, we have tax rules in this country, but the irs is really overworked so we're just not going to enforce the capital gains tax this year.

you can't do it. so regardless of what the policies are, let's have a debate in the country, a debate in the legislature, but you can't say as an executive i'm going to enforce this rule, not that law. >> alex wagner, jump in there. what if republicans issued an order getting rid of capital gains tax? >> it's not the same thing. you talk about the dream act, significant bipartisan support until the republicans decided to go far right and say, you know, any kind of amnesty, any magnets that would bring immigrants to this country need to be turned off. i think that the larger issue is, you know, to your point, manu, this is a -- i think a master stroke for the president insofar as he's changed the national message. a difficult period for mitt romney. you are not going to see the end of this question until november. this is going to come up in the debates. mitt romney has got to carve out some kind of policy position on this. i don't think he can just say this is executive overreach. i don't think most americans buy that as sort of, you know, the dark cloud, and that the immigration policy itself is a

silver lining. i think it's almost the reverse. this is a huge step forward for i think 800,000 children who are not going to get deported. and, you know, if you're not against it, what are you for? >> remember, you know, the president essentially preempted marco rubio on this, who is working on a proposal. >> word from the hill. >> and that was a proposal that could have sort of given an escape hatch to romney who -- in recent months has tried to sound more amenable to some sort of version of the dream act. and now that rubio is not doing something because of of the president's order, that makes -- that creates sort of a sticky point. >> we'll wrap this up when we come back in the next segment. but right now we have to do a little bit of trivia. we asked the name of the current senator who was once a member of the senate watergate committee. the answer? senator daniel inouye, the hawaii democrat was a member of the select committee on presidential campaign activities. more commonly known as the watergate committee in 1973 and 1974. first elected in 1962, jfk was president when he was elected to

the senate. wow. we'll be right back. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. [ male announcer ] wouldn't it be cool if we took the nissan altima and reimagined nearly everything in it? gave it greater horsepower and best in class 38 mpg highway... ...advanced headlights... ...and zero gravity seats? yeah, that would be cool. ♪ introducing the completely reimagined nissan altima. it's our most innovative altima ever. nissan. innovation that excites. ♪

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let's bring back our panel. mike, alex, manu. interesting article, front page of "the washington post." romney one of the guys. basking new enthusiasm from the gop. voters saying he's letting his own human nature through talking like you and i are talking now. not guarded. oh, he has personality, just one of the guys. what large solace said in ohio. being embraced by the gop family being himself? >> the gop family looked at a president. realized the first prit precedent, mitt romney is making a case. showing willingness to go

toe-to-toe with the president. he's won people over. some republican leaders in the past willing to hornsnaggle republican, mitch mcconnell and cantor, need somebody to fight against the left and not get into this republican on republican fight. >> mitt romney? >> he's been out there and showing the difference. >> wow. endorsement. >> look, the bar on mitt romney is, guyness, so low, you could step over it. i mean, the fact that he has not had a major gaffe and said anything akin to i enjoy firing people or corporations are people, too, i guess it's a win-week for mitt romney but he introduced his own sons, i love them so much, i love them as if they are my own, which they are. which is totally -- >> likability issue is something

romney's had to fight a fight against. voters may look to -- >> you know, john kerry, to stand in for mitt romney. obama made the call. >> democrats of course hope that romney is the 2012 version of john kerry and kerry is a skilled debater and know the romney record well. >> real quick. shameless plugs? >> heritage foundation had a paper has looks at the impact on home ownership if you got rid of fannie and freddie, home ownership down by only 3%. >> my colleague kate and sarah and i have a story on politico about chuck schumer's effort to repair the relationship with wall street. >> interesting. >> alex? >> michael, glen, sam stein, margaret carlson. tune in. >> a power panel. thank you so much, guy, for being on the show. that's it for this edition of "daily rundown." tomorrow on the show, democrat loretta sanchez joins us on the

president's new immigration initiative and what it means for the latino vote. coming up, chris jansing with "jansing and co." and come on back. the go-to won't be here, but it's all good. be well. n's networks... ♪ ...to our city streets... ♪ \sd 10am ♪ ...northrop grumman's security solutions are invisibly at work, protecting people's lives... [ soldier ] move out! [ male announcer ] ...without their even knowing it. that's the value of performance. northrop grumman. who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy.

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ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 execute trades, even deposit checks just by ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 taking a picture, right from your phone. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck and put those barriers behind you. ttd#: 1-800-345-2550 morning. i'm chris jansing. the romney campaign waking up to encouraging headlines. one stop stiff both the "new york times" and "washington post" suggest that mitt romney is loosening up, showing more personality crisscrossing the nation on his bus tore. it could be the more relaxed setting. on a boat, there he is, or in a car. a '61 rambler to be exact. whatever it is the six-state swing wraps up in michigan softens romney's image and showing a more personal side. >> it's the wind of change. you know that? we're going to bring change to washington, d.c. >> will all this have the obama campaign looking more